By Brendan Loy

I wrote last night that the only solar eclipse I’ve ever seen was on May 10, 1994, when I caught a brief, unsafe, naked-eye glimpse of the partially eclipsed sun, perhaps 40% or 50% covered, looking out a bus window in Virginia during a school trip. But I belatedly realized that’s not right: I also saw, from the road in the desert of southeastern California, ~20% of the sun eclipsed on December 14, 2001, using a makeshift pinhole to project it from the window of Becky’s Camry onto a notepad as we drove from L.A. to Phoenix:

Hopefully we’ll get a somewhat more dramatic view this evening. Cross your fingers. After crystal-clear blue skies this morning, it’s now partly cloudy.

UPDATE: I found my welder’s glass! Since buying it way back in 1999 ahead of the sunrise eclipse that I couldn’t see due to clouds, I’ve been hauling it around the country for 13 years — and now that I finally need it, last night I couldn’t find it. But I just located it, in a box in the basement:

By Brendan Loy

Tomorrow, America will experience its first annular eclipse since May 10, 1994. Weather permitting, I’ll get to see it as an 85% partial eclipse in Denver — the second solar eclipse I’ve ever witnessed, and the first since (again) May 10, 1994. It will also be the first solar eclipse I’m witnessed safely, with proper eye protection.

On May 10, 1994, I saw the partial phase of that day’s annular eclipse from inside a bus near Historic Jamestowne, VA, catching a glimpse for a split-second with my naked eye — which you should not do, as it’s dangerous. Thankfully, my eyes were not damaged. They could have been!

Why was I on a bus in Virginia, you ask? Well, it was day 2 of the annual Martin Kellogg Middle School seventh-grade class trip to Washington and Williamsburg. I was, uncharacteristically, not tuned in to astronomical events of the day; I don’t think I even knew about the eclipse, or else I had forgotten, until our bus’s lead chaperone, Mr. Spitzer, mentioned it. When he did so, and before he could utter the next sentence (reminding us NOT TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT IT), I instinctively turned my head to the left, looked out the window, glanced up, and saw it. Being an astronomy nerd with knowledge of such things, I knew better than this — but I couldn’t help myself. I immediately looked away, and then blurted out something like, “You’re right, I just saw it!”

This all happened in a split second, and gave Mr. Spitzer the perfect segue into his next sentence, telling everyone NOT TO DO WHAT LOY JUST DID. (In fairness to Mr. Spitzer, I think he actually may have said “now, I don’t want you to look at it, but…” before he even mentioned the eclipse — an admonition I promptly ignored — and then merely reiterated the point after I looked.)

Anyway, I discovered this evening that, down in the basement, in our box of photo albums, inside my Williamsburg Trip Scrapbook (a post-trip homework assignment in Mrs. Weber’s class), there is my account of that day! I had forgotten this even exists. We had to write a little something about each day of the trip, and include photos and whatnot; I went above and beyond, giving each day an extended, detailed write-up, and include a ton of photos, souvenirs, etc. I know you’re shocked. :) Anyway, here’s the relevant part of the May 10 write-up, followed by a relevant photo and, er, illustration.

(Before I go on, a key point of clarification: the “tape recorder” in question is an audio recorder only. You’ll understand why that’s important when you read my write-up.)

By Brendan Loy

Get your eclipse glasses, pinhole viewers, or Shade 14 welder’s glass out, and your “penumbras and emanations” jokes ready, because there’s a solar eclipse a-comin’ on Sunday evening!

The photo above (by Kevin Baird) shows roughly what the eclipse will look like along the central “line of annularity,” which stretches from parts of China and Japan, across the Pacific, to parts of California and Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, extreme southwestern Colorado, New Mexico, and northwest Texas:

(Graphics via eclipse-maps.com.)

Here in Denver, the eclipse, at its 7:30 PM peak, will look more like this, with the sun 86% eclipsed. (Photo by Peter Rosen, via Universe Today.)

If you don’t already have eclipse glasses, and you can’t find a local store that’s selling them at this late date, your best options, in order, are probably: 1) find a public eclipse-viewing event in your local area where they’ll be giving eclipse glasses away, or selling them for like $2 (here in Denver/Boulder, options include CU, DU, and the DMNS); 2) find a local store that sells welding supplies, and buy some “Shade 14″ welder’s glass (it must be 14, not 12 or a lower number); or 3) make a pinhole viewer, and project the Sun’s image instead of looking at it directly.

(Whatever you do, DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER EYE PROTECTION!!!. At no point during an annular or partial solar eclipse is it ever safe to do this. You could go blind.)

If you do manage to secure eclipse glasses or welder’s glass, consider it an investment. A Transit of Venus–only the second one since 1882, and the last until 2117–is coming next month (June 5, to be exact), and of course the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse is something you should go ahead and put in your gCal, iCal or Outlook calendars right now. It’s absolutely not to be missed.

By Brendan Loy

Today could be an historic day for freedom and equality in Becky’s and my adopted home state of Colorado, as a bill establishing civil unions for gays & lesbians is on the verge of passing into law.

Even as North Carolina goes down a reactionary road (fueled in large part by ignorance of the facts), the former “Hate State” of Colorado could become another beacon of hope for those of us who believe the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend toward justice.

I said “could.” Nothing is certain yet. The bill has already passed the Democratic-controlled Senate, then eked through two GOP-majority House committees late last week, each time thanks to a single Republican dissenter — Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland (a former aide to right-wing congresswoman and Federal Marriage Amendment co-sponsor Marilyn Musgrave) in the Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Don Beezley, R-Bloomfield, in the Finance Committee — and it is expected to pass the Appropriations Committee this afternoon, thanks to the declared support of Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen. What happens after that is less clear:

GOP leadership will decide whether to call it up [to the House floor] and hear the measure. The bill must be debated today because the official vote has to be taken on another day as the debate, and Wednesday is the last day of the session. …

House leadership — Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, but particularly House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Monument — will decide when and if it will be heard. Both oppose civil unions. Only one GOP vote is needed to pass the measure. At least five Republicans are expected to vote with Democrats. If approved, the bill goes to Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has said he will sign it.

So the question is whether McNulty and Stephens allow a floor debate [UPDATE: and initial voice vote] today. If they do, the bill will ultimately become law; if they don’t, it will die, unless Hickenlooper calls a special session, as the Denver Post has urged him to do if necessary. (He has called such talk “premature,” but hasn’t ruled it out.)

[UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: Eli Stokols explains the procedural requirements:

If [the bill passes the Appropriations Committee], the measure would still need to be approved by the full House on an initial voice vote by Tuesday at midnight.

That’s because bill’s must pass second- and third-reading votes on separate days; so if the House doesn’t do an initial vote by Tuesday night, there wouldn’t be time to hold a final vote on Wednesday.

Knock on wood, but I don’t think McNulty and Stephens will prevent a vote. Perhaps they’ll try to extract some sort of concession in exchange for allowing it, but in the end, I think their vague threats to prevent a vote are mostly posturing. If the GOP had the stomach for this fight, they would have stalled the bill already. They could have done so by delaying the committee report out of Judiciary, or by refusing to schedule a Finance or Appropriations committee hearing, all of which were discussed and threatened and fretted over. But ultimately, the relevant GOP leaders have caved at all of those critical junctures over the last few days. And McNulty and Stephens haven’t even clearly stated an intent to stop the bill. I think the state GOP leadership has made a judgment that, with a majority of the House supporting the bill, and an even larger majority of the public supporting it, this isn’t a hill to die on.

Moreover, the worst thing they could do, politically, is to let the bill get to this point, get supporters’ hopes sky-high, and then kill it. The outrage then would be far worse than if they’d killed it earlier, like after the Judiciary vote. Now, public pressure might well force Hickenlooper’s hand into calling a special session, thus embarrassing the GOP leaders further, whereas that probably wouldn’t have been the case if they’d killed it last week. So they’ve missed their ideal window to kill this bill — which they surely realize as well. That leads me to believe they ultimately will not kill it.

But we’ll see. Supporters certainly aren’t resting easy yet. Above is a photo from a rally this morning on the State Capitol steps. More below. See these dangerous radicals, promoting the gay agenda? Don’t all you fellow heterosexuals feels like your marriages are threatened just looking at these pictures? EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

To proclaim our support for civil unions, Becky went out and bought a rainbow flag this afternoon, and put it up on our front-porch flagpole. It’s 2′ x 3′, not as big as our American flag or our USC flag, because that’s the biggest one they had. But it still makes the point:

Let’s do this, Colorado!!!

P.S. We had an interesting discussion on Facebook about this issue last week, including the whole civil unions vs. gay marriage / “perfect being the enemy of the good” problem. Mike Wiser was, as always, the voice of reason:

I think that’s a complicated point. On the one hand, progress is good, even if it’s only incremental. But there is part of me that worries that such an incremental progress might stall out well short of actual equality. Those of us who such measures will directly affect are a very small minority; our only progress from a legislative end will come from convincing the much larger majority. One of the most effective ways of convincing the larger majority has been the justified moral outrage of the abuses in the current system — hospital visitation rights, next of kin status for medical and parental responsibility purposes, etc. As these terrible things are removed, it becomes harder to motivate unaffected third parties to care about smaller but still daunting issues for some couples, like access to spousal social security payments or the ability to file taxes jointly or transfer property to a spouse without incurring substantial tax penalties and the like. So I simultaneously want the most awful things taken care of as soon as possible…and worry that taking care of just the most awful things first will mean that the more moderate problems may not be taken care of for years or even generations longer than they would be in an all or nothing approach. Someone is going to lose either way.

If I had to choose, I think I’d go with the civil unions for now. Actual political change tends to happen over the course of generations; it’s less common that individuals change their minds, and more common that they are replaced by a new generation of voters who see things differently.* The generation of our grandparents, as a whole, is extremely unaccepting of homosexuality. Our parents’ generation is better; our generation is better still; the generation below us is even further along. I eagerly await the day when most people realize that the arguments against same sex marriage are virtually verbatim the same arguments previously used against interracial marriage. I think I’ll probably live to see that, but I may well be in my 60s by the time it happens. If I do find the right man, I think I’d rather risk some years of economic penalties thank risk not being allowed at his bedside if he gets sick and his family isn’t OK with me. The economic penalties are more concrete and certain, but less terrible if they do happen. But the game of “pick the way in which you’d prefer to be legally screwed” is hardly a fun one.

* The main way individuals happen to change their views on this one over the course of their own lifetime is from having friends or family members members who come out of the closet. This is one of the major reasons I want as many of the adult gays as possible to come out of the closet. It would also be helpful if more of the truly bisexual people came out of the closet, though I can understand why many choose not to due to the ridiculous social stigma attached.

UPDATE: Mitt Romney is coming to Colorado tomorrow, and at least one event, he will be taking questions from local media (which he didn’t do ahead of his caucus defeat in February). Do you think he wants to answer a bunch of questions from local reporters about how the state GOP leadership torpedoed a bill the night before that has majority support in both houses of the state legislature, and 75% public support in this critical swing state?

Despite Mitt’s professed opposition to civil unions, I’m thinking Team Romney is silently rooting for McNulty and Stephens to let this bill come to a vote tonight. (Or maybe not so silently? Who knows?)

By Brendan Loy

In the wake of this weekend’s news that Utah State and San Jose State are probably leaving the WAC for the Mountain West, and Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech are probably leaving for Conference USA, I have obtained exclusive footage of the conversation last night at WAC headquarters in Greenwood Village, Colorado:

In all seriousness, it’s really unclear how the WAC can go forward now. For all my jokes about the mythical “eighth football member,” it appears the WAC is now down to just three football members: Idaho, New Mexico State and Texas State. There don’t seem to be enough viable FBS football options in the western half of the country to make it possible to build from that “base” of 3 back to a respectable size, so it now appears inevitable — barring some eleventh-hour moves that keeps the above-mentioned USU/SJSU/UTSA/LTU quartet from fleeing — that the WAC is well and truly dead, at long last, as a football conference. If so, it seems plausible that NSMU and TSU could end up in the Sun Belt, while Idaho may be the first realignment victim forced to drop FBS football because it couldn’t find a league. The FCS Big Sky, the Vandals’ former home, may also be their future home.

If those three schools depart, that would leave the once-proud WAC with four schools, none of whom are actually members yet as of today: Denver, Seattle, UT-Arlington, and Boise State in everything but football. Could that possibly be the base for a viable basketball/Olympic sports league? Add, say, Utah Valley and Cal State-Bakersfield, and you’ve got…a really crappy conference, but one that’s still eligible for an auto bid to the NCAA Tournament, I think.

But as I see it, the WAC only stays together, even in that shell of a form, if the four remaining schools have absolutely no other viable options. Suppose the WCC rejects Denver and Seattle (again), the Big Sky rejects Boise’s Olympic sports (the Big West already has), UT-Arlington can’t find a home, the Big Sky and Sun Belt aren’t interested in non-football-playing WAC castaways, the Summit League closes its doors or is otherwise deemed a non-viable optios, etc. If those things all happen — and they very well might — the #ZombieWAC is probably going to stay alive, one way or another, no matter how awful it is. The alternative, that case, would be for Denver, Seattle, etc., to break away and form a new league… in which case they might as well just stay in the WAC.

But if the WCC takes DU and Seattle, and/or if Boise State finds a different home for its Olympic sports (or leaves the Big East and rejoins the Mountain West in all sports, in light of the death of AQ status)? BOOM. Game over.

By Brendan Loy

Legendary Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt is stepping down after 38 seasons, an NCAA-record 1,098 career victories, and an amazing 8 national titles. She will become a coach emeritus with the UT program, as Lady Vols associate head coach Holly Warlick takes over as the team’s new head coach.

Summitt was diagnosed eight months ago with early onset dementia, an apparent precursor to Alzheimer’s. She continued to coach Tennessee all season, albeit with Warlick playing an increased role. Although the Lady Vols lost to eventual national champion Baylor in the regional finals, Summitt accounted for the emotional highlight of the Final Four in Denver when she was among the coaches honored at halftime of the second semifinal. When her name was announced, four fan bases of other national programs — UConn, Notre Dame, Stanford and Baylor — gave her an enormous standing ovation. (I was there, and have audio that I’ll try post later. Below, a photo of Summitt waving and pointing as she and the other coaches walked off the court.)

Growing up in Connecticut as a UConn fanatic, I hated Pat Summitt as a kid, even jokingly calling her the “Devil-woman.” But as I grew older and matured, I started viewing her in much the same way as most USC fans viewed UCLA’s John Wooden: someone so legendary and so thoroughly admirable that you absolutely had to respect her, no matter your allegiances. Then, of course, I moved to Knoxville for a year, attended some Lady Vols games, and found myself — horror of horrors — starting to kind of like her. Now, in the wake of her diagnosis and now retirement, I’m simply sad for her, and for the game that will be poorer without her continuing as a head coach for another 38 years — as you got the sense she would have, if her health had allowed it.

Anyway, there isn’t much else to say except to thank Pat Summitt for everything she’s done for the game, and wish her well. Thanks, Pat.

UPDATE: Here’s the audio clip. Summitt’s face and name appear on the jumbotron around the 0:37 mark, and then she starts walking out onto the court.

By Brendan Loy

My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Deanah Kim, is competing to be Safeway’s Culinary Kitchen Chef in an online contest. Her entry includes a recipe for “Seared Scallops over Celery Root ‘Farroto’ with Green Beans and Toasted Almonds.” Sounds yummy, even if I’m doubly allergic to it (mollusks and tree nuts!).

Anyway, to advance, Deanah needs your vote! And not just one vote — you can vote early and often, ACORN-style! So I prepared a little campaign graphic:

Between now and April 20, when the polls close, you can vote for Deanah up to 100 times. And you don’t even need to pretend you’re Eric Holder!

Just log into your Facebook account, “like” Safeway, and then vote for Deanah! (You don’t actually have to “Share” your vote as a status update every single time you vote. Just click cancel when the “Share” window comes up. Your vote will still count.)

By Brendan Loy

The overwhelming favorites in both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, Kentucky and Baylor, won their respective national championships Monday and Tuesday — and in the process clinched Living Room Times pool championships for Tim Donahue of Elizabethtown, KY and Michael Holtsberg of Broomall, PA.

Donahue, a Louisville alum and huge fan of Rick Pitino’s Cardinals, clinched the 17th annual Living Room Times men’s NCAA pool when Louisville’s archrival, Kentucky, followed up its win over the Cardinals by capturing the national title over Kansas. Donahue, who predicted a perfect Final Four and title game, finishes with 378 of a maximum possible 477 points — the third-highest winning point total in LRT men’s pool history, trailing only Arash Markazi’s 409 in 2007 and Alex Whitfield’s 392 in 2008.

Brian Kiolbasa, the 2005 champ who holds the fifth-highest point total ever (362), finished second with 355 points. Adam Feldman (347 points), Chris Bossman (342) and Rachel Wetherill (332) came in third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Abby Newbold, who would have won the pool if Kansas had upset Kentucky, finished sixth with 328 points. Joshua Guiher (327), Michael Holtsberg (326), Zach Bloxham (324) and Jeremy Kidd (323) round out the Top 10. Full standings here.

Meanwhile, in the 15th annual Living Room Times women’s pool, Michael Holtsberg is your champion for the second time in four years, having won the 2009 women’s pool as well. And this time, he won in record-setting fashion — or at least record-tying.

Holtsberg’s 421 points (also out of a possible 477) tie him with Rick Boeckler in 2003 for the most points ever in any Living Room Times pool. His bracket contains just 9 errors in the tournament’s 63 games: he missed 5 first-round games, 2 second-round games, and 2 Sweet 16 games. His picks for the rest of the tournament were perfect.

Holtsberg, a Penn alum, ties Boeckler in another category as well, as they are both among the six two-time LRT pool winners over the pools’ 17 years of existence. The double champions are Jenn Castelhano (2001 women’s, 2002 men’s), Todd Stigliano (2001 women’s, 2005 women’s), Boeckler (2003 women’s, 2006 women’s), Matt Kagan (2004 men’s, 2004 women’s), Gary Kirby (2007 NIT, 2008 NIT) and now Holtsberg (2009 women’s, 2012 women’s).

Finishing second behind Holtsberg was Carol LaPlante was 414 points, followed by Alex Talcott (411) and Jeff Morrison and Randy Styles (406). Mike Bonfanti (403) was sixth, Ken Stern (402) was seventh, Colin Pedicini and Derek McDonald tied for eighth (392), and Lauren Fowler (386) rounds out the top ten. Joe Hiegel, who would have won the pool if Notre Dame had prevailed Tuesday night, instead finishes eleventh with 385 points. Complete standings here.

Holtsberg, incidentally, was the only contestant to finish in the top 10 of both the men’s and women’s NCAA pools this year. (Pedicini and Stern were also in the NIT pool top 10.)

By Brendan Loy

The 17th annual Living Room Times men’s NCAA pool is down to a two-way battle between Tim Donahue of Elizabethtown, KY and Abby Newbold of Boston, MA.

Donahue, a Louisville alum and huge Cardinals fan, stayed alive (and in first place) because his team lost to its archrival today, just as he predicted. Now he needs the Wildcats to finish the job with a win over Kansas on Monday.

Newbold, a Villanova alum and the wife of my high-school classmate and long-time pool contestant Brian Newbold, jumped into second place Saturday and will win the pool if Kansas wins Monday.

By Brendan Loy

After 11 years and 32 tries, Mike Wiser is finally a Living Room Times basketball pool champion.

Wiser, a 2003 USC and 2006 Stanford alum and current Michigan State Ph.D. student who has competed in every single LRT pool since he and I were USC sophomores in 2001, clinched victory in the 8th annual NIT Pool when his grad-school alma mater, Stanford, crushed Minnesota for the NIT championship, 75-51.

Had Minnesota won, UConn senior and Newington High School alum Dan Dinunzio, who started the day with the lead, would have won the pool.

Wiser’s 31 pools without a win prior to yesterday (including this year’s men’s and women’s NCAA pools, from which he has been mathematically eliminated) placed him fourth on the all-time list for most LRT pools participated in without a win, behind Kevin Hauschulz (36), Josh Rubin (34) and Becky Loy (32).

(I hold the record for most pools participated in, having been in all 40 of them — 17 men’s NCAA, 15 women’s NCAA and 8 NIT — but I won the first-ever women’s pool, in 1997, which had only ten contestants. Including Rubin and Hauschulz. :) That said, I do also hold the record for most losses in my own pools, with 39.)

Stanford led Minnesota by just 6 at halftime, 31-25, setting up a somewhat eerie parallel to the Wiser’s closest near-miss in an LRT pool. In 2001, his first year as a contestant, Wiser was somewhat famously 20 minutes away from winning the women’s NCAA pool, which would have made him the first-ever non-Newington winner in the then-6-year history of the pools. Wiser needed a Purdue win in the national title game to capture the pool championship, and the Boilermakers, having led by as many as 11 in the first half, were ahead of Notre Dame at halftime by an almost identical score to Stanford’s halftime margin yesterday — 32-26. But the Fighting Irish, led by Ruth Riley, stormed back, and Newington High School alum (and then-Providence College sophomore) Todd Stigliano won the pool, extending Newington’s dominance in the LRT pools.

The first non-Newington winner would emerge two years later, in 2003, and now there hasn’t been a Newington winner since 2005 (coincidentally, Todd Stigliano, winning his second women’s pool title). But yesterday, Wiser was yet again facing a title-game showdown with Newington High alum, and yet again the team he needed to win the championship game was ahead by 6 points at halftime. But this time, there would be no comeback to derail Wiser’s pool championship. The Cardinal outscored the Golden Gophers 44-26 in the second half, and Wiser jumped from 3rd place to 1st, winning the pool with 186 of a possible 317 points.

Dinunizio and Don LaPlante of Cheektowaga, NY, the only contestant besides Wiser to pick Stanford as the NIT champ, tied for second with 171 points. (Wiser, incidentally, is originally from nearby Kenmore, NY.) Tommy Lemoine of Manchester, NH was fourth with 164 points, and J. Scott Fitzwater of Ohio was fifth with 161 points.

Rounding out the top 10 were Colin Pedicini (160 points), Larry Caplin (147), Ian Auzenne and Jeff Poor (tied with 142) and a four-way tie among Greg Kagan, Ken Stern, Kelly Strutz and Lisa Velte (140). Full standings here.

By Brendan Loy

Six contestants are still alive in the 15th annual Living Room Times women’s NCAA pool heading into the Final Four — a new LRT record for any pool, I believe, and just two shy of the theoretical maximum (barring ties) of eight — as all four #1 seeds have advanced to Denver, creating a wide variety of outcomes for a pool field whose picks vary substantially from this point forward.

Currently, Bethel College ‘03 and Indiana ‘10 alum Randy Styles of South Bend, IN has the lead. But he will win the pool only if UConn upsets hometown team Notre Dame and its South Bend-born star, Skylar Diggins, and plays Baylor in the title game. If that happens, it won’t matter if the Huskies win or lose against Baylor; Styles would clinch on Sunday. (He is the only contestant who can potentially clinch before the title game.) Other scenarios:

• If ND wins the championship (regardless of whether it’s over Baylor or over Stanford), Joe Hiegel of Greenfield, WI will win the pool.

• If Baylor beats ND in the title game, 2009 women’s pool champ Michael Holtsberg of Broomall, PA will win again.

• If Stanford beats ND in the title game, Amy Booth of San Diego, CA will win.

• If Stanford beats UConn in the title game, Yvette Webster of Round Hill, VA will win. Webster is also in contention for the men’s pool championship heading into the Final Four; she’ll win that pool if Louisville plays Kansas in the title game.

• Lastly, if UConn beats Stanford in the title game, Gary Kirby (gahrie) of San Bernardino, CA will win.

Meanwhile, in the 8th annual Living Room Times NIT pool, Stanford’s win over UMass last night in the semifinals kept USC & Stanford alum (and current Michigan State Ph.D. student) Mike Wiser alive, while Washington’s overtime loss to Minnesota eliminated previous leader Tommy Lemoine and elevated UConn senior (and Newington High alum) Daniel Dinunzio into first place.

Dinunzio will win the pool if Minnesota beats Stanford. Wiser will win if Stanford wins.

If Wiser wins, it would be his first-ever victory in an LRT basketball pool, after being a regular contestant for more than a decade. If Dinunzio wins, it would be the first win for someone from Newington, CT, where the pools originated 16 years ago, since Todd Stigliano won the women’s NCAA pool in 2005.

By Brendan Loy

With the Final Four half set, a whopping 12 contestants are still mathematically alive in the Living Room Times women’s NCAA pool. But any one of them could be eliminated tonight. It’s a high-stakes Elite Eight finale!

Presently, as you can see on the possible outcomes page, a dozen contestants — Randy Styles (1st in the current standings), Michael Holtsberg (3rd), Cam McLachlan (T-4th), Joe Hiegel (T-4th), Becky Loy (6th), Gary Kirby (T-11th), Rick Boeckler (T-11th), Amy Booth (T-11th), Yvette Webster (14th), David Kreutz (17th), Michael Walsh (21st) and Kevin Hauschulz (31st) — have a chance to win.

Holtsberg, who won the women’s pool in 2009, might be considered the favorite to do so again, as he will win if all the expected results happen: Notre Dame beats Maryland and UConn beats Kentucky tonight, Notre Dame and Baylor win in the national semifinals, and Baylor wins the championship. That said, he’d be eliminated tonight if Maryland upsets Notre Dame. So would the current leader, Styles (who has UConn upsetting ND in the semis, but needs the Irish to get there).

Meanwhile, Cam McLachlan and Becky Loy both face an unusual situation tonight: they’ll either take the lead (if Maryland upsets ND, in McLachlan’s case; if ND wins and Kentucky upsets UConn, in Becky’s case) or be mathematically eliminated.

Here’s an overview of tonight’s scenarios:

• If Notre Dame and UConn win, creating an all #1-seed showdown in Denver, we’d head into the Final Four with 6 pool contestants still mathematically alive, which I think would be a new LRT record. Those contestants would be Styles, Holtsberg, Hiegel, Kirby, Booth and Webster.

• If Maryland and UConn win, we’d have 5 still alive: McLachlan, Boeckler, Kreutz, Walsh and Hauschulz.

• If Notre Dame and Kentucky win, the pool would have a “Final Four”: Loy, Styles, Holtsberg and Booth.

• If Maryland and Kentucky win, we’d be down to just 3: McLachlan, Boeckler and Kreutz.

With Becky and me having tickets to the Final Four next weekend, I confess I’m a bit torn about whether to root tonight for the team I grew up cheering for, UConn (though I’d be rooting against them if they play my law-school alma mater, Notre Dame, in the semis), or to instead root for my wife to have a shot at the pool championship. It would be fun to have a Becky’s pool fortunes riding on Notre Dame’s success as we watch them next weekend. But it would also be fun to watch the fourth game of the season between the Irish and the Huskies. Ah, well. I’ll look at it as a no-lose situation, I guess. (Well, “no-lose” unless Maryland upsets ND!)

By Brendan Loy

A wildfire southwest of Denver is still totally uncontained this morning, one day after it killed one person, destroyed 15 to 25 strucutres, burned more than 3,000 acres, and gave off a huge smoke plume, blown northeastward by galeforce winds, that was impressively well-defined on radar:

Another way of viewing that smoke plume is by looking at the brief time-lapse video I took out my office window in downtown Denver yesterday, looking south-southeast:

That video caught The Weather Channel’s attention after I tweeted it out, and it was featured in a loop on Weather Center Live last night:

I wish I’d taken more than 8 seconds of video! Unfortunately, my iPhone’s battery was already low when I started, and it died at the end of the video.

(By the way, I made the video with Time Lapse Camera HD for iPhone and iPad. Thanks to Timothy Burke for the TWC clip. And a hat-tip to Brandon Minich for suggesting the headline of this post.)