MARCH MADNESS

I purchased the American Idioms Dictionary (Second Edition - Richard A. Spears, Ph. D.) a long time ago because I wanted to put together a comparison of proverbs and common sayings that are also similar to Vietnamese popular expressions. Since I learned English when I was 19 years old, I became interested not only the American/English sayings but also their origins and the famous people the popular sayings attributed to. I specially enjoy the one-liners and how usage of standard proverbs/sayings vary in different contexts.

Recently I learned that the proverb "The best things in life are free" implies that the things that give a person the most happiness don't cost anything. According to the book America's Popular Sayings by Gregory Titelman, the saying was originated in 1927 from the song "The Best Things in Life are Free" by Buddy G. De Silva. The song also was a hit in the Boardway musical Good News. I have always thought it was about freebies, things that are provided free-of-charge or no cost.

Like any other jobs, mine has its plusses and minusses. For a sports fanatic, I truly appreciate a few incentives such as earlier this month when my husband and I were invited to watch the Missouri Valley Conference championship basketball game from the press box with food and drinks all provided, complimentary from the public relations firm of the Association. Last year when the St. Louis Cardinals was in the World Series, my husband and I attended Game #3, complimentary of the Association. You could not purchase these tickets, definitely would not be available at cost and people were willing to pay thousands of dollars for the tickets.

I don't follow college basketball games and did not know much about March Madness, I decided to learn a little so I could have an intelligent conversation while watching the deciding game between Southern Illinois (the Sulakis) vs. Creighton (the Bluejays). Creighton dominated the game from the beginning and defeated Southern Illinois 67-61 to capture the championship. The wonderful Wikipedia and the website marchmadness.org explained the history of March Maddness. A teacher and coach named Hanry V. Porter gave birth to the term "March Madness" which originally used to describe the frenzy of the Illinois state high school basketball tournaments. Since 1908, the tournaments have grown from a small affair to a statewide event with over 900 schools competing by the late 1930's. Now the spirit of March Madness became one of the most prominent sports events, with fans gathering in large crowds from coast to coast watching and betting on games featuring 65 college basketball teams across the United States over 3 weeks in March.

I am not planning to watch any regional games this week or the Final Four scheduled the last weekend. As explained, we went to the game a few weeks ago because of free food and drinks. So I was wrong about the meanings of the expression "The best things in life are free". What about the sayings "there is no such thing as free lunch"? How about "Let's go Dutch"?