Bracket anything!

One March evening a few years ago, I was in the Indianapolis airport restaurant. About to reach for my NCAA college basketball tournament predictions, I noticed at EVERY table businessmen and other travelers all working their brackets. This week, at a men's meeting at a Denver church, the leading conversation over dinner was, of course, brackets. "March Madness" is far beyond a TV promotion. The tournament has become a national pastime.

Now, finally, a perfect parlor sport for those not into college basketball, but feeling left out at all the bracketeering going on around you during this month... The Enlightened Bracketologist.

Slate Magazine's article on this new phenomenon (and a book, by the way) is a worthy entry into the contemporary obsession with ranking EVERYTHING. It's no longer good enough to merely argue opinions about great movies, books, actors, sports teams, boxers, tennis players, golfers, NASCAR drivers, country music stars, rock drummers, wonders of the world, frequent flier plans, fondue flavors... or anything else. Now you can put up all the leading candidates into a bracket, and watch them spar against each other to ultimate victory or defeat.

Their samples include: Where Were You When Moments bracket, Film Deaths bracket, Marital Arguments bracket, Ad Slogans bracket.

Great for parties! Leave the affair knowing which contestant is the dominant, consensus WINNER! America loves winners.

It's only a matter of time before university presidents, corporate bowl game boosters and other football gods finally succumb to a definitive national playoff tournament. You don't have to wait that long.

Personally, I enjoy the debate (over college football, movies, fondue) more than the "definitive" outcome. But, in the spirit of bracketology, I'm on board.

Play, and let me know how it goes. And for the record, "Casablanca" was the greatest movie of all time.