Weird Wednesday: 1 in 9.2 Quintillion

Tuesday Top Ten: Places in Canada Thursday Thoughts: Equinox (Latin 101)

Weird Wednesday: 1 in 9.2 Quintillion

March Madness. No not the continuing turmoil in the White House. It’s the annual college (that’s American for ‘university’) basketball tournament. The odds of picking all the winners right to the final is 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

I don’t bet. I don’t even watch basketball. But I do know that basketball was invented by Canadian James Naismith in 1891, at Springfield College, in Springfield, Massachusetts. So, naturally, the US claims it is the only true American sport (no mention of lacrosse…)

Where is the oldest existing basketball court, you ask?

When the new owners of a building in St. Stephen, New Brunswick (which was once a YMCA) pulled up the lovely carpet in an upstairs storage room, they discovered a hardwood floor. After some research they determined that the YMCA director was a former student of Naismith and would have played the first games of the new sport.

The first mention of a game here was in 1893.

So, there you go. Apparently the US doesn’t need anything from Canada. Now if you don’t mind, I should fill out my bracket and plop a hun down with my bookie because, in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas:

-Leon

Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.

My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/