AND YET NOTRE DAME IS PLAYING TOMORROW:  I'm assuming the confluence of St. Patrick's Day and the start of the tournament today works out better today than last Tuesday's confluence of Mardi Gras and International Women's Day celebrants, or as Seth Meyers put it, "Show us your boobs, but only if you’re okay with that and if you’re not, we completely get it!”

As far as the tournament is concerned, I'm too far removed from active fandom to try to win any bracket via merit, so I'm totally pursuing the hedge fund strategy of gambling on a 2-4 seed to win it all. If I'm going to lose, I don't care how close I was.

added:  This Washington Post tournament database is the coolest timewaster of the day, other than watching the games.

狼獾!  Bowing to market pressure from distributors, the filmmakers behind the (otherwise finished) Red Dawn remake are digitally changing the enemies from Chinese to North Korean:

People close to the picture said the changes will cost less than $1 million and involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean. It's impossible to eliminate all references to China, the people said, though the changes will give North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.

A MULATTO, AN ALBINO, A MOSQUITO, MY LIBIDO: Two years ago when Allison Iraheta scaled Mt. Wilson, we discussed whether singing "Alone" was a fair metric for a singer or whether, as I think Alan put it, it was like hitting home runs with a corked bat.

Well, damn: Jacob Lusk done hit himself a home run tonight in the first truly memorable performance of the season. Yes, he's affected. No, he's not going to win the whole damn thing. But those are pipes he's got, and he was only one of two contestants to impress me tonight.

The second was Lauren Alaina. Not that her "I'm The Only One" was particularly great, but it was a wise choice done with spunk.  (Scotty may well have been a third, but his genre is so Not My Thing that I skipped past after the first few bars.)

I'm glad Casey introduced Nirvana to the show, but this was the wrong song, performed oddly. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is not a fundamentally angry song meant to be sung with a demonic glare; it's about alienation and rebellion and release and, performance-wise, it's about losing control and throwing yourself into the song heedlessly.  None of this can fit into an Idol performance, between the context and the stage and the annoying and distracting Horns of Idol.  (Maybe "In Bloom" works better? I still prefer my choices. And P.S. to J-Lo: I guess you didn't get the memo, but one does not evaluate grunge based on whether it sounds "pleasant.")

Everyone else was either mediocre or worse, with the women in particular choosing snooze-worthy songs which do not belong in a competition to locate the next contemporary music star.  And then there's Paul: that shambolic stuff needs to be tethered to slightly better performing.

Bottom 3: Haley, Karen, and the gonna-be-going-home jasminetriastic Thia Megia.  And it doesn't matter what order they go home; they're all going home.  (I know Dan thinks it's Naima, but I think she's got enough goodwill from last week still.)

SPELLING BEE WINNER BEGINS SINISTER PHASE 2: 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Winner Evan O'Dorney (and fellow East Bay kid) has won the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search for his entry, "Continued Fraction Convergents and Linear fractional transformations."

YOU'LL HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE:  After recognizing that Legally Blonde, The Musical swept Britain's equivalent of the Tony Awards this year (with Project Broadway presenter Denise van Outen learning how to bend ... and snap as Paulette), Tom Scocca notes that come this summer there will be two musicals based on Patrick Swayze films on the London stage: the long-running Dirty Dancing, The Classic Story On Stage and, in June, Ghost the Musical.

Your two-part challenge: suggest song titles (lyrics?) for the world's favorite clay-sculpting story, or other Swayze films which belong in musical format ... other than the one that's been done already.

AND IF YOU MUST PUT ME IN A BOX, MAKE SURE IT'S A BIG BOX WITH LOTS OF WINDOWS, AND A DOOR TO WALK THROUGH, AND A NICE HIGH CHIMNEY:  This week on Idol it's Songs from the Year You Were Born week, which means a second straight week of "sing in whatever genre you want" so that the contestants can define who they are as artists.  This, in turn, allows the judges to spend the next few months deciding whether or not they should stay in or leave their defined boxes.  If I get two of these recommendations remotely close, I'm calling it a win:

• Naima Adedapo (1984) - It's the year of Purple Rain, but I have no idea if any of it's in her arsenal. "Baby I'm A Star"?  I'm sure "The Glamorous Life" is, but for an oddball choice why not Alphaville's "Forever Young," repopularized for the youngsters thanks to the Jay-Z sampling? 
• Paul McDonald (1984) - Totally in his box would be one of the twitchy-mumbly hits from R.E.M.'s Reckoning -- "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" or "So. Central Rain. (I'm Sorry)."  It's also the year of "The Unforgettable Fire," which I think he could nail. Can he do a ballad?  Because there's this Cars song called "Drive," and he could be awfully good at it.
• Jacob Lusk (1987) - Yes, I have a soft spot for Prince. "Sign “☮” the Times" is this year ... "If I Was Your Girlfriend"?  Okay, let's get creative here: New Order's "True Faith" ... but effort into finding something off-beat doesn't matter here.  It's the year of Terence Trent D'Arby's debut album and Michael Jackson's Bad, and they're just too obviously right for him.

COUNTRY WEAK: A guest post from commenter Robin:

Having read on ALOTT5MA that Country Strong had a shocking ending, I knew I had to see it as soon as it hit our dollar theater. And even though I enjoyed the movie, unironically (I'm a sucker for melodrama), I did spend a good portion of the movie trying to guess at the surprise waiting for us in the third act.

Potential twist endings I imagined while watching Country Strong that were more shocking than the one it actually delivered: