REACTIONS

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I still think Duke-UK in 1992 was the greatest game ever played. Duke had Laettner, the player of the year who was about to become a member of the Dream Team; Bobby Hurley, whose assist record stood until last week; Grant Hill, who would himself win national player of the year in 1994; Cherokee Parks, who played in the NBA for nine seasons; and Erik Meek, who no one remembers but was better than every Kentucky player but one.

Kentucky had Jamal Mashburn, an excellent college player who would be named All-American the next season; three dudes from Kentucky and Sean Woods. That team took defending national champion to overtime. It took The Shot to beat them. I've seen that damned shot too many times. Let's take a look at the shot before the shot, the one that convinced a state that our team was back. (It's at 1:40)

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The volume of insurance commercials during March Madness is insane. They spend over $7 billion collectively a year on various forms of advertisement. Which makes me wonder, do the ads work? Some make my cringe, some make me 

The last one is actor JK Simmons, who won an Oscar for Whiplash. I had no idea his character was named Professor Burke. I could hum the jingle of the commercials he's in, but I couldn't dredge up Farmers Insurance. Guess they should have spent more than $68 million last year.

The most highly paid commercial actor, by far, is Stephanie Courtney - Flo from Progressive. Courtney reportedly makes nearly $2 million a year to play the quirky, upbeat insurance saleperson. She's been doing those ads for 18 years! Previously, she was a member of the improv sketch comedy group, the Groundlings. She's actually shown up in a lot of things. Here she is on Mad Men.

I get sick of all of these commercials, with one exception. The ad campaign with Dr. Rick, the life coach who tries to keep people from turning into their parents. I love it. “If you printed out directions to get here, you’re in the right place” “There’s no place to sit. You’ve got too many pillows.” “Who else reads books about submarines?” Better than a lot of SNL sketches. The insurance company is Progressive, meaning that Dr. Rick is employed by the same people that have inflicted Flo and her posse on us for nearly two decades (some of those ads are clever, many of them are not). The Dr. Rick writing is excellent and many of the actors have backgrounds in improv comedy as veterans of the Second City or Groundlings (like Stephanie Courtney). The reaction to the person with blue hair (“We all see it. We allll see it.”) was primarily improvised. Dr. Rick is played by 54 year-old Bill Glass; that Dr. Phil-style moustache is fake. The comedy rests on the terror of transforming into everything about your parents that causes you to roll your eyes. Which the ad campaign argues doesn’t happen when you move out or have your first child. It’s when you buy your first house and suddenly become conversant in load bearing walls. The ads are all good but you’ve seen them all. But maybe not the Dr. Rick mockumentary at this link, which is pretty meta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kes4eXCpCxo

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