It ain't Supermax, but Facebook jail is no fun at all

Again!?!

As you can see from my post several weeks ago, I received a seven-day sentence in Facebook Jail for what they called hate speech.

I referred to Donald Trump as "(rich) white trash."

I served my sentence, did my time, and when my sentence was up, the warden gave me a suit of clothes and a $20 bill and told me the next train to Memphis was leaving in two hours.

Huh?

Never mind. I promised to be more careful and began posting again.

Rich have it good, but there are ways you can succeed

Back in the 1950s, there was a television show called "The Millionaire" that ran for six seasons.

The premise was that a wealthy recluse named John Beresford Tipton would select a different person each week and give them a check for $1 million. They were not allowed to tell anyone where they got the money.

In a country where the average family income in 1955 was about $5,000 and the average home could be purchased for less than $12,000, a million was big bucks indeed.

Fortune magazine reports that in 1955, there were only about 30,000 American executives who made in excess of $50,000 a year, and they paid about 40 percent of that in taxes.

Numbers aren't easily available for every year, but in 1953 there were about 27,000 Americans worth at least $1 million.

A very special week and a handful of random notes

As sports weeks go, the one we're in the middle of right now might be my late friend Tom Kensler's favorite of the year.

Two of the events he most enjoyed covering for the Denver Post happen in this particular week. First is the NCAA men's basketball championship game. It takes place on Monday night. I don't know how many Final Fours Tom covered, but it was more than my two.

2013 in the ATL

In fact, the last time I saw him alive was the morning after the 2013 championship game, in which Louisville beat Michigan in the Georgia Done right here in Atlanta.

Strangely enough, the last Final Four I covered also was a Louisville victory, in 1986 at Reunion Arena in Dallas. I don't think Tom was at that one.

But it's the second event of the week that makes it so special. Starting Thursday, right here in Georgia, the best golfers in the world get together at Augusta National Golf Club for the tournament known as the Masters.

After half a century, Virginia's one shining moment

And in the end ...

When I sat down to fill out a bracket before this year's NCAA tournament, I did it with my heart rather than my head.

The fact is, despite a good long run covering college basketball in the '80s and '90s, including two seasons as a voter in the Associated Press poll, I've never been good at predicting.

I didn't do that well this year either. I picked Nevada, a team I covered for two seasons 20 years ago, to win the Midwest Region and reach the Final Four.

Nevada lost in the first round.

I missed on Texas Tech, predicting a Sweet Sixteen loss to ... wait for it ... Nevada.

My bracket

I did pretty well on the top half of the card. I had Duke and Michigan State in the East Region and I even had Sparty winning and moving on to the Final Four.

I had the South Region too. Virginia and Purdue in the final and Virginia emerging.

That's where my heart came into play. I have followed Virginia basketball faithfully for more than half a century.

After last season's shocking first-round loss to UMBC when the Wahoos were the top-seeded team in the field of 68, I figured redemption would come this year.

So I picked the 'Hoos to go all the way and win their first-ever NCAA title.

And they did.

A week in Facebook jail is an unpleasant surprise

"Isn't it ironic that our classy black president was followed by a (rich) white trash one?

Imagine my surprise when I called up Facebook on my computer screen and learned that for the next seven days, I cannot post, comment or use Messenger because of what is considered a hateful comment.

I have had Facebook delete comments of mine before, most memorably when I was commenting on Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem "The White Man's Burden."