Highland Park 10-Year-Old Reminds Us All Why It's Better to Never Fill Out a Bracket

DALLAS - As Michigan and Louisville tipped off in the national title game in Atlanta, 10-year-old Brayden Schager sunk into a couch with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Watching on an 80-inch screen in a converted garage in Highland Park, he remained calm despite being on the brink of history.

If Michigan won, Schager would have the top ranked bracket out of 8.15 million filled out in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. He correctly picked 12 of the Sweet Sixteen, seven of the Elite Eight (only missing Duke), all of the Final Four and Louisville and Michigan in the finals.
The bracket was created one night over dinner. Schager called his dad, Scott, who was on vacation in Miami, and asked him for help logging in to ESPN. He filled out 10 brackets on ESPN and had another one with a group of friends.
There wasn’t a prize at stake. ESPN will randomly assign a $10,000 Best Buy gift card to one of the approximately 80,000 people who had brackets in the top one percent. This was simply for pride.
Just before the final buzzer, he took a picture with his first-place bracket. A few short seconds later he dropped from No. 1 to No. 38,292. Disappointed, Schrager walked over to his mom, who wrapped him in a hug.

Just so many validations in this story about why I stopped doing brackets that my only regret is I didn't quit sooner.  If Barbara from Accounts Receivable and her cat aren't scoreboarding the entire office, then there's always some cocky 10-year-old who filled out like 17 different brackets. Guess they're not teaching integrity in schools anymore. And how bout the nerve on this Brayden Schager to say he was guessing, as if we're supposed to believe he had binders of data that ran out after the first nine brackets, so he had to fall back on blind intuition? Hey Nostradamus, if you're so confident then what are you doing using ESPN's Grandma League, where out of over eight million entries, the top prize is a 1 in 80,000 chance for a gift card? Talk about rookie ball. Next time put your piggy bank on the line like a man then we'll talk. I'm sure his allowance is about what WWCD piles up in a week anyway. Oh, and next time, how bout you wait until after the game to celebrate. At the end of the day you didn't even crack the top 38,291 and got only a disapproving hug from mom. Choke city, basically.

Dallas' New $3 Billion Midtown Development Unveils Flashy Video, Sexy Demographic Stats

Can't afford the real deal in Uptown? Don't wanna slum it in Addison? Ever felt compelled to go to the Galleria, but wish there was something more compelling nearby? Dallas may just have the perfect place for you. Meet Midtown. Sure, it's like ten miles north of Uptown, but just go with it. The old Valley View Center north of LBJ between Preston and the Galleria will soon be home to a glaring sea of office, condo, and hotel towers, complete with it's own retail and shopping, park, trolley, cable car, and hike and bike trail, just in case you don't like any of those existing offerings in Old Town, or whatever greater downtown will be called by then . At least the double-decker 635 should be wrapped up by then, just in case you ever feel like you have to leave this mini-city for any reason.

How Crappy Are Astros Fans for Cheering for Marwin Gonzalez' Base Hit?

While I'm sure the purists who support the broadcast-mention jinx are all over Busby's ass this morning, I'm troubled at just how terrible Houston fans are for going bonkers after a single down seven to break up a perfect-O. Houston is gonna lose 100 games this season. That hit, and that loss, mean nothing. How great would it be to say you were there for a perfect freaking game? Sure they're just about every week these days, but it still would've been just the 24th in MLB history. However, I vividly remember Mark Buehrle no-hitting the Rangers in 2007, coincidentally to AJ Pierzynski, and it sucked. I was on my feet acting like the pennant was on the line with each fruitless at-bat. Was I sorry then, or was it OK cause I wasn't there and it wasn't a perfect game? Obviously Ranger fans are pissed, so I'm a little biased. Either way, the Astros and their fans made up a lot of ground in the AL West rivalry game. What's the ruling here?

Pilot Point Bro Has the Cheapest 700 Pound Bench Press Going

Can I just ask whatever happened to good old fashioned range of motion? No way those elbows sniffed 90 degrees. I mean, can't most gymbro's toss up at least 550 with the elbows over 110 degrees? If I would've known that if I packed on a little chest mass to cheat the system, I coulda rocked the weight room back in the day even more than I did. Everybody knows chicks would rather see a lean, chiseled blogger press a gentleman's 250 at an honest 60 degrees anyway. Plus, at least I can wear a sport coat and scratch my back.

How Crazy Is Mrs. Benefactor to Think that Wiz Khalifa's "Young, Wild, and Free" and Cults "Go Outside" Use the Same Beat?

So the other day I'm walking around the house whistling Cults classic, "Go Outside," looking about as hip as you do in your dreams. All of the sudden the wife asks me why I'm whistling that song from Saturday's post-parade Snoop concert. Naturally I tell her she's crazy to think that Snoop would play a relatively obscure indie pop song for a heavily medicated and sunburned, hip-hop classic-craving sea of green. Even her accompanying friend agreed with her. Same song, old man. I've listened to each one a dozen times now, but since I can't write music, I can't technically explain how they're not even close without losing my mind. I mean we're one dirty dish in the sink away from divorce over here, and I can't have the IRS digging their noses around the WWCD books after neglected alimony payments. What if I'm wrong, though? What if one did adopt part of the beat from another? What if my wife's musical ear was more perceptive than mine? Do I even want to live in this world? There's no way, right?

Mi Cocina Chicken Fajitas Run Circles Around Gloria's and It's Not Even Close

So when me and the Mrs. are playin' it casual, we do it Mexican-style. When we lived in the M Streets, it was the Greenville Gloria's. Loved it. Now it's the Lake Highlands Mi Cocina as routinely as most average Joe's go to McDonald's. I know they're both semi-chains who've sold out and moved to the 'burbs, but they're still good for a quality start night in and night out. Plus it helps that at MiCo I get the five-start treatment and the back booth reserved for blogging moguls. After a few years of plowing through more Mambo Taxi's and fajitas plates than Urban Spoon, I went back to the ol' Gloria's stompin' grounds Wednesday and got the usual. Lemme me tell you... wasn't even in the same ballpark. Love the Gloria's bean dip and happy hour prices, but what little chicken there was seemed both bland and oddly shaped, the rice had no kick, and the beans were as flat as a Matrix jumper. I don't need a mariachi band or anything, but I do need a little pizazz, a little showmanship, and Gloria's was a one-way ticket to Disappointment Town. MiCo ftw, but those Taxi's at $8 a pop sting when it's hasn't been a strong 1Q aroud here.

A Brand New Cubes-Jerry Grudge is Born: Emmy Nods

Game, set, statuette Cubes, right? I really don't see it any other way. I see your patented wink, Jerry, but you can't beat the classically-trained delivery, iconic smile, and melt-your-heart eyes of one of America's few true multi-talented pioneers. I know it's probably blasphemy, but I never watched Dallas. If I did, and I had Bobby Ewing sharing my mogul-sized TV screen with a couple of true Dallas hero's, that's it. TV is done. Everybody go home.

There's Over Two Dozen Billionaires Living in North Texas, So Who the Hell Are These People?

So Frontburner compiled a nice, clean chart of your friendly neighborhood billionaires, all from the latest Forbes issue. As sports fans, we all know a few of the usual suspects, and educated, connected Dallasites like myself are quite familiar with many more. But what about the mouth-breathing D/FW simpleton who may know little else outside of the Twin Peaks happy hour specials, how much Romo sucks, and the playlist of 97.1 FM? WWCD is here to help you. Yes, you.

#16 (world rank)- Alice Walton, $26.3 billion
One of Sam Walton's four kids, and the second-richest American woman. While her sprawling ranch is near Mineral Wells, she'd rather spend her time driving drunk in Weatherford, cause what else are you gonna do?