OZY Daily Dose

In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: “How was your day?” I’m very regimented. I arrange my work by what’s gonna pay me first. But working on my book, Teen Movie Hell, takes up the most time because I gotta watch the movies. I’m 50 years old. I was 13 when Porky’s came out.

Stuyvesant High School, a specialized school in New York City currently having a moment over the fairness of its admissions test, is my alma mater. With only seven African-American students accepted into this fall's class, questions are being asked as to why. Meanwhile, America is asking questions about celebrities arrested for buying their kids access to Ivy League schools, and Asian parents are suing Harvard for being denied admission.

This is the latest edition of OZY's Huddle newsletter, which brings you a smart, flavorful conversation-starter for your next game watch party. No stale takes allowed. Add The Huddle to your OZY email subscriptions here.Baseball's middle class is dead. Gone are the days of the well-paid journeyman. Now, MLB roster building is about two things: superstars and cheap, young talent. For front offices, the pool of big-league quality youngsters is larger than ever before.

Because if he can fight through frustration, Virginia can win it all. Too many college basketball players these days arrive with an ultimatum on playing time — or else — which helps to make Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter remarkable. He chose to confront a snub.

The free-throw line is usually the safest spot on the floor in a basketball game, but not on April 7, 2008, in the NCAA championship game. The Memphis Tigers couldn't breathe at the foul line as a howling crowd of 43,257 in the Alamodome in San Antonio made the pressure suffocating. Chris Douglas-Roberts clanged a free throw off the rim with 75 seconds to play, then missed two more free throws with 16 seconds left.

I have a 7-month-old puppy who suffers from separation anxiety. Every time I leave home, I have to arrange for a dog sitter - or else everything at home gets destroyed. Usually, it's the elderly lady who cooks for me. And that means shelling out more money for every hour I'm gone. So when I learned about Laika, I wished she was available in India, where I live. Laika looked dependable. She can play with the dog, feed her treats and keep her company.

Because every once in a while there is a great talent in the game of baseball that makes everyone else look a bit foolish. It’s the last night of spring training. The newly minted members of the 2019 Tampa Bay Rays baseball team are out celebrating the upcoming season at a bar in Port Charlotte, Florida, where the Rays train. Well, almost the entire team. One of the organization’s highest-flying prospects, Tyler Brockmann, who hit a team high .

Alice lived in the smallest room at Theta Chi, the co-op at Stanford where I lived in the mid-'80s during my sophomore year, and she barely spoke to anyone. We glanced at each other, and we started talking. She was, as I am, Swedish.We started up a friendship that involved me taking a bunch of acid and her getting some sort of contact high.

In a league obsessed with the 3-point shot, Milwaukee is encouraging teams to shoot their way out of the game. A trained basketball eye could spot Milwaukee’s strategy from a mile away, but in realtime, on March 13 it was understandable for confused fans to wonder what, exactly, the Bucks were doing on defense against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Bucks allowed shot after shot, often open and from 3-point range, to forward Julius Randle and guards Ian Clark and Frank Jackson.

As is tradition in the days leading up to the NCAA Tournament, it’s easy to begin filling out your March Madness bracket and then realize, “Oh no, I have all 1-seeds in the Final Four.” Sure, that’s not the worst strategy — multiple 1-seeds make the Final Four more than half the time — but no one wants to go all “chalk.” March Madness is about mayhem — shocking upsets like Dunk City and emerging stars like Steph Curry.