mason dazed

The incredible Final Four appearance of the George Mason University men's basketball team brought national attention to my alma mater. Fans of the Patriots got some good news last night when Coach Jim Larranaga signed a contract extension to stay at GMU after being wooed by Seton Hall and who knows who else.

Before this year, it was the economics department that was most likely to make headlines. Famed GMU economist Walter Williams wrote a column comparing the rise of the two programs. This week Williams was quoted in a very interesting John Stossel column about the positive motivation of greed that I heard about on the Neil Boortz radio show. Boortz drew a parallel between Williams' views about supermarkets and the current anxiety over oil company profits. It's worth reading.

A new VH1 contest got me thinking about my days at GMU. I was station manager of the student-run radio station. We decided to promote the station by staging an event at the school's big Spring festival called Mason Day. Around that time, Yale University had gotten some ink in the New York Times for an air guitar contest. We took that idea and expanded it into an "air band" contest. Steve Doocy reported on our contest on the Channel 4 News, which directly led to me getting an internship at WAVA. Anyway, VH1 is holding an air guitar contest. Everything old is new again.

This year's Mason day was held on April 20. An editorial in the student newspaper pointed out that the big party was coincidentally scheduled for the same day that potheads celebrate themselves and that the University would not condone any illegal behavior. The funniest part is that the headline entertainment was provided by reggae band The Wailers.