Well, March Madness is here, and this year it doesn't just seem to refer to the NCAA men's basketball tourney.

My brackets, by the way, are well and truly busted.

Davidson?

San Diego?

If there was to be a Cinderella, in my bracket anyway, it was gonna be Drake.

That glass slipper cracked, in heartbreaking fashion, on Friday.

No, the madness this month has been all around us. There were the college campuses under alert this month after word of shooters: All three Regents institutions had their own scares.

Wall Street. How come I never get those Bear Sterns bargains when I'm out shopping for stock?

The Black Plague. Oh, I mean the influenza virus that has run rampant through the area's businesses, schools and homes this month. Has anyone been untouched by the creepy crud?

The Year of the Easter Egg Hunts in the Family Room. Were there any brave souls who made their way outside for the traditional fun? It felt like Easter in November.

Flood Watch 2008. With the massive snow piles and the ever-rising rivers, it looks to be a humdinger of a spring thaw. I keep watch on my buddy Donald Duck, in West Leach Park, to indicate just how soggy area basements are, or will soon be.

March has, traditionally, a rather dicey reputation. Gray, cold, on the cusp of spring, it seems to have one foot in each season. I haven't figured out why T.S. Elliot called April "the cruelest month." I've always saved that thought for March.

And this year, with it's weird and wacky happenings, I'm thinking that more than ever.