In case you haven’t noticed, March Madness is upon us, which means that brackets are all some people can think about. Your coworkers, for instance, have probably spent countless hours strategizing their picks and have serious money riding on the outcome.

For those of us less basketball-oriented, there are other options for friendly competition. A year ago, I stumbled upon this bracketology book at my local Goodwill. I’d meant to give it to a friend who’s a big sports and trivia (and sports trivia) fan, but ended up keeping it for myself. It’s highly entertaining, with brackets for all sorts of subjects, including all-time best animation characters, guitar solos, plastic surgery disasters, Samuel L. Jackson films and women’s underwear. (In the end, thongs narrowly lost out to underwire bras.)

As a logophile, I count the following contests from the book among my favorites, though I don’t necessarily agree with the resulting winners — the em dash, for instance, didn’t even make it to the Sweet Sixteen of the Punctuation Playoffs.  Sheesh.

(Click on pics to see larger, more legible views.)

SHAKESPEAREAN INSULTS:

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PUNCTUATION:

SCRABBLE WORDS:

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March Madness, while still just beginning,
Seems so silly, it sets my head spinning;
I’ve got better things yet
On which I could bet
(Though right now I wish my team were winning).

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©2013 Carlotta Eike Stankiewicz