The Final Four of Everything
That’s the title of the second volume of hilarious, enlightening, time-wasting real-life NCAA-style brackets to which I am once again privileged to have been able to contribute. In the first book – which had a different name, The Enlightened Bracketologist – I whittled a field of 32 Scrabble words down to a champion. This time I compose death matches in the cosmically crucial fields of board games, placekicks and acronyms.
The Final Four of Everything is edited by Marc Reiter and my friend Richard Sandomir of the New York Times. Contributors include George Vescey (New York athletes), Roz Chast (phobias), A.O. Scott (worst movies by great directors), Joe Nocera (financial villains) and Mary Matalin (conservative texts). My pals Franklin Foer, Drew Magary, John Thorn, Alan Schwarz and Will Leitch are in there, too, deconstructing, respectively, pundits, breakfast cereals, baseball moments, instant replays and 21st century sports books. Memo to Will: I’m flattered that you included Word Freak, but would it have killed you to move it into the Elite Eight?
The Final Four of Everything publishes on May 5. You can but it from one of these fine online retailers or, better yet, support your local independent bookstore.