<em>Short takes from a journey through a disorganized mind:</em>

I'm in big trouble.

I went to the drugstore the other day to get the only truly critical medicine in my life, only to find out there wasn't any.

[caption id="attachment_1645" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Recalled?"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Why-Excedrin-NoDoz-bottles-are-being-recalled-8KQJKID-x-large.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1645" title="Why-Excedrin-NoDoz-bottles-are-being-recalled-8KQJKID-x-large" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Why-Excedrin-NoDoz-bottles-are-being-recalled-8KQJKID-x-large-300x220.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="220" /></a>[/caption]

I have been using Excedrin for headaches, toothaches and whatever other aches I've had for the last 30-plus years. I'm sure it's all in my head, but Excedrin is the only thing that seems to work for me consistently.

I buy the large size -- 250 capsules or tablets -- and then use up the bottle in about four months. So when I went looking for Excedrin the other day, I hadn't actually shopped for it since November or so.

I couldn't find any, so I asked. I learned to my great surprise that all the Excedrin had been recalled for some flaw in the packaging process. The biggest shock to me was that it had actually happened several months ago.

I really do have to start keeping up with the news.
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I have always enjoyed apocalyptic fiction, whether in books or films. Not so much the book of Revelation stuff, although I did read the entire "Left Behind" series -- a great example of a good story and poor writing . I drew the line at watching the movies. Kirk Cameron gives me the creeps.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Some of the best end-of-the-world fiction I've read were Nevil Shute's classic "On the Beach," Pat Frank's "Alas Babylon" (in which the world doesn't really end) and of course Stephen King's "The Stand" (in which all that ends is the world as we know it). The Gregory Peck-Ava Gardner version of "On the Beach" is my favorite film of this sort, although I have a weird soft spot for a weird little Nicolas Cage film called "Knowing" in which the world actually ends.</p>


[caption id="attachment_1646" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Knowing"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/movie-Knowing-movie-review-dvd-new-critic-matt-willey.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1646" title="movie-Knowing-movie-review-dvd-new-critic-matt-willey" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/movie-Knowing-movie-review-dvd-new-critic-matt-willey-300x180.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" /></a>[/caption]

Of course there are movies like "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" -- the twin asteroid/comet movies of 1997 -- but despite the great tagline "Earth. It was fun while it lasted," you pretty well knew going in that Bruce Willis and Bobby Duvall weren't going to let us down by failing to save the day.

I have probably watched "On the Beach" a dozen times on DVD, and recently I saw that there had been a remake for television in 2000 starring Armand Assante and Rachel Ward in the roles Peck and Gardner played so well. I ordered the DVD from Amazon, but I haven't watched it yet.

My favorite thing about the original version is the way "Waltzing Matilda" weaves in and out of the movie as the primary musical theme. Long before I started listening to Eric Bogle and Slim Dusty, even before I heard "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport," I fell in love with Australia through "Waltzing Matilda."
<p style="text-align: center;">***</p>


[caption id="attachment_1647" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="My last NCAA tournament"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/00000008.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1647" title="00000008" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/00000008-e1332812074591-300x214.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="214" /></a>[/caption]
<p style="text-align: left;">During the 16 years I worked as a sportswriter, my greatest area of expertise was college basketball, and the most fun I ever had was covering the NCAA tournament. In 1985 and 1986, when I was working in St. Louis, I had the great privilege of covering the Final Four.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">That took me to Rupp Arena in Kentucky for the classic '85 game when Villanova stunned Georgetown, 66-64, and then to Reunion Arena in Dallas the next year for Louisville's win over Duke.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I traveled all over for various regionals and sub-regionals -- Providence, R.I., in 1985, Ogden, Utah, and Kansas City in 1986, and Salt Lake City and Oakland, Calif., in 1990. Earlier, when I was working in the Southeast, I covered a day's worth of games in Charlotte in 1982 and Atlanta in 1984.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I achieved enough as a college basketball reporter that I was asked twice -- in 1987-88 and in 1990-91 -- to be one of the voters in the Associated Press college basketball poll.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">I left sportswriting in 1996, and I never missed covering pro football. I've missed being a baseball writer, but more than anything, the time of year I have the most nostalgia is during the three weeks known as March Madness.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Ironically, the most fun day of all is the first -- four different games at 12, 2, 7 and 9.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">That, as they say, is a busy day.</p>
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