Pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman is down in Atlanta for the Final Four, blogging for ESPN.com. Even if you picked a Texas-Duke final, you'll enjoy his dispatches. Unless you hate Klosterman, I guess.

Here's how it all began on Thursday:

John Hinckley Jr. tried to kill Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. It was a Monday. I was informed of this by my third grade teacher (Burna Pribula) after coming inside from morning recess.

"I have some news that may shock you," she told the class. "The president has been shot." The room remained silent. We stared at her like tiny, Smurf-obsessed zombies. "This is a terrible situation," Mrs. Pribula continued, "and I realize you might have some questions about this. Does anyone have any questions about this? Anyone?"

We sat in silence.

After 10 seconds, I slowly raised my hand.

"Is the basketball game canceled?"

"What?"

"The Indiana-North Carolina basketball game," I said. "The NCAA championship. Are they still going to play it tonight?"

Six more weird seconds elapsed.

"I have no idea," my teacher responded, mildly (or perhaps not-so-mildly) disturbed. "The president has been shot. That is the big news here: The president has been shot."

This, of course, did not strike me as particularly earth-shattering information. I was in third grade; at the time, I could name only six presidents and two of them had been killed in office. I assumed presidents got shot all the time. Children are astonishingly effective at public grieving; three hours after the announcement, one of my classmates invented a game called "presidential assassination." Still, I had my concerns: I really wanted to watch Isiah Thomas throw bounce passes to Landon Turner. I feared the worst.

Fortunately, everything worked out: Reagan lived, Alexander Haig overstepped the Presidential Succession Act, and the Hoosiers rocked the Heels by 13.

Four days and twenty entries later, Chuck's still going strong.

One more Final Four note. My wife and I enter the same pool every year. There are 70+ participants. If Ohio State wins, Ellen will finish second and bring home $350. I'm currently in 37th place, my all-time best finish.