March Madness starts today, which means you’re going to be tossing team nicknames around like crazy for the next few weeks. Do you know where these mascots came from, though? What the heck is a Hoya? Would you know a Gaucho if you saw one? Let’s take a look at the origins of some of the tournament teams’ mascots.

1. Georgetown Hoyas
The origins of the Hoya nickname are a bit murky, but the school thinks it originated in the 1890s. Students created a mixed Greek and Latin cheer of “Hoya Saxa!” (which translates into “What Rocks!”) to inspire either the school’s baseball or football teams. By 1920, “Hoya” had become a popular saying on campus, and by 1928 the nickname was firmly stuck to the school’s teams.

Georgetown’s original dog mascot, a pit bull named Stubby, actually fought in World War I before becoming associated with the school. He earned a promotion to sergeant by capturing an enemy spy and later delighted Georgetown crowds by pushing a football around the field at halftime.

2. Temple Owls
When Temple was founded in 1884, it was a night school, so people jokingly referred to its students as “night owls.” When the school started fielding teams, it was only natural to call them the Owls.

3. Ohio State Buckeyes
A buckeye is a small, dark brown nut with a light brown patch on it. Carrying a buckeye is supposedly good luck; some superstitious people (like me) won’t leave the house without one in their pocket. The buckeye tree is Ohio’s state tree, and Ohio residents have been referred to as Buckeyes since 1788. Hence, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

4. UCSB Gauchos
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On Tuesday, David Israel introduced us to the people behind 10 famous disembodied voices. Today let’s put names and faces to four more seemingly anonymous sounds.

1. Ho-Ho-Ho

Three little words paved the road to higher education for two young girls. Those words were, simply, “Ho-ho-ho.” No, we’re not talking about Santa Claus. We are speaking of the Jolly Green Giant, who was named by Advertising Age magazine as the third most recognizable advertising icon of the 20th century (after Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man). Baritone singer Elmer “Len” Dresslar, Jr. stepped into a Chicago recording studio in 1959, sang his “ho-ho-ho” and left. “I’m the king of minimalists,” he would later say in an interview. Dresslar recorded 15 albums with the jazz group Singers Unlimited and appeared in a touring production of South Pacific. He also provided the voices for “Snap” of Rice Krispies fame, and Dig ‘Em frog. It was also his deep voice that admonished listeners “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.” But it was his Jolly Green Giant work that was beamed into households for 40-some years, earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties every year. His elder daughter, Teri Bennett, said at the time of his death (at the age of 80) that her father never got tired of “ho-ho”-ing for fans. “If nothing else, it put my sister and I through college,” she added.

2. Snap, snap

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The f-word is a tricky one – some movies or books throw it around like it’s no problem, while others shy away from it entirely. In this quiz, you simply have to identify which of two works dropped more f-bombs.

And don’t worry, this quiz is safe for work.

Take the Quiz: Way F***ing Better

The tournament tips off today, so let’s close out our series of interesting facts about the Big Dance’s schools with a look at the East region.

(1) Kentucky’s teams have been the Wildcats since 1909, but in 1994 the school’s iconic Wildcat logo underwent a bit of a change. The school had received a number of complaints about the Wildcat’s tongue in the logo; some felt the tongue looked more phallic than tongue-like. The university initially thought the complaints were a joke, but on closer inspection the roaring Wildcat’s tongue did look a little phallic. The school redesigned the logo so it would be less R-rated. (I was in middle school in Kentucky at the time, and I can tell you that to a seventh grader, this tongue uproar was a gift from the comedy gods.)

(16) East Tennessee State boasts some grads that can spin a yarn for you. The Johnson City school offers one of the country’s only accredited master’s programs in Professional and Applied Storytelling. The school’s players should also be physically prepared for their Dance game; in November ETSU began offering the country’s first doctoral program in sport science and athletic physiology.
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(8) Texas got its first live steer mascot in 1916 when grad Stephen Pickney collected $1 from 124 different alums to buy the animal. (more…)

Jason Alexander is known to TV audiences around the world, of course, as George Costanza on Seinfeld, a role which garnered him six Emmy and four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award and two American Comedy Awards. He’s also appeared in numerous films like Pretty Woman, in TV commercials, and in Broadway musicals where he won a Tony for his role in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. He also starred alongside Martin Short in the acclaimed L.A. production of The Producers. More recently, he’s been directing things like Sam Shepard’s God of Hell as well as his own newly-adapted rendition of Damn Yankees for the Los Angeles Reprise Theater Company, where he serves as Artistic Director. Jason is also a spokesman for OneVoice, an organization committed to promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Through his interest in giving back to the community, I had the good fortune of interviewing him after he spoke at a gala fund raising event for a charity I’m involved with. (You may recall our recent effort to eradicate hunger here in Los Angeles.) He was, as he always is, blunt and hilarious. Please feel free to drop a comment at the end of the interview telling us your all-time favorite Jason Alexander moment.

DI: You’re a man of many talents: actor, stand-up comedian, musical theater star, magician, poker player. Which do you enjoy the most?

JA: You left out: writer, director, martial artist and sex symbol. Now here’s my favorite – father.

DI: You’ve worked with some of the greats of stage and screen (big and small). From Jerry Robbins to Jerry Seinfeld, from Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Julia Roberts. Who’s been the most influential?

JA: Best director I’ve ever had – Joe Mantello (Love, Valor, Compassion); Best teacher –Larry Moss. The word genius gets thrown around a lot. I’ve only met two in my line of work –Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins. They think like no other people I know. I understand more from knowing them. I am a better person because of what they have given the world.

DI: The name on your birth certificate is Jay Scott Greenspan. Okay: we get Jason from Jay S but what about Alexander? Where’d that come from?

JA: Alexander the Great, clearly. Okay, I lied. I thought I would be Jason Scott, but when I went to register in the union with that name, it was taken with every possible spelling – including Jaisin Skot. Feeling badly about not using my family name, I made a snap decision to take my dad’s first name as my last one for the stage. Hence – Jason Alexander.

DI: If you could have lunch with anyone deceased, who would it be?

JA: Mahatma Gandhi. First, he was always fasting so I doubt it would be a big bill if I had to pick up the check. Second, I want to know how so much wisdom, courage and strength could reside in a single soul. If the Mahatma couldn’t make it, I’d take Ben Kingsley for an hour – but he’s not dead.

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The Big Dance starts today, and unless you are an NCAA basketball player, you can’t do anything about the outcome of any of the games. However, you can participate and steer the outcome of some other March Madness tournaments held online. We looked at eight such tournaments on Tuesday; here are another eight you may enjoy.

1. Super Villains

Techland presents March Madness: The Super Villain Edition. The four regions of the bracket are Rapture (video games), Oolong Island (sequential arts), Narnia (sci-fi and fantasy novels) and Phantom Zone (movies and TV). This could lead to some surreal matchups, as The Joker appears in two brackets, one from the movies and one from the comic books. Thanks to the game Castlevania, there are also two Draculas! Competition starts today.

2. Romance Novels

The Da Bwaha tournament for romance novels begins first round voting today. The field of 64 romance novels will be whittled down to one champion, and participants who have already filled out brackets can win prizes, including an iPad for the top bracktologist, and prizes as well for the author of the winning novel.

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People find countries in the strangest places. Strangemaps collected a bunch of great examples, including some of these gems:

The United Steaks of America

New Zealand: Land of the Long White Cloud
Did you know that the Maori name for New Zealand, Aotearoa, literally means “land of the long white cloud?” Ironic, then, that this accidental geography should appear in the sky.

Michelle Holshue sent in this picture, which she took in Costa Rica some years ago. The cloud formation over the ocean reminded her of New Zealand – and with some justification: the angle of the cloud constellation conforms to that of the New Zealand archipelago’s two main islands on most maps. The top of the cloud is shaped like NZ’s North Island, its bottom like South Island. A break in the cloud formation suggests the Cook Strait, separating both islands.

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Welcome to the Thursday Brain Game: Correctly solve the first three clues (three letters each), then plug in those letters to come up with the final solution (a nine-letter word). Good luck!

The Upside of Depression. The condition is so prevalent that its evolutionary benefit must outweigh the dysfunction, or at least that was so sometime in our history. (via Metafilter)
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Manly Slang from the 19th Century. Shut your bone box, you saucebox, or my bunch of fives will give you a fizzing blinker! (via Boing Boing)
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The ScienceBlogs Pi Day Bake-Off received 35 pie entries, which have been narrowed down to ten finalists. Not only are these “pi pies” decorated in a mathematically clever way, they look scrumptious!
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The hardest logic puzzle ever. Here’s a hint, but I haven’t seen a compete and logical answer yet. (via Neatorama)
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Go ahead and order from the menu -it’s in English. I’ll have the cowboy meat and a rurality salad, thank you.
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This pianist improvises songs for and about the people he sees on Chatroulette. Brief NSFW language.
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The 10 Most Bizarre Athlete Superstitions. Kentucky fans will be pulling out all the stops in the next three weeks in order to jinx Duke.

William Tyler Pearson — male heir to the mental_floss fortune — entered the world on Tuesday. Mother and baby are doing great. (Dad too!)

While the paparazzi are camped outside the hospital eagerly awaiting the first baby photo, let’s give a warm round of applause to parents Will & Georgia and big sister Penny Rose. Look for William Tyler modeling mental_floss baby clothes in an upcoming catalog.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Donncha.]