This just in. Not only are Tobey Maguire's Spiderman days over, but a Spiderman-Superman crossover movie is in the works, with Spidey and the Man of Steel duking it out in the buildings and airspace of NY/Metropolis. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On second thought, I feel dubious. Spiderman was always my favorite comic book hero and I like what Maguire brought to that role. New Spiderman: Jake Gyllenhaal.

Let's see, what else should you know about this move? You should know it was posted on April 1.

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In my experience, books on "leadership" are a dime a dozen, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book by two pastor/scholars, which may be ironic given the volume's title.

Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership was valuable to me in an immediate way because it dealt with issues that were already surfacing in my life but which I lacked an interpretive grid to evaluate. Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima provide a framework for assessing the pressures and influences that make us who we are. At the risk of sounding like a Star Wars knock-off, they call this sum total of our formation the "dark side" because it typically operates in the background, shaping our motives and behavior covertly.

The authors pick up on a variety of life indicators that we can identify en route to sketching a portrait of our personal strengths and weaknesses. Their research is cogent and their presentation is convincing. Like every other book on leadership, Overcoming the Dark Side has its share of definitions, charts, and principles, but the emphasis on self discovery (ideally leading to honest self disclosure) give the work an added dimension of helpfulness.

On this note, Overcoming's chapters and appendix packs a punch more reminescent of an operating table than the typical book afterthoughts (get it?). McIntosh and Rima take phrases like Narcissistic, Compulsive, Passive-Aggressive, Codependent, and Paranoid, and make them up close and personal to the point where they stop being stock one-liners and begin acting as useful diagnostic tools. Is this a lot of fun? Not really, but it's kind of like tracing a radiating, migratory pain down to a specific, operable sector of your body: not pleasant, but it's cool to have that tumor out.

I recommend Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership for anyone in a leadership position. Why? Because our personal histories continues to form us, even when we're unaware of it, and grace works more quickly on our sharp edges when we can work and pray with accurate knowledge of our liabilities and gifts. Such knowledge not only fosters humility, it makes us safer for the people we serve, more likely to play to our God-given strengths, less likely to burn out or self-destruct.

** I award this book two stars--well worth your time.

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Aidan is innately suspicious of anything that doesn't produce electronic sounds with push-button efficiency.

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Monday morning, and I just put the final touches on a very long exhale.

I guess this is the part where I grudgingly admit that I underestimated Davidson. I underestimated Davidson. But let's name names: Stephen Curry. Did you see his behind-the-back dribble drive move? The one that he used multiple times in traffic to drive the lane? (The one I'll be wasting my time practicing in the gym.) Did you see his shooting stroke, the release that allows him to get off shots with about six inches of space between him and the defense? Ridiculous.

The Jayhawks missed shot after shot, and Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur failed to leave their mark on the game at crucial points. I'm thanking Mario Chalmers and Sasha Kaun for this win, with a few other guys chipping in, and some crunch-time defense. For KU to have a shot at UNC, the Jayhawk star power has to be on display.

KU played so badly and with such a lack of poise that I'm wondering if the Final Four monkey was throttling the players as well as coach Bill Self. Let's hope so.

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Tip-off of the UCLA-Xavier game is a few minutes away, so I have just enough time to take another run at calling the NCAA tournament. Here are my final picks for the weekend:

#1 UCLA beats #3 Xavier. Wouldn't surprise me it was another nail-biter, though.
#3 Louisville beats #1 North Carolina. Who's hotter, the Tarheels or the Cardinals? While UNC has been coasting, Louisville has been beating tougher competition. I'm saying it pays off here.
#2 Texas beats #1 Memphis. Once again, the Longhorns' poise and talent will win out. Memphis' free-throwing weakness will hurt 'em.
#1 Kansas beats #10 Davidson. By double digits.

As the KC Star's Jason Whitlock says:

The whole country might have fallen in love with Stephen Curry, his smooth shot and 13-year-old frame, but Kansas fans want him buried on Sunday.

The cute, little story must end, and it’s time for the Jayhawks to take advantage of a bracket that has fed them a 16 seed (Portland State), a terrible 8 seed (UNLV), a lucky-to-get-in 12 seed (Villanova) and now a one-man-band 10 seed (Davidson).

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I forgot which announcer said it as the KU-Villanova smackdown was coming to a close, something like, "The Jayhawks just played a nearly perfect game...the Wildcats just couldn't recover from the sensory experience of seeing the bottoms of their shoes as they threw down alley oop dunks."

He got the "sensory experience" part right, but if anyone watching that contest thought it represented a perfect game from KU, they haven't seen the Jayhawks' more commanding performances of the season, like the win over Texas for the Big 12 championship. "Perfect" is when the Jayhawks beat Texas again for the National Championship next weekend...at least that's what I'm saying after yesterday's games.

In other breaking news (this gets kind of complicated) Lindsay was sorry to see the Western Kentucky Tree Toppers lose. This happened after we were watching the Stanford mascot dance around, and somehow got the idea that it was repping Western Kentucky. I'm thinking officials from the two universities should put their heads together and sort out this mascot mayhem. Teams should aim for the kind of clarity and panache embodied by the Jayhawk.

Lindsay: "What is that mascot, a tree topper? That's what it looks like. A big, dancing Christmas tree. Kind of weird. The Tree Toppers, that's the team name, right?"

I don't think anyone in their right mind could blame you for the confusion, babe. I'm just glad that I can help sort it out with this blog post.

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Sometimes men need just a little incentive to be men, which is why we told Aidan that when he uses the bathroom, he can have a dot. Our potty-for-dots program has really taken off, but I've started to wonder about its potential for manipulation. Like, if Aidan pees four times in 45 minutes, is he exploiting a loophole in the program? Is our system being scammed?

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Second-chance NCAA contests can be found all over the web, so if your Sweet Sixteen bracket looks like Swiss cheese, there's still hope. With the games a day away, it's time to put my bad picks behind me and predict what happens next. Here's what I've got.

#1 North Carolina beats #4 Washington State. The Tarheels haven't really been tested yet in the tournament, and they'll have to wait until their Elite Eight match-up for that to happen.

#2 Tennessee beats #3 Louisville. This is one of the marquee Sweet Sixteen games, in my opinion, the other being Texas-Stanford. I'll go with Tennessee because they've had a tougher path so far, and this will be a game where the grittier team wins.

#1 Kansas beats #12 Villanova. Games aren't really about seeds at this point. 'Nova is justifiably praised for their guard play (Scottie Reynolds is the man), but the Jayhawks have more guards and better.

#3 Wisconsin beats #10 Davidson. The monstrous post presence of the Badgers overcomes Stephon Curry's hot hand.

#5 Michigan State beats #1 Memphis. I'm going to defy the supercomputer on this one and go with the better free-throw-shooting team. Free-throws are vital in the NCAAs despite what John Calipari says. Besides, I feel like I have to pick an upset.

#2 Texas beats #3 Stanford. Texas starts five NBA-caliber players and they play with composure, which will allow them to beat the Lopez twins.

#1 UCLA beats #12 Western Kentucky. After a near loss and a controversial no-call against A&M, the Bruins get to exhale. The Hilltoppers have no answer for Kevin Love.

#3 Xavier beats #7 West Virginia. Bob Huggins work with West Virginia this season is remarkable, but his luck finally runs out here--in a very close game.

Who are you picking?

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FOX's WhatIfSports computer simulated the NCAA tournament 10,000 times and concludes, among other things, that:

Kansas is still the prohibitive favorite to defeat Memphis and claim this year’s NCAA Tournament Championship.

Memphis? If we actually do get a KU-Memphis showdown, my faith in the rise of the NCAA machines will increase exponentially. I'm still thinking Texas or UCLA. Remember that ugly, debated, come-from-behind win the Bruins pulled out against A&M? Texas is about twice as good as the Aggies.

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