Thanks to the fact that my alma mater, George Mason University, won two significant basketball games this past weekend I now no longer have to answer the question, "Where’s that?" when I tell people where I went to college.  In fact GMU has had a growing reputation in the DC region for years, but it took these two wins to put it on the map outside the DC area.

Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbloch does a good job describing the lack of respect that the university and its namesake have received over the years.  The school boasts an impressive faculty, and if you’re a conservative then the law school is definitely for you. Now if they’d just get an a damn 1-AA football team all would be right in the universe.

The place to be to watch the Patriots’ Sweet-16 game against Wichita State is Brion’s Grille in Fairfax, across Rt-123 from the campus.  The first couple of years I was at Mason the space that Brion’s occupies was a nasty little dance dive called Jorges, but for the last 15+ years Brion’s, which was established by a couple of Mason alums, has been the de facto campus joint.  The food’s pretty good and it holds a special place for me because that’s where, as a recent graduate and budding entrepreneur, I met my wife in ’90 for lunch to hire her to do some clerical work for me since I was too chicken to ask her out on a date.  Thankfully she was desperate enough for money that she overlooked my obvious geekiness and took the gig. If you’re in DC on Friday I can almost guarantee that Brion’s will be the best place to catch the game.