Dexter Trivia (1 of 4)_ How Long Did M.C. Hall's Other Show Last?

Since "Dexter" is on the verge of having its seventh season premiere on Sunday, we thought we'd put together a series of four questions about the show staring Michael C. Hall.

As it turns out "Dexter" has outlasted Hall's previous show "Six Feet Under" which was a hit with critics and audiences. The show was as unsettling as "Dexter," which features a serial killer as a protagonist, because it took place around a family-run funeral business and each show started with someone's death.

So how many episodes were made of "Six Feet Under," which debuted on HBO in 2001; is the answer?

A) 57

B) 59

C) 61

D) 63

http://www.sho.com

http://www.dexterwiki.wetpaint.com

http://www.dexter-tv.com

10 People Who Will Decide Election- New Mexico

Name: Maria Gonzalez (not to be confused with the Costa Rican gymnast of the same name)

Occupation: Fourth grade teacher

Race: Hispanic

Residency: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Age: 28

Will Likely Vote for: Obama

Santa Fe is the state capital of New Mexico, and the state's fourth largest city. Santa Fe County voted overwhelming for Barack Obama by a 77-23 margin. Obama's win in New Mexico was arguably one of his most impressive since his opponent John McCain is from neighboring Arizona.

New Mexico is not an entirely blue state though as the current governor Susanna Martinez, 59, is a Republican though she lost Santa Fe County to her Democratic opponent Diane Denish. The state's previous governor Bill Richardson (D) attempted to run for office. And, another former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, a former Republican, is on the national ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate.

In her address at the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla., Martinez gave speech that was aimed more at Hispanics than independents which was a stark contrast to the red meat, partisan speeches from the likes of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Currently, "Politico" has President Obama winning New Mexico by a 50-40 margin over Mitt Romney.

http://www.santafe.org

http://www.politico.com

http://www.governor.state.nm.us

http://www.nmdemocrats.org

http://www.gopnm.com

Happy Birthday to the Jetsons

"The Jetsons," a very popular space-age cartoon debuted on Sept. 22, 1962; surprisingly, the original series (it was revived in the 1980s) only lasted 24 episodes. The series was shown around the world, and during the two years I lived in Turkey as a child (1977-79) on the TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) where the show was known as "Jetgiller."

We are featuring George Jetson's unyielding boss Cosmo S. Sprockets, voiced by the great Mel Blanc (1908-1989) who is best-known as the voice of Bugs Bunny. Another voice legend Daws Butler (1916-1988) provided the voice for George's Son Elroy; Butler also voiced Huckleberry Hound
and Yogi Bear.

The show is also memorable for a variety of supporting characters, including Astro the dog and Rosie the Robot. Some interesting trivia from the show: Astro originally belonged to the Gottrockets family and the phone number for the Jetson family was VENUS-1234. The show was set 100 years into the future in 2062, which if, of course, now 50 years into the future.

For more on "The Jetsons," visit our sister blog at: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Other fan sites for "The Jetsons:"

http://www.cybercomm.nl/~ivo/

http://timeliketoons.tripod.com/new_jetsons_fan.htm

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin_ The Wonder Kick Years

It is 6:30 a.m. in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1:30 p.m. where one might be having sushi for lunch in Tokyo, Japan, and 9:30 a.m. in Karachi, Pakistan; we read an article in "Mental Floss" that said 9:30 a.m. on Mondays was the best time to post a blog entry. The problem is I don't think we get too blog-reader traffic from Pakistan, but perhaps today is that day.

We are looking at the collective careers of American action movie star Chuck Norris, who turned 72 on March 10th, and his Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Arkin, who is now 75. Both actors have right-wing views, well we are not 100-percent sure of Arkin, but since Norris said that the re-election of President Barack Obama would bring 1,000 years of darkness, it is safe to Norris is very conservative. But, he may actually be to the left of the Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

In 1977, Norris had a break-out role as a truck-driver hell-bent on finding his missing brother in "Breaker! Breaker!," a film which has been screened on IFC (The Independent Film Channel) here in the states. There was a time when IFC would show arthouse films with indy screen goddess Parker Posey ("House of Yes," "Personal Velocity"), but it appears that Norris films get slightly better ratings.

On a sad note, Norris' co-star in "Breaker! Breaker," veteran actor George Murdock, who also played Testikov in a "Seinfeld" episode in 1994, died this year.

So, we are asking which actor actually won a Best Actor the year Norris made "Breaker! Breaker!," which incidentally has a 3.4 on the Internet Movie Database, in 1997.

Is the answer?:

A) Jack Nicholson

B) Dustin Hoffman

C) Richard Dreyfuss

D) Marlon Brando

E) Jon Voight

As to the answer in our last entry in this series, in 1982,  the year that Cuneyt Arkin was in  "The Turkish Star Wars" the Oscar went to B) Ben Kingsley for the title role in "Gandhi."

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

 http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.ifc.com

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.parkerposey.org

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Weekend Tweets Log- Is Mitt Romney Out of Touch?

Today, we our posting some actual tweets we saw earlier this afternoon, about three hours ago. Let's explain the images: 1) Well, we always love making fun of Mitt Romney and we think the image is self-explanatory; 2) Lots of college football games today, hence this image; 3) We have flight attendants from Singapore Airlines to accompany a tweet from the faux news magazine "The Onion." Let's get started:

1) @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): TELL US: Is Mitt Romney out of touch?"

2) @slate (Slate): "Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are going to shoot a movie on the Google campus. It's about 40-year-old interns."

3) @DoughtyOnAir (Douglas Doughty, a sports writer for "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va.): "Wondering if UVA will score @TCU, where it's 14-0 @ halftime. Cavs can't run the ball and receivers aren't  making big plays." (The University of Virginia ended up losing the game 27-7).

4) @VT-Football (Virginia Tech football): "Virginia Tech honoring Officer Deriek Crouse right now. Standing Ovation." (The Virginia Tech police officer was killed last year by an armed off-campus person who committed suicide after the shooting).

5) @NastiaLiukin (Nastia Liukin): "Hi Portland. It's National Gymnastics Day! Who's coming to celebrate with tonight at the #KelloggsTour?" (The 2008 gold-medal winning American gymnast of Russian heritage is among the all-stars performing tonight in Portland, Oregon).

6) @DailyNewsEgypt (The Daily News Egypt): "Iraq aims to reunite with a new national anthem and flag."

7) @TheOnion (The Onion): "Dad suggests arriving at airport 14 hours early."

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.singaporeair.com

http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com

http://www.notmittromney.com

http://www.nastialiukin.com

Today is Our 7th Anniversary of Blogging

Today is indeed the 7th anniversary of this very blog, which has outlasted a good chunk of the competition; alas, a good chunk of the competition were also my friends.

For this special anniversary edition, we are doing something new, which is to have a blog entry made of dialogue from Sunday comic sections; today, we include lines from 12 comic strips that were posted in the June 17, 2012, edition of "The Washington Post." That day also happened to be Father's Day, hence the reason why we have an image of Fred MacMurray from the yesteryear sitcom "My Three Sons."


Let's begin:

1) "Was that daddy?"

2) "You're like the smartest dad in the world."

3) "This conversation has been a total waste of time, Lemont."

4) "Did really just on a horse named Charlie?"

5) "Why not just outlaw divorce?"

6) "Lately, I've had a lot of questions about my career."

7) "I'm a preferred customer. What can I say?"

8) "More coffee?"

9) "We haven't had a Tech Support department for about six months."

10) "Wh.....What's happening to him?"

11) "If you're heading up to Cherry Creek Lodge, take the shortcut!"

12) "Just because I assembled you from parts in my lab doesn't make me your dad."

13) "No you guys can't stay here for the next four years."

14) "Around this time in 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died."


(From "Doonesbury," "Sherman's Lagoon," "Candorville," "The Argoyle Sweater," "Knight Life*," "Hagar the Horrible," "Foxtrot," "Pearls Before Swine," "Reply All," "the Amazing Spiderman," "Judge Parker," "Brewster Rockit," "Non Sequitur" and "Prickly City."

*- a comic strip by the multi-talented Keith Knight

www.washingtonpost.com

We Couldn't Have Made This Up if We Tried....Sex Change, Anyone?

We actually borrowed this conversation topic from a dormant blog about actual conversations overheard in Washington, DC. Since the entry was from Oct. 14, 2010, we can not say that these lines were said by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the most far right senator on the Hill (he's a Tea Partier ya' know) as he was not elected then.

We also want to take a moment to shamelessly promote two screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) with Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter (above), the transvestite from Transylvania, on Oct. 20th at 8:00 p.m. and then at 11:59 p.m. at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va.

Here is the conversation:

"You just can't go in and get a sex change operation. I mean, you just have to do the research and be ready if a doctor wants to you one."

http://www.theshadowboxcinema.com

10 People Who Will Decide the Election (5 of 10)

Name: Stephanie Montgomery

Age: 54

Race: White

Reisdency: Smyrna, Ga.

Job: Secretary

Will Likely Vote: Mitt Romney

At the outset of the election cycle, it seemed like Georgia, the home state of Newt Gingrich, might be a swing state since Barack Obama almost beat out John McCain in the Peach State's electoral college vote in 2008. But, it now appears to be safe for Romney, though given his latest rounds of serious gaffes, it does appear that if the election were held today, it would go to President Obama.

We should add that Stephanie Montgomery is a fictional character based on demographics, and that Smyrna, Georgia, is a bit of an in-joke. The actual Smryna is the city of Izmir, Turkey, my late father's country. Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey.

http://www.georgiademocrat.org

http://www.gagop.org

Blogging in Very Busy Times

We are pressed for time these days, but we just can't give up blogging, even though probably 13 people a day visit this blog, but perhaps, we are popular in Uganda.

Today, we will emulate "Sesame Street," which we gather is even more popular in India, by saying that were are sponsored by the letter z, which is the last letter in the English alphabet, and presumably most alphabets.

We are also brought to you by the number 12, which is number of dwarfs that Snow White had...we think...ahhh, not it's seven (and we did not google that).

We also have a dead president of the day. That person is James K. Polk, Democrat, the 11th president of America who served from 1845-1849; he is also the subject of a They Might Be Giants song.

And, we finish with Heraklion (also known as Iraklion), Greece, which is the capital of the island of Crete and Greece's fourth largest city with 173, 450 people. My assumption that there are more topless sunbathers there than the likes of Kate Middleton.

http://www.heraklion-city.gr

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.tmbg.com

http://www.jameskpolk.com

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin- Turkish Star Wars

Known of "Cuneyt baba" (Father Cuneyt) or "Cuneyt abi' (Big Brother Cuneyt), Cuneyt Arkin is a legendary cinematic icon in Turkey; of course, one should point out that there are valid reasons why he has never won a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

We are continuing our series, which has a matching entry featuring Arkin's counterpart Chuck Norris, at our other blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com in which we look at which actors actually won Best Actor Oscars during the years that these actors made some of their most famous films.

The answer to our last entry is Dustin Hoffman who won in 1979 for "Kramer vs. Kramer," needless to say neither Norris or Arkin were nominated.

Today, we are asking which actor won Best Actor in 1982, the year Arkin made "Dunyayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World," which is best-known as "The Turkish Star Wars" in the West since it ripped off the George Lucas film, and it also borrowed Queen's theme song from "Flash Gordon." Copyright laws are now more rigorous in Turkey.


So, is the answer?:

A) Michael Caine

B) Ben Kingsley

C) Paul Newman

D) Dustin Hoffman

E) Peter O'Toole

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr/

Saturday Night Tweets_ Syria, Egypt and Saturday Night Live

There were many eye-catching tweets tonight about all the chaos in the world. To explain these images, they are of: 1) Cong. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a blue bird in Oklahoma, which are using for Twitter since their logo is a blue bird and an Amish family in Pennsylvania.

Let's get started:

1) @KeithEllison (Cong. Keith Ellison): "Keith will be on @meethepress tomorrow discussing the events in the Middle East and what it means for U.S. foreign policy, tune in!_staff."

2) @SamuelCookill (Sam Cook III): "@moveon_ I am voting Obama because, even though I'm a Republican, he puts small business first."

3) @HuffingtonPost ("Huffington Post"): "Netanyahu calls Iran containment policy ' a new standard of stupidity' " (this is in reference to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu).

4) @dailykos ("Daily Kos"): "Daily Kos Elections Polling Wrap: New poll confirms Pennsylvania a near certain blue state for 2012."

5) @Hanyghoraba (Hany Farouk Ghorab, Egyptian activist): "Salafi Preachers are the kind of people who are willing to kill you to convince you that they are peaceful and not killers."

6) @KenRoth (Kenneth Roth is the director of Human Rights Watch): "#Syria killing in August topped the bloodiest month in Iraq or Afghanistan, not to mention any Arab Spring state."

7) @LukeRussert (Luke Russert is the son of the late "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert): "Remember to DVR @SNL tonight. Going to take a wild guess and say #Obama or #Romney or both will get roasted."

http://www.hrw.org

http://www.moveon.org

http://www.keithellison.org

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.dailykos.com

Remembering Sept. 11th on Its' 11th Anniversary

Today, we remember the 2,977 victims of Sept. 11th with the images of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky), the son of Ron Paul, who tried to seek the Republican nomination for president, who is considered to be one of the most conservative member of the senate chambers, to show that even in this time of great political differences, we can all come together to remember what happened on that day and the memories of those who lost their lives on this day 11 years ago.http://www.wtcmemorial.org

http://www.nyc.gov/fdny

http://www.pentagonmemorial.org

http://www.alfranken.com

http://www.paul.senate.gov

http://www.georgetowncupcake.com (A cupcake place in Washington, DC)

Ten People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (4 of 10)

Today, we continue our series, which had its last entry back in July?! on ten possible people who could decide this election. Today, we look at the swing state of Colorado, with this fictional librarian.

Name: Nancy Rose

Occupation: Librarian

Residency: Loveland, Colo.

Age: 49

Party Affiliation: Independent Who Leans Democratic

Will Likely Vote For: Obama

Loveland, Colo., is located some 40 miles north of Denver; the city is located in Larimer County. Cecil Guiterrez is the mayor of the 14th largest city in Colorado.

In 2008, Larimer County voted for Barack Obama by a 55-45 margin; the eventual president won by even bigger margins in San Miguel County (Telluride) with 78 percent of the vote and Boulder County with 73 percent of the vote. But, rural parts of Colorado are heavily Republican as is Colorado Springs, which has a large evangelical base and is home to the Air Force Academy.

President Obama gave a stump speech at the University of Colorado just days before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte; the 2008 convention was in Denver.

http://www.coloradodems.org

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.coloradogop.org

http://www.mittromney.com

http://www.denverlibrary.org/

Cuneyt Arkin vs. Chuck Norris (1 of 4)_ The Best Actor of 1979 Was....

We had intended to start this series on Friday, but we fell asleep at the Richmond Public Library in Richmond, Va., (yes, this is a joke).

But, since Chuck Norris is always trending well thanks in part to his very radical far-right political comments. such as a recent one stating that if President Barack Obama is re-elected, we shall have 'a thousand years of darkness.'

We are also featuring this series with Cuneyt Arkin, the Turkish matinee idol who turned 75 on Friday, who could be called 'the Turkish Chuck Norris," given that he has been in many action films with right-wing themes.

For this series, we are going to ask who won an Oscar during a given year that Norris made a film. We start off with 1979 when Norris made "A Force of One," which was one of the early hits for the now-72-year-old 'actor.'

Earlier this year, we were able to attend a Chuck Norris birthday bash at the Shadowbox Microcinema in Roanoke, Va.

Which actor won a Best Actor Oscar in 1979; was it?:

A) Dustin Hoffman

B) Jon Voight

C) Peter Sellers

D) Jack Lemmon

E) Al Pacino

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com

http://www.theshadowboxcinema.com

http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (for entry on Cuneyt Arkin)

Entry Based on Trending Topics_ DNC vs. NFL

Tonight sports and politics collided over American airwaves as a landmark speech by former president Bill Clinton may have gone unseen due to the fact that the New York Giants were hosting the Dallas Cowboys in a game aired on NBC; the Cowboys won 24-17 (but, we watched the Democratic National Convention where Clinton spoke from).

So, here is composition made up with trending topics and other recent social media network phenoms as well as other speakers and politicians who were in Charlotte, NC, for the DNC: Lady Gaga tour, Scarlett Johansson. Natalie Portman, Burger King, Andy Roddick, McKayla Maroney (pictured center), Tim Kaine (pictured top), Julian Castro, Sandra Fluke and Sen. Al Franken_

"It was announced today that the Lady Gaga North American tour would begin in Vancouver, Canada, on Jan.11 when the American presidential election will presumably be over with. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention tomorrow night. Yesterday, both Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine and San Antonio mayor Julian Castro spoke to the same crowd, which included Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn). Today, pro-choice activist Sandra Fluke, who was called a slut by fringe right-wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, gave a rousing speech about the need to protect women's reproductive rights.

There may have been Internet rumors that Bill Clinton was going to have Whopper at the lone Burger King in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which is 15 miles south of Charlotte, but those were not proven and neither was a net rumor that Olympic gold medalist gymnast was going to endorse Dunkin Donuts.

Andy Roddick, 30,  played his last pro tennis game at the U.S. Open where he fell to Argentinian tennis player Juan de Portro, but he should have made enough wages to purchase a very expensive dog like Big Splash, a dog that is worth $1.5 million (we are not making this up)."

http://www.alfranken.com

http://www.kaineforva.com/home

SIDEBAR: Kudos to South African swimmer Achmet Hasseim, 30, who won bronze for his country at the 2012 London Paralympics in men's swimming (100-meter butterfly relay). Hasseim had lost one of his legs after a shark attack of the coast of South Africa in 2006. Interestingly enough, his nickname is Shark Boy.

And, in the world of Turkish Super League soccer, our two favorite teams GalataSaray (Istanbul) and BursaSpor squared off. GS won the game 3-2 with goals from the likes of Umut Bulut and Burak Yilmaz For BursaSpor, Omer Erdogan scored a late goal for the Crocodiles.

The Last Tweets from Charlotte- Maryland Congresswoman Comes Home to Carolina

Though none of these tweets pertain to former New York governor Mario Cuomo (pictured top; his son Andrew is now in charge in Albany) or to dinosaur skeletons, we thought we would use them because several speakers at the Democratic National Convention, including Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, will try to reach the barometer set by Cuomo when he gave a dynamic speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

And, the dino-skeleton is because Charlotte boasts a very popular natural science museum called The Discovery Place, located in the heart of downtown in the Queen City.

Here are tweets from about an hour ago (4:00 p.m./16:00 eastern time, or 20:00 GMT) with explanations:

1) @PoliticalTicker (CNN Political Ticker): "Obama expecting to get 'misty' during first lady's speech (tonight)."

2) @wamu885news (WAMU 88.5 News; the Washington DC-based NPR station): "We spoke to Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards this morning  about what she expects from #DNC2012." (Cong. Edwards was born in Yanceyville, NC, which borders Danville, Va., her fourth district includes many DC suburbs in Maryland).

3) @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): "Watch Chuck Norris' stern warning about the 1,000 years of darkness' that Obama will bring if re-elected."

4) @ABC11WTVD (WTVD is the ABC-affiliate in Raleigh, NC): "Gov. Bev Perdue seems fired up heading to the #DNC_ telling a fellow Dem: 'Let's kick some asses.'"

5) @UtahDemocrats (Utah Democratic Party): "@VoteScottHowell now speaking with Senator (Harry) Reid at the @LBSDems event." (Scott Howell is a conservative Utah Democrat of the Mormon faith who is challenging long-term incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch).

6) @TheNation (The Nation, a liberal magazine): "Activists call for the immigration reform Obama promised when he ran for office."

7) @DavidShuster (David Shuster, a tv-journalist with the liberal Current-TV who ironically worked for the conservative network Fox News): "Biggest demonstration today in Charlotte: 3 people urging sinners to 'repent or burn in hell.' Police amused."

http://www.wamu.org

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.wfae.org (Charlotte's NPR station)

http://www.wunc.org (Raleigh-Chapel Hill's NPR station)

http://www.utahdemocrats.org

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.nc-politics.com

http://www.discoveryplace.org

Tweets from DNC in Charlotte_ An Empty Chair for bin Laden

Today, we continue logging tweets from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which officially gets underway tomorrow in Charlotte, NC, but many meet and greet events, including delegation breakfast talks, have started up.

"The Washington Post" is focusing on Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland (pictured top) as he is one of the most -coveted speakers at the convention. Former Virginia governor Tim Kaine, who is running for an open U.S. senate seat, will also speak in Charlotte. Just so there is no confusion, O"Malley is not the governor of North Carolina, that distinction belongs to Gov. Beverly Perdue, also a Democrat, who is stepping down this year at the end of her term.

We are also using a coffee cup from the Turkish coffee Kahve Dunyasi (Coffee World) since many progressives have started the Coffee Party in opposition to the far right Tea Party movement, which has actually propelled fringe candidates, such as Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), into congressional representatives!

Here is a look at some of the tweets from last night, from the right, the left and the center:

1) @theobserver (Charlotte Observer): Was that George Clooney jogging down Tryon Street?

2) @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a liberal journalist with "Mother Jones"): Even Clint Eastwood said we were halfway through a comeback! That is, before he began his career as a performance activist.

3) @reason ("Reason" is a libertarian magazine): Charlotte protests already bigger than in Tampa.

4) @KyDems (Kentucky Democratic Party): Ky Democrats starting to arrive in Charlotte. KDP is finishing convention walk through.

5) @ChrisRockoz (We thought this was the real Chris Rock, but it appears to be an impersonator. Nevertheless, it is very amusing): Democrats should have an empty chair for the entire DNC and when someone asks who it belongs to, they can say Osama bin Laden.

6) @StephenFHayes (Stephen F. Hayes, a columnist for the conservative publication "The Weekly Standard"): Advice to all in #Charlotte. Avoid the Orange Cab company. An hour late for pickup. Told four times cab was 'five minutes' away.

7) @BarryHouse (Barry House is a liberal activist in Illinois): I wish just once #Democrats would be as vicious at their convention as #Republicans always are at theirs.


http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.kydemocrat.com

http://www.reason.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.mddems.org

http://www.charlotteobserver.com

Pre-Convention Tweets from DNC in Charlotte, NC

Tomorrow night, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) gets underway in Charlotte, NC, tomorrow, so we checked out some tweets from earlier in the day, here they are; incidentally Chubby the bear is the mascot of Charlotte Checkers, a minor league hockey team, and Marc Anthony (pictured above) is singing the National Anthem at the DNC:

1) @steelbackbone (Steel Backbone; this is a conservative tweeter): Currently reading Hillary Clinton Not Attending DNC in Charlotte.

2) @andylancaster (Andy Lancaster, Charlotte-based animator): After such a great time at the RNC, it will be hard to be in Charlotte with a convention that I'm not part of.

3) @jgolden (Jenna Golden): Best news ever! There is a Starbucks and Pinkberry at media workplace in Charlotte. I already love it here more than Tampa.

4)@CLTparent.web (Charlotteparent.com): @MichelleObama_ we are helping build wealthier families in #charlotte with Our First Family Challenge.

5) @WeBackJack (Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware): Nothing better than arriving and seeing DE flags flying in Charlotte.

6)@TheFix (The Fix/Chris Cillizza, a non-partisan politics reporter for "The Washington Post"): BOOOO! RT (retweet) @miswann: I was born and raised in North Carolina. I'm a BBQ fiend. There IS no good BBQ in CLT. I'm serious.

7) @TomPerriello (Tom Perriello, a former Democratic Virginia Congressman): Great piece at CNN about why women are not buying what Romney and RNC are selling.


http://www.charlottesgotalot.com

http://www.wfae.org

http://www.charlotteobserver.com

http://www.gocheckers.com

http://www.charlotteparent.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/thefix

Virtual Postcard from North Carolina- USS North Carolina

As the Democratic National Convention gets ready to start in Charlotte, NC, we thought we'd offer a Virtual Postcard from North Carolina, which is also where 'our headquarters' are located.

This image is of the U.S.S. North Carolina, which is docked in Wilmington, NC, and is now a tourist attraction. Many feature films have been shot in the Wilmington area, including the 1980s cult classic "Blue Velvet" and the Stephen King film "Maximum Overdrive."

The battleship was built in 1937 and it took part in the Pacific Theatre of Operations in World War II; the Carolina is the most decorated battleship of its era and it has 15 battle stars.

http://www.battleshipnc.com/

20 Things To Do List for September- Read the Sunday Comics

Here is our 20 Things To List for September:

1) Listen to "The Turkish Music Hour" on WUVT (90.7-Blacksburg, Va.; the image above is of Turkish pop diva Sertab Erener)

2) Get the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post" (hence the reason for the "Blondie" image as Sunday papers here in America generally have comic strips in them; "The New York Times" is one of the exceptions).

3) Use LinkedIn more often

4) Wear the Spiderman tie more often

5) Watch "Nature" on PBS

6) See an art exhibit at a museum or gallery

7) Read the novel "The Rum Diary" by the late Hunter S. Thompson

8) Watch the Washington Nationals on tv

9) Call Mike

10) Get an Obama/Biden 2012 bumper sticker

11) Pay bills

12) Take photos

13) Read magazines

14) Watch Japanese movies you ordered from Netflix (hence the reason for the image of the late, great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune)

15) See if family cat needs to have a check-up at the vet

16) Join local athletic club/gym

17) Drink coffee some place besides Dunkin Donuts

18) Fix/ update resume

19) Go see an art-house film

20) Look into joining an online dating services besides E-Harmony


http://www.wuvt.vt.edu

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.neckties.com

http://www.toshiromifune.org

http://www.pbs/wnet/nature

UPDATE (Sept. 2nd): In amazing coincidence, I learned that a song from Turkish pop singer Sertap Erener was actually played during the "Turkish Music Hour." Alas, I was unable to listen to the show because the Internet was down; it airs from 1:00-2:30 p.m. on Saturdays on WUVT (90.7 FM_Blacksburg, Va.).