Silly Image to Fill Space- Apathy

I was all set to write a follow-up from yesterday's entry about college gymnastics, but I am simply overwhelmed with Apathy. Maybe, it's because of the weather or perhaps it is because I'm in the Bible belt and folks here take Easter a bit too seriously, especially someone like the Rev. Johnny Robertson from Martinsville, Va.

Or, it perhaps because we are not getting as many hits from small European countries like Malta, Latvia and Slovenia, as we had been getting.

But, forwhateverreason, this is the mood I am in.

However, stay tuned kids. We are making a very big announcement tomorrow.

PS- We do want to take time to wish our good friend Chris Kinght, I am referring to the blogger who ran for a Rockingham County, NC, school board seat, with a lavish Star Wars-themed commercial, not the child actor of the same name from "The Brady Bunch."

Florida Gators Win SEC Gymnastics Meet

In a meet which featured at least three Olympic gymnasts: British national Marissa King (pictured bottom) and American Bridget Sloan (pictured top) of Florida and Canadian Brittany Rogers of Georgia, the Florida Gators prevailed at the SEC Conference Championships in North Little Rock, Ark., last weekend.

The Gators won its ninth SEC title and a second consecutive title as the team prepares to host regionals. Florida, also the nation's number one team, has had a history of disappointing and agonizingly close second place finishes at nationals, making them arguably the most successful women's gymnastics program to never win a NCAA title.

But, Sloan, who tied LSU gymnast Rheagan Courville for first-place in the all-around with a 39.725, helped the Gators edge out two-time defending national champion Alabama (197.8), LSU (197.7) and Georgia (197.325).

The Gators started off awkwardly on vault in the eight-team meet, but the team recouped thanks to strong scores from Sloan, King and Mackenzie Caquatto. The momentum continued as Sloan won balance beam with a 9.925.

The floor event in the last rotation sealed the victory for Florida with powerful routines from Sloan, Kytra Hunter, Randy Stageberg and Kierstan Wang.

Only four schools have ever won titles in NCAA women's gymnastics: Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah though several teams besides Florida have come close, including Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan.

The Florida Gators mascots (pictured middle) are named Albert and Alberta.

Catholicism by the Numbers

With images above of a Catholic church in Russia and a sheep in Uzbekistan, here is a look at the numbers of Catholicism in countries where they are minorities.

Though I am not a Catholic myself, I thought with the new coronation of Pope Francis I of Argentina and Easter Sunday occurring tomorrow that this would be a subject of interest:

Azerbaijan 400

India 19.9 million

Israel 100,000

Japan 509,000

Kazakhstan 250,000

Russia 750,000

Uzbekistan 5,000

http://www.catholic.org

German Soocer Scores (from weekend from March 15-17)

Turkish national Nuri Sahin (pictured) had a proverbial good day at the office as he helped his team Dortmund score a 5-1 win over the struggling SC Freiburg, thanks in large part to two goals from Sahin.

FC Nuremberg beat an star-filled FC Shalke 04 team 3-0 with goals from three German futbolers Markus Feulner, Alexander Esswein and Mike Frantz.

Meanwhile the league leading Bayern Munich scored a 2-1 win over rival Bayer Leverkusen due to an unexpected late on-goal from Leverkusen.

Bayern Munich has a comfortable 20-point lead over second place Dortmund and a 24-point lead over third place Leverkusen.

This weekend, Match Day 27 in the Bundesliga will see Bayern Munich will face Hamburg SV which fell to FC Augsburg 1-0 in their last match.

Here is a look at the scoreboard:

Dortmund 5 SC Freiburg 1

VL Wolfsburg 1 Fortuna Dusseldorf 1, tie

1899 Hoffenheim 0 FSV Mainz 05 0, tie

FC Nuremberg 3 FC Shalke 0

FC Augsburg 1 Hamburg SV 0

Bayern Munich 2 Bayer Leverkusen 1

SV Wereder Bremen 2 Grewth Fruth 2, tie

VB Stuggart 2 Eintracht Frankfurt 1

Borrusia Monchengladblach 1 Hannover 0

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/

http://www.fcbayern.telekom.de/en

http://www.dw.de

French Soccer Results (from weekend of March 15-17)

In French futbol, Paris St. Germain is the hot team right now as they get ready for the daunting task of facing Spanish soccer power Barcelona FC in the next round of the UEFA Champions League. But, domestically, the team hit a bit of a snag during the weekend of March 15-17 when they tied Saint-Etienne 2-2. PSG had an early goal Argentinian national Javier Pastore (9th min.)

In other league games, Djamel Bakar (pictured here) helped his team Nancy-Lorraine to a 1-0 win over OGC Nice with a goal in the 23rd minute.

A lone goal from Mohamed Fofana (32nd min.) also gave Stad de Reins a 1-0 victory over Stade Bertois 29.

In the process of putting this entry together, we found that PSG has a Brazilian named Alex, but he is not the same Brazilian soccer player Alex who up until this season was with Fenerbahce in the Turkish Premiere League.

In case, you are wondering, the below image is of French comic book icon Asterix.

Here are the results in the French League, which include two lop-sided scores:


Olympique de Marseille 0 AC Ajaccio 0, tie

FC Lorent 4 Stade Berstois 0

SC Bastia 4 Olympique Lyonnais 1

Evian 2 LOSC Lille 1

Montpellier Herault 1 ESTAC Troyes 1, tie

Sochaux-Montbeliard 1 Valenciennes 1, tie

Stad de Reims 1 Stade Rennais 0

Nancy-Lorraine 1 OGC Nice 0

Toulouse 0 Girandis de Bordeaux 0, tie

PSG 2 Saint-Etienne 2, tie
http://www.ligue1.com

Huey Lewis and the News Will Be on Jimmy Kimmel Live

A few weeks back we saw an ad for Wolftrap, a concert venue in Vienna, Va., just outside of Washington, DC, which listed Huey Lewis and the News' Aug. 13, 2013, concert as one of its summer highlights. Perhaps, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who hails from San Francisco where the band is from and Eric Cantor (R-Va) can set aside partisan differences and attend the show together....well, may be in a parallel comic book universe.

As it also turns out, the band which became famous thanks to the multi-hit album "Sports," featuring "Heart of Rock and Roll," "I Wanna New Drug" and "Heart and Soul" that turns 30 this year, is starting their tour much sooner than in August.

Huey Lewis and the News will also appear on the ABC late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Here are the dates:

May 10 New Brusnwick, NJ

May 13 New York, NY

May 15 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

May 16 St. Ynez, Calif.

May 17 Cabazon, Calif.

May 18 Chandler, Ariz.

Later Dates:

Aug. 13 Vienna, Va. Wolftrap

http://hueylewis.com

http://www.wolftrap.org

Vintage Harvey Comics Covers_Casper the Friendly Ghost #99

Since Free Comic Day will be celebrated here in America and perhaps around the world on Sat., May 4th, 2013, at places like Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC*, we thought we'd post this cover of "Casper the Friendly Ghost" #99 which came out in (to our knowledge) 1966. Assuredly, it's worth more than 12 Cents now!

*- We just found that there is an Acme Comics in Peoria, Ill., as well. We presume this is just a coincidence.

http://www.acmecomics.com

http://www.acmecomicspeoria.com

More College Nicknames- Dukes, Bluejays and Anteaters

Here is our follow-up from yesterday's entry on college nicknames. Perhaps even long-time ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale doesn't know a few of the more obscure ones:

More Smart Schools:

1. California Golden Bears (Cal; Pac-12)*
2. Brown Bears (R.I.; Ivy)
3. Lafayette Leopards (Pa, Patriot League)
4. JMU Dukes (Va; Colonial- pictured top)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Louisville Cardinals (Ky; Big East)*
6. Creighton Bluejays  (Neb.; Missouri Valley)*
7. Illinois State Redbirds (Ill.; Missouri Valley)
8. Kansas Jayhawks (Kan.; Big-12-pictured center)*

Canines and Foxes

9. The Citadel Bulldogs (SC, Southern Con.)
10. Boston University Terriers (Mass., America East)
11. Georgetown Hoyas (Wash. D.C.; Big East- pictured bottom, that is Patrick Ewings' jersey)
12. Marist Red Foxes (New York, Metro-Atlantic)

Best of the Rest

13. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (Calif.; Big West)
14. Campbell Fighting Camels (NC; Big South)
15.DePaul Blue Demons (Ill.; Big East)
16. Mississippi Valley Delta Devils (Ms., SWAC)
17. UC-Irvine Anteaters (Calif.' Big West)

College Nicknames- Birds and Cats

Here we go again (we have done this for three years in a row, I think):

Smart Schools

1.Vanderbilt Commodores (Tenn., SEC)
2. Duke Blue Devils (NC, ACC-pictured)#
3. Northwestern Wildcats (Ill, Big 10)
4. Yale Bulldogs (Conn.; Ivy League) *^
5. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (Pa., Patriot League)

Felines

6. Davidson Wildcats (NC, Southern Con)#
7. Auburn Tigers (Ala.; SEC) *
8. College of Charleston Cougars (SC, Southern Con.)

9. Columbia Lions (NY; Ivy League)
10. Pitt Panthers (Pa; Big East- pictured) #*
11. Southern U Jaguars (La; SWAC)#

Angry Birds

12. Temple Owls (Pa, A-10, pictured)#*
13. Southeast Missouri Red Hawks (Mo; Ohio Valley)@
14. Winthrop Eagles (SC, Big South)

15. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (SC, Big South)
16. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (Ms, USA)
17. Monmouth Hawks (NJ. Northeast)


#-Schools which are in NCAA field of 68 schools

*- Schools with College Gymnastics programs

^-Schools with Hockey programs

@-Schools that were members of the now defunct Metro Conference

West Virginia Gymnast WinsBig 12 Conference Honor

Yes, we should point out that we are placing the Tiger mascot for the University of Missouri, which took its up and coming women's gymnastics program from the Big 12 to the SEC as a bit of a joke as conference realignments in college sports have gone quite a bit whacky, which must amuse coaches of Ivy League schools, who will probably never have such concerns.

The Big 12 Conference, which only has three schools with college gymnastics, announced this week that Jaida Lawerence, a freshman from Rocky Hill, Conn., was named BIG 12 Newcomer of the Week.

Lawrence, pictured on top, scored a 9.9 in the vault competition during a home meet vs. EAGL-conference schools Maryland and Rutgers. The Mountaineers had also competed in the EAGL until this year. In fact, the program had the most EAGL titles in the gymnastics-only conference.

The Connecticut freshman also received a  9.725 on bars during the same meet.

The other two Big 12 gymnastics honors for the week went to Taylor Spears, pictured bottom, a junior from Plano, Tex., who is ranked first on the balance beam nationally. Spears had a 9.9 on the beam during a road meet against traditional powerhouse Alabama; the Crimson Tide won that meet by a relatively close 197.725-196.900 score.

Another Sooner Lauren  Alexander, a sophomore from Naperville, Ill., was named Big 12 Specialist of the week for her own 9.9 beam score versus Alabama.


http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.soonersports.com

Kudos to Harvard

The Harvard Crimson men's basketball team won its last two home and regular season games in victories over Columbia University 56-51 and Cornell University 66-56. Prior to Harvard's out-right Ivy League crowns over the last two years, Cornell, located in Ithaca, NY, and nicknamed the Big Red, had won several league titles in a row.

The Crimson edged out Princeton for this year's league title.

Harvard, a 14-seed, will now face New Mexico, the three-seed, at 9:50 p.m., eastern time, in Salt Lake City, Utah (where the local time will be 7:50 p.m.) in the opening round of the West Region for the tourney.

The Crimson have two basketball in the mid-Atlantic region, which is also known as 'ACC Country,' in Michael Hall, a freshman forward/center, and Christian Webster, a senior from Washington, DC. Harvard's coach Tommy Amaker played college basketball at Duke University, an ACC powerhouse. The Blue Devils are a two-seed and they will face the Albany University Great Danes in the first round.

The nation's capital is also home of the most well-known current living Harvard alum in President Barack Obama; he has picked the Indiana University Hoosiers to win it all, which seemingly illustrates that he don't suffer from sour grapes since the state that voted for him in 2008, went red for Mitt Romney, who seems to have disappeared like D.B. Copper, in last year's presidential election.

The mascot for Harvard is John Harvard (pictured above).

http://www.harvard.edu

Let's Check Out the Times Around the World Again

Since we listed various times from around the world like two weeks ago when the time last changed (forgiven the Americancentric sense of humor, well really it's just our own actually).

The images above are a map of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Holland), the Dubai Mall and an antique grandfather clock that one may find at the Wheatland Antique Mall in Topeka, Kansas, where it's 9:00 p.m. now (Monday).

But, rather than Topeka, we will use New York as the city of comparison; it is now 11:00 p.m. in the Big Apple right now.....all times sprang an hour forward in the United States yesterday.


Here we go:

Athens, Greece: 5:00 a.m.

Barcelona, Spain: 4:00 a.m.

Auckland, New Zealand: 4:00 p.m.

Beijing, China: 11 a.m.

Bucharest, Romania: 5:00 a.m.

Cairo, Egypt: 5:00 a.m.

Dubai 7:00 a.m.

London 3:00 a.m.

Moscow 7:00 a.m.

Paris 4:00 a.m.

Rotterdam, Netherlands 4:00 a.m.

Tel Aviv, Israel 5:00 a.m.


http://www.visittopeka.us

http://www.shopbrookwood.org

http://www.antiquesoftopeka.org


http://www.mw.nl

Silly Image to Fill Space: Things Republicans Like

Yeah, we thought we'd make fun of 'our good friends,' such as Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) with an image of something that is sacred and dear to most right-wing nutcases' hearts: the American chainsaw.

If one is looking to purchase this item from a hardware store in Charlotte, NC, where the 2012 National Democratic Convention was held, one can find them at the Oakhurst Sales Company on Monroe Road and Certified Lawn Mowers on Nations Crossing Road.

Conversely, the same thing can be found in Tampa, Fla, where the Republicans met, at M&M Lawn Mowers on North Armenia Avenue.

http://www.sthldealer.net

http://www.cutpower.com

Major League Soccer Scoreboard

Yes, perhaps some European soccer fans are unaware of this, but there is professional soccer league in the United States, which also has three Canadian clubs, called Major League Soccer.

This weekend, league play began in the MLS and it was a good weekend for traditionally strong teams, such as the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Houston Dynamo (pictured) and the Columbus Crew.

For the L.A. Galaxy, American soccer player Mike Magee had three goals (38th min., 68th min. and 74th min.) to lead this team to a 4-0 dismantling of the Chicago Fire.

The Houston Dynamo were helped by a late goal from American futboler Ricardo Clark in the 89th minute to a 2-0 win over our beloved D.C. United.

But, another of our favorite teams the Portland Timbers, which are featured in the cult tv show "Portlandia" on IFC, got a slightly surprising 3-3 tie with the New York Red Bulls. For the Timbers, there were goals from Liberian national Darlington Nagbe and Argentinian player Diego Valeri, which has been nominated for MLS Goal of the Week. Another Argentinian Fabian Espindola kicked in two goals for the Red Bulls in the nationally televised game.

Another Argentinian Frederico Higuain, a stand-out for the Columbus Crew, helped his team soundly defeat Chivas USA of Los Angeles.

Two Canadian teams the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC also did battle on the field. Gershon Koffie, from Ghana, scored the lone goal for the Whitecaps in the 60th minute of play for their 1-0 triumph.

Here are the scores; the New England Revolution did not play this week:

Sporting Kansas City 3 Philadelphia Union 1

Houston Dynamo 2 D.C. United 0

Vancouver Whitecaps 1 Toronto FC 0

FC Dallas 1 Colorado Rapids 0

Real Salt Lake 2 San Jose Earthquakes 0

L.A. Galaxy 4 Chicago Fire 0

New York Red Bulls 3 Portland Timbers 3

Montreal Impact 1 Seattle Sounders 0

Columbus Crew 3 Chivas USA 0

http://www.mls.com


http://www.houstondynamo.com

http://www.portlandtimbers.com


http://www.lagalaxy.com

http://www.newyorkredbulls.com

English Premiere League Scoreboard

American women's soccer goalie Hope Solo certainly doesn't play in the English Premiere League, but we thought posting an image of her may help our hit counts; we understand she has a loyal following in Slovakia (well, we aren't 100-percent certain of that).

Many of the soccer games in the EPL this weekend (plus one on Monday) were lop-sided, but there were some real gems as well.

Tottenham Hotspur prevailed over Arsenal 2-1 with goals from English national Aaron Lemmon in the 35th minute and Welsh star Gareth Bale (pictured bottom); for Arsenal, the lone goal came from German player Per Mertesader in the 43rd minute of play.

Japanese sensation Shinji Kagawa scored a hot trick for Manchester United in front of a home crowd of 75, 586 spectators in the team's 4-0 dismantling of Norwich.

And, our beloved Chelsea won a 1-0 match on a goal from Senegalese national Demba Ba in the 28th minute in a game against West Brom on Saturday.

Here are the scores:


Everton 3 Reading 1

Queens Park 2 Southampton 1

Swansea 1 Newcastle 0

Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0

Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1

Sunderland 2 Fulham 2

Manchester United 4 Norwich 0

Liverpool 4 Wigham Ath. 0

West Ham 1 Stoke 0

Chelsea 1 West Brom 0