Kudos to the University of Maryland for Winning the ACC Lacrosse Title

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, is perhaps a good six-hour drive from College Park, Md., where the University of Maryland is located but the Terps came through in women's lacrosse with a 12-8 over the Tar Heels on road soil.

Abby Friend scored three goals for the home team, but it wasn't enough to hold off three goals each from Katie Schwarzmann (pictured center), Brooke Grffin, Beth Glaros and Taylor Cummings. Schwarzmann was named the tourney's most outstanding player.

The Terps (19-0) remain undefeated and the loss was one of the very few for the 'Heels (12-3); the title is the fifth straight ACC title for Maryland. 

Incidentally, in case any of you are wondering, Testudo is the mascot of Maryland, a school that is (editorial comment: foolishly) going to the Big Ten in the fall.

SIDEBAR ONE: We want to thank Jack in Truth or Consequences, N.Mex., the only town in America named after a game show. Jack was one of the supporters who called in a pledge to the non-profit progressive tv channel Link-TV today; we sense if Link-TV had given his last name, he might find himself on Gov. Susana Martinez's 'enemies list.' She is, after all, a Republican.

SIDEBAR TWO: We also want to thank today's day sponsor (yes, we are making this up, no one sponsors us!) the Cafe Evolution, a vegetarian cafe in Florence, Mass. We are curious to know if they serve shish kebab without any meat!

SIDEBAR THREE: One sport that the Terps might have trouble with in the Big Ten, particularly since they don't have a team in the sport, is women's hockey. But, we sense that if the Terps had a team on the ice, they would probably lose quite often to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, a team that went a very impressive 41-0-0. The Gophers won a NCAA title in women's hockey on their home ice with a 6-3 win over Boston University several weeks ago.

Amanda Kessel of the Gophers was named the most outstanding player in college women's hockey.

There is now a petition to have the Gophers visit the White House, and a joint letter from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) was written on their behalf.

SIDEBAR FOUR: Starting tomorrow, we will start Soccer Week. It was a good week for Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce, the arch rival of our beloved GalataSaray. The Canaries won a home UEFA game over Benefica of Portugal 1-0 on a goal from veteran Turkish player Egemen Korkmaz.

In domestic play, Fenerbahce won over Kayserispor 2-1 thanks to goals from two of the team's star players Dirk Kuyt of the Netherlands and Cristian Baroni of Brazil.

http://www.umterps.com

http://www.gopherssports.com

http://www.cafe-evolution.com

http://www.linktv.org

Where's Billy Bragg?

Somehow, we can't imagine that folk/rock singer Billy Bragg, also a left-wing activist, is one of Newt Gingrich's favorite singers. And, we certainly can't imagine Bragg would be in the former arch conservative house speaker's I-POD. But, several years, a right-wing prime minister of Australia said he was a big fan of Midnight Oil, a band known for their progressive politics as much as their awesome songs like "Beds Are Burning."

Tonight, Bragg is performing at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, a city that is still recovering from a bombing incident at the end of the Boston Marathon. We personally can't imagine a better way to get away from it all than listening to Bragg, who in our views gives awesome concerts.

From Boston, he heads to the Southgate House Revival in Newport, Kentucky, on Tuesday.

Bragg then headlines at the  Ark in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wed.,which is also home to WBCN, the student run radio station that was recently featured in a "Jeopardy" category because apparently the late Gilda Radner, an original cast member of "Saturday Night Live" got her start there.

Then Bragg, a British singer who was recognized earlier in his career for his outspokenness about the recently deceased Margaret Thatcher,  heads north to Canada for gigs in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.


This entry is a slight take-off on "Where's Waldo?"

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

http://www.wbcn.org

http://www.theark.org

http://www.southgatehouse.com

http://www.whereswaldo.com

Turkish Soccer Results_ Fenerbahce Caught Looking Ahead

Our good friend (well, we don't know him personally, but we do know him via Twitter) Ahmet Bob Turgut is very excited about tomorrow's UEFA match-up between Turkish soccer power Fenerbahce (Istanbul) and the Swiss club Basil, but was Fenerbahce looking ahead?

In domestic play, the Canaries fell to Ankara Genclerbirligi by a 2-0 margin with a goal coming from Aykut Demir (pictured bottom) in the fifth minute of play to pull off a seemingly major upset.

One of the other three Istanbul mega-teams Besiktash also had a bad weekend as they stunningly fell to Akhisar 4-1 thanks to two goals from Greek national Theofanis Gekas (we imagine he gets hate mail from old men in Cyprus for playing for a Turkish team; pictured top). The Black Eagles did not help their own cause by getting Gokhan Suzen kicked out with a red card in the 56th minute of play.

But, it was a good weekend for the third Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray as they beat Elazigspor, a team from the eastern city of Elazig 3-1 on goals from international stars Burak Yilmaz and Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast national scored goals in the 20th and 26th minute of play. Serdar Gurler provided the lone goal from Elazigspor in the 22nd minute.

And, our favorite Turkish Premiere League player Pablo Battalla, an Argentina national, kicked in the only goal in the match to assist his BursaSpor to a 1-0 win over Antalyaspor; that goal came in the 73rd minute of goal. Maurice Edu, an American soccer player, also plays for BursaSpor.

Nigerian national Kalu Uche scored both goals for fifth place Kasimpasha in the team's 2-0 win over struggling Orduspor, a team from the eastern Black Sea city of Ordu.

In league standings, GalataSaray leads with 62 points, followed by Fenerbahce (55), Besiktash and BursaSpor (49 points, each) and Kasimpasha (46 points) 

Here are the results of last weekend's play:

1. GalataSaray 3 Elazigspor 1

2. Kasimpasha 2 OrduSpor 0

3. Akhisar 4 Besiktash 1

4. Karabukspor 1 Mersin 0

5. GaziantepSpor 2 Istanbul BB 0

6. Kayseri 1 SivasSpor 1, tie

7. BursaSpor 1 AntalyaSpor 0

8. Ankara GB2 Fenerbahce 0

9. Trabzonspor 1 Eskisehir 0

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

Today happens to the 449th birthday of one William Shakespeare, from Starford on Avon, England.

In America and perhaps in other remote parts of the globe, like Canada, the day is being celebrated as National Talk Like Shakespeare Day as well.

Many Shakespeare plays are currently in production or will be soon around the country.

The Folger Theatre in Washington, DC, which specializes in Shakespeare plays, will be performing "12th Night" from April 30-June9th.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, Colo., will be performing "Midsummer Night's Dream," among other plays from June 7th-Aug 11.

And, in Conway, Ark., where we gather that they joking refer to the Bard as Willy Shakespeare, the Arkansas Shakespeare Festival will be performing "Much Ado About Nothing" in addition to other plays starting on June 6th.

"Whereth outh thou Nutella?" "Whereth outh thou cat food?" "Whereth out though paper towels?"

 Well, we couldn't resist.
http://www.folger.edu

http://www.talklikeshakespeareday.org

http://www.coloradoshakes.org

http://www.arkshakes.com

Happy Children's Day, It's a National Holiday in Turkey

We are wishing everyone in Turkey a Happy Children's Day. 23 Nisan/April 23rd was first recognized by modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1920.

While figuring out which image to use, we stumbled across an image of this children's magazine with the Smurfs on the cover.

It was through another children's magazine "Tercuman Cocuk" (Cocuk is the Turkish word for children) that I first heard of the Smurfs, which were actually created in Belgium. In early editions, the Smurfs accompanied the Little Prince.

We recently found that particular magazine which came out on Feb. 25, 1978, some ten days before my eighth birthday.

Some right-wingers, perhaps someone like Cal Thomas or Newt Gingrich, has theorized that the Smurfs are a Marxist entity because they encourage community building.

Yeah, we think they are reading too much into it too.

Things To Do List: Go the Car Wash

Here is the latest entry in our semi-regular Things To Do List, yes, there are actually more important things we need to do, but we don't feel the need to disclose those publicly:

1. Listen to WUVT (90.7-FM), the student-run radio station of Virginia Tech

2. Wash car...........and, the clean the inside...........then, clean the trunk

3. Yoga?!

4. Recycle

5. Wash Dishes (of course)

6. Go the opera (the reason for the middle image, though we are not going to see 'Otello')

7. Watch the three episodes of "Mad Men" that you've taped

8. Wear the Batman tie; it could possibly help you with girls

9. Go through the comic books and price them

10. Possibly give money to local PBS station to prevent it from going blank (yes, that's the reason for the TRT_ Turkey Radio Television_ test pattern)

http://www.wuvt.vt.edu

http://bikramyogabethesda.com/

http://www.lyricopera.org/

http://www.unctv.org/content/

http://www.trt.net.tr/anasayfa/anasayfa.aspx

The links are for 1) WUVT-(90.7 FM); 2) Bikram Yoga Center in Bethesda, Maryland (near Wash. DC); 3) The Lyric Opera Company of Chicago which is performing "Oklahoma"?! in May; 4) WUNC-TV, the public television station for all of North Carolina; 5) The official site for the TRT which is in Turkish, of course!

SPOILER ALERT: Florida Wins NCAA Women's Gymnastics Crown

The Florida Gators won the team's first-ever NCAA title in women's gymnastics; only four other schools (Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah) had won and each of those schools is a multiple winner.

On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com we discussed how Florida performed as a team.

The two gymnasts pictured here are Gators' gymnasts Alaina Johnson (top) and Ashanee Dickerson (bottom). The meet will air on ESPN-U at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN-U.

Here we are going to post individual scores from the four different events; the meet was held on the campus of UCLA:


Vault

1. Bridget Sloan (Florida) 9.995

2. Alaina Johnson (Fla) 9.900

3. Marissa King (Fla) 9.900

4. Kytra Hunter (Fla) 9.900

5. Ashley Sledge (Alabama) 9.900

6. Olivia Courtney (UCLA) 9.900


Beam

1. Sloan 9.9950

2. King 9.925

3. Kim Jacob (Alabama) 9.950

4. Ashley Priess (Alabama) 9.950

5. Rebecca Clark (Oklahoma) 9.925

6. Madison Moorig (Oklahoma)9.925


Bars

1. Johnson 9.950

2. Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA) 9.925

3. Sloan 9.900

4. Mackenzie Caquatto (Fla) 9.900

5. Jacob 9.900

6. Kaitlyn Clark (Alabama) 9.900

Floor

1. Hunter 9.975

2. Sloan 9.950

3. King 9.950

4. Bridgette Caquatto (Fla) 9.95

5. Jacob 9.950

6. Liominica Hall (LSU) 9.950

Friday Night Tweets: Sports, Sports, Sports...........well, mostly women's college gymnastics

Here are our sports-related tweets on a rainy Friday night which has been overshadowed by surreal, harrowing developments in the Boston Marathon bombing suspect. But, today was also the day of the first round of the NCAA women's gymnastics championships on the campus of UCLA; the home mat Bruins are in the second session, which is going on at this hour. These tweets are in reference to the first session.

The three teams that advanced are 1) Florida, 2) LSU and 3) Georgia. The other three teams were 4)Minnesota, 5) Illinois and 6) Stanford. Minnesota and Illinois were competing in their first NCAA championships.

Here are the tweets:

1. Ivana Hong @IvanaHong (She is a Stanford gymnast, pictured top): "Thank you everyone for such love and support! In the end, competing with this team is the best part of gymnastics."

2. Bridget Sloan Fans @TeamBridgetS (Bridget Sloan is an American Olympic gymnast who competes for Florida): "Yay! Congrat to the #gators on being in the #supersix! And congrats to @bridgetsloan on being the AA winner thus far!"

3. Jamie Christian @JamieAllOver: "So along with manhunt and other things about the terrorists, #supersix is trending. This is why I love America."

4. Between the Hedges @UGAHedgesBlog: "Congrats to the @UGAGymnastics for reaching the #supersix for the first time in 2009."

5. Kytra Hunter @KytraHunter Kytra Hunter is a Florida gymnast from Frederick, Md.): "Started out slow, but ended strong! Way to fight Gators! So excited for tomorrow!"

6. FSU Baseball @FSU_Baseball: "First pitch has been moved back to approximately 8:30 p.m. Stay tuned for more updates from Charlottesville."

7. Boston College @BostonCollege: "Thankful for a peaceful resolution; remember all affected by this week. #BostonStrong

NOTE: Neither Florida State nor Boston College have women's college gymnastics programs, but their tweets helped fill a gap we had!

UPDATE: Alabama, the two-time defending NCAA champion, won the second session with a 197.35; host UCLA and Oklahoma tied for second with a score of 197.200. The three schools that did not qualify for the Super Six are: 4) Michigan 196.85 5) Utah 196.200 and 6) Arkansas 196.150

Friday Night Tweets: Terror Suspect and Major Rainstorms

We have tweets. We have tweets. Did we say: "We have tweets."

Let's explain the images real quickly: 1) the famed Paul Revere statue in Boston; 2) a Boston Red Sox umbrella; 3) a bear sloth cub which might well look like the one at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, that we will be mentioning.

Here we go; of course, the emphasis here is on today's developments in the now successful effort to apprehend Boston Marathon bomber suspect Dzohkar Tsarnaev:

1. The Fix @TheFix ("Washington Post" reporter Chris Cilliza): "People trying to make jokes on this standoff. Just quit it."

2. Anderson Cooper 360 @AC360: "@BrianToddCNN says there are floodlights on the boat, police are yelling at suspect in #watertown."

3. WBEZ @WBEZ (NPR station in Chicago): "Update: Shots fired in Mass. as police seek second bomb suspect."

4. National Review @NRO ("National Review" is a conservative American journal; we usually disagree with them): "BREAKING: Dead suspect spent 6 months abroad last year, flew from JFK to Russia. Unclear what he did during trip."

5. Muslim Matters @MuslimMatters: "American-Muslim communities pls touch base with your local police depts and request extra patrols and a physical security assessment."

6. HuffPost Celebrity @HuffPostCeleb: "Boston attack survivor Jeff Bauman gets a star-studded visit at the hospital."

7. Chapel Hill Magazine @ChapelHillMag: "Good luck to everyone running the @Tarheel10Miler tomorrow morning!"

8. geneweingarten @geneweingarten: "Are there any Jews involved in this things? If so, I am so embarrassed."

9. Katrina vanden Heuvel @KatrinaNation: "Dzhokar Tsranev in custody, alive."

10. National Zoo @NationalZoo: "At 4 mos old, our sloth bear cub is quick and enthusiastic when it  comes to training."

11. @The Kansan: "Suspect in custody! Great police work!!"

12. Mayor Tom Menino @mayortommenino (the mayor of Boston): "We got him."

13. Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow: "Everyone in Boston: take a deep breath. Have a drink. Have two."

14. Jesus Christ @jesus: "Over and out." (We wonder if he's hanging out with the fringe preacher the Rev. Johnny Roberston in Martinsville, Va.)

http://www.thismodernworld.com

http://www.washington.org

http://www.vistimartinsville.com

http://www.visitchapelhill.org

Record Store Day is Saturday

It may seem odd to have albums from rock singer Peter Gabriel, Turkish jazz instrumentalist Okay Temiz and the late comedian Redd Foxx, but all of these are hidden gems that one may find at an independent record store. Saturday is Record Store Day.

Among the stores likely to be participating in the event are The Last Record Store in Santa Rosa, Calif., Jackpot Records in Portland, Ore., Cheap Records in Cambridge (Boston). Mass., and CFBG in Greensboro, NC.

http://www.petergabriel.com

http://www.recordstoreday.com

www.thelastrecordstore.com

www.jackpotrecords.com

Happy 75th Birthday, Superman

Happy birthday, Superman. The iconic comic book character who was played on film by the late Christopher Reeve (pictured as Clark Kent, Superman's nerdy alter ego) turns 75 on Thursday.

Happy 76th Birthday, Daffy Duck

We want to wish our animated fowl a happy birthday; Daffy Duck first appeared in the cartoon "Porky Duck Hunts" on April 17, 1937. Somehow since he is known for an infamous duck hunting incident, we imagine this is not one of Dick Cheney's favorite cartoons. Amazingly enough, the former American vie president is four years younger than Daffy Duck.

One vintage line from Daffy Duck is in the cartoon "Duck Amuck" (1953): "Would it be too much to ask if we can make up our minds?, hmmmmmm...."

We are also going to wish Daffy Duck a happy birthday in six different languages:

1) gratulere med dagen (Norwegian)

2) z okazj urdzin (Polish; Poland is the home to one of the most famous non-American cartoons "Lolek and Bolek")

3) vsechno nejlepski (Czech)

4) buon compleanno (Italian)

5) gelukkige verjaardag (Dutch)

6) Tom Huledet (Hebrew)

Silly Photo to Fill Space- A Day Without Shoes 2013

Today is the one day of the year where George Jetson can act like Fred Flintstone and go into work barefoot to recognize the plight of starving children in Honduras and Zimbabwe, but we imagine Cosmo Spacely would not appreciate the gesture, as it is 'One Day Without Shoes' Day.

Of course, for those of you who actually reside in Honduras and Zimbabwe, we should point out that we are making references to two vintage American cartoons of yesteryear: "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."

But, since the world is literally becoming a smaller place, we expect many of you in Honduras and Zimbabwe- hopefully all of you have at least one pair of shoes, are familiar with those animated entities.

We do appreciate the cause, but since one of us here had a tetanus scare as a child for walking barefoot and stepping on a nail, we are not personally participating in this global cause/event today.

And, we hope you like this image of two barefoot lovers in the rain, which would also be great for a community theatre production of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park;" it was surprisingly tough to find a great photograph for this entry!

Links:

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com

The Weekly Grocery List

Here is our grocery list for the next coming week or so. We should point out that we thought of Donald Duck Orange Juice, which is either difficult to find or no longer in existence, when we came upon what we thought were Finnish Donald Duck comic books, but we now think they are actually Swedish. If you really wanna know, Donald Duck is called Kalle Anka is Swedish.

Bulgarian yogurt is a bit of an in-joke. My feeling is that if a grocer here in America put Bulgarian or Turkish yogurt beside Greek yogurt, neither would sell nearly as well even if it was the better product.

Here is our list:

1) orange juice

2) Life cereal

3) bagels

4) yogurt

5) ginger ale

6) coffee

7) stamps

8) toothpaste

9) cucumbers

10) cat food

Billy Bragg on the Death of Margaret Thatcher

On April 10th, Billy Bragg, an English left-wing folk/rock singer whose political anthems made him a recognized voice in the mid 1980s, will play in Winnipeg, Canada. He made a statement regarding the death of England's first female prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who was known for her right-wing politics.

Here is a condensed version of his statement: "This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today.................Raising the glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don't celebrate---organise."

David Frum (pictured center), a center-right conservative figure in America who is actually a Canadian, posted many tweets about the woman who also helped Meryl Streep win her well-deserved second Best Actress Oscar.

One of them read as follows: "When people told Thatcher to jump, she did not say 'how high?' She said: 'Well, watch.'

SIDEBAR: We are currently listening to the BBC which is asking young people in South Africa if they are concerned about the ramifications of what they might post on a social media site like Facebook or Twitter. As one might expect, some of these tweenagers are concerned and use caution while others don't fret too much. But, one of the interviewed subjects states that she will remove Facebook posts of her drinking alcohol when she looks for a job.

http://www.billybragg.co.uk

http://www.frumforum.com

Remembering Roger Ebert- the Great American Movie Critic

With this image of the historic Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Va., which along with the Grandin Theatre in my hometown of Roanoke is one of the oldest movie palaces which is still in existence, we pay tribute to Roger Ebert.

The great American film credit died after a long bout with cancer today at age 70.

Many heart-felt tributes have been pouring in from the likes of movie blogger Ali Arikan, a personal friend, and documentary filmmaker Erroll Morris. Ebert and his "At the Movies" co-host the late Gene Siskel brought Morris' acclaimed late '80s documentary film "The Thin Blue Line" a greater public awareness than it may have normally recieved.

Here is a quote from Ebert:

"Every great film should seem new every time you see it."

Thanks, Roger.

http://www.byrdtheatre.com

Top 10 Things 2 Do in the Next Week (or so..........)

On occasion when something we want to post becomes too complicated, we resort to our proverbial old bag of tricks, which might also work for David Copperfield (for those of you in Tajikistan, he is an American magician).

And, one of our traditional entries, even dating back to our earliest entries way back in the stone ages of 2005, was a Top 10 Things To Do List; this effectively postpones our hopes to make fun of conservative newspaper columnist Cal Thomas.

So, here is our latest installment, we imagine at the BBC, they are never this desperate:

1) Taxes (the reason for the image of the vintages Mr. Professor children's calculators from the 1970s; I don't live in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, but if I did, I'd check in with Ronald A. Weiss)

2) Watch a tape of the University of North Carolina-Clemson baseball game that we recorded on Monday from ESPN-U (this is the reason for the image of a tiger; the Clemson mascot is a tiger with no name, but finding a suitable image of that tiger proved to be difficult and time-consuming as is this explanation)

3) Go to West Virginia

4) Eat a gyro

5) Get new library card

6) Read the Torah (It should be pointed out that I am not Jewish, but I did get a copy of the holy book for one dollar at an estate sale; the image below is of a synagogue in the Czech Republic).

7) Go through old records........as in stuff from bands like The Bee Gees

8) Write a poem (for myself, not for a woman- that never seems to work in real life)

9) Get stamps

10) Read the current issue of the Sunday "Washington Post." (We personally love how the woman always says the man that she is hooked up with in 'Date Lab' is never good enough or lives a few many Metro stops away from her!).

Tilly Gokbudak is NOT Moving to Bulgaria (It was an April Fool's prank)

Perhaps, next year, we will tell that little green men have landed in Fargo, North Dakota!

Tilly Gokbudak is Moving to Bulgaria in August

We are extremely pleased to announce that our boss, our own Spacely Sprokets if you will (forgive "The Jetsons" reference) Tilly Gokbudak is going to be teaching English in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the start of this year.

And, we also hope he finds himself the perfect woman for him while he is there!