20-Word Fiction: Listen to Your Teachers

Greetings from the Hartford Public Library here in Hartford, Conn., which is not actually where we are blogging from but we expect they have every novel from Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, which have been translated into English.

Speaking of Turkey, today's image is of the famed Hagia Sophi, a state museum in Istanbul, Turkey, where actress Ashley Judd visited yesterday (we learned this from one of her tweets) which started as a Byzantine church before being converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.

Here is today's 20-word fiction which we are writing while listening to Brahms........:

"My religion professor said to be a true intellectual, one must read the Holy Bible and the Koran. Maybe so."

http://www.hplct.org/

We're Going to the Final Four in Indy......

Great, exciting news: Since a friend of mine in Charlotte, NC, has a very sick puppy (a Yorkie named B.B. King), I have been given tickets to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

To be honest, I'm not sure which section to sit in. The Michigan State Spartans defeated the UVA Cavaliers early in the tourney, so I will not be sitting beside Magic Johnson (his alma mater). The Wisconsin Badgers have a great mascot in Bucky the Badger (top image), but I've only been to that state once and it would feel awkward sitting with their fans.

It would be nice to sit with the Kentucky Wildcats fans, especially if I were somehow close to sitting by actress Ashley Judd, one of the team's superfans, but I'm sure even if that happened, she would have a body guard who looks like Kevin Costner as well as a boyfriend who looks like Kevin Costner. Also, I'm not sure what to make of the team's coach John Calipari. While he is amusing enough to follow on Twitter, he comes across as a narcissist.

This leaves the Duke Blue Devils, coached by Mike Kryzewski who has been with the team since I was ten years old, which was when "Mork and Mindy" was still on the air. They are from the ACC. They are from North Carolina, a neighboring state. Durham, NC, is a pretty cool town, they even made a movie about their baseball team "Bull Durham," which starred Kevin Costner. But, Coach K is a Republican and he's already won four NCAA titles. The Badgers haven't won since Benny Goodman and Woody Herman were on the radio during the Big Band era. But, Coach K did write a letter to little boy in Oklahoma. Somehow, I doubt the other three coaches would have done that.

But, in reality, Kentucky will probably beat them in the NCAA finals, and go 40-0; that's just the way the world works. At any rate, I'm looking forward to driving through West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio to be at the Final Four. It truly is a dream come true!

Note: The bottom image is the jersey of Kentucky basketball great Jamal Mashburn

Quote of the Week- Hilary Swank

Perhaps, very few Oscar-winners have started from dire backgrounds like Hilary Swank has, as she grew up in a trailer park in Bellingham, Wash. She is also (to our knowledge) the only cast member of "Beverly Hills 90210" to have won an Oscar. Although to his credit, Luke Perry was very good in the independent drama film "Normal People" with Ashley Judd about a boyfriend/girlfriend bank robbing duo.

Swank won her first Best Actress Oscar for the compelling film "Boys Don't Cry" (1999). Five years later, she won in the same category for her startling performane as a female boxer in "Million Dollar Baby" (2004), which was directed by and co-starred Clint Eastwood.

Here is her quote:

"I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all of this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."

SIDEBAR: It has been a very long time since we discussed Turkish soccer, but I realize our loyal readers in Paterson, NJ, (which reportedly has the largest Turkish population in America) are getting disappointed with me, and I am a Turkish-American who occasionally eats pork as it is!

So here are the latest results from Week 22 (partial list):

Eskisehirspor 2 Sivasspor 1

Gaziantep 4 Bursa 1

GalataSaray 1 Bucaspor 0

Kayseri 2 Antalya 0

*Fenerbahce 4 Besiktash 2

*-This was a game between two traditional Istanbul rivals. Alex de Souza, 33, (who goes by Alex) a Brazilian soccer star, scored three goals for Fenerbahce in their crucial win.

Program Reminder- Bug on IFC This Week

Before we start this entry, I want to ask my long-time girlfriend Ashley Judd if she'll marry me. Oh right! I forgot she was married to some Italian race car driver, and she ran on the track barefoot when he won the Indianapolis 500.

But, Judd starred in the creepy thriller "Bug" based on the play by Tracy Letts. The 2006 film from director William Friedkin deals with a woman who moves into an el cheapo motel where she meets a Gulf War veteran who thinks agents inserted bugs in his mind as part of a military experiment.

The film airs on IFC at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Perhaps, students from Manhattan High School in Manhattan, Kansas, which is our High School of the Week along with about 45 other schools, will think it's a biology documentary.

Manhattan HS has Back to School Night on Monday, and their principal is (mr) Terry MCarty.