Ten People with Long Names (Females)

Those of us with long names, such as my own (Gokbudak), always feel deep sympathy for those with even longer names. Imagine trying to get a table at Applebees, a pair of bowling shoes or medications at the pharmacy with these names!

1. Ludmilia Petrushevskaya- (pictured) This 72-year-old Russian playwright/author had her short story "A Withered Branch" recently published in "The New Yorker."

2. Antoaneta Stefanova. It is actually the first name of this 32-year-old world chess champion from Bulgaria which poses more issues!

3. Sebnem Kimyacioglu. She is a 27-year-old Turkish-American who now plays pro basketball in Istanbul, Turkey, with the team GalataSaray. She played for the Stanford Cardinal in college, and her sister Yasemin plays for Santa Clara University.

4. Nadia Comaneci- At first glance, the name of this 49-year-old Romanian gymnastics legend doesn't appear to be that difficult, but just try saying it!

5. Svetlana Boginskaya- This 38-year-old gymnast who was known as "The Belarusian Swan" was butchered many times by American tv announcers when she won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She also competed until her late-twenties, which is unusual for a gymnast.

6. Agusta Erlendsdottir- This 29-year-old Icelandic singer who is famous in her homeland probably wishes her name was more simple like Bjork, a rock singer who is perhaps the most famous person from Iceland in the world.

7. Gro Hammerseng- Sticking with Scandanavia, this 31-year-old Norwegian athlete helped her country win team gold in handball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

8. Melina Kanakaredes- Greek-American actress, 44, who is best-known for her tv work on the shows "Providence" and "CSI: New York."

9. Kim Kashkashian- This 58-year-old violonist and Armenian-American who has played with Yo Yo Ma should not be confused with the model/actress/reality tv show persona Kim Kardashian, who all of us are probably following on Twitter.

10. Deepika Padukone-This 25-year-old Bollywood actress was born in Copenhagen, Denmark- of all places!

Happy Oscar Hangover Day

In case you were wondering, especially those of you who might still be behind a desk in Portland, Oregon, at this hour, we are featuring the Hindu love goddess Parvati because a short film called "God of Love" won the Oscar last night. Parvati happens to be the wife of Shiva, but this is not World Religions 101 (though I did get a 'B' in that class at Radford University in Virginia).

This deity should not be confused with Parvati Melton, the extremely gorgeous 22-year-old Bollywood star (who grew up in California!) who may very well have her very own Uma Thurman stalker from Mumbai (well, for her sake, we certainly hope that's not the case!).

Another very attractive young woman Natalie Portman, who is alas engaged to be married to a man who impregnated her (insert whinning here), won a well-deserved Best Actress last night for her amazing performance in "The Black Swan." The dark movie about a struggling ballet dancer was the subject of a recent nasty piece in "The New Republic" which almost made me cancel my subcription. But, we love their columnist Jonathan Chait, who always puts right-wingers in their place (give that man a raise!).

As for some other winners, we mentioned the short live action film "Gods of Love" which won last night. The film by Luke Matheny is about a love-struck lounge-sining teenage boy. It was one of the ten picks we missed last night though we did choose 13 right, including our pick for Portman.

"Strangers No More," a film about a school in Tel Aviv, Israel, with children from 48 countries, won a Best Documentary Short Oscar.

And, finally, "The Lost Thing" a short animated film about a boy who finds a strange creature on the beach and adopts it for himself was the winner in its category.

The very last thing I want to mention is that I thought one dress worn by Anne Hathaway (it should be pointed I know nothing about fashion and if I were to even have a Starbucks frappucino with Hathaway, I would get down on my knees and thank
Shiva) actually looked like something that the '80s punk band Devo would wear. Ok, well, I wasn't going to have a frap with Anne Hathaway anyway!

Top 10 Coffee Dates

Since it does NOT appear that the almighty one will grant my wish (see last entry), I have come to the conclusion that I could and should settle for coffee dates instead.

But, of course, a single guy has a Constitutional right to make a wish list of coffee dates that he would love to have even if most of the women on the list are either married or engaged or otherwise attached at the hip.

Alas, I had to cut a few names like Parker Posey and Paris Hilton from the dream list, but Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra (pictured here) and Turkish actress Nurgul Yesilcay (who is great in Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven") made the list:


1. Uma Thurman

2. Scarlett Johansson

3. Jennifer Love Hewitt*

4. Natalie Portman

5. Penelope Cruz

6. Elle MacPherson**

7. Priyanka Chopra

8. Rachel Weisz

9. Sarah Silverman

10. Nurgul Yesilcay


*-I know I will get teased for this one

**-Hey, someone who is actually older than me!

Notice Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea in Roanoke, Va., on the links list. It's one of my favorite places for coffee as is the Green Bean in Greensboro, NC, but they didn't have a link!

Useful Links:

http://www.coffeegeek.com

http://www.starbucks.com

http://millmountaincoffee.com