Potluck Quote of the Day (5 of 10): Muhammad Ali

Today's quote of the day comes from the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) who died earlier this year. We found this quote on a tribute by Keith Knight in his political cartoon series "The K-Chronicles." We are also happy to learn that Knight now resides in Chapel Hill,NC, which puts him in the same state as our good friend Chris Knight (no relation, in fact Keith is black, and Chris is white) who is based in Reidsville.

Ali's legacy continues through the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky.

Here is today's potluck quote of the day: "If you even dream of beating me, you'd better wake up and apologize."

http://www.alicenter.org

http://www.kchronicles.com

http://www.muhammadali.com

We are featuring Ali today as a tribute to the 2016 Rio Olympics. On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogpsot.com we have a quote from Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci.

10 Films in Our Netflix Streaming List: Lots of Imports...

Here are ten films from our Netlix Streaming list, hopefully they will not disappear without notice!

Netflix announced they are now available around the world, including countries such as Turkey, Brazil and India.

1. Girlhood (France 2014, bottom image)

2. The Lesson (Bulgaria 2013,center image)

3. Moonrise Kingdom (2012, pict. top)

4. Bluebird (2013)

5. In Bloom (Georgia 2013)

6. 6 Years (2015)

7. Heavenly Creatures (New Zealand 1994), featuring Kate Winslet who won a Golden Globe Award tonight for her supporting role in "Steve Jobs."

8. Beyond the Hills (Romania 2012)

9. Being Flynn (2012)

10. Mr. Nobody (2009)

http://www.netflix.com

10 for 10: The Nine Countries Outside of America Where This Blog Is Most Popular..........

On Sept. 21st, this blog will be celebrating its tenth anniversary, and while we are not completely sure how to celebrate, we have chosen to start by acknowledging our blog readers around the world. Though this following list consists of large countries, we want to also thank blog readers from smaller nations like Malta, Slovenia, and Jordan, who have the time to check us out.

The images above are in conjunction with three of the countries on this list, the Russian dolls are for (of course) Russia, the Hindu love god Shiva is for India, and the women at the bottom associated with a bossa nova song about a beach we can't spell represent Brazil (yeah, that was a bit awkward).....

Here is the list, that we dedicate to Bill Griffith, the artist who draws up "Zippy the Pinhead,"our folk singer friend Bruce Piephoff from Greensboro, NC, and the late, great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune:

1) Russia 34, 974

2) Germany 11,421

3) United Kingdom 10,612

4) Canada 10, 085

5) France 6,320

6) Ukraine 4,407

7) India 3,256

8) Australia 2,467

9) Brazil 1,971

Our sister blog is The Daily Vampire: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Last Ten Songs on Steve FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va): Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Greetings to our blog readers in Afghanistan, Brazil and the Netherlands.........

Today, we look at ten songs that were played between 5:00-6:00 p.m. (17:00-18:00) eastern United States on the variety mix radio station Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va).

For the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, just underway, the station is playing an all '80s weekend, which actually started on Thursday at noon. http://www.1061stevefm.com

The two earliest songs that were played were "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"by Pat Benatar; both songs were released 35 years ago in 1980. Benatar is currently touring on the road, and she will play the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, on July 8th and the Brown Theatre in Louisville, Ky., on July 16th. http://benatargiraldo.com/ http://www.warnertheatredc.com 

(The image of Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves are in reference to Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Show, Ali is originally from Louisville where Benatar plays later in July).

The most current song was "Need You Tonight" from INXS, released in 1987 http://www.inxsonline.com

The set also featured the mega-hit "West End Girls" (London's West End is the center image) by Pet Shop Boys http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/ as well as "Photograph" from Def Leppard http://www.defleppard.com/ (the image of Marilyn Monroe is because an actress playing her was in the video for "Photograph") and "Some Like It Hot" by the '80s supergroup The Power Station, which featured the late Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran.

Def Leppard will be performing with Styx and Tesla in Toronto, Canada, on July 14th, and Oshkosh, Wisc., on July 18th.

Here is the list:

1) Come on Eileen. Dexy's Midnight Runners. 1982

2) Let's Hear It for the Boy. Deniece Williams, 1984

3) Photograph. Def Leppard. 1983.

4) West End Girls. Pet Shop Girls. 1984.

5) Hit Me With Your Best Shop. Pat Benatar. 1980.

6) Jam on It. Necleus. 1984.

7) Need You Tonight. INXS. 1987

8) Back in Black.AC/DC. 1980

9) Gloria. Laura Branigan. 1982.

10) Some Like It Hot. The Power Station. 1985.

Top Ten Sunday Comic Strips from May 24th Roanoke Times: A Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road....

Greetings to our blog readers in Japan, Brazil and Poland.....

This week, we select "Speed Bump" with an homage to "The Wizard of Oz" as our top pick. Second place goes to "Get Fuzzy," where Satchel the Dog and Bucky the Cat have a row. There is a mention of a cat in a Youtube video; hence we are using an image of a Van cat. Finally, "Pearls Before Swine" has a humorous take on a husband and wife having it out via messages in a bottle. This made us think of the famous song "Message in a Bottle" by The Police, a band with Sting which featured Stewart Copeland (pict. bottom) as its drummer.

Here is our top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Pearls Before Swine

4) Dilbert

5) Doonesbury

6) Garfield

7) Zits

8) Jump Start

9) For Better or For Worse

10) Family Circus

http://www.roanoke.com/comics

SOTU Tweets: Which Member of Congress Will Fall Asleep Tonight?

Greetings to Our Blog Readers in Lithuania, Italy and Brazil as well as the city of Eskisehir, Turkey, where it will be 4:00 a.m. when President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union (SOTU) address to both houses of Congress.

We are projecting that Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will be the two members who go ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..........tonight, but then again, we love making fun of Republicans though we are just a tad bit more objective tonight.

The images are of Cong. Gerry Connolly (D-Va), a sleeping man who is younger than most members of Congress except those crazy Tea Partier like Cong. Mia Love (R-Utah) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Chilly Willy, the cartoon penguin, who hopes the GOP realizes global warming is a reality.

Here are the tweets:

1) Matt Fuller (reporter with "Roll Call"): Fox News, The Daily Beast, and Roll Call just teamed up to count 449 regular seats on the House floor. Will send breakdown if needed."

2) Connolly: Caught Selma at Cinema Arts. The LBJ miscue notwithstanding, it's a moving rendition of the critical civil rights events of 1964-5. (Cinema Arts is a movie theatre in Fairfax, Va.)

3) Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va): "Tune in President Obama will deliver the State of the Union tonight at 9 p.m. Will we hear more of the same?"

4) Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): "Honored to have Vanessa Fontaine, Avonte Oquendo's mother at the SOTU tonight to rally support for Avante's Law. (Avante was a New York City teen with autism who was found dead last week).

5) Chris Cillizza or The Fix (Washington Post political columnist): "Who will fall asleep in the State of the Union tonight?" (We were actually asking the same question before this tweet)

6) Cong. Joe Crowley (D-NY): "Our president has been a champ for the middle class and has expanded access to the American dream. Looking fwd to his SOTU address!"

7) Politico: "Obama's SOTU to address 'middle-class economics' and to call for a 'smarter kind of American leadership abroad.'"

8) Sierra Club (progressive environmental group): "The Senator who is giving the GOP State of the Union response campaigned on ending the EPA" (Environmental Protection Agency; Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican freshman from Iowa, has been become both a darling of the far right and a pariah to those on the left and center-left even though she has barely been in office).

9) John Dickerson (of CBS News): "I think Joe Biden should play the spoons tonight."

10) National Review (a conservative journal): "White House Drops 'News' from Fox News placard at SOTU lunch."

11) Talking Points Memo: "SCOTUS (Supreme Court) ruling against Obamacare threatens GOP in 2016 swing states."

http://www.rollcall.com

http://www.politico.com

http://www.c-span.org

Our Top Sunday Comic Strips from the Roanoke Times for the Week of December 7th

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil!

This week, "Doonesbury," which had an exceptional gag with scenes from the comic strip's six main characters and their unique story lines in six different panels. Since the comic strip reminded us of a soap opera, we decided to use an image with the cast of "Young and the Restless" to go with this Sunday's "Doonesbury," but we somehow doubt that Garry Trudeau watches soap operas?!

"Pearls Before Swine" featured a satire of a job interview in which Rat, who has even fewer people skills than Dilbert (for those of you in Slovakia Dilbert is in the comic strip "Dilbert;" we're not making fun as you are our favorite former Yugoslav republic**) tries to be candid and honest to his futility.Oh btw, the snazzy Mexican men's dress shoes are used as our image for "Pearls."

Lastly, "Get Fuzzy," which usually revolves around squabbling between a cat and a third comes in third place as the house pets have it out over a broccoli casserole, or something like that!

Here is our top ten from the Sunday Dec. 7th "Roanoke Times," which does not carry "Rhymes Before Orange," WUMO," Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," "Sherman's Lagoon," "Dustin," "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee"........................but, hey still have "Hi and Lois"!

1) Doonesbury

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Get Fuzzy

4) Dilbert

5) Jump Start (highest rating ever for this comic on our survey)

6) Garfield

7) Speed Bump

8) Zits

9) Agnes

10) Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.gocomics.com











**_ This is a joke! Unlike quite a few Americans, I know that Slovenia is the country that was once part of Yugoslavia.

Top 10 Cities We Want to See in the World: When in Rome....

Greetings to our blog readers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo, alas none of your cities made it into the top ten, but one city in Asia got through.

The reason why Rome (top image) and Miami (middle image, Miami Dolphins cheerleaders) rank so high is because I've been to the airports in both cities, but I've never had a chance to visit either of them directly.

Vancouver, Canada (bottom image), was a place I had planned to visit in 1994, but I ended up going to Toronto and Montreal instead.

This is a companion entry to our Daily Vampire entry (see link)

Here is our top ten:

1. Rome, Italy

2. Miami, Fla. USA

3. Vancouver, BC, Canada

4. Marrakesh, Morocco

5. Buenos Aires, Argentina

6. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

7. Stockholm, Sweden

8. Barcelona, Spain

9. Berlin, Germany

10. Kuala Lampur, Malaysia

http://www.lonelyplanet.com

http://www.roughguides.com

Last Ten Film I've Seen Before the Last Ten Films I've Seen: Movies at the Beach

Greetings to our blog readers in Brazil, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

This entry is essentially the B-side of our entry in "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

In that entry, I mentioned the last ten films I saw. Well, before we got to those there were these ten which we viewed earlier in August, including three that I saw at a multiplex in Myrtle Beach, SC; two of which ("A Most Wanted Man" and "Macig in the Moonlight") were art films!

We also watched two films ("On the Waterfront" and "Oklahoma Crude") on TCM.

The images of the late Canadian magician Doug Henning (top), the map of Oklahoma and Lucy van Pelt letting Linus have it in a "Peanuts" panel are all related to the first three films on this list.

Here are the films:

1) Magic in the Moonlight. dir: Woody Allen. 2014. w/ Emma Stone

2) Oklahoma Crude. dir: Stanley Kramer. 1973. w/ Faye Dunaway

3) Lucy. dir: Luc Besson. 2014. w/ Scarlett Johansson

4. On the Waterfront. dir: Elia Kazan. 1954 w/Marlon Brando

5. A Most Wanted Man. dir: Anton Corbijn. 2014. w/ Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams.

6. Lincoln. dir: Steven Spielberg. 2012.

7. A Beginner's Guide to Endings. dir. Jonathan Sobol. 2010. w/ Harvey Keitel

8. Like Someone in Love. France/Japan. 2012. dir: Abbas Kiarostami (a famed Iranian directed)

9. The Iceman. dir: Ariel Vromen. 2012. w/Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder

10. The Grandmaster. Hong Kong. 2013. dir: Wong Kar Wai.

http://www.tcm.com

World Cup Lists: MLS Players

There are a number of futbolers in the World Cup who play in Major League Soccer, a pro soccer league consisting of mostly American teams along with three Canadian squads. Not all of these soccer players are Americans.

Here is the list:

1) Julio Cesar. 34. Brazil. FC Toronto (yes, I guess we all know he had a bad day at the office on Tuesday; pict. top)

2) Tim Cahill. 34. Australia. New York Red Bulls. (pict. center)

3) Kyle Beckerman. 32. USA. Real Salt Lake (pict. bottom)

4) Oswaldo Minda. 30. Ecuador. Chivas USA (Los Angeles)

5) Omar Gonzels. 25. USA. L.A. Galaxy

6) Brad Davis. 32. USA. Houston Dynamo.

7) Steven Beitashour. 27. Iran. Vancouver Whitecaps (The player actually grew up in Calif., he is also an American citizen.)

8) Victor Bernardez. 32. Honduras. San Jose Earthquakes.

9) Waylon Francis. 23. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

10) Giancarlo Gonzalez. 26. Costa Rica. Columbus Crew.

11) Matt Besler. 27. USA. Sporting Kansas City.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/

Free Form Blogging: Sportsmen of Yesteryear

Greetings to our blog readers in Brazil, Estonia and South Africa.

Today, we are continuing the free form blogging series. This basically works kind of like "Mad Libs." We take a couple of words or phrases and make a short piece out of it. Tonight, we will try to achieve using the names of sporting men from yesterday (we have the same exercise with female athletes on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire").

We are going with Turkish soccer great Hakan Sukur, who just turned 42 (Conan O'Brien actually wished him a Happy Birthday on Twitter; pictured top), tennis legend Jimmy Connors, who just turned 61, boxer  Leon Spinks (pictured middle), golfer Arnold Palmer, baseball player Reggie Jackson and Serbian basketball star Vlade Divac (pictured below).

All these athletes are retired, which is a good thing perhaps for Palmer, as he is 93.

Let's go:

"The Turkish soccer team Sivasspor in Sivas, Turkey, has contemplated asking Hakan Sukur to come out of retirement and help them sell more tickets (this is a joke). He had a birthday on Sunday, and 24 hours later, Connors had a birthday too. We imagine these guys have probably never met. But, both athletes are better remembered that Leon Spinks, who once beat Muhammad Ali in the ring, in 1978 (we think).  We have to wonder if Arnold Palmer played putt putt in Myrtle Beach, SC, with Reggie Jackson, who'd win. We imagine that mini-golf is a sport that Vlade Divac is not too good at because: Well, it's one of the few sports where being tall is a disadvantage."

Also, kudos to our beloved Durham Bulls. They beat the Indianapolis Indians 2-0 tonight at home in Durham, NC, in the opening playoff game in the International League.

For Canada Day, a Quote from Martin Short

Greetings to our readers in Tanzania, Turkey and Tahiti, our regrets that your soccer lost to Spain by a score of 10-0  during Confederate Cup play in Brazil.

Today, our neighbors to the north are celebrating Canada Day, so with that, we have a quip from Martin Short, 63, the former "SCTV" star and character actor, who hails from Hamilton, Ontario:

"I know if I were to drop dead now, people would probably write nice things about me."

SIDEBAR: In case you are wondering, a can of Blue Sky Root Bear has 170 calories in it. The company that was started in Santa Fe, N. Mex., is now based in California.

http://www.secondcity.com

http://www.bleuskysoda.com

Blogging in 3.5 Minutes (or less)........The Six Largest Cities in Brazil

Hmmm.........this iconic statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro (called Christ the Redeemer), Brazil, might fool the Rev. Pat Robertson into thinking this is a conservative, evangelical blog when in all actuality, we are about as biased as the great Eric Alterman at "The Nation."

Greetings to all our blog readers in El Salvador, Finland and South Korea.

Here are the six largest cities in Brazil:

1. Sao Paulo 11.23 million

2. Rio de Janeiro 6.33 million

3. Salvador 2.7 million

4. Brasilia (the capital) 2.563 million

5. Fortaleza 2.5 million

6. Belo Horizonte 2.4 million


http://www.cbn.com/700club/

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.ericalterman.com

http://www.visitbrasil.com

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

Rainy Days and Sundays and Weather Around the World

 

 

Rain, rain...........please go away. Obviously, we are not in Iowa where major droughts are occuring.

 

With that, here is a look at weather around the world:

 

Amsterdam 61 rain

 

Budapest 72 clear

 

Bursa, Turkey 68 clear

 

Havana, Cuba 77, heavy rain

 

Islamabad, Pakistan 75 rain

 

Istanbul 77 partly cloudy

 

Madrid 68 clear

 

Mexico City 63 cloudy

 

New Delhi 79 fog

 

Rio de Janeiro 63 cloudy

 

Rome 71 clear

 

Sofia, Bulgaria 70, mostly cloudy

 

Stockholm 55, partly cloudy

 

Tel Aviv 75 cloudy

 

http://www.weather.com

 

Politics vs. The Olympics_ A Battle of Tweets

Before we start our round-up of tweets from earlier in the day, let us explain the three images; they are of: 1) Cobi, mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which Mitt Romney was responsible for putting together (forgive the political humor), 2) American Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney who two medals in London and is now a popular meme on the web and 3) A young Mitt Romney.

We should point out that we had a real task in finding an image of Maroney that could be used as the term "McKayla Maroney meme" has gone viral.

We also want to issue a SPOILER ALERT for those of you in Denver, San Diego or Honolulu as these Olympic events have yet to air in your areas at press time.

There will be an explanation of info in the tweets at the end of this segment:

1) @newsobserver: "Former Riverside High School star Megan Hodge helps U.S. win indoor volleyball silver." *

2) @TheFix: "Paul Ryan in Manassass currently doing a better job than Mitt Romney of telling the Mitt Romney story." **

3) @InsideGym: "Also how amazing was @TomDaley1994?! Terrific performance and handled all the pressure incredibly well! Nicely done, sir!"***

4) @BarackObama: "FACT: Paul Ryan would ban all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest."

5) @WashingtonPost: "U.S. women's basketball wins 5th straight Olympic gold in a rout." ^

6) @GymnasticsView: "McKayla Maroney without MakeUp: The Olympic gymnast goes Bare-Faced."

7) @BorowitzReport: "Paul Ryan being sworn in as President would be a great last scene in Planet of the Apes remake."

*-Brazil upset the United States to win back-to-back gold medals in women's volleyball. Megan Hodge played at Penn State and Riverside High School in Durham, NC. Japan won over South Korea for bronze, but Korean volleyball star Kim Yeon-Koung aka Queen Koung top all scoring in the Olympics with 185 points.

**-For those of you in a cave in Mongolia, Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate today.

***-British diver Tom Daley took bronze

^- Team America beat France 86-50; Australia beat Russia 83-74 for bronze

Our Favorite Olympic Athletes- Don't Mess with Katie Taylor

Here is a sample of our favorite female athletes at the 2012 London Olympics:

1.Fabian Caludino, 27, volleyball, Brazil_ The Brazilian star who is one of the very best spikers in the world will help her team try to win gold over a talented Team America on Saturday; Brazil won the competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

2) Elisa DiFrancisca, 24, fencing (foil), Italy_ The Italian fencer is both a star and a sex symbol in Italy as she has often posed in bikinis for photo shoots. During the London games, she won two gold medals. One for individual foil and one for team foil.

3) Evgenia Kanaeva, 22, rhythmic gymnastics, Russia (pictured bottom)_ The competition in this sport just got started today, and it looks to be a battle between Kaaneva who won gold in Beijing and her Russian teammate Daria Dmitriea.

4) Pandelela Rinonog, 19, diving, Malaysia (pictured center)_ The Malaysian flag-bearer won bronze today in platform diving; it was the first medal for Malaysia outside of badminton.

5) Christine Sinclair, 29, soccer, Canada_ One really has to feel for Sinclair for scoring a hat trick in the team's double-overtime semi-final loss to the United States; Team America won gold today by beating Japan 2-1.

6) Katie Taylor, 26, boxing, Ireland (pictured top)_ The Irish boxer won gold today, as many had expected, by defeating Sofya Octigava in the lightweight division. Taylor won the first and only gold for Ireland at the games so far in the process.

Olympics Mosaic_ Canada Wins First Gold on Trampoline

With so much going on at once, it is virtually impossible to keep track, yet alone blog about the 2012 London Olympics. And, since we are in Providence, Rhode Island, (not where we're really at) we are virtually the last people in the world to see the Olympics live.

But, we will try our best here:

1) In the women's trampoline final, Rosannagh MacLennan, 23, (pictured above) won Canada's first gold medal thanks in part to a hop from China's Huang Shanshan, who finished with silver. Another Chinese trampolinist He Wenna got bronze. And, Canada's Karen Cockburn finished fourth. MacLennan cried as she heard the playing of "O Canada," the country's national anthem.

2) An Aryan white supremacist in the United States boasted of his attraction to the very gorgeous Czech Republic beach volleyball players Kristina Kolocova (center, left) and Marketa Slukova (center right) who upset the Brazilian duo of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes yesterday in Olympic play. The fringe right-wing extremist will undoubtedly have to reconcile the fact that the Czech team will next face the American duo of Jennifer Kessy and April Ross.

3) Iranian men's weightlifter Saed Mohammadpourkarkaragh, 19,  has perhaps assured himself of having the longest name of any athlete at the games, but gold in his event went to Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan, a country with a reputation of long surnames of their own.

4) Chinese women's diver He Zi, 21, has perhaps assured herself of having the shortest name of any athlete at the games and she will be taking a silver medal home too; we were amused when the NBC announcer said the diver, quite an attractive athlete, did not have a boyfriend because she doesn't have time for that. Her teammate Wu Minixa won the gold, while Laura Sanchez Soto of Mexico came in the third today. Italian diver Tania Lagnotto finished a respectable close fourth. We were also impressed with American diver Cassidy Krug (pictured below), a Stanford University alum and one of our favorite American athletes; she finished seventh in an event that featured many amazing dives.

5) We conclude with another water sport as the United States beat Italy 9-6 in women's water polo in a quarter-final match. Melissa Seidemann, who like Cassidy Krug is a graduate of Stanford University, had a hat trick in the win.

http://www.olympic.ca

www.usawaterpolo.org

http://www.usadiving.org

http://www.gostanford.com

http://www.kolocova-slukova.cz

Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight_ Obama Celebrates Team USA Golds

Lots of tweets tonight regarding the 2012 London Olympics; let's jump in the pool:

1) @CaseyMatthews50: "Congrats to Oregon Alum Galen Rupp for taking silver today in the 10k!"

2) @BarackObama: "President Obama celebrating the Olympic and Paraolympic athletes of Team USA in his weekly address."

3) @UCLAAthletics: "All-time UCLA medal count now up to 242 after Mark Hunter's silver in rowing," (the middle image is of the UCLA mascot).

4) @forrestfire: "Quit Russian around and Czech out the  Olympics. I'm covered in Greece from the Turkey I ate earlier, but I'm still Hungary. Poland."

5) @destineehooker: "Sweet dreams everyone. USA x Turkey tomorrow." (The top image is of American women's indoor volleyball player Destine Hooker. Turkey, ranked eighth in the world in the sport, plays the USA, ranked first, tomorrow in a highly anticipated game.)

6) @StayAdventurous: "In battle of beautiful women Czech Republic beat Brasil today." (Indeed, Czech women's beach volleyball players Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova upset the Brazilian duo of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes. The image below is actually of a beach volleyball game in Turkey. The tweeter splled Brazil as Brasil. There is a photo of the Czech duo posing topless_with hands covering bare breasts on the net_but, we don't want to lose readers in Dubai!).

http://www.usavolleyball.com

http://www.tvf.org.tr

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.goducks.com

http://kolocova_slukova.cz

UPDATE: Fortunately, we did not mention which country Mark Hunter (rowing) represented. A time of the tweet from UCLA, we presumed he rowed for America, but actually he rowed for Great Britain. Zac Purchase was his teammate in the two-man rowing competition on Saturday.

Quote the Day/Week-Charles Barkley

Ahh, yes, we could be watching the film "Man's Favorite Sport (1964, dir. Howard Hawks) with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss right now on TCM, but instead, we are dedicating an entry with a quote from Charles Barkley, who was not the inspiration for the 1980s sitcom "Charles in Charge" with Scott Baio of "Happy Days" fame.

Today, we are starting a month-long series of quotes from American athletes who won gold or silver at the Olympics. And, even though Barkley's Phoenix Suns lost to his friend Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals, the Auburn alum did win two gold medals in basketball at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as part of the "Dream Team."

Barkley lead the Dream Team in scoring during the 1992 games when he scored 30 points in a 127-83 win over Brazil. Barkley was also involved in an ugly incident when he elbowed Herlander Coimbra from Angola, in a game that the Dream Team won by an overwhelming 116-48 margin. Some players from the other teams were reportedly so delighted to be on the same court with the likes of Barkley, Jordan and Magic Johnson, that that some of them actually, allegedly sought autographs from the Dream Team members after the game!

Barkley also played for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets during his NBA career; he is now a commentator for TNT.

Here is his quote:

"I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations. That gets me in trouble."http://www.charlesbarkley.com