10 for 10 (8th Entry): The First Line of the Novel 'Choke'

Greetings to our blog readers in Macedonia, Belgium, and Jordan.......in order to substantially increase our global audience we will name drop Serbian soccer player Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea and German striker Mesut Ozil , who is of Turkish heritage, for Arsenal.

Tonight actually marks the 10th anniversary of our first blog entry here on this blog, to our knowledge only four or five people read that one. Hopefully, at least 98 will read this entry (nudge, nudge, wink, wink....)

On a personal note, we want to send our kudos to Chris Hurst, the 11:00 news anchor for WDBJ-7 in Roanoke, Va. If you watched CNN a few weeks ago, you saw him speak with Anderson Cooper, he has been through a lot. Tonight marks his second week of returning to the broadcast booth. Since Roanoke is our hometown, we wish Hurst the best.

We were hoping a joke about Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor who dropped out of the Republican presidential candidate race, but we are running late, and you can see the tweets of his former employee Liz Mair, which are indeed quite amusing.

Tonight, we are going retro with the first line of Chuck Palahniuk's great 2001 cult classic novel "Choke." A few years ago, we had lots of fun with posts about the first lines of novels, such as Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace," which we must profess to have never read!

Here is the first line from "Choke:"

"If you're going to read this, don't bother. After a couple pages, you won't want to be here. So forget it. Go away. Get out while you're still in one piece. Save yourself."

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/

10 for 10 (7th Entry): Virtual Postcard from North Carolina....

Greetings to our readers in Uruguay, Panama, and South Korea....

Our initial choice for a virtual postcard was the quaint small town of Madison, which is hosting a heritage festival on Saturday, Oct. 3rd, with 100 vendors, but we couldn't find a suitable image. Madison is in Rockingham County, which also includes the towns of Eden and Reidsville.

Instead, we opt for this photo of Old Salem in Winston-Salem, some 45 miles west of Madison. Winston-Salem is also the host of the River Run Film Festival in April, and the home of Wake Forest University.

In European soccer action today, Eden Hazard of Chelsea scored a late goal to solidify a 2-0 victory over their London crosstown rivals Arsenal.

In the Netherlands, Heracles upset PSV Eindhoven 2-1. And, in Turkey, the Istanbul powerhouse Galatasaray managed a 1-0 victory over perennial contender Trabzonspor.

http://www.townofmadison.org/

http://www.shoprockinghamcounty.com/

http://www.oldsalem.org/

http://www.visitwinstonsalem.com/

Ten Things to Know: Cold War Remembered

1) "The Originalist," a play about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the second most conservative members of 'The Supremes' after Clarence Thomas, is extending its run at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, until May 31st. The play stars Edward Gero as Scalia. The play was written by John Strand and the production is directed by Molly Smith. (The justice is pict. top, not the actor playing him on stage).

2) The Robert Cray Band will perform at the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Va., one hour south of Roanoke, on May 5th.

3) CINE Cinema Bar Cafe, an independent cinema in Athens, Ga., will be screening shorts in a program entitled The Best Films of the New York International Children's Film Festival on May 2nd and 3rd.

4) According to the BBC, China has overtaken France in wine production. China is however still second behind Spain. America has the highest wine consumption with France and Italy ranking second and third.

5) The BBC also reported that Mustafa Akinci, a center-left politician has won the presidential election for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a country that is only recognized by Turkey. Akinci defeated incumbent conservative Dervis Eroglu by gaining 60-percent of the popular vote. Akinci promises to make stronger efforts to unify the divided island nation of Cyprus.

6) Two of European soccer's most-anticipated weekend soccer games, Arsenal vs. Chelsea in the EPL and Benfica vs. Porto in Portugal, both concluded in 0-0 ties.

7) Author Richard Martin will speak about his new book "Coal Wars" at the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., on April 30th.

8) Novelist Mary Costello will read from her latest work "Academy Street" about an Irish immigrant to New York on May 1st at Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore, in Washington, DC.

9) According to Uberfacts, the Soviet Union refused to hold the 1980 Paralympics because the nation claimed it did not have any disabled athletes.(1980 Olympics, pict. center)

10) On this day in 1965, CBS reporting legend Edward R. Murrow, who grew up on a family farm near Greensboro, NC, died at age 57. (pict. bottom)

http://www.arenastage.org/

https://www.harvester-music.com/

http://www.athenscine.com/intro.php

http://boulderbookstore.indiebound.com/

http://www.politics-prose.com/


http://www.athenscine.com/intro.php

Best of Sunday Washington Post Comics (Oct. 12th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, Netherlands and Italy, we recognize that all three countries had club team defeats today in UEFA Champions League play today, but if you are from Slovenia and you root for Maribor, just go ahead and enjoy London and forget about the penalty kick from Didier Drogba of Chelsea and the other four or five goals that followed. Yeah, I guess that is easier said than done as we say here in America.

Our personal favorite comic strip from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 12th edition) was "Lio," in which the title character sees an alien who looks exactly like one in the Alien films with Sigourney Weaver, clips off a tab from a poster to learn how to dress for Halloween.

The silver medal went to American gymnast Nastia Liukin (just seeing if you were doodling) or rather "Sherman's Lagoon" in which Sherman the shark and his family try to get holiday photos at a Walgreen's in Dayton, Ohio (or some place like that).

A moving tribute to Robin Williams as Mork (center image) in "Mork and Mindy" was our third-place pick, and "Mark Trail," which featured an amazing illustration of a rock python strangling a crocodile (bottom image is of the beloved children's lit character Gena the Crocodile).....yeah, we have a bit of an off-beat sense of humor here.

Here is the top 10:

1) Lio

2) Sherman's Lagoon

3) Brewster Rockit

4) Mark Trail

5) Zits

6) Candorville

7) Knight Life

8) Doonesbury

9) Frazz

10) Judge Parker

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://shermanslagoon.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit

http://www.tvland.com/

http://www.hulu.com/mork-and-mindy

http://www.marktrail.com

http://www.nastialiukin.com/

World Cup Lists (1 of 4): The Goal-Keepers

Greetings to our readers in Panama, Canada and the Czech Republic, who are among the many countries which alas did not make the World Cup field of 32.

We start our series of World Cup lists with a look at the goal-keepers for teams that have made the knock-out round of 16 in Brazil:

1) Jasper Cillessen. Netherlands. Age 25. Ajax Amsterdam (pictured top)

2) Fernando Muslera. Uruguay. 28. Galatasaray (Turkey; pictured center)

3) Vincent  Enyeama. Nigeria. 31. Lille (France; pictured bottom)

4) Orestis Karnezis. Greece. 28. Granada (Spain)

5) Julio Cesar. Brazil. 34. Toronto FC (Canada/MLS)

6) Tim Howard. USA. 35. Everton (USA)

7) David Ospina. Colombia. 25. Nice (France)

8) Keylor Navas. Costa Rica. 27. Levante (France)

9) Diego Benglio. Switzerland. 30. Wolfsburg (Germany)

10) Sergio Romero. Argentina. 31. Monaco (France)

11)  Thibut Courtois. Belgium. 22. Chelsea (England)

http://www.espn.go.com

Soccer Week (7 of 8): American Player Tim Howard Shuts Down Chelsea

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
We now how Dutch international Maikel va der Werff, who plays for the Dutch soccer team Zwolle, felt when he kicked in an own goal which propelled Ajaz Amsterdam to defeat Zwolle 2-1.

As we were typing to score for the Southampton-West Ham game which ended in a 0-0 tie, we punched the wrong button and all of our work (if one can call blogging work) vanished.

But, our header was that American goal-keeper Tim Howard (pictured above) came back from helping Team USA earn a World Cup bid by defeating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. And, then he flew back to England to help his team Everton (based in Liverpool) defeat London powerhouse Chelsea 1-0.

The lone goal of the match was scored by Steven Naismith of Scotland during extra time of the first half.

Mesut Ozil, a German national of Turkish heritage, had a solid debut with Arsenal as he contributed an assist in the team's 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Gyfli Sigurdsson of Iceland score two goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

French national Yoan Gouffan scored the game-winner for Newcastle United in the 73rd minute of play.

Finally, the stars came out for Manchester United as both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney came through for the home team.

Here is a complete list of weekend games in the English Premiere League:

Man U 2 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 (tie)

Liverpool 2 Swansea 2 (tie)

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Fulham 1 West Brom 1 (tie)

Tottenham 2 Norwich 0

Everton 1 Chelsea 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

Stoke City 0 Man City 0 (tie)

Hull City 1 Stoke City 1 (tie)

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.evertonfc.com

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com

http://www.nufc.co.uk/

Coming Soon (we hope): Futbol Week

On Friday, we are hoping to launch a seven-day series devoted totally to soccer both here in the United States with weekend MLS games as well as Mexico and Europe.

The top image is of Serbian national Branislav Ivanovic, a star player for London's Chelsea football club. Today, German national Mesut Ozil, who is of Turkish heritage, signed with one of Chelsea's main rivals, Arsenal.

The bottom image is of Drew Moor, an American defender who plays for the Colorado Rapids in the MLS. Alas, our personal favorite MLS team, DC United is having a disastrous year so far!

Soccer Night: England_ Chelsea Is the Homecoming King

It is now 4:45 a.m. in London, England, and you are with the BBC; well, actually you are with us, and we are in Providence, Rhode Island (not really where we are, but the same time zone).

To avoid any confusion, let's first mention that the top image is of Theo Walcott of Arsenal who defeated struggling QPR 1-0 today on a goal from the English national in the very first minute of play. Similarly, Gareth Bale, one of the EPL's top stars, scored the lone goal for his Tottenham Hotspurs in a 1-0 win over Southampton.

Neither player is with Chelsea, the London team which has its logo in the middle, but Chelsea did advance to the UEFA Europa League finals in Amsterdam with a win over FC Basel, a Swiss team with a Turkish-Swiss coach Murat Yakin, who at 38 is younger than some active players.

The current EPL standings have Manchester United in first with 85 points (they have already clinched a league title) followed by Manchester City with 72 points. Arsenal is in third with 67 points. And, Chelsea and Tottenham are tied for fourth with 65 points.

The EPL has also made headlines for a biting incident involving the very notorious Luis Suarez of Liverpool, who plays for Uruguay internationally, against Chelsea. Alas, for the folks in Montevideo, Suarez is the most recognized person from their country. Perhaps, Vatican City should have chosen a pope from their country instead.

Let's cut the nonsense, here are the EPL scores for LAST week's games:

1. Manchester City 2 West Hampton 1

2. Reading 0 QPR 0, tie

3. Arsenal 1 Manchester United 1, tie

4. Everton 1 Fulton 0

5. West Brom 3 Southampton 0

6. Aston Villa 6 Sunderland 1

7. Chelsea 2 Swansea 0

8. Tottenham Hotspurs 2 Wigan Ath. 2, tie

9. Liverpool 6 Newcastle 0

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.nocturanlguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

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

Sports Desk- Arsenal 5 Tottenham 2

We focus again on the English Premiere League (EPL) where an amazing seven goals were scored between Arsenal and Tottenham, which was won by Arsenal 5-2.

For Arsenal, the goals came from French national Barca Sagna (40th minute), Dutch star Robin van Persie (43rd min.), Czech national Tomas Rosicky (51st minute) and two goals from English national Theo Walcott (65th and 68th mins.), who is pictured with this entry.

For the losing Tottenham Hotspurs, which actually was ahead of Arsenal in the EPL table (they were in 3rd place, Arsenal in 5th) the goals came from French national Louis Saha (64th min.) and the Togo national Emmanuel Adebayor (penalty, 34th min.).

Chelsea had a big day on Saturday as it blanked Bolton 3-0 with a goal coming from the Ivory Coast superstar Didier Drogba (61st min.). Other Chelsea goals came from Brazilian national David Luiz (48th min.) and the team's English captain Frank Lompard (79th min.).

Both Manchester teams continued to fight each other for top of the EPL as Machester City shut out Blackburn 3-0 on Saturday with goals from Mario Balotelli (30th min.), Sergio Aguero (52nd min.) and Edin Dzeko (81st min.).

Manchester United won on Sunday with a 2-1victory over Norwich City; the goals for MU came from Paul Scholes (74th min.) and Ryan Giggs (92nd min.) while Norwich City's captain Grant Holt scored the lone goal for his side in the 85 minute.

Here are the tables for this weekend's EPL games:

Aston Villa 0 Wigan Athletic 0, tie
Manchester City 3 Blackburn 0
Fulham 1 Queens Park 0
West Brom Ath. 4 Sunderland 0
Chelsea 3 Bolton 0
Wolves 2 New Castle 0

Manchester United 1 Norwich City 1
Arsenal 5 Tottenham Hotspurs 2
Stoke City 2 Swansea 0

Sports Desk- American Comes Through for Fulham

Even though there are seven American players in the English Premiere League and American teams have generally played competitively in World Cup play, the term American soccer star may still seem like a bit of an oxy moron in Europe.

But, today one American soccer star Clint Dempsey (pictured here) scored the lone goal in the late stages of the match to ensure a huge 1-0 upset for Fulham over visting Liverpool; Dempsey's goal came in the 84th minute of play as Liverpool was down a player due to a red card. The match was televised in America in the late afternoon (New York time) on ESPN-2.

On Saturday, ESPN-2 also televised Chelsea's 3-0 drubbing of New Castle. The game was much more competitive than the final score indicates. Didier Drogba, the sensational Ivory Coast national, hit an amazing header to give Chelsea the 1-0 lead in the 38th minute. His countrymen and Chelsea teammate Solomon Kalou scored in the 89th minute followed shortly thereafter by an extra-time goal from Daniel Sturridge.

Chelsea will play Spanish power Valencia in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow.

Tottenham continued their hot streak with their own 3-0 win over Bolton. Goals came from the young Welsh emerging superstar Gareth Bale. English players Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe added one goal each.

Tottenham feautres American goalie icon Brad Friedel, who is still playing at age
40. He has also played for Galatasaray (Turkey), the Columbus Crew (MLS) and Liverpool, among many other teams. The last part of his long career has been in the English Premiere League.

As for Bolton, the team features the EPL's only active Turkish player Tuncay Sanli, formerly of Fenerbahce, Galatasaray's main rival, and American player Stuart Holderly, formerly of the Houston Dynamo (MLS), so we wish them well.

In a low-scoring affair, Phil Jones, a 19-year-old English player, scored the lone goal in Manchester United's vital 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

Arsenal, a team that plays Greek powerhouse Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League tomorrow, had no challenge from the struggling Wigan squad as they decimated them
4-0. Arsenal's goals came from Spanish national Mikhel Arteta, German player Thomas Vermoelen, Ivory Coast national Yao Gervinho and the Dutch superstar Robin van Persie, who has been scoring many goals all season in both domestic and UEFA play.

With a 5-1 win over Norwich, Manchester City remained on top of the English Premiere League standings, which currently stand this way:

1. Manchester City 38

2. Manchester United 22

3. Tottenham 31

4. Chelsea 28

5. Arsenal 26

Here is a complete list of the scores from domestic play in England:

Chelsea 3 New Castle 0

Tottenham 3 Bolton 0

Arsenal 4 Wigan 0

Stoke City 1 Everton 0

Wolverton 2 Sunderland 1

Manchester United 1 Aston Villa 0

Queen Park 1 West Brom. 1, tie

Machster City 5 Norwich 1

Blackburn 4 Swansea 2

Fulham 1 Liverpool 0

CLARIFCATION: Though we had the correct title for German filmmaker Werner Herzog's documentary in our entry last Tuesday, which is called "Death Row" in Europe, the title here in America, where the film about American death row inmates is called "Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life." It is now playing at theatres in major American cities.