NCAA College Gymnastics Championship Tweets: This is Not a Contact Sport

Today marks the start of the NCAA Women's College Gymnastics Championships in Forth Wroth, Texas, and apparently we will get hate mail if we refer to the city as a suburb of Dallas.

As of this writing, three teams have advanced to tomorrow's Super Six with three more to join them tonight. SPOILER ALERT: Florida, Stanford and Utah advanced, while Michigan, UCLA and Georgia did not.

Here are tweets from before and after the early session meet. The gymnast pictured here is former Florida Gators gymnast Randy Stageberg, yes, we are aware that is not a typical woman's name!:

1) Nebraska Women's Gym: Today's the day. The NCAA Championships are about to get a taste of the hashtag-perfect storm.

2) Some guy named Casey: Waiting for the doors to open!!! Can't wait to cheer for StanfordWGym to the super six. hashtag-fearthetree.

3) Samantha Peszek: It's game time Bruins, lezzzgooo

4) UCLA Gymnastics: All gymnasts master difficult skills. Danuscia Francis likes to invent new ones.

5) Stanford Gymnastics: Stanford's final score of 197.175 is its third-highest at any NCAA Championship.

6) Florida Gators Gymnastics: Gator senior Rachel Spicer returns to Texas as NCAA Championships cap emotional senior year.

7) Oregon State Gymnastics: Congrats to UtahGymnastics and StanfordWGym making it to Super Six! hashtag-BackthePAC

8) Illionois Women's Gym: Giana O'Connor totals a 39.425 that finishes tied for 3rd in the semifinal session.

9) UCLAGymnastics: Samantha Peszek has qualified for event finals on beam and floor and is a 1st-team All-American on those events.

Sunday Night Tweets: Be on the Look-Out for Runaway Cheetahs

During our last entry, we said that we were going to send Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink (pictured center) a card to congratulate the Netherlands' successful third place  finish at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Alas, a Malaysian Airlines plane carrying 385 passengers, about half of which were Dutch citizens, was shot down by Russian separatist terrorists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, so the Netherlands has gone from a period of joy to tragedy in a very short time span. The plane was in route from Amsterdam, Holland, to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

It also been a disastrous week for Palestinian-Israeli relations as Israel has taken defensive measures by bombing Palestinian areas in the West Bank, killing scores of women and children, which also coincides with the Muslim Ramadan holiday.

But, we do have some light-hearted tweets as well; let's take a look:

1) Washington DC News: Pro-Palestinian Groups march to the White House.

2) Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Man arrested after barricading himself, and a 2-year-old in a Mount Washington apartment.

3) Mark Duplass (actor/filmmaker): "The Master" is now streaming on Netflix. Do it. Like now!

4) The Onion: This week, last year FBI offered $1 million for any information on cheetahs (see top image)

5) Netherlands Embassy: The Dutch embassy in DC will open a condolence register for victims of MH17 this Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

6) Dallas Morning News: Dallas police handing out Slurpee tickets to kids for being good (Bottom image, actually of a 7-11 in Japan).

7) Jeremiah Owyang: Seriously, the current news cycle is morbid and bleak. Hoping for a better week, planet earth.

Presdiential Quotes (11 of 16): John F. Kennedy

To answer your question, especially those of you who read this blog in Kazakhstan (we're not making that up!): "Yes, it was our intention to have this series of quotes from American presidents overlap with the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which occurred on Nov. 22nd.

This is also the 20th anniversary of the release of Oliver Stone's controversial film about the Kennedy assassination "JFK." The year before, then-independent filmmaker Richard Linklater poked fun of Kennedy assassination  conspiracy theorists in a segment for his film "Slacker," filmed in Austin, Tex. JFK was killed in Dallas, Tex.

President Kennedy who hailed from Massachusetts is perennially ranked as the most popular 20th Century president, eclipsing both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

Ironically, he has even been praised by conservatives who generally opposed the Democratic Party, which all of the Kennedys (also Sens. Robert and Teddy) were a member of. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died in 2009, was the last remaining Kennedy brother.

The right-wing spoof film "An American Carol," which generally got bad reviews, from the makers of "Airplane" actually included a positive representation of Kennedy, who was played by character actor Chriss Anglin.

Along with Robert Kennedy, JFK is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C. and the JFK Presidential Library is located in Boston, Mass.

Here is JFK's quote:

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolutions inevitable."

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org

http://www.jfklibrary.org

Quote of the Day- Dirk Nowitzki

Today's quote of the day comes from German NBA superstar Dirk Nowitzki. The Dallas Mavericks, the team that Nowitzki captains, is currently tied 2-2 with the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.

Though we try to be somewhat neutral here with sports (but certainly not politics...if Mitt Romney wants my vote he better start break-dancing to "Word Up" by Cameo), we are rooting for the Mavericks, a team which has yet to win an NBA title.

Here is the quote from Nowitzki; we presume this was made after a heart-breaking defeat earlier in his career:

"We weren't good enough in the fourth quarter. You have to play for 48 minutes against a team like Phoenix. They made shots off of our mistakes. We turned the ball over and you can't do that."

50 Beers from Around the World (#42 Pillsner Urgell from Czech Rep.)

Today we feature the very popular brew Pillsner Urgell from the Czech Republic, which is widely available in America. The brew is the original pillsner brand, which has spread all over the world to include the likes of the Turkish beer Efes Pilsen and the Mexican beer Pacifico.

Pillsner Urgell started in Pilsen (in Bohemia), and it is now also brewed in Poland and Russia. The beer has a heavier body, but it has less alcohol than most American beers.

According to the web site czechbeerguide.com, one of the best bars in Prague, the Czech capital, is U Flecku.

Here is les etats unis, if one is in Dallas, Tex., The Libertine Bar, which has Tempura Asparagus for $8, is open tomorrow. We are not sure at what point!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

According to new textbooks being distributed to high school students in Plano, Tex., the nuclear bombs we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, towards the end of World War Two did harm or injure any civilians.

In all seriousness, we wish all war veterans past and present a pleasant Memorial Day.

And, if you happen to be one of those folks who leans to the right and doesn't care for my political humor, don't worry---you can always rent out Chuck Norris films (as well all the Godzilla films ever made!) on Netflix! Ironically, I was thinking about adding "Delta Force" which I saw in the late '80s on cable because it is the last screen appearance of Lee Marvin who happened to serve in World War Two.

Know Your Mayors (18 of 21) - Tom Leppert of Dallas, Texas

We are continuing our public service series "Know Your Mayors," which seems as popular as classroom biology films from the '70s, with a profile of Tom Lepppert, the mayor of Dallas, Texas, the city hosting this weekend's NBA All-Star Game (the game is actually being played in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, TX). The Dallas Mavericks have been struggling, but they remain in playoff contention.

Leppert, born on June 15, 1954, was elected mayor in June, 2007. He won a run-off election with city councilman Ed Oakley. Leppert condemned anti-gay robocalls aimed at the openly gay Oakley which were run by the the Heritage Alliance PAC. Leppert got 58 percent of the vote in the election.

Even though the mayor's office is non-paritsan, Leppert is believed to be a Republican, according to Wikipedia, but he has emphasized a growth in city government and supported indoor smoking ordinances which have been opposed by traditional conservatives in Dallas. Leppert is also considered moderate to liberal in the areas of education and homelessness.

In the web site for the mayor's office, Leppert said that he has worked to improve the quality of life in Dallas by reducing the crime rate and luring big companies, like AT & T, to the downtown area.

Leppert has also lead trade delegations to China, Taiwan and Mexico.

Before entering civic life, Leppert was the CEO of Turner Construction where he helped the company earn more profits in seven years than it had in the previous 97 years combined.

During his tenure, Dallas has made friendship city pacts with two Chinese cities.

He was preceded in office by former mayor Laura Miller.

Leppert also has college degrees from Claremont McKenna College and Harvard University.

SIDEBAR_ The Washington, DC, area was hit with yet another major snowstorm yesterday. As a result, the City of Rockville, Md., has postponed its Town Hall meeting scheduled for 8:00 p.m. tonight. The city is also asking residents to stay home while road crews clean up the freaking mess....well, that wasn't exactly how they worded it on their web page!