Celebrating International Literacy Day with Gillian Flynn

Welcome to our blog readers in Croatia, Estonia, and France....

Today we celebrate International Literacy Day, and this list features titles we have not read before or perhaps did but fell asleep in the process. A children's author highly recommended I read more Ray Bradbury. So, we are putting a Bradbury novel on the list, but not the one he suggested, as is our usual fashion, like Matthew Broderick's title character in the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' we are a bit rebellious around here!

And, now the list....

1) Cosmopolis. Don DeLillo. 2003 (pict. top)

2) Me and Orson Welles. Robert Kaplow. 2008.

3) The Leftovers. Tom Perrotta. 2011.

4) Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn. 2012 (pict. center)

5) Submarine. Joe Dunthorne. 2008.

6) God's Pocket. Pete Dexter. 1983.

7) Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. 1953.

8) Tender Is the Night. F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1934 (pict. bottom)

9) The Naked and the Dead. Norman Mailer. 1948.

10) The Museum of Innocence. Orhan Pamuk.* 2008

*-originally published in Turkish

http://www.internationliteracyday.com

http://www.denverlibrary.org (Denver Library)

Ten MoviesPlusMovies: We Hope These (Somewhat) Work

Greetings once again! We are coming to you today live from the main public library in Denver, Colo. (ok, not really where we are at!). Last week, on Twitter, we saw that hashtag MoviePlusMovie was trending and after a brief bout of confusion, we came up with tons and tons of idea. So, we said, to heck with Twitter, let's post them on our two blogs!

The poster above are for: 1) "The Darn Cat!" (the original Disney movie with the late Dean Jones who is still alive, our apologies to Mr. Jones if he stumbles onto this blog); 2) Blacula, a '70s Dracula ripoff, which is every bit as amusing as the Turkish film "Drakula in Istanbul" that was made in the '50s; and "The Gods Must Be Crazy," a great South African cult comedy that came out in the mid-1980s.

Here is our list:

1) That Darn Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

2) Blacula: Dead and Loving It

3) The Gods Must Be Stir Crazy

4) An American Psycho in Paris

5) All is Lost in Space

6) High Anxiety Society

7) The History of the War of the Roses, Part One (yes, that makes three Mel Brooks films we have referenced)

8) There Will Be Buckets of Blood

9) No Country for Grumpy Old Men

10) Alice in Wonderland Doesn't Live Here Any More (our apologies to Martin Scorsese)

http://denverlibrary.org/

Our Ten Favorite Comic Strips from the Roanoke Times: Speed Bump Takes the Gold

Here are our ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday "Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper of Roanoke, Va. "Speed Bump" which takes first place in our survey revolves around graffiti! The image here is of graffiti in Denver, Colo.

Here is our list:

1. Speed Bump

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Doonesbury

4. Get Fuzzy

5. Funky Winkerbean

6. Agnes

7. Family Circus (surprise!)

8. Dilbert

9. Garfield

10. Zits

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.stephanpastis.wordpress.com
 
http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

Little Thinkers (5 of 16): Claude Monet

Greetings to our blog-readers in Kuwait, Bolivia and Ireland.

Today's quote is from the French impressionist Claude Monet. Some of Monet's painting are on display at the Denver Art Museum's 'Passport to Paris,' exhibit which runs until Feb. 9th.

Here is the quote:

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

http://www.claudemonetgallery.org

http://www.denverartmuseum.org

In Honor of Banned Book Week: Passages from Six Books (not all of them were banned)

WARNING THIS ENTRY CONTAINS ONE VULGAR WORD.

Books by William S. Burroughs, Jim Thompson and Bret Easton Ellis are among the books we will be citing here. Banned Book Week concludes tomorrow. Of the books cited, we are pretty sure "Junky" by Burroughs (pictured top) and "Motorcycle Diaries" by Che Guevara were once banned. The other authors have each written controversial novels, including Ellis, who is best-known for "American Psycho," but we quip a sentence from "Glamorama" (pictured bottom) here.

For this project, we are taking the fifth sentence from page 52 of each work. The answers will be at the very end of this entry:


1. "She pulled her mouth away from his and pushed it against his neck, then pushed one of her hands down between them and the buckle of his pants."

2. " 'Uh-hah,' he nodded: "Miss Ruth told me she thought you might be here, but you was already gone when stopped by. Got you a job, eh?"

3. "He sounds terrible."

4. "How long this present order, based on an absurd idea of caste, will last, I can't say, but it's time governments spent less time publicizing their own virtues and more money, much more money, funding socially useful projects."

5. A gambling-house dealer from East Saint Louis was describing a method for cooking the carbolic acid out of a phenol, seet oil and tincture of opium script."

6, "No myths. M-y-t-h-s. Like a fag was gonna introduce you to Miss America, what would he say?"




1. "The Graduate" by Charles Webb (yes, it's the novel that was made into a Dustin Hoffman movie)

2. "Savage Night" by Jim Thompson (pictured middle)

3. "Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh

4. "Motorcycle Diaries" by Che Guevara

5. "Junky" by William S.. Burroughs

6. "Glamorama" by Bret Easton Ellis (yes, that has our one vulgar word).


http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/ (bookshop in Durham, NC)

http://www.kramers.com/index.html (book store in Washington, DC)

http://www.tatteredcover.com/ (book store in Denver, Colo.)

http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/ (Richmond Public Library, Richmond, Va)

http://www.provlib.org/ (Providence Public Library in Providence, Rhode Island)

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Now Showing: Movies at American Movie Theatres (West Coast Edition)

AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first try at posting this entry was accidentally deleted, so those of you in Paris, Istanbul and Dubai should tell all your friends to check out this blog.

Here are a look at movies showing in West Coast cinemas this weekend.

Let's start in St. Louis, even though it's pretty far from the west coast, where one can see the outstanding Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy film "Before Midnight" at the Tivoli (a Landmark theatre) at noon; 2:30; 4:45; 7:15 and 9:45 p.m.

In the Mile-High City, one can see a documentary called "Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie" about the late right-wing tv host (pictured bottom) at the Denver Film Society Colfax at 7:20 and 9:30 p.m.

The Salt Lake Film Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, is screening another documentary "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" which profiles the far-left founder of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (pictured top) at 2:00 and 4:30 p.m.

At Cinema 21 in Portland, Ore., one can see the latest film from director Joss Whedon ("The Cabin in the Woods") called "Much Ado About Nothing," yeah, we're not sure how much it has to do with William Shakespeare either!

In San Francisco, one can see perhaps one of the most unique documentaries playing anywhere as the Roxie Theatre screens "I Am Gay and Muslim" as part of the cinema's gay-lesbian film festival with shows at 7:00 p.m. The Dutch film from director Chris Bellami, which lasts 59 minutes, profiles gay men in Morocco.

Lastly, in L.A., one can see another documentary "20 Feet From Stardom" at the Landmark.

For listings of showings at east coast arthouses (and, this is where we effed up before) go to our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" at http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.denverfilm.org

http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org

http://www.landmarktheatres.com

http://www.roxie.com

http://www.cinema21.com

Comic Strip Dialogue_ from "The Denver Post"

 

Since Leo Tolstoy is in in vogue these days, perhaps due in part to Elif Batuman and Keira Knihgtley, there are probably folks putting "I must read 'War and Peace' this year," on their list of New Year's resolutions for 2013. Hmmm....I think I'll just put read the Dr. Seuss classic "Cat in the Hat" on my list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

 

I think we just broke the record for use of exclamation points on this blog; on that note, here is comic strip dialouge from the Sunday Dec. 16, 2012 edition of "The Denver Post"!!!!!!!!!!!!:

 

1) "Don't touch me!" (from "Zits"!

 

2) "Oh wait a minute! What am I thiking! It's fish!" (from "Pickles") !

 

3) "She's rolling.....Pop the clutch! Pop the clutch!" (from "Rhymes with Orange")!

 

4) "Holiday Sale! Guys! Holiday Sale!" (from "Baldo")!

 

5) "Mommy! I'm thirsty!" (from "Family Circus")!

 

6) "It's Christmas Time!" (from "Marmaduke")!

 

7) "Hey, No, Wait. None of this stuff was my idea!!" (from "Mother Goose and Grimm")!!

 

 

Sunday Comics Dialogue_ Bombs Away

 

 

Here's a look at today's Sunday comic strip dialogue from "The Denver Post," we were going to give you the weather in Baltimore (45 degrees, partly cloudy) but due to time constriants, we are going to go ahead with some nifty lines from those cartoon balloons. We hope you enjoy:

 

 

 

1) "Louie!!! What are you so excited about?" (from "Overboard*)

 

2) "There are a lot of apocalypse-themed shows on these days" (from "Prickly City*)

 

3) "Pizza!! Pizza!!" (from "The Knight Life" by Keith Knight*)

 

4) "It's just too soon! It's just too soon!" (from "Dilbert")

 

5) "Boy, they're really stetching out this season's winners" (from "Blondie")

 

6) "What's the best way to get rid of garlic breath, I recently had a cold," (from "Luann")

 

7) "What's with the canary?" (from "Mother Goose and Grimm")

 

8) "We should go back in time to 1970" (from "Adam @ Home")

 

9) "No Love, he died before you were born" (from "Family Circus")

 

10) "This is George Washington. You can look him up on the Internet, too." (from "Sherman's Lagoon")

 

11) "Then I spent an hour in the waiting room" (from "Pearls Before Swine")

 

12) "I just tend to get really depressed this time of the year" (from "Mallard Fillmore*, yes- we are still a liberal blog...."; it is a right of center strip)

 

13) "Uhm, sir...what's with all the boxes? Are you moving to an even more prestigious office?" (from "This Modern World"*http://www.boulderweekly.com#)

 

14) "Nicole will go on Facebook and tell everyone how sweet and super awesome you are..." (from "Foxtrot*)

 

 

*- Not a strip that ran in the Sunday "Denver Post"

 

#- Strip ran in "The Boulder Weekly"

 

 

 

Virtual Postcard from Ohio- World's Oldest Traffic Light

It's now 4:00 p.m. in Denver, midnight in Paris and 3:00 a.m. in Dubai, whereever you may be today thanks for stopping by and tell all your friends and distant relatives about us.

Today, we are sending each of you a Virtual Postcard from Ohio with an image of the world's oldest stoplight which sits in a small museum in Ashville, Ohio, which is relatively close to Cincinnati.

We also learned today that there is a real Alice's Restaurant in Woodside, Calif., even though the Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving Day epic late 1960s' folk song (it lasts 19 minutes) takes place in New England, which is three time zones away.

Virtual Postcard from West Virginia- Babcock State Park

Today, we are starting an entry series dedicated to our rather lengthy road trip for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend from Roanoke, Va., to Denver, Colo. For those of you in Europe, this might be as far or farther than a drive from Paris, France, to Van, Turkey, a city in far southeastern Turkey which is near the Iranian border.

The image above is from the lovely Babcock State Park in central eastern West Virginia, in relative close proximity to Beckley. It is an even more amazing when snow is around the structure and the adjoining creek.

More on the road trip in tomorrow's blog where we will share an image of Kentucky.

http://www.wvtourism.com
http://www.visitwv.com
http://www.babcocksp.com

Sunday Comics Dialogue_ A Cameo from Big Bird

Greetings to our friends in Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver and San Diego here in the USA, and to those of you in London, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Dubai.........

Today's entry looks at funny pages dialogue from the Sunday, Nov. 18th edition of "The Charleston Gazette-Mail" in Charleston, W.Va., which still carries the wonderful comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm," which features a cameo from Big Bird, but Mitt Romney was nowhere to be seen (to think 47-percent of our fellow Americans wanted Mitty Rich to be prez.....wow!).

Oh...but, first an update on how former American gold-medal winning gymnast Shawn Johnson is doing on "Dancing with the Stars," drats, someone changed the channel!

Here we go:

1) "Just a turkey hallucination. I get them this time every year" (from "Garfield")

2) "Ok, I'll need to but a turkey," (from "Grand Avenue")

3) "It's not proper for a girl to call a boy on the telephone" (from "Peanuts")

4) "They're trying to kill me out there. They want to cut my head off. I'm going to die!!" (from "Mother Goose and Grimm," a turkey is talking)

5) "What a great cook! I'm the luckiest man in the world!" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

6) "It says here that more Americans are eating something besides turkey for Thanksgiving." (from "Over the Hedge")

7) "Our invitation for tonight is lit up........more than 200 and climbing!" (from "Rex Morgan M.D.")

8) "Very nice?! Are you kidding?! She's world-class!!" (from "Blondie")

9) "I'm still fond of soft-spoken intellectuals" (from "Shoe")

10) "She asked me to put up the holiday lights while she was gone." (from "Dilbert")

11) "When I come back, I'll show you some trout holes you won't believe." (from "Judge Parker")

12) "What are those funny-looking birds?" (from "Hi and Lois")

http://www.wvgazette.com

http://www.grimmy.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.blondie.com

Ten People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (4 of 10)

Today, we continue our series, which had its last entry back in July?! on ten possible people who could decide this election. Today, we look at the swing state of Colorado, with this fictional librarian.

Name: Nancy Rose

Occupation: Librarian

Residency: Loveland, Colo.

Age: 49

Party Affiliation: Independent Who Leans Democratic

Will Likely Vote For: Obama

Loveland, Colo., is located some 40 miles north of Denver; the city is located in Larimer County. Cecil Guiterrez is the mayor of the 14th largest city in Colorado.

In 2008, Larimer County voted for Barack Obama by a 55-45 margin; the eventual president won by even bigger margins in San Miguel County (Telluride) with 78 percent of the vote and Boulder County with 73 percent of the vote. But, rural parts of Colorado are heavily Republican as is Colorado Springs, which has a large evangelical base and is home to the Air Force Academy.

President Obama gave a stump speech at the University of Colorado just days before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte; the 2008 convention was in Denver.

http://www.coloradodems.org

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.coloradogop.org

http://www.mittromney.com

http://www.denverlibrary.org/

Saturday Tweets_ Mary Lou Retton is Still One of America's Girls

Here are some tweets gathered from the 3:00-4:00 p.m. hour, New York time, when it was 7:00 p.m. in Akureyri, Iceland and 10:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, Israel:

1) @WNYC (WNYC-New York): "Judge Nixes NYC's 5-Borough Taxi Overhaul."

2) @Sports_Greats: "Be cocky. Walk into the Georgia Dome like you own it_ Mary Lou Retton" (The 1984 American Olympic gymnast from West Virginia is pictured top).

3) @ColoradoRapids: "We are too @DenverZoo: #Rapids very excited for 2nd annual Wildlife Education Night and match today versus Chivas USA!" (The soccer team from Denver, Colo., tied Chivas USA of Los Angeles 1-1 tonight; one of their star players Conor Casey is pictured bottom).

4) @TheRealNimoy (Leonard Nimoy who played Mr. Spock on "Star Trek," pictured center): "They're saying many people won't care enough to vote in November. I hope they're wrong. Let's not slide backward to old policies."

5) @UGAGymnastics (University of Georgia Gymnastics): "A BIG thanks to all the fans who came out to picture day today. We couldn't do what we do without you all! It's Great to be a Bulldog!"

http://www.wnyc.,org

http://www.coloradrapids.com

http://www.denverzoo.org

http://www.marylouretton.com

http;//www.georgiadogs.com

Casualties of Modern Technology (10 of 12)- The Station Wagon

Given sky-rocketing gas prices and concerns that oil barons in Dubai are getting wealthy at American motorist's expense, one of the few areas where the right and left agree here in the United States, the station wagon is clearly a highway dinosaur, though I did spot one in a rural part of North Carolina several weeks ago.

The station wagon, according to Wikipedia, is an automobile that has a sedan/saloon with its roof extended. The vehicle also consists of of a three-box design or 'an auto with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver.'

The car was first developed in 1922, and the full-size station wagon, including the Ford Country Squire, hit the highways in 1967. But, the decline of the station wagon started in the 1970s as its gas-guzzling reputation made motorists opt for more economical imports, such as cars from Toyota.

But, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, made especially for the Chevy Chase 'vehicle' (pardon the pun) "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983) helped keep some station wagons on the road until the end of the Reagan administration.

Station wagons were also quite popular at drive-ins, especially for features that were more family friendly such as "Old Heavenly Dog" (1979), which also starred Chase.

One drive-in theatre which has made a successful comeback is the Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, Va., the country's only non-profit drive-in. From Friday night until Sunday night, Hull's will screen a double-header consisting of "John Carter" and "Wrath of the Titans."

Other drive-ins which are active include the Highway 21 Drive-In in Beaufort, SC, one of the very last remaining drive-ins in South Carolina. It is screening "Battleship" and "Think Like a Man" on screen one; while "The Avengers" and "Dark Shadows" show on screen two.

Further down south, the Starlight Drive-In in Atlanta, one of the very few drive-ins with six screens, is showing several double-headers, including "Think Like a Man" and "21 Jump Street" on screen one.

While out west, 88 Drive-In in Commerce City, Colo., which is the Denver metro area's only drive-in venue will show "The Avengers" and "John Carter."

http://www.cinematreasures.org

http://www.hullsdrivein.com

http://www.hwy21drivein.com

http://www.88drivein.com

http://www.starlightdrivein.com

Virtual Postcard from Colorado- Graffiti Van in Denver

We have no idea which graffiti artist performed this radical makeover on this van, but we did learn from our visit to Colorado last week that Denver-area street artist Gamma Agosta has made quite a name for himself. Among his most famous works include one depicting a female Mexican bandit wearing a sombrero with machine guns in her hands and bullets covering her large breasts (hmmmm......I think we just got hit with an 'R' rating! But, we do try to keep it clean here).

Among the things to do in Denver when you're NOT dead (that's a reference to an independent American film for those of you in rural Uzbekistan), we highly suggest a visit to the Clyfford Still Museum, even though many of the great expressionist American painter's works are untitled (which drives us crazy).

But, speaking of people who have literally gone insane, earlier this year, Carmen Tisch, a Denver resident, punched one of Still's famous paintings, done in 1957 and worth $30 million, at the museum.

The dubious incident reminds one of an attack on Paul Gauguin's "Two Tahitian Women" painting at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, in April of last year. According to various media reports, Susan Burns of Alexandria, Va., the culprit in question in the Washington, DC-incident, said Gauguin's work was evil since it featured nudity and that it was 'bad for children.'

Burns later came back to the National Gallery and tried to assault Henri Matisse's painting "The Plumed Hat" in August of last year.

Lastly, we send out a special thanks to blog visitors from Armenia?!*, Belgium, Hungary and Jamaica** for visiting our blog today.

*-Hmmmm......I am a Turkish-American, how is it possible to be more popular in Yerevan than Ankara?!

**-It must have been a rainy day in Montego Bay! 

http://www.gammagallery.com

http://clyffordstillmuseum.org

Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

Wow! I just saw the stats for this blog, and assuredly if we were a cable reality tv show, we would have been cancelled three years ago. But, we do live in a world where more people watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on Bravo than "Frontline" on PBS!

Today's quote of the day comes from Martin Scorsese. I guess one could argue about what is his best film: "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas" or "Kundun," but we only get into politics when it involves Greeks, Armenians or Republicans (forgive the ethnic humor; I happen to be the only person of Turkish heritage here in Welch, West Virginia*).

Here is our quote from Scorsese:

"Cinema is a matter of what's in frame and what's out."

SIDEBAR: Well, we learned from their web site that The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., which is going to be held from Sept. 29th to Oct. 1st is alas sold out!

But, should one be able to attend, there will be vendors from all parts of les etats unis**, including Boulder Beer from (of course!) Boulder, Colo., Fat Head's Brewery from Cleveland, and Cigar City Brewing from Tampa.

Closer to home, there is the third annual Brew Do, which is a beer festival in Blacksburg, Va., on Sept. 24. Hopefully, there will not be a home football game for Virginia Tech for those attending!

*- Not actually where I live, but it is a place that seems fairly similar to that.

**- The French word for The United States

Top 10- Favorite Non-Celebrities to Follow on Twitter...

For starters, we would like to dedicate today's entry to students at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon, where the late author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") was from for they will inevitably be the ones who take care of us in nursing homes in the future!

Here are favorite non-celebrities to follow on Twitter. I must profess that I debated if either Arsalan Iftikhar and Keith Knight, two people with loyal followings, could fit this category, but both are slightly less-known than the likes of Paris Hilton.

1. Boulder the Cat- We aren't sure if Boulder the Cat is a Siamese, like the one pictured here. Nevertheless, whoever is behind this feline's tweets is quite hilarious. One recent tweet advised 'fellow cats' that the best time to attack owners is when they are using the toilet!

2. The Kansan- At first, I was looking to follow the school newspaper of the same name for The University of Kansas. But, instead I found a young lady who happens to reside in Lawrence, Kansas, who has a great knack for making fun of Republicans, including a suggestion that the GOP's new theme song should be "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum!

3. Chris Knight- My friend in Reidsville, NC, is not the same Chris Knight who was on "The Brady Bunch," but I love his off-the-wall tweets. Last night, he was watching the science fiction film "Moon," which came out in theaters last year.

4. Ali Arikan- This movie blogger from Istanbul, Turkey, may actually be even more obsessed with film than I am as he is taking a dvd of the Harvey Keitel film "Bad Lieutenant" to watch on the plane!

5. The Muslim Guy (Arsalan Iftikhar)- This young Muslim American activist has become quite a media sensation. Today, he lambasted Tennessee's Republican lt. gov. for calling Islam a cult.

6. Keith Knight- One of the best new cartoonists in America.......! Keith Knight, an African-American who pens "The Knight Life" is no relation to Chris Knight who is white.

7. Anna Li- The UCLA gymnast who helped the Bruins win a national championship this spring is always a delight to follow on Twitter as she details her life as a 20-something college athlete.

8. Dever Food Guy- Great recipes! He really knows how to use squash, tomatoes and cucumbers!

9. Nathan Tabor- A Republican?! I suppose this Winston-Salem, NC, conservative activist is an example of reverse affirmative action. As one might expect, President Barack Obama is often subject to his critiques.

10. LiberalChick230- This San Fran woman is always cool to follow. Today, she said that a Tea Party diversity event was indeed a big bust....

Tweet of the Moment_ For Our Friends in Georgia

This tweet was posted last night by 'Zippy the Pinhead' (or perhaps his creator, cartoonist Bill Griffith):

"I'm gliding over a NUCLEAR WASTEDUMP near Atlanta, Georgia!"

I also saw on Twitter last night that the Denver Food Guy had posted a recipe for Greek octopus dishes, which reminds me that given the current economic crisis this may (or may not) be a good time to go to Samos---that is a Greek island 35 miles off the coast of Kushadasi, Turkey.

And, we saw that some fringe right-wing lunatic in Marshall, Tex., posted a billboard asking if those of us who voted for President Barack Obama were 'embarrased yet?'

I was amused by this for several reasons: 1) Obama is a good president--certainly 10 times better than George W. Bush 2) Sarah Palin has become even more of a diva nightmare since the presidential campaign, and let's face it if John McCain had won the election she would be the one actually running the country?! and 3) Texas was not even a swing state, so essentially any votes cast for Obama in the Lonestar State really didn't matter much.

Interestingly enough, The Republican Party has decided to follow me?! on Twitter.