Quote of the Day/Week- Ernest Hemingway

Today's quote of the day comes from American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) who once lived in Ketchum, Idaho, where it is apparently at least 100 degrees F, for the third or fourth consecutive day in a row. Hemingway, who penned such classics as "The Old Man and the Sea" and "The Sun Also Rises" also lived in Key West, Florida, and in Cuba, of course, he resided there before the revolution started by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Hemingway has been in many recent films, most notably Woody Allen's film "Midnight in Paris," where he was played by Corey Stoll, 36, (pictured) whose performance was critically acclaimed, but did not garner an Oscar nomination. Christopher Plummer, 82, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year for his remarkable performance in "Beginners."

Here is Hemingway's quote:

"I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eights of it under water for every part of it that shows."

SIDEBAR: Since the 2012 London Olympics get underway later this month, we thought we'd mention one of the athletes from North Carolina, one of our states of residence (the other one is not Maine, though we love it up there!). Cullen Jones, 28, from Charlotte and a North Carolina State University alum, will be competing for Team USA in men's swimming. Jones holds the world record in the 50-meter free-style. He won gold during the 2008 Beijing Olympics in a team relay, which included the much-decorated athlete Michael Phelps. Jones was also the first African-American to win gold in swimming.

http://www.hemingwayhouse.com

http://www.gopack.com

http://www.cullenjones.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Che Guevara

We continue our series of quotes from figures who have been made into plush doll toys by the American novelty company The Unemployed Philosophers Guild with a quote from the highly controversial Argentinian revolutionist Che Guevara (1929-1967), whose image can be seen on Cuban currency, since he helped Fidel Castro come to power.

Che tried a similar revolution in Bolivia, but the results were much different. In fact, he was assassinated there at age 39 by the Bolivian army, with help from the CIA. The village where he was executed La Higurea or "The Fig Tree" is now a surprising international tourist destination. Tourists can walk the trail and literally follow in Che's footsteps, but hopefully, they will not be greeted by a firing squad.

On film, Che has been portrayed at least three times, the most curious of which has to be Omar Sharif, an Egyptian actor in the film "Che!" (1969), where the late Jack Palance played Castro. It has a mere 4.5 on the Internet Movie Database.

Since Che was a man with far, far-left views which were fervently capitalism, many find the merchandising of his image, particularly on t-shirts, to be quiet ironic.

Here is the quote from Che:

"Many will call me an adventurer_ and that I am, only one of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes."

READ The FINE PRINT: As much as we love quoting Che Guevara, who has always been surprisingly popular, we recognize he is a controversial figure and we do not advocate Marxism as a political philosophy. But, of course, Marxists are welcome on our blogs as our Republicans!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bolivia

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.marxists.org

http://www.che-lives.com

http://www.cheguevara.com

Casualties of Modern Technology (11 of 12)_ Slide Projectors

Back in the 1970s, while other families

were watching "The Love Boat," my late father Mehmet Gokbudak would get out the slide projector and we would watch slide shows featuring images of backyard family trips (we lived in Roanoke, Va) of Highland County and from the two European trips we took. One famous slide was of me posing besides a street sign for Attila Josef Street in Budapest, Hungary, in a Dallas Cowboys hat and jacket. Since Attila is my name, this seemed very cool to my dad. And, I had no idea who Attila Josef was until today (a legendary Hungarian poet who died at age 32 in 1937).

Another famous slide was one of a crocidile at a restaurant in Warsaw, Poland- of all places. The croc was a gift from Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. We have no idea what the croc's name is, but we learned from Google that the croc came to the establishment in 1972. He may well still be the only crocidile in Poland.

As for the slide projector, it was very popular and hip from the 1950s to the 1970s, as it allowed slide prints to be displayed on a screen. But, today, many manufaturers have quit making both the prints and the machines.

http://www.highlandcountyva.org/

Bonus Picture to Fill Space- Big Bass

Today, since we are behind with entries, we are featuring an entry of a big bass, this one presumably caught in a river or lake in Texas.

For those residing near Clarkesville, Georgia, there will be a senior fishing rodeo at Moccasin State Park from 8:00-11:00 a.m.; for more info, one can call (706) 947-3194.

SIDEBAR ONE: For those who like the intellectual side of sports, the public radio series "Only A Game" broadcast nationally through WBUR/Boston will feature a segment on the controversial new Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen (hmmm...we just realized the Marlins might be the only pro sports team with the name of a fish) who surprisingly praised Cuba's Fidel Castro, which did not go over to well whttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifith Miami's Cuban-American community.

SIDEBAR TWO: Kudos to the following six women's college gymnastics teams (the other six are listen on our other blog "The Daily Vampire") for qualifying for nationals:

Champaign, Ill., Regionals: 1. Oklahoma 2. Stanford; Auburn, Ala., Regionals: 1. Georgia 2. Oregon State; Seattle Regionals: 1. Alabama 2. LSU

Quote of the Day/Week- Chilean Filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky

Hmmmm.....yeah, we kind of messed up on this a few days ago when we were posting an entry with a quote on Fidel Castro that ended up on our other blog "The Daily Vampire." For that incident and many others, we made an editorial decision to fire Javier the Intern. But, we quickly realized no one could replace him, so we hired Javier the Intern* back.

Today, we are quoting the Chilean experimental filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (b. 1929) who is best known for midnight movie masterpiece "El Topo" (1970), which many musicians, including the late John Lennon and Peter Gabriel took a serious liking to.

Here is his quote, which we will credit to Javier:

"One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full. And, he said, 'is it half full or half empty?,' so I drank the water. No more problems."

*-There is no real Javier the Intern; it is a running gag on my two blogs.

Silly Picture to Fill Space_ Lava Lamp

We royally goofed by posting an entry with a quote from Fidel Castro on the other blog instead of this one, so we are filling space with a lava lamp!

Quote of the Week- Che Guevara

Today, we start our month-long series of quotes from fringe, far left-wing radicals, both past and present. Since we quipped Malcolm X (1925-1965) on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we thought we'd go with another man who was shot to death at age 39, the Marxist Argentinian revoluntist Che Guevara (1928-1967). Che was killed in Bolivia, and his remains were only discovered in recent years.

Many right-wingers in America hate the fact that there are supposedly vast numbers of very liberal people wearing Che t-shirts, though I've only seen two people wear them in the last two years. One was at a coffeeshop in Boulder, Colo, and the other was at a nightclub in Chapel Hill, NC. However, last week, I did see a twenty-something guy at a Waffle House somewhere in North Carolina wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "We Shall Overcome." It was actually a white kid and his shirt showed the rebel-flag hovering over the Capitol Building. I guess he will never appreciate the sacrifices that Martin Luther King, Jr., made for our country. But, of course, extremists on our side of the fence are much worse for America than racist bigots (sarcasm intended!).

I do sympathize with the point expressed by the ultra-conservative magazine News Max and the right-wing blog ihatethemedia.com (I suppose they love Fox News though, which is part of the media, right?!) that Che did needlessly kill lots of innocent people, a point which has been well-documented.

But, the man himself is quite a fascinating figure, and no matter what one thinks of the Cuban Revolution, it remains astonishing that Che met with Fidel Castro in a hotel in Mexico City, and they successfully organized a rebellion and took over the central government of Cuba. Actually, this ironically sounds like what the Tea Partiers would like to do to President Barack Obama as I'm sure the political good-will for killing Osama bin Laden expired at 11:45 p.m., Sunday night, a mere 15 minutes after our president announced the success of the mission in Pakistan. Am I right, Bill O'Reilly?

So, here is this quote from Che; for the record I am not a Marxist though I would classified as one in rural Idaho:

"Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridicilous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."

As for the answer to last week's road quiz, Lynchburg, Va., and Wilmington, Del., are five hours and 30 minutes apart though we suspect traffic between Washington, DC, and Baltimore would substantially add to that commute.

50 Beers Around the World- Hatuey Beer from Cuba

Today's entry in the 50 Beers Around the World Series comes from Cuba, where Fidel Castro is playing shuffleboard with Mitt Romney. Our beer for today is Hatuey Beer, which is actually available in Miami.

We learned from Wikipedia, that Hatuey Beer had a very good year in 1959, the year of the Cuban Revolution which feautred the Castro brothers and Che Guevara, when it sold 3.5 bottles.

While researching this piece, we were curious to see whatever happened to that far-right Cuban-American blog we used to check out from time to time.

We couldn't locate that exact blog, but we did find babalublog.com which actually calls liberalism 'a mental disorder' (hmmm....and the folks from the Miami Tea Party are sane?!) and it also features a political cartoon of Fidel Castro saying: "Yes, We Can." (he is meant to impersonating Barack Obama).

Today, we also found out about Pete the Cat by James Dean (an artist, not the actor). Apparently, he is popular at both the Robbins Gallery in New Orleans and the Mint Museum Gift Shop in Charlotte, NC. it is apparently one of these entities that is popular with kids and adults as well perhaps with Tea Partiers and those of us who are still into 'ObamaMania.'

Things We Learned on the BBC Today- Fidel Says It's Good to Be Alive

According to the BBC, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who is reportedly sharing a Cuban cigar with Glenn Beck in Provo, Utah, as we speak, says that he was at the grim reaper's door during his long illness.

Castro actually made those comments in an interview with the Mexican newspaper "La Jornada" in which he also said that it was difficult for him to aspire to live much longer.

The long-time Cuban president, who many have deemed to be a dictator for his long-standing human rights abuses, first got sick in 2006 when he suffered from intestinal illness.

But, Castro says that he's made a full recovery and that he can now walk without a cane.

One can always hope that he may venture from Havannah to Frederick, Md., (an hour from Washington, DC) to see a minor league Frederick Keys game with right-wing pundit George F. Will, who will probably still believe global warming doesn't exist when it's 98 degrees in Bethesda in late January. The Keys are actually having community food drive from now until Sept. 3. Last night, the team lost a home game to the Kinston Indians by a 9-2 score. The two teams plays each other again tonight.

As for Castro, there are always a number of interesting musings about him on Cuban-American blogs which generally lean to the right politically. There was this quite radical one we used to glance at now and then that pretty much compared President Barack Obama to Gargamel (the villain in "The Smurfs").

We lost track of that particular blog, but we did find one today called BabaluBlog (http://www.babalublog.com) which is also understandably quite critical of Castro, but we have no idea if they have compared Obama to Gargamel, Iago or Ming the Merciless. But, if they do, we will kindly remind them that George W. Bush was as bad as Gargamel, Iago and Ming the Merciless!

Quote of the Day- Alfredo Stroessner (Dead Paraguayan Dictator)

Since we quoted North Korean dictator Kim Jung Il, who is still alive and well (just ask the citizens of Pyonyang), on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we thoughts it might not to be disengenious to quip the late Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1912-2006) even though like most Latin American dictators he was blamed for kidnapping, torture and corruption.

The right-wing dictator was the second-longest serving head of state in Latin America behind Cuba's Fidel Castro as he 'held office' in the capital Asuncion from 1954-1989. As one might expect, he was overthrown in a coup d'etat. But, Stroessner lived a full life as he died in exile in Brazil in 2006 at the age of 93. However, in the processor, the government officials who took over for him decided to remove his name from the main national airport.

Stroessner was also named "Dictator of the Month" by the web site dictatorofthemonth.com while he was still alive in April of 2003.

Paraguay is having a succesful run at The World Cup as they prepare to meet Japan in the knock-out round.

Here is the quote fom Stroessner, which could only come from an 'el presidente:'

"We can't make any statements here. We can't talk about the internal politics of Paraguay."

Yeah, I thought he sounded like Dick Cheney too!

Quote of the Day- Che Guevara

Yes, we may get hate mail for this one! But, even though I'm NOT a socialist (I describe myself as a radical centrist liberal), there is nothing I enjoy more than being called a socialist by the Tea Party crowd.

We are actually quoting the revolutionary figure of Che Guevara (1928-1967) whom I have actually outlived!, (Che was shot to death by the CIA in Bolivia) because he is one of 32 people I have chosen from the 32 countries involved in the World Cup.

Many people wrongfully think Che was Cuban because he helped bring Fidel Castro to power, but he was actually an Argentinian. His country is considered a powerhouse in soccer, and they are expected to perform very well in South Africa. Team Argentina dismantled South Korea 4-1 yesterday.

I actually saw a copy of "Che's Diaries" at The Internationalist Bookstore in Chapel Hill, NC, which has its own famous history that is alas too long and too complicated to go into here (I was actually unaware of this until checking out their Wikipedia page!). But, apparently the members of the rock band Sonic Youth (a personal favorite of mine) knew about this long before I did as the store was the inspiration for their song "Chapel Hill."

The bookstore which features some very unique novels, plays, magazines and zines as well as some non-fiction titles that one would probably not find at the Mount Airy Book Exchange in Mount Airy, NC (some two and a half hours from Chapel Hill) is located downtown next to CD Alley on Franklin Street. One of my favorite titles was a zine called "13 Months Pregnant" by an artist/writer from nearby Durham, NC.

While researching this entry, I also found out that apparently Che and the late actress Audrey Hepburn (born in 1929) were almost exactly the same ago! Now, they would have made for a very interesting couple. Don't ya think?!

Here is the quote from Che, who has been played on film by the likes of the late Jack Palance and (much more recently) by Benicio del Toro. Oh, btw, Che was actually a real 'socialist' (to put it midly!):

"Better to die standing than to live on your knees."

Quote of the Week-Fidel Castro

This week we quote great dictators. Here is a quip from Fidel Castro the (former) president of Cuba:

"The universities are available only to those who share my revolutionary beliefs."

Know Your Congressman and Senators (Entry 4 of 21)

Which Republican Florida Congresswoman publicly state that she would like to see Fidel Castro assassinated? Hint: She also recently appeared on "Real Time with Bill Maher"

No multiple choices this time around.

The answer to our last question in the series was Cong. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)