Little Thinkers Quotes (15 of 16): Jane Austen

Greetings to our blog readers in Azerbaijan, The Bahamas and Guatemala.

Today, we quote Jane Austen:

"There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort."

Little Thinkes Quotes (2 of 16): Sigmund Freud

Greetings to our blog-readers in Guatemala, Greece and Germany.

Today, we are quoting the great Austrian psycho-analyst/philosopher Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who is associated with the playful Freudian slippers, which are being sold through the "Mental Floss" magazine web site.

We imagine that if Freud were still alive and living in Bethesda, Maryland, he might jump on a Metro train and head down to Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, DC. The book shop has actually copyrighted the term 'politics and prose,' which we means we can't open a bookstore in Blacksburg, Va., and call it Politics and Poetry.

Politics and Prose is hosting a reading from the great Russian emigre novelist and author Gary Shteyngart ("Absurdistan") tonight; he has just written a non-fiction book called "Little Failure: A Memoir."

Here is our quote from Freud:

"Time spent with cats is never wasted."

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.politics-prose.com

Top 10 Comic Strips NOT in Our Local Newspapers: Love Those Yorkies

Many of the slots in local Sunday comic strips sections, even in large city newspapers, are taken up by legacy strips, such as "Hagar the Horrible" and "Beetle Bailey." But, there are actually many great comic strips out there.

This is a companion piece to our blog entry on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2014/01/arctic-cold-comic-strip-spectacular-1.html

The funniest strip of these ten is from "La Cucaracha," a comic we were not familiar with today, which features a Mayan temple made from ice (the top image is of Tikal, a Mayan ruin site in Guatemala). Other highlights were "Pooch Café" (the reason for the Yorkshire terrier in the bottom image) and "Todd the Dinosaur" (the reason why we Barney in the middle_ The Rev. Joseph Chambers in Charlotte, NC, said the purple dinosaur was an example of socialist propaganda?!!!).

Here is a list of ten comic strips that we saw on the web today, none of these strips are in either "The Roanoke Times" or "The Washington Post:"

1. La Cucaracha 8.2

2. Pooch Café 7.8

3. Todd the Dinosaur 7.6

4. Tundra 7.5

5. The Pajama Diaries 7.5

6. Pros and Cons 7.3

7. The Other Coast 7.2

8. Mother Goose and Grimm 7.2

9. Arctic City 7.1

10. Overboard 7.0

http://www.gocomics.com/lacucaracha/#.UsoBCTYo6Uk

http://www.gocomics.com/poochcafe#.UsoBTzYo6Uk

Quotes from American Presidents (2 of 16): Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt

Greetings to our blog readers in Salt Lake City, Boston and Miami here in America, and to those of you in Lebanon, Belgium and Guatemala.

Our quote today is from Theodore Roosevelt, who is considered to be the most liberal Republican president in history, and thus he has admirers on the right and left. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) got in trouble during a campaign rally in Virginia Beach, Va., when he ran against George W. Bush, when he said that he wanted the GOP to more like 'Teddy Roosevelt's party than Pat Robertson's party.'

Teddy is also a popular Washington Nationals (baseball team) mascot. Since he did win a running of the mascots until the season prior to this one, a blog entitled "Let Teddy Win" was launched and its popular has gone beyond the Washington, DC, metro area: http://www.blog.letteddywin.com

Teddy has been played on film by many actors, most recently Robin Williams. And, there at least six high schools named after him, including one in Kent, Ohio.

Here is his quote:

"The most important single ingredient of success is knowing how to get along with people."

Soccer Week (2 of 8): International Players in Major League Soccer

There are quite a few players from outside the United States and Canada, the two countries which share in the Major Soccer League, especially on the highly diverse roster of the Portland Timbers.

Today, we mention 11 of those players, the number of soccer players on a given team. The soccer player pictured is Jamaican international O'Brian Woodbine who plays for the New England Revolution in Boston:

1) Lalo Fernandez (goalkeeper, Mexico w/ Real Salt Lake)

2) Stefan Frei (goalkeeper, Switzerland w/FC Toronto)

3) Thierry Henry (captain, France w/ New York Red Bulls)

4) Robbie Keane (captain, Ireland w/ Los Angeles Galaxy)

5) Joel Lindpere (Estonia w/ Chicago Fire)

6) Philip Lund (Denmark w/Seattle Sounders)

7) Nelson Rivas (Colombia w/ Montreal Impact)

8) Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala w/ DC United)

9) Jamie Smith (Scotland w/ Colorado Rapids)

10) Rodney Wallace (Costa Rica w/ Portland Timbers)

11) O'Brian Woodbine (Jamaica w/New England Revolution)  

http://www.goal.com

http://www.mlssoccer.com

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Stars of "9 to 5"

Tonight, we thought we'd go back to the days when we blogged about the degrees of separation given stars were from Kevin Bacon through the web site The Oracle of Bacon, devised by computer scince at the University of Virginia a decade and a half ago.

With that in mind, we focus on the three female leads for "9 to 5" (1980), which was turned into a tv sitcom and a Broadway musical. The film starred Jane Fonda (pictured top), Dolly Parton (pictured bottom) in her film debut and Lily Tomlin.

None of the women have actually been in a film with Bacon, and each of them are two degrees removed from his.

Fonda was in "Stanley and Iris" (1989) with Robert DeNiro and he was in turn in "Sleepers" (1995) with Bacon.

Parton was in "Miss Congeniality 2" which I reluctantly saw at a movie theatre in Guatemala City, Guatemala, with Stephen Tobolowsky who was in  "Murder in the First" (1995) with Bacon.

Tomlin was in the Woody Allen film "Shadows and Fog" (1991) which co-starred Peter McRobbie who was in "Sleepers" with Bacon.

Parton will be performing in Portland, Ore., on June 8th for Dolly Parton Hoot Night (we are not making this up!).

Amazingly enough, Bacon is also only two degrees removed from early film star Lillian Gish and Shirley Temple, who hasn't made films since she was a child star. But, he is a full three degrees from Mary Pickford, a star in the 1920s, and Turkish actress Turkan Soray, who is known as the queen of Turkish cinema.

http://www.oracleofbacon.org

http://www.dollyparton.com

http://www.portlandlive.com

Teaser- Here Come the Olympics

The Olympics get underway in just a few days with opening ceremonies getting under way on Friday night from London. The home team the United Kingdom will actually have the largest delegation with 542, which is just slightly more than the United States, which has the second highest delegation, with 530 athletes.Russia will have the third highest number of athletes with 436 Olympic participants.

Ana Sofia Gomez, 16, (pictured above) will be the first gymnast to represent Guatemala at the summer games. Gomez has finished in the top five at various international competitions.

Yasser Hefny, 23, (pictured middle) an Egyptian pentathlete, was among the Muslim athletes interviewed by the Associated Press regarding Ramadan, a Muslim holiday which requires the faithful to fast until sundown, and preparation for the Olympics. Many Muslim athletes, many of whom are actually competing for western countries, will make compromise by fasting after the completion of the games. 

These summer games will also mark the debut of women's boxing, which will include Lucy O'Connor, 31, the top-ranked British boxer who is also a naval officer, who will represent the home country. This means that the only three sports with only one gender, are Greece-roman wrestling (men's), synchronized swimming (women's) and rhythmic gymnastics (women's).

Quote of the Day/Week-Maya Angelou

First of all, thanks to our blog-readers in Bulgaria and Honduras. I've been to one of those countries-Bulgaria, though it was when I was a child 35 years ago. And, I've been close to Honduras with visits to Belize and Guatemala.

Today, we are quoting the great poet Maya Angelou who turned 84 yesterday. This is also National Poetry Month in America.

Angelou spent several years in Ghana during the 1960s. The poet, who is also known for being a Civil Rights activist, has in recent years been a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and she recited her poem "On the Rushes of Morning" during Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.

Here is her quote:

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

Quote of the Week- Frida Kahlo

Since we are featuring quotes from famous artists this month, we thought we'd share a quip from the late Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) whose life was the subject of the acclaimed film "Frida."

An exhbit of Kahlo's work was shown in Berlin, Germany, earlier this year. And, one of the most popular restaurants in Guatemala is Frida's, located in Antigua, Guatemala's second largest city behind the capital Guatemala City. It is talked about on the web site virtualtourist.com and according to one Internet comment the palce has very good quesadillas.

Closer to home, there will be an exhibit of photographs of Kahlo by photographer Nickolas Muray at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in Brownsville, Tex., from Jan. 15-March 19, 2011. And, there is a Mexican restaurant in Chicago called La Cocina de Frida on North Clark Street.

Here is today's quote from Kahlo, which as a lone wolf person myself, I can sympathize and identify with:

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best."

50 Beers from Around the World_ Gallo (Guatemala)

Today, we focus our attention to the Central American nation of Guatemala, which is home to Gallo Beer (or Rooster Beer) as it would be in English.

The beer is brewed in Guatemala City, and beer in Guatemala dates back to 1896.

Gallo Beer is also served in aluminum cans, and it's also available as a light beer. The brew can be found in Mexico, France and here in The US of A. Though it seems a bit hard to find in les etats unis, but an Internet poster said he found the beer somewhere in San Francisco.

I had the chance to visit Guatemala in 2005, and I really liked the city of Antigua. Since we spent only a limited there on the tour, I was unable to get into Frida's (named after famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo), a popular restaurant in Antigua located near the famous Arch of Santa Catalina.

Antigua is also home to a movie theatre called Cine Sin Ventura. If it's the same place (though I recall it as being called Cinema Maya; they were showing "Kinsey") that I stopped by and visited back then, I do have to wonder what they are showing right now. Yeah, I imagine it's either "Mega Mind" or "Due Date" too!