Presidential Quotes: James Madison

Greetings to our blog readers in Belgium, Portugal and New Zealand, today's quote comes from James Madison, the fourth president of America and an author of the U.S. Constitution. James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., is named after him, and he is frequently discussed on the public radio program "Your Weekly Constitution" ( http://www.montpelier.org/center/radio ) produced at WETS-FM in Johnson City, Tenn. (http://www.wets.org)

His home Montpelier in Orange County, Va., is also relatively close to Monticello, the mansion of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president, in Charlottesville.

Here is Madison's quip:

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

http://www.jmu.edu

http://www.montpelier.org

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Bill Murray

We thought we'd feature an image of a famous Irish-American for St. Patrick's Day. When my mom told me she was going to go to Dublin a few years ago, I thought she meant Dublin, Va., where Pulaski County High School is, as opposed to Dublin, Ireland!

One of Murray's most famous films "Ghostbusters" will be on Nick-TV tommorow night at 9 p.m., New York time.

We had initially hoped to see how far apart Lexington, Ky., where the University of Kentucky is, from Priceton, NJ, where Princeton University is, were. But, yesterday's blog entries were quite time-consuming! We assume if they weren't playing at a neutral site that the respective team bus drivers would know the way. That game is currently underway, and at last report (well, it was about 30 minutes ago) Kentucky was winning 11-4.

We also wish the University of Asheville (NC) Bulldogs well as they face the top seed Pitt Panthers today as well. If they win, perhaps that means that one day, I might just be able to go on a Starbucks coffee date with Uma Thurman.

Lastly, we want to make readers that many NPR stations are having fund-drives. We are especially concerned about the plight of excellent small market stations like WMRA in Harrisonburg, Va., and KUNC in Greeley, Col.

That Colorado town is also home to the 'other UNC,' the University of Northern California Bears who are in this year's NCAA field. They will play the two-seed San Diego State Aztecs in the opening round.

High School of the Week- Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City

Greetings from the Waffle House in Staunton, Va., (well we are not actually there at the moment!), where we profile Northwest Classen High School from Oklahoma City as our High School of the Week.

The high school, which is the alma mater of country singer Vince Gill, is nicknamed The Knights. The school principal is Tamie Sanders. And, the school's demographics are 38.5 % Latino, 25.8 % White, 22.4 % Black, and .00000000009 % Pashtun (forgive the humorous reference to an Afghan ethnic group).

Alas, folks in Oklahoma are not likely to be happy tonight as their beloved Oklahoma Sooners, the top-ranked team in college football, fell to the University of Missouri by a 36-27 margin. But, then again we can't feel too sorry for Oklahoma since it is a red state and it now approaching 3:30 a.m. here at The Waffle House in Harrisonburg, Va.,.......oh, I mean Staunton, Va., of course!