20-Word Fiction: Listen to Your Teachers

Greetings from the Hartford Public Library here in Hartford, Conn., which is not actually where we are blogging from but we expect they have every novel from Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, which have been translated into English.

Speaking of Turkey, today's image is of the famed Hagia Sophi, a state museum in Istanbul, Turkey, where actress Ashley Judd visited yesterday (we learned this from one of her tweets) which started as a Byzantine church before being converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.

Here is today's 20-word fiction which we are writing while listening to Brahms........:

"My religion professor said to be a true intellectual, one must read the Holy Bible and the Koran. Maybe so."

http://www.hplct.org/

Noon Rush Hour Tweets: Does God Decide if Tom Brady Throws Interceptions?

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Wales, Dubai, and South Korea.....

We imagine folks are quite happy in Tunisia today as the national soccer team defeated Zambia 2-1 in the African Cup of Nations yesterday. Today, in Turkish soccer play, Trabzonspor defeated its fellow eastern Turkish side Sivasspor 3-1, thanks to two goals from Paraguay international Oscar Cardozo.

Our images above are of: 1) The Buffalo Bills, an American football team in Buffalo, NY; 2) The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn.; and 3) Cong. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is the speaker of the house..........yes, we are surprised to be posting a tweet from him as well (this blog has a center-left bias, but then again, so does the truth).........

Here are tweets taken from the noon rush hour on the east coast of America:

1) The Hill (a newspaper that covers Congress): Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-SC) says...........'I'm well-qualified to be president'.....

2) UberFacts: One in four Americans believe that God decides who wins the Super Bowl (that is our reason for using the Bills, they are 0-4 in Super Bowls)

3) Chris Eliopolous (a cartoonist....yeah, we got his name spelled right, we think!): Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between a mentally disturbed man and a guy on his Bluetooth headset.

4) Politico: Bill and Hillary Clinton praise King Abdullah's 'humanitarian efforts.'

5) WNYC (New York's NPR station): "On March 22, the fare of a New York City bus or subway ride will increase by a quarter.........*sigh*....)

6) Speaker John Boehner: This pen is used to sign common sense job bills before sending them to the president's desk (hashtag: National Handwriting Day)

7) Peter Sciretta (tweeting from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah): The Bronze is a filthy R-rated SNL sketch at feature-film length. If that sounds like something fun, go see it. If not, avoid it (hashtag: Sundance)

8) Mike Reiss (Boston-based sports reporter): Darelle Revis of the Pats relayed how Tom Brady addressed players Thursday and talked about not letting deflate football story to be a distraction.

9) Sherine Tadros (Middle East-based tv journalist): Calling the late King Abdullah (of Saudi Arabia) a 'reformer' shows how far low the bar is in the region.

10) WXII 12 News (TV station in Winston-Salem, NC): At 12:40 p.m. (we have) icy mountain spots, glazing on trees, sleet now rain in the Triad, upper 30s.

11) Hartford Courant: Exodus of tens of thousands of residents to other states has lead to Connecticut's first population drop since 2008.

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.desperatetimes.com/ (a comic strip by Chris E.)

http://chriseliopoulos.com/

http://www.wnyc.org/

http://www.politico.com

https://twitter.com/johnboehner (Definitely not an endorsement)

http://www.hartford.com/ (Hartford, Ct, tourism site)

http://www.courant.com/

https://www.marktwainhouse.org/

Quote of the Week- Mark Twain

Today, we conclude with our month-long quips from cultural radicals and subversives from Mark Twain. Though he is considered a mainstream author today, there have been various times when Twain's works have been considered controversial. The use of the n-word vernacular that was used quite often at the time of publication (1885) of Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has caused a stir at times for some local schoolboards even though no could rationally suggest that Twain was a racist.

The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., is among the most popular tourist attractions in the Nutmeg State.

Here is Twain's quote:

"A person who won't read has advantages over a person who can't read."

SIDEBAR ONE: Though I am a Democrat, David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, is among my favorite politically conservative pundits as he talks in terms of broad pictures as opposed to the likes of Rush Limbaugh who today proclaimed that Barack Obama 'wanted Hurricane Irene to be a huge disaster.'

Of course, like most liberals, my favorite conservative pundit is (of course!) David Brooks, but Frum, who is also keen and objective in his commentary, is a close second.

Yesterday, Frum tweeted the following regarding how Hurrican Irene affected his weekend: "Side benefit from Irene: taking my daughter to see Declaration and Constitution at National Archive with no line at all. Unprecedented."

SIDEBAR TWO: Speaking of Hartford, I actually saw a Hartford Whalers bumper sticker in Roanoke, Va., today. This was interesting to me because the Hartford Whalers have not existed since the team left for the Tarheel State and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

As the 'Canes, the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006, which actually made some people in North Carolina pay more attention to hockey than NASCAR-racing. But, of course, since racing legend Richard Petty is from Randleman, NC, and the late Dale Earnhardt hailed from Kannapolis, NC, that didn't really last. Of course, their offspring is involved in the sport as well.

But, I found out some interesting information while googling the Hartford Whalers. The current minor league hockey team in Hartford renamed themselves the Connecticut Whale last year to honor the Hartford Whalers. And, ironically, the team's previous name was the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the same nickname for North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes now play (they temporarily played in Greensboro).

The Hartford Whalers existed from 1979-1997. And, they left, in part, because the likes of then-governor of Connecticut John G. Rowland, a Republican, didn't want to spend tax payer money on a new hockey arena for the team.

But, there is still an active group that wants to bring the Hartford Whalers back in one way or another (perhaps having a new team with that name, such as what happened with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL). And, The Whalers Watchers, as they are called, will meet in Hartford on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

As for the Connecticut Whale, they have their home opener on Oct. 15