Sports Desk: Princeton Tigers Go to Lynchburg and Win

Earlier in the season my alma mater Radford University, a Big South school, faced the Cornell Bears, an Ivy League team, and won. But, given that Big South schools stretch from Lexington, Va. (VMI) to Charleston, SC, (Charleston Southern), and Ivy League are from the northeast, the two conferences don't play with each other that often.

But, on Saturday, the Princeton Tigers in their last game before the start of conference play, headed down to Lynchburg, Va., to face the Liberty Flames on Saturday in the first meeting in men's basketball between the two schools.

And, it was Princeton (11-2), a team which traveled from New Jersey, which prevailed with an 80-74 win that was propelled by T.J. Bray (pictured) who almost matched his career-high with 24 points and his teammate Ben Hazel who added 18 points. For Liberty, John Caleb Saunders scored 25 points.

SIDEBAR: There was a shocking upset in Winston-Salem, NC, on Sunday night, as the home court Wake Forest Demon Deacons shocked the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, ranked 19th in the country at the time, 73-67.

The win was the first for Wake Forest over UNC since 2001 in a series that the Tar Heels have dominated in more recent years. Senior Travis McKie from Richmond, Va., lead the home team in scoring with 16 points, and he shot 7 for 11 from the floor.

SIDEBAR 2: Well, when the West Virginia Mountaineers joined the BIG 12, geographic rivalries went out the window as the closest conference school to Morgantown, WVa., is (we believe) Iowa State, located in Ames, Iowa.

Tonight, WVU traveled even farther away as they headed to Lubbock, Tex., and got an 89-86 (OT) win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Juwan Staten lead WVU in scoring with 25 points, and Terry Henderson hit a crucial three-pointer with :18 left to play in regulation.

10 People Who will Decide Election_Pennsylvania

Today, we continue our series with a look at Pennsylvania as we also feature this 1996 presidential campaign button featuring Bob Dole and the late Jack Kemp.

Here is a look at our fictional voter of the day:

Name: Rev. Paul Frederickson

Occupation: Baptist Minister

Residency: Scranton, Pa.

Will Likely Vote for: Mitt Romney

"Politico" reported at last check that Barack Obama is winning Pennsylvania 48.3 % to 42.3 %, but an alarming new story from "USA Today" shows that Romney is closing the gap there as well as in Michigan (hey if Fox News can be biased and pretend to be objective, why can't we?).

Though Pennsylvania is primarily a Catholic state, there are a fair number of Baptists and Jews in the demographic mix. Most evangelicals are supporting Romney even though many of them have negative views of Romney's Mormon faith. This was made evident when Romney was invited to give the commencement at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which has become a mecca for college students from very religious families.

But, Bill Maher made a controversial comment when he said Liberty University was not really a real college because it is not fully accredited; the school also has negative views on Charles Darwin and evolution, from what we gather.


http://www.scrantonrevivalbaptistchurch.com (the web site for an actual Baptist church in Scranton, Pa.; the minister's name is not Paul Frederickson. Yeah, we checked!

Quote of the Night- Pearl S. Buck

Today's quote of the day comes from Pearl S. Buck (1862-1973), a novelist and author who was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia; Buck's birthplace is now a historic museum. Her parents were missionaries to China.

Buck wrote her signature novel "The Good Earth" (1931) which earned her a Pulitzer Prize. It was the fist novel in her historic literature trilogy, which also included "Sons" and "A House Divided."

The author is also a noted alumni of Randolph Macon's Women College, which is now Randolph College (a co-ed school) in Lynchburg, Va.

Here is her quote, it's one regarding 'man's best friend:'

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet remain silent."

http://www.pearlsbuckbirthplace.com

http://www.wvculture.org

http://www.wvtourism.com

http://www.randolphcollege.edu

Whoops, We Forgot Belgium

Well, we are posting this simply to balance this blog with our other blog "The Daily Vampire," where we made an error sending an entry meant for this blog on that one.

But, we were thinking about taking a day off from blogging tomorrow to go wash dogs at an animal shelter in Lynchburg, Va. (that is a joke, but we understand there is a great animal shelter in that city).

Alas, an image we hoped to post of Borat at the rodeo in Salem, Va., which is my hometown, as featured in the film "Borat" fell through in our Kazakhstan entry due to technical problems or perhaps a block from that particular site. (By the way, the answer is B for the question in that entry).

And, earlier today, I was able to name 24 of the 25 cities that have hosted or will host the summer Olympics in mentalfloss.com quiz. We forgot about the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. I have even been to Antwerp, Belgium, (back in 1993) but I completely forgot that the city was an Olympic host. Our apologies to Tintin, and everyone else in Belgium.

Yvonne Tousek, a former Olympic gymnast and UCLA stand-out competed for Canada, who I get to chat with every now and then, competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She is curently performing with Cirque du Soleil.

I would say that I competed for Turkey (my late father's homeland) in greco-roman wrestling at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when I would have been 22 years old, but I imagine the actual members of that team would not care for the joke.

Special Quote of the Week- Larry Bird

Gazooks! Originally, we were supposed to quote the late, great Italian filmmaker Frederico Fellini here, but we dongied up, so we are including a quote from the Boston Celtics great Larry Bird, who is also the pride of Terre Hautte, Indiana.

This sounds like something that the late Rev. Jerry Falwell who resided just down the road in Lynchburg, Va., might have said as well:

"I really don't like talking about money. All I can say is that the Good Lord must have wanted me to have it."

Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)_ Lynchburg, Va. to Wilmington, Del.

Well, since our entry on our other blog "The Daily Vampire" took as long to do as writing a term paper on "War and Peace" or a Wikipedia entry on the life of its author Leo Tolstoy, we are going to try to streamline the designated time for this entry.

Today, we are looking at the distance between Wilmington, Del., and Lynchburg, Va. The two cities have teams in the Carolina League, which is a single-A minor league baseball division. They happen to play each other in Lynchburg on Monday night at 6:05 p.m.

The Lynchburg Hillcats won a double-header over the Frederick Keys in Maryland today by a 3-2 and 2-1 count. Down in North Carolina, the Wilmington Blue Rocks split their own double-header with the Winston-Salem Dash. The visitors won the first game 10-2, but fell 3-2 in the night-cap.

For this entry, we are going to examine the distance between Macado's, a Roanoke, Va-based regional restaurant chain, which has a location on Candlers Mountain Road in Lynchburg, and the Deep Blue Bar and Grill in Wilmington, Del.

Since Lynchburg is mostly known for being the home to Liberty University and the Mall of America-sized mega church that is Thomas Road Baptist Church where the late Rev. Jerry Falwell preached, we thought we would go against the city's stereotype as a beacon of fundamentalism and arch right-wing politics by featuring an image from the 1970's tv-show "The Waltons." *(Hmmm....maybe, since it is now officially Easter Sunday, we should refrain from making fun of fervent fundamentalists....nah!).

Of course, Delaware is known for being the home state of Vice President Joe Biden, who surreally looks like Rev. Falwell here!

We must profess that Mapquest's suggested time of travel for this trip is probably only doable at 4:00 a.m., which is almost what time it is now!, because the route would go through both Washington, DC, and Baltimore, but we are going with what they say here!

So, is the answer:

A) Five Hours

B) Five Hours, 30 minutes

C) Six Hours, 30 minutes

D) Seven Hours

The answer to last week's road trip quiz is C) as it takes about 12 hours and ten minutes to get from Hagerstown, Md., to Chatanooga, Tenn.

Also, we heard an interesting segment on the BBC World Service about why it might be unwise to give out to much info about yourself on the Internet as many employers around the world google applicants' names to see if there is a Youtube video of the applicant dancing with a lamp shade over his or her head while intoxicated.

Since I now have over 2,000 blog entries with my name, Dennis Alexander**, attached to it perhaps I am into deep. But, I've never danced with a lamp shade on my head. And, apparently, the government in Spain is trying to get Google to prevent such potentially embarrassing info from infringing upon the rights of its citizens. Hmmm....I wonder how Clarence Thomas would feel about this one!

*- "The Waltons" took place on Afton Mountain near Charlottesville, Va. It is about one hour, 15 minutes north of Lynchburg

**-Dennis Alexander is a pseudonymn and an in-joke. If Donald Trump is visiting our blog, we want him to know that Mr. Alexander did vote for John McCain (it was in the 2000 Republican primary in Virginia to make sure George W. Bush wouldn't become prez. Oh well!).

Top 10 Riskiest Neckties to Wear to Work...

The "Tom and Jerry" necktie pictured above probably would NOT cause problems at work unless you had a very uptight boss, however even in hip, liberal places like Berkeley, Calif., or Boulder, Colo., many of these neckties would not be cool. Conversely, rebel flag and Stop Abortion neckties would not work well in an office environment in Lynchburg, Va., (actually we're not certain about that!).

Incidentally, all of these listed ties are available from zazzle.com or other Internet outlets!

Here is our list:

1. Che Guevara necktie (pictured)
2. Marijuana leaf necktie (pictured)
3. Old Soviet Union flag necktie
4. Chairman Mao neckties
5. Stop Abortion neckties
6. Koranic scripture neckties (definitely not a good idea on the Liberty University campus!)
7. Confederate Flag necktie
8. Playboy emblem necktie
9. Two Grooms with Brown Hair necktie (or any other overt gay neckties, not in the fashion sense)
10. Nude Woman Drinking Beer necktie

Other ties that were considered:

Palestinian Flag neckties (really bad idea if you're going to meet with Sen. Joe Lieberman on The Hill).
Rush Limbuagh neckties
Josef Stalin neckties
No Condom neckties
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk neckties (bad idea if you're in Glendale, Calif., which is home to America's largest Armenian population!)

Quote of the Day- Greek Author Nikos Kazantzakis

Today, we continue quoting people associated with one of the 32 countries competing at the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, which gets underway this week (Perhaps, we should tell Sarah Palin that it's a soccer competition!), with a quote from the late Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957).

Perhaps, his best-known novel is the 1953 epic "The Last Temptation of Christ," which became a 1988 Martin Scorsese movie that Jerry Falwell and his evangelical whacko friends in Lynchburg, Va., didn't care too much for (to put it mildly!).

Kazantzakis, who was born on the island of Crete, missed winning the Nobel Prize in literature to French writer Albert Camus ("The Stranger") in 1957 by just one vote. That also happened to be the year that the Greek author died.

Alas, Greece's main ethnic rival, my beloved Turkey (where my late father hailed from) did not qualify for South Africa so no quotes from the late great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet this go-around, but we will have quotes from other international figures on both of our blogs. Today, we will also be quoting German novelist Gunter Grass ("The Tin Drum") on our sister blog.

Undoubtedly, many folks in Tarpon Springs, Fla. (near Tampa), which has a very large Greek community will be rooting for the Greek soccer team though one of their first-round opponents is traditional futbol power Argentina.

Here is the quote from Kazantzakis (wow, I thought Turkish names were hard to spell!):

"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."

Tweet of the Day- What Does Keith Olbermann Wear?

We started following "The Kansan" thinking it was the student newspaper of the same name for Kansas University in Lawrence, Kan. Now, I think it may just happen to be a left-of-center young lady who resides in Kansas, which must make her feel like a Pakistani student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. (we love to take digs at Jerry Falwell even though he's no longer with us!).

The Kansan posted this interesting tweet last week in regards to MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann who apparently isn't romantically linked to Anne Coulter:

"I wonder if Keith Olbermann wears suit pants during his show, or pjs on the bottom with a suit jacket on top?-LOL! I'd wear pjs on the bottom."

It's your show Keith. We'd never tell you what to do........?

Quote of the Week-Dan Aykroyd

Today, we recognize the 50th anniversary of Second City with two quotes from two of the troupe's most famous alumni. We quoted the late John Belushi on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

Here we quote his "Blues Brothers" and "Saturday Night Live" co-star Dan Aykroyd, who I met at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Va., a few years ago. Aykroyd also founded The House of Blues, which has a venue in Myrtle Beach, SC, among many other places.

Second City, which was recently profiled on NPR, is also touring the country. They will perform in Pittsburgh on Thursday night, but those living here in Virginia, can catch them perform at The Warehouse Theatre in Lynchburg on March 12, 2010, and at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., ( a Washington DC suburb) on March 13, 2010 (whoops, I almost typed 2020.....I suppose that might work for someone like my sister who plans everything well in advance!).

Here is the quote from Aykroyd, which also ties in well with our previous entry although I'm not sure that Versus will air any games with this particular team though they are showing the Flyers-Penguins game tomorrow night:

"I do want to say hello to my neighbor Mr. Erskine. But you have to be a Flames fan in Calgary."