Potluck Quote (2 of 10): Slavoj Zizek

According to the Instagram site for "Mental Floss," the American embassies for nations of Slovenia and Slovakia get together once a month to exchange letters that are meant for the other. We imagine the folks at "Washington Diplomat" are fully aware of this.

And, perhaps by merely mentioning Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," who actually wrote a play called "Denial" some twenty years ago, we can get a few more domestic hits for this blog.

Today, we quote Slovenian left-leaning philosopher Slavoj Zizek who is probably not admire by either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio:

"When I really love someone, I can only show it by making aggressive and bad-taste remarks."

Top Ten Comics from The Washington Post (Sunday Edition): We Endorse Dustin for President

Greetings to our blog readers in Croatia, Israel, and India.....

During our lunch hour, we took the Mental Floss Presidential Quiz, and we forgot about Chester Arthur, who was president 20 years after the Civil War. Our sincerest apologies to his descendants. Otherwise, we named all the presidents correctly, even Rutherford Hayes and Martin Van Buren.

Here are our top ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post." First place, goes to "Dustin," where a water balloons gag (pict. top) ends with a brilliant zinger. Second place goes to "Lio," a comic strip with dark, gothic humor, which this week features a Grim Reaper gag (pict. center), and lastly in fifth place, the lazy American male is lampooned in "Rhymes with Orange."

"Hagar the Horrible" is not actually out tenth favorite comic strip, but we thought we would start our own running gag, by having it in tenth place every week. Here's the list:

1. Dustin

2. Lio

3. Doonesbury

4. WuMo

5. Rhymes with Orange

6. Foxtrot

7. Zits

8. Brewster Rockit

9. Prickly City

10. Hagar the Horrible (Pearls Before Swine would've actually gotten tenth place)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.dustincomics.com

http://www.gocmics.com/lio

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

The Last Ten Films I've Seen: "Ordinary People" is a Christmas Movie?.........no kidding.........

For those unfamiliar with our blog, when we do these lists, we usually go with something that is referred to in the film rather than an image from the film or whatever our list is about.

Hence, the reason for the image of a burrito for "Eating," a photo of Jackie Kennedy for "The House of Yes," in which Parker Posey plays a young woman who thinks she is the former first lady, and the Harvard sweatshirt is for "The Paper Chase," a film which takes place on that Ivy League school's campus. That film won a Best Supporting Oscar for John Houseman.

Seven years later, that same award would go to Timothy Hutton, then only 20 years old for "Ordinary People," the 1980 Best Picture Oscar winner which is perhaps the most depressing Oscar winner ever (ok, so there is also"One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Schindler's List")........

"Mental Floss" featured an online article about how "Ordinary People" is actually a 'Christmas movie' as it indeed takes place in December, but, yeah, it's probably better to watch "A Christmas Story" as a family unit......

Here are the last ten films I've seen; this idea came from the great cinema magazine "Film Comment" (please don't sue us for $2.6 million).........

1) Intimate Lighting (fmr Czechoslavakia. 1965. dir: Ivan Passer)

2) Eating (1990. dir: Henry Jaglom)

3) The House of Yes. (1997. dir: Mark Waters)

4) Starstruck (Australia. 1982. dir: Gillian Armstrong)

5) Amour (Austria. 2012. dir: Michael Haneke)

6) The Theory of Everything. (2014. dir: James Marsh)

7) Elysium. (2013. dir: Neill Blomkamp)

8) Ordinary People (1980. dir: Robert Redford)

9) An Unmarried Woman (1978. dir: Paul Mazursky w/Jill Clayburgh)

10) The Paper Chase (1973. dir: James Bridges)

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Little Thinkers Quotes (4 of 16): Salvador Dali

Greetings to our blog-readers in Croatia, Mexico and Singapore.

Today, we quote the great Spanish painter Salvador Dali, who was photographed while jumping with three cats by Phillipe Halsman, who also photographed several glamorous actresses who were jumping while barefoot, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jean Seberg. Halsman also photographed Richard Nixon while jumping. There is an amazing article about the photographer on the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine: http://www.mentalfloss.com

At the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., near Tampa, will feature some paintings from Andy Warhol from Jan. 18-Apr. 27th. Warhol has his own museum in Pittsburgh.

Here is our quote from Dali:

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

http://www.thedali.org

http://www.salvadordali.com

http://www.warhol.org

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

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin_ The Wonder Kick Years

It is 6:30 a.m. in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1:30 p.m. where one might be having sushi for lunch in Tokyo, Japan, and 9:30 a.m. in Karachi, Pakistan; we read an article in "Mental Floss" that said 9:30 a.m. on Mondays was the best time to post a blog entry. The problem is I don't think we get too blog-reader traffic from Pakistan, but perhaps today is that day.

We are looking at the collective careers of American action movie star Chuck Norris, who turned 72 on March 10th, and his Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Arkin, who is now 75. Both actors have right-wing views, well we are not 100-percent sure of Arkin, but since Norris said that the re-election of President Barack Obama would bring 1,000 years of darkness, it is safe to Norris is very conservative. But, he may actually be to the left of the Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

In 1977, Norris had a break-out role as a truck-driver hell-bent on finding his missing brother in "Breaker! Breaker!," a film which has been screened on IFC (The Independent Film Channel) here in the states. There was a time when IFC would show arthouse films with indy screen goddess Parker Posey ("House of Yes," "Personal Velocity"), but it appears that Norris films get slightly better ratings.

On a sad note, Norris' co-star in "Breaker! Breaker," veteran actor George Murdock, who also played Testikov in a "Seinfeld" episode in 1994, died this year.

So, we are asking which actor actually won a Best Actor the year Norris made "Breaker! Breaker!," which incidentally has a 3.4 on the Internet Movie Database, in 1997.

Is the answer?:

A) Jack Nicholson

B) Dustin Hoffman

C) Richard Dreyfuss

D) Marlon Brando

E) Jon Voight

As to the answer in our last entry in this series, in 1982,  the year that Cuneyt Arkin was in  "The Turkish Star Wars" the Oscar went to B) Ben Kingsley for the title role in "Gandhi."

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

 http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.ifc.com

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.parkerposey.org

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.mentalfloss.com

New Words to Live By

For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, one conjures up image of early rap or hip-hop bands, such as Run DMC (pictured), but lately urban has been associate with hip and happening. Here are two works we found in "The Urban Dictionary," which definitely would not have existed in Run DMC's heyday circa 1987.

We also found out tonight through a quiz on "The Mental Floss"web site that the teen comedy classic "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" that RHS was rivals with the Lincoln High School Sea Wolves (we missed that one!)

FACEBOOK CRUSH: A crush on a Facebook friend characterized by urges to revisit the friends' Photos tab and repeatedly check to see what is written on the person of the crush's FB page.

MESSAGE ANXIETY: The act of pausing, freezing up or dreading a possible negative email, text or voice mail.

One can also check into our ever-changing lingo through the NPR series "Way with Words."

http://www.urbandictioanry.com

http://www.waywordradio.org

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.rundmc.com

Quote of the Day_ Sigmund Freud

We sense that we will not be getting blog hits from Spain or Portugal today, as those two countries are playing each other in the Euro Cup 2012 semi-finals in Ukraine. And, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), whom we will be quoting today, is not likely to be trending. In fact, according to Bing today, the following topics are trending: Syrian TV raid, Rainbow Oreos, Waldo Canyon fire (near Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Science girl ad.

But, we are quoting Freud because he is one of the figures who has a plush toy doll made in his honor from the American novelty company The Unemployed Philosophers Guild. We also saw a promotion for Freudian Slippers in a "Mental Floss" magazine catalog. We contemplated getting them for my sister Aysegul Denizli (that is not her real name, and our apologies to at least one person with that name in Turkey) in Salt Lake City, Utah (not where my sister lives), but we don't always have the same sense of humor. Although we both love Wes Anderson movies, alas his latest film "Moonrise Kingdom" has yet to open in my market as of today.

Here is Freud's quote:

"A certain amount of neurosis is of inestimable values as a drive, especially to a psychologist."

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.freudfile.org

UPDATE: The answer to our Olympic Cities Distance Quiz from a few days back is B.

Things We Learned on Google Today_ All Things Azerbaijan

Today, we conclude our look at the 15 former Soviet Republics which are now independent nations (the early entries, including Uzbekistan, ran on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire") and we end it all with Azerbaijan, the only country of the 15 that we've actually been to.

From Google, we learned that Elin Suleymanov, an alumnus of The University of Toledo in Ohio, is the new Azeri ambassador to the United States, as of late October. Suleymanov speaks Russian, English, Turkish and Czech.

His counterpart in Baku, the Azeri capital, is Matthew J. Bryza, who was appointed as the American ambassador to Azerbaijan in January.

We also learned that Ganja, with a population of 313,000 in western Azerbaijan is the country's second largest city after Baku. It is sister cities with Newark, NJ, and Izmir, Turkey. When Ganja was in the Soviet Union, the city was called Kirovabad.

Ganja also has a significant Armenian population since it is relatively close to the border with Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia have had many ethnic clashes since both countries became independent 20 years ago.

Prior to our googling venture today, we learned many other things about Azerbaijan from an excellent article about the country in the Sept./Oct. issue of "Mental Floss, including the legend that the quaint city of Lerik, near the Iranian border has a high number of people who live to be 100 or more.

Apparently, and according to the article, a "New York Times" reporter came across one such resident in 1998 who claimed he was 121 years old. The man reportedly said that fresh air and easy living were why he had lived so long.

60 Words or Less- The Freaks and Geeks Fiasco

We have been trying to figure out ways to make blogging 'more productive' and less time-consuming, so we have come up with our '60 Words or Less' series.

Today, I am going to mention my Netflix nightmare which I am dubbing 'The Freaks and Geeks Fiasco.' A few weeks ago, I got a dvd with the first three episodes of the cult tv show "Freaks and Geeks" which only last for less than a season on NBC. The 1999 show, which depicts life at a suburban Detroit high school in the early 1980s, featured several actors who have been succesful 'in life after high school,' including James Franco, Seth Rogen and Martin Starr.

Well, the first dvd didn't work. So, I ordered a second dvd. It didn't work either. Hence, I ordered a third dvd which I put in my dvd player last night, and AAAUUUGHHH, it didn't work either!

I have been able to see dics 2, 3 and 4, and hopefully one day, I will somehow see the first three episodes of the series.

Hmmm... that was well over 60 words. I guess like Leo Tolstoy brevity is not one of my strengths.

SIDEBAR: I was hoping to name all the 43 men who have been president of the United States in a "Mental Floss" magazine. Of course, this is a bit confusing because Barack Obama is the 44th president of the USA. This is because Grover Cleveland, one of the four presidents whose name I forgot, had two non-consecutive terms way back when. And, I did indeed forget three other presidents: James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce and Calvin Coolidge. But, somehow I don't think acing the quiz would have landed me a date with Anne Hathaway!

Things We Learned on Google Today- Bishkek is the Capital of Kyrgyzstan

It has been a long time since we posted a Things We Learned on Google Today entry. May 5th was the last date to be exact. But, we continue with our look at the 13 former republics in the Soviet Union with a look at Kyrgyzstan. It was the only republic I forgot in a "Mental Floss" quiz on the magazine's web site, and it might very well be the hardest country to spell in the world: K-Y-R-G-Y-Z-STAN.

Bishkek is indeed the capital city of...here we go again...., and the city has a population of 762,308, which means that it is a lot larger than the hamlet of War, West Virginia.

The capital city is located in the Chuy Province and the city's name is also the name of the country's national drink, which is a milk beverage.

Bishkek is surrounded by rivers and mountains and the city is relatively close to the border with Kazakhstan, the country that Borat made famous/infamous in the film "Borat." Incidentally, the hilarious rodeo scene in "Borat" was filmed in my hometown of Salem, Va. (near Roanoke).

Amazingly enough, there is actually a Catholic church in Bishkek, though the country is predominantly Muslim.

Both liberals and conservatives in America has criticized this country with a long name for various reasons, including human rights abuses and religious intolerance, but we are not here to be political (did I just say that?!).

The country has also had considerable ethnic strife which makes international headlines quite frequently, though much of that unrest has lost media attention due to the uprisings in places like Libya and Syria. And, to be honest, we are not sure how well the former Soviet republic is managing right now, but we certainly wish them well. We also forgot to check is there was a McDonald's in Bishkek.

SIDEBAR: Maine is the apparently the place to be here on the east coast as it is a cool 76 degrees in the state's capital city of Augusta. In comparison, the weather in the mid-Atlantic region was periliously hot as my hometown of Roanoke, Va., was at 93 degrees. Greensboro, NC, was almost as hot at 91 degrees. And, to top it off, Bethesda, Maryland, our favorite suburb, was 96 degrees. Thsi reminds me, I really need to get my air-conditioner fixed!

Quote of the Week- Sun Tzu

Today, we quip the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu (544-496 BC) who ironically has a statue of himself in Tottori, Japan. We should perhaps dedicate an entry to the tsunami sufferers some time...........hmmm......yeah, that PSA series didn't go over too well (you need to be a long-time reader of this blog to perhaps get the joke and we don't have very many of those).

Tzu's most famous work "Art of War," which Paris Hilton has supposedly read!, was listed by "Mental Floss" magazine as one of the best books once can read on the Washington, DC metro commute between Arlington and the Smithsonian stops (Mental Floss actually said it was one of the best short books to read, we are putting in the DC metro to hopefully 'increase our circulation numbers' in that area which has considerably more people than War, WVa.,* where I am blogging from at the moment**).

Here is the quote from the great Chinese philosopher which will paste here so we can get out of the building in time for Oprah:

"If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril."

*- There is actually a coal-mining town called War, WVa., the far southeastern part of the state.

**- It is not actually where I am blogging from!

Quote of the Week- Friedrich Nietzsche

Today's Quote of the Week continues with yet another quip from a famous philosopher; this one being the German thinker Friedrich Nietzsche (god, his last name is hard to spell!, and I should talk).

We dedicate this entry to our friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, as he and I appear to be the only two people in the world who are still blogging after all these years! In one entry on his blog (http://theknightshift.blogspot.com) Knight talks about a church that is very hard to get to in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which was where Joseph Stalin was from.

As for Nietzche, he was a major influence on postmodernism, and he was known for using metaphors and irony. His key ideas including the notion that "God was dead" and the will to power. The German philosopher was also a contemporary of the composer Richard Wagner, according to the 1990 graphic novel "Nietzche for Beginners" which we found at The International Bookstore in Chapel Hill, NC, a few weeks ago. (The establishment is hosting a Political Prisoner Letter Writing Night, which is probably not something that the fringe, ultra-conservative preacher the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., will be doing with his folks this week).

Niettzche was also known for what would not now be deemed politically incorrect views on religion (well, of course!), love, and women in general. So, I expect that even this tamer quote by him may not go over well in Eden, NC:

"A subject for a great poet would be God's boredom after the seventh day of creation."

MONDAY LEFTOVERS: We wanted to update the blogging public on the status of the University of Cal-Santa Barbara's women's water polo team. The Gauchos were not able to win their game vs. Loyola, which they lost 8-3. But, later in the day, they played a school named Occidental (yes, we've never heard of them either) and beat them 8-5. Kristin Kulakowski scored two goals in that victory.

The UCSB men's basketball team made the NCAA tournament and as a 15-seed they will face the Florida Gators (#2-seed) in a game that will be played on Thursday in Tampa, which is quite close to the Gators' campus!

Interestingly enough, the Gauchos' women's water polo team will next face Bucknell, a smart school in Lewisburg, Pa., for a home game on March 19. Bucknell's men's basketball team also made the NCAAs as a 14-seed; they will face the U-Conn. Huskies in Washington, DC, on Thursday as well.

Though the Gators are my favorite school in the SEC, I may have to root for the Gauchos on Thursday as my cousin's daughter attends that school in Santa Barbie.

There is a great quiz on mentalfloss.com asking the quiz-taker if they know which state a given school is located. Though I have stumbled on many "Mental Floss" quizzes before, I got all 11 questions right today!

Beer Week Promo

We have no idea what beers we will feature during Beer Week (which will actually start on Wednesday as we have quotes on Monday and Tuesday this month), but since we are on a Scandinavian kick, the possibilities do include the likes of the Norwegian beer Haaken, but we have already featured the Danish beer Carlsberg.

We may also go with a beer that we learned about while wasting precious time on a Mental Floss quiz (where you can learn that Steve Martin won two Grammys, but no Oscars, and where you can kick yourself for forgetting that Cuba is one of the world's ten countries with four letters), including Chang Beer from Thailand and Zywtec Beer from Poland.

Quote from The Composers- Edvard Grieg

Since we really like kitsch and all things Scandanavian (though I've never been to Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden or Finland), we thought we'd quip the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) for our entry in the series today.

Grieg is known piano miniatures "Lyric Pieces" and his piano concertos in A-minor; he was born in Bergen. The composer also drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music.

Earlier today, we learned that Norway is NOT one of the 27 European Union member nations (neither is Iceland) from our friends at "Mental Floss" (actually, we don't know a single person who works for that ultra-hip magazine, based in Birmingham, Alabama- of all places). I was able to name every member state except one: Cyprus. The irony here is quite well ironic because I have been to Cyprus (well, the northern Turkish part) and Greece and Turkey, the country of my late father, fought over the island nation in a short, but bloody war in 1974.

Getting back to Grieg, whose music is of course more relevant than silly ethnic squabbles (note to my friends in Athens: our yogurt is better than your yogurt!), here is a quip from the Norwegian master who perhaps just couldn't stand Swedes:

"Suddenly a mist fell from my eyes and I knew the way I had to take."

SIDEBAR: For those interested in classic music who live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Utah Symphony will be conducting Stravinsky's Pulcinetta from Jan. 27-29, which we perhaps should have mentioned yesterday when we were quoting Russian composers!

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Dick Durbin Talks

According to NPR, the most boring day in the 20th century was April 11, 1954. I am not sure if today was one of those days even though assuredly everyone from Hilo, Hawaii, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is talking about the infamous Wikileaks fiasco, but not much was going on today, at least on Twitter.

But, we did find out that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) will talk to progressive-leaning PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley. The shows airs at 12:30 a.m. in Mount Airy, NC, but hopefully ultra-right wing Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) will suffer from insomnia and tune in.

Here is the actual tweet from "The Tavis Smiley Show:"

"Also tonight @ PBS, Sen. Dick Durbin shares his thoughts on deficit reduction, unemployment benefits and tax cuts."

SIDEBAR: Are you wondering how the heck you spell Chanukah/Hannukah/Hanuka. Well, the hip magazine "Mental Floss" has an article on it. Assuredly, it will be more popular in Tel Aviv, Israel, than Aleppo, Syria, but we are sure it's a fascinating topic.