For Canada Day, a Quote from Martin Short

Greetings to our readers in Tanzania, Turkey and Tahiti, our regrets that your soccer lost to Spain by a score of 10-0  during Confederate Cup play in Brazil.

Today, our neighbors to the north are celebrating Canada Day, so with that, we have a quip from Martin Short, 63, the former "SCTV" star and character actor, who hails from Hamilton, Ontario:

"I know if I were to drop dead now, people would probably write nice things about me."

SIDEBAR: In case you are wondering, a can of Blue Sky Root Bear has 170 calories in it. The company that was started in Santa Fe, N. Mex., is now based in California.

http://www.secondcity.com

http://www.bleuskysoda.com

Kudos to the University of Maryland for Winning the ACC Lacrosse Title

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC, is perhaps a good six-hour drive from College Park, Md., where the University of Maryland is located but the Terps came through in women's lacrosse with a 12-8 over the Tar Heels on road soil.

Abby Friend scored three goals for the home team, but it wasn't enough to hold off three goals each from Katie Schwarzmann (pictured center), Brooke Grffin, Beth Glaros and Taylor Cummings. Schwarzmann was named the tourney's most outstanding player.

The Terps (19-0) remain undefeated and the loss was one of the very few for the 'Heels (12-3); the title is the fifth straight ACC title for Maryland. 

Incidentally, in case any of you are wondering, Testudo is the mascot of Maryland, a school that is (editorial comment: foolishly) going to the Big Ten in the fall.

SIDEBAR ONE: We want to thank Jack in Truth or Consequences, N.Mex., the only town in America named after a game show. Jack was one of the supporters who called in a pledge to the non-profit progressive tv channel Link-TV today; we sense if Link-TV had given his last name, he might find himself on Gov. Susana Martinez's 'enemies list.' She is, after all, a Republican.

SIDEBAR TWO: We also want to thank today's day sponsor (yes, we are making this up, no one sponsors us!) the Cafe Evolution, a vegetarian cafe in Florence, Mass. We are curious to know if they serve shish kebab without any meat!

SIDEBAR THREE: One sport that the Terps might have trouble with in the Big Ten, particularly since they don't have a team in the sport, is women's hockey. But, we sense that if the Terps had a team on the ice, they would probably lose quite often to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, a team that went a very impressive 41-0-0. The Gophers won a NCAA title in women's hockey on their home ice with a 6-3 win over Boston University several weeks ago.

Amanda Kessel of the Gophers was named the most outstanding player in college women's hockey.

There is now a petition to have the Gophers visit the White House, and a joint letter from Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) was written on their behalf.

SIDEBAR FOUR: Starting tomorrow, we will start Soccer Week. It was a good week for Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce, the arch rival of our beloved GalataSaray. The Canaries won a home UEFA game over Benefica of Portugal 1-0 on a goal from veteran Turkish player Egemen Korkmaz.

In domestic play, Fenerbahce won over Kayserispor 2-1 thanks to goals from two of the team's star players Dirk Kuyt of the Netherlands and Cristian Baroni of Brazil.

http://www.umterps.com

http://www.gopherssports.com

http://www.cafe-evolution.com

http://www.linktv.org

10 People Who Will Decide Election- New Mexico

Name: Maria Gonzalez (not to be confused with the Costa Rican gymnast of the same name)

Occupation: Fourth grade teacher

Race: Hispanic

Residency: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Age: 28

Will Likely Vote for: Obama

Santa Fe is the state capital of New Mexico, and the state's fourth largest city. Santa Fe County voted overwhelming for Barack Obama by a 77-23 margin. Obama's win in New Mexico was arguably one of his most impressive since his opponent John McCain is from neighboring Arizona.

New Mexico is not an entirely blue state though as the current governor Susanna Martinez, 59, is a Republican though she lost Santa Fe County to her Democratic opponent Diane Denish. The state's previous governor Bill Richardson (D) attempted to run for office. And, another former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, a former Republican, is on the national ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate.

In her address at the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla., Martinez gave speech that was aimed more at Hispanics than independents which was a stark contrast to the red meat, partisan speeches from the likes of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Currently, "Politico" has President Obama winning New Mexico by a 50-40 margin over Mitt Romney.

http://www.santafe.org

http://www.politico.com

http://www.governor.state.nm.us

http://www.nmdemocrats.org

http://www.gopnm.com

Happy New Year from Lucky Luke/Red Kit

Today, we are taking a brief hiatus from blogging about our family trip to Washington, DC, which had elements of both "National Lampoon's Vacation" and "Taxi Driver" to send holiday greetings via our favorite French cowboy Lucky Luke, whom I still refer to as Red Kit since that was his name in the Turkish translations of his adventures.

Surprisingly enough, even though Lucky Luke's stories all took place in the American west, and featured such real-life figures as Billy the Kid, who Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico did not pardon yesterday, the comic book was never popular in America. Though, Lucky Luke did develop a loyal following in Canada, Turkey, Italy, Germany, the former Yugoslavia and even Vietnam.

The first Lucky Luke comic books arrived in 1946, and his rivals were the Dalton Brothers, a Keystone Kopsesque bunch of numb-skulls who were based loosely on the real-life Dalton Gang.

The books were drawn by the Morris (1923-2001) and the stories were written by the late French icon Rene Goscinny, who also worked on the adventures of Asterix the Gaul.

Red Kit rode a white horse named Jolly Jumper and he was accompanied by a stupid dog Rantanplan, who was a satire of Rin Tin Tin. In fact, the dog was called Rin Tin Tin in the Turkish versions.

Lucky Luke was criticized for using cigarettes, and Morris defended the character using the tobacco product in the children books up until 1988 when he decided it was time for the French cowboy to go cold turkey.

New English-language versions made by Cinebooks can be found at considerably more retailers here in les etats unis than in years past. One of them is my personal favorite comic book shop Chapel Hill Comics in Chapel Hill, NC, where one can also see a Tom Waits octopus!

SIDEBAR: Kudos to the following New Years Day babies who were among the first born in their areas: Colton Jackson Rodenhauer of Richmond, Va., Sean-John Arruda of Fall River, Mass. and Jasmine Bessou of Winston-Salem, NC.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Working at the Arcade

Alas, the Ms. Pac-Man machine at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, apparently does not work, but the venue is hosting the '80s New Wave band The English Beat ("Mirror in the Bathrrom") and I sure as heck would love to be there. (Insert screams of frustration and choice profanity words here). I must profess that The Cat's Cradle is a great concert venue irregardless if their Ms. Pac-Man is working or not (I wonder if they can give us a discount on Blonde Redhead tickets for saying this!)

But, high school and college students can possibly find part-time work at Swingtime in Howell, NJ, which we hope is somewhat near Trenton, NJ, our choice city of the week for this series within a series on summer jobs (yeah, we know, it's getting a bit late for that topic!).

Swingtime also offers mini-golf (in New Jersey?!) and batting cages for the young and the young-at-heart.

This brings us to our High School of the Week (yes, lots of schools across America share this honor which is sort of our joke here on this blog) which is Capital High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Melanie Romero is the principal.

The school with an enrollment of circa 1,240 students has the nickname of The Jaguars. They have turgoise and black school colors. And, according to Wikipedia (we are wondering if this is a joke), the school was built to resemble the state pen!