Super Tuesday 4 Tweets: Bernie Wins Rhode Island

Tonight, we are featuring the Baltimore Orioles mascot as the state of Maryland joined Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania in having Democratic and Republican primaries today. Hillary Clinton won four of the five blue state primaries with her challenger Bernie Sanders (pict top) from Vermont winning in Rhode Island.

Donald Trump swept all five of the primaries, but given that each of the states in play are blue states, voter turn-out was significantly lower for the Republicans. But, that did not stop Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ, pict. bottom) from standing by his man Donald Trump during the Donald's 'victory speech' tonight.

Here are the tweets; yeah, we have a center-left bias here, but some of these tweets actually do not:

1) Nate Cohn: Clinton took the lead in Connecticut thanks to a massive 87-13 margin in the wealthy town of Grenwich.

2) Ken Rudin: Trump had a stunning night tonight. There is absolutely no reason for him to be reading a litany of slights he's endured.

3) Chris Cillizza: Cruz keeps getting a pass on finishing third in these northeastern states. He shouldn't. This is the guy who is supposed to beat Trump.

4) David Corn: Waiting for Chris Christie to raise his hand and ask if he can go to the bathroom.

5) Shirley Henry (NPR): Trump citing Sanders: 'He's been telling the truth' about Clinton. 'I think Bernie Sanders should run as an independent. I think he's do great.'

6) Donna Brazile: Oh God! Trump is using Bernie to attack Hillary and trying to drive a wedge.

7) John Fugelsang: For the last 7 minutes, Chris Christie's brain has been saying: 'Recalculating. Recalculating. Recalculating."

8) Robert Costa (Washington Post): NJ Gov Chris Christie with Trump, standing to the candidate's right, Pa Cong. Lou Burletta to Trump's left.

9) Jennifer Levitz (WSJ): Rhode Island voter Connie Swanson, 79, calls any effort to deny Trump the nomination 'sleazy, very sleazy.'  

In Honor of Banned Book Week: Passages from Six Books (not all of them were banned)

WARNING THIS ENTRY CONTAINS ONE VULGAR WORD.

Books by William S. Burroughs, Jim Thompson and Bret Easton Ellis are among the books we will be citing here. Banned Book Week concludes tomorrow. Of the books cited, we are pretty sure "Junky" by Burroughs (pictured top) and "Motorcycle Diaries" by Che Guevara were once banned. The other authors have each written controversial novels, including Ellis, who is best-known for "American Psycho," but we quip a sentence from "Glamorama" (pictured bottom) here.

For this project, we are taking the fifth sentence from page 52 of each work. The answers will be at the very end of this entry:


1. "She pulled her mouth away from his and pushed it against his neck, then pushed one of her hands down between them and the buckle of his pants."

2. " 'Uh-hah,' he nodded: "Miss Ruth told me she thought you might be here, but you was already gone when stopped by. Got you a job, eh?"

3. "He sounds terrible."

4. "How long this present order, based on an absurd idea of caste, will last, I can't say, but it's time governments spent less time publicizing their own virtues and more money, much more money, funding socially useful projects."

5. A gambling-house dealer from East Saint Louis was describing a method for cooking the carbolic acid out of a phenol, seet oil and tincture of opium script."

6, "No myths. M-y-t-h-s. Like a fag was gonna introduce you to Miss America, what would he say?"




1. "The Graduate" by Charles Webb (yes, it's the novel that was made into a Dustin Hoffman movie)

2. "Savage Night" by Jim Thompson (pictured middle)

3. "Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh

4. "Motorcycle Diaries" by Che Guevara

5. "Junky" by William S.. Burroughs

6. "Glamorama" by Bret Easton Ellis (yes, that has our one vulgar word).


http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/ (bookshop in Durham, NC)

http://www.kramers.com/index.html (book store in Washington, DC)

http://www.tatteredcover.com/ (book store in Denver, Colo.)

http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/ (Richmond Public Library, Richmond, Va)

http://www.provlib.org/ (Providence Public Library in Providence, Rhode Island)

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

Olympic Cities Destination Quiz (5 of 6)- Helsinki-Antwerp

Hey kids, for those of you who are not sitting at a multi-plex in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, watching "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises," we offer you free entertainment and a geography lesson as we look at the distance between Antwerp, Belgium, which hosted the Olympics way back in 1920, and Helsinki, Finland, which did the honors in 1952.

A mere 29 countries competed in Belgium, but among them was American swimmer Duke Kahanamoku (1890-1968), whew glad, we double-checked the spelling!, who won gold. He would later become an actor and an icon in his native Hawaii.

In Antwerp, Italian fencer Nedo Nadi (1894-1940) won a record five gold medals in his sport.

As for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, which had 69 countries participating, Soviet/Ukrainian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya (1921-2001) who might have the longest surname in Olympics history won an all-around gold medal in women's gymnastics and six medals overall. In 1990, she emigrated to Israel.

So, we are asking just how far apart these two European Olympics cities are from one another; is the answer:

A) 1,061 miles

B) 1,265 miles

C) 1,333 miles

D) 1,409 miles

Note: The above images are of the iconic Belgian comic book hero Tintin and his dog Snowy, and a member of the very unique Finnish band the Leningrad Cowboys.

Bonus Road Trip (8 of 10)_ In the Ivy League

Today, we ask you the blog reader how far apart two Ivy League towns are. We are going with Providence, Rhode Island, the home of Brown University (the school nickname is the Brown Bears) and Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University (the Big Red).

Among Brown's most famous recent alumnus is Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone, who made headlines by posing partially nude for "ESPN Magazine" last year. Sacramone who was captain of the 2008 Olympics team also dated current Denver Broncos quarterback Brady Quinn who got replaced by Tim Tebow, who has headlines for 'Tebowing,' a religious ritual which has made him popular with evangelicals.

The current Brown University gymnastics roster features gymnast Kasey Haas, who is from right here in the Tarheel state as she hails from Charlotte, NC.

Cornell also has a gymnastics team, which features the likes of Tiffany Chen on their roster; she is from California. The Big Red's gymnastics team will take part in the George Washington University Invitational in Washington, DC, on Jan. 15. Their first home meet will be against fellow Ivy Leaguers Pennsylvania University on Jan. 25.

Brown and Cornell face each other in gymnastics in Providence on March 11. So how far will that trek be?

Is the answer:

A) 4 hours, 45 minutes

B) 5 hours, 45 minutes

C) 6 hours, 45 minutes

D) 7 hours, 45 minutes

Quote of the Moment-John Irving

Today, we continue our quips from famous New Englanders with a quote from novelist/screenwriter John Irving (b. 1942, Exeter, NH). Since Irving is from New Hampshire, this means that we have covered five of the six New England states with quotes on our two blogs. Rhode Island is now the lone exception.

Irving is a bit luckier than most novelist because two of his three most well-known novels "The World According to Garp" (book, 1978; film, 1982), "The Hotel New Hampshire" (book 1981; film 1984) and "The Cider House Rules" (book 1985; film 1999) turned into good film adaptations. Of course, it probably helped that Irving himself either wrote or co-wrote all three screenplays. He actually won an Oscar for best adapation for "The Cider House Rules." Of the three film versions, "The Hotel New Hampshire" with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster is considered to be the least successful.

Here is Irving's quote:

"Half of my life is an act of revision."

Quote of the Week- David Mamet

Today's Quote of the Week is from 'is he actually now a Republican' playwright David Mamet whose most famous play "Glengarry Glen Ross" is now being staged at The Gamm Theatre in Pawtucket, RI, until Oct. 3.

Mamet is also a screenwriter, film director and novelist. His latest film (we believe) "Redbelt" is available through Netflix.

"I always thought the real violence in Hollywood isn't what's on the screen. It's what you have to do to raise the money."