10 for 10 (9th Entry): A Quote from Alanis Morrissette

Greetings to our blog readers in Bosnia, Russia, and Denmark.....

Tonight, we quote one of our favorite Canadians the singer Alanis Morrissette who along with the likes of Sheryl Crow, the Gin Blossoms, and the Goo Goo Dolls dominated rock and pop charts in the 1990s. In recent years, Morrissette has also been actress with a recurring part on the Showtime series "Weeds," which wrapped up its long run a few years ago.

Here is her quote:

"I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art, but just as a person."

10 for 10 (5th Entry): Love Those Greyhounds

Greetings to our blog readers in Argentina, Israel, and Russia........

The sport of greyhound racing which is popular in many American states including West Virginia is highly controversial, but in recent years, awareness has been made about adopting retired greyhounds, we will provide two links to greyhound rescue organizations in Virginia and North Carolina.

Additionally, we will provide links to animal shelters in Georgia and Florida.....

At this hour, we are delighted to hear writer Steve Almond who has written a critical book on American football on the BBC World Service; we have been a fan of his work since he wrote pieces for "The Oxford American." Almond, a long-time Oakland Raiders fan, also recently wrote an opinion essay on the need for greater civic action to protect football players from concussions.

Here are the dog links:

http://www.virginiagreyhounds.org/

http://www.greyhoundfriends.com/

http://albanyhumanesociety.com/ (animal shelter of Albany, Georgia)

http://www.thehsmc.org/ (animal shelter of Ocala, Florida)

http://againstfootball.org/ (Steve Almond's book)

10 for 10: The Nine Countries Outside of America Where This Blog Is Most Popular..........

On Sept. 21st, this blog will be celebrating its tenth anniversary, and while we are not completely sure how to celebrate, we have chosen to start by acknowledging our blog readers around the world. Though this following list consists of large countries, we want to also thank blog readers from smaller nations like Malta, Slovenia, and Jordan, who have the time to check us out.

The images above are in conjunction with three of the countries on this list, the Russian dolls are for (of course) Russia, the Hindu love god Shiva is for India, and the women at the bottom associated with a bossa nova song about a beach we can't spell represent Brazil (yeah, that was a bit awkward).....

Here is the list, that we dedicate to Bill Griffith, the artist who draws up "Zippy the Pinhead,"our folk singer friend Bruce Piephoff from Greensboro, NC, and the late, great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune:

1) Russia 34, 974

2) Germany 11,421

3) United Kingdom 10,612

4) Canada 10, 085

5) France 6,320

6) Ukraine 4,407

7) India 3,256

8) Australia 2,467

9) Brazil 1,971

Our sister blog is The Daily Vampire: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from Sunday Myrtle Beach Sun: Ziggy Breaks the Fourth Wall

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, Mexico, and Russia.

Today, we give you our ten favorite comic strips that were featured in the Sunday edition of "The Myrtle Beach Sun" in Myrtle Beach, SC. Ironically, the beach image at the top is from one of their vacation destination rivals Ocean City, Maryland!

The beach was the topic in first place strip "Off the Mark" where all the kids had taken their cellphones into the water!

The second image is in reference to "Dustin," where the kids basically pretended they were Al Pacino from "Scarface" and had a water gun fight.

Lastly, "Ziggy" featured Tom Wilson, the cartoonist behind "Ziggy," breaking the fourth wall as Ziggy told the readers that the cartoonist couldn't come up with any ideas for this week's comic strip. Maybe, next week, Ziggy can state the famous "Hamlet" line: "To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question." Just a thought.

Here is the top ten:

1. "Off the Mark"

2. "Dustin"

3. "Doonesbury"

4. "Mother Goose and Grimm"

5. "Betty"

6. "Ziggy"

7. "Curtis"

8. "Stone Soup"

9. "Dilbert"

10. "Hagar the Horrible"

http://www.gocomics.com/offthemark

http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy

Quotes from Famous Authors (3 of 5): Vladamir Nabakov

"You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style."

We have been considering writing a satire of "Reading Lolita in Teheran" called "Reading Naked Lunch in Rock Hill, South Carolina" but we haven't gotten around to it quite yet!

Sunday Night Tweets: Be on the Look-Out for Runaway Cheetahs

During our last entry, we said that we were going to send Dutch Ambassador Rudolf Bekink (pictured center) a card to congratulate the Netherlands' successful third place  finish at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Alas, a Malaysian Airlines plane carrying 385 passengers, about half of which were Dutch citizens, was shot down by Russian separatist terrorists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, so the Netherlands has gone from a period of joy to tragedy in a very short time span. The plane was in route from Amsterdam, Holland, to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

It also been a disastrous week for Palestinian-Israeli relations as Israel has taken defensive measures by bombing Palestinian areas in the West Bank, killing scores of women and children, which also coincides with the Muslim Ramadan holiday.

But, we do have some light-hearted tweets as well; let's take a look:

1) Washington DC News: Pro-Palestinian Groups march to the White House.

2) Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Man arrested after barricading himself, and a 2-year-old in a Mount Washington apartment.

3) Mark Duplass (actor/filmmaker): "The Master" is now streaming on Netflix. Do it. Like now!

4) The Onion: This week, last year FBI offered $1 million for any information on cheetahs (see top image)

5) Netherlands Embassy: The Dutch embassy in DC will open a condolence register for victims of MH17 this Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon, and from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

6) Dallas Morning News: Dallas police handing out Slurpee tickets to kids for being good (Bottom image, actually of a 7-11 in Japan).

7) Jeremiah Owyang: Seriously, the current news cycle is morbid and bleak. Hoping for a better week, planet earth.

World Cup Lists (2 of 4): Players with Long Last Names

You think you have a tough time getting prescription medications filled at the Rite-Aid on Battleground Avenue in Greesnboro, NC? Well, imagine how you would feel if you the burden of these long and difficult names. Of course, Greece, Iran and Russia provided us with some of the longest names you would find in a Dayton, Ohio, phone book!

NOTE: If we make a mistake spelling anyone's name, it's not like we Jenny Slate on "Saturday Night Live," but even after the f-bomb incident, her career is doing well. Of course, she's no longer with "SNL."


Here we go:

1. Lazaros Christodoulpoulos. 27. Greece. Club team: Bologna (Italy)

2. Dimitris Salpingidis. 32. Greece. PAOK (Greece)

3. Alireza Jahanbakhsh. 20. Iran. NEC Nijmegen (Holland; pict. bottom)

4. Stephan Lichsteiner. 30. Switzerland. Juventus (Italy)

5. Mario Mandzukic. 28. Croatia. Bayern Munich.

6. Vincent Aboubakar. 22. Cameroon. Lorient (France; pict. center)

7. Bastian Schweinsteiger. 29. Germany. Bayern Munich. (pict. top)

8. Aron Johannsson. 23. USA. AZ Alkmaar (Holland)

9. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu. 23. Ghana. Udinese (Italy)

10. Raul Meireles. 31. Portugal. Fenerbahce (Turkey)

11. Chris Wondolowski. 31. USA. San Jose Earthquakes (USA/MLS)

http://www.mls.com

http://www.worldcup.usatoday.com

Quote of the Day: The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalia Lama of Tibet made an appearance on Capitol Hill this week, of all places, to offer the opening prayer for Congress. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) was among those who had photographs taken with the most recognized Buddhist in the world.

The Dalai Lama also came to Washington, DC, as CPAC 2014, a gathering of arch conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) were essentially giving rough drafts of would-be TED Talks focusing on how wimpy President Barack Obama has allegedly been with regards to Russian head of state Vladamir Putin regarding the hostile takeover of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea coast of Ukraine.

Of course, many Republicans, such as Rudy Giuliani have professed admiration for Putin, which lead center-left political columnist E.J. Dionne of "The Washington Post" to suggest on NPR that Republicans are suffering from Putin Envy.

His Holiness was also in Washington, DC, when the Washington Capitals were playing vital home games. The Caps were able to put away the Phoenix Coyotes last night 3-2; we imagine very few people in Tibet or Bhutan watch pro hockey games.

Here is our quote from the Dalia Lama:

"The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred."

http://www.dalailama.com/

http://boulderzen.org/ (Boulder Zen Society in Boulder, Colo.)

http://www.politico.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

Little Thinkers Quotes (14 of 16): Eleanor Roosevelt

Greetings to our blog-readers in Turkey*, Indonesia and Peru.

We are making this short and sweet so we can watch the 2014 Winter Olympics live from Sochi, Russia, with Jay Leno.....err, we mean Bob Costas (we know one of them retired!).....(and, it is actually 5:00 a.m. in Sochi).

Here is our quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

*- "Gecmis Olsun/May it pass quickly, to the passengers on the Pegasus Airlines flight where an attempted hijacking occurred. The Ukrainian national responsible for this fallacy wanted to divert the commercial airplane to Sochi, but it landed in Istanbul, the flight's intended destination, instead.

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

Cold Weather in America: A Look at Domestic and Global Temps

In places such as Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, today was actually Manitoba Moose weather. The Polar Vortex also struck the mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, including the Washington, DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor on I-95.
Here is a look at some temps in America and in traditional cold spots around the world; all temps are Fahrenheit, and most are what we call 'Bulwinkle Weather':

Bodo, Norway (near Arctic Circle): 36

Columbia, SC: 28

Greenville, SC: 26

Raleigh, NC: 25

Winston-Salem, NC: 23

Richmond, Va.: 22

Nashville, Tenn: 21

Roanoke, Va: 19

Lynchburg, Va: 19

Louisville, Ky: 18

Annapolis, Md.: 18

Huntington, WVa: 14

Philadelphia: 13

Columbus, Ohio: 9

Chicago: 6

Cleveland: 3

Pittsburgh, Pa: 3

Toronto, Canada: 3

Kars, Turkey: 0

Omsk, Russia (Siberia): -2

Duluth, Minn: -3

Fargo, ND: -4

Winnipeg, Canada: -11

http://www.wunderground.com

http://www.weather.com

http://www.visitnorthernmanitoba.ca/ (tourism site for northern Manitoba, you may want to go there in the spring!)

http://www.mooseworld.com

Soccer Week (4 of 8): Soccer Players with Very Very Long Lastnames

Who is this player from Georgia, a former Soviet republic, who is the captain of the Turkish team Kayserispor, which plays its home games in the central Turkish city of Kayseri? Well, you will have to find out as we don't want to spell or misspell his name more than once.

Here is the list:

1. Tarik Elyonoussi (Norwegian player or Moroccan heritage who plays for 1899 Hoffenheim in Germany)

2. Manuel Schmiedebach (German player who plays for Hannover '96 in Germany)

3. Angelis Charalambous (Cypriot player who plays for Appolon Limassol in Cyprus)

4. Zurab Khizanishvili (Georgian player who plays for Kayserispor in Turkey; he is the player pictured above...........his name is not actually the longest one we have)

5. Kamo Houhannisyan (Armenian player with Pyunik Yerevan in Armenia)

6. Javid Imamverdiyev (Azeri player with Neftci Baky in Azerbaijan)

7. Sergei Khizhinichenko (Kazak player with Shakhtar Karagandy in Kazakhstan)

8. Dinya Bilyaletdinov (Russian player with Spartak Moscow in Russia)

9. Ruslan Mukametshin (Russian player with Rubin Kazan in Russia)

10. Dzhamaldin Khozhaniyazov (Russian player with Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia)

11. Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russian player with Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia)

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

Tweets of the Day: What To Do About the Great Dictator?

We can't bring ourselves to post an image of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, so in his place, we have an image of Mad King George. The other two images are Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn., top) and The Katzenjammer Kids, a beloved American comic strip of yesterday; we are using their image in reference to a tweet from the always hilarious faux news publication "The Onion."

Though many of these tweets suggest vast opposition to intervention in Syria, I support any measures as it now seems clear that thousands and thousands could be randomly killed if something is not done to stop him and his insanity. But, we do feel obligated to show a range of public opinions.

Here we go:

1) CommonKnowledge (@CommonKnowUK): "China sends warships to #Syria. Joining Russian warships in the Mediterranean."

2) Raquel E Saraswati @RaquelEwati: "Oh Thank God Madonna lent her foreign policy expertise to the debate on #Syria. SAID NO ONE EVER."

3) Reason @reason, a conservative Libertarian magazine: "Polls show Americans demand Obama get Congressional approval for #Syria airstrikes."

4) TheNation @thenation, a liberal magazine: "President Obama was right to seek approval to strike Syria- but new Congress must turn him down."

5) Hurriyet Daily News@HDNER: "Eleven G-20 states, including #Turkey and #US urge strong response to #Syria #chemicalattack"

6) The Onion @theonion: "Nation Throws Great Temper Tantrum Upon Learning Syria is Complex, Nuanced Issue."

7) Dennis Kucinich @Dennis_Kucinich, a former Democratic congressional rep from Ohio:"Busy day today! I'm on @oreillyfactor tonight; 8:30 ET talking #Syria. Tune in if you can."

8) Roll Call @rollcall: ""Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va) sees Syria vote coming within two weeks."

9) Slate @slate: "With #Syria, Obama made the exact same mistake Bill Clinton made 20 years ago with Serbia."

10) The Daily Beast @thedailybeast: "@nytimes staffers got 'physically ill' watching and editing #Syria execution video."

11) The Hill @thehill: "Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) leaning towards supporting military action in Syria."

12) DenverPoliticsNews @denverpolitics: "AP Survey: House shows opposition to Syria attack."

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.rollcall.com/

http://reason.com/

http://www.thenation.com/

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/

Free-Style Blogging: Let's Talk About ...........

Ok, take notes kids, this is how this works. We take some news items and political topics, such as climate change and Edward Snowden, and then mix them in with general things, such as Turkish Airlines (tonight's sponsor......yeah, that is a joke, but we hear they are great to fly with). And, then we make a complete blog entry out of them, which should get us noticed in Slovenia.

The topics will be marked with a single parenthesis.

Let's get rolling:

"Hmmmm..........I've noticed whenever I watch Fox News, they never seem to talk about 'climate change' even though all the glaciers in 'Iceland' are melting. Perhaps, this is because their average viewer lacks the attention span to read one 'Archie Comics.' But, they've been sooo brain-washed that at this point they would vote for 'Darth Vader' if he had an R by his name.

Of course, folks to the left of me (yes, there are always some of these people except in Provo, Utah), are focused on 'Bradley Manning' and the 'NSA.' My advice to 'Edward Snowden' would be to get on a 'Turkish Airlines' flight from Moscow to Istanbul where he can work at a tea house and inexplicably go unnoticed, but his narcissist ego may not like that.

There is also a lot of talk about the controversial 'Rolling Stone' cover, but no one mentions the fact that the cover story about the Boston Marathon bomber is quite well-written. And, in case, one is wondering, it's now 70 degrees and cloudy in 'Greensboro, NC'..........thanks for that info, Mr. Google.' 

Guest Blogger of the Day: Zappa the Family Cat

Greetings to our blog readers in Switzerland, Russia and New Zealand, today, we feature commentary from our guest blogger Zappa the Family Cat; these comments do contain profanity so we had to delete a few letters. And, yes, Zappa is named for Frank Zappa:

"I want some **d ***n ****ing roast beef, man, what do mean it's too late? You are such a ******d and an ******e, ya now that?"

By the way, the cows pictured are the American state of Kansas, located in the Midwest.

Sports Desk: Russian Aliya Mustafina Wins Gold in Gymnastics

Uni the Snow Leopard Kitten (pictured center) was the mascot for the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia, in the country's Tartarstan region, and the host country came through well in artistic gymnastics as Aliya Mustafina (pictured top) won individual gold.

Mustafina, who won individual all-around bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, hails from Tartarstan. She won the competition with a 57.9 score. Her teammate Ksenia Afanaseva (pictured bottom) won individual silver while Kim Dui, a gymnast of Chinese descent who represented Germany, finished third.

Elizabeth Black of Canada finished third on balance beam and she tied for second on vault with veteran gymnast Elsa Garcia of Mexico.

In other women's sports at the World University Games, Aysegul Coban, from my father's home country Turkey, finished third in women's weightlifting in the 195-kg division. Kanae Yasi of Japan won gold in that event. Coban hails from Konya in central Turkey.

Team USA won five overall gold medals, including one from Auriell Scott, an alumni of Central Florida University, won gold in the 100-meters track event.

http://www.intlgymnast.com

Presidential Quotes: Martin van Buren

Greetings to our blog readers in Ukraine, Greece and Kenya, where assuredly Martin van Buren, America's eighth president, is a household name (yes, that is a joke).

Here is a quote from him which even in a post-Soviet Union world seems very, very ironic, perhaps Russian leader Vladamir Putin, if he somehow reads this blog, might find this interesting:

"Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be mutually cherished."

SIDEBAR: One of our favorite tweets of the night is from comic book writer Chris Eliopoulos:

"For those who don't watch CSI Miami, the theme song is The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Quote of the Day- Nazim Hikmet

Today's quote of the day comes from the late Nazim Hikmet, who is Turkey's most famous poet. Though he lived in exile for much of his adult life in the Soviet Union for his communist views, Hikmet is highly regarded in Turkey. His quotes have also inspired many people in Turkey during this trying period brought on my unjust militant crackdowns by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against peaceful protestors at Gezi Park in Istanbul. Hikmet is buried in Moscow, Russia, and his cemetery is a top destination point for Turkish people and poetry enthusiasts.


Here is his quote:

"However and wherever we are, we must live as if we never die."

SIDEBAR: A few months ago, I saw this tweet from John Robinson, the former editor of "The News and Record" in Greensboro, NC, who now teaches at the University of North Carolina. It was regarding 'cannibalism' in Jamestown. At first, I thought he was referring to Jamestown, NC, a suburb of Greensboro, but I realized he meant the Jamestown colony in eastern Virginia.

http://www.nazimhikmet.org

http://www.johnrobinson.com

Catholicism by the Numbers

With images above of a Catholic church in Russia and a sheep in Uzbekistan, here is a look at the numbers of Catholicism in countries where they are minorities.

Though I am not a Catholic myself, I thought with the new coronation of Pope Francis I of Argentina and Easter Sunday occurring tomorrow that this would be a subject of interest:

Azerbaijan 400

India 19.9 million

Israel 100,000

Japan 509,000

Kazakhstan 250,000

Russia 750,000

Uzbekistan 5,000

http://www.catholic.org

Let's Check Out the Times Around the World Again

Since we listed various times from around the world like two weeks ago when the time last changed (forgiven the Americancentric sense of humor, well really it's just our own actually).

The images above are a map of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Holland), the Dubai Mall and an antique grandfather clock that one may find at the Wheatland Antique Mall in Topeka, Kansas, where it's 9:00 p.m. now (Monday).

But, rather than Topeka, we will use New York as the city of comparison; it is now 11:00 p.m. in the Big Apple right now.....all times sprang an hour forward in the United States yesterday.


Here we go:

Athens, Greece: 5:00 a.m.

Barcelona, Spain: 4:00 a.m.

Auckland, New Zealand: 4:00 p.m.

Beijing, China: 11 a.m.

Bucharest, Romania: 5:00 a.m.

Cairo, Egypt: 5:00 a.m.

Dubai 7:00 a.m.

London 3:00 a.m.

Moscow 7:00 a.m.

Paris 4:00 a.m.

Rotterdam, Netherlands 4:00 a.m.

Tel Aviv, Israel 5:00 a.m.


http://www.visittopeka.us

http://www.shopbrookwood.org

http://www.antiquesoftopeka.org


http://www.mw.nl