Remembering Nelson Mandela with a Quote from Him

Unlike Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, who were both gunned down in their fights for the respective freedom movements they established, South Africa's Nelson Mandela was able to live a full life: He died two days ago at the age of 95.

But, nevertheless, the death of this amazing man leaves a void for those you admire him around the world.

Five actors played Mandela on films, including Idris Elba, Morgan Freeman, Terence Howard, Danny Glover and Dennis Haysbert.

Here is his quote:

"Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom on their people."

SIDEBAR: We always like to periodically quote Sunday comic strips. Here is a line from "The Amazing Spiderman" by Stan Lee which was published on Nov. 17th: "How do we know it was Spider-Man who got off that plane from Cape Verde?"

Today is Our 7th Anniversary of Blogging

Today is indeed the 7th anniversary of this very blog, which has outlasted a good chunk of the competition; alas, a good chunk of the competition were also my friends.

For this special anniversary edition, we are doing something new, which is to have a blog entry made of dialogue from Sunday comic sections; today, we include lines from 12 comic strips that were posted in the June 17, 2012, edition of "The Washington Post." That day also happened to be Father's Day, hence the reason why we have an image of Fred MacMurray from the yesteryear sitcom "My Three Sons."


Let's begin:

1) "Was that daddy?"

2) "You're like the smartest dad in the world."

3) "This conversation has been a total waste of time, Lemont."

4) "Did really just on a horse named Charlie?"

5) "Why not just outlaw divorce?"

6) "Lately, I've had a lot of questions about my career."

7) "I'm a preferred customer. What can I say?"

8) "More coffee?"

9) "We haven't had a Tech Support department for about six months."

10) "Wh.....What's happening to him?"

11) "If you're heading up to Cherry Creek Lodge, take the shortcut!"

12) "Just because I assembled you from parts in my lab doesn't make me your dad."

13) "No you guys can't stay here for the next four years."

14) "Around this time in 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died."


(From "Doonesbury," "Sherman's Lagoon," "Candorville," "The Argoyle Sweater," "Knight Life*," "Hagar the Horrible," "Foxtrot," "Pearls Before Swine," "Reply All," "the Amazing Spiderman," "Judge Parker," "Brewster Rockit," "Non Sequitur" and "Prickly City."

*- a comic strip by the multi-talented Keith Knight

www.washingtonpost.com

20 Things To Do List for September- Read the Sunday Comics

Here is our 20 Things To List for September:

1) Listen to "The Turkish Music Hour" on WUVT (90.7-Blacksburg, Va.; the image above is of Turkish pop diva Sertab Erener)

2) Get the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post" (hence the reason for the "Blondie" image as Sunday papers here in America generally have comic strips in them; "The New York Times" is one of the exceptions).

3) Use LinkedIn more often

4) Wear the Spiderman tie more often

5) Watch "Nature" on PBS

6) See an art exhibit at a museum or gallery

7) Read the novel "The Rum Diary" by the late Hunter S. Thompson

8) Watch the Washington Nationals on tv

9) Call Mike

10) Get an Obama/Biden 2012 bumper sticker

11) Pay bills

12) Take photos

13) Read magazines

14) Watch Japanese movies you ordered from Netflix (hence the reason for the image of the late, great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune)

15) See if family cat needs to have a check-up at the vet

16) Join local athletic club/gym

17) Drink coffee some place besides Dunkin Donuts

18) Fix/ update resume

19) Go see an art-house film

20) Look into joining an online dating services besides E-Harmony


http://www.wuvt.vt.edu

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.neckties.com

http://www.toshiromifune.org

http://www.pbs/wnet/nature

UPDATE (Sept. 2nd): In amazing coincidence, I learned that a song from Turkish pop singer Sertap Erener was actually played during the "Turkish Music Hour." Alas, I was unable to listen to the show because the Internet was down; it airs from 1:00-2:30 p.m. on Saturdays on WUVT (90.7 FM_Blacksburg, Va.).

Nostradamus the Octopus?!

Before we start this entry which is going on at the same time as the World Cup soccer game between Holland and Slovakia, we should note that we tried tirelessly to get a proper image for the subject. But, after many failed efforts to find a fitting image, we simply decided to go with The Octopus Man, a comic book villain who we think comes from "Spiderman." (I'm sure the guys at Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, would be delighted to correct me if I'm wrong!).

But, we loved this sport that we heard while listening to the BBC during a bout with insomnia circa 2:30 a.m. last night.

Apparently, Paul the Octopus who is residing in an aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen has predicted the outcomes of all German soccer games, including their surprsingly first round 1-0 loss to Serbia and yesterday's 4-1 German victory over England.

His handlers give Paul, who has even made news in Saudi Arabia, baited glass cubes with mussels and mark them with national flags.

The irony here is that the octopus was born in an English aquarium!

In other world sports news, the English-language Twitter page of Turkish daily newspaper "Hurriyet" reported that Mehmet Yesilyesil, 24, won the coveted 649th Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival near Edirne, Turkey (a western Turkish city near the Bulgarian and Greek borders), yesterday.

Amazingly enough, Yesilyesil won the event in which one must beat out lots and lots of wrestlers (this year it was 498!) for the title. The sport of oil wrestling has become quite a novelty for foreign tourists visiting Turkey because to western eyes the sport looks a bit (how else can I put this?!) homoerotic......since I am a Turkish-American, I should strongly emphasize this is not my own personal view!

Nostalgia Monday- Comic Book Character Who Ran 4 Prez

Today, with my sister blog "The Daily Vampire," I am focusing on 1976. It was the first and last year I wanted a Republican to win the White House. I was six years old at the time, and for some reason I was very found of President Gerald Ford, who was admittedly a nicer guy than most modern day Republicans.

It was also the year a certain Marvel Comics character ran for president.

If you have been with this blog when we were with AOL, you probably already know the answer. But, for a free trip to War, W.Va, we are offering it again (it should be noted there are no hotels in War that we are aware of!).

Was the character?:

A) Captain America

B) Spiderman

C) Howard the Duck

D) Iron Man