Noon Rush Hour Tweets: Does God Decide if Tom Brady Throws Interceptions?

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Wales, Dubai, and South Korea.....

We imagine folks are quite happy in Tunisia today as the national soccer team defeated Zambia 2-1 in the African Cup of Nations yesterday. Today, in Turkish soccer play, Trabzonspor defeated its fellow eastern Turkish side Sivasspor 3-1, thanks to two goals from Paraguay international Oscar Cardozo.

Our images above are of: 1) The Buffalo Bills, an American football team in Buffalo, NY; 2) The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn.; and 3) Cong. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is the speaker of the house..........yes, we are surprised to be posting a tweet from him as well (this blog has a center-left bias, but then again, so does the truth).........

Here are tweets taken from the noon rush hour on the east coast of America:

1) The Hill (a newspaper that covers Congress): Sen. Lindsey Graham (D-SC) says...........'I'm well-qualified to be president'.....

2) UberFacts: One in four Americans believe that God decides who wins the Super Bowl (that is our reason for using the Bills, they are 0-4 in Super Bowls)

3) Chris Eliopolous (a cartoonist....yeah, we got his name spelled right, we think!): Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between a mentally disturbed man and a guy on his Bluetooth headset.

4) Politico: Bill and Hillary Clinton praise King Abdullah's 'humanitarian efforts.'

5) WNYC (New York's NPR station): "On March 22, the fare of a New York City bus or subway ride will increase by a quarter.........*sigh*....)

6) Speaker John Boehner: This pen is used to sign common sense job bills before sending them to the president's desk (hashtag: National Handwriting Day)

7) Peter Sciretta (tweeting from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah): The Bronze is a filthy R-rated SNL sketch at feature-film length. If that sounds like something fun, go see it. If not, avoid it (hashtag: Sundance)

8) Mike Reiss (Boston-based sports reporter): Darelle Revis of the Pats relayed how Tom Brady addressed players Thursday and talked about not letting deflate football story to be a distraction.

9) Sherine Tadros (Middle East-based tv journalist): Calling the late King Abdullah (of Saudi Arabia) a 'reformer' shows how far low the bar is in the region.

10) WXII 12 News (TV station in Winston-Salem, NC): At 12:40 p.m. (we have) icy mountain spots, glazing on trees, sleet now rain in the Triad, upper 30s.

11) Hartford Courant: Exodus of tens of thousands of residents to other states has lead to Connecticut's first population drop since 2008.

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.desperatetimes.com/ (a comic strip by Chris E.)

http://chriseliopoulos.com/

http://www.wnyc.org/

http://www.politico.com

https://twitter.com/johnboehner (Definitely not an endorsement)

http://www.hartford.com/ (Hartford, Ct, tourism site)

http://www.courant.com/

https://www.marktwainhouse.org/

Best Comics from Sunday, Jan. 18th from GoComics: Gotta Love F-Minus

Greetings to our blog readers in Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and........well, we're not sure how popular we are in eastern Europe/the Balkans/the former Yugoslavia anyway!

GoComics is the premiere comics distributor in America with over 200 comic strips, including "Garfield," "Dilbert" and "Get Fuzzy." We couldn't possibly have checked all their strips on Sunday, but from the 40-50 that we did check out, we were able to find ten which really stood out.

The images above are of: 1) Lucy from "Peanuts" actually for "The Argyle Sweater" which made fun of Charlie Brown, who will be the place kicker for the Seattle Seahawks for Super Bowl Sunday (yeah, no one in Macedonia will get that joke); 2) the cactus for "Reality Check" in which Bugs Bunny gets lost in the desert thanks to faulty GPS directions; and 3) a parking spots war photo for "F-Minus," the single-panel strip, which this week had a driver drop someone's hoodie in a parking spot to assure that the right person got it.

Here are the top ten:

*-comics in "The Washington Post" (Sunday edition)

#-comics in "The Roanoke Times" (Sunday edition)

1) The Argyle Sweater *

2) Reality Check

3) F-Minus

4) The Flying McCoys

5) Foxtrot *

6) Speed Bump *#

7) Get Fuzzy #

8) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy*

9) WUMO *

10) Brevity

http://www.gocomics.com/fminus/2015/01/18 (the Sunday F-Minus strip)

http://www.gocomics.com/fminus

http://www.gocomics.com/realitycheck

http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater

Quote of the Day/Week-Joe Namath

Today, we quote New York Jets quarterback great Joe Namath who helped guide the New York Jets to a stunning 16-7 upset over the then-Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III
(1969).

Namath was also a star at the University of Alabama, and he also had an acting career that included guest appearances on "The Brady Bunch," "The A-Team" and "Alf."

He retired in 1977 as a member of the then-Los Angeles Rams, shortly before Warren Beatty played a fictinional Rams quarterback in "Heavy Can Wait" (1978).

Here is Namath's bold quote which shocked the sports world in 1969:

"We're going to win Sunday. I guarantee it."

SIDEBAR: Yesterday, we mentioned men's basketball results from the Ivy League. But, there is at least one other smart school conference here in the United States in the Patriot League.

Last night in league play, the Holy Cross Crusaders (14-13, 8-5 in leage play) won a home game in Worchester, Mass., over Army 82-51 with Devin Brown leading the home team in scoring with 24 points.

In other Patriot League games, Lehigh beat Navy on the road 58-41 and the home team Laffayette won over Colgate 84-67.

Tonight, in Washington, DC, the home team American University Eagles are giving away Jeff Jones Bobblehead Dolls, in honor of Jeff Jones, the team's coach, to the first 1,000 fans. American faces a crucial match against leuague-leading Bucknell.

Quote of the Day/Week- Drew Brees

When I was a kid in 1979, I recall seeing a newspaper photograph of New Orleans Saints fans wearing bags over their heads as the team was playing dismal football.

But, thanks to current Saints quarterback Drew Brees, 33, who ironically helped the team win the Super Bowl in 2010 by defeating the Indianapolis Colts, whose quarterback is Peyton Manning_ the son of the legendary Saints quarterback Archie Manning, no one wears bags over their heads at the Superdome any more.

Brees played college football for Purdue University in Indiana, and he is originally from Austin, Texas. Here is his quip:

"We found something was working....and, we stuck with it."

SIDEBAR: Since there are sitting members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC), a conservative Democrat who stated he was stepping down at the end of his term this year, who were once pro athletes, it may seem like the odd mixture of sports and politics is a uniquely American team.

But, in Turkey, my late father's country, that is definitely not the case.

In fact, Turkey's current prime minister, the politically conservative Recep Tayyip Erdogan (whom I oppose politically) was once a soccer player for the Istanbul team Kasimpasa, now playing in the second division. The team actually now plays its games in what is now Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium.

Two of Turkey's soccer legends Tanju Colak and Hakan Sukur, who both played for Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray (Tanju also played for that team's main rival Fenerbahce), both members of Erdogan's AK-Party, have made efforts to enter the Turkish parliament.

SIDEBAR TWO: As Al Pacino, whose films seem to always perform well at the Turkish box office, said in "The Godfather, Part III," regarding the mafia: "I wanted to get out, but they kept dragging me back in."

The same could be said for Turkish soccer, which has not generated as many blog hits from Turkey as I would like (but, we are popular in Slovenia?!).

But, there have been some interesting developments in the Turkish Premiere League, both domestically and in European play.

Yesterday, Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas beat the Portuguese team Braga in Portugal 2-0 with a goal coming from the Portuguese player Simao Sabrosa (who plays for the Turkish team). Over the weekend, Besiktas tied SivasSpor 1-1 in domestic play.

GalataSaray, which did not qualify for European play, beat KayseriSpor 1-0 over the weekend on a goal from Brazilian player Felipe Melo in the 32nd minute.

Our favorite team BursaSpor was also victorious as they beat MainsaSpor 3-1 in part from a goal from Gokcek Vederson, a Brazilian national who not only obtained Turkish citizenship, but also changed his named (Gokcek is a Turkish name).

SIDEBAR 3: Cross-cultural players have actually become the norm in European soccer, especially in Turkey. PM Erdogan's former team Kasimpasa beat second league-rival Karsiyaka (Izmir) 1-0 on a last-minute goal from Halil Colak, a Turkish player born in Holland who is classified as a Turkish national.

Kasimpasa also features Azar Karadas, a Norwegian-born player of Turkish heritage. He is a Norwegian national.

Lastly, this team which is in second place in their league, features Ali Bilgin, a German-born player of Turkish heritage who plays for........Germany.

Quote of the Day/Week- Roger Staubach

Today we continue our quips from Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks with a quote from Roger Staubach, 70, who helped the Dallas Cowboys win two Super Bowls in 1972 (over the Miami Dolphins) and in 1978 (over the Denver Broncos). The Cowboys would win three more Super Bowls in the 1990s.

This one brings back memories because there is a photograph of me taken in Budapest, Hungary, in 1976 when I was just six years old, as I was wearing a matching Dallas Cowboys hat and jacket. Of course, at the time, I had no idea who Roger Staubach really was.

Staubach was also a Heisman Trophy winner for Navy in 1963, and he helped the Midshipmen win two games over arch rivals Army. Along with former NBA star David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, Staubach is considered to be the most famous athlete to graduate from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Due to his military commitment, Staubach did not enter the NFL as a rookie until he was 27 in 1969. He retired from football after the 1979 season. Staubach played for the Dallas Cowboys for his entire career.

On the Fox-TV animated sitcom "King of the Hill," which ran for 13 seasons, the local Texas elementary school is named after Staubach.

Here is his quote:

"Confidence comes from hours and days and weeks and years of constant work and dedication."

SIDEBAR: One thing one has to love about Google is that it can help you answer a question about something you saw on Twitter. Today, The Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty) said that several words in English, such as Gobblefunk, were the creation of children's book writer Roald Dahl ("James and the Giant Peach"). I was puzzled as to what exactly Gooblefunk or gobblefunk meant, and the answer is 'delicious.'

Quote of the Day/Week- John Elway

In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and New York Giants, a rematch of a game which lead to the Giants stopping the Patriots from having the first perfect season since the Miami Dolphins accomplished the feat in the 1970s, we are quoting Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks.

Initially, John Elway and the Denver Broncos lost the Super Bowl in 1990 to Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. But, Elway came up victorious over the Green Bay Packers and the Atlanta Falcons to win two Super Bowls. Elway retired after the Broncos' Super Bowl win over the Falcons.

Today, Elway is the executive vice president of the Broncos, and the current quarterback Tim Tebow has been a source of controversy as he has made a warrior-stance prayer which has become known as 'tebowing.' As Matt Taibbi pointed out in a column for "Rolling Stone," there was an ironic moment during the NFL season when a defensive player from another team sacked Tebow and made the same warrior-stance prayer, thus leading to term "tebowing Tebow."

Here is the quote from Elway, who played college football for Stanford:

"I don't know if I like being the sentimental favorite."

Know Your Mayors- Greg Ballard of Indianapolis (Entry 17 of 21)

Since the Indianapolis Colts are facing the New Orleans Saints for the Super Bowl game in Miami, Fla, on Sunday, we thought we'd profiled Indianapolis, Ind., mayor Greg Ballard. Since I posted an entry last week professing that I am rooting for the Saints, it only seems objective that I profile Mayor Ballard.

Ballard is the second Republican (we know of) who we have profiled. A few entries ago in this series, we profiled Charlotte, NC, mayor Pat McCrory, who is also a Republican. He stepped down, and was replaced by Anthony Foxx (D).

The Indy mayor was born in 1954, and he was elected to office on Nov. 6, 2007, in a huge upset victory over previous mayor Bart Peterson (D) by a 51-47 percent margin. According to Wikipedia, Ballard's victory was considered one of the greatest political upset in the Hoosier State's modern history.

Ballard served with the Marines Corps in the Persian Gulf War before returning to Indianapolis to work for the Bayer Corporation. He went on to write the management book: "The Ballard Rules: Small Unit Leadership."

As mayor, Ballard favored a substantial tax increase in April of 2009 to help bail the city's interests out. The move was criticized by political opponents as corporate welfare for the Colts and the city's pro basketball team the Indiana Pacers.

In October of 2009, Ballard contributed to the political defeat of a civic initiative to ban smoking in the workplace.

Ballard, an avid golfer, is the city's 48th mayor. He is also an alumnus of Indiana University. Ballard also founded the Indianapolis Writer's Group.

Recently, he declared the Jan. 31-Feb. 6 to be 'Devour Downtown Indianapolis Week.'

I happen to follow many municipal mayors from both political parties on Twitter, including Ballard and previous entry subject Sam Adams of Portland, Ore. Ballard's Twitter page is twitter.com/mayorballard

Indianapolis is America's 14th largest city.

We take it that Ballard is rooting for the Colts!

SIDENOTE: We made a mistake by identifying our previous entry on Salt Lake City, Utah's mayor as our 17th entry. This entry is in fact the 17th entry. In addition to McCrory, Yvonne Johnson (Greensboro, NC) and our very first entry Kevin Foy (Chapel Hill, NC) are no longer in office. There may also be other changes that we are not aware of.

Here are the other 16 cities we have profiled:

Chapel Hill, NC
Greensboro, NC
Durham, NC
Charlotte, NC
Roanoke, Va.
Richmond, Va.
Washington, DC.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Newark, NJ.
Boston, Mass.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Charleston, SC.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Portland, Ore.
North Pole, Alaska
Denver, Colo.

We're Rooting for the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl

My friend Brian Clarey, managing editor of "Yes Weekly!" in Greensboro, NC, was one of the very few people who openly rooted for the surprising New Orleans Saints before the NFL season started.

Now he will joined thousands of us bandwagoners in rooting for the Saints.

The choice is rather easy for me as my favorite team is the Baltimore Ravens. For those of you in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, it should be mentioned that the Indianapolis Colts (who will plays the Saints in the Super Bowl) originated in Baltimore.

First Line of a Novel (5 of 11)

Since the Super Bore is next weekend (Does anyone outside of Phoenix care about the freaking Arizona Cardinals? Though, I'd still love to see them beat the Pittsburgh Steelers!), we thought we'd go with the first lines of Thomas Harris' 1975 terror novel "Black Sunday" which was made into a film that was essentially a "Towering Inferno" rip-off:

"Night fell as the airport taxi rattled along the six miles of coastal road into Beirut. From the back seat, Dahlia Iyad watched the Mediterranean surf fade from white to gray in the last light. She was thinking about the American. She would have to answer questions about him."

Hmmm....a paperback version of this novel has been on my mom's bookshelf for some 30 years, and I have yet to read it! Maybe, it is because it has that old paperback book smell.........


NOTICE: We were going to write seven blog entries today both here and on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," but there are fish to feed in the aquarium. So to speak!