GOP Debate from Iowa Minus Trump Tweets (3 of 3): Everyone Hates Bernie.......

Wow! This is somehow our 2,750th entry. Of course, when we started this blog, it was in 2005 and Steve Jobs was still alive and perhaps still parking his Mercedes in handicapped parking spaces.

Since we adore irony here, we are starting with an image of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) the democratic socialist who has somehow become Hillary Clinton's main Democratic challenger and nemesis; yes, Bernie is not a Republican, in fact, they really seem to hate him.

The image in the middle is an Iowa wind farm, and the guy in the last photo is Gov. John Kasich, whom the average seventh grader at Stillwell Junior High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, has probably still never heard of.

Here are the tweets:

1) Benjamin Freed (Washingtonian magazine): Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a prime minister.

2) Brian McFadden (liberal): I'll risk Sweden and it's Seasonal Affective Disorder over the no-government Republican ideal of Somalia.

3) Matthew Yglesias (liberal): Bernie is probably not left-wing enough to lead the Swedish social democrats.

4) Jonah Goldberg (conservative): I think Kasich should have a costume change between every answer, Roman centurion, cowboy, French maid, Klingon warrior........etc.

5) Jonathan Chait (liberal): The immigration round was like The Departed.

6) Marco Rubio (he tweeted during the debate??!!! Oh, it's from his helpers, right....): Let me be clear, there is only one Savior, and it's not me.

7) Dan Zak (Washington Post): Kasich was raised Catholic, but is now Anglican, has a brother who has dealt with mental health issues.

8) Dave Rubin: Solid answer by Christie. Your personal faith should doesn't trump the law. Simple as that.

9) Secular Talk: Chris Christie asked about Kim Davis*, deflects and attacks ISIS. Of course....

*-Davis is the controversial country clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Hooray for Agnes

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, South Africa, and Cyprus......

It's perhaps fitting that this week's Sunday comic strip "Pearls Before Swine" which features its Goat character in the lime light (well in a dim limelight) is the top finisher in our weekly survey of Sunday comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" as there are some cool pygmy goats from Cameroon at the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke, Va.

For those who have never traveled to Roanoke, it is a city of 100,000 people which is an hour north of Martinsville, Va., home of the Rev. Johnny Robertson who is rumored to have the most over-the-top Southern Baptist church in the world, well at least in Henry County.

Our third-place finisher is "Agnes," which is why we have an image of the late Agnes Moorehead who played the mother in the late 1960s sitcom "Bewitched."

Fifth place goes to Get Fuzzy, which has some knock knock jokes, so we went with an image of Mormons.

Liberal comedian Bill Maher is actually coming to Roanoke on Friday for the first time, we hope he really socks it to Donald Trump, who was brilliantly lampooned in today's (Monday) "Zippy the Pinhead."

Here is the list:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Agnes

4. Dilbert

5. Get Fuzzy

6. Doonesbury

7. Funky Winkerbean

8. Garfield

9. Zits

10. Jump Start

http://www.mmzoo.org/

http://www.visitroanokeva.com/things-to-do/

http://www.visitmartinsville.com/

Last Ten Films We've Seen (earlier in June): James Franco Directs

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Canada (Happy Canada Day), and Norway......

Today, we look at ten films we've recently watched. Many of them, like "The Lifeguard,""Cold in July" and "Before I Disappear"were independent films shown at the Sundance Film Festival. James Franco did in fact direct "As I Lay Dying," a film based on a William Faulkner novel, and it was almost an artistic success.

Perhaps, the most unique film on the list is "Blume in Love," a Hollywood studio with a highly controversial plot twist that would assure the film would not be made, at least by a studio, today.

The Turkish film "Destiny," which is on this list, was not released in the United State.

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

The images above are in reference to 1) "The Lifeguard" (though the film has nothing to do with "Baywatch"), 2) David Copperfield, the magician, is something we thought of for "Before I Disappear," but the film is not about a magician, and 3) perhaps, most confusing, we went with an image of a Maine lobster for "Cold in July" because Maine is one of the few places we can think of where it is actually cold in July (the film takes place in Texas).

Here is the list:

1. Hateship/Loveship. director: Liza Johnson. 2013. w/ Kristen Wiig

2. As I Lay Dying. dir: James Franco. 2013

3. The Lifeguard. Liza W. Garcia. 2013 w/ Kristen Bell

4. HairBrained. Billy Kent. 2013 2/Parker Posey

5. Blume in Love. Paul Mazursky. 1975. w/ George Segal

6. Destiny ("Kader"). Turkey. Zeki Demirkubuz. 2006.

7. Before I Disappear. Shawn Christensen. 2014

8. Cold in July. Jim Mickle. 2014 w/ Michael C. Hall

9. Force Majuere. Sweden. Ruben Ostlund. 2014

10. Sister. Switzerland. Ursula Meier. 2012.

Last Ten Songs on Simon-FM (Greensboro, NC): Two Swedish Songs!

Greetings to our blog readers in Colombia, Japan and Hungary.....

Welcome to another addition of this wacky blog.

Today, we focus on the last ten songs we heard on 98.7-Simon FM (Greensboro, NC), which can now be heard all over the globe thanks to streaming but we imagine less than one percent of the station's listenership comes from Bergen, Norway!

Speaking of nations from Scandinavia, two songs which almost came up consecutively were from Swedish bands (sorry, not Roxette!), which makes us wonder if the computer which designates which songs to play is aware that the radio station played two songs from Swedish pop bands with Eric Clapton (pict. center) in between.

Here are the last ten songs from the 4:00-5:00 p.m. hour on Mon., Feb. 16th, 2015:

1) Some Like It Hot. Power Station. 1985. (The song was actually released on March 4, 1985, my 15th birthday!)

2) Smooth Criminal. Michael Jackson. 1988.

3) Sweet Emotion. Aerosmith. 1975 (we can't stand this band, actually)

4) The Sign. Ace of Base (pict. top, one of the Swedish bands)

5) Cocaine. Eric Clapton. 1977 (we learned while researching this, that J.J Cale of Velvet Underground originally performed this song)

6) Take a Chance on Me. Abba. 1978 (the other Swedish band)

7) Under the Bridge. Red Hot Chili Peppers. 1992.

8) Respect. Aretha Franklin. 1965 (pict. bottom)

9) Talking in Your Sleep. The Romantics. 1983

10) When I See You Smile. Bad English (w/John Waite) 1989.

http://www.987simon.com/

http://www.visitnc.com/piedmont

http://www.ericclapton.com/

Last Ten Songs We've Heard on Steve-FM (Columbia, SC): So That's What Bruno Mars Sounds Like.....

Greetings to our blog readers in Germany, India and Peru......

Yesterday, we actually had a hit from the Afican nation of Malawi!

We also want to send a special morning greeting to those of you checking us out from San Diego, Calif., where is now 8: 48 a.m. (does anyone actually work in southern Cali?)

Normally, we looked at the last ten songs played on Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va., but as it turns out there is also a Stev-FM in Columbia, SC! They are both owned by the national communications conglomerate I Heart Radio, but they do not play the same songs at the same time (Javier the Intern verified this for us!).........

Today also happens to be World Radio Day.........

One of the songs which grabbed our attention in this playlist was "Black Velvet" by Canadian Alannah Myles, a smash hit back in 1989! We haven't heard it much in recent years. Myles never had another major hit here in the United States, but she still apparently maintains a loyal following up north.

Another import "Listen to Your Heart" from Roxette, a Swedish musical group, made the playlist, but no songs form Turkish pop star Tarkan, who once tried to record songs in English!

As the title of our entry suggests, we aren't exactly sure what Bruno Mars songs sound like, but we are trying to get hip to it.....

Here are ten songs (in reverse order) we heard from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Steve-FM in Columbia, SC, on Tuesday:

1) Roxette. "Listen to Your Heart. Roxette. 1989.

2) Pat Benatar. "Heartbreaker." 1979

3) Prince. "Little Red Corvette." 1983

4) Lady Gaga. "Bad Romance." 2009

5) Taylor Swift. "Ours." 2011

6) Steve Perry. "Oh Sherrie." 1984

7) Todd Rundgren. (pict. top) "Bang on the Drum All Day." 1983

8) Alannah Myles. "Black Velvet." 1989.

9) Bruno Mars. (pict,. center)"When I Was Your Man. 2013.

10)  Cyndi Lauper. (pict. bottom) "Time After Time." 1984

http://www.cyndilauper.com

http://www.967fm.com

http://www.worldradioday.org

Last Ten Songs We've Heard on 98.7-SimonFM in Greesnboro, NC: Please Play Good Genesis Songs

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Sweden, Costa Rica and Indonesia....

During the 1:00-2:00 p.m. hour (east coast America time), we were 'treated' to a mix of hip hop, disco, classic rock and kitsch pop thanks to 98.7-SimonFM (Greensboro, NC). The hour started with "I Can't Dance," a rare bland pop song from Genesis, a trio led in its later years by Phil Collins, a singer who wrote his signature solo song "I Can Feel It in the Air Tonight" after he came back to England from a tour of America to find she had been cheating on him. But, if anyone from Simon stumbles upon this blog, maybe they can play "Land of Confusion" or "No Reply at All" instead (yeah, of course, they won't pay attention to what we say, but..........)

Here are the last ten songs we listened to on Simon-FM:

1) "Refugee" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 1980

2) That's the Way (I Like It). KC and the Sunshine Band. 1975.

3) Another Brick in the Wall. Pink Floyd. 1979.

4) Don't Talk to Strangers. Rick Springfield (pict. bottom) 1982

5) Only the Good Die Young. Billy Joel (pict. center). 1977

6) Broken Wings. Mr. Mister. (pict. top) 1985

7) Someday. Nickelback. 2003.

8) Whole Lotta Love. Led Zeppelin. 1969

9) Every Little Step. Bobby Brown. 1989

10) I Can't Dance. Genesis. 1991

http://www.987simon.com

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com  

(our sister blog)

http://www.billyjoel.com

http://www.rickspringfield.com

Last Ten Songs We've Listened To on Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va: Everything Except Kenny G

Greetings to our fans in Sweden, Croatia, Ukraine, Egypt and Greece (kudos on your new prime minister.........). Now that we have perhaps officially entered the world of The Jetsons (but, where are the flying cars?), it is actually possible for people in Anchorage, Alaska, and Bucharest, Romania, to listen to an eclectic pop-rock fusion radio station in Roanoke, Va.

So, with that in mind, here are the last ten songs we heard on 106.1 (SteveFM-Raonoke, Va) from the 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. hour on Friday afternoon. These songs are in reverse order:

1) Dark Horse. Katy Perry. 2013.

2) Keep on Loving You. REO Speedwagon. 1980 (pict. bottom)

3) Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen. 1975.

4) Never. Heart. 1985.

5) Clocks. Coldplay. 2002 (pict. center)

6) Janie's Got a Gun. Aerosmith. 1989. (pict, top)

7) Your Smiling Face. James Taylor. 1977.

8) Tainted Love. Soft Cell. 1981.

9) Moves Like Jagger. Maroon 5. 2011.

10) Hold on Loosely. 38 Special. 1981.

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.visitroanoke.com

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.aerosmith.com

http://www.speedwagon.com

Our Top Ten Comics from Sunday, Dec. 14th Washington Post: Bill Cosby Had a VERY Bad Year

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Sweden and Australia......

Today, we focus on our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post"(Sunday, Dec. 14th edition). For those of you in Kazakhstan who may have never been to America, Sunday is the day when color comic strips are posted in newspapers and web sites, such as http://www.gocomics.com

"The Washington Post" has substantially more comics than small-town newspapers like "The Register and Bee" in Danville, Va. And, there are comic strips for virtually every demographic, including "Reply All" (young women), "Baldo" (Hispanics), "Mark Trail" (children) and "Beetle Bailey" (Republican senior citizens men with hearing airs...........our apologies to Mort Walker).

Darrin Bell's "Candorville" is our top comic strip of the week for the first time in the survey (there are over 30 comic strips in the Sunday Post) when the title character, an African-American man presumably in his late twenties, overhears two school children talking about why their parents don't want them to watch "The Cosby Show." For those of you in Uzbekistan, there are some serious criminal allegations aimed at Bill Cosby (pictured top), a former stand-up comic and sitcom star.

"Candorville" is followed closely by "Pearls Before Swine" in which Rat declares that he wants to be president of the United States so he can aim drones to spy on every living person on earth. Of course, if he were running as a Republican for Congress in South Carolina, he could say something that outlandish and get elected as Congs. Joe Wilson and Mark Sanford, two of the most dubious members of Congress, did on Election Day (forgive the political commentary).

We used "Three Little Pigs" as our image for "Pearls" because Pig is one of the three major characters in the strip (Goat is the third).

Third place went to "Speed Bump," which depicts a medieval jousting the age of social media.

And, in fourth place, there was a hilarious look at Star Wars fanatics in Keith Kinght's "Knight Life," in which guys dressed like Storm Troopers are camping out for tickets to the next Star Wars film, which is due out next year.

Here is our top ten:

1. Candorville

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Speed Bump

4. Knight Life

5. Lio

6. WUMO

7. The Argyle Sweater

8. Dustin

9. Prickly City

10. Doonesbury

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.gocommic.com

Top Ten European Cities We'd Like Visit: No When in Rome Cliches, please..........

Since Zappa the Family Cat is running loose like a runaway tiger from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. (not that there is a runaway tiger from the National Zoo or anywhere right now, perhaps, maybe the Phoenix Zoo......just kidding!), we will get right to our list:

1) Rome, Italy (Top image is of A.S. Roma, one of Italy's top soccer teams)

2) Stockholm, Sweden (the home country of Peter, Bjorn and John; Swedish flag pictured middle)

3) Barcelona, Spain (pictured bottom)

4) Berlin, Germany

5) Bergen, Norway

6) Lisbon, Portugal

7) Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

8) Athens, Greece

9) Rotterdam, Netherlands

10)  Riga, Latvia

http://www.visititaly.com/

http://www.visitsweden.com/sweden-us/

http://www.spain.info/

Last Ten Films We've Seen (as of Sept. 22nd): Some Pretty Violent Films

Greetings to our blog readers in Ireland, Jordan and Japan.

With two gangster films ("Killing List" and "The Drop") plus one horror film (the "Carrie" remake/reboot) in addition to a Turkish film dealing with domestic violence ("The Confession"), there are some quite violent films on the list.

But, there are light films as well, and since Ben Stiller's film "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," a remake of the 1947 Danny Kaye classic, is about daydreaming, we thought we'd post a photo of a Turkish babe in a hot black bikini, I suppose in Yemen, this entry will be censored.....oh well!

Boris Spassky, the great Russian chess player (top image) is being used in conjunction with "The Master," one of the great films in the acting career of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and conversely the yellow crayon is for "I Am Curious Yellow," a steamy left-wing experimental Swedish film from 1967 which includes footage of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are the last ten films we've seen (as of Sept. 22nd):

1. The Master. 2012. Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

2. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 2013. Dir: Ben Stiller

3. The Lego Movie. 2014. Dirs: Phil Lord; Christopher Miller

4. The Drop. 2014. Dir: Michael R. Roskam (last film of James Gandolfini)

5. Killing List. 2011. Dir: Ben Wheatley

6. The Confession. Turkey. 2002. Dir: Zeki Demirkubuz

7. I Am Curious Yellow. Sweden. 1967. Dir: Vilgot Sjoman

8. The Great Beauty. Italy. 2013. Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

9. Nathalie. France. 2003. Dir: Anne Fontaire

10. Carrie. 2013. Dir: Kimberly Peirce.

Soccer Scores from France: We Could NOT Find an Image of Serge Gakpe

Greetings to our blog readers in Estonia where our president Barack Obama is headlining a crucial international summit...........come to think of it, we may have said greetings to our readers in Estonia yesterday as well...........

But, our focus right now is on France and weekend play in the nation's top domestic league.

Since we could not find images of Serge Gakpe, a Togo national, who scored the lone and winning goal for Nantes in their 1-0 over Montpellier, we decided to just go ahead with other images of France, including our hero Asterix the Gaul (pictured top), the French flag and a box for Fermier cheese, which may actually be illegal here (as surprisingly many French cheeses are).

It was also another huge weekend for Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovich of Paris St. Germain who delivered a hat trick for PSG in their 5-0 thumping of St. Etienne.

French national player Dimitri Payet delivered two goals for Marseilles in their own resounding 4-0 victory over Nice.

Here are the complete scores from France:

PSG 5 St. Etienne 0

Marseilles 4 Nice 0

Metz 2 Lyon 1

Monaco 1 Lille 1, tie

Nantes 1 Montpellier 0

Toulouse 1 Evian TG 0

Lorient 4 Guingamp 0

Lens 4 Rems 2

Caen 0 Rennes 1

Bordeaux 1 Bastia 1, tie

http://www.ligue1.com/

Top 10 Olympic Lists (5 of 10): Athletes from European Nations

Stefan Grothius, a gold medal winner in speed-skating for the Netherlands, is our pictured athlete; he is NOT the Dutch speed-skater who is engaged to American speed-skater Heather Richardson from High Point, NC. North Carolina is one of many states seeing major snowfall in America, which has also hit South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland very hard.

In fact, the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC, tweeted that they were closed for the day!

Here are our ten athletes from European Union countries:

1) Stefan Groothius. 32. Netherlands. Men's Speed-skating. Won gold.

2) Jenni Asserholt. 25. Sweden. Women's Hockey.

3) Marian Hossa. 35. Slovakia. Men's Hockey. Plays for the Chicago Blackhawks. The Slovakian team lost to the USA by a score of 7-1.

4) Justnya Kowalczyk. 31. Poland. Women's Cross-country Skiing. Won gold.

5) Martin Erat. 32. Czech Republic. Men's Hockey. Plays for the Washington Capitals. The Czechs lost 4-2 to Sweden yesterday.

6) Tatjana Hufner. 30. Germany. Women's luge. Won silver.

7) Ander Mirambell. 30. Spain. Men's Skeleton.

8) Mae Berenie Meite. 19. France. Women's Figure Skating.

9) Armin Zoggeler. 40. Italy. Men's Luge. Won bronze. He is among the most decorated athletes ever in his sport.

10) Jenny Jones. 33. Great Britain. Snowboarding. Won bronze. She is the only medalist for her country as of this entry.

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Top 10 Olympic Lists (4 of 10): Remember The Vikings...........

First of all, we are sending a 'gecmis olsun'/"may it pass closely" (Turkish expression) to Bob Costas, the NBC commentator for the 2014 Sochi Olympics; he is suffering from pink-eye.

Here is a list of ten Scandinavian athletes who are competing at the games; some of them have in fact finished competition. We hope we spelled everyone's name correctly as we don't want any angry emails from The Danish embassy in Washington, DC, which is enduring a major winter storm as is everyone residing from Atlanta to Portland, Maine!:

1) Ragmus Stjerne. 25. Denmark. Men's Curling.

2) Margaretha Sigfridsson. 38. Sweden. Women's Curling.

3) Einar Kristgeirsson. 20. Iceland. Alpine Skiing.

4) Julia Kykkaenen. 19. Finland. Women's Ski-jumping.

5) Andres Bardal. 31. Norway. Men's Ski-jumping. Won bronze.

6) Maiken Caspersen Falla. 28. Norway. Cross-country Skiing. Won gold (pictured)

7) Kjetil Jansrud. 28. Norway. Alpine Skiing.

8) Charlotte Kalla. 26. Sweden. Women's Cross-country Skiing. Won silver.

9) Aleksander Barkos, Jr. 18. Finland. Men's Hockey. Plays for Florida Panthers.

10) Michelle Karvinen. 23. Finland. Women's Hockey. Plays for the Univ. of North Dakota.

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://usa.um.dk/ (The Danish Embassy in Washington, DC)

https://www.washdiplomat.com/

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog with more Olympics Lists)

Little Thinker Quotes (12 of 16): Oscar Wilde

"True friends stab you in the front," Oscar Wilde.

SIDEBAR: Since there is a bit of a Polar Vortex around here, we thought we'd post some temps around American and across the world, including Nagano, Japan, where the 1998 Winter Olympics took place:

37 degrees- Nagano, Japan

34 degrees in Richmond, Va.

27 degrees in Hartford, Conn.

22 degrees in Malmo, Sweden

15 degrees in Chicago

5 degrees in Kiev, Ukraine

http://www.oscarwildesociety.com/

Sports Desk: UNC Edges NC State in Home Gymnastics Meet

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Sweden and Mongolia........we do actually hits from there every now and then!

When I first saw the results of the meet in Chapel Hill, NC, yesterday between the home University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the visiting North Carolina State Wolfpack, I mistakenly thought that NC State had won.

Though we try to be completely objective when it comes to college gymnastics, to prevent an influx of hate emails from Athens, Ga., or Tuscaloosa, Ala., but so that no one would be wrong about the outcome we posted an image of the UNC mascot Rameses ** over the NC State mascot Mr. Wuf.

The final score of the meet was UNC 194.975 NC State 193.950.

Amazingly and ironically enough, the Wolfpack actually swept the all-around with Brittni Watkins leading the way with an AA score of 39.325.

Watkins also won the bars  (individual scores) event with teammates Stephanie Oullette scoring a 9.8 and Diahanna Ham scoring a 9.725 on the event. Lexi Cappali scored the highest on the bars for UNC with a 9.875, one of the two events that UNC won along with the floor exercise.

The 'Pack won the balance beam as Hannah Fallanca, who went to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, a city that is some 80 miles west of Raleigh, winning the event with a 9.925. Haley Watts, who had the top AA score for the 'Heels, came in second on the beam with a 9.900.

On vault, the 'Pack featured strong performances from Watkins (9.875), Oullette (9.825) and Fallanca (9.775). Though NC State won the event, UNC closed the gap on the vault with stand-out scores from Cappali (9.775) and Watts (9.75).

The two teams will see each other again on Friday, as NC State hosts a home meet in Raleigh.

In addition to UNC, traditional Big 10 powerhouse Michigan and Towson University (Maryland) will be heading south to face the 'Pack.

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Wuf * shows up on Friday.

*_Yes, there is actually a Mrs. Wuf as well.

**_ We have Rameses spelled incorrectly in our link.....we forgot the 's' at the end

Soocer Week (8 of 8): Good Day for Swansea City (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Today, our image is of Wilfried Bony, an Ivory Coast teammate of one of our favorite soccer players Didier Drogba, formerly of Chelsea who now plays for GalataSaray (Istanbul, Turkey). Today, Bony scored one of Swansea City's three goals in their 3-0 victory over Valencia on the road in Spain.

Swansea City is a Welsh team that plays in the English Premiere League as does Cardiff.

Today, a staggering 24 games were played across Europe, which in soccer also includes Israel and Kazakhstan, two countries which are clearly in Asia (but, hey the Dallas Cowboys play in an 'eastern conference' in the 'other football.')

Here is a look at 11 teams you may have never heard of:

1) Austria Wien (Austria): This team based in Vienna is playing in the UEFA Champions League. Though they lost at home this week to Porto (Portugal), one can continue to expect good things from them.

2. Swansea (EPL)

3. Freiburg (Germany): This Bundesliga club held their own today at home in a 2-2 tie with Liberec (Czech Rep.); Swiss national Admir Mehmedi scored for the home team.

4. Plzen (Czech Rep.) Though this team lost to Manchester City 3-0 in the Champions League two days ago; Plzen are one of several competitive teams in a small, but soccer-worthy country.

5. Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan): Though this team created a scandal when they sacrificed a sheep before their match with Celtic United in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, they do have an array of talented players including Roger Canas, a Colombian player, who scored for Karagandy in the team's 2-1 loss to PAOK (Greece).

6. PAOK (Greece): They are a team with lots of long last names, and one of the most successful Greek clubs. In their 2-1 win over Karagndy, Zvonimir Vukic of Serbia scored the winning goal.

7, Tromso Il (Norway): This team plays all the way up in the Arctic Circle! Though they went scoreless today in London with a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham; this squad will likely be competing strongly in Norwegian domestic play.

8. AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands): Though American star Jozy Altidore to Tottenham, the team still has a great Icelandic futboler in Johan Gudmundsson who scored the team's lone goal in a 1-0 over M.Haifa in Israel today.

9. Legia Warsaw (Poland)

10. Steau Bucharest (Romania): Alas, this Romanian team did not fare well in Germany in the Champions League with a 3-0 loss to Schalke '04, but hey they are in the Champions League.

11. Elfsborg (Sweden): Not to be confused with Esberg in Denmark; both teams are in the Europa League. Though with a 4-0 loss to Salzburg in Austria, it appears Esberg which won its game 2-1 over Standard Liege in Belgium had a happier flight back home.

We were going to make fun of Iranian soccer, but it's almost midnight here at the sports desk in Portland, Maine (not really where we are at), so we'll save that for another time!

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.az.nl/en

http://www.swanseacity.net

Things We Learned on Bing Today_ Sports Edition

Two Turkish soccer powerhouses GalataSaray and Trabzonspor met in weekend play with GS pulling off a 2-0 victory; a week earlier GS lost to their main Istanbul rival Fenerbahce 2-1, but GS still won the Turkish Premiere League.

And, this leads us to today's Things We Learned on Bing Today entry, all of which deal with the whole wide word of sports:

1) Selcuk Inan, 28, a Turkish national, is the current captain of GalataSaray; he wears #8 and the teams' other star players on the team include Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Burak Yilmaz (Turkey), who scored a goal versus Trabzonspor. Selcuk previously played for Trabzonspor.

2) Tolga Zengin, 29, (pictured) a Turkish national, is the captain of Trabzonspor and the team's goal-tender. The team is based in Trabzon, which is located in Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast.

3) Martin Gerber, 38, a Swiss National, was the goal-tender for the Carolina Hurricanes when the team won its first and only Stanley Cup in the NHL (the world's main hockey league); Gerber now plays pro hockey in Sweden.

4) Bill Russell, 79, is the NBA basketball player who has won the most titles, all 11 came with the Boston Celtics.

5) Leanza Cornett, 41, won the Miss America beauty pageant in 1993, 20 years ago. Cornett represented Florida, but she was born in the smal town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia; in 1994, the pageant actually made news as swimsuit contestants started going barefoot as opposed to wearing cumbersome high heel shoes.


http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.bing.com

http://www.missamerica.org

Saturday is Free Comic Book Day

Saturday is Free Comic Book Day in America, and perhaps in other parts of the world as well. We recently came across some Swedish Donald Duck comic books where the famed Walt Disney fowl is known as "Kalle Anka"(pictured center) and he is apparently extremely popular in Stockholm.

We also have some Donald Duck comics in Turkish where he is know as "Donald Amca" (pronounced Ahmcha, Donald Amca actually means Uncle Donald_ the Turkish word for duck is ordek).

Comic book stores, large and small, are participating in the event. At Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, Thomas Boatwright ("Cemetery Blues") will be signing autographs as will Amanda Rachels "Clown Town the Book") and Chrissie Zullo ("Fables: Cinderella, Womantohology), among many others.

Other stores celebrating the occasion including Carol and John's Comic Book Shop in Cleveland, Ohio, which is the home of our favorite comic character Howard the Duck, Atlas Comic Books in Charlottesville, Va., and very popular Jay and Silent Bob's Comics in Red Bank, NJ (the store was started by filmmaker Kevin Smith of "Clerks" fame).

SIDEBAR: Since tomorrow is National Prayer Day in America and we love to make fun of radical preachers like the Rev. Johnny Robertson in Martinsville, Va., who has probably condemned thousands of people to burn in hell (we can't actually verify this officially), we thought we'd show irony and quote Jesus Christ, a person we respect even though we are human secularists here:

"If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."


http://www.freecomicbookday.com

http://www.cnjcomics.com

http://www.jayandsilentbob.com

http://www.atlascomicbooks.com

http://www.acmecomics.com

The Weekly Grocery List

Here is our grocery list for the next coming week or so. We should point out that we thought of Donald Duck Orange Juice, which is either difficult to find or no longer in existence, when we came upon what we thought were Finnish Donald Duck comic books, but we now think they are actually Swedish. If you really wanna know, Donald Duck is called Kalle Anka is Swedish.

Bulgarian yogurt is a bit of an in-joke. My feeling is that if a grocer here in America put Bulgarian or Turkish yogurt beside Greek yogurt, neither would sell nearly as well even if it was the better product.

Here is our list:

1) orange juice

2) Life cereal

3) bagels

4) yogurt

5) ginger ale

6) coffee

7) stamps

8) toothpaste

9) cucumbers

10) cat food

10 People Who Will Decide Election (10 of 10)_ Wisconsin

It is now 7:00 a.m. in Stockholm, Sweden, 9:00 a.m. in Dubai, and high noon in Shanghai, wherever you are, you're with the greatest blog in the universe....well, we don't take ourselves that seriously. And, we are ripping off that slogan from the BBC World Service.

Today, we finally conclude our long-drawn out series on the American Presidential Election, which is now a mere 26 days away. Our focus will be on Wisconsin, the home state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's veep choice Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) who has so far motivated partisan Republicans and far right Tea Partiers while alienating center-left Democrats and possibly independents with his potentially radical views on small government.

And, here is a look at our last fictional voter:

Name: Alexia Demopolous

Ethnicity: Greek-American

Residency: Racine, Wisc.

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Occupation: Pizza delivery

Voting status: Undecided

According to the latest "Politico" swing state map, which we are watching as closely as Jimmy Stewart watched Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," President Barack Obama is winning Wisconsin by a 51-46 % margin.

The local newspaper in Racine "The Journal-Times" is reporting that the Racine Tea Party will hold a 'Victory 2012' rally on Oct. 27th in which U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R) will be schmoozing with the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. Thompson is being opposed for the open seat by Cong. Tammy Duckworth (D-Wisc).

Wisconsin is, much like Minnesota and Iowa, a hard state to pinpoint in terms of the state's political swings. Wisconsin was served by Sen. Russ Feingold (D), one of the more progressive members in the U.S. Senate, but after three successful terms, Feingold was surprisingly ousted by Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson who now holds Feingold's seat.

Racine itself seems a bit hard to forecast as Racine County voted for Obama by a 54-46 % margin in 2008, but the county turned around and supported Johnson just two years laters.

Ryan represents Racine as Racine County is in his first district. Tomorrow (or later today) in Danville, Kentucky, Ryan will face Vice President Joe Biden in the only vice presidential debate.

http://www.derangosdelivers.com (a pizza delivery place in Racine, Wisc.)

http://www.journaltimes.com

http://www.politico.com