20-Word Fiction: Listen to Your Teachers

Greetings from the Hartford Public Library here in Hartford, Conn., which is not actually where we are blogging from but we expect they have every novel from Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, which have been translated into English.

Speaking of Turkey, today's image is of the famed Hagia Sophi, a state museum in Istanbul, Turkey, where actress Ashley Judd visited yesterday (we learned this from one of her tweets) which started as a Byzantine church before being converted to a mosque by the Ottomans.

Here is today's 20-word fiction which we are writing while listening to Brahms........:

"My religion professor said to be a true intellectual, one must read the Holy Bible and the Koran. Maybe so."

http://www.hplct.org/

For Valentine's Day (1 of 4): Love Around the World

A Pictorial Tribute to Istanbul.........

In lieu of yesterday's ISIS-likely terrorist attack in the Sultanahmet tourist district in Istanbul which killed nine Germans and one Peruvian visitor to Istanbul, we are presenting a pictorial tribute to one of the world's great cities, which stretches across two continents.

For this entry, we had many ideas and we regret that we could not fit all of them in, including ones depicting many of the Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches in Istanbul as well as tourist meccas like the Grand Bazaar and the Topkapi Palace as well as landmarks like the Haydar Pasha train station on the Asian side.

But, we have these six images, they are of 1) The Bosporus Bridge which connects Europe and Asia; 2) the Atlas Cinema, built in 1948, in Beyoglu; 3) horse carriages in Buyukada, the largest of the four Princess Islands; 4) a fish meal in Kumkapi (in Turkey, the heads are kept on the fish unless you ask a server otherwise); 5) a view of the Blue Mosque; and 6) a view of Sariyer on the Asian side.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Istanbul

http://www.dailyistanbultours.com

http://www.turkeyplanner.com

10 Films in Our Netflix Streaming List: Lots of Imports...

Here are ten films from our Netlix Streaming list, hopefully they will not disappear without notice!

Netflix announced they are now available around the world, including countries such as Turkey, Brazil and India.

1. Girlhood (France 2014, bottom image)

2. The Lesson (Bulgaria 2013,center image)

3. Moonrise Kingdom (2012, pict. top)

4. Bluebird (2013)

5. In Bloom (Georgia 2013)

6. 6 Years (2015)

7. Heavenly Creatures (New Zealand 1994), featuring Kate Winslet who won a Golden Globe Award tonight for her supporting role in "Steve Jobs."

8. Beyond the Hills (Romania 2012)

9. Being Flynn (2012)

10. Mr. Nobody (2009)

http://www.netflix.com

Democratic Forum Debate Tweets from Winthrop U (1 of 3): Live from Rock Hill, SC, it's Saturday Night Live........

Welcome to those of you in Greece where perhaps tourists heading to Turkey, my late father's country, have decided to stay put following the re-election of ultra right wing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, perhaps they will join Syrian refugees who have decided not to head north to Serbia!

Tonight's Democratic Party Forum at Winthrop U in Rock Hill, SC, is perhaps just over now, but we got some tweets from the debate including one from Bakari Sellers, a former Democratic state legislature from Denmark, SC, who was at the debate himself (he is a contributor to CNN; yet he slams the media in his tweet).

Our images are of Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton (top), a bald eagle (center, since Winthrop's mascot is an eagle), and Dale Earnhardt Jr., since the band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (now Jr. Jr.) was playing gig at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, where everyone not watching the debate in the nation's capital were probably gathered.

Here are the tweets:

1) Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC, newspaper, earlier in the day): "Rand Paul talks about Keystone XL while stumping in Spartanburg." (the GOP candidate Paul later went to Rock Hill).

2) Overheard in Newsroom (not about the debate, but we thought it was amusing): "Those pesky interns with their creative impulses and their hope."

3) Shane Goldmacher (Politico): "So Marco Rubio is asking for Scott Walker's endorsement."

4) Ken Rudin: "Ben Carson, accused of making things up and not being truly informed, announces he would appoint Judge Reinhold to the Supreme Court." (This is a joke, Judge Reinhold was a teen movie actor in the '80s).

5) Jack Miller (Clinton campaign): "Hillary Clinton supporters loud and proud! Turnout is amazing!"

6) Martin O'Malley: Hillary Clinton wants to go after Jeb Bush for making excuses on guns. But, she did the same thing in 2008."

7) Washington Post: "Amid national coverage about race, Yale acknowledges failing its minorities."

8) Shannon Greene ("Rock Hill Herald" reporter): Meet Hillary "fangirl," Madison Kimrey, the first in line for the debate.

9) Bakari Sellers: Mainstream Media....there is one reason your Bernie is making a comeback like in '08 is really off, Bernie is not Barack Obama. You're welcome.

http://www.930.com

10 for 10 (10th Entry)................Defining Earworm with Michael Bolton

Greetings to our blog readers in Ukraine, Turkey, and Ghana.......

Today, we bring you the 10th and final installment of our 10 for 10 series commemorating the tenth anniversary of this very blog, which went up (in its original form) on Sept. 21, 2005. It was a radically different time then as Ari the beloved family tuxedo cat was still alive. Alas, he died just shy of his 20th birthday on March 2nd, 2007. Ok, otherwise, I guess things haven't really changed that much!

We are using an image of Michael Bolton because when we hear the slang word 'earworm,' the junkbox in our minds starts playing "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?"..........which makes us wonder if Dick Cheney urged that this song be played to terrorist or terrorist suspects while waterboarding them at Gitmo, the American naval base in Cuba.

I suppose we will never know the answer to that, but we have three definitions of urban slang words/terms for you:

1) Earworm: A song that sticks in your mind relentlessly, and will not leave no matter how hard you try (applies to Michael Bolton as well as any song by Air Supply).

2) Gold digger: A person who goes out with you for for your money, or someone who dates Tori Spelling!

3) Gender ninja: A person has an uncertain gender based on their personal appearance, hmm....see also the character Pat that was once part of "Saturday Night Live".....

http://www.urbandictionary.com

10 for 10 (4th Entry): Love Those Van Cats

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Colombia, and Egypt.....

Today, we feature an image of a Turkish Van cat, which retail for circa $50 on the streets of Istanbul. Here in the United States, we gather they cost considerably more.

If you are looking for a cat in an animal shelter, you will probably not find a Van cat, but tuxedo cats, orange tabby cats, and calico cats need homes, here are two animal shelter links we are listing:

http://www.spartanburghumane.org/ (Humane Society of Spartanburg, South Carolina)

http://hswcmd.org/ (Humane Society of Hagerstown, Maryland)

Saturday Afternoon Tweets: Dead Chinese Pedestrians

It has been a zany day of news events both here in America, as well as around the globe, as evident from these ten tweets (not all of them are about news items):

1) Male Thoughts: And yet another day I've gone without using calculus (top image)

2) Because I'm a Guy: It can take me anywhere between 0.02 seconds to 3 days to reply to a text.

3) Patrick Radden Keefe (bottom image): Astonishing story. Look both ways indeed: Why drivers in China intentionally kill pedestrians they hit.

4) Anne Applebaum: Europe turned away from crises in Libya and Syria. But now the results have arrived on their shores (center image: Both Turkey and Greece have received influx of refugees en route to western Europe).

5) John McCain: Must-read WSJ-Opinion: Beijing's Martial Display_ China puts on a show of military power and nationalism.

6) Bridget Bowman: Two protests confronting each other in Upper Senate Park (in Washington, DC).

7) Denver Post: Two suspects in custody in connection with Eagle County armed robbery where one person was shot.

8) WRAL News (Raleigh, NC): Just in: Authorities evacuate Chatham County Food Lion after bomb threat (it was later revealed that no bomb was found).

9) PRI's The World: This Afghan teen rapper has gone from poverty in Afghanistan to eating sushi in the US (she resides at a boarding school in Utah).

10) Montreal Gazette: "Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee to make announcement regarding gender change status."

http://www.twitter.com

Comic Strips Dialogue: We Quote Pickles

Three years ago, we used to take dialogue from comic strips and put them in order to make a full conversation. We are using an image of the play "Defending the Caveman" for the comic strip "B.C." Similarly, we are using the Northside High School (Roanoke, Va.) logo for "Hagar the Horrible," who is also a Viking. And, lastly, we using sinks from a Turkish bathroom for the line we are using from the comic strip "Take It from the Tinkersons."

Here we go (Don't Try This at Home or On Your Blog...it's time-consuming):

1. "Mmmm! Something sure smells good!" (Pickles, Aug. 2nd)

2. "Let me give you a cooking lesson." (Baldo, Aug. 2nd)

3. "Go away. I already beat you once!" (B.C., July 19th)

4. "Try to relax! Focus on your peaceful surroundings! Don't think about work!" (Hagar the Horrible, Aug. 2nd)

5. "Hey, I know real people!" (Garfield, July 19th)

6. "You're a Bob Dylan fan, right Cosmo?" (Shoe, July 19th)

7. "Wow! Talk about false advertising." (Adam at Home, May 3rd)

8. "Diner was marvelous, mom." (Hi and Lois, May 3rd)

9. "I........Have to Go to the Bathroom" (Take it from the Tinkersons, May 3rd)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Friday Night Tweets: Netflix and Domestic Politics

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, England, and New Zealand.........though if you are a taxi driver in Konya, Turkey, who can't speak a word of English, thanks for dropping in here as well!

Most of tonight's tweets dealt with politics, though there were mentions of various sporting events and one in particular about Netflix, which you will read here.....


1) The Daily Edge: Comcast's conservative CEO will do whatever it takes to help the Kochs steal the next election.

2) The New York Times: "10 years later, infamous Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman remains invisible" (Actually, it is now 12 years; Clark, the Cubs mascot, pict. top)

3) Talking Points Memo: Chef Jose Andres pulled out of deal with Trump after 'rapist' comments, Trump is suing for $10 mil.

4) New Republic: Netflix finally found its hit first reboot success with "Wet Hot Summer" prequel.

5) Politico: Jon Stewart (pict. center) slipped unnoticed into the White House in the midst of the October 2011 budget fight.

6) The Hill: Dems put pressure on GOP's Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) ahead of Planned Parenthood vote.

7) The Paris Review: "I think that a garbage collector is as sensitive as any author," J.P. Donleavy (the Irish author of "The Ginger Man" is still alive at age 89)

8) Joel Brown (ABC 11, Raleigh, NC, tv news reporter): Fly ball injures child at tonight's Durham Bulls game.

9) Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN, pict. bottom): "Between 1968-2011 blacks nationwide were 4.2 times more likely to die at the hands of whites." 

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.

Our Top 10 NPR Series on Our Local Station: Ira Glass Takes the Blue Ribbon

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Latvia and Mexico......unlike Donald Trump, we have nothing folks from our southern border.

These are our ten favorite National Public Radio shows which air on WVTF/RadioIQ (Roanoke, Charlottesville,Va.); many of these shows are regional in nature and do not air nationally, but the top are among the most popular NPR series nationally.

These images are for 1) This American Life which is hosted by Ira Glass and features stories on a fixed topic which usually take place somewhere in America; 2) the radio tower is for "Radiolab," a show that was described by '80s teen cinema icon Molly Ringwald as a 'This American Life' for science people (paraphrasing); and 3) Aziz Ansari, the comic/actor was a guest on both "This American Life" and "Studio 360" last week.

Here is our top ten:

1. This American Life

2. Radiolab

3. Studio 360

4. The TED Radio Hour

5. A Way With Words

6. Your Weekly Constitutional

7. Philosophy Talk

8. New Dimensions

9. Thistle and Shamrock

10 (tie). Animal Planet; Back Story

http://www.waywordradio.org/

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.radiolab.org/

http://www.montpelier.org/center/radio

http://www.wvtf.org

East Coast NPR Stations

http://www.wbur.org  (Boston)

http://www.wypr.org (Baltimore)

 http://www.wfdd.org

(Winston-Salem, NC)

http://www.wunc.org (Chapel Hill, NC)

http://www.wxvu.org (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Next Ten for Netflix: Foreign Films and Docs

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Greece and the Czech Republic.....

Today, we look at the next ten foreign films and documentaries that we hope to watch via Netflix streaming. These days, we've gotten hooked on streaming, and perhaps the late Roger Ebert would have been proud of us!

The images are of 1) Boo Boo Bear, Yogi's sidekick, this image is used for the Turkish film "Winter Sleep" since bears hibernate zzzzzzzzzzzzzz during the winter, 2) the Hollywood sign is being used for the documentary "L.A. Plays Itself, and 3) lastly, Hot Stuff, the Harvey Comics icon, is used for the South Korean horror film "I Saw the Devil."

It may be a while before we get to watch "Winter Sleep" and "L.A. Plays Itself" as the two films combined would run for six hours!

The films are listed according to Internet Movie Database (IMDB) ratings, which are listed to the right.

Here is the next ten on Netflix:

1) Winter Sleep. Turkey. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. 2014. 8.4/10

2) LA. Plays Itself. documentary (USA). Thom Andersen. 2003. 8.0

3) I Saw the Devil. South Korea. Jee-woon Kim  2010. 7.8

4) A Summer's Tale. France. Eric Rohmer. 1996. 7.6

5) Force Majuere. Sweden. Ruben Olstlud. 2014. 7.4

6) A Coffee in Berlin Germany. Jan Ole Gerber. 2010. 7.4

7) Sister. Switzerland. Ursula Maier. 7.1

8) Stray Dogs. Taiwan. Tsai Ming Ling. 2013. 7.0

9) We Have a Pope. Italy. Nanni Moretti. 2011. 6.7

10) Anita (doc on Anita Hill; USA) Freida Lee Mock. 2014. 6.4

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (For our other Netflix list, for English-language films)

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.imdb.com

Top Ten Comics from Sunday, March 29th Washington Post: An Homage to The Far Side

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Croatia and Turkey.........and to our friends in North Carolina (listening to the song "The Man I Used To Be" by John Howie Jr. on "Back Porch Music" on WUNC-FM (NPR-Chapel Hill, NC).

We are going into our back stacks for a great comics section in the March 29th edition of "The Washington Post," which was remarkable at every level.


Our top strip from this section is "Lio," which featured a tribute to Gary Larson's "The Far Side" comic strips from the 1980s; cows, house pets and aliens were both featured on a residential front lawn in suburbia.

Scott Hilburn's "The Argyle Sweater" depicted two teenage frogs coming into mama's kitchen after a baseball game in which 'they caught a fly.' Perhaps, Kermit the Frog would be proud.

The bronze goes to Denmark as the cheese nation's import illustrated why it is perhaps not a good idea to be a clueless highway department worker when you are paving a road around a place like the Grand Tetons mountains in Wyoming (pictured bottom).

Here is our comics survey:

1. Lio

2. The Argyle Sweater

3. WuMo

4. Rhymes with Orange

5. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

6. Barney and Clyde

7. Prickly City

8. Sherman's Lagoon

9. Knight Life

10. Reply All

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

10 Things to Know for Today and This Week: Children's Day in Turkey

Here are 10 Things To Know for April 23rd, 2015:

1) Today is National Children's Day in Turkey (top image from Kusadasi, Turkey)

2) Today is William Shakespeare's 451th birthday (center image)

3) Arda Turan (Turkey, pict. bottom) got a red card for Atletico Madrid late in yesterday's Champions League game versus Real Madrid.

4) Bayern Munich (Germany),  Juventus (Italy), Barcelona and Real Madrid (Spain) advanced to the semi-finals in Champions League play.

5) Freddie Gray's death after an arrest by the Baltimore Police Department has sparked city-wide protests in Baltimore, Maryland.

6) Michael Moore, America's leading liberal documentary filmmaker, turns 61 today.

7) Popeye is called Temel Reis in Turkey.

8) The original pilot episode for "Mister Ed," an American tv comedy about a talking horse, cost a mere $70,000 to produce in 1961.

9) Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.

10) Claudio Bisogneiro is the Italian ambassador to the United States.

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday, Feb. 1st "Washington Post:" Love WuMo's Pink Panther Strip

Greetings to our blog readers in Israel, Taiwan and Turkey..........

Welcome to another edition of "The Daily Vampire".......oh #$%&, that's our other blog!

We go back to Feb. 1st for our Sunday comic strips survey of comics in the Sunday "Washington Post," for this week's survey go to "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

For last week's comics, we really, really liked "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," which featured a great gag about the title hero going back in time to fix up his mistake of not putting enough milk into his Captain Crunch cereal (pict. top).

"The Argyle Sweater" got third place for its look at non-endorsements by various cartoon characters, including skinny jeans by Fat Albert (voiced by Bill Cosby, we've been hearing his name a lot lately) and large bra by Olive Oyl, Popeye's love interest (pict. center).

The always hilarious Danish import "WuMo" came in fifth with a strip about the Pink Panther (pict. bottom)  taking it easy in the jungles of Tanzania as his fellow felines look on in wonder.

"Baldo," a Hispanic-centered comic strip which also appears in the "Miami Herald" features Baldo's dad listening in on what his son is listening to as he is doing homework. His dad makes a rude discovery (Bruno Mars, perhaps?!)......the strip came in eighth.

We also loved "Foxtrot," which finished fourth, as a father learns that when he son hears the word football, he thinks futbol, as in the type played by Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney as opposed to the type played by Peyton Manning, on Super Bowl Sunday, no less....

Here is our  top ten:

1) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

2) Lio

3) The Argyle Sweater

4) Foxtrot

5) WuMo

6) Speed Bump

7) Pearls Before Swine

8) Baldo

 9) Reply All

10) Sherman's Lagoon

http://www.miamiherald.com

http://www.baldocomics.com

http://www.shermanslagoon.com

5) WUMO

Last Ten CDs We've Listened To: It's All New Wave To Me......

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Scotland, Mexico and Serbia.......

Welcome to another entry on this blog, which will be 10 years old in September!

Our apologies to our friends in Bodrum, Turkey, a plush beach resort, which we highly recommend. We went with an image of Jaco Beach, Costa Rica (pict. bottom) on a coin toss.

The old AM clock radio is in reference to the last cd we listened to, but it's also a way for us to make fun of Rush Limbaugh, who is probably drinking shots of vodka with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, as we are typing this (the two are actually close pals).

The middle image is of soccer cleats; our first instinct was to go with Real Madrid striker Gareth Bale, but that proved to be too complicated!

Here is the list....all of these cds are indeed in the New Wave genre:


1) Psychedelic Furs. "Talk. Talk. Talk" 1981

2) INXS. "Kick" 1987.

3) Wang Chung. "Points of the Curve." 1983

4) The Cure. "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me." 1987

5) New Order. "Republic" 1993.

6) Talking Heads. "True Stories" 1986.

7) Gary Numan. "Pleasure Principle." 1979

8) The Clash. Combat Rock. 1982

9) The Fixx. Reach the Beach. 1983.

10) The Police. Synchronicity. 1983.

http://www.bodrum.org/

http://www.visitcostarica.com

http://www.thepsychedelicfurs.com/

http://www.thecure.com/

http://www.neworderonline.com/