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

Ten MoviesPlusMovies: We Hope These (Somewhat) Work

Greetings once again! We are coming to you today live from the main public library in Denver, Colo. (ok, not really where we are at!). Last week, on Twitter, we saw that hashtag MoviePlusMovie was trending and after a brief bout of confusion, we came up with tons and tons of idea. So, we said, to heck with Twitter, let's post them on our two blogs!

The poster above are for: 1) "The Darn Cat!" (the original Disney movie with the late Dean Jones who is still alive, our apologies to Mr. Jones if he stumbles onto this blog); 2) Blacula, a '70s Dracula ripoff, which is every bit as amusing as the Turkish film "Drakula in Istanbul" that was made in the '50s; and "The Gods Must Be Crazy," a great South African cult comedy that came out in the mid-1980s.

Here is our list:

1) That Darn Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

2) Blacula: Dead and Loving It

3) The Gods Must Be Stir Crazy

4) An American Psycho in Paris

5) All is Lost in Space

6) High Anxiety Society

7) The History of the War of the Roses, Part One (yes, that makes three Mel Brooks films we have referenced)

8) There Will Be Buckets of Blood

9) No Country for Grumpy Old Men

10) Alice in Wonderland Doesn't Live Here Any More (our apologies to Martin Scorsese)

http://denverlibrary.org/

Tweets from This Crazy World: International Reactions to ISIS Terrorists

Here are some tweets regarding ISIS and the terrorist group's beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff in Syria. The same group is very active in Iraq. These comments come from the likes of Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist, David Corn, a liberal American journalist, and Josh Block, who is pro-Israel.

1) Mustafa Akyol: "I condemn the ruthless murderers of 'Islamic State' with all my heart. They are an insult to Islam, and a threat to the world."

2) The Jerusalem Post: "Foreign Ministry reveals journalist beheaded by Islamic State terrorist had Israeli citizenship."

3) David Corn: "The Arab World's version of the Ice Bucket Challenge: Burning ISIS flags."

4) Zaid Benjamin: "PKK Co-founder Abdullah Ocalan to Kurdish Forces: Do not wait for the offensives. Attack ISIS and destroy them- leaked letter." (Personal note, we fully support the State Department's classification of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that started in Turkey, as a terrorist organization. This may or may not be the tweeter's view)

5) Josh Block: "And if his death awakens the world to the evil among those who killed him, then maybe, maybe, there can be redemption."

6) Jeff Gauvin: "Pres. Obama soft on ISIS? He's already ordered 300 effective Super Hornet and B-1 strikes on ISIS tanks and artillery."

7) Rabbi Kenneth Cohen: "There is humanitarian crisis going on in Kurdistan, but nobody cares because they can't blame Israel."

NOTE: The photo on top is of the Turkish shadow puppets Karagoz (the one with the beard) and Hacivat, since the puppets represent Turkey's split between east and west, we felt their use was appropriate here.

Sunday Comics Survey from Washington Post: Lincoln Wins!

Greetings to our fans in Seoul, South Korea, or where ever you may be today. Here is our weekly comic strips survey, today we are featuring comics from the Sunday "Washington Post" that ran on May 18th. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos now owns the newspaper, and for $1.75 million, we will sell him this blog as well.

Among our favorites were "Pearls Before Swine," which takes the Abe Lincoln in McDonald's concept (a short story in which the 16th president takes a ride through a time machine) and examines what the 16th president would do in the age of Twitter. Stephan Pastis even dares asks the question about what Honest Abe would have tweeted right before going to see a play at Ford's Theatre, where he was assassinated.

Interestingly enough, the actual Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, now an active venue and museum (top image) has started a production of "One Destiny," a 35-minute one-act play about Lincoln's ill-fated visit to the theatre.

Similarly, "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" featured a great satire that reminded us of "Doctor Who" (center image), "The Argyle Sweater" featured an audition for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (bottom image) and "Foxtrot" featured a siblings squabble over a printer which was running out of ink.

Here is our survey:

1) "Pearls Before Swine"

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

3) "The Argyle Sweater"

4) "Foxtrot"

5) "Rhymes with Orange"

6) "Lio"

7) "Dustin"

8) "Sherman's Lagoon"

9) "Judge Parker"

10) "Knight Life"


SIDEBAR: The other day, we had an entry dedicated to college commencement speakers. Today we add three more: 1) Ed Helms, Cornell University; 2) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, William and Mary and 3) John Legend, University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.gocomics.com


http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

Our First Entry in Turkish

Herkese mutlu gunler. Bugun Malatya Kayisilar bizim destek oluyor (tabikii saka ediyoruz).

Ayrica, butun Sudi Arabistan, Japonya, ve Polanya'daki dostlarimiza merhabalar gondermek istiyoruz.

Bugun ABD'nin orta Atlantik bolgesinde baya cok yagmur yagmis. North Carolina devlet'i bir kac kentler'de sel olmus. Ve Bashkent Vashington'da bulutlu, yagmurlu ve ruzgarli gun gecirdigin'e duyduk.

Eger siz bana Twitter'de selam solyle'mek istersiniz, @Tilly70 benim Twitter isminimdir.

English translation abridged: "We wish everyone a nice day. Today, Malatya Apricots (a real company) is today's daily sponsor (this is a joke; we have no sponsors). We want to say hello to all our friends in Saudi Arabia, Japan and Poland.

It rained very hard in the mid-Atlantic part of the country. The state of North Carolina and Washington, DC (there is no 'W' in Turkish, though George W. Bush, who was not popular in Turkey because of the Iraq War, made everyone aware of the letter W). If you want to say hello on Twitter, my handle is @Tilly70."


http://www.malatyaapricots.com

http://www.malatyaapricots.blogspot.com

Billy Bragg on the Death of Margaret Thatcher

On April 10th, Billy Bragg, an English left-wing folk/rock singer whose political anthems made him a recognized voice in the mid 1980s, will play in Winnipeg, Canada. He made a statement regarding the death of England's first female prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who was known for her right-wing politics.

Here is a condensed version of his statement: "This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today.................Raising the glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don't celebrate---organise."

David Frum (pictured center), a center-right conservative figure in America who is actually a Canadian, posted many tweets about the woman who also helped Meryl Streep win her well-deserved second Best Actress Oscar.

One of them read as follows: "When people told Thatcher to jump, she did not say 'how high?' She said: 'Well, watch.'

SIDEBAR: We are currently listening to the BBC which is asking young people in South Africa if they are concerned about the ramifications of what they might post on a social media site like Facebook or Twitter. As one might expect, some of these tweenagers are concerned and use caution while others don't fret too much. But, one of the interviewed subjects states that she will remove Facebook posts of her drinking alcohol when she looks for a job.

http://www.billybragg.co.uk

http://www.frumforum.com

Tweet of the Day- Lena Dunham

Our tweet of the day comes from comic actress Lena Dunham, 26, who has made a name for herself with the indy film "Tiny Furniture" and more recently with her hit HBO series "Girls."

Today, she was lambasted by the far right knucklehead Rush Limbaugh who has been on a rampage against women in recent weeks. Limbaugh said that Dunham's ad for President Barack Obama in which she jokingly compares voting for Obama to losing her virginity. Which prompted Limbaugh to say she was promoting women as 'monolithic sex machines?" Limbaugh then strangely suggested that feminist leader Gloria Steinem should join him in dumping on Dunham.

This lead Dunham to post this tweet:

"It tickles me to no end that while my twitter feed was blowing up with conservative hate, I was literally hanging out in a pile of bisexuals."

Monday Night Post-Debate Tweets: Let's Play Battleship

Before we get to the 8 tweets that we will post here, we should point out the reasons for these images: 1) Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American liberal tv show who was born in March of 1970, essentially he is the same person as Tilly Gokbudak (that is me) the editor of this blog, except the later does not have a tv show on Current TV or anywhere else 2) Battleship: Yes, President Barack Obama made the night's pop cultural reference tonight, and surely the popular '70s board game will sell out by the end of the weekend and 3) Golda Meir, the legendary late first prime minister of Israel.

Let's get started:

1) @EWErickson (Erik Erickson, conservative editor of redstate.com): "The lefties in my timeline are exceedingly angry. A good sign for Romney."

2) @JenGranholm (Jenifer Granholm is a former Democratic governor of Michigan who now has a tv show on Current TV): "RT @CBS News: Breaking: CBS News Instant Poll on who won the #debate? Obama
53 %, Romney 23 %, tie 24 %"

3) @CenkUygur (Cenk Uygur): "Romney people saying he has grown as a candidate. Pretty much devastating admission he got killed."

4) @JonEasley (Jonathan Easley, a reporter for "The Hill"): "Chris Wallace: A marine tweeted us to say the Marines still use bayonets, so it may not be clear who really knows." (Obama made reference to bayonets during the debate).

5) @NRO ("National Review," a conservative magazine): "Chris Matthews slams Obama for #pandering on Israel #debates." (It's ironic to see a conservative journal quipping a center-left pundit. Yes, this tweet is why we are using an image of Golda Meir).

6) @TheOnion ("The Onion" is a faux news outlet): "Obama takes out Romney with a Mid-Debate drone attack."

7) @DavidCornDC (David Corn is a reporter for "Mother Jones," a liberal magazine): "Romney wins the #deabte_ if you're measuring by production of presperation."

8) @politico ("Politico" is an objective political journal): "Obama to Romney: This is not a game of Battleship."

Reports Via Twitter from the Olympic Village

Given that NBC's Olympics coverage so far has been grilled, perhaps it was best to be following the 2012 London Olympics on Twitter as we did earlier tonight. It's 4:00 a.m. here in Danbury, Connecticut (not really where I'm blogging from, but the same time zone) and it should be about 9:00 a.m. in London.

Here are the tweets:

1) Scott Simon @nprscottsimon: Stuck on train platform SFO. Unable to see what NBC is cutting out of Olympic broadcast tonight. Pole vaulting by the pope?"

2) Professor Snape @_Snape: "More people would be watching the Olympics if Quidditch was played.

3) Ebba Rezeq @Gazanism: "I have nothing but respect for the Tunisian swimmer who refused to compete because of the Israeli swimmer."*

4) Joanna Fokas @Joanna Fokas: "I can't help but laugh when these men do gymnastics." **

5) Nicole Dunn @DunnyDizzzie: "I feel like I'm the only one that has watched basically every event on the Olympics today, literally all day long."

6) Nadia Comaneci @nadiacomaneci10: "On to the reception w/ Michelle Obama."***

7) Forbes @Forbes: "Olympic Games: NBA apparently thinks it's 1992 seemingly unaware of Twitter's existence."

8)  Shalane Flanagan @shalaneflanagan: "Woke up with butterflies!!!! One week to go!"****

*-First of all, I don't condone the actions of that Tunisian swimmer Takri Mrabet, even though I am a Turkish-American. Mrabet was disqualified by the Olympics for his actions. The Israeli swimmer Gal Nevo, whom Mrabet refused to swim against in the 400-meter relay finished a respectable tenth. One other Muslim athlete Ahmed Atari of Qatar did swim, but he alas finished last (36th).  American swimmer Ryan Lochte won this race, which also saw Michael Phelps finish a shocking fourth.

**_We don't agree with this view either, but it was amusing.

***-Yes, this is a tweet from the real Nadia.

****-Shalane Flanagan is an American distance runner; she has won a bronze medal for her efforts in a previous Olympics.

http://www.shalanefalanagan.com

http://www.qatarairways.com

http://www.nadiacomaneci.com

http://www.timesofisrael.com

Things We Learned from the Internet Today-Devekusu is the Turkish for Ostrich

Since I lived in Turkey for two years as child from 1977-79 and my late father Mehmet Gokbudak (1921-1983) was from Turkey and made a strident effort to teach me Turkish even when I was more interested in Dr.Seuss' books as a child, I am able to speak fluent even though I grew up in rural, remote Welch, West Virginia.*

So, as it is, I am about 90-percent fluent in Turkish. Hence, as a result, there are some words I'm not aware of, and 'devekusu' (literally means 'camel bird'), the Turkish word for ostrich, is one of them. So, if alex Trebek asks: "What is the Turkish word for an ostrich?" on Final Jeopardy; the answer is "devekusu."

Also, we learned today that most things trending on Twitter had to do with the Major League All-Star Game which will be played tomorrow in Kansas City. The exception was Channel Orange, which is the name of the new release from singer Frank Ocean, who made headlines by coming out as being gay recently. We were wondering if he was related to our favorite two or three hit wonder Billy Ocean ("Caribbean Queen."). We asked both Google and Bing this question; we got no response. 

*-This is a slight white lie, I grew up in Roanoke, Va., which is not quite as removed from the world as the small hamlet in eastern West Virginia that I was referring to.

Image of the Day- Je Suis Tres Fatigue

Yes, we thought we owed you the blogging public a due explanation as to why we haven't been posting much lately. And, here is it is!

SIDEBAR:
We read this interesting tweet from "The Baltimore Sun" earlier in the week: "Who's better on gay rights, Mitt Romney or Barry Goldwater?"

Highlights from My 24 Things to Improve My Life List

It seems to be a slow Saturday night, and I can tell that from Twitter where I saw that people as diverse as right-wing evangelical acivist Nathan Tabor, from Winston-Salem, NC, moderate conservative pundit David Frum and liberal journalist Suzy Khimm were all watching the Republican debate from Michigan tonight.

So, perhaps this will mean more blog traffic than normal.

A funny thing happened the other day as my mom and I were browsing through an independent bookstore in Roanoke, Va. I stumbled across a copy of a self-help book entitled "Clean Like a Man" by Tom McNulty. I saw on the back jacket that comic/actor Richard Lewis ("Curb Your Enthuiasm") had strongly endorsed it as he confessed to being an Oscar Madison-type.

My mom looked when I showed her the book, which I should probably read_twice, and said (paraphrase): "Oh come on. You know you'll never read the thing; sorry son, but you are a hopeless cause."

So, with that, here are highlights from a list I made today on ways I could improve my life:

1. Lose weight

2. Get a good-paying job

3. Write a short story or even a short, short story

4. Clean house (hence, the reason for the vacuum cleaner image)

5. Try to get more hits on the two blogs; surely there is someone in a hut in the jungles of Burundi who cares about what I have to say.

6. Develop more confidence around attractive women; some guy found a way to ask Anne Hathaway out on a date.

7. Go on more long walks

8. Read Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" or at least the first chapter.

9. Watch more Jean-Luc Godard films (we would've gone with Ingmar Bergman, but his films make me feel very depressed, especially "Fanny and Alexander," it's more gut-wrenching than "Schindler's List").

10. Listen to more Turkish psychedlic music from the 1970s.

11. Save up money to buy a $500 antique Swiss cuckoo clock.

12. Drink more Counter Culture* coffee instead of Starbucks.

*-Company based in Durham, NC. Reportedly, they use beans from farms in Rwanda and/or Uganda.

Tweet of the Moment_ Herman Cain

We were checking out Twitter last night which is actually banned here at the Pyongyang Public Library (that is a joke; of course, I'm not in North Korea) where a stereotypical librarian went all shhhhhhhhhhhhhh on a person. It was very amusing.

But, it was this tweet from the liberal blog "The Daily Kos," which we certainly agree with more than "The Drudge Report" (read my mini-bio for more details), that really left an impression on us:

"Herman Cain encourages Al Qaeda to kidnap U.S. troops"

We went to "The Daily Kos" web site and they stated that during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN (from what we gathered) that the former Godfather's Pizza ceo essentially said he would negotiate with the highly infamous terrorist group if that was needed. Hmmm....we can only imagine what would happen if a Democrat suggested this.

To be fair to Cain, I did not see the CNN interview, but he has made many lavish, over-the-top comments in recent weeks. Another tweet from CNN itself said that Cain's 9-9-9 plan would actually raise taxes for 84 percent of all Americans.

We first learned about Cain and his intention to run for president despite having no political experience in an excellent piece by Joshua Green in "The Atlantic."

Godfather's Pizza, based in Omaha, Nebraska, has six locations in North Carolina and five in Virginia. The last one I dined was the one in Mount Jackson, Va., in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

Things We Learned on Google Today- IFK Goteborg Lost to Another Swedish Soccer Team

NOTE: Normally, in this slot, we have our series dedicated to the 15 former republics of the Soviet Union. But, we thought it would be keen and neat to switch the entries around today with our other blog "The Daily Vampire"..........ok, we did sort of mess up and hence Javier the Intern has once again been fired.


Steven Levy, a writer for "Wired" magazine, has a new book called "In the Plex" which is about how Google shapes our minds and the ways we think. All of which has made me think that perhaps we should change the name of this series to "Things We Learned on Bing Today."

At any rate, we had high hopes that our feature soccer team of the week, IFK Goteborg, a Swedish powerhouse which has won 18 national championship titles, five national cup titles and two UEFA cups, would come through for us as they face Mjallby AIF, a Swedish soccer team in the southern Swedish fishing town of Mjallo, but alas they choked. Hence, the final result was Mjallby AIF 1 IFK Goteborg 0. The winning goal was scored by David Lofquist, 25, for Mjallby.

But, there are supposedly some good players for IFK Goeborg, including Stefan Sleakovic, 34, a Swedish national player who has been a star for the team, and IFK's captain Adam Johansson, 28, a fellow Swede.

Goteborg or Gothenburg is Sweden's second largest city as it ranks between Stockholm and Malmo.

SIDEBAR: In the "Gosh, We Didn't Get To It" department, we were hoping to rib Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) as he is ironically a good friend to me personally, though I'm not sure if he shares that opinion of my blog. He is from my hometown of Salem, Va., and he represents the ninth district of Virginia from western Salem to Bristol, Va.

Apparently, Griffith, who should not be confused with an attractive young woman from Georgia on Twitter who shares his name (yes, this is actually true), addressed the need for deregulation so southwest Virginia could get more jobs in response to President Barack Obama's speech, yesterday.

We were going to say these minimum-wage jobs might well pollute the air and water, and they would be probably be shipped out to El Slavador or China so some Cuban cigar-chomping mine boss could cut living wages, but out of respect for Griffith and our time contraints, we are going to avoid making such a satiric claim which could easily be misinterpreted.

And, to actually be fair and balanced, we should add that we have yet to read what Cong. Griffith actually had to say as of 5:00 p.m., New Haven, Conn., time.

PS: The country we are featuring today in our series which will be on "The Daily Vampire" wil be Lithuania. If it wasn't obvious, Javier the Intern does not really exist!

Highlights from the 100 Things To Do List

As with our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we are featuring highlights from my 100 Things To Do List, which I actually wrote out last week.

1. (#2) wash car

2. (#14) Look at Craig's List for a cool new job or a good used vinyl record player

3. (#43) Check out Twitter page, even though it's so 2009.

4. (#48) Try to see a dentist

5. (#65) Make late summer reading list (that's the reason for the zombie version of "Pride and Prejudice" image, this is a bit of an in-joke since I've never read a Jane Austen novel).

6. (#77) Try to see a Shakespearean play at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va.

7. (#81) Pretend you are Walt Whitman, and sit under a tree and write a poem.

8. (#90) Look into volunteering for a cause you believe in. (There is actually a no-kill shelter for cats in Raleigh, NC, called Safe Haven, but that's a two-hour drive my zip code of residency!)

9. (#98) Research networking (I think this is actually on everyone's to-do list)

10. (#100) Eat at the new Thai Orchid in Roanoke, Va., perhaps I can find a radical feminist who will agree to pay for my meal to prove the "Father Knows Best" years are really behind us. (I should add that even though I just made fun of radical feminists, I am by no means a Republican. Michele Bachmann has proven that Sylvester Stallone was right when he said: "the cure is worse than the disease," in that god-awful mid-80s action movie "Cobra."

Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight- Principal Skinner Mentions Roanoke, Va.

Harry Shearer, who has done many things besides voicing characters on "The Simpsons," mentioned Roanoke, Va., my hometown in a tweet tonight.

The tweet was regarding the fact that my friend Jason Garnett was screening Shearer's documentary "The Big Uneasy" about the Hurricane Katrina fiasco at The Shadowbox Cinema tonight. The film, which Shearer produced and directed, also shows at the same venue tomorrow night (Saturday night) at 8:00 p.m.

Here was the tweet from Shearer:

"Big Uneasy opens tonight in Roanoke, Va., and Encinitas, Ca., I'll be skyping the
Q & A at the latter, Palorma Theatre."

The film is also screening in Savannah, Georgia, this weekend.

I saw the screening at the Shadowbox and the documentary turned out to be a fairly well-done film, which features a number of funny cameos by John Goodman, that helps balance the depressing subject matter. The film's focus on how it affected New Orleans, where Shearer is a part-time resident, is quite moving.

As for Principal Seymour Skinner, I had found out a while back through Wikipedia that he was actually an Armenian-American?! This humored me because I am a Turkish-American, and for reasons why I won't go into (we only have so much time to dedicate to blog entries) our two groups have 'some political friction.'

Skinner's real name as revealed in a 1997 episode (it is easy to forget that the show has been on since 1990 and if Bart Simpson aged in real time he would have probably retired from skateboarding) is Armin Tamzarian.

In the episode in which the name of Skinner was revealed there is a real man named Seymour Skinner who confronts him for being an impostor. According to Wikiepdia, Shearer himself said that he intensely disliked the episode which many Simpsons fans apparently consider to be the equivalent of the infamous "Spock's Brain" episode of the original "Star Trek."

SIDEBAR: For my friends and followers back in my adopted city of Greensboro, NC, I also want to highly recommend "Talking Pictures," a new musical comedy by Tommy Trull and Chris Tilley who are (full disclosure) friends of mine. The two-act play is a farscial look at the early days of Hollywood when Harold LLoyd was the king of comedy. "Talking Pictures" is being staged at the historic Broach Theatre in downtown Greensboro. There will be a production tommorow night at 8:00 p.m.

Special Quote of the Day- Voltaire

Since today is Bastille Day in France, the country that brought us Tintin (just kidding, Belgium!), we thought we'd quote from the famous philosopher and plawright Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778) whom everyone simply knows as Voltaire. And, here is the quote:

"Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need."

Of course, he said all this a few centuries before the advent of Facebook and Twitter.

Amadeus in Bethesda- Entry 3 of 3

While we did not stay at an old motel in northern Virginia, the hotel stay with the other people in your party is perhaps the most challenging part of any trip.

For my mom and I this was particularly awkward because we have very different lifestyles and our own unique quirks. I like to read and listen to the radio or watch movies on dvd at home in North Carolina. I actually seldom watch regular tv unless there is a sporting event or a show on PBS that interests me. My mom however watches lots of network tv, and she was happy to find out that the CBS show "The Mentalist" was on tv.

Thursday night was the only night we spent at the hotel, and we arrived back around 9:20 p.m. We were both hoping to catch one of the local 11:00 newscasts to hear about President Barack Obama's surprise visit to DuPont Circle, an area of Washington, DC, where we had dined earlier in the evening, at the Turkish restaurant Ezme.

We got caught up along with everyone in watching his motorcade from the side of the road with yellow tape being placed to prevent anyone from getting to close. For the police officers, who I found myself surprisingly sympathizing with more than normal, the greatest challenge was actually communicating with passing joggers who were probably listening to Kenny G on their I-Pods.

The rumor was that Obama was dinning at a pizza place on P Street, just a few doors down from Ezme, and this was communicated to people through Twitter. As it turns, yesterday, at long last, I found out that the rumor was about sixty-percent accurate. Obama actually met with a big financial donor above the pizza place, and pizza was provided for them by the establishment.

But, none of this was mentioned on the 11:00 news, nor was in the express version of "The Washignton Post" which is a free paper mostly aimed at DC Metro commuters.

So, in the 90 minutes between the end of the CBS shows and the late local news, I had decided to barricade myself in the hotel room's bathroom while listening to the great classcial composer Gustav Mahler on WETA-FM, Washington, DC's excellent NPR station which is at least 90-percent classical music. I also took a copy of the current issue of "The Atlantic" with me into the bathroom.

My mother wondered what the heck I was doing. When I explained, she was even more confused. I simply wanted peace and quiet, and amazingly enough, for those 90 minutes, I actually got it.

Quote of the Week- e.e. cummings

While researching this piece, we were surprised that e.e. cummings (also known as E.E. Cummings, though he never capitalized the letters of his name for his poems)
(1894-1962) went from being a bohemian liberal to a Republican.

But, we like his poetry anyway, especially "Buffalo Bill's" and "Little Tree." So, we decided to quote him today in honor of National Poetry Month:

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand others how to dance."

SIDEBAR: Is anyone else besides me iritated with the Barracuda Networks, an entity that many public instutions, such as libraries, use to 'filter' inappropriate sites, here in the United States and perhaps other parts of the world?

We certainly understand why such institutions would not want patrons looking up pornographic sites as web site dedicated to serial killers and Adolf Hitler as well ones which tell you the best ways to commit suicide.

But, it is ironic that Barracuda will actually block most social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook and E-Harmony (and, hey we wonder why fewer people are in relationships than ever!), but they will allow access to terrorist organizations, such as the web site for the PKK. This is a Kurdish separatist group, formed in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, which has killed thousands of innocent people in Turkey. We presume that even in post-9/11 America that the PKK is apparently not a concern for this network that some may view as a censoring body which happens to share its name with a Portland, Ore., nightclub as well as a famous song by Heart.

How's that for irony?!

Status Update: I Am Alive and Well and Not in Rural Mongolia

Over the weekend an interesting thing happened as due to surreal circumstances, I was not able to communicate with friends or family simply because the charger for my cellphone had been misplaced.

After making a series of collect calls to answering machines which no one got, my family actually became somewhat worried about me. In the process, I also discovered that pay phones are officially a casualty of modern technology.

But, I am alive and well and I am not in a Mongolian village where thanks to modern technology, an American visitor could ignore all the local culture and unique cuisine around them and find a watch to watch tonight's NCAA men's basketball championship between U-Conn and Butler. Or, at least, they could probably find a way to follow the game's happenings through Twitter.