March Madness with Mapquest (for Friday Games)

As I indicated on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," this may be one of the craziest things I've done in a long while as I used MapQuest.com to figure out the distances between the teams facing each other in the Sweet 16 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

The move is perhaps more zany because all of the teams are playing on neutral sites though Baylor University located in Waco, Tex., is playing the St. Mary's Gaels, located in Moraga, Calif., in Houston which is in Baylor's home state.

For this entry, we are focusing on the Friday night games. The other games and teams were mentioned in the 'Vampire' entry (see links).

The other game that will be played in Houston will feature the Duke Blue Devils (pictured here) against Purdue University from West Laffayette, Ind.

Meanwhile in St.Louis, the cinderella Northern Iowa Panthers will face the Michigan State Spartans from the Big Ten. The other game in Arch City will between Ohio State and Tennessee.

Before this tourney, I was actually not certain which town Northern Iowa University was in. As it turns out, they are located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is also the home of Pepper's Grill and Sports Pub. The bar is about 515 miles (an 8 hour, 20 minute drive) from the Michigan State Student Bookstore in East Lansing, Mich.

Since I'm a Turkish-American, I couldn't resist seeing how far Cafe Istanbul, located at 3983 Worth Ave in Columbus, Ohio, which is the home of Ohio State, was from Niro's Gyros, a Greek restaurant located at 711 17th Street SW, in Knoxville, Tenn. It turns out the two restaurants from rival ethnic groups are 369 miles apart, which makes for about a six hour drive. Much to my surprise, I found out that these are the two schools which are closest to each other in mileage in the Sweet 16!

As for the games in Houston, Temple Rodef Sholom in Waco, Tex., which is home to Baylor University, is 1,789 miles (26 hours, 45 minutes by car) from Ristore Amoroma, an Italian Restaurant in Moraga, Calif., where St. Mary's is located. I initially searched for mega-churches in Waco, but I found so many listed on the web I thought it would be easier to try a synagogue instead.

Much to my surprise, there are actually two of them besides Temple Rodef Sholom is the Southern Baptist-stronghold of Waco, which is also where the infamous incident with the David Koresh cult took place in the 1990s.

Lastly, Durham, NC, where Duke University and the Carolina Theatre are located (not to be confused with the other Carolina Theatre in Greensboro) is 723 miles or 11.5 hours away from the Purdue University Bookstore in West Laffayette, Ind. The Carolina Theatre, which screens films on a regular basis, is now showing the delightful French animated film "A Town Called Panic," which caught by chance last week at another theatre in the Raleigh area.

Well, it is lunch time here in Floyd, Va. (not where I'm actually at, but it is a town just as small and isolated), so it's time to get me a gyro........oh, I forgot.....the zip code I'm presently at doesn't have either a Turkish or a Greek restaurant. I envy those of you in Columbus or Knoxville!

ZIP CODE USA_ 38478 Pulaski, Tenn.

Today we focus this blog entry (note many previous entries to this series are on our other blog "The Daily Vampire") on Pulaski, TN., which is the place where the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865.

I was initially going to post a picture of the Klan with this entry but I thought it would: a) potentially offend African-Americans b) displease the city's mayor Daniel M. Speer, who could stumble upon this blog. So, we are going with the University of Tennessee's mascot instead though we suspect Pulaski, which sits on the Alabama border, is pretty far from the campus in Knoxville!

(We found a cyber-image of an old postcard of a county courthouse from Pulaski, Tenn., but this seemed more visual.)

The city of Pulaski, TN., has condemned the KKK, which was founded there in 1865 by Civil War soldiers who wanted to form a social club. Interestingly enough, one of the group's founders was named John Kennedy.

The city's web site promotes Pulaski, TN., 38478, as a place that is safe, clean, healthy and prosperous.

Pulaski, TN., is the county seat to Giles County. It is 70 percent and 27 percent African-American. The city's population is 7,871.

I have never been to Pulaski, but I am curious how the city manages to build its image given that it is the place where the most infamous 'political' organization in America had its roots.