A Snow Storm in Any Language

Greetings to our blog-readers in Kuwait, Bangladesh and New Zealand. It great to get hits from people quite far away from us.

Today, the mid-Atlantic portion of the United States got hit with either ice, snow or rain. Reportedly, the city of Frederick, Maryland, 45 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., got three inches of snow.
NPR is reporting that there are long delays and flight cancellations at Reagan Airport in the nation's capital.

Our favorite foreign language word for snowstorm is the Danish word 'snestorm,' which we actually googled.

Here is the list:

1) schneesturm (German)

2) tempele de neigert (French)

3) kar firtinasi (Turkish)

4) tormento de nieve (Spanish)

5) sno storm (Norwegian, actually one word)

6) zamiec (Polish)

7) vielista (Bulgarian)

8) snestorm (Danish)

http://www.weather.com

Presidential Quotes: George HW Bush

Greetings to our blog-readers in Lithuania, Libya and Lebanon and a last minute Fourth of July to everyone here in les etats unis.

We will be quoting former President George H.W. Bush soon, but before we do, we thought we'd write a quick paragraph with some items which are trending on the web page for "The Washington Post" (we Aquaman to make it more interesting):

"The nation's capital celebrated the 4th of July as Egypt is in a major political crisis with a performance by Barry Manilow at the National Mall; Cong. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was among those in attendance. Meanwhile in New York, competitive eater Joey Chestnut won his seventh world hot dog eating championship. He ate 69 hot dogs, yeah, don't try that at home. And, a 10-year-old boy in Seattle wore his new Aquaman pajamas at a local Burger King to merely impress his friends."

On a more somber note, we are saddened to hear that John E. Grogan, 78, the mayor of Eden, North Carolina, a small near Greensboro, which borders Virginia, passed away today.

Here is our quote from Bush 41:

"You have to understand that people that are hurting are going to criticize you."

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.bushlibrary.tamu.edu

http://www.ci.eden.nc.us

Things We Learned on Bing Today- All Things Washington DC

So why are we posting this image of President Barak Obama with Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan; well, if you read below, you will find out in this edition of 'Things We Learned on Bing Today':

1) Namik Tan, 57, is the Turkish ambassador to the United States. Since I'm a Turkish-American, and I follow Ambassador Tan on Twitter, I was aware of this before today. But, I didn't know his age. Additionally, Tan was the ambassador to Israel from 2007-09. The Blue Marmara Flotilla Raid by Israeli forces in 2010, which claimed the life of Furkan Dogan, 18, a Turkish-American from Troy, New York, and seven others on board the ship, strained relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv.

2) Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), 89, a World War Two veteran, is the oldest current U.S. Senator; Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), 79, is the oldest Republican in the Senate. We have heard rumors that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hates him with a passion; we have no idea how well McCain gets along with Senator Frank.

3) Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), 39, is the youngest U.S. Senator; he replaced McCain's buddy Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who was Al Gore's 2000 running mate. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), (born 1971) who is known for his fringe Tea Party politics, is the youngest Republican in the U.S. Senate.

4) Mayor Joshua Cohen, also 39, is the mayor of Annapolis, Maryland, the nearest state capital to Washington, DC. In 2009, Cohen defeated Republican David Cordle 47-41 percent in the election to replace Ellen O. Moyers (D), who is now 77.

5) Coach Paul Hewitt, 50, is the current men's basketball coach at George Mason University in Fairfx, Va., which is some 35 miles south of Washington, DC. Hewitt has been coach of the Patriots since 2011; previously he was coach of Georgia Tech from 2000-11.


http://www.twitter.com/NamikTan

http://www.gomason.com

More College Nicknames- Dukes, Bluejays and Anteaters

Here is our follow-up from yesterday's entry on college nicknames. Perhaps even long-time ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale doesn't know a few of the more obscure ones:

More Smart Schools:

1. California Golden Bears (Cal; Pac-12)*
2. Brown Bears (R.I.; Ivy)
3. Lafayette Leopards (Pa, Patriot League)
4. JMU Dukes (Va; Colonial- pictured top)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Louisville Cardinals (Ky; Big East)*
6. Creighton Bluejays  (Neb.; Missouri Valley)*
7. Illinois State Redbirds (Ill.; Missouri Valley)
8. Kansas Jayhawks (Kan.; Big-12-pictured center)*

Canines and Foxes

9. The Citadel Bulldogs (SC, Southern Con.)
10. Boston University Terriers (Mass., America East)
11. Georgetown Hoyas (Wash. D.C.; Big East- pictured bottom, that is Patrick Ewings' jersey)
12. Marist Red Foxes (New York, Metro-Atlantic)

Best of the Rest

13. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (Calif.; Big West)
14. Campbell Fighting Camels (NC; Big South)
15.DePaul Blue Demons (Ill.; Big East)
16. Mississippi Valley Delta Devils (Ms., SWAC)
17. UC-Irvine Anteaters (Calif.' Big West)

Quote of the Week- Mark Twain

Today, we conclude with our month-long quips from cultural radicals and subversives from Mark Twain. Though he is considered a mainstream author today, there have been various times when Twain's works have been considered controversial. The use of the n-word vernacular that was used quite often at the time of publication (1885) of Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has caused a stir at times for some local schoolboards even though no could rationally suggest that Twain was a racist.

The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., is among the most popular tourist attractions in the Nutmeg State.

Here is Twain's quote:

"A person who won't read has advantages over a person who can't read."

SIDEBAR ONE: Though I am a Democrat, David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, is among my favorite politically conservative pundits as he talks in terms of broad pictures as opposed to the likes of Rush Limbaugh who today proclaimed that Barack Obama 'wanted Hurricane Irene to be a huge disaster.'

Of course, like most liberals, my favorite conservative pundit is (of course!) David Brooks, but Frum, who is also keen and objective in his commentary, is a close second.

Yesterday, Frum tweeted the following regarding how Hurrican Irene affected his weekend: "Side benefit from Irene: taking my daughter to see Declaration and Constitution at National Archive with no line at all. Unprecedented."

SIDEBAR TWO: Speaking of Hartford, I actually saw a Hartford Whalers bumper sticker in Roanoke, Va., today. This was interesting to me because the Hartford Whalers have not existed since the team left for the Tarheel State and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

As the 'Canes, the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006, which actually made some people in North Carolina pay more attention to hockey than NASCAR-racing. But, of course, since racing legend Richard Petty is from Randleman, NC, and the late Dale Earnhardt hailed from Kannapolis, NC, that didn't really last. Of course, their offspring is involved in the sport as well.

But, I found out some interesting information while googling the Hartford Whalers. The current minor league hockey team in Hartford renamed themselves the Connecticut Whale last year to honor the Hartford Whalers. And, ironically, the team's previous name was the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the same nickname for North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes now play (they temporarily played in Greensboro).

The Hartford Whalers existed from 1979-1997. And, they left, in part, because the likes of then-governor of Connecticut John G. Rowland, a Republican, didn't want to spend tax payer money on a new hockey arena for the team.

But, there is still an active group that wants to bring the Hartford Whalers back in one way or another (perhaps having a new team with that name, such as what happened with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL). And, The Whalers Watchers, as they are called, will meet in Hartford on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

As for the Connecticut Whale, they have their home opener on Oct. 15

The Great Virginia Earthquake of 2011

Personally, I prefer the Turkish word for eathquake which is 'deprem.' My late father's country has had a number of devastating shakers, including one in the eastenr city of Erzincan in the 1960s and more recently a series of massive quakes in wetern Turkey, including a 1999 deprem which put Istanbul and surrounding areas into chaos.

Yesterday's 5.9 earthquake centered around the small town of Mineral, Va., which is between Richmond and Charlottesville, did create some problems for those around the epicentet. Various sources said that residents of Mineral felt the tremor for up to 40 seconds.

Diane Miller who works at the local Louisa County Animal Shelter told NPR that the cats were hiding in their litter boxes. And, at least one florist shop in the area received major damage to inventory.

The often-hilarious liberal talk show host Keith Olbermann gave a stirring commentary during his show on Current TV last night when he pointed that the earthquake occured in the district of Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Cantor, who is the majority leader on the Hill and a member of Congress known for being uncompromising and arch conservative, had argued that federal funding for the United States Geological Survey needed to be cut. So, Olbermann was thus able to make him an easy target for ripe political humor.

But, much of the chat about the quake which I felt in North Carolina for 10-12 seconds some four hours from the epicenter has come to an abrupt halt on the Internet.

Though a tweet from WashDCNews asked the following question: "How could Virginia-quake be felt in Canada and crack the Washington Monument?"

The answer is apparently that there is a vast geological different between fault lines in Virginia and those in California.