GOP Debate without Trump Hangover....

Here are some leftover tweets from last night's Republican debate in which Donald Trump pretended he was Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," as well as some nifty tweets that were posted today on Twitter:

1) John Fuselgang (liberal): GOP debate was like The Suicide Squad without their Joker.

2) Ian Cioffi (libertarian): If watch CNN you'd think Rand Paul had a good night. If you watch Fox News, you'd think Rand Paul never attended the debate.

3) Hugh Hewitt (conservative): I'm going to sleep because I'm agreeing with David Axelrod too much.

4) Donna Brazile (liberal): A GOPDebate can still provide winners and losers even without Trump there to proclaim himself the winner and call everyone else losers.

5) Michelle Malkin (black Republican): In case you missed Jeb last nite Immigration pandering__check. Generational pandering__check. The Cringe. It burns.

6) Markos Moulitsas (liberal): So Donald Trump is taking down the Republican Party, now he's trying to do the same for Fox? Best primary ever.

7) Michael Crowley (Politico): Gonna be a lot of 'Hey, maybe we wrote off Jeb Bush too soon' overnight and tomorrow. Might be too late though....

8) Bernie Sanders: EqualPayCantWait when women in America who do the same work earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to men.

9) John Robinson (UNC journalism professor): Politics as bloodsport is fun to watch, but I do wish presidential candidates acted with dignity and intended, at least, to be presidential.

That makes a cool nod to our Luca Libre (Mexican wrestling image) along with a still from the movie "The Hangover" with Bradley Cooper and an image of Iowa State cheerleaders. Go Cyclones! Well, we don't live close to Iowa at all actually.....

We're Back: With a List of the Worst Oscar-Nominated Films That Did NOT win Best Picture

Alas, we have not seen "Airport" (1970) nor "Doctor Dolittle" (1966), but we have seen our fair share of films that got Best Picture Oscar winners that were not worthy of those nominations. Of course, since this blog's editor Tilly Gokbudak is a Turkish-American, who gets 'top billing' will probably not be a surprise!

Here we go:

1) Midnight Express (1978, see image one_ it is of oil wrestlers in Edirne, Turkey, close to the Bulgarian border)

2) Hello Dolly! (1969)

3) Love Story (1970, see image two...we actually like the film as a guilty pleasure)

4) Chocolat (2000)

5) Ghost (1990, see image of Casper the Ghost)

6) The Towering Inferno (1974)

7) District 9 (2009)

8) Seabiscuit (2003)

9) The Reader (2008)

10) Miracle on 34th Street (1946)

DC Week (8 of 8): Govt Shutdown MAY End Tonight.....

Since elephants are the mascot of the Republican Party, and donkeys are the symbol for the Democrats, we thought we'd insert an image of a Thai elephant and a Turkish donkey with a photo of a Lucho Libre (Mexican pro wrestling) in the middle.


Here are tweet s regarding the possibility of a federal government shutdown end:

1) The Hill: "Dem polls show shutdown hurt GOP chances in Senate races."

2) The Nation (a liberal magazine): "Mitch McConnell's Tea Party challenger for 2014 Senate is already capitulating on this deal."

3) Washington Examiner (a conservative publication): "Sen. McConnell on Obamacare: Republicans remain determined to repeal this terrible law."

4) Left on Main St: "Tea Party Hypocricy Perfected Idaho Candidate Opposes Medicaid, Has Ten Kids on Medicaid."

5) The Atlantic: "Republicans couldn't stop Obamacare. How badly have they wounded it?"

6) Epoch Times: "Deal reached to end government shutdown avoid debt default."

7) Roll Call: "John Boehner: We fought the good fight, we just didn't win."

8) Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon): "Need to stop careering from crisis and focus on what really matters: good jobs, affordable college, secure retirement."

http://www.rollcall.com/

http://washingtonexaminer.com/

http://www.thenation.com/#

Quote from International Writers_ Franz Kafka

This just in, a mere three days after they have their vice presidential candidates debate in Danville, Ky., Vice President Joe Biden and his challenger Paul Ryan will have a wrestling match during half-time of the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game in Cleveland on Oct. 24th. They chose the occasion because Ohio is a swing state; I'm sure the late comic actor Andy Kaufman would be proud.

We are joking, of course, but like us, the satirical publication "The Onion" is having fun at the candidates' expense, one recent 'story' this week said that perhaps Paul Ryan should have told Mitt Romney about the guy he's dating.

With that, today we start a series of quotes from famous world-known writers. And, we begin with the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whom I'm amazed to see that I've actually outlived him, as he died in his very early forties.

Kafka is well-known for penning "The Trial" (1925); here is his quote:

"A book should be an axe, to break the frozen sea within us."

http://www.clevelnadbrowns.com

http://www.theonion.com

Things We Learned from Twitter Today- Wrestler's True Cause of Death

In a tweet from Slate.com this evening, we learned that former pro wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage, 58, who was a rival of Hulk Hogan's in the 1980s, actually died from a heart attack as opposed to a car accident.

It was widely reported and logically assumed that a car accident claimed Savage's life in May as the car he was driving hit a tree in Seminole, Fla. (near Tampa). But, an autopsy report released today has proven that a heart attack actually claimed the former wrestling superstar's life.

In other tweets, though I do politically differ with my libertarian friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, since I am a centrist to liberal Democrat who only wishes Barack Obama could have as many terms as FDR, I did love this biting proclamation by him which everyone can assuredly sympathize with:

"Said it before and will say it again: American politics is two identical cages of howler monkeys throwing handfuls of dung at each other."

Since the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" reported this week that that there were similar bickerings between conservatives and liberal parliament members in Ankara, Turkey, (I am a Turkish-American), it appears that Knight's viewpoint is one usually felt around the globe.

SIDEBAR: For those who like to stay up even later than me on Friday nights, TCM will air the 1958 Boris Karloff film "Frankenstein 1970," which should not be confused with Andy Warhol's version (or the Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein" for that matter) at 2:45 a.m., immediately following a marathon on B-westerns starring Roy Rogers and his beloved horse Trigger. The screening is part of the late-night series TCM Underground, which was once hosted by Rob Zombie- of all people!

Nostradamus the Octopus?!

Before we start this entry which is going on at the same time as the World Cup soccer game between Holland and Slovakia, we should note that we tried tirelessly to get a proper image for the subject. But, after many failed efforts to find a fitting image, we simply decided to go with The Octopus Man, a comic book villain who we think comes from "Spiderman." (I'm sure the guys at Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, would be delighted to correct me if I'm wrong!).

But, we loved this sport that we heard while listening to the BBC during a bout with insomnia circa 2:30 a.m. last night.

Apparently, Paul the Octopus who is residing in an aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen has predicted the outcomes of all German soccer games, including their surprsingly first round 1-0 loss to Serbia and yesterday's 4-1 German victory over England.

His handlers give Paul, who has even made news in Saudi Arabia, baited glass cubes with mussels and mark them with national flags.

The irony here is that the octopus was born in an English aquarium!

In other world sports news, the English-language Twitter page of Turkish daily newspaper "Hurriyet" reported that Mehmet Yesilyesil, 24, won the coveted 649th Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival near Edirne, Turkey (a western Turkish city near the Bulgarian and Greek borders), yesterday.

Amazingly enough, Yesilyesil won the event in which one must beat out lots and lots of wrestlers (this year it was 498!) for the title. The sport of oil wrestling has become quite a novelty for foreign tourists visiting Turkey because to western eyes the sport looks a bit (how else can I put this?!) homoerotic......since I am a Turkish-American, I should strongly emphasize this is not my own personal view!

Dr. Oz Competes in Celebrity NBA All-Star Game

Dr. Oz (Mehmet Oz) was among the competitors in last night's NBA All-Star celebrity game in Arlington, Tex. The game featured Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban, actor-comedian Chris Tucker, actor Anthony Anderson ("Law and Order") as well as the musicians Common and Pitbull.

The East won the game over the West by a 41-37. I had a hard time finding the score of the game which I partially watched at a restaurant in Roanoke, Va., where Dr. Oz's show airs at 3:00 p.m. on WSLS/Channel 10 on weekday afternoons.

Thankfully, my friend Jeff in North Carolina found the score for me! (I almost gave up several times!).

We are posting an entry about the game because Dr. Oz is now the most famous Turkish-American in history. Though other Turkish-Americans, like the late, great record producer Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records, progressive talk-show Cenk Uygur (love his show, and his politics!) and Washington, DC, hairstylist Nuri Yurt (the personal hairstylist for Hillary Clinton) not to mention pro female wrestler Lisa Marie Varon/Victoria (who is also half-Vietnamese) have made a prominent name for themselves in their fields.

There are also two highly regarded NBA players from Turkey, including Mehmet Okur of the Utah Jazz, who has previously played in an All-Star game, and Hidayet (Hedo) Turkoglu of the Toronto Raptors.

A blog for the Utah Jazz said that anyone who actually watched this game likely had no social life and too much time on their hands, and from what I could tell there were a lot of missed shots, especially by Cuban, but it looked like all the 'players' had a good time. The game was coached by Magic Johnson (pictured here) for the losing West team and Alonzo Mourning for the East team, which I believe Dr. Oz played for.

Dr. Oz is the son of Mustafa Oz, who was also a doctor in Cleveland, Ohio, where the Oz family resided. Dr. Oz actually maintains dual citizenship with the United States and Turkey, according to Wikipedia and he served in the Turkish army.

The more famous Dr. Oz came to prominence for becoming one of America's leading heart surgeons. I actually got an email from him after I talked to him about an appearance on "The Charlie Rose Show." But, he was soon 'discovered' by Oprah Winfrey and the rest is (pardon the cliche) history. I doubt he would answer my emails now as he probably gets thousands a day!

Dr. Oz, who performed an actual prostate exam on his nationally syndicated show last week, actually does not (reportedly) treat patients who smoke which is ironic because Turkey has a large segment of the population which smokes though anti-smoking have recently been passed throughout the country!

The celebrity doctor also has a Twitter page in which he jokingly said that he looked forward to slamming the backboard on Friday night!