Little Thinker Quotes (12 of 16): Oscar Wilde

"True friends stab you in the front," Oscar Wilde.

SIDEBAR: Since there is a bit of a Polar Vortex around here, we thought we'd post some temps around American and across the world, including Nagano, Japan, where the 1998 Winter Olympics took place:

37 degrees- Nagano, Japan

34 degrees in Richmond, Va.

27 degrees in Hartford, Conn.

22 degrees in Malmo, Sweden

15 degrees in Chicago

5 degrees in Kiev, Ukraine

http://www.oscarwildesociety.com/

Polar Vortex Tweets: Lots of Chattering Teeth

We would add some commentary, but we want to be able to watch the local 6:00 p.m. news, which airs in 21 minutes, so here we go:

1) Shawn Reynolds (a Weather Channel correspondent): "As of 2 p.m., Texas is the only state in the lower 48 that is not below freezing."

2) WDBJ7 Weather (CBS station in Roanoke, Va.): Thankfully, not as windy tonight, but it will still be colder than ice. Warming to the 30s on Wed.

3) Digitriad (Channel 2, CBS station in Greensboro, NC): Flu death reported in Randolph County, 14th in NC

4) WXII (NBC station in Winston-Salem, NC): Feels like temperatures won't improve much this afternoon. 30s for highs late tomorrow.

5) Markos Moulitsas ("The Daily Kos"): I went on a training ride last night and was complaining that temps had dropped to 47F.

6) WRAL (NBC Station in Raleigh, NC): Trapped indoors by arctic blast? Here are some fun ways to avoid cabin fever from GoAskMom (refers to Sarah Hall, a contributor to the station's news).

7) Reagan Airport (Washington, DC): Water cleaning continues at bag claims #3 to #7. Bags are dry and have been relocated for pax.

8) 6abc (Philadelphia): Major delays on Amtrak Northeast corridor due to downed wires.

9) Tom Tomorrow: So 'cold weather' = no global warming is just another permanent fixture of the right wing landscape right now.

10) 11 News (NBC station in Atlanta): ICY CONDITIONS are being reported on I-20 West bound toward Turner Hill Rd.

http://www.weather.com

http://www.wunderground.com

Cold Weather in America: A Look at Domestic and Global Temps

In places such as Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, today was actually Manitoba Moose weather. The Polar Vortex also struck the mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, including the Washington, DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor on I-95.
Here is a look at some temps in America and in traditional cold spots around the world; all temps are Fahrenheit, and most are what we call 'Bulwinkle Weather':

Bodo, Norway (near Arctic Circle): 36

Columbia, SC: 28

Greenville, SC: 26

Raleigh, NC: 25

Winston-Salem, NC: 23

Richmond, Va.: 22

Nashville, Tenn: 21

Roanoke, Va: 19

Lynchburg, Va: 19

Louisville, Ky: 18

Annapolis, Md.: 18

Huntington, WVa: 14

Philadelphia: 13

Columbus, Ohio: 9

Chicago: 6

Cleveland: 3

Pittsburgh, Pa: 3

Toronto, Canada: 3

Kars, Turkey: 0

Omsk, Russia (Siberia): -2

Duluth, Minn: -3

Fargo, ND: -4

Winnipeg, Canada: -11

http://www.wunderground.com

http://www.weather.com

http://www.visitnorthernmanitoba.ca/ (tourism site for northern Manitoba, you may want to go there in the spring!)

http://www.mooseworld.com

Weather Temps in the Mid-Atlantic

With this image of the Snowshoe Ski Resort in Snowshoe, West Virginia. we look at weather conditions throughout the mid-Atlantic. In some places, such as the Carolina coasts, the weather is actually fairly decent for the winter time, but that it's not case in many areas, including metro areas in Virginia and Maryland.

1) Mount Jackson, Va. 25 Overcast

2) Bowie, Md. 30 Overcast

3) Chapel Hill, NC 33 Overcast

4) North Myrtle Beach, SC 42 Overcast

5) Danville, Va. 33 Overcast

6) Lewisburg, WVa. 27 Overcast

7) Oxford, NC 32 Overcast

8) Colonial Heights, Va. 33 Overcast

9) Roanoke, Va. 30 Light freezing rain

10) Fayetville, NC 37 Overcast

11) Eden, NC 34 Overcast

12) Hopewell, Va. 33 Overcast

http://www.snowshoemtn.com/

http://www.wv.gov/tourism/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/  (Capital Weather Gang)

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

DC Week (2 of 8): Washington DC Metro Area also Preps for the Rain

These three images above are of: 1) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), one of the few openly gay members of the House; 2) cats in the rain; 3) Cong. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), whose far right politics have made him a Tea Party darling.

Here are the tweets:

1. Washington DC News: "Ted Cruz the star of Values Voters Summit"

2. Cong. Jared Polis: "It is an enormous simplification to speak of the American. Every American has his own mind," Ludwig Von Mises.

3. Capital Weather Gang: "Flood warning extended thru 7:45 a.m. Sat. for much of DC metro area w/   rain continuing overnight."

4. The Nation (a liberal magazine): "Shutdown Politics: Support for Democratic Takeover of the House Spikes."

5. Washington Examiner ( a reportedly conservative-leaning  publication): "Senate GOPers push Obamacare delay as alternative to House plan requesting sequester."

6. Washington Blade (a gay political journal): "Still no action from Obama as Natl Guards deny benefits for gay spouses."

http://www.cruz.senate.gov/ (Not an endorsement)

http://polis.house.gov/constituentservices/colorado-flood-information.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/

http://www.thenation.com/#

http://washingtonexaminer.com/

http://www.washingtonblade.com/

Return of Friday Night Tweets: Bad Weather, Baseball and Politics

As of last report, the Durham Bulls (Durham, NC, pictured top) are losing badly in their home game against the Charlotte Knights. The score was 8-1 in the third inning. Here's hoping you are having a somewhat better night.

From the left and the right, here are the tweets:

1. National Review @NRO ( The National Review is a right wing publication, this is a center-left blog, the late Dale Carnegie would say that they should send us a thank u card): "Major Hasan's attack at #FtHood was terrorism, not workplace violence, and he'll be the first one to say so."

2. WXII 12 News @WXII (A tv station in Winston-Salem, NC): "Thunder and lightning right now in Winston-Salem. Keep an eye on the interactive radar.)

3. Durham Bulls @DurhamBulls: "Prior to tonight's game @DukeU Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Dr. Robert Lefkowitz threw out first pitch."

4.Erin Cunnigham @erincunnigham: Ugh, you have to show ID now when buying nail polish remover at CVS? Seriously America, stop cooking so much meth."

5. Portland Sea Dogs @PortlandSeaDogs_ a minor league baseball team in Portland, Maine: "First pitch set for 8:00 p.m. Henry Owens to make his Hadlock Field debut against Bowie."

6. The Onion @theonion_ for those of you in Azerbaijan, "The Onion" is a fake news publication: "Corpses of 'Lone Ranger' producres hung from Hollywood Blvd. street lights as warnings to others."

7. Tom Perriello @tomperriello_ pictured bottom, Perriello is a former Democratic congressional rep and now a CEO for a progressive lobbying firm: "Passing by Sylvania, Ohio, thinking of my grandfather Thomas Gillooly who spent his career there as teacher, coach, fireman, WWII vet, hero to me."

8. Mustafa Akyol @AkyolinEnglish_ Akyol is a Turkish journalist for "Hurriyet" newspaper: "If you are around Detriot, you are welcome this Sat to my debate on Islam, democracy and religious freedom."

For more tweets, check out my other blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com


http://www,nationalreview.com (We are amused by their story: "Norway's right turn." So, if you find a couple of Norwegian right wingers, this means the country is turning to the Bergen Tea Party? Perhaps, "The Nation," should write an article called Iran's Left Turn).

http://www.wxii12.com/

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.americanprogress.org (Perriello's group)

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.thewhitepath.com (Akyol's web site)

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

Top Ten Even More Things To Do List

1. Catch up on "Bates Motel"

2. Send out Thank You cards

3. Follow the weekend GalataSaray-Fenerbahce Turkish soccer game on Twitter

4. Return library books

5. Buy new pair of slippers

6. Make some Seattle's Best Coffee

7. See what the weather in Ankara, Turkey, is like

8. See what the weather in Portland, Maine, is like

9. Avoid Chapel Hill, NC, at all costs (UNC is having commencement this weekend)

10. Pick up the Xanax (not actually a medication we're taking!)

Friday Night Tweets, Contd_. Nixon 2013?

Since it is snowing cats and dogs here in Burlington, NC, (not really where we are, but it is snowing in North Carolina too), we thought we'd post some more Friday night tweets, including one which alludes to a certain deceased Republican president, and no we don't mean Herbert Hoover:

1) WSOC TV @WSOC_TV: Highway patrol responds to more than 300 accidents in the Charlotte area today.

2) Spears YMCA Sports @SpearsYSports: For Sat., Jan 26th, all basketball games at Kernodine Middle School in Greensboro are cancelled.

3) Mother Jones @MotherJones: @boyscouts threaten to boot troop unless they discriminate

4) Sun Devil Gymnastics @ASUGymnastics: "Sun devil spirit is in the arena as the crowd begins an 'A-S-U' chant."

5) The Fix @TheFix: "Seriously....imagine a giant-sized Richard Nixon racing around the Nats Park. That would freaking rule.

6) Top Conservative Cat @TeaPartyCat: Now that Sarah Palin is off Fox News, she can finally devote herself full time to curing cancer.

7)Dane Cook @DaneCook: RT if you think a committed relationship is more of a weekday activity.

Tweets for a Snowy Night

It's snowing in Maryland, Washington DC, West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia, here is a look a some tweets for a snowy, snowy night:

1) Gator Gymnastics @GatorZoneGym: Freshman Bridgette Caquatto makes her debut on uneven bars tonight with a 9.8! #GoGators

2) UNC Women's Lacrosse @uncwlax: Enjoying the snow here in Chapel Hill.

3) NC A&T @ncatsaggies: #NCAT will open at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

4) Robin Reed @wxman7: Looking for reports on road conditions mainly residential- in your area- send me a quick tweet or picture! (Reed is a long-time weather reporter for WDBJ Channel 7 in my hometown of Roanoke, Va.)

5) NC State Gymnastics @PackGymnastics: "Diahanna Ham notches the top-score on beam for the Pack with a 9.775"

6) Cornell Daily Sun @CornellSun: W. Hockey. C.U. heads on the Road to Play Ivy Rivals Yale, Brown.

7) Denver Gymnastics @DU_Gymnastics: The traditional 'calling of the hogs; here at Arkansas just took place. Both teams getting set for the first touch warm-up.

This Blog Will Go On.....

Since we are surprisingly popular in Greece (the editor of this blog Tilly Gokbudak, who is me, is a Turkish-American), we thought we's post the first entry of 2013 with an image of the Greek shadow puppet Karagiozis who really sets a bad example for children by walking barefoot (we are just kidding....we like being populr in Greece).

Karagiozis has a Turkish counterpart in Karagoz, a bearded anti-intellectual, who frequently bouts with his frenemy, the benevolent Hacivat.

One of our hopes for this year is to post a weekly round-up of weather temps around the globe on Wednesdays. We will probably annoy folks in both Greece and Turkey by posting the temps in Fahreinhiet, but perhaps one day, we will use Celsius as well.

Here we go:

Athens, Greece 51 (partly cloudy)

Boulder, Colorado* 10 (snow)

Charlottesville, Virginia* 48 (cloudy)

Istanbul, Turkey 45 (rain/yagmur)

Lawrence, Kansas 30 (cloudy)

Paris, France 38 (cloudy)

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 28 (partly cloudy)

*- These are American cities, all of which are also college towns.

Rainy Days and Sundays and Weather Around the World

 

 

Rain, rain...........please go away. Obviously, we are not in Iowa where major droughts are occuring.

 

With that, here is a look at weather around the world:

 

Amsterdam 61 rain

 

Budapest 72 clear

 

Bursa, Turkey 68 clear

 

Havana, Cuba 77, heavy rain

 

Islamabad, Pakistan 75 rain

 

Istanbul 77 partly cloudy

 

Madrid 68 clear

 

Mexico City 63 cloudy

 

New Delhi 79 fog

 

Rio de Janeiro 63 cloudy

 

Rome 71 clear

 

Sofia, Bulgaria 70, mostly cloudy

 

Stockholm 55, partly cloudy

 

Tel Aviv 75 cloudy

 

http://www.weather.com

 

Happy 100th Birthday, Gene Kelly and Weather Around America

 

Well, as it turns out, we are NOT singin' in the rain, but we recognize Gene Kelly (1912-1996) which would have been this past week. Of course, to those of us who love Stanley Kubrick films, we will always cherish the tune in part because it's Alex's anthem in "A Clockwork Orange."

 

As Tropical Storm Isaac threatens the Republican Convention, scheduled to begin in Tampa, Fla., on Monday, weather is actually replacing politics as America's main concern. Of course, our thoughts are also with people in Cuba and Haiti who are dealing with the storm as well.

 

Speaking of the GOP Convention, we can't wait to start makin fun of Paul Ryan again; he reads Voltaire?! Yeah, I still not voting for him and Mitt Romney either. My personal feeling is that once again Boo Boo is overshadowing Yogi Bear; perhaps now Romney wishes he chose Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

 

Here's a look at weather around America:

 

Boston 68 74 cloudy

 

Cleveland 81 clear

 

Columbia, SC, 74 clear

 

New York 73 partly cloudy

 

Philadelphia 75 cloudy

 

Raleigh, NC, 68 cloudy

 

Roanoke, Va. 69 cloudy

 

St. Louis 75 rain

 

San Francisco 56 cloudy

 

Tampa 79 partly cloudy

 

Washington DC 72 cloudy

 

http://www.weather.com

Ph

Things We Learned on the Internet Tonight_ What is an Axehole??

We learned tonight from The Urban Dictionary that an axehole is: A person who uses an obscene amount of Axe body spray.

Here were some things we found out through Twitter, apparently folks in the urban parts of North Carolina are dealing with major rainstorms:

@WXII (tv station in Winston-Salem, NC): Several thunderstorms warning for Davidson and Randolph County in NC until 9:15 p.m.

@DurhamBulls (minor league team in Durham, NC, image of mascot in the middle): "Thanks to everyone who's sticking with us through this delay. Tarp still on field, but we expect to play!

@WVUgymnastics: "Morgantown Magazine is thrilled that Morgantown tops Forbes list of Best Small Cities! (Morgantown, West Virginia, is where West Virginia University is).

@SunDC (this will be helpful for Muslims in the DC-area celebrating Ramadan, which makes me wonder what my late Turkish father would make of me eating turkey bacon; since we couldn't find a Washington, DC, sunset, we settled with an image of nearby Annapolis, Maryland): "Sunset 8:29 p.m. Sunset tommorow 8:26 p.m."

@VisitMaine: "Tomorrow, Sunday, July 22 is the last day of the Yarmouth Clam Festival! Don't miss it."

@TVGMDebra: "Martha Stewart on whether she's ever had fast food: I've eaten one Burger King, two McDonald's & today I ate an In-and-Out-Burger."

http://www.urbandictionary.com

http://www.marthastewart.com

http://www.visitmaine.com

http://www.mdisfun.org

http://www.twitter.com/DurhamBulls

http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.muslimmatters.org

Quote of the Week- James Madison

Hmmmm.....we somehow sense that this quip from James Madison, the fourth president of the United States and one of eight from Virginia, will in all probability not go viral.

But, we did decide to quote the first eight American presidents, so we are sticking to our plan, with the full realization that a quote from Paris Hilton would be more likely to bring in a blog reader in Quito, Ecuador.

We have heard there were major storms in Richmond, Va., today, which gave this amusing headline: "The flying Squirrels had to leave the field." This is in reference to the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the city's minor league baseball team, who were playing a day game at the time of the storm.

There is a high school in San Antonio named after Madison.

In Virginia, there is a high school in Vienna, a middle school in Roanoke and a university named after him as well.

Here is Madison's quote:

"A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them."

http://www.jmu.edu

Quote of the Week- Red Emma Goldman

Today, we conclude our series of quotes from left-wing radicals with a quip from Red Emma Goldman (1869-1940), who may even more lived a more interesting,well-travelled, and certainly less tragic life than her fellow Bolshevik Leon Trotsky.

Goldman is described by Wikipedia as being known for anarchism and giving fiery speeches.

She helped develop the anarchist philosophy of North America. Goldman was born in Lithunia, which became a republic of the Soviet Union (today it is an independent state). She moved to New York in 1885, where she would help create the anarchist journal "Mother Earth" (not to be confused with "Mother Earth News"). The publication lasted from 1906 to 1917.

Goldman was exiled back to the Soviet Union in 1917, but she was not impressed by what she saw. Though it did not change her political ideology, the experience lead to Goldman's penning "My Disillusionment in Russia" (1923), which was very critical of the violence that she witnessed there.

The anarchist leader eventually moved to Canada, where she died in Toronto at age 70.

We should add that while we find Goldman an interesting political figure, and we aren't certainly not in Newt Gingrich's corner (in fact, we think he and Goldman are more or less equally far apart from the political center), by any means, we think it is safe to say Goldman's views are startling to this day and we in now way endorse them. This quote by her illustrates that point quite vividly:

"We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet, we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs form flying machines upon helpless citizens."

SIDEBAR- It has been quite the scorcher in the states of Virginia and North Carolina since Sunday. Over the last two days, the following high temperatures were either reported or expected in Virginia: Richmond, 97; Roanoke, 92; Blacksburg, 90; and Appomattox, 100 (?!). Meanwhile in North Carolina, things are not any cooler: Raleigh, 98; Charlotte, 98, Greensboro, 97; Wilmington, 94----perhaps it is a good time to escape to Maine!