Time to Put the Tarheels to Bed

I wonder if many people who go to a certain ACC school in Durham, NC, are familiar with Radford University in Radford, Va., about 20 miles from Virginia Tech.

Well, come Thursday, Duke University fans will know about the Highlanders as my alma mater Radford University faces the top-seeded University of North Carolina Tarheels at the Greensboro Coliseum. Tip-off time is 2:50 p.m.

I plan to post entries about the Radford University team and the game until that time.

But, if you are not a sports fan.....don't fret.... we will return to 'our regular programming' come Friday.

No 16-seed has ever beaten a number one seed.

But, high school friend Mike Ferris, who went East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., did see his school take then top-seeded Oklahoma to overtime and just last week the ninth-seeded Baylor Bears beat top-seeded Kansas in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City.

So, anything is possible.........perhaps, it's a good thing I don't live in Chapel Hill though if the Highlanders win the game, I may have to go down to Talulla's (a Turkish restaurant/night club in Chapel Hill) and have myself a shot of raki!*

*- that's the Turkish equivalent of ouzo.

Know Your Mayors (5 of 12)

Cory Booker is the 36th mayor of Newark, NJ.

A recent guest on "Real Time with Bill Maher," Booker was born on April 27, 1969.

He first ran for mayor in 2002 against long-time incumbent Sharpe James. The race was the subject of the highly acclaimed documentary film "Street Fight." James won the election, but Booker came close enough to be a future contender.

Booker won the 2006 mayoral election over Ronald Rice with a whopping 72 percent of the vote.

The Newark mayor is the son of civil rights activists Cary and Carolyn Booker who were among the first black executives at IBM.

Booker went to Stanford University, where he played football for the Cardinal. He later studied at Oxford University in England.

He was initially elected to Newark City Council in 1998.

Booker started the activist organization Newark Now in 2003 in the wake of his political setback. He is a personal friend of President Barack Obama and former New York Giants football player Tiki Barber.

The mayor is a vegetarian who does not drink or smoke.

Quote of the Week- R. Crumb

Even though I'm not an artist, I identify with this statement all too well:

"I felt so painfully isolated that I vowed I would get revenge on the world by becoming a famous cartoonist," R. Crumb

We R the Champions!

My alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., won the Big South Tournament yesterday by defeating the visiting VMI Keydets from Lexington, Va., 108-94 in a game that was televised nationally on ESPN2.

Kudos to head coach Brad Greenburg, asst. coach Ali Ton, and the players: Art Parakhowski (league mvp), Amir Johnson, Kenny Thomas, Joey Lynch-Flohr and Phillip Martin.

The image here is of the retired RU mascot Rowdy Red.

All of us are proud to be Highlanders and we wish the team the best of luck in the NCAA Tournament.

I just hope we don't have to play Duke in the first round like we did for our last NCAA tournament ten years ago!

Six Degrees of Separation (Anna Magnani, entry 10 of 11)

If she were alive today, the amazing Italian actress Anna Magnani who Oscared for "The Rose Tattoo" (1955) would be 101 as she was born on March 7, 1908.

In her honor, we have selected her as our choice for the Six Degrees of Separation today. There is only one more entry left in this series, and then we will move on to other things.

Magnani is three degrees removed from Kevin Bacon. She was in "The Fugitive Kind" (1960) with Maureen Stapleton who was in "Cocoon" (1985) with Rance Howard who was with Bacon in "Frost/Nixon" (2008).

Bacon is currently starring in HBO's film "Taking Chance."

"Frost/Nixon" can be seen at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va. It is my current choice for film of the year.

An Actual Bumper Sticker I Saw in Troutville, Va.

The bumper sticker was on the back of some beat-up old car that was puke green (and, in need of a paint job). The vehicle was driven by a disgruntled Vietnam vet with all sorts of POW/MIA nonsense too.


The anti-Obama bumper sticker had a Soviet sickle and hammer, and read: "Comrade Obama. USSA."

I will say I think this man probably calls himself a patriot, but what he really is, is a hypocrite. If he really respects our freedoms, as another one of his stickers indicated, he should respect the choice of the American people. Unlike Bush, Obama was clearly chosen by the people, including his state of Virginia.

This man also has no idea what a socialist is. He needs to go to the nearest public library and read a book about Marxism- that is if he is not illiterate to begin with.

I was also humored to see that he had a McCain/Palin bumper sticker on his car.

Perhaps, he didn't get the memo, but his side lost!

First Line of a Novel (7 of 11) Moby Dick

There aren't many people I know who openly profess to reading books that we were supposed to read as seniors in high school.

My friend Tom Angleberger, who is a "Roanoke Times" columnist, is one of these noble folks, and we would dedicate this entry to him but he actually prefers Charles Dickens over Herman Melville.

Nevertheless, we are going with "Moby Dick" as our choice for the first line of a novel this week.

I must admit to never reading the book (though I do have a comic book version), but I did check out the film version (poster is pictured here) from the Radford City Library when I was going to Radford University all those years ago. It is vintage John Huston.

Here is the first line of the novel:


"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

Interestingly enough, the entire book is available in online form through Princeton University.