Highlights from the 100 Things To Do List

As with our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we are featuring highlights from my 100 Things To Do List, which I actually wrote out last week.

1. (#2) wash car

2. (#14) Look at Craig's List for a cool new job or a good used vinyl record player

3. (#43) Check out Twitter page, even though it's so 2009.

4. (#48) Try to see a dentist

5. (#65) Make late summer reading list (that's the reason for the zombie version of "Pride and Prejudice" image, this is a bit of an in-joke since I've never read a Jane Austen novel).

6. (#77) Try to see a Shakespearean play at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va.

7. (#81) Pretend you are Walt Whitman, and sit under a tree and write a poem.

8. (#90) Look into volunteering for a cause you believe in. (There is actually a no-kill shelter for cats in Raleigh, NC, called Safe Haven, but that's a two-hour drive my zip code of residency!)

9. (#98) Research networking (I think this is actually on everyone's to-do list)

10. (#100) Eat at the new Thai Orchid in Roanoke, Va., perhaps I can find a radical feminist who will agree to pay for my meal to prove the "Father Knows Best" years are really behind us. (I should add that even though I just made fun of radical feminists, I am by no means a Republican. Michele Bachmann has proven that Sylvester Stallone was right when he said: "the cure is worse than the disease," in that god-awful mid-80s action movie "Cobra."

Coming Attractions-Where in the Soviet Union Will We Go Next

Here are some possible or likely features we will have posted hopefully within the next week assuming we don't get a pie-in-the-face (ala the late tv great Soupy Sales).

1) This week, we finally had a chance to watch the relatively new "Conan" show on TBS with Conan O'Brien who got the shaft at NBC. On the episode I watched, Conan's guest was just-retired NBA great Shaquille O'Neal, who revealed that he likes to go go-kart racing?!

2) Though Lithuania has been in the news, as the mayor of Vilnius unceremoniously crushed a lavish car parked in a bike lane with a tank, we are probably going to go with Turkmenistan as our next destination in our "What We Learned from Google Today" series, which is currently focusing on the former republics of the Soviet Union.

3) We will be continuing our quotes from subversive artists next week. John Waters, R.Crumb and Iggy Pop are among our candidates for the quotes.

_ If you want to take your kids to the movies and you live near Lexington, Va., (one hour north of Roanoke, three hours south of Washington, DC) then the Hull's Drive-in has a lineup geared just for the little ones with a double-feature consisting of "Winnie the Pooh" and "Zookeeper." Of course, for those of us with no kids, we can always stay at home and watch the Criterion version of Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" while munching on Milk Duds.

Quote of the Week_ Michael Frayn

This month, we are featuring quotes from famous playwrights.

We begin with Michael Frayn. His most-famous play "Noises Off!," a radical over-the-top comedy (Frayn has also written dramatic plays like "Copenhagen"), will be presented by Playmakers Rep Theatre Company in Chapel Hill, NC, from April 4-22,
2012. I suppose if you are a perfectionist, you can go ahead and order tickets!

Here is the quote:

"A man sits in his car at the traffic lights, waiting for them to go green."

Happy Belated 50th Birthday President Barack Obama

Yes, this blog entry has political overtones. But, we are wondering, if any of the Republican presidential candidates (wow! No, I can't name them all in three and a half minutes) did send him one.

Here are our guesses; we will put an * besides the ones who have not announced if he or she is running or not:


Newt Gingrich: Hmmm. This is tough....I'll go with no.

Tim Pawlenty: Yes

Mitt Romney: Yes

Michele Bachmann: No

Jon Huntsman: Yes

Ron Paul: No

Herman Cain: No

* Rick Perry- No

Rick Santorum- No

*Sarah Palin-No

This and That- Apparently Smart People Have Intimacy Issues

I was thumbing through the current issue of "Psychology Today" this afternoon in a public library when this article caught my attention. The headline read something like: "Why Smart People Have Less Sex."

I did not take any notes from the article, but my assumption is that if a guy is reading Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in its entirety, well yes, it might well take precendent over other things.

The article did mention (I believe) that if men make more money, they are more likely to have more sex. I did not see any mention in the article of how income levels affected women's sex lives.

But, I found out tonight, that this matter has been discussed for a while. In a Sept. 2008, a blogger from Palo Alto, Calif., where Stanford- a smart school-is siad that a recent test had found that teenagers with low iqs in the 100 range were up to five times more likely to be sexually actually than teens with high iqs in the 1200-1300 range.

The blogger later mentioned that only 56 percent of undergrads at Priceton University were having sex while only 65 percent of MIT grads had found time to make love and presumably kick butt on their final exams.

All of this could be argued though I suppose, as everything these days seems to be argued irregardless if it is from the ACLU or the Tea Party (editorial comment: we prefer the ACLU). And, there is the case of Karen Owen, a Duke University student who made a Powerpoint presentation on her thesis in 2010 about her college romps which included having sex with 13 male Blue Devils athletes, most of whom were reportedly lacrosse players. Maybe, those guys weren't reading Tolstoy.

Status Update_ I Finished the Millenium Triology

I have ineeed finally finished the late Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson's Millenium Triology, which included "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl who Played with Fire" and "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Test." I not only read the three novels, but I saw their film versions as well. In both mediums, "Dragon Tattoo" seemed to work the best.

SIDEBAR ONE: We have to wonder if the far right-wing talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will be coining the ridicilous term jihadist mango as Pakistani mangoes will now be available in American supermarkets, according to the NPR show "The World."

SIDEBAR TWO: Perhaps, this is a sign of the times, but while reading an article about a new book on the thriving '70s Scandanavian porn industry, but Danish 'actress' Louise Frevert is now a spokesperson for a far right group!

CLARIFICATION: We forgot to mention that with the $70 roast lamb dish at the Washington, DC, restaurant we talked about, you get the whole lamb!

Quote of the Day- James Baldwin

During this month of August, we will be quoting from famous literary and creative radicals on Mondays, or whenever we can.

Today, we start with the late great poet/novelist/playwright James Baldwin who was also a civil rights activist for blacks and gays.

The liberal journal "The Nation" recently published quotes from famous people who have contributed articles and columns to the magazine over its long history. And, it was from a July 11th, 1966 issue of "The Nation" in which Baldwin made this provocative comment:

"The law is meant to be my servant and not my master, still less my torturer and my murderer."

SIDEBAR: We want to wish our Muslim friends a happy Ramadan season, an occasion which is alas soiled because of the political unrest in Syria which once again escalated on Monday. Many groups, such as the Divan Cultural Center, in Cary (Raleigh), NC, are holding special iftar dinners for the holiday.

If you are a Muslim living in the Washington, DC, area, (or just enjoy mutton) and you happen to have lots of capital wealth and enjoy very fine dinning, then we can recommend the Poste Brassiere at the Hotel Monaco on Eight Street, NW. According to "The Washingtonian" magazine, the restaurant offers roast lamb for $70. The restaurant also apparently requires a one-week in advance reservation.