Virtual Postcard from Kentucky- Churchill Downs

Today was one in which I spent much of it on the road as we traveled throughout West Viginia and Kentucky, and we will visit Ohio tomorrow.

I was actually a bit east of Louisville, but Churchill Downs, along with the Kentucky Horse Farm in nearby Lexington, as arguably the most iconic placees in the Bluegrass State.

The next Kentucky Derby, the popular horse race which takes place at Churchill Downs, will be on May 4th and 5th,, 2012.

Animal Kingdom, the current winner of the last Kentucky Derby, is a Brazilian bred stallion. The horse has so far earned 2.37 million dollars in earnings.

Currently, Animal Kingdom has just recovered from surgery and he is scheduled to compete at the 2012 Dubai World Cup.

We certainly wish Animal Kingdom well.

Quote of the Week- Ludwig van Beethoven

In the Whoops Department, we meant to quote Ludwig van Betthoven (1770-1827) first, and then quote Bryan Adams in the next entry. But, the phone was ringing and we are listening to the Virginia Tech- Georgia Tech football from Atlanta which have the Hokies beating the home team Yellow Jackets 21-13 at half-time. Ok, yes, that was a cop-out!

For fans of the Stanley Kubrick cinematic classic "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), the ninth symphony from 'Ludwig van' which is featured in the film always conjurs up sadistic notions (that film wasn't exactly "Bambi").

If you want to hear Bethooven on the Internet, both WETA-FM in Washington, DC, which is an NPR station, and WCPE in Raleigh, NC, which is an independent, non-profit station play the likes of Bethooven, Mozart and Metallica (ok, they don't play Metallica!) 24 hours a day.

Here is the quote:

"A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation."

Quote of the Week- Bryan Adams

We go from classical music to contemporary pop/rock as we quip Canadian singer Bryan Adams who turned 52 on Nov. 5. I had always assumed that Adams, who I saw in concert threee times in the '80s and '90s when he came to my hometown of Roanoke, Va., was from British Columbia. But, Adams is actually a native of Kingston, Ontario.

This month, we are quoting famous Canadians, and there are many more of them than one might realize! (Frogive me for making fun of our neighbors to the north).

Though he recorded three solid album in the mid-to-late 1980s, Adams will probably be best remembered for singing the ballad ("Everything I Do"), I Do It for You." Like most people of my generation, I have come to despise this tune that was number one for an astonishing seven weeks in 1991, when I was 21.

Here is the quote from Adams, who last released an album (simply called "11") in
2008:

"I only write songs for myself, I don't try to appeal to anyone else."

SIDEBAR: On a more serious note, I wanted to pay my respects and appreciation to Atsushi Miyazaki, a Japanese aid worker, who was killed by the 5.7 aftershock to the devastating Oct. 23rd earthquake in Van, Turkey. The aftershock also occured in Van on Wednesday. Miyazaki was killed when the Bayram Hotel in Van collapsed. 604 people have officially died as a result of the original quake. In addition, to Miyazaki, some ten people were killed on Wednesday. For info on how you can help, go the main Turkish-American web site (www.ataa.org).

The Rabbit Ears Quiz- Space 1999 (2 of 12)

It just dawned on me that two future Academy Award-winners for Best Supporting Actor came to prominence thanks to two science-fiction oriented tv show. The two actors I'm thinking of are Robin Williams ("Mork and Mindy" is one of the few sci-fi sitcoms one can think of) and Martin Landau, who starred in the British tv cult classic "Space 1999," who won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood."

I first came across "Space 1999," which ran for two seasons from 1975 until 1978, in a very unusual way. When I saw the show, it was actually called "Uzay 1999" and it aired on the TRT, Turkish Radio and Television. When I saw the show in the fall of 1977, there was only one channel of tv in Turkey and it only came on at certain hours of the day. Plus, virtually all of the tvs were in black and white. Of course, now one can watch hundreds of channels of tv in Turkey, which I would presume has posed challenged for the TRT, which was a state-run media monopoly at the time.

For its time, "Space 1999" was the most expensive television ever made. It drew inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey"
(1968). In addition to Landau, the show featured his then-wife Barabara Bain.

So, for today's quiz, since it's a safe assumption that most science fiction fans are good at math (well, I'm certainly not!), we are going to ask what is mathematical difference between the number of episodes for "Space 1999" and "Star Trek," which was called "Uzay Yolu" in Turkey.

Is the answer:

A) 28
B) 29
C) 31
D) 33

SIDEBAR: While researching this piece, we learned that German television will air a 1968 episode of the original "Star Trek" series entitled "The Patterns of Force" for the very first time. The reason why the episode is being aired in Germany only now is fairly obvious: Captain Kirk and Mister Spock dress like Nazis to breech the third reich.

SIDEBAR TWO: Ironically, we found out today that this blog is apparently more popular in Greece as of late than Turkey (I happen to be a Turkish-American). Hmmmmm.....In all seriousness, we wish our followers in Greece good luck during this trying economic time. Of course, this doesn't mean that we recognize Kardak as being 'your island.'*

*- Kardak, which is called Imia in Greek, is an uninhabited goat island which actually caused a foreign relations fiasco between Turkey and Greece some years ago. It does in fact belong to Greece, and I hope this is ok with the goats!

Casualties of Modern Technology- Newspapers (2 of 12)

Since I was once a newspaper reporter, declaring my old profession to be a 'casualty of modern technology' may not go over well, but it has been a full decade since I was covering Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors meetings in Woodstock, Va.

According to Wikipedia, there were 6,580 newspapers in the world which sold 395 million copies a day. But, a steep decline has occured since then. As Gene Weingarten, a humor columnist from "The Washington Post" stated a few years ago (this is a paraphrase): 'how can you exist as a business when you give away your product for free on the Internet?'

And, many newspapers across the United States have been hit hard, including "The Herald-Sun" in Durham, NC. The daily newspaper owned by the Paxton Group in Paducah, Ky., had over 50,000 daily subcribers in 2003. As of 2010, it has just over 25,000. As a result, the newspaper fired 81 of its 350 employeees, including prize-winning cartoonist John Cole, in 2008. There have been even more layoffs at the newspaper since then.

The newspaper traditionally consists of features, such as comic strips, classified ads, advice columns, obituaries, recipes, horoscopes and editorial cartoons.

But, newspapers have not lost their value when it comes to informing the public, especially on local issues. This is particularly true today, which is Election Day here in the United States.

Both "The News and Record" in Greensboro, NC, and its alt weekly competitor "Yes Weekly!" will have major stories tomorrow regarding the outcome of a highly contested local mayoral race between the incumbent Republican mayor of Greensboro Bill Knight and his challenger Robbie Perkins, a candidate endorsed by "Yes Weekly!."

According to the PRI show "The World," a radio program that airs on many NPR stations in America, Chinese-language newspapers, including the Hong Kong-based "Sing Tao Daily," are playing a vital role in the likely election of Ed Lee, who would become the first person of Chinese heritage to become the mayor of San Francisco.

But, as to the future of newspapers, that is an open question. In fact, as I was typing this, someone was asking if this household would be interested in getting the local paper in the zip code I am presently at (it was not "The News and Record" or "The Herald Sun).

Quote of the Week- Michael J. Fox

Aside from the conservative columnist George F. Will, who we have made fun from time to time, it's hard to think of many clebrities who use an initial with his or her time. If I were to do that, I'd have to refer to myself as Tilly F. Gokbudak, and that might be pretty annoying.

But, Michael J. Fox is one person who has made using his initial seem kinda cool. And, given his ordeal with Parkinson's Disease, the star of the "Back to the Future" movie franchise, who turned 50 this year, seems like a person who has earned this unique quirk.

This month, we are quoting famous Canadians, and though it's been a while perhaps since Fox was back home in Winnipeg (actually, we have no idea where he's from in Canada, and we don't have time to wiki it right now), he is indeed a famous Canadian.

And, here is his quote, from Fox who was also in the popular '80s sitcom "Family Ties," as he refers to his early fame.

"Everybody in the world knew who I was before I knew who I was."

SIDEBAR: We've had an occasional series on both of our blogs with the Tweet of the Day. For various reasons, we've been neglecting that lately, but I loved this one from Arsalan Iftikhar, better known as "The Muslim Guy," and it is great pie in the fae for someone who truly deserves it: "Anne Coulter said, 'our black guys are better than their blacks. This proves the devil wears prada.' The black guy that Coulter, a real-life right-wing Looney Tunes character, is Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who is embroiled in a sexual harrasment controversy. Personally, I think there are at least 125 other reasons why he is not qualifies for president.

SIDEBAR TWO: Have you been in a bit of a funk, lately? Well, I will admit I have. Perhaps, it comes with being an adult on Halloween and realizing that you can't dress up like Underdog and go trick-or-treating like you did in 1976 (that was actually my costume 35 years ago).

But, apparently, there is someone who has made their inner demons public as the blog "hyperbolenadahalf.blogspot.com" which has great cartoons starts off like this:

"Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and hapless for no reason. It's disapppointing to feel sad for no reason."

And, on that note, when I last checked the earthquake which occured on Oct. 23rd in Van, Turkey, had reached a death toll of 596. Since I heard that two days ago, I imagine the number has risen up to 600*. Perhaps, now is a good time for a "Seinfeld" rerun!

*-For more info on how you can help, go to www.ataa.org which is the web page for ATAA, the main Turkish-American association in North America, based in Washington, D.C.

Quote of the Day- Conrad Veidt

Today's quote of the day comes from the legendary German actor Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) who made over 100 films even though he died at age 50 from a heart attack while playing gold.

Some of his most significant films included "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"
(1919), "The Man Who Laughed" (1928) and "Casablanca" (1942).

Veidt was an ardent political opponent of the Nazi movement and since his wife was Jewish he felt no need to stick around in Germany, but his broken English made it hard for him to get quality roles in Hollywood.

Here is his quote:

"An actor remembers his first piece of published praise. It is written on his heart."