Strange Dreams Indeed: Evangelist Tried to Get Me to Drink the Orangina

A few nights back, I dreamed that the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., who looks fairly similar to the Rev. Robert Tilton, (pictured here) one of America's most infamous tv evangelist (Robertson_ no relation to Pat Robertson_ is also a tv evangelist, but on a smaller scale), tried to get give me a free three-foot bottle of Orangina if I would accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior.

The scene of the dream was a Food Lion grocery store in Eden, NC, just over the border from Martinsville, where I'm virtually certain that they don't sell Orangina!

http://www.orangina.com

Image to Fill Space: Uma Thurman for Tell a Woman She is Beautiful Day

This cover of "GQ" actually goes back to 1995 when Uma Thurmas was around 24 or 25 years of age (she was born in November of 1970). Today indeed is Tell a Woman She is Beautiful Day. We imagine this post will probably get few hits in Iran or Afghanistan, but hopefully we will get more traffic from France and Belgium; it's all good!

Guest Blogger of the Day: Zappa the Family Cat

Greetings to our blog readers in Switzerland, Russia and New Zealand, today, we feature commentary from our guest blogger Zappa the Family Cat; these comments do contain profanity so we had to delete a few letters. And, yes, Zappa is named for Frank Zappa:

"I want some **d ***n ****ing roast beef, man, what do mean it's too late? You are such a ******d and an ******e, ya now that?"

By the way, the cows pictured are the American state of Kansas, located in the Midwest.

Word of the Day: Maelstrom

Greetings to our blog readers in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam, hopefully, your bosses have given you some break time at your human rights violating garment manufacturing centers, and domestically, we would like to welcome those of you from Alaska, Oregon and Montana: Three states we've never been to.

Today's 'Word of the Day' is maelstrom, which we gather might be Norwegian in origin. Here is what Wikipedia defines as maelstrom: "A very powerful whirlpool which can take in everything around it. Example: Harry was caught in a maelstrom when his found him found him in bed with her sister."

Sports Desk: Russian Aliya Mustafina Wins Gold in Gymnastics

Uni the Snow Leopard Kitten (pictured center) was the mascot for the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia, in the country's Tartarstan region, and the host country came through well in artistic gymnastics as Aliya Mustafina (pictured top) won individual gold.

Mustafina, who won individual all-around bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, hails from Tartarstan. She won the competition with a 57.9 score. Her teammate Ksenia Afanaseva (pictured bottom) won individual silver while Kim Dui, a gymnast of Chinese descent who represented Germany, finished third.

Elizabeth Black of Canada finished third on balance beam and she tied for second on vault with veteran gymnast Elsa Garcia of Mexico.

In other women's sports at the World University Games, Aysegul Coban, from my father's home country Turkey, finished third in women's weightlifting in the 195-kg division. Kanae Yasi of Japan won gold in that event. Coban hails from Konya in central Turkey.

Team USA won five overall gold medals, including one from Auriell Scott, an alumni of Central Florida University, won gold in the 100-meters track event.

http://www.intlgymnast.com

Presidential Quotes: Martin van Buren

Greetings to our blog readers in Ukraine, Greece and Kenya, where assuredly Martin van Buren, America's eighth president, is a household name (yes, that is a joke).

Here is a quote from him which even in a post-Soviet Union world seems very, very ironic, perhaps Russian leader Vladamir Putin, if he somehow reads this blog, might find this interesting:

"Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be mutually cherished."

SIDEBAR: One of our favorite tweets of the night is from comic book writer Chris Eliopoulos:

"For those who don't watch CSI Miami, the theme song is The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Presidential Quotes (7 of 8): Richard M. Nixon

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Belize and Uganda- where we learned that Yuweri Museveni is now president, hopefully he is a nicer guy than Idi Amin!

And, with that reference to a prominent '70s world leader, we turn our attention to President Richard Nixon, who left the White House due to the notorious Watergate scandal, but even though we are not Republicans, we kind of like this guy.

And, at this time, to arbitrarily increase hit numbers, we will mention Bradley Cooper, Elisabeth Hasselback and Kim Kardashian.

Here is our quote from Nixon who makes a 'cameo' of sorts in "The Big Lebowski," a film that was made several years after this death:

"Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then destroy yourself."

http://www.nixonlibrary.gov