My World Cup Final Four Picks

Before I reveal my picks here, I want to applaud David Zirin of "The Nation" for rightfully putting "Washington Times" sports reporter Thom Loverro in his place.

On a sports talk show in reference to Team America's win over Algeria in the qualifying round last week (before the U.S. team lost to Ghana in the round of 16), Loverro said the following about Algeria: "When I think of Algeria, all I think about are terrorists and Abbott and Costello movies."

Like Zirin, I am sickened by such comments and they certainly don't reflect the views of all Americans. Similarly, Andrew Sullivan of "The Atlantic" reported that some demented person hacked the Wikipedia page for Ghana after they defeated Team America 2-1 in extra time on Saturday and used an epithet against the west African country.

There is absolutely no place for this sort of thing in today's world whatsoever.

As for my picks, like Zirin who said he believes Argentina will win The World Cup, I am also picking Argentina to win it all even though I really like Germany (who they place next) especially the star Turkish-German soccer player Mesut Ozil who is just 21 years old.

My other picks are Holland (over Brazil!), Spain and Uruguay.

The Dutch player Wesley Sneijder is pictured above. He has lead Team Holland in scoring so far, including the first goal in The Netherlands' 2-1 win over Slovakia on Monday.

Things We Learned on Twitter Yesterday PM- Barbara Boxer Winning Senate Race

According to a tweet from HillBallotBox, a Twitter site related to "The Hill," a Congressional journal covering all things DC, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is winning her race against her opponent Carly Fiornia, the former CEO of Hewett-Packard.

The Twitter site said that a new "Los Angeles Times" poll indicates that Boxer is winning the race 45 to 41 percent among likely California voters.

One might think Fiornia would be stumping at a flea market in Long Beach, or visiting a community college campus in Santa Barbara, given that the election is just a few months away in November.

But, she was actually in Washington, DC, yesterday. Fiornia told reporters in the nation's capital that she wanted to focus on jobs. She added that she was actually opposed to repealing the new federal healthcare laws that have Sarah Palinites up in arms.

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Taxi Cab Driver

If one googles the term 'taxi driver,' they will get one thousand references to a certain 1975 movie with Robert DeNiro. But, being a taxi cab driver can also be a rewarding summer job with lots of good tips, well unless you're working in rural Kentucky.

But, perhaps, Altoona, Pa., is a better place to drive a cab than Harlan, Ky. (asuming they have taxi service there in Appalachia). One with such inclinations may want to visit A1 Altoona Taxi on East 6th Avenue (assuming they're hiring).

We will continue to focus on summer jobs for next week's Silly Picture to Fill Space entry, but we will shift our focus from Altoona to any community somewhere in the eastern part of les etats unis.

Akron, Ohio, Trenton, NJ, Winston-Salem, NC, and Portland, Maine, are among the zip codes in the running. Perhaps, one of their mayors can send me a message on Facebook. We are based in NC, but does not guarantee that Krispy Kreme-town (as we like to call Winston-Salem which is also nicknamed Camel City) will get the bid!

SIDEBAR: Best wishes to Carley Schlentz, 13, of Greensboro, NC, who was bitten by a shark while vacationing with her family in Topsail Island, near Wilmington, NC, over the weekend. She had to have 60 stiches on her foot!

Remembering Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV)

Today, we remember the life of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) who was the longest serving member in U.S. Congress history. Before becoming a U.S. Senator, Byrd was also a member of the House of Representatives.

County Records in Charlottesville, Va., announced today that it was going to rerelase Byrd's bluegrass recording "Mountain Fiddler" (1978). Byrd was also an avid fiddler, and my friends in the Buchanan, Va. (near Roanoke), bluegrass band The Craig County Boys once performed with him in West Virginia.

Dave Freeman who owns the label told various media outlets that the rerecordings were already well underway.

Sen. Byrd died on Monday morning circa 3 a.m.

"Fresh Air" with Terry Gross (an NPR interview show) reaired a segment taped with Byrd at the outset of the Iraq War which the senior West Virginia sentor vehemently opposed.

The record also featured contributions from The Country Gentleman including Doyle Lawson (guitar), James Bailey (banjo) and Spider Gilliam (bass).

Sen. Byrd will most certainly be missed.

Quote of the Week- Samuel Eto'o (Soccer Player from Cameroon)

We conclude this long series of quotes from 32 people associated with the 32 countries who are or in the case of Cameroon were competing in The World Cup.

Cameroon, which has become one of Africa's most traditional winning teams, failed to get into the second round this year mainly because they were in a group with lots of good teams, including Holland, Denmark and Japan.

But, we can still quote their star player Samuel Eto'o who until recently was playing for Spanish soccer power Barcelona. He now plays for the Italian team Internazionale.

Here is his quote, which I believe was said before the World Cup:

"Football is sometimes like this. We played really well but wasted too many chances tonight.....we really should have eliminated them already."

Nostradamus the Octopus?!

Before we start this entry which is going on at the same time as the World Cup soccer game between Holland and Slovakia, we should note that we tried tirelessly to get a proper image for the subject. But, after many failed efforts to find a fitting image, we simply decided to go with The Octopus Man, a comic book villain who we think comes from "Spiderman." (I'm sure the guys at Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, would be delighted to correct me if I'm wrong!).

But, we loved this sport that we heard while listening to the BBC during a bout with insomnia circa 2:30 a.m. last night.

Apparently, Paul the Octopus who is residing in an aquarium in the German city of Oberhausen has predicted the outcomes of all German soccer games, including their surprsingly first round 1-0 loss to Serbia and yesterday's 4-1 German victory over England.

His handlers give Paul, who has even made news in Saudi Arabia, baited glass cubes with mussels and mark them with national flags.

The irony here is that the octopus was born in an English aquarium!

In other world sports news, the English-language Twitter page of Turkish daily newspaper "Hurriyet" reported that Mehmet Yesilyesil, 24, won the coveted 649th Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival near Edirne, Turkey (a western Turkish city near the Bulgarian and Greek borders), yesterday.

Amazingly enough, Yesilyesil won the event in which one must beat out lots and lots of wrestlers (this year it was 498!) for the title. The sport of oil wrestling has become quite a novelty for foreign tourists visiting Turkey because to western eyes the sport looks a bit (how else can I put this?!) homoerotic......since I am a Turkish-American, I should strongly emphasize this is not my own personal view!

Quote of the Day- Alfredo Stroessner (Dead Paraguayan Dictator)

Since we quoted North Korean dictator Kim Jung Il, who is still alive and well (just ask the citizens of Pyonyang), on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," we thoughts it might not to be disengenious to quip the late Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1912-2006) even though like most Latin American dictators he was blamed for kidnapping, torture and corruption.

The right-wing dictator was the second-longest serving head of state in Latin America behind Cuba's Fidel Castro as he 'held office' in the capital Asuncion from 1954-1989. As one might expect, he was overthrown in a coup d'etat. But, Stroessner lived a full life as he died in exile in Brazil in 2006 at the age of 93. However, in the processor, the government officials who took over for him decided to remove his name from the main national airport.

Stroessner was also named "Dictator of the Month" by the web site dictatorofthemonth.com while he was still alive in April of 2003.

Paraguay is having a succesful run at The World Cup as they prepare to meet Japan in the knock-out round.

Here is the quote fom Stroessner, which could only come from an 'el presidente:'

"We can't make any statements here. We can't talk about the internal politics of Paraguay."

Yeah, I thought he sounded like Dick Cheney too!