Presdiential Quote (16 of 16): Grover Cleveland (again..........)

Well, we couldn't resist............


Due to time constraints and our hopes to post another entry later in the day/evening/night, we are cutting to the chase with a quote from Grover Cleveland, the only president to hold two terms non-consecutively:

"Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."

Presidential Quotes (15 of 16): Benjamin Harrison

Today, we quote Benjamin Harrison, a Republican from Indiana, who was president from 1889-1893, who, judging from this quote, sounds like the Ron Paul of his day, and he likely would have had issues with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.):

"We Americans have no commission from God to police the world."

Presidential Quotes (14 of 16): Grover Cleveland

Today, we quote president Grover Cleveland, who is the only president to serve two non-consecutively. Cleveland was thus both the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, so we will actually quote him twice. Cleveland, whose first term in office was from 1885-1889, was the only Democratic president from 1861-1913.

As it turns out, the city of Cleveland, Ohio was not named for Grover Cleveland but a general named Moses Cleaveland. There are Grover Cleveland High Schools in New York, Buffalo and Reseda, Calif.

Here is his quote:

"The United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity."

http://www.millercenter.org/president/cleveland

Presidential Quotes (13 of 16): Chester Arthur, the Man from Vermont

Greetings to our blog readers in Serbia, Poland and Kazakhstan.

We are pretty sure this series of quotes from early American presidents will get considerably fewer hits than if we were to quote American serial killers, such as Charles Manson, who at age 79 has actually outlived our subject of the day, President Chester Arthur (1829-1886).

Or we could quip gangster John Dellinger who said: "I rob banks for a living, what do you do?" But, we'll stick with this one-term president.

Arthur was America's 21st president, and ironically, given that he was a Republican, he is one of only two presidents from Vermont, America's most progressive state today. President Calvin Coolidge, also a Republican, hailed from the same New England state.

Here is our quote: "I may be the president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's business." (I believe we've used this one before, but it's a gem!)...

http://www.millercenter.org/president/Arthur

http://www.visit-vermont.com

Presidential Quotes (12 of 16): James A Garfield

Today, we quote president James A. Garfield (1831-1881), who was president for a mere six months before being assassinated by a very troubled Charles J. Guiteau, who was executed by hanging for his crime though there was evidence of him being insane.

Here is our quote from Garfield, who was a Republican: "A brave man is a who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is the Devil."

SIDEBAR: Today was a major day on Capitol Hill. No, there was no meaningful legislation passed, but three members of the House of Representatives announced they would retire and/or not seek re-election.

The first is Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va), a man the blogger got to know when reporting for a newspaper in Woodstock, Va., which was then in Wolf's 10th district (it is now in Cong. Bob Goodlatte's sixth district). Wolf was one of the main champions of human rights on the Hill, and he even traveled to troubled countries, such as Sudan (and what is now South Sudan), to report on mass atrocities. Today, one of the people who praised Wolf was former Cong. Tom Perriello (D-VA), now a progressive activist, for Wolf's role in recognizing human rights.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), who was arguably the most conservative Democrat in the House, which is understandable given that his district was very ultra-conservative. Matheson won his much- publicized last election over Mia Love, who is a rare African-American female Republican. Like Matheson, Love is a practicing Mormon, though she converted into the faith.

Late in the day, Cong. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), one of House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) main allies in the House also announced he was stepping down.

http://www.millercenter.org/president/garfield

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rollcall.com

Presidential Quotes (11 of 16): Rutherford B. Hayes, a Forgotten Man

If one takes the Mental Floss "Name All 43 Presidents Quiz," we have a feeling Rutherford B. Hayes, a one-term Republican president from Delaware, Ohio, might be one of the half-dozen a person would forget.

Hayes (1822-93; president from 1877-1881), did have a better fate than his successor, President James Garfield, who was the second of four American presidents to be assasinated.

Here is a quote from Hayes, which those of us who are capital punishment opponents can identify with:

"One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals."

http://www.miller.org/president/hayes

http://www.vadp.org (Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty)*

Both the Miller Center and the VADP are based in Charlottesville, Va.

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Presidential Quotes (10 of 16): General Grant Said.....

With perhaps the exception of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom we are quoting on our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com Ulysses S. Grant(1822-1855; president from 1869-1877)  was perhaps more known for his life before the presidency as a Civil War general for the winning Union side, than he was for his years in the White House.

Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He signed an end to the Civil War with General Robert E. Lee, who headed the losing Confederate side of the Civil War, in Appomattox, Va.

Grant also defeated Horace Greeley of New Hampshire to win reelection in 1872, and Greeley also had the misfortune of dying before all the votes were tallied!

Here is Grant's quote:

"My failures have been errors in judgment, not of intent."

http://www.millercenter.org/grant

Presidential Quotes (9 of 16): The Man who Followed Honest Abe

Greetings to our blog readers in Brazil, the Czech Republic and Thailand.

We're not sure how well a quote from Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United State, will do overseas, but unlike our entries on Turkish soccer* and women's college volleyball, we can assume someone reading this entry in the year 2024 will find that this entry will not be dated.

Here is Andrew Johnson's quote, a man who became president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, which will follow with a link from the Miller Center in Charlottesville, Va.:

"If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet."

http://www.millercetner.org/president/johnson

*- Kudos to Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray for upsetting Juventus 1-0 today in Turin, Italy, a city which saw some snowfall today, and congrats, to Fethiyespor, a lower level Turkish team, which pulled 'an upset of the century' by beating another Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce 2-1 in Turkish Cup play two weeks ago. As I jokingly tweeted, my dream UEFA final in the year 2020 would be between Fethiyespor and Barcelona. Hopefully, Lionel Messi will be retired by then.

Last Ten Films I've Seen (as of Dec. 8th): Rollerball, et al

Here are the last ten films I've seen; we got this idea from "Film Comment:"

1) Rollerball (1975. Norman Jewison, pict)

2) The Big Mouth (1967. Jerry Lewis)

3) Widow of St. Pierre (France. 2000. Patrice Leconte)

4) Lured (1947. Douglas Sirk)

5) Deadly Blessing (1981. Wes Craven)

6) Gregory's Girl (1981. Bill Forsyth)

7) Gulliver's Travel (animated. 1939. Dave Fleischer)

8) TerrorVision (1986. Ted Nicolau)

9) Hysteria (2011. Tanya Wexler)

10) Scream of Fear (1961. Seth Holt)

http://www.filmcomment.com

Weather in the Mid-Atlantic: Snow, Ice and Rain

With this snowy image of the Humpback Covered Bridge in Covington, Va., a town that is one hour northwest of Roanoke, which is seeing inclement weather tonight, we present a look at the weather in this region. We are looking at areas from southern Pennsylvania to northern South Carolina.
The city of Frederick, Maryland, reportedly had three inches of snow today:

1. Covington, Va. 21 Light Snow

2. Frederick, Md. 25 Ice Pellets

3. Winston-Salem, NC 33 Overcast

4. Fort Mill, SC 31 Overcast

5. Shippenburg, Pa. 26. Light Rain

6. Martinsburg, W.Va 25 Overcast

7. Dover, Delaware, 32, Light Freezing Rain

8. Charlottesville, Va. 29 Overcast

9. High Point, NC 33 Light Drizzle

10. Marion, Va 30 Overcast

11. Arlington, Va. 29 Light Freezing Rain

12. Asheville, NC 35 Light Rain

http://www.weather.com

http://www.covington.va.us/

http://www.wdbj7.com/weather (Roanoke)

http://www.wxii12.com/weather (Winston-Salem)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/ (Washington, DC metro area)

An Ice Storm in Any Language

Greetings to our blog-readers in Kazakhstan, Italy and Guatemala. We hope the weather is better where you are. Here in the mid-atlantic part of the United States we are experiencing ice storms, especially in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

So, we thought we'd google the various words for ice storm in other parts of the globe; our personal favorite terms are isstorm (Norwegian and Swedish), which we actually put into Google and buz firtinasi, which is the Turkish word for ice storm.

Here is the list:

1) eisstrum (German)

2) tempete de glace (French)

3) buz firtinasi (Turkish)

4) tormenta de nieve (Spanish)

5) isstorm (Norwegian and Swedish)

6) gradobice (Polish)

7) snezha burya (Bulgarian)

8) isslag  (Danish)

Remembering Nelson Mandela with a Quote from Him

Nelson Mandela died two days ago in his native South Africa.

Former President Bill Clinton said Mandela would ask to speak to Chelsea when he called the White House to ask her if she had done her homework. Chelsea Clinton went on to graduate from Stanford.

Though former Vice President Dick Cheney made disparaging remarks about this remarkable man, he was lauded by politicians on both sides of the aisle in the United States. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) and Cong. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) praised his contributions to ending Apartheid while Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) praised Mandela for being a champion of human rights.

Here is a quote from Mandela:

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

SIDEBAR: Alas, it was a rough night for us as spectators as all four of the teams we were rooting for somehow fell in the NCAA tournament: Cal upset North Carolina, LSU came from two sets down to win over Michigan, Radford University posted a great second set but still fell in straight sets to host Minnesota, and in spite of winning the first set against Utah, the Yale Bulldogs lost to the Utes 3-1.

Oh well............

College Volleyball Notebook: Four to Watch: Minnesota Hosts Radford

If you include Chicago traffic, a drive from Radford, Va., to Minneapolis is about 20.5 hours, and that journey passes through Madison, Wisc., another host city in the first round of the NCAA tourney.

The Radford University Highlanders will be in Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Gophers on Friday. Two of the stand-out players for both teams include Rachel Wiecchecki (pictured top), a junior who guided RU to a Big South championship, for the Highlanders, and Tori Dixon (pictured bottom) , a member of the all Big-10 Conference Team who has also overcome open heart surgery, for the Gophers.

Here are Four Games to Watch on Friday, all times are eastern

Radford @ Minnesota 8:00 p.m.

Florida State vs. Georgia Southern 5:00 p.m. Gainesville, Fla.

The FSU Seminoles feature two all-ACC team members in Ashley Neff and Katie Mosher

Purdue vs. Central Arkansas at the University of Missouri

Purdue's outside hitter /setter Val Michael, a junior, was named to the all-Big 10 team

Michigan State vs. Ohio University

The MSU Spartans feature Kori Moster, the Big 10's defensive player of the year.

 For more games in the tourney, go to our sister blog:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.purduesports.com

http://www.msuspartans.com
.

College Volleyball Notebook: The NCAA Tournament is Underway (4 to Watch)

Michigan and LSU have a lot in common: The schools are from major conferences, they have similar team colors and both have solid women's volleyball programs. On Friday, Michigan which includes stand-out Canadian middle blocker Jennifer Cross (pictured top, wearing number two), and LSU, a team that features exceptional middle blocker Briana Holman (pictured bottom, wearing number 13) face each other in Seattle, where the national championship game will ultimately be played.

Here is a run down of four worthy games in the field of 64; all of these matches will be played on Friday (all times are eastern):

1. Michigan vs. LSU. Seattle. 8:00 p.m.

2. Creighton vs. Arkansas Lawrence, Kansas. 5:00 p.m. (on Espn3)

3. Oregon vs. Miami (Fla). Lincoln, Nebraska. 5:30 p.m.

The Oregon Ducks feature stand-out Liz Brenner; The Miami (Fla) Hurricanes' roster includes all-ACC team member Savanah Leaf.

4. Louisville vs. Marquette. Champaign, Illinois. 5:30 p.m.

The Cardinals feature Emily Juhl, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

For more tourney games, go to our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.espn3.com


http://www.goblue.com

http://www.lsusports.net

Turkish Futbol Notebook: A Wild Tie Game in Istanbul

Argentinian soccer player Fernando Belluschi (pictured) of Bursaspor may get overshadowed by this countrymen and Bursaspor teammate Pablo Battala, but they won a game on the road against Elazigspor 2-1. The game also saw red cards for Serdar Aziz of Bursaspor and Pepe Sow of Elazigspor.

Trabzonspor won its home game over Kayseri Erciyesspor 3-1 with two goals from Florent Malouda of France.

And, finally, there was a zany Istanbul derby match between powerhouses Fenerbahce and Besiktash which ended in a 3-3 draw. The highlights of the game included goals from Fener's star Moussa Sow of Senegal (77th min) and Dirk Kurt of the Netherlands (83rd min). For BJK, Portuguese national Hugo Almeida had two goals very close to each other (43 min. and 45th min.) The game also saw two red cards!

Here are scores from domestic weekend play in Turkey:

Eskisehirspor 0 Karademir 0 (tie)

Kasimpasa 1 Galatasaray 1 (tie)

Trabzonspor 3 Keyseri Erciyesspr 1

Fenerbahce 3 BJK 3 (tie)

Elazigspor 1 Bursaspor 2

Anakara GB 1 Gaziantepspor 3

Kayserispor 0 Akhisar 0 (tie)

Konyaspor 2 Rizespor 1

Sivasspor 0 Antalyaspor 3

http://www.flashscore.com

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: Black Friday at Gal-Mart

Today, in honor of "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," we are featuring a photo of Gal-Mart, well actually we couldn't find an image of Gal-Mart, but we did find one of Wal-Mart the store he was satirizing. The science fiction satiric strip focused on how Christmas insanity leads to overspending and basically turns us into barefoot starving children in Uganda.

Black Friday also turned into a very ugly scene in rural Tazewell, Va., which is near the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky in southwest Virginia, as one man stabbed another man for a good parking place.

But, the comics are here to take us away from the madness around us.

Other favorites, included a painful yoga workout in "Reply All," an educational look at elk in "Mark Trail" and lightning striking a beach full of tourists in "Sherman's Lagoon."

"Barney and Clyde" which is co-written by Gene Weingartens, an award-winning journalist/columnist for "The Washington Post," ranked number two in our survey. The comic strip this week made fun of cartoonists running on empty and using the same gas routinely.

Here is our list:

1. "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

2. "Barney and Clyde"

3. "Dustin"

4. "Pearls Before Swine"

5. "Reply All"

6. "Foxtrot"

7. "Agnes"

8. "Sherman's Lagoon"

9. "Prickly City"

10. "Mark Trail"

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Quote of the Day: Abraham Lincoln

Yes, we have come to the 16th President Abraham Lincoln, who is one of the four Mount Rushmore presidents in South Dakota. Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, where Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth is both a museum and a working stage company. They are currently producing their annual staging of the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol."

Here is quote from Lincoln, whom actor Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar for in the film "Lincoln," which was filmed partially in Petersburg, Va. (near Richmond):

"You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."

http://www.fordstheatre.org