(10 for 10; 7th Entry): Virtual Postcard from West Virginia

Greetings to our blog readers in Malaysia, Brazil, and Spain.....

Today, we continue our occasional tradition of virtual postcards with an image of the Hawks Nest State Park in West Virginia, located one hour east of the state capital Charleston. The park is a common destination during the autumn months.

For those of you who follow MLS soccer, we have just learned that Sebastian Giovinco scored two goals for Toronto FC in the team's 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids.

http://www.hawksnestsp.com/

http://gotowv.com/

http://www.charlestonwv.com

http://www.torontofc.ca/

Last Ten Films I've Seen: Mostly Netflix Week

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, Brazil and China.

Why do we have images of a map of Italy, the Athens, Ga., indie rock icons REM, and photo of a grizzly bear chasing a salmon in Alaska? They all relate to the last ten films I've seen; it should be pointed out that one of the films "The One I Love" shares its name with a song by REM, hence the reason why we have an image of the band fronted by Michael Stipe that was one of the best during the 1980s.


All of these films, except "The Trip to Italy" and "The One I Love," which were both showing at the local art house cinema, where viewed either through Netflix or Netflix streaming; two of the films, "A Trip to Italy" and "What Maisie Knew" feature English actor Steve Coogan:

1) "Point Blank." France. 2010. Dir: Fred Cavaye (no connection to Lee Marvin film with the same name)

2) The Trip to Italy. 2014. Dir: Michael Winterbottom.

3) "The One I Love" 2014. Dir: Charlie McDowell w/Elisabeth Moss from "Mad Men."

4) Grizzly. 1976. Dir: William Girdler (yes, it is a guilty pleasure film)

5) "Passion" 2012. Dir: Brian De Palma (remake of the French film "Love Crime")

6) Trance. 2013. Dir: Danny Boyle (Films features a very nude Rosario Dawson!)

7) What Maisie Knew. 2012. Dir: Scott McGhee, et al.

8) The King of Thieves. Slovakia (in German). 2004. Dir: Ivan Fila

9) "Paradise: Faith" Austria. 2012. Dir: Ulrich Seidl (first film in a triology)

10) Buddy. Norway. 2003. Dir: Mortem Tyldum

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.netflix.com

The World Cup Lists (1 of 4): The Captains

Greetings to our readers in Bangladesh, Turkey and Peru, where assuredly folks are still depressed because their respective nations are not competing in the World Cup, but we are here to cheer you up.

Well, actually, this list may not help_may not help at all in fact.

We begin our long overdue World Cup coverage with a list of 11 players who are captains of their team. Of course, just because one is a captain does not he is the best player. The disgraced soccer version of Bela Lugosi, Uruguay's Luis Suarez, one of the best players in the world, was not the captain for Team Uruguay which will try to defeat Colombia today without him.

Here is our list, good luck to everyone in Brazil:

1) Thiago Silva. Brazil. Age 29. Paris Saint-Germaine (France; pictured top).

2) Giorgis Karagounis. Greece. Age 37. Fulham (England; pictured center)

3) Clint Dempsey. USA. Age 31. Seattle Sounders (MLS/USA; pictured bottom)

4) Robin van Persie. Netherlands. Age 30. Manchester United (England)

5) Hugo Lloris. France. 27. Tottenham Hotspur (England, he plays goal-keeper)

6) Lionel Messi. Argentina. 27. Barcelona (Spain)

7) Vincent Kompany. Belgium. 28. Manchester City (England)

8) Gokhan Inler. Switzerland. 29. Napoli (Italy; he is the son of immigrants from Turkey)

9) Claudio Bravo. Chile. 31. Barcelona (Spain, the player is a goal-keeper)

10) Philipp Lahm. Germany. 30. Bayern Munich (Germany)

11) Mario Yepes. Colombia. 38. Atalanta (Italy)

http://espn.go.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport

Top Ten Comics from Today's Sunday Roanoke Times: Speed Bump Stands Out

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador and Brazil.

Today, we once again take a look at the Sunday funnies in "The Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va.

We also survey the comic strips in the Washington Post: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Our personal favorite comic strip of the day that was in neither newspaper is "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee:" http://edisonleecomic.com/ ..........

Other strips that we saw today online that we really enjoy include "Retail," "Pros and Cons" and "Bleeker." We actually also contemplated stating what our least favorite strip of the day was, but we gather we aren't the only ones who quit laughing at "The Family Circus" and "For Better or for Worse" a long time.

Our favorite "Roanoke Times" comic strip "Speed Bump" had a hilarious gag with two octopi/octopuses, while "Pearls Before Swine" showed bambis getting revenge on hunters and "Get Fuzzy" focused on a play on words as Bucky the whacky Siamese cat argues with his owner Rob Wilco on the differences between the words 'coop' and 'coup.

Here is our top ten:

1. Speed Bump

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Get Fuzzy

4. Agnes

5. Doonesbury

6. Zits

7. Funky Winkerbean

8. Dilbert

9. Garfield

10. Jump Start

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump#.UtxncTYo6Uk

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

Sports Desk: Florida Edges UCLA in Road Meet

Greetings to our blog-readers in Russia, India and Brazil.

In the City of Angels (Los Angeles, Calif.), the top-ranked, defending NCAA champion Florida Gators met the fourth-ranked UCLA Bruins in a very significant early season meet before both teams face their respective conference rivals.

In the end, Florida won by a very narrow 196.625-196.650, with the Gators prevailing by a margin of .025.

The Gators team had won the 2013 NCAA title at UCLA, but Marissa King, on the team leaders for the Gators, had finished her last year of eligibility. But, the team still includes former Team USA Olympian Bridget Sloan (pictured top), who was the 2013 AA champ at the NCAAs, Kytra Hunter, and sisters Bridgette and Mackenzie Caquatto.

For the Bruins, the 2014 team features stand-out Samantha Peszek, Danusia Francis (pictured bottom), Sydney Sawa and Olivia Courtney.

The Gators swept the all-around with Kytra Hunter (39.375), Bridget Sloan (38.875) and Mackenzie Caquatto (37.300) taking the top three slots.

But, the Bruins featured many outstanding performances in their own right. Olivia Courtney scored a career-best on vault with 9.975 and on bars with a 9.900; on that event, Courtney tied for first with Bridgette Coquatto.

Courtney edged out Sloan, who scored a 9.925 on vault, while her teammate Sawa tied Hunter of Florida with a 9.9 on that same event.

Hunter won floor for Florida with a 9.925; Peszek won balance beam for UCLA with a 9.925.

But, the WOW moment of the meet came from Peszek's teammate Francis, one of two British gymnasts for the Bruins, a team which also features three Canadians, on the beam.

For that event, Francis, who finished with 9.900 on the beam, performed a sideways aerial into a full-twisting dismount.

We imagine it will get lots of hits on Youtube.

UPDATE: This is the corrected version of this story. A blog reader pointed out several errors we made, but like most people who criticize, he/she did not give me credit for spelling Mackenzie Caquatto's name correctly, so we will give ourselves a standing ovation!

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.

Guest Blogger Today: Zappa the Family Cat

Welcome to our blog-readers in China, Brazil and Malta. Today, our guest blogger is Zappa the Family Cat, who is named after the late iconic rock musician Frank Zappa.

Zappa has a tendency to swear a lot, so we have to work around that:

"**D **M*, you stupid bastard, why didn't get me some ****ing roast chicken from Harris Tetter. Why do care about no one except else. You are such a *****e*** and a ****ing narcissist. I hate your guts, and I hope you die of liver cancer."

Of course, the person Zappa is talking to is me!

Times Around the World: From Boston to Baku

 

We were going to look at what our favorite people were saying on Twitter; we are especially curious what comic actor Marc Maron and fellow liberal Turkish-American Cenk Uygur are tweeting, but as it is, Javier the Intern told us to keep it simple tonight.

So, we are looking at times around the world, but rather than going with Grenwich Mean Time, we are going to look at times compares to New York City when it is midnight in the Big Apple.

Here we go:

USA

Boston 12:00 a.m.
Denver 10:00 p.m. (map of Colorado is pictured)
San Diego 9:00 p.m.

South America

Rio de Janeiro 1:00 a.m.
Buenos Aires 1:00 a.m.
Quito, Ecuador 11:00 p.m.

Africa

Nairobi, Kenya 7:00 a.m. (Mount Kenya pictured top)
Cape Town 6:00 a.m.
Casablanca 5:00 a.m.

Former USSR

Moscow 8:00 a.m. (Misha the Bear pictured top)
Yerevan, Armenia 8:00 a.m.
Baku, Azerbaijan 9:00 a.m.

For Our International Audience_Let's Get the Times Right

Since the local times have changed in America as standard time replaced daylights saving time, we thought we would let our followers, especially those of you in other countries, know what time it is in New York or Washington, DC, both of which are here on the east coast, compared to your part of the world.

We did not go into eastern Asia (Japan, China) and Australia because of time and space considerations.

Here we go; it is now midnight here in the east coast of America, so here we go:

12:00 a.m.

New York

Baltimore

Atlanta

2:00 a.m.

Buenos Aires

3:00 a.m.

Rio de Janeiro

5:00 a.m.

Akureyri (Iceland)

London (pictured)

6:00 a.m.

Paris

Amsterdam

7:00 a.m.

Athens

Istanbul (pictured above, that is actually Burgaz Island near Istanbul)

Cairo

Tel Aviv

8:00 a.m.

Dubai (Fly Emirates plane pictured center)

Baghdad

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)


http://www.baltimore.org

http://www.visitlondon.com

http://www.visitistanbul.org

http://www.emirates.com

Saturday Tweets_ Patio Party Time

Let's jump in the pool, here are some tweets from the 15:00-16:00 (3:00-4:00 p.m.) hour New York time today; at that hour, it was 4:00 p.m. in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 8:00 p.m., in London, England, 10:00 p.m. in Istanbul and 11:00 p.m. in Dubai:

1) @LailaLalami (Laila Lalami is a writer whose work frequently appears in "The Nation"): "What a difference 4 years make. A majority of Democrats support keeping Guantanamo open and approve of drone program."

2) @GroveWinery (a winery near Greensboro, NC): "Patio Party! Sunday! $2.99 glasses of wine all day_ Readings from local novelist_ Free food tasting."

3) @WVUSportsBuzz (West Virginia University sports): "The WVU volleyball team competed in its annual Gold-Blue match today with Team Gold claiming victory."

4) @tnr ("The New Republic"): "Will the Obamas be able to convince people who already support him to vote."

5) @ncatsuaggies (North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, NC): "Welcome to all our new followers. We are 5 followers short of 500. Who should we follow to even things out?"

6) @davidmtset (Dave Test): "The internet is a better place beacuse @GMinusG exists." (referring to the "Garfield" satire "Garfield Minus Garfield" with no fat cat).

7) @LOLGOP: "Paul Ryan taking over your Medicare is like Mitt Romney and Bain taking over your factory." (Yes, this tweet is the reason for the purple elephant).

http://www.lailalami.com

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.grovewinery.com

http://www.letsgomountaineers.net

http://www.tnr.com

http://www.ncat.edu

http://www.garfieldminusgarfield.net  

Parade of Nations (two of four)- Canada to Jamaica

With continue with the parade of nations and their respective flag-bearers, starting with our neighbors to the north Canada, and then continuing in alphabetical order; there are additional entries on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" as well:

Canada: Simon Whitfield (pictured above, triathlon)

Armenia: Arma Yeremyan (men's taekwondo)

Brazil: Rodrigo Pessoa (men's equestrian)

Croatia: Venio Losert (pictured below, men's handball)

El Salvador: Evelyn Garcia (women's cycling)

Iceland: Asdis Hjalmsdottir (women's track and field/javelin)

Iraq: Dana Hussain (pictured middle, women's track and field)

Jamaica: Usain Bolt (men's track and field)

http://www.london2012.com

http://www.nbcolympics.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Olympics Host Cities Distance Quiz (6 of 6) London to Rio de Janeiro

We conclude our six-entry series on the distances between Olympic cities as we look at how London, England, United Kingdom, the city that will host the Olympics next week, is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city that is scheduled to hold the summer games in 2016. Rio de Janeiro will be the first South American city to host the games, and the first Latin American city since Mexico City hosted the Olympics in 1968.

One of the most interesting questions that many Olympic spectators have is which country will be most competitive with the American men's basketball team. Joining Team America in Pool A are Argentina, France, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia; the first game for the American squad will be against France on July 29th.

For those of us who are Turkish-Americans, we will be in a bit of a delicate situation as far national loyalties as the United States faces Turkey in both women's basketball (on August 1st) and women's volleyball (on August 5th). But, shockingly, Turkey's men's national basketball team with NBA players Hedo Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur apparently did not qualify for London.

For American travelers, it should be pointed out that I read in a magazine article recently that an American tourist who had traveled all the way to Brazil had to return home because he did not get a visa beforehand! 

So, how far are these two cities?

A) 5,567 miles

B) 5, 667 miles

C) 5, 767 miles

D) 5, 867 miles

SIDEBAR: Of course, our sincerest condolences go out to to family members and surviving victims of the shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, which killed at least 14 people, during the midnight premiere of "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises." We are planning a possible blog entry to explore how the tragic event was discussed in various social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter.


UPDATE: The answer is C....yeah, it's a very long flight!

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Breakfast

Well, we are pressed for time and it has been a very long and agonizing day, so we will keep this very short today. Initially, we were going to post a breakfast image for Easter Sunday, since traditionally here in the United States, Sunday brunch is a major tradition of the holiday. And, perhaps, if Bing is right, Miss Shirley's Cafe is the best place for breakfast in Baltimore, Maryland, where we hope we are very popular.

Also, we would like to thank visitors from Ecuador_ of all places, and Brazil for checking out our blog today. I am aware that the capital of those two countries are Quito and Brasilia, respectively, but of course, if asked on "Jeopardy!" some wise guy from Passaic, New Jersey, would beat me to the punch.

Top 10 Countries to Run To If GOP Whacko Becomes Prez

Yes, we did essentially the same sort of list when it looked like Sarah Palin might somehow become an American president, which would probably assure the impending apocalypse that many fervent evangelists who would support her are calling for.

Since there are essentially three players left in the Republican nomination race: Mitt Romney (pictured), Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, we thought we'd mention that IFC is running two hours worth of Three Stooges shorts on Saturday starting at 10:45 a.m. The first of these films will be "The Mummy's Dummies" (1948), which was made when Gingrich was five and Romney (born 1947) was still in diapers.

Here are some possible escapes we might consider:

1) Costa Rica (pictured)

2) Russia (this blog is popular there, so why not?!)

3) Iceland (the country that was number one on the Palin escape list)

4) Brazil

5) New Zealand

6) Slovenia_ this former Yugoslavia is now a top destination

7) Finland

8) Cuba (yeah, we partly did this for shock value, but many American travel magazines have written about traveling to Cuba lately)

9) Turkey (my late father's country, and I also speak the language)

10) Sweden

SIDEBAR: The BBC is now airing a radio segment about The World Ice Fishing Championship in Kazakhstan, otherwise known as the land of Borat. As one might imagine, it is freezing in the former Soviet Republic!

Quote of the Day/Week- Pele

Since we have been completely obsessed with soccer later (auggh! I forgot to check the scores in the Dutch League, but we think PSV Eindhoven won), and we are focusing on Latin America), I thought it would good to quip Pele for a second time.

The first time we quoted him was on one of these two blogs during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. For those of you from the planet Neptune, Pele is from Brazil, and here is his quote:

"A penalty is a cowardly way to score."

SIDEBAR: For those who were wondering what the answer is to our "Rabbit Ears Quiz" from earlier in the week regarding the cartoon version of "Star Trek," it is A) 57 episodes. That is the differential between the number of episodes in the original show and the cartoon, which ran for 22 episodes from 1973-74.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Lyon Has Won 7 French Titles

In our 13th profile of 15 world soccer teams, we turn our attention to the French soccer power Olympique Lyonnais, which is known simply as Lyon, the same name as the city they play for.

Lyon did not win its first domestic title until the 2001-02 season, but they made up for it by winning a staggering seven French premiere league titles in a row.

During the 2009-10 season, Lyon also reached the semi-finals of the coveted UEFA Cup, before bowing out to German power Bayern Munich.

Lyon is playing for the current UEFA Cup as well, but their hopes of advancing to the next round seem given their home loss Spanish power Real Madrid 2-0, both goals in the match were scored by Portuguese superstar Christiano Ronaldo, earlier this month.

Thus, Lyon is in third place behind the Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam (the last team we profiled), in Group D. Lyon visits Amsterdam on Nov. 22 when Real Madrid will face the Crotian team Dynamo Zagreb, which is in last place.

In domestic play, Lyon last played arch rival St. Etienne and the team prevailed
2-0. Lyon is reportedly in second place in the French league behind Paris St. Germain which tied Bordeaux 1-1.

The captain for Lyon is Brazilian player Cris (Cristiano Gomes), 34, and the team's goalie is French player Hugo Lloris, 24, (pictured), who is vying to become the French national goal keeper.

On Friday, the French national team beat the United States 1-0 in a friendly. Since I carry an American passport, I could gripe about this, but hey the French gave us Asterix the Gaul. Having said that, I hope we beat the living daylights out of them next time (that is a joke; I'm not a Republican).

SIDEBAR: Closer to home, Martinsburg High School (Martinsburg, West Virginia) decked Woodrow Wilson High School from Beckley, West Virginia, in a home game played on Friday by a score of 49-13.

PS-The answer to our Rabbitt Ears quiz was C) Boulder, Colorado, which is where "Mork and Mindy" took place.

The Top Ten Countries Which Have Viewed Us

Since Russia is one of the top ten countries that have viewed our blog (Yes, we were surprised as well) and I still love dated Cold War humor, I figured that we would use Misha or Misha the Bear with this entry. (In the whoops department, we did spell the bear's name Mishka in some earlier entries!)

For those of who grew up on "American Idol" and "The Gilmore Girls," Misha was the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which were boycotted by the United States and many European countries, for the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Here are the top ten countries in order of hits; it should be pointed out that Brazil, which also has over 1,000 hits was in our top ten until India past them a few days ago:

1. USA 77,595

2. UK 12,828

3. Canada 10,604

4. Germany 5,633

5. Australia 4,947

6. Italy 1,536

7. Turkey 1,470

8. Russia 1,197

9. Netherlands 1,097

10. India 1,023

SIDEBAR: We read this short piece in "Wired" magazine which really surprised us. Apparently, back in 1972, Jerry Lewis, made a film called "The Day the Clown Cried." There is a valid reason why few of you have heard of this film and why probably none of you have ever seen it. The film is about a clown is inadvertently recruited to gather Jewish children up in Nazi Germany. According to the IMDB, Lewis has the only copy of the film in a vault and he refuses to have the unreleased/uncompleted film seen by anyone.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Bayern Munich Has Won Four UEFA Titles

This is the seventh entry in our series of looks at professional soccer teams. So far, we have looked at teams from two continents: Europe and North America.

Today, we turn our attention to the German Bundesliga where Bayern Munich has reigned supreme over the decades. The two has four UEFA titles, including three in row from 1974-76, and another title in 2001. The team was runner-up in 2010.

In addition, Bayern has won 22 German titles, and 15 domestic cups.

Yesterday, Bayern beat their long-time rival Kaiserslautern 3-0, a week after they destroyed Hamburg SV 5-0. Yesterday's game started at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, east coast American time.

We are featuring an image of Mehmet Scholl, who was a star player for the team in the 2000s, and he was among the first players of Turkish heritage (Germany has the largest Turkish population outside Turkey) to become a soccer superstar in the Bundesliga.

The team's most legendary player is Franz Beckenbauer who played during the '70s and helped Germany dominate world soccer internationally (well, there was also Brazil which featured some guy named Pele) during his career.

Bayern's current roster includes German players Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez as well as Dutch star Franck Ribery, who once played for Turkish soccer power GalataSaray (a team we featured earlier in the series).

SIDEBAR: Yesterday, in the English Premiere League, Didier Drogba of Chelsea, one of the star player in the league, suffered a 30-minute concusion in the 71st minute of play in Chelsea's 3-1 win over Norwich City.

SIDEBAR TWO: Our congratulations go out to American tennis player John Isner, of Greensboro, NC. The 'local boy' won the Winston-Salem Open over Julien Benneateau of France in a match that somehow did not get rained out due to Hurricane Irene, which battered the North Carolina coast yesterday.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Ryan Giggs is Simply the Best

We are continuing with yet another entry in our Things We Learned on Google Today series even though we have not posted any entries in the series since back on May 5!

Today, we learned that Manchester United fans chose Welsh soccer player Ryan Giggs, 37, as the best player in the team's history over the likes of Eric Cantona, George Best and David Beckham, who along with Brazilian legend Pele is one of three futbol players that Americans have heard of. (Actually, we aren't sure who that third person might be).

Giggs, who is still active with Manchester United though he retired from international play in 2007 (he was captain of the Welsh national team; yes we know Wales is not a country too but one day when we figure out why the United Kingdom has four separate national soccer teams, we will let you know), is the most decorated player in English soccer history as he has won 12 English Premiere League medals. Astonishingly, Giggs scored 17 goals in the 1993-94 season for MU.

In England, the personal life of this superstar is apparently quite scandolous, but we are too busy to find out the sordid details.

SIDEBAR: It appears that one of the few places to get away from the here in les etats unis is Fargo, North Dakota, a city that the Coen Brothers made famous with the film "Fargo" even though they are from Minnesota. According to wunderground.com, it was a mere 64 degrees in North Dakota's largest city today.

This seems exceptionally cool given that in our corner of the globe, it was 94 degrees in both Raleigh, NC, and Lynchburg, Va, and a staggering 97 degreees in Washington, DC. Hopefully, House Speaker Cong. John Boehner (R-Ohio) was not hanging out by the Washington Monument and working on his tan.

(For those of you from England, here in les etats unis, those of us who are Democrats love making fun of Republicans!).

Special Quote of the Week- Freddy Adu

We continue our special quotes from African-American athletes, past and present, with a quip from soccer star Freddy Adu, 21, who became the youngest person to play a soccer game in Major League Soccer as a member of DC United when he was just 13.

As of Feb. 1, Adu is now playing for the Turkish soccer team Rizespor in the Black Sea city of Rize, Turkey. This comes as an irony to me as my late father came from Turkey. And, though I try to follow Turkish soccer and I follow Adu on Twitter, this was knowledge I just learned today.

Over the weekend, Adu's Rizespor beat OrduSpor 3-0. RizeSpor also features Liberian soccer star Theo Weeks.

Adu, whose family immigrated from Ghana to Rockville, Md., when he was 8, played for DC United until 2006. After playing for Real Salt Lake, he jumped over the pond to play for the Portuguese team Benfica.

Here is the quote from Adu:

"You can't do anything to help your team when you don't play."

One can follow Adu on Twitter at:

http://www.twitter.com/FreddyAdu11

You can keep up with Turkish soccer by following Ahmet Bob Turgut:

http://twitter.com/turkishsoccer

This weekend, traditional Istanbul powerhouse Fenerbahce defeated rival Besiktas 4-2 with three goals from Brazilian star Alex.

SIDEBAR: I have to salute my good friend Chris Knight, a fellow blogger, who is standing up for us. Yesterday, he tweeted that he disagreed with a "New York Times" article stating that blogs were decreasing in popularity due to Facebook and Twitter. Knight said that one simply can not say everything within Twitter's space limitations. With all due respect to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, we couldn't agree more.