Quote of the Week- Brian Orser

Today, we continue to quote famous Canadians we quip men's figure skater Brian Orser, who turns 50 on Dec. 18. Orser won silver medals at both the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo (which was in Yugoslavia at the time, now it's the capital of Bosnia) and the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, in front of Orser's home fans.

Orser lost his quest for gold to American ice skater Brian Boitano, in what became known as "The Battle of the Brians."

Today, Orser is known for coaching young figure skaters. Among his proteges is Yuna Kim (or Kim yu-Na), 21, a South Korean women's figure skater who won gold at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Here is Orser's quote:

"It's not who does the most tricks, but the total package."

SIDEBAR: Tonight, my alma mater Radford University faces the University of Kentucky, a team ranked second in the nation, in NCAA men's basketball. The game will be in Lexington, Ky. I wish the Highlanders well as they face the Wildcats. Assuredly, if the team wins I may have a chance of a date with Vendela.

SIDEBAR 2: As of late, I have become very interested in European soccer, especially regarding English teams. Today, in UEFA action, Arsenal beat German team Dortmund 2-0 on two goals from their star Robin Van Persie.

But, Chelsea did not fare well against another German team Bayer Leverkusen by a 2-1 margin. Chelsea star and Ivory Coast national Didier Drogba scored the first goal of the away match in the 48th minute of play. However, Eren Derdiyok, a Swiss national of Kurdish descent who also has Turkish citizenship, scored the equalizer for the home squad in the 73rd minute. And, then German national team star Manuel Friedrich scored the game winner for Bayer in extra time. Thus, Chelsea fell 2-1.

In other games, Bracelona beat AC Milan 3-2, and the Czech team Viktoria Pizen scored a 1-0 victory over BATE Borisev, a team from Belarus.

Status Update_ The End of An Era

Since I am actually trying to get things done and make blog entries more economical, in the time-spending sense, and use Facebook and Twitter less often, I have decided to start a new Status Update series on this blog.

Of course, in the end, it will probably meet none of my objectives, but at least we can't canned by the WB before our scheduled 13-episode run.

So, we start today with this Status Update:

"I have retired my George Costanza wallet after a good solid six and a half years of usage."

The character of George, as played by Jason Alexander, was based on the show's co-creator Larry David, who is now a household name because of "Curb Your Enthuiasm," but the character's name was taken from Jerry Seinfeld's real-life pal Mike Costanza.

The Urban Dictionary says that a George Costanza wallet refers to a wallet that is overstuffed with junk. In the sitcom, the wallet forced George to sit in a stilted position.

Reruns of the 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" air on WGHP in the Greensboro, NC, market from 11:00-11:59 p.m. each night. Tonight, they will show "The Finale" episode in the 11:00-11:29 slot.

I must profess that I find the newscasts of WGHP, the local Fox affiliate, about as objective as Glenn Beck, who is coming to Greensboro on April 8. But, my hero and his nemesis Bill Maher will also be performing at the Greensboro Coliseum on April
23.

Currently, Greensboro is getting a lot of media attention for hosting the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships, which will feature Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi and Michelle Kwan.....yes, I know they are all (to our knowledge retired from skating) but I am not exactly hip to what's going on in the skating world, so I thought I would joke about it.

I actually had a crush on Yamaguchi, who is a year younger than me, but now she is married to some hockey player, raising a family and competing on "Dancing with the Stars," so of course I'll have to develop a crush on a female figure skater who is some 20 years younger than her!

DC Diary- Fonzie's Jacket

I meant to blog about Day Two of our 2010 Christmas Family Trip to Washington, DC, yesterday, but getting lost on my way back from a cinema curtailed that effort, so I am writing about it tonight.

Day Two was actually Tuesday. It was far and away the busiest day of the trip, which concludes tomorrow. We saw four Smithsonian museums in one day. One of the highlights was the American History Museums, which contains lots of pop culture and athletic memorabilia in addition to historic items like the counter from North Carolina A and T students sit-in in Greensboro, NC (the Gate City opened a Civil Rights Museum to honor the four men involved earlier this year).

Since the '70s sitcom "Happy Days" was considered subversive by my late father Mehmet Gokbudak at the time, I have always had a special place for The Fonz. My father really detested the phrase "Sit on It!" which Henry Winkler's character uttered quite frequently. To my Turkish father, this was a sign of how Americans had no respect for their parents or elders.

While researching this piece, we found out that The Fonz was meant to be a secondary character but much like George and Elaine on "Seinfeld," he simply took over. There is now a web site called "What Would the Fonz Do" which makes fun of the "What Would Jesus Do" adage that fundamentalist Christians have utilized to the point of redundancy.

Another item on display at the history museum which caught my eye was the leotard of Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin, since I am a gymnastics fan. The pink leotard had an American flag and an emblem from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which Liukin won an individual gold medal.

We discovered from researching this piece that according to her Twitter page Liukin was spending the holidays with her family in Vail, Colo. (we hope they weren't driving her crazy) and that she has apparently been dating another gold medalist, figure skater Evan Lysacek. I must profess that even though Liukin, 21, is 19 years younger than me that I am a tad bit jealous (must be my ethnicity!).

My family and I also saw the ice skates worn by another gold medalist Brian Boitano from the 1988 Calgary Olympics, but as the makers of "South Park" have suggested there is apparently some question about his sexual orientation, but irregardless of that he would be too old to date Liukin too!

My night with the family concluded with a dinner at the Commonwealth Gastro Pub where I had a $13 lamb burger. Other menu items included a $12 grass-feed burger and a $13 uncommon burger_ none of us could figure out what that was!

We will have more on the zany Day Two of the DC trip on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

We conclude this portion of the DC Diary by congratulating my friend Turkish-German modern dancer Nejla Yatkin, who has resided in both Washington, DC, and New York in recent years, on the tenth anniversary of her dance company NY 2 Dance.