Tweets from Sunday Night: Scientists Study Crabs

We were hoping to get a blog post in yesterday as July 20th is the date when the late American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon 45 years ago yesterday; conversely, also on July 20th, the late Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit decided to send Turkish troops to Cyprus to protect the Turkish Cypriot residents of the island 40 years ago yesterday. This started a short, but bloody war between Turkey and Greece over the island nation, which remains divided to this day.

Since we had a tweet from an actor pretending to be God, we wanted to use an image of George Burns, but when we couldn't find one that was suitable, we chose instead to go with the fringe minister Rev. Johnny Robertson in Martinsville, Va., who was once in a public feud with our friend and fellow blogger Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC.

Here are last night's tweets:

1. Ali Spignola (an electronics musician): I've never seen an owl that wasn't pissed off (top image).

2. WNYC (New York NPR station): A black woman (Mikki Kendell) disguised herself online to see what the Internet was like as a white man.

3) J. Freedom du Lac (features writer for The Washington Post): Can discarded sea containers help create more affordable housing, or is this mostly a gimmick?

4) Washington Post: Babies start mentally rehearsing speech long before they actually say their first words.

5) Tweet of God: I have absolutely no plan for your life (middle image, read second paragraph)

6) Charlotte Observer: :School starts Monday for 2,500 Charlotte students.

7) Baltimore Sun: Scientists tally crabs and see how reef building affects them.

Sunday Comics Gran Slam (4 of 4): Bleeker Wins the Overall Sweepstakes

Greetings from Charlotte, NC, where we have been hanging out at Heroes Con with Mark Hamill, ok, that is not where we have been this weekend, and we have no idea if the actor who once portrayed Luke Skywalker was in the Queen City, but nonetheless, we needed to get your attention.

Similarly, Shawn Johnson, the American gold medalist gymnast from Iowa, Cuneyt Cakir, the Turkish soccer referee who worked the Brazil-Mexico match at the World Cup, and Yogi Bear, really have nothing to do with his blog entry, but we are competing with thousands of other blogs to win over teenagers in South Korea who are taking a break from playing Donkey Kong (or whatever kids play these days) for 72 straight hours (we hope with bathroom breaks).

So, here are our top 20 comic strips from last Sunday's funny papers. Alas, we are posting them as the world gets to see the latest installment of "Garfield," our apologies to Jim Davis, but his strip about a 38-year-old house cat, did not make the grade.

Here is the list:
 

1) Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog 8.6

2) The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee 8.5

3) WUMO 8.4

4) Pardon the Planet 8.3

5) Tundra 8.3

6) Retail 8.3

7) The Argyle Sweater 8.3

8) Speed Bump 8.2

9) Arctic Circle 8.2

10) Tom Tomorrow 8.1

11) Dustin 8.1

12) Zippy the Pinhead 8.0

13) Reply All 8.0

14) Tina's Groove 8.0

15) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy 8.0

16) Knight Life 8.0

17) Mother Goose and Grimm 8.0

18) Sherman's Lagoon 7.9

19) Lio 7.8

20) Doonesbury 7.8


http://bleekercomics.com/

http://edisonleecomic.com/

http://www.gocomics/wumo

http://www.twitter.com/shawnjohnson

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

Polar Vortex Tweets: Homeless in DC; Pipes Burst in Atlanta

An NHL hockey game in Buffalo, NY, against the Carolina Hurricanes from Raleigh, NC, scheduled for tonight was postponed due to blizzard conditions. But, things were not much better south of the large city near the Canadian city. NPR reported that homeless were seeking shelter in Nashville, Tenn., as was the case in Washington, D.C.

Pipes burst in Atlanta, record-low or near record-laws were reported in Charlotte, NC, and Roanoke, Va., with the Charlotte record dating back to 1884!

Here is a look at ten tweets which tell the story:

1) Roanoke County (Va) Schools: Roanoke County Public Schools will open two (2) hours late tomorrow (Jan. 8th) due to continued cold conditions.

2) Mike Mac (a Weather Channel correspondent): You know it's bad when they cancel a Buffalo Sabres game and the police are called on snowmobiles.

3) Politics and Prose (indy bookstore in Washington, DC): DC readers if you see a person in need call 1-800-535-7252 for shelter hotline.

4) WSOC Weather (CBS tv station in Charlotte, NC): Today's low of 6 degrees breaks record set in 1884.

5) ABC_11_WTVD (tv station in Raleigh, NC): Duke Energy is asking customers to reduce their usage for the next 24 hours due to high demand for electricity because of the cold weather.

6) Capital Weather Gang (Washington, DC): Anchorage, AK, currently 19 degrees. Dulles is 10 degrees. Anchorage high is headed to the 30s.

7) Mother Jones: Temperatures ranked worst to best_ 5) Blistering heat; 4) Freezing cold; 3) A bit chilly; 4) a little warm; 5) just right.

8) Jonathan Chait (columnist for "New York" magazine): How many polar vortexes have we had before we decided to label it a 'polar vortex?' This can't be the first one.

9) National Weather Service (Blacksburg, Va, bureau): "Readings this morning were so cold, all climate sites set new record low temperatures!"

10) CBS Atlanta: "Marietta_ watch out for ice due to water main burst at Powder Springs Rd."

http://www.wunderground.com/

http://www.weather.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/

http://www.motherjones.com

Friday Night Tweets: Balance Beams and Ski Slopes

It was our hope to have at least one sports every week on this blog. Hmmmmm. In reality, there are perhaps too many distractions for that. But, since this is one of these "Applebees Fridays," you know one in which you had plans and for one reason or another none of them came to be (for those of you in Nepal: Applebees is an American chain restaurant. There are probably eight in Scranton, Pa.), we thought we'd post various tweets, many of which deal with collegiate or pro athletics.

One thing we found out, but not through Twitter, was that the host University of North Carolina Tar Heels women's gymnastics team edged out the North Carolina Wolfpack by a 195.050-194.875 score. For the visiting 'Pack,' junior Diahanna Ham posted a 9.9 on bars. We didn't see results on the Tar Heels gymnastics site, but we did learn that senior Elizabeth Durkac, from Yorktown, Va.,(pictured center) was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week.

Here are the Friday Night Tweets; we have added some things for clarity:

1) Seattle Weekly @seatlleweekly: "Study: Young adults carry less debt, but it might not be a good thing."

2) Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins: "Things are getting chippy @ConsolEnergyCtr. Tomas Kopecky of the Panthers is in the box for slashing. #Pens now on the PowerPlay. (Spoiler Alert: The Penguins won their home game over the Florida Panthers 3-1; Kopecky is from Slovakia).

3) Auburn Gymnastics @Augymnastics: "Abbey Habitcht of Auburn up next with a small check on her leap series, an awesome series, and a small hop on her dismount." (Auburn was facing LSU in a home meet tonight; no report on which team won the meet).

4) Visit Colorado @Colorado:" Have you ever been lucky enough to ski in a tee shirt? Come to Colorado and you can!" (This is the reason we have an image of Jamaican aerial skier Errol Kerr, top image, even though he is not from Colorado).

5) WBTV-News @WBTV-News (WBTV is the CBS-affiliate in Charlotte, NC): "Tractor trailer crash shuts down North Bound I-77 for several hours."

6) University of Washington Gymnastics @UWGymnastics: "Loud roar in here during starting lineups for Arizona natives and UW freshmen Keirsten Graber and Sheridan Metcalf. And, we mean LOUD!" (UW was facing Arizona State in a road meet).

7) The Baltimore Sun @baltimoresun: "Oscar trivia: Nearly half of this year's acting nominees are previous Oscar winners."

8) BYU Lacrosse @BYULacrosse: "1 more hour until the big game! We want to hear some score predictions." (Brigham Young is facing Chapman, a school in Las Vegas, as we are posting this).

9) WSOC Weather @WSOCWeather (WSOC is the Charlotte, NC, affiliate for ABC): "Ever wonder what it is like to live in London or Seattle, step outside."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.gopack.com

http://www.colorado.com

http://www.jamaicaskiteam.com

Break from Politics-Top 10 Things Under My Kitchen Sink

There seem to few things as annoying as product commercials, but campaign ads seem to take the cake and if you are in a swing state and have to watch WSOC-TV (Channel 9, Charlotte, NC), WDBJ-TV
(Channel 7 Roanoke, Va.) or WHOV-TV (Channel 13, Des Moines, Iowa), you will stuck with them for the next 11 days, so we thought we'd offer a break with a random top ten list of things in under my kitchen sink.

Here they are:

1) Draino toliet cleaner

2) Garfield cat bowls

3) Comet Bathroom Cleaner

4) recyclable shopping bags

5) old silverware

6) Mop N Glo

7) plates

8) Armor All car cleaner

9) tissue boxes

10) garbage bags

http://www.whotv.com

http://www.wsoctv.com

http://www.wdbj7.com

http://www.garfieldminusgarfield.net

Tweets from Saturday Night_ Middle East Madness

The finger-pointing from Republican presidential team Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, or DynoMutt and Blue Falcon as we call him here in the office towards the Barack Obama administration for catastrophic riots which started in Egypt on Tues., the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11th, and then fostered into a even more horrifying frenzy in Libya, where American Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed along with three other American diplomats and ten Libyans who were providing security to the embassy in Benghazi, which is not actually Libya's capital.

Today, we also learned that a mosque in Harrisonburg, Va., a city that is home to James Madison University, which is a two-hour drive from both Washington, DC, (to the north) and my hometown of Roanoke, Va. (to the south), was vandalized with the words: "This is America." Harrisonburg is also the city where a FBI agent arbitrarily raided the home of a man of Arab heritage during this country's Sept. 11th period.

All of these events are very disturbing to those of us who are Americans of Middle Eastern heritage, as it reminds us of the quote from the late great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa: "In an insane world, only the mad are sane."

Some of the other tweets of the night dealt with the presidential election here in America.

Here are some tweets from the 20:00 or 8:00 p.m. hour, New York time, this evening:

1) @Wolf Blitzer (CNN host Wolf Blitzer): "So sad to hear US evacuates families and non-emergency personnel from Tunis. I was there last year when things were encouraging."

2) @BillMaher (Outspoken liberal comedian Bill Maher): "These middle east protestors r different these days- taking pics of themselves throwing rocks and yelling: 'hashtag down with America."

3) @NPRInskeep (Steve Inskeep): "Top religious authority lists reasons why murder of US ambassador was against Islam."

4) @TheMuslimGuy (Arsalan Iftikhar): "TV ALERT: I will be on 'CNN Sunday Morning' tomorrow @ 8:30 a.m. EST on anti-Islam movie and protests around the world...Fun Stuff, I know...Sigh."

5) @Terry-McAuliffe (former Democratic strategist Terry McAuliffe): "Met some llamas for Obama at the Albermale Dems BBQ."

6) @Coffeepartyusa (Coffee Party): "The man who made the anti-Muslim video has a foreign-sounding name. Let's hire Trump and Kobach to declare he's not American."

7) @WSOC-TV (WSOC is Charlotte, NC's ABC affiliate): "Mitt Romney's son goes door to door for his dad in Charlotte."

The Last Tweets from Charlotte- Obama's Warren Buffett Problem

As the Democratic National Convention starts in about one hour, we have one last round-up of tweets before this evening's speeches get underway. Bill Clinton will be speaking in the key-note address on Wednesday night. Other key speakers will include Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, Tex., who delivers his speech tonight in Charlotte, NC, as will First Lady Michelle Obama.

We have a 1970s era NASCAR car at the bottom because the NASCAR Hall of Fame is in Charlotte.

Here are some tweets from the 4:00-5:00 p.m. hour (eastern U.S. time) today, both regarding the Democratic convention and other political soup du jours:

1) @cnnbrk (CNN Breaking News): "CNN Poll: Romney  gets convention bounce of 1 point."

2) @OpenSecretsDC (Opensecrets.org): "Mitt Romney raises $100 million for this straight month reports @politico."

3) @tnr  (The New Republic, a center-left magazine): "Bite the hand that feeds? Obama needs corporate America's money but can't stand the taint."

4) @BlairMiller9 (Blair Miller_ a reporter for WSOC-TV/Channel 9, which is Charlotte's ABC affiliate): "Cool moment in the arena. Amber Riley practicing the National Anthem_ nailed it several times. She plays Mercedes on 'Glee.'"

5) @WBTV_News (WBTV is the CBS affiliate in Charlotte): "RT (retweet) @PCameronWBTV: VP Biden, wife and son are on the ground in Charlotte. Lookout for rolling road blocks across town."

6) @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a reporter for the liberal publication "Mother Jones"): "Just saw Chris Matthews mobbed by MSNBC fans at the nifty MSNBC pavilion. Tremendous love for MSNBC on the streets of Charlotte."

7) @EzraKlein (Ezra Klein, a columnist with "The Washington Post"): "Like Romney, I also prefer muffin tops to muffins. But unlike Romney, I figure they tasted better because they were less healthy."


http://www.cnn.com

http://www.opensecrets.org

http://www.tnr.com

http://www.wsoctv.com

http://www.wbtv.com

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.nascarhall.com

Tweets Log from Charlotte_ Here Come the Mayors

We logged some tweets from last night regarding the Democratic National Convention, including some from those who will be attending and/or speaking in Charlotte, NC. Mayors figure prominently at the DNC as one of the key speakers will be Mayor Cory Booker (pictured top with New Jersey Devils helmet), the mayor of Newark, NJ. Mayor Anthony Foxx, the Democratic mayor of Charlotte, will also be very involved as the Queen City hosts its very first major political convention.

The third image is of a cup of coffee because The Coffee Party is the counter to the far right-wing Tea Party movement.

We hope we have this clear to those of you checking in from Dubai, Istanbul and Hong Kong.

Here are some sample tweets:

1)@MayorMarkK (Mark Kleinschmidt, not to confused with a German Olympic rower of the same name, is the mayor of Chapel Hill, NC): Attending the LGBT delegate welcome party @ #DNC2012. Untiy!

2) @CoryBooker (Cory Booker): Tuesday night around 6 pm RT (retweet) @alli_bachmann Mayor Booker: When are you speaking at DNC?

3) @theobserver (Charlotte Observer): "Follow our #DNC2012 Twitter account, @DNC2012clt for more news and info about the convention.

4) @DaveAtNorth (Dave Allen): Who is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower? Would you believe it's Barack Obama?

5) @thedailytarheel ("The Daily Tarheel" is the student-run newspaper of the University of North Carolina): With #DNC2012 only two days away, protestors are flooding into Charlotte to voice their discontent with both parties.

6) @nationaljournal ("The National Journal" is a non-partisan political magazine): Google, Facebook to court Dems in Charlotte with trendy parties.

7) @Kevinjk (Kevin Kopplin, a Wisconsin delegate at the DNC): "Just stopped in my hotel's bar. Upon return, we have three states staying in this place, but Wisconsin appears to be the only one drinking."


http://www.ci-chapel-hill.nc/us

http://www.corybooker.com

http://www.charlotteobserver.com

http://www.dailytarheel.com

http://www.nationaljournal.com

http://www.comevisitcharlotte.com

http://www.wisdems.com

http://www.demconvention.com

Pre-Convention Tweets from Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC

One ironic thing we found out while putting this together is that the Carolina Panthers, the football team for Charlotte, NC, the city hosting the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be playing their first game on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Tampa, Fla., is the city that hosted the Republican National Convention, which ended with Mitt Romney's platform speech on Thursday night.

But, today, we are posting tweets from earlier this afternoon regarding the DNC in Charlotte. The images above are of: 1) James Taylor, the folk/adult contemporary singer will be performing at the DNC on Thursday; Taylor is a North Carolina native. 2) The donkey is the traditional mascot of the Democratic Party and 3) a cheerleader for the Carolina Panthers.

Here are the tweets:

1. @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a liberal journalist who works for "Mother Jones"): Already time for another convention. Anyone have any suggestions what to do in Charlotte tonight?

2. @BuzzFeedAndrew (Andrew Laczynski): Occupy Protestors of DNC Banks got bailed out. Charlotte got sold out. Remind me again what stadium the DNC is in.

3. @karentravers (Karen Travers): 10 copies of Sunday NY Times at 7-11 near my Charlotte airport hotel. I can't even find it in Northwest DC sometimes! Well done Queen City!

4. @TheClothier (William Wilson): 90% of the population of Uptown Charlotte are police officers. I've never felt so safe, yet so trapped.

5. @ChuckTodd (Chuck Todd, a White House correspondent for NBC News): In place on floor of Charlotte Convention, will be doing a quick report on gender battleground state politics for @meethepress.

6. @debprice50 (Deb Price, a right-wing Tea Party activist): Obama campaign says it will fill football stadium for convention finale....yeah...right.

7. @LOLGOP (A satirical pro-Democrat tweeter): Silence has asked Mitt Romney to stop using its stuff at his rallies.

http://www.demconvention.com

http://www.demconvetnion.com/blog/

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.nbcnews.com

http://www.panthers.com

Virtual Postcard from North Carolina- The Old Guilford Mill

With the Democratic National Convention gathering in Charlotte as of this weekend, we thought we'd send out a Virtual Postcard from North Carolina, which is also my state of residence.

The Tarheel State is home to many unique attractions, including the Old Guilford Mill in Oak Ridge, NC, just north of Greensboro, which is two hours north of Charlotte.

Starting tonight, we will be posting tweets from those observing the DNC first-hand as well as tweets expressing the political thoughts of today here in America, from both progressive and conservative perspectives.

The Old Guilford Mill is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Among the products offered at the mill are: rye, buckwheat and rice flours and corn meal.

http://www.oldguilfod.com

Monday Morning Twitter Feeds_ London Calling and a Missing Kangaroo

Within the last fwe weeks, we have decided to post Twitter feeds from Saturday evenings/nights and Monday morning. We're still trying to figure out exactly why ourselves. Here are some of today's interesting tweets taken from the 10:00-11:00 a.m. hour (eastern time, USA):

1) @rollingstone: "Blur's headlining set in London may have been their last ever gig."

2) @jaketapper (Jake Tapper): "In addition to @martharaddatz, the other debate moderators are Jim Lehrer, @bobschieffer and @crowlycnn. Congrats on the honor."

3) @politico: "Don't over-interpret warns @aburnspolitico, but Gallup have data indicating tepid reaction to the Ryan announcement."

4) @ sbnation: "Did you watch Closing Ceremony? We did. And now, lots of jokes."

5) @Politicalticker: "First on CNN: Atheist group targets presidential candidates' faith with billboards" (After checking out the link, we found out that American atheists is putting up the billboards in Charlotte, NC, ahead of the Democratic National Convention. Since North Carolina is a swing-state, and Charlotte has lots of evangelicals, we think this is politically a bad idea. But, by the same token, evangelicals seem to have no problem with radical 'If you die tonight? Heaven or Hell' billboards, such as one near Roanoke, Va.)

 6) @Weirdwire: "Animal escape in Germany; kangaroo on the lamb."

7) @HuffingtonPost: "Did you see London's mayor hilariously dancing along to the Spice Girls last night?" (London's mayor Boris Johnson is pictured above)

8) @capitalweather: "Felt great this A.M., didn't it? 60s and low humidity in most spots to start day. Warming up now, low 80s at 10 a.m." (This is in reference to weather conditions in Washington, DC, hopefully, Democrats and Republicans can put aside partisanship for a nice not too hot day in the nation's capital).

http://www.politico.com

http://www.atheists.org

Quote of the Day- Carson McCullers

Today, we start a week-long series of quotes from famous American writers since the 4th of July, or Independence Day, was celebrated here last week.

We start with the distinguished Southern writer Carson McCullers (1917-1997), who died at age 50. She had suffered considerable health and personal problems during her short life. Two of her most famous novels "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (1940) and "Member of the Wedding" (1946) were written before she turned 30. Her work has also been adapted to stage plays and film.

McCullers was born in Georgia, and wrote most of her famous novels while residing in Charlotte, NC.

Here is her quote:

"I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen."

Ten People Who Will Choose Our President (3 of 10)_ Taxi Driver in Charlotte

Name: John Baily

Job: Taxi Driver

Age: 34

Race: White

Residency: Charlotte, NC

Will Likely Vote for: Mitt Romney




 Yes, the Volkswagen taxi above is in Mexico City, and the row of taxis on the bottom are in Istanbul, but it is taxi drivers in cities in swing states, such as Charlotte, NC, who will decide if Barack Obama remains president of if Mitt Romney moves into the Oval Office.


In 2008, President Obama won Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) as well as other urban areas, including Guilford County (Greensboro) and Wake County (Raleigh) as well as college town communities, such as Orange County (Chapel Hill).

One of the surprised in the North Carolina vote in 2008 was that rural Caswell County, near the Virginia border and the city of Danville, Va., voted for Obama. But, mostly rural areas went for McCain, including Alamance County (Burlington) and Iredell County (Statesville).

The Democratic Convention will take place from Sept. 3-6th in Charlotte, and the city's mayor Anthony Foxx (D) says that he expects the Queen City to reap $160 million in benefits.

In the '08 election, Obama narrowly won the Tarheel State by a 0.3%, but the non-partisan private media company Rasmussen Reports shows Romney winning by a thin 47-44 margin. North Carolina overwhelmingly voted for the highly controversial gay marriage ban earlier this year. The Republicans also took over both houses in state government in 2012, and went to extreme measures to get right wing legislation passed on July 3rd.

http://www.charlotte2012.com

http://www.2012.democratic-convention.org

http://www.demconvention.com

Happy Valentine's Day from Popeye

Greetings from the Pyongyang Public Library here in Pyongyang, North Korea, (not really where I am at), where I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day even though I personally despise this day with a passion.

Today, we thought we'd send Happy Valentine's Day greetings from Popeye who won over his love Olive Oyl the old-fashioned way by beating up his rival Bluto after taking in several cans of spinach. Obviously, doing such things in the real world can lead one to spend a night at the Mecklenberg County jail in Charlotte, NC.

There are at least two statues of Popeye in the United States: one is in Crystal City, Texas, and the other is in Chester, Illinois.

We actually have a vinyl copy of the above-pictured record which was originally released in the 1960s, though we got our particular copy as kids in the 1970s.

The cast of the record includes Jack Mercer as Popeye, Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Jackson Beck as Bluto.

The original Popeye comic strips were released in 1919. The first cartoons came out in 1933. And, a film version directed by the late, great Robert Altman came out in 1980 with Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall in the title roles. Alas, the film did not get good reviews.

But, reportedly, a merry-do-round from the set of that film is a tourist destination in Malta, where the movie was filmed!

SIDEBAR: Tonight, in honor of Valentine's Day, Turner Classic Movies is showing the vintage Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical "Top Hat" at 8:00 p.m., New York time.

Sidebar Two: The answer to our Rabbit Ears Quiz is D) 66, that is the age of Burt Ward who played Robin in the original "Batman" tv show in the 1960s.

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us

Folks in Turkey, Bulgaria and Latvia may have no idea what we are talking about, but today is Festivus Day in the United States. Today also happens to be HumanLight Day, the human secularist equivalent to Christmas. Though the two occasions are similar, our researchers could not verify or deny that they are one in the same!

Festivus is described on Wikipedia as: 'a way to celebrate the holiday season without pressures or commercialism.' Festivus originates from an episode of "Seinfeld" entitled "The Strike," which aired on Dec. 18, 1997, a few months before the cast decided to call it quits so the long-running, popular sitcom could go out on a high note.

Ironically, "Seinfeld" was once pummeled by "Home Improvement" in the ratings, though now most people agree that "Seinfeld" was far and away the better show.

Festivus includes such ceremonies as gathering around an aluminum pole called 'The Festivus Pole' and airing out grievances. The catch phrase for the holiday/celebration is "Festivus for the rest of us." There are now even Festivus yarmalukes.

In 2007, a Wisconsin man actually requested permission to put up a Festivus Pole next to a nativity scene at Green Bay City Hall as a means to protest the inclusion of religion and state.

Today, there will be a Festivus celebration at The Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va., my hometown, at 8:00 p.m.


SIDEBAR ONE: While reading the latest issue of "The New Republic," we came across an ad for a book entitled "Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays" by Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the Pennsylvania University.

The 2009 which is published by Princeton Press promotes itself as 'the book that Santa doesn't want you to read.' Among the claims that Waldfogel presents (we have not read the book ourselves) is that many gifts, particularly ones like rooster sweaters or Mister Potato Heads, are gifts we really don't need or want.

Waldfogel also argues that approximately $85 billion of waste occurs due to holiday shopping. He also stated that the Christmas shopping process disrupts regular shopping patterns and we are essentially forced to shoot in the dark to make relatives happy.

In a "Wall Street Journal" interview, the author admitted that his own wife was initially put off by his findings.

SIDEBAR TWO: Whether one agrees with Joel Waldfogel or not, one can agree with the sentiment that there is a dark side to Christmas shopping when it as it most extreme level. Today, "The Charlotte Observer" reported that three shopping malls in the Charlotte, NC- metro area had to be closed because fighting had broken out between customers who wanted the new Air Jordan XI Concord basketball shoes, that retail for around $180 a pair.

Happy Thanksgiving from Charlie Brown

As is our tradition whenever there is a holiday, we like to wish it from a cartoon character, kitschy celebrity (such as Barry Manilow) or whacko politician (ie. Michele Bachmann). And, today we go with the legendary comic strip character Charlie Brown, the brainchild of Charles Schultz (1922-2000).

When I was tutoring a student taking an English class, I actually compared Charlie Brown to Willy Loman, the character at the center of Arthur Miller's stage play "Death of a Salesman," in order to get the student to grasp the play's themes and simplify them.

Charlie Brown made his debut in "Peanuts" on Oct. 2, 1950. Snoopy came into the picture two days later. The beloved pooch also made its Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade debut as a float in 1968, a full 16 years before a float for Garfield, the comic strip cat created by Jim Davis that debuted in 1978, made his way down lower Manhattan in 1986.

Today's parade also feature a reincarnation of a float for the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog and a float created by filmmaker Tim Buron, called Character B.

Charlie Brown is noted for his rivalry with Lucy van Pelt, who pulls the football away from him as she did in the very last original "Peanuts" strip on Feb. 13, 2000.

The Little Red Head Girl is the figure of Charlie Brown's infactuation, but since he represents futility across the board, he never gets to meet her_ not even for a date at Starbucks (yes, we are aware there were no Starbucks around in 1950; it was a joke). She never actually physically appears in any of the comic strips, but her face has been shown on tv specials for "Peanuts." The character usually appears in strips that were written by Schultz around Valentine's Day.

Charlie Brown is also associated with the holidays because of both the Thanksgiving special, which first aired on Nov. 20, 1973, and the Christmas special, which premiered on Dec. 9, 1965, before folks in the United States started celebrating Christmas in September!

SIDE DISH: As we reported yesterday, my alma mater Radford University played the Univeristy of Kentucky, the #2-ranked men's basketball team, in Lexington, Ky., last night. And, like Charlie Brown trying to kick the dreaded football, the Highlanders came up very short in an 88-40 loss to the Wildcats. Terrence Jones scored 17 points for the home team; Jonathan Edwards scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds for RU.

SIDE DISH TWO: Yes, folks started lining some time ago for the Black Friday Sale at Target which gets underway at midnight here on the East. According to a tweet from "The Charlotte Observer," some 15 customers had started lining up at the main Charlotte, NC, Target store circa 8:00 p.m., a full hours before the madness begins.

Virtual Postcard from South Carolina

At the moment, I am not actually in South Carolina, but I was over the weekend. This image, for those of you logging from Singapore today (and, yes, I saw someone from that city nation was checking us out!), this image is from the Peach water tower in Gaffney, SC, which motorists can see as they drive on the interstate.

There is an event called the South Carolina Peach Festival in Gaffney every year.

A strange thing happend when I was in Charlotte, NC, for a sidetrip. A panhandler with a walking stick who had just given me directions to a Starbucks (keep in mind, this was when the Carolina Panthers were playing a home football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a game which the Panthers won 16-10, and there were lots of folks flooding the downtown area) asked me for a dollar so 'he could buy a cup of coffee.'

Well, about five minutes later, I saw him at that same Starbucks with a cup of coffee. A part of me felt like I was scammed since coffee at Starbucks is more expensive than most places, but another part of me said: "Well, he said he wanted a cup of coffee."

SIDENOTE: I was actually going to take a week-long hiatus from the blog, but ultimately it is too much like going a long time without making fun of Republicans (especially Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann) or some iced vanilla coffee from Starbucks. In short, all of us, to a degree, have our vices!

Speaking of Ron Paul, I gather the state of Montana has a substantially high number of UFO sightings, so perhaps he is on his way there as we speak to meet up with his fellow little green men.

Status Update_ I've Seen All But One of the Films...

Status Update for 1/25/11: "I've seen all the films nominated for Best Picture Oscar except '127 Hours,' but no one around here is showing it!"

Towards the end of the family trip to Washington, DC, (see the DC Diary blog entries), I had a chance to see "127 Hours," the new Danny Boyle film with James Franco. I chose to see "I Love You, Philip Morris" at the Landmark E-Street Cinema instead on the false assumption that it would be the film less likely to be playing in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, NC. But, amazingly enough, the reverse happened!

In spite of much critical acclaim, "127 Hours" is not playing in a single movie theatre between the Washington, DC, and Charlotte, NC, metro areas. This includes cities like Charlottesville, Roanoke, Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia, as well as zip codes like Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington in North Carolina (in addition to the Greensboro area).

I know it briefly played in Asheville, NC, but for some odd reason, it has yet to come to a cinema here. This simply astonishes me.

My friend Chris Knight expressed similar exasperation when "The Road" wasn't showing anywhere between Atlanta and Washington, DC, in late 2009.

I guess everyone assumes we want to see "Green Hornet" in 3-D. Nothing against that film or its director Michel Gondry, who I have a lot of respect for, but I am puzzled how the movie distribution system works. If anyone knows someone at Fox Searchlight, who is distributing "127 Hours," I would love to find out the reasons for this. The company is also distributing the acclaimed film "The Black Swan" with Natalie Portman.

Assuredly, I am not the only one dismayed by the way they determine which markets get to see which films.

However, I did notice on the film's IMDB page, that is in fact now playing in Kuwait!

Happy Chanukah from Karagoz and Hacivat

It is possible that some arch conservative Jews may take exception to me posting an image of the beloved Turkish shadow puppet characters Karagoz and Hacivat (Karagoz is the one with the long beard), but Bursa, Turkey, the city where the Ottoman-era plays are a major tourist attraction once had a very large Jewish community. But, in recent years, the major Jewish communities in Turkey are prodominantly in Istanbul, which is four hours north of Bursa (mainly because of traffic rather than actual mileage).

The Greek version of Karagoz and Hacivat is Karagiozis and Hadjavatis. The main nuanced difference between Karagoz and his Greek counterpart is that Karagiozis is a hunchbacked figure.

Karagoz and Hacivat remained a popular form of entertainment up until the advent of modern technology, but they remain the most popular Turkish children's entertainment figures to this day. The plays were first performed for Sultan Selim the Grim (1512-1520 was his reign) in Egypt. Karagoz represents the Turkish peasant class and Hacivat symbolizes secularism and intellectualism. It is perhaps for those why it is NOT ironic that the two characters typically never get along.

The Turkish version of the shadow puppets are often made from camel leather, which probably doesn't go over too well with the Istanbul chapter of PETA (there may actually be such an organization, perhaps!).

As for Bursa, which is Turkey's fourth largest city, it is also known for Iskender Kebap, a dish made from lamb meat covered with tomato sauce and yogurt over pide bread.

Iskender kebap can be found at several restaurants in Bursa, including Kebapci Iskender as well as Turkish restaurants here in the United States, including (we believe) Carolina Kebap in Charlotte, NC.

As for Hannukah/Chanukah, there will be a candle-ligthing locally at Chabad Greensboro starting at 4:47 p.m. today.

And, though it's not holiday-related (our presumption) Ashmatic Kitty Records artist (singer Sufjan Stevens's label) Juliana Barwick will perform at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC, on Dec. 6th and 7th.

Radical Church Sign We Saw (in Honor of National Prayer Day)

Since many official government agencies at the local, federal and state levels are recognizing National Prayer Day in spite of the fact that Federal Judge Barbara B. Crabb ruled it unconstitutional, we thought we would revisit this crazy church sign I saw as I was cruising down Wendover Ave. in Greensboro, NC, last weekend.

(We could have never made this up)!:

"JESUS TOOK a WHOOPIN FOR YOU."

Yes, they did leave out the 'g.' We imagine many people at this church are affiliated with the Greensboro Tea Party.

Mayor William Bunter of Topeka, Kan., told the AP that his jurisdiction would recognize today as National Prayer Day because prayer was a rite of passage in the Jayhawk State. Many cities around the country seem to following suit.

But, there is hope. As I was researching this piece, I was deligthed to find out that there is a 'congregation' of atheists in Charlotte, NC, (web site: charlotteatheists.com) which is the home of the Rev. Billy Graham.

As someone who was once a Muslim as a child (my late father was from Turkey), I know that people would actually hate me more if I had maintained my faith. So, I urge all of us who 'have a different view' to express ourselves as openly as we can. After all, even if one lives in a place like Provo, Utah, or Fort Mill, SC, they are still residing in a free country.