Potluck Quote of the Day (8 out of 10): Brigitte Bardot

Today we quote French bombshell actress Brigitte Bardot, who was tonight's Star of the Day on TCM which screened several of her films including "Contempt" by the amazing filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Bardot has also gotten wide media attention for speaking out against Muslim emigre women wearing burkinis along resorts on the French coast. Amazingly enough, we got into a row on Twitter with BOTH Muslims and non-Muslims for expressing our nuanced views on that matter. It seems like social media is a great way for everyone to hate your guts!

Before we get to tonight's quote, we want to thank WXYC-FM, the student-run UNC college radio station in Chapel Hill, NC, for playing one of our high school favorites "New Girl Now" by the Canadian band Honeymoon suite and the new wave German-language classic "Das Komasor" from the late Austrian pop star Falco.

Additionally, we want to share this great line from the Sunday edition Paul Jon's comic strip "Fort Knox": "Absolutely, in a few years, it will take over our backyard.

Lastly, we want to congratulate Turkish free-style wrestler Taha Akgul for winning his nation's lone gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Here is our quote from Bardot: "If only every man who sees my films did not get the impression he can make love to me, I would be a lot happier."

http://www.tcm.com

http://www.wxyc.org/

http://www.gocomics.com/fortknox

https://www.rio2016.com/en/turkey

Today's Quote of the Day: Jacques Derrida

 Today's quote of the day comes from the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004):

"Why is the philosopher who is expected to be easier and not some scientist who is even more inaccessible?"

20-Word Fiction (10/10): Jack and Diane

Greetings to our blog readers in Poland, Jordan and India......

As we typing this up, we are listening to "The American Life," a public radio documentary series hosted by Ira Glass; this week's episode focuses on the problems of intimacy. This short, short story reflects that sentiment as well:

"Jack got a postcard from Paris from his girlfriend. Diane told him she missed him even though she just met Pierre."

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

Happy Valentine's Day (1 of 4): For Lovebirds.....

Yes, this is soooooo not us!!!!

10 for 10 (3rd Entry): Love Those Zoo Animals

Greetings to our blog readers in Saudi Arabia, India, and France....

Alas, we are running way, way behind in our efforts to post 10 entries in honor of our 10th anniversary of blogging, which is on Sept. 21st.

Life has been crazy and zany lately, and I promise our good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, that it is not due to watching hours of the '70s English sitcom "Are You Being Served?" on Youtube.

Here is a link to the Denver Zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo and the North Carolina Zoo (in Asheboro, NC, near Greensboro) in case you want to see a giraffe or another zoo animal of your choice in real life.

http://www.denverzoo.org/

http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/

http://www.nczoo.org/

http://www.zoo.com.sg/ (A link to the Singapore Zoo for our world audience)

Friday Night Tweets: Big Ben and Domestic Politics

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, France, and Mexico........


We are closing out July with three consecutive blog entries (hmmm.....yea, we changed our mind), this one is dedicated to tweets that were posted during the 9-10 p.m., eastern US time, many of which dealt with the partisan political divide in the country.......

1) Big Ben (yeah, that clock in London, pict. top): BONG BONG

2) UbertFacts: Osama bin Laden was obsessed with Whitney Houston (pict. late) and wanted to make her one of his wives (alas the pop singer died a few years ago as did Osama)....

3) The Daily Signal: Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky; pict: bottom) commits to Planned Parenthood defunding vote next week (He does NOT have the support of comedian Sarah Silverman who mocked pro-life groups with a video that is causing quite a stir)

4) Urban Dictionary: White Man_ A term used to describe a group of people who are blamed for all the problems in the world.

5) Adam Owens (A tv news reporter for WRAL, Raleigh, NC): Raleigh Police investigate fatal accident on Roy Road....

6) Psychological Facts: If you think someone is starting at you: 1. Yawn 2. If they yawn, they were staring

7) Martin DeGarmo: The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers (a quote from Ralph Nader as the tweeter cited)

8) Jon Winokur (Advice to Writers): Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. (a quote from Maya Angelou as the tweeter cited).

9) The Job Guy: "The only limits are, as always, those of vision," James Broughton, a late American poet.

http://www.dailysignal.com

http://www.urbandictionary.com

http://www.job-guy.com (This might not be the same job guy we mentioned!) 

Top Ten Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Jump Start Gets the Bronze

Greetings to our blog readers in France, Russia, and Bulgaria......

Today, we bring you the last installment in our favorite Sunday comic strips of the week series.

This was a week when Bill Griffith used his comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead" (not in "The Roanoke Times") to make fun of another comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" (which is in "The Roanoke Times"). Both strips share the same distributor Kings Features.

Our favorite comic strip from "The Roanoke Times" was "Speed Bump" http://www.gocomics/speedbump which featured several ducklings taking selfies of each other. Second place goes to "Get Fuzzy" in which a cat and a dog fight over a baby rattler, which one can presumably find at a Toys R Us http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy ............. Lastly, we went with "Jump Start" for third place which revolved around an African-American and a white mother with children almost colliding in the produce aisle of a grocery store http://www.gocomics.com/jumpstart

Here is the top ten:

1. Speed Bump

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Jump Start

4. Non Sequitur

5. Garfield

6. Agnes

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. Dilbert

9. Doonesbury

10. Zits

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

For a look at our favorite comic strips in the "Martinsville Bulletin" go to our sister blog at http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Sunday Comics Survey from Feb. 8th Roanoke Times: Pastis Goes for the Punt

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Croatia and France.......

And, our deepest condolences to the friends and families of the three Syrian Muslim college students who killed in their Chapel Hill, NC, apartment yesterday.

On a lighter note, here are our ten favorite comic strips from the most recent edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper of Roanoke, Va.

For starters, "Pearls Before Swine," a Stephan Pastis comic strip, makes fun of Norwegian lemmings one of whom goes for a pass thrown by another lemming and well, you can guess the rest. One of the surviving lemming says (SPOILER ALERT) that he will not be going to Disneyland. Our top image of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who won his fourth Super Bowl, is used for the strip, though he is not mentioned in 'Pearls.'

Third place goes to the single-panel gem "Speed Bump" which has a male angel being presumably nagged by his wife about reading a novel instead of going to bed. For this, we chose the late Daniel Foster Wallace novel "Infinite Jest," (pict. center) which is over 1,000 pages long! Perhaps, an inmate at Red Onion Prison in southwest Virginia is reading the novel. If so, they may actually finish it. A literary major at Brown University in Rhode Island, conversely, may not get to the end!

And, fifth place goes to "Agnes" who is questioning her teacher about the overload of homework (bottom image: an algebra calculator).

Here is our survey:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Doonesbury

3) Speed Bump

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Agnes

6) Garfield

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Zits

10) For Better or For Worse

For last week's "Roanoke Times" comics survey, go to our sister blog http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

The Last Ten CDs We've Listened To: Nothing Goes Together Like Rush and The Go-Gos

For those of you in France, the land of Lucky Luke (who is called Red Kit in Turkish) and Asterix, we want to take a moment to remember the 17 people who senselessly lost their lives this week in various terrorist attacks across Paris, including the ten who were killed at Charlie Hebdo headquarters. Je Suis Charlie. Je Suis Ahmed. Of course, we are now realizing that using an image of a Volkswagen Beetle, a German car, instead of an image for a Fiat is perhaps a bad idea.

The images are of 1) the Canadian rock band Rush, 2) a postcard from Ocean City, Maryland, for the Go-Gos' album "Vacation," and 3) the VW bug for the band The Cars.

Here are the last ten cds we've listened to:

1. Interpol. Antics. 2004.

2. Rush. Signals. 1982.

3. The Go-Gos. Vacation. 1982.

4. Talking Heads. Remain in Light. 1980.

5. The Pretenders. Learning to Crawl. 1982.

6. The Cars. Candy-O. 1979.

7. The Rolling Stones. Let It Bleed. 1969.

8. Peter Gabriel. Us. 1992.

9. Frank Zappa. Waka/Jawaka. 1972.

10. Blur. 13. 1999.

http://www.gogos.com/

http://www.talking-heads.nl/

http://petergabriel.com/latest/

Top Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times

Greetings to our blog readers in Italy, Belgium and France........

Here is our latest installment of the funniest comic strips in today's "Roanoke Times," which features comic strips for children (the usually boring "Family Circus"), hip Gen Xers such as myself ("Pearls Before" and........hmmmm..........ok, "Get Fuzzy" and lastly comic strips for old people at a nursing home in Troutville, Va. ("Pickles," "Hi and Lois," "Blondie," et al.....)....

Our top comic strip of the week is "Speed Bump" which shows what a prehistoric meteor drill may have been like, followed by "Get Fuzzy," this week the Siamese cat argued with the dog over a tennis ball, and "Dilbert" which asks the question what would you do if you were named Worst Employee of the Month (that strip is the reason for the image of a yellow and blue necktie, which are also the colors of the Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce; we personally root for their rivals Galatasaray).

Here is our list:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Dilbert

4) Pearls Before Swine

5) Agnes

6) Doonesbury

7) Funky Winkerbean

8) Zits

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Garfield

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

http://www.dilbert.com

Quotes from Off the Beat and Path (4 of 6): Marcel Marceau

Though the late, great Marcel Marceau was a French mime and not known for speaking, today, we feature a quote from this comic genius who ironically said the only line in the mid-70s Mel Brooks movie "Silent Movie."

Here is his quip:

"To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man."

The Last Ten French Films We've Seen: Hopefully, Godard is Pleased with Us

Here are the last ten French-language films we've seen, including "Aaltra," a VERY dark comedy that is a Belgian film which is partially filmed in Finland. It was distributed here in the United States through the Film Movement. And, it aired at 2:00 a.m. back in December on Turner Classics Movies as a film selected by comedian/actor Patton Oswalt who was guest programmer.

This month's Star of the Month on TCM is Mary Astor, who played the femme fatale opposite Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" (she is not French!)

Here is the list (we got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine):

Any film with an (*) is one we watched via Netflix

1) "Aaltra" (Belgium. 2004. dirs.- Gustave de Kervem and Benoit Delepine)

2) "Rules of the Game" (1939. dir-Jean Renoir; see image #1)

3) "Rust and Bone" (2012. dir-Jacques Audiard)

4) "A Woman is a Woman" (1961. dir-Jean-Luc Godard) *

5) "Les Cousins" (1959. dir-Claude Chabrol)

6) "A Burning Hot Summer" (2011. dir-Philippe Garrel) *

7) "Leaving" (2009. dir-Catherine Corsini w/Kristin Scott Thomas) *

8) "Farewell, My Queen" (2012. dir-Benoit Jacquot; see image #2 which of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands)

9) "Un Flic/A Cop" (1972. dir. Jean-Pierre Melville w/Catherine Deneuve; see image #3, which is of a K-9 officer)

10) "Hadewijch" (2009. dir- Bruno Durmont)

http://www.filmcomment.com/

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.tcm.com/

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.filmmovement.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FrenchFilms

Quotes from the Little Thinkers (3 of 16): Charlie Chaplin

Greetings to our blog-readers in Italy, France and Bulgaria.

Today, we quote the great actor/filmmaker/composer Charlie Chaplin, whose classic film "City Lights" is available from the Criterion Collection: http://www.crterion.com

There is also an independent bookstore in San Francisco, Calif., called City Light.

Here is his quip:

"This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to survive in it."

http://www.charliechaplin.com

Presidential Quotes (5 of 16): Millard Fillmore...........not the duck

Greetings to our blog-readers in Dubai, France and Norway, where the English soccer team Tottenham Hotspur traveled all the way to Tromso, a city inside the Arctic Circle, in which the visitors prevailed 2-0.

Though he may not be a household name in France or even here in les etas unis, President Millard Fillmore was the fourth and final Whig Party member and the 13th man to rise to the presidency. In Fillmore's case, it was not an election but the death of President Zachary Taylor which allowed him the presidency. Fillmore was later on a 1938 postage stamp, and his time in office lasted from 1850-53. He was also a political conservative.

This brings us to Mallard Fillmore, a right-wing cartoon duck whom we must admit is quite amusing even though we prefer the progressive politics of comic strips like "Doonesbury" and "Knight Life" (by the ever-kewl Keith Knight), which is the brainchild of Bruce Tinsley.

"Mallard Fillmore" first became syndicated in 1994, and Tinsley got his start as a political cartoonist for "The Daily Progress" newspaper in Charlottesville, Va., which is ironically the most progressive zip code in Virginia.

Stephen Colbert made fun of Mallard Fillmore in 2006 saying that the duck was to right-wing media as Garfield was to lasagna.

Here is Pres. Millard Fillmore's quote: "It is not strange to mistake change for progress."


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

http://www.millardfillmore.org

http://www.mallardfillmore.com

Image to Fill Space: Le Car

Tomorrow will start the official kick-off for a short blog week: Among the items, we will discuss are ways to contact your Congressional representative on Capitol Hill to prevent a government shutdown, results from college volleyball games across the nation and perhaps some international soccer scores.

For now, we leave with image of Le Car, a French car that was popular around the world some 30-40 years ago.

Greetings to our blog readers in Gabon, Guyana and Sri Lanka: These were the three remote countries that came to mind!

UPDATE: It just came to our minds: That if we mention "Breaking Bad," Bob Odenkirk and 'pink teddy bear' that our hits may increase somewhat.

Soccer Week (6 of 8): Turkish Soccer Game Sees Seven Goals

Ali Adnan Kerim, who goes by Ali Adnan (pictured), is an Iraqi player who is a rising star in the Turkish Premiere. Kerim, who is known as the 'Asian Gareth Bale' scored one of five goals for Rziespor, located in the tea mecca of Rize, in the 12th minute of play. His Turkish teammate Sercan Kaya added two goals, including the game-winning penalty kick in the 80th minute, for Rizespor's electrifying 5-2 win over Gaziantepspor.

Sivasspor, located in the northwestern city of Sivas, defeated Eskisehirspor, located in Eskisehir, a western city where meerschaum pipes are made, by a 3-2 score. The game-winner for the Sivas side came from Moroccan player Aatif Chahechouhe, who somehow didn't make our players with long, long names list, in the 73rd minute of play.

Here are the complete results from Week 4 in the TPL and (Spoiler Alert!), we have some UEFA Champions League scores, including how GalataSaray, a traditional Istanbul powerhouse, fared at home against Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid.

Here are the Turkish domestic scores from weekend (actually Friday-Monday) play:

GalataSaray 1 Antalyaspor 1 (tie)

Erciyes Kayseri 1 Akihisar 0

Gaziantepspor 2 Rizespor 5

Trabzonspor 1 Karabukspor 0 (Goal came from Brazilian Paulo Henrique in 76th minute)

Ankara Genclerbirligi 1 Kayseri 1 (tie)

Sivasspor 3 Eskisehir 2

Bursaspor 0 Besiktash (Istanbul) 3

Elazig 2 Konyaspor 0

Kasimpasha (IST) 2 Fenerbahce (IST) 3

Here are some UEFA Champion League scores:

It was a good day for Cristiano Ronaldo, as he scored a hat trick, in Istanbul in Real Madrid's 6-1 win over GalataSaray. But, it was not a good day for Greek team Olympiacos as they fell at home in Piraeus (a city outside Athens) to French powerhouse Paris St. Germain by a 4-1 score with two goals (scored within minutes of each other) by French player Thiago Motta.

Here is the complete UEFA Scoreboard:

Manchester United 4 Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) 2

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shktar Donetsk (Ukraine) 2*

Benefica (Portugal) 2 Anderecht (Belgium) 0

Plzen (Czech Rep.) 0 Manchester City 3

GalataSaray 1 Real Madrid 6

Olympiacos 1 PSG 4

Bayern Munich 3 CSKA Moscow 0

Copenhagen 1 Juventus 1 (tie)

*- Shakthar Donestsk's win was considered the upset of the day. Brazilian player Alex Teixeira scored both goals in the victory. This team is not to be confused with Shakter Karagandy, a team from Kazakhstan, which will play in the Europa League on Thursday.

For more information on Turkish soccer, we highly recommend our good friend Ahmet Bob Turgut's blog http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

http://www.angelfire.com/nj/sivritepe/

http://www.turkish-football.com/

http://www.psg.fr/en/Accueil/0/Home (Paris St. Germain's web site, in English)

Soccer Week (5 of 8): Games of the Week Results

There were a handful of soccer games played tonight in Europe: Among them is the Turkish Super League match-up between two Istanbul teams, Fenerbahce and Kasimpasha. Thanks to two goals from Pierre Webo of Cameroon (pictured here) the Yellow Canaries came from behind for a 3-2 win over Kasimpasha. Yes, we are wondering why Webo is not wearing a yellow jersey with blue stripes (Fener's traditional uniform colors) too!

Here are the results from the Games of the Week entry posted on Friday:

France:

Lille 0 Nice 2 (both goals came from Argentine national Daro Cvitanich)

Lyon 0 Rennes 0 (tie)

Also, Paris St. Germain won over Bordeaux 2-0

Turkey:

Bursapor 0 Besiktash 3 (Three international players: Hugo Almeida of Portugal; Tomas Sivak of Slovakia, who is also the team captain; and Julien Escade scored for BJK).

Kasimpasha 2 Fenerbahce 3

Also, GalataSaray tied Antalyaspor 1-1

Italy:

Inter Milan 1 Juventus 1-1 (tie)

Napoli 2 Atalanta 0

Greece:

Veria 1 PAOK 2 (Miguel Vitor of Portugal and Miroslav Stoch of Slovakia scored for PAOK)

OFI Crete 1 Asteras Tripolis 1 (tie)

Spain:

Villareal 2 Real Madrid 2 (tie)

Atl. Madrid 4 Almeira 2 (Goals from Spanish stars David Villa and Koke for Atl Madrid)

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2013/09/soccer-week-1-of-8-games-to-watch-in.html (Friday's entry)

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Soccer Week (1 of 8): Games to Watch in Mediterranean Countries

This is the first entry in our first ever Soccer Week series (we were originally going to call it Futbol Week). For this entry, we look at ten games being played in Mediterranean countries. Alas, we didn't have room for Portugal or Israel. But, we do feature France, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain in this preview of what one might call dev machlar (giant games) in Turkish.

The three images above are of: 1) Pablo Batalla*, an Argentine international who is a star player for Bursaspor in Turkey; 2) Didier Digard who is a French international and a captain for OGC Nice in France and 3) Manolis Moniakis who has a short name (by Greek standards) the defender and Greek international plays for OFI Crete in Greece.


We hoped to provide you with the start times (as they would be in New York), but we realized that would cause much confusion. Keep in mind that Madrid and Paris are six hours ahead of New York and that Istanbul and Athens are seven hours ahead of Boston. Most games are played when it is morning or early afternoon in Baltimore or Tampa; we hope to provide you with the scores of these games on Monday:

Turkey:

Sun. Bursapor  vs.  Besiktash (Istanbul) 

Mon. Kasimpasha (Istanbul) vs. Fenerbahce (Istanbul)

France:

Sun. Lille vs. OCG Nice

Sun. Lyon vs. Rennes

Greece:

Sat. Veria vs. PAOK (Thessaloniki)

Sat. OFI Crete vs. Astera Tripolis (Tripoli)

Spain:

Sat. Villareal vs. Real Madrid (this might be the best game in all of Europe)

Sat. Athletico Madrid vs. Almeira

Italy:

Sat. Inter Milan vs. Juventus (Turin) (this might be the best game in Europe as well)

Sat. Napoli vs, Atalanta

http://www.turkish-football.com/

http://greeksoccer.com/

http://www.ligue1.com/ (French soccer)

*- Alas, we have Pablo's last name spelled incorrectly in our tags......

Eid Mubarak/Happy Ramadan from Nasreddin Hoca

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, France and New Zealand.

We also want to send a special Ramadan greeting to our friends in Turkey, Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Now, that Ramadan is complete, we can all go out for halal hot dogs and an Efes Pilsen Beer*......:)

The image above is of the famed Nasreddin Hoca, a comical Persian philosopher who reportedly rode his donkey backwards; Nasreddin lived in what is now central Turkey in the provinces of Konya and Nevsehir.

*-Efes Pilsen is a Turkish beer made from the pilsener formula developed in the town of Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

Sports Desk: France Wins Under-20 World Cup in Turkey

Today is Bastille Day in France, and their national Under-20 soccer team, is bringing home a World Cup Championship.

On Saturday, France beat Uruguay, which had upset Spain in the quarterfinals, 0-0 (4-1) on penalty kicks after 120 minutes of play without a single goal from either side.

The final was played in Istanbul, Turkey, and other host cities included Bursa, Trabzon, Rize, Gaziantep, Antalya and Kayseri. Surprisingly, neither Ankara, the Turkish capital, nor Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey held games during the tournament.

Paul Pogba (pictured top) who plays for the Italian team Juventus was named the best player of the tournament, and his teammate goal-tender Alphonse Areola (pictured bottom) from the French team Paris Saint Germain, which won the French League this season, was named the outstanding player of the final.

Ghana beat Iraq 3-0 in the competition for third place, and Ebenezer Assifuah from Ghana received the Golden Boot in the tournament as he was the player who scored the most goals.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sports