Word of the Day: Zeitgeist

Greetings to those of you blog readers in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey (you have to love our sense of humor) as well as any of you who might be checking us out domestically from Maine, Hawaii or Wyoming. Welcome to "The Daily Vampire"!

Anyway, we are aware that Jimmy Carter is trending on the Internet as is the controversial "Rolling Stone" cover, but we will stick with our basic plan, which is to secretly invade Albania (just kidding)!

For those of you who reside in Bolivia, Honduras or Mexico, we imagine the English language must have its challenges and that is certainly true with the word 'zeitgeist' which actually derives from German.

A zeitgeist as it is defined by Wikipedia means: "Intellectual fashion or prevailing school of thought which influences at the same juncture or 'spirit of times.'

We can use it in the following sentence: "I felt the zeitgeist in Ingmar Berman's film 'Persona,'" the classic Swedish film which is pictured above..........hmm.........yeah guess that doesn't help much, but we tried!

12 of the 24 Countries Mentioned in Last Night's Debate

Last night, 24 countries were mentioned in the last debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. David Brooks, a center right columnist for "The New York Times" and commentator for PBS said the debate was a tie that will probably not swing polls much in either direction. Mark Shields, also of PBS, said that he was surprised that India and Japan, two global economic powers, were not mentioned at all.

The debate last night also proved history repeats itself as Romney said Obama should have done more to help Iran, a charge that then-president Ronald Reagan laid out against the Jimmy Carter administration when he debated Walter Mondale, Carter's veep, in a 1984 presidential debate.


In case you are wondering, the flags above are for: 1) Greece (Prime Minister Antonis Samaras), 2) Turkey (Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan), 3) Israel (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). There is sort of an in-joke here as Turkey, my late father's country, has a long-standing rivalry with Greece and there is currently diplomatic turmoil with Israel.

Here are 12 of the countries in alphabetical order:

Afghanistan, Cuba, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Yemen


For the 12 other countries, go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Al Gore

Today, we continue our month-long series of quotes from American vice presidents. Today, we quip Al Gore, 64, who served under President Bill Clinton, who is for some strange trending on Twitter today. My fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur hosts "The Young Turks," a progressive political talk show on Gore's Current-TV at 7:00 p.m.

Gore is also known for being an advocate for global warming, which seems to be quite accurate given that Minnesota is now as hot as Alabama on any given day in July.

We have a quote from Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here is Gore's quote:

"The day I made that statement about inventing the Internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the camcorder."http://www.algore.com
http://www.current.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Gerald Ford

Today, we continue quoting the last eight American presidents with a quip from Gerald Ford (1913-2006) who was the 38th president and the one who lived in the longest. At the present time, the oldest living American president is George H.W. Bush with a Jimmy Carter (both born in 1924), who defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election, being a close second.

There has been quite a political shift in the South since Carter, who was from Plains, Georgia, won over Ford, who was from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his presidential library is located. In 1976, Carter won ever southern state except Virginia. All southern states had voted for George W. Bush in his two narrow elections, but in 2008, both Virginia and North Carolina voted for President Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain.

In pop culture, Ford was frequently parodied by "Saturday Night Live" actor Chevy Chase, who ironically became addicted to pain killers because of the prat falls he made while impersonating Ford.

Here is Ford's quote:

"I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio." http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.org

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention last week that the answer to our April 17th edition of "The Rabbit Ear Quiz" was A) Robert Vaughn; he hosted the initial pilot episode of "In Search of...." which was hosted by Leonard Nimoy for the rest of the documentary tv show's run.

Quote of the Day/Week-Ronald Reagan

Today, we are continuing to quote the last eight presidents (the other four quotes are on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time") not to be confused with my sister's blog, well actually she does not have one.

And, the subject of quote today is from Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Some trivia before we get to our quote. Reagan was also a Hollywood actor and his last film was "The Killers" (1964, dir. Don Siegel) in which he played a mob boss, a role that was originally considered for the late Walter Mathau.

Reagan was played by eight different actors on "Saturday Night Live" including the late Phil Hartman, Robin Williams (guest host), Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Charles Rocket, Harry Shearer, Kevin Nealon and Joe Piscopo, who was the only "SNL" star to play both Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

In the controversial tv film "The Reagans" (2003), Reagan was played by James Brolin. Five years later, Brolin's son Josh Brolin played another president, George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's "W" (2008).

Here is Reagan's quote:

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table."

Quote of the Week- Jimmy Carter

He is undoubtedly Rush Limbaugh's 'favorite president' (which is reason to love the guy) and tomorrow night former president Jimmy Carter will sign copies of his latest book at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC.

An interview with Carter will also air this weekend on C-Span 2 (Book TV), and an exhibit called "The Working White House" is currently on display at the Carter Museum and Library in Atlanta where Rosalynn Carter will hold her own book-signing in December.

Here is our quote from the president, one of only four living ex-presidents, who came in between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan:

"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America."

Another ex-president Bill Clinton speaks at the Greensboro Coliseum tomorrow night as part of Guilford College's Bryan Series. Clinton will reportedly head to Switzerland on Wednesday to start lobbying for an American bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

SIDEBAR: Speaking of Carter's home state of Georgia, we learned that there is a happening vegeteranian restaurant in the college town of Athens, Ga., called The Grit, which serves brunch from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Quote of the Week: Harry Truman

Hello and Welcome to our listeners in Hilo, Hawaii; War, West Virginia; Calgary, Canada; Anqtigua, Guatemala; Quito, Ecuador; Lisbon, Portugal; Accra, Ghana; Eskisehir, Turkey; Qom, Iran; Tora Bora, Afghanistan; and Pyongyang, North Korea.

Forgive the BBC World Service satire as we focus on tonight's entry dedicated to our great American president Harry Truman. One can visit the Harry Truman Library in Independence, Mo, where there is a current timely exhibit on "Memories of Korea" until Dec. 31.

Here is our Truman quote, which is part of our focus on the last 12 presidents before Barack Obama (FDR-GWB):

"A president needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it."

SIDEBAR: Former president Jimmy Carter will be at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, but there are many other guests of interest this week, including author Noah Feldman who has a new book on FDR's battles with The Supreme Court on Monday. And, on Wednesday, one of favorite unapologetics liberal journalists Matt Taibbi of "Roling Stone" who coined the term: "Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives" in article about the big Tea Party convention in Louisville, Ky., a few months ago will be talking at Politics and Prose about his new book "Griftopia."

Today, the bookstore had this very amusing tweet: Overheard_ "This bookstore is like my outlet mall," we take that as a compliment.

SIDEBAR TWO: Today's trending topics on Twitter and AOL are Obama Busted Lip, Willie Nelson, Wal-Mart, Kim Kardashian, Hallee Berry, Signs of a Drinking Problem, File for unemployment.

We will add Noam the Gnom and Zinn the Mink which are gnomes in homage of Noam chomskey and the late Howard Zinn that the liberal "The Nation" magazine are trying to sell to help them compensate for a half-million deficit. We imagine this will work better than trying to get subscriptions from folks in places like Provo, Utah, Lynchburg, Va. and Paducah, Ky.

Quote of the Week.....from a former president

Who said: "Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There is nothing to do but stand and take it."

Was it:

A) Lyndon B. Johnson
B) George HW Bush
C) Bill Clinton
D) Jimmy Carter

Today is also the birthday of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1935), who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923.