10 for 10 (5th Entry): Love Those Yorkies!

Greetings to our blog readers in Belgium, Canada, and Japan......

Tonight, we are desperately trying to catch up on our 10 for 10 series, and we now know you perhaps cartoonist Bill Griffith must feel if he has gotten behind on drawing his comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead." But, we imagine he is not a notorious procrastinator.

We are featuring an image of Yorkshire terrier, also known as yorkies.

You may not find a yorkie at your community animal shelter here in America, but you may just find a friend for life, so here are two animal local shelters we will provide links for:

https://www.coastalhumanesociety.org/ (Animal shelter in Brunswick, Maine)

http://www.hshponline.org/ (Animal shelter in Hays, Kansas)

Things To Do List Satire: Calling the Baltimore Sun

It's a Sunday night here in Roanoke, Va., and that only means one thing: Listening to music from the '30s and '40s on our local NPR radio station (to the folks at WVTF, just kidding, we love what you do for us and I am actually listening to '30s and '40s music........even though Steely Dan and Supertramp are really my speed)......

Oh, about our last entry, yeah, that was an April Fool's Joke, but we did watch the Final 4 games on tv. And, we didn't tape them, so there was no avoiding the annoying Southwest Airlines ads.

So, since there is not too much going on tonight until "Mad Men" comes on, we thought we would do a satirical things to do list for this coming week:

1. Get the current issue of "Writer's Digest"

2. Actually write something, even a haiku.

3. Drive to Winchester, Va., to find the late country singer Patsy Cline's grave (pict. center)

4. Call "The Baltimore Sun" and ask them to send today's Sunday edition of their newspaper to my address even though I live six hours away from them (the Baltimore Orioles start their season tomorrow....we think)....

5. Mapquest directions to Portland, Maine, so you can see a Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team, even though Maine is pretty freaking far from Virginia.

6. Play Ms. Pac-Mac for 6.5 hours

7. Watch the entire first two seasons of the '70s BBC comedy series "Are You Being Served?" (pictured bottom......I think my friend Chris Knight is the only person my age who actually watches this show regularly....)

8. Laundry

9. Carwash

10. Dishes

http://wvtf.org/

http://www.writersdigest.com/

http://www.visitwinchesterva.com/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/

https://www.facebook.com/portlandseadogs

http://www.aybscentral.com/

http://www.theknightshift.com/

DC Week (2 of 8): Tweets About the Nation's Capital and the Government Shutdown

With images of 1) Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah); 2) Mabry Mill, near Roanoke, Va., which has been closed due to the federal government shutdown; and 3) Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), we begin our first of two entries in this eight-entry series geared towards Washington, D.C.

"The Roanoke Times" reported that Mabry Mill, which is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, could be reopen. Today, President Barack Obama said that states could re-open national parks with state funds. As a result, The Statue of Liberty, The Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore are likely to re-open.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) is considered to be the most conservative Democrat in the House, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is considered to be the most progressive Republican in the Senate. Both are reportedly working diligently to find the proverbial common ground to restart the federal government, which is now in Day 10 of a shutdown.

Here are the tweets:

1) Cong. Jim Matheson: "Glad Utah National Parks are open. Too bad we can't vote on a clean CR (Continuing Resolution) to operate rest of the government."

2) National Review (a conservative magazine): "Barack Obama can close our parks, but he's never block American enterprise."

3) The Hill: "Chris Christie (New Jersey's Republican governor): If I was in the Senate right now, I'd kill myself."

4) Embassy of Greece: "The Embassy and Consulate will be closed on Monday. Happy #ColumbusDay weekend."

5) Politico: "New York is donating $369,300 to have park service employees reopen the Statue of Liberty."

6) Bruce Bartlett (a Republican political aide): "David Frum: Will the Republican Moderates Please Stand Up."

http://matheson.house.gov/

http://www.roanoke.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Last Ten Films I've Seen- Garbo Laughs

Among the last ten films I've seen is a notorious "Jaws" rip-off, two films directed by playwrights ("Margaret" and "Seven Psychopaths") and a vintage British horror film ("Repulsion").

There are also two films with Johnny Depp in the lead ("The Libertine" and "Dead Man") and the film in which cinematic goddess Greta Garbo laughs ("Ninotchka").

In addition, there are two films which are still in cinemas ("R.I.P.D., which I actually saw at a drive-in, and "The Way, Way Back"). Movies I have seen previously are marked with an *.

Here is the list:

1. "Holy Smoke" (1999. dir-Jane Campion)

2. "The Last Shark" ("Great White") (Italy. 1981. dir-Enzo G. Castellari)

3. "Dead Man" (1995. dir-Jim Jarmusch) *

4. "Seven Psychopaths" (2012. dir- Martin McDonagh)

5. "Margaret" (2011. dir-Kenneth Lonengan)

6. "The Way, Way Back" (2013 dir-Nat Faxon and Jim Rush)

7. "R.I.P.D" (2013 dir-Robert Schwentke)

8. "The Libertine"   (2004. dir-Laurence Dunmore)

9. "Repulsion" (1965. dir-Roman Polanski) *

10. "Ninotchka" (1939. dir-Ernst Lubitsch)

http://thesacodrivein.com/now-showing/ (Drive-in theatre in Saco, Maine, (not where I saw R.I.P.D)

http://www.therialto.com (Cinema in Raleigh, NC, that is now screening "The Way, Way Back")

http://www.filmcomment.com (The magazine that started the 'last ten films I've seen series)

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!

Blogging in 60 Seconds or Less- the Plural for Octopus is..........

We have to keep this entry short as we don't want to be late for our yoga class at Upper Valley Yoga in White River Junction, Vermont, especially since that state is 14 hours away from here.

But, we can leave you with an image of a stuffed animal octopus (we got the idea from Bing, since they used a jellyfish today).

The plural for octopus is either octopi or octopuses.

Assuredly, one can see a real octopus at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland.

And, we are wondering if the descendant of the late Paul the Octopus in Germany, who accurately projected Eskisehir's 2-1 win over Antalyaspor in Turkish soccer over the weekend, is picking DC United in its home MLS game against the Portalnd Timber this weekend.

Ok, we need to get in our Subaru Outback now (that is the unofficial car of Maine, not Vermont, actually).


http://www.bing.com

http://www.uppervalleyyoga.com

http://www.aqua.org

http://www.mlssocer.com

Where's Josh Ritter?

For starters, we should point that our title is not to imply that singer/writer Josh Ritter is a missing person; it is rather a take on "Where's Waldo?"_ we are also going to explain where Ritter is performing in the coming weeks.

I have seen Ritter at Cat's Cradle three times in the last six years, and he is absolutely amazing in concert. Of course, now that I'm in my early forties, I'm glad I know the difference between Ritter and Andrew Bird.

Alas, the titles of his songs and records escape, but that's why we have Wikipedia right?

Here is where Ritter will be playing soon; and we are including a link to WXYC-FM, the student-run radio station of the University of North Carolina as he will be performing at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, a  community which literally borders Chapel Hill:

May 8 State Theatre Portland, Maine

May 9 Calvin Theatre Northampton, Mass.

May 11th and 12th 9:30 Club Washington, DC (both shows are sold out)

May 12 Cat's Cradle Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC

May 13 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC

http://www.joshritter.com

http://www.930.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.wxyc.org

http://www.whereswaldo.com

Record Store Day is Saturday

Albums from David Bowie, Herbie Hancock and the late Cem Karaca (1945-2004), a Turkish psychedelic music icon are among the selections one may find on any given day at an independent locally-owned record store, but Saturday is a day that has been marked as Record Store Day.

Some of the stores you may want to check out, depending on where you reside, may include Wuxtry Records in Athens, Ga. (with two other locations in the Atlanta-area), All Day Records in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, Enterprise Records in Portland, Maine, and Plan 9 Records with locations in Charlottesville and Richmond, Va.

Folk/rock singer Billy Bragg who we mentioned a few entries back is also performing a regular concert at The Cat's Cradle, which is in close proximity to All Day Records, on Friday, but we imagine he will be too busy with soundchecks to stop in that store. Hopefully, if you live in Chapel Hill, that will not be the case with you.


http://www.wuxtry-records.com

http://www.alldayrecords.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.billybragg.com

http://www.davidbowie.com

http://www.recordstoreday.com

http://www.enterpriserecords.net

http://www.plan9music.com

10 People Who Will Decide the Election (7 of 10) Donna Scott of Portland, Maine

Yikes! "Politico," on the last objective sources for news in the United States, along with "The Washington Post," has stated Mitt Romney has made tremendous gains on President Barack Obama following last week's debate in Denver, Colo., in which Romney interrupted moderator Jim Lehrer at least 17 times (more or less). NPR, which the likes of Bill O'Reilly seem to proclaim as being as radical left-wing as Radio Havana, Cuba, said that the race is now a 'virtual dead heat.'

But, 'Politco' also shows Obama winning the race 303-235 though the president is only winning Colorado 47.4 to 47.2 percent. Conversely, the numbers are also close in a very politically divided Virginia, my home state, in which one congressional district represents the rural hamlet Boones Mill, where one can see signs for far-right third party candidate Virgil Goode (from nearby Rocky Mount) and the collegetown of Charlottesville, by a margin of 47.8-47.5 percent.

Today, we are turning our attention to Maine, which seemed like a possible swing state when we planned this project over the summer, where Obama is winning 53.3-38.0 percent.

And, we are choosing a fictitious person named Donna Scott, whom we will say works at an independent bookstore in Portland (Maine). We will say she is 37, white, pro-choice and would likely vote for Obama.

Lastly, welcome to our Armenian-American blog readers. This afternoon, I posted a comment on the web site for "USA Armenian Life," (I am a Turkish-American, there are some differences between the two groups- to put it mildly) where I endorsed Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) over his arch rival Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) or was it the other way around?

For those of who reside in Provo, Utah, or Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who might be oblivious to American national politics, Berman and Sherman, who both represent the suburban area around Los Angeles, which has a large Armenian-American population, are entangled in a congressional race with each other due to gerrymandering, even though both are Democrats.

http://www.politico.com

http://www.armenianlife.com

http://www.ataa.org (ATAA is the leading Turkish-American group in the United States and Canada)

Portland, Maine, independent bookstores, hopefully, none of their employees has the name of Donna Scott:

http://www.nonesuchbooks.com

http://www.longfellowbooks.com

Image of the Day/Week- Ice Cream Cone

Spring is underway, and now it seems like the season, especially with global warming (forgive the political humor), to appreciate a nice ice cream cone, unless you live in Fairbanks, Alaska.

We were going to mention Giffords Ice Cream in Bethesda, Md., which had a reputation for being one of the Washington, DC-area's best independent ice cream shops, but they were purchased last year by the Maine-based Giffords Ice Cream, which lead to this headline in "City Paper" (Washington)  from Oct. 25, 2011, which sounds like an April Fool's Joke or a story in the satirical publication "The Onion:" 'Gifford's Ice Cream Is Now Called Gifford's Ice Cream.'

But, we did find an actual non-corporate ice cream place in Boulder, Colo., in the Table Mesa part of town called the Boulder Ice Cream Shoppe. However, we presume it may be easy to mistake it for Boulder Ice Cream, an organic ice cream company which says on its web site that it makes its produce from the milk of Rocky Mountain cows.

SIDEBAR: Speaking of ice cream, we loved this headline's in today's online edition of "Politico," a daily Washington, DC-based newspaper/web page dedicated only to politics: 'Rob Portman: Vice President Vanilla.'

This is in reference to the possibility that Mitt Romney will choose Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) for his vice-presidential nomination given that votes in places like Dayton, Toledo and Akron will matter significantly more than ones in Provo, Utah, or Princeton, NJ, two college-towns which will assuredly go to the respective candidates (the other, of course, being President Barack Obama) who are almost certain to carry Utah and New Jersey respectively.

Portman is liked by moderate Republicans and intellectual conservatives, such as commentator David Brooks of "The New York Times," but fervent right-wingers, birthers and tea partiers, seem to be carrying the mantra of far right Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who is tauting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Bonus Silly Photo to Fill Space- Oktoberfest

Alas, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, perhaps the msot famous Oktoberfest in America, was held last month. But, when I got a tweet from Visit Maine today, I realized there are still many Oktoberfests taking place in October here in the United States (there is even one in Brisbane, Australia, this weekend!). The festival which originated in Germany and features lots and lots of beer has become popular all over the globe.

The Maine event will be held in the quaint town of Belfast, which I visited back in 2007. According to the tweet from Visit Maine, Oktoberfest in Belfast will take place on Saturday and it will feature lots of beer and permaquid mussels.

Other Oktoberfests will take place this weekend in LaCosse, Wisc., Leavenworth, Wash., and Tampa, Fla. Additionally, there will be an Oktoberfest in Tulsa, Okl., on the following weekend.

SIDEBAR: I just listened to today's edition of the NPR talk show "Fresh Air" (with Terry Gross). She interviewed Jeffrey Eugenides ("The Virgin Suicides," "Middlesex") who is one of my favorite novelists. He is one of few whom I've met personally, along with the great North Carolina write Clyde Edgerton. Both have new novels out.

In his radio interview, Eugenides admitted that he cried while watching "Finding Nemo." So, I suppose I can confess to crying at the movies myself as I did recently during the Anne Hathaway "One Day." But, if I told you why, I'd have to put out a "Spoilers Alert."

Happy Belated 50th Birthday to President Barack Obama

Everyone from the far-right nuts at Fox News to the very liberal idealists at "The Nation" seem to be criticizing President Barack Obama, but I'm fairly pleased. However, even though I'm a fairly partisan Democrat (in the South, most Republican are Yosemite Sam gun nuts, radical Chicken Little evangelists or militant patriots with American flag shower curtains or a combination of the three, perhaps it's differnt in Maine. Then again, maybe not!) I must find his Blackberry obsession a bit annoying.

I actually first heard the term Blackberry in reference to George H.W. Bush, who we like to call Papa Smurf here. As ironic as the world is, perhaps Obama blackberries Papa Smurf more than George W. Bush does. Where is he these days? Yeah, I imagine he is on a power lawnmower in Crawford, Texas, too!

At any rate, happy belated 50th birthday to President Obama. We gather from Politico.com and NPR's "All Things Considered" that he had quite a bash with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Tom Hanks and Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia and now official U.S. Senate candidate on-hand.

Quote of the Day- Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The editorial board here at "The Daily Vampire" which consists of managing editor (mr) Tilly Gokbudak (that's me) and a Honduran intern named Javier Gonzales (actually, a fictional person) decided late this afternoon to feature quips from literary and creative radicals for the month of August.

So, we begin with the late, great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who penned "Slaughterhouse Five," which was available at the Shenandoah County Jail Library in Woodstock, Va. (I am not making this up!), at least it was when I profiled the correctional facility as a reporter some 11 years ago.

According to Stephen King in King's book "On Writing," Vonnegut would type the same page 75 times until he got it just right. This practice sounds a bit like the perfectionism of the late film director Stanley Kubrick, but I don't if I should mention that since King reportedly disdains the 1980 film version of King's novel "The Shinning." And we like Stephen King. In fact, we are wondering if the temperature in King's hometown of Bangor, Maine, is less than 97 degrees as it is here in Mount Airy, NC, at the moment (not really where I am at).

The liberal magazine "The Nation" has apparently been posting some famous quips made in its pages over the years, and Vonnegut made this provocative statement in the magazine's Nov. 28th, 1981 issue, which we imagine the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., (a real person) might not appreciate:

"God shouldn't be put in charge of everything until we get to know him a little bit better."

SIDEBAR: On a more somber note, we want to send our condolences to the family of Gizem Dogan, a 17-year-old Norwegian girl of Turkish heritage who was killed at the summer camp in Norway last week. All total, the attacks in Oslo and on the island where the summer camps took place, claimed 77 lives. Both the NPR news program "The World" and the English-language Turkish newspaper "Today's Zaman" reported that Turkey's Foreign Minsiter Ahmet Davutoglu attended Dogan's funeral in Trondheim, Norway.

Gizem Dogan is perhaps the most high-profile casualty of a violent action in the Turkish media since Furkan Dogan, (we assume they are not related) a 19-year-old Turkish-American from New York state was killed by Israeli commandos during the infamous armed raid fiasco aboard the Marmara Flotilla, which aimed at giving food and aid to Palestinians, in June of 2010.

We learned today that Furkan Dogan's father filed a lawsuit in an American court against the Israeli government in May.

Quote of the Day- Stephen King

As is the case with every July, we will be quoting both famous Americans in honor of the Fourth of July and famous people from France for Bastille Day, which will be on July 14th.

Initially, we were going to start the series with quotes from famous Americans tomorrow, but we have some great Fourth of July kitsch lined up for the occasion. This year, we are going to focus on quips from famous people from the six New England states.

We start with Stephen King from Bangor, Maine. The horror novelist known for dozens of award-winners and best-sellers ranging from his early novels like "Salem's Lot" and "Carrie" to "It," "Insomnia," "The Shinning" and "Night Shift" since the 1970s also owns the rock n roll station 100.3-FM/Bangor, which goes by the nickname The Zone, perhaps in homage to King's novel "The Dead Zone."

Recently, King wrote an exceptional short story for "The Atlantic" called "Herman wouk is Still Alive," which should fit into your schedule better his full-length works. I must profess that I have seen Coke machines the same way since one killed a person by hurling Coke cans at the victim in King's novel "The Tommyknockers."

Here is his quote, which people who have tried to do remarkable things for the world, such as Barack Obama, can perhaps relate to all too well:

"It's better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost."

UPDATE (6:00 p.m., Sunday): While we are at it, I thought I would mention two Fourth of July performances happening tomorrow. My good friend and Greensboro, NC, folk-singer Bruce Piephoff will be performing at Center City Park in downtown Greensboro with a 12-year-old prodigy named Ranford Almond starting at circa 3:45 p.m.

And, comedian/actor/musician Steve Martin, who has recorded bluegrass music at a studio in Asheville, NC, tweeted just now that he will performing as part of the annual Fourth of July gala in front of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, tomorrow.

Status Update_ I Have Not Been Kidnapped by Aliens

It has been eight days since my last entry, which is probably my longest period between entries since I took a trip to Maine in the summer of 2007, and I simply couldn't figure out a way to post. Amazingly enough, the following year, I was able to find an Internet cafe in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is a very long story.

OOOpps! The original draft of this entry was kidnapped by Marvin the Martian!

I will just summarize the main points of that effort:

1) Newt Gingrich may end up looking like a far left pot-smoking hippie if the Republican field moves any father to the right. Of course, a farmer in Sioux City, Iowa, who no one knows will decide the fate of the GOP.

2) There was a UFO report in Jerusalem, Israel, over the famous Temple Mount landmark, as if the country doesn't have enough problems. The political unrest in Syria will affect Israel and other neighboring countries though right now Turkey, my late father's country which also borders Syria, appears to be the most affected nation in the region due to refugee spill-over.

3) In Istanbul, Turkey, there is a UFO Museum. It is one of only four in the world. Not Surprisingly, one of the other museums is in Roswell, New Mexico.

4) New Mexico also happens to be one of the four American states with the most UFO reports. The other three are Colorado, Montana and Utah. The Beehive State (Utah) also has an active UFO hunters organization headed by one Alien Dave. May the force be with them!

Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)- Portland, Maine to Altoona, Pa.

You know you've been blogging way too long when you google a term like 'lobster van' on Google Images, and you get a link to your own blog! Such is the case with this image, which is from Myrtle Beach, SC. We have also previously used the Shell Gas Station in Winston-Salem, NC, first built in 1930 which no longer in operation, but has thankfully been preserved as a tourist attraction.

But, today we are actually asking you the devoted blog-reader who has assuredly been with me ever day since we start in September of 2005 how far apart the city of Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa. Of course, since most of our fans are in Uzbekistan and Norway (well, we like to believe that though we were actually linked to an Uzbeki web site--not sure if it still exists!), they are probably confused!

Of course, everyone knows, well everyone outside of Tashkent and Oslo, knows that Maine is known for their lobsters and that is why we chose that image. But, even folks in les etats unis, may not know that Altoona, Pa., is the headquarters of Sheetz, which has like 3.4 million gas stations on the east coast. I have pumped gas at their stations in Ridgeway, Va., Greensboro, NC, Akron, Ohio, and well_Altoona, Pa., among many other places.

Both Portland, Maine, and Altoona, Pa., also have double-A minor league baseball teams in the Eastern League. Friday night, the Portland Sea Dogs lost 9-7 to the New Britain Rock Cats in Connecticut. They host the Binghamton Mets from New York state at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. We were curious to see what a sea dog looked like, and we saw this great image from jellyfishday.blogspot.com, but this blog's managing editor Dennis Alexander* thought the lobster was more suitable.

As for the Altoona Curve, they lost to the Richmond Flying Squirrels (I guess they got permission from the Jay Ward estate as well as the copyright holders of "Rocky and Bullwinkle") in Virginia 3-2 on Saturday.

For this project, we looked at the distance between Longfellow Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Maine, and Robert's Service Station in Altoona, Pa., which may be one of the three not-Sheetz gas stations in town.

Uh huh, it looks like our Honduran intern Javier**, who is on Spring Break from George Mason University, actually forgot to Mapquest this. Sorry, dear readers. We will have a talk with Javier.

But, we have the answer now; is it:

A) 9 hours

B) 10 hours

C) 11 hours

D) 12 hours

Speaking of indy bookstores, we just saw Sarah Vowell promote her new book "Unfamiliar Fishes" about the American colonization of Hawai'i on C-Span 2 (Book TV). Vowell's talk was recorded at Book People, an indy bookstore in Austin, Tex.

Catherynne M. Valente will talk at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, about her new book "Deatless" on Apr. 28 at 7:00 p.m. The book is apparently about the conflict between magical history and actual history.

The answer to last week's Weekend Road Trip Quiz was C) 41 hours, 57 minutes_ that's how far apart Las Vegas and Pawtucket, RI, are. See you back here soon....I hope!

*- Dennis Alexander is my psedonymn and in-joke; it is rarely used

**-Yeah, as you expected, there is no Javier the intern!

Status Update_ Today, I Learned About Blue Lobsters

Of course, when one mentions the word lobster, you either think of an overrated American chain restaurant (Red Lobster), Maine or the '80s New Wave band from Athens, Ga., the B-52s (pictured here).

But, until I read a story in the current issue of "Mental Floss" by Adam K. Raymond, I was not fully aware of blue lobsters. According to Raymond, one in every four million lobsters are blue. They are this color because of a gentic defect.

We tried to get a picture of a blue lobster up here, but they were quite difficult to hotlink.

If one wants to learn more about lobsters in general, I highly recommend Trevor Corson's excellent 2004 book "The Secret Life of Lobsters." Corson also wrote "The Story of Sushi."

Within a few days, we are hoping to let you know how far apart Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa., in case you really, really want to know!

Top 10 Favorite Songs from The Beatles

In a recent issue of "Rolling Stone" heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne chose "She Loves You" as his favorite tune from The Beatles while Brian Wilson, the former lead singer of The Beach Boys, chose "Hey Jude."

Since yesterday was the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's assasination, I thought I'd do my own list of my top 10 favorite songs from The Beatles.

Even though I loved The Beatles in my early teen years, I got more into the New and underground music that was popular of Album-Oriented rock radio stations as well as legendary bands from the '70s like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

Nevertheless, the music from Lenon, Paul McCartney, the late George Harrison and Ringo Starr has left a cultural impression on every music fan from Anchorage to Dubai, and beyond.

I just recently found out that the title for Stephen King's novel (which was made into a Stanley Kubrick film that the author is not found of) "The Shinning" came from the line: "We all shine on" in Lennon's solo song "Instant Karma." King happens to be own a rock and roll radio station in Bangor, Maine (100.3 FM).

Here is my list, which I may well disagree with come tomorrow morning!:

1. "Strawberry Fields Forever"

2. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

3. "Norwegian Wood"

4. "Something"

5. "Ticket to Ride"

6. "Walrus Man"

7. "Helter Skelter"

8. "Nowhere Man"

9. "Yellow Submarine"

10. "Day Tripper"

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Jaaack-O-Lantern

For those of you who reside in a remote village in Azerbaijan, this image above is of Jack Nicholson who played Jack Torrence in the Stanley Kubrick film version of "The Shinning," based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

King is to this day reportedly displeased with the Kubrick film. Interestingly enough, Kubrick would frequently call King when it was the middle of the night in Maine, where King still resides, and ask him absurd questions like: "Do you believe in God?"

"The Shinning" is currently showing (at least of tonight) at the famed Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Tex., which is about as close to us as a remote village in Azerbaijan (we are on the east coast).

According to the IMDB, King also professed a preference for actor Jon Voight, now known more for his radical transformation from post-Vietnam hippie to a right-wing Tea Party extremist than his still emmence on-screen talents, to play the title role instead of Jaaack Nicholson.

The title of the book apparently came about when King was listening to or thinking about the John Lennon song "Instant Karma" and the line: "We all shine on."

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Coffee Shop Employee

Today we once again focus on Lynchburg, Va, for the 12th (of 13) installment in our series within a series examining summer jobs. In the Hill City, students who have the summer off (yes, we know it's coming to an abrupt end) from E.C. Glass High School could potentially seek employment at The Muse and Roastery Coffee Company on Enterprise Drive.

I must say that I was impressed that a coffee shop located in Lynchburg, where Jerry Falwell started the Moral Majority, is open on Sunday from noon-7:00 p.m.

We should also mention that while we love E.C. Glass HS, the actual High School of the Week for this blog (well, ok, there will other high schools of the week) is the Belfast Area High School in Belfast, Maine, a place I've actually been to! (We took a trip there in the summer of 2007; it's quite a lovely place).

The Belfast Area HS' nickname is The Lions. School will begin very shortly there on Aug. 30. Butch Arthers is the school principal, and school lunch for high school students is $2.50. (That meat loaf better be worth it!).

There are of course other coffee shops within the Lynchburg region, and we don't mean Starbucks (but, yes there are several of those in Lynchburg).

Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea has four locations within the Roanoke, Va., area-which is my hometown. And, for those of you in Hokieville (Blacksburg, Va) there is The Easy Chair Coffee Shop which promotes itself on its web site as being a 'zombie free zone,' whatever that means!

Assuredly, if my Facebook friend, Shannon Wheeler, the creator of the off-beat comic book character "Too Much Coffee Man" comes to Virginia, he will now know where to get his cappuccinos now!

SIDEBAR_We want to wish a speedy recovery to Michael Poythres, 24, a soldier from Caswell County, North Carolina, near Danville, Va., who was injured by an explosion in Iraq last week. Angela Evans of "The Caswell Messenger" in Yanceyville, NC, reports that surgeries were performed to save Poythres' arm. He was flown to Germany after leaving a field hospital in Basra, Iraq. Once he is stabilized, he will be relocated to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC.