10 for 10: The Nine Countries Outside America Where Our Blog Is Most Popular

Our original blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which is still up and existent http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com 

....will be turning ten years old on Sept. 21t. So to honor the occasion, we are posting 10 entries on both blogs commemorating the anniversary.

We start here with a round-up of the nine countries outside the United States where "The Daily Vampire" has had the highest number of hits from. We do want to take a moment to recognize people from smaller nations, such as El Salvador, Gabon, and Laos, where we have seen hits from over the years. But, as one would expect larger countries are in the top nine. We have been stunned by how popular both blogs are in Russia and Ukraine, and we are grateful that Turkey, the country of my late father, is in the top nine for this blog.

The images we have chosen to represent three of the countries on the list are of Misha the Bear (or Mishka) who was the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, Karagoz and Hacivat, two beloved Turkish shadow puppets which have been in existence since Ottoman times, and a still from Federico Fellini's 1969 film "Satyrican" for Italy (alas, the Italian director's name is one we have frequently spelled incorrectly!)

While we are at it, let's take a moment to salute Italian female tennis player Flavia Pennetta for winning today's U.S. Open finale.

Here are the countries and the number of hits from each one:

1. Russia 29,585

2. United Kingdom 27,223

3. Canada 17, 098

4. Germany 15,121

5. France 7,495

6. Australia 7,256

7. *Turkey 2,586

8. Ukraine 2,493

9. Italy 2,371

The Last 10 CDs We've Listened To: The Cars to Cold War Kids

Before we get this entry underway, we want to express our condolences to the families of Alison Parker of Martinsville, Va., and Adam Ward of Salem, Va. The reporter-video photographer team was murdered while on assignment for WDBJ-7 (CBS, Roanoke, Va.) in the Smith Mountain Lake town of Moneta, Va. Parker was 24; Ward was 27.

Roanoke is our hometown, and the area is still in mourning five days after the shooting incident which occurred at 6:45 a.m. The assailant lead state police on a wild chase which ended with his suicide en route from Front Royal, Va., to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, on I-66, some four hours north of the scene of the homicides.

Kimberly McBroom, the morning anchor when the shooting occurred,  stayed on-air to report breaking news updates throughout the day. Nadia Singh anchored the weekend morning show which Parker had anchored. And, former "Roanoke Times" journalist and book author Beth Macy wrote a heratfelt piece in "The New York Times" about the community's devastation.

Now, here is our top ten Last Ten CDs We've Listened To list, which includes some hip bands from this decade, such as Cold War Kids (we are using the center image of Misha the Bear in their honor), who will perform in Houston, Tex., Sept. 12th, and Fitz and the Tantrums who will perform Sept. 4th and 5th in Aspen, Colo.

The list also includes some older bands including INXS (pict. top), Talking Heads, and The Cars (we use the Jaguar car, pict. bottom, for them) as well as New Order!

Here is the list:

1. Fitz and The Tantrums, Pickin' Up the Pieces, 2010

2. INXS, Kick, 1987

3. Cold War Kids, Loyalty to Loyalty, 2008

4. Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues, 1983

5. The Cars, Candy O, 1979

6. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, 1974

7. Josh Ritter, The Animal Years, 2006

8. Weezer, Make Believe, 2005

9. Peter, Bjorn and John, Gimme Some, 2011

10. New Order, Republic, 1993

http://www.wdbj7.com

http://www.fitzandthetantrums.com

http://www.coldwarkids.com 

Times Around the World: From Boston to Baku

 

We were going to look at what our favorite people were saying on Twitter; we are especially curious what comic actor Marc Maron and fellow liberal Turkish-American Cenk Uygur are tweeting, but as it is, Javier the Intern told us to keep it simple tonight.

So, we are looking at times around the world, but rather than going with Grenwich Mean Time, we are going to look at times compares to New York City when it is midnight in the Big Apple.

Here we go:

USA

Boston 12:00 a.m.
Denver 10:00 p.m. (map of Colorado is pictured)
San Diego 9:00 p.m.

South America

Rio de Janeiro 1:00 a.m.
Buenos Aires 1:00 a.m.
Quito, Ecuador 11:00 p.m.

Africa

Nairobi, Kenya 7:00 a.m. (Mount Kenya pictured top)
Cape Town 6:00 a.m.
Casablanca 5:00 a.m.

Former USSR

Moscow 8:00 a.m. (Misha the Bear pictured top)
Yerevan, Armenia 8:00 a.m.
Baku, Azerbaijan 9:00 a.m.

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (3 of 6) Montreal to Moscow

Today, we continue our series of the distances between cities which have hosted the Olympics, with a question about far about Montreal, Canada, site of the 1976 games, are from Moscow, Russia, which hosted the event when the city was the capital of the since-deceased Soviet Union.

We are going with Misha the Bear, the mascot of the 1980 Olympics, here since we dined at a place called Mishka's Restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan, back in 2008. Ironically, the place had great hamburgers and french fries, which one would associate with, well, capitalism.

During the 1976 Olympics, Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored three perfect 10s; American Bruce Jenner won gold in the decathlon and is now on the front of retro Wheaties cereal boxes (at least in the United States) and American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard beat out Cuban boxer Andres Aldama for gold.

But, Aldama was able to win the gold himself four years later due to the large Olympic boycott of the United States and 64 other countries. Nadia (we prefer to break the rules and use her first name) won gold on beam and bars during the 1980 Olympics as well.

So just how far apart are Moscow and Montreal?

Is the answer:

A) 4,225 miles

B) 4, 395 miles

C) 4,705 miles

D) 4,885 miles

UPDATE: The answer is B

UEFA Madness: Those Darn Ruskies

Since I'm a Turkish-American, I was hoping that Black Sea power Trabzonspor, the lone Turkish team in the UEFA Champions League, would pull through as they were expected to. But, CSKA Moscow went to Milan, Italy, and pulled a stunning 2-1 upset over Group B leader Inter Milan. This eliminated not only Trabzonspor, but the French team Lille. Trabzonspor and Lille played to a 0-0 tie yesterday.

Hence, we are posting an image of Misha the Bear from the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and in what is simply a ploy to arbitrarily get more hits on this blog, we are also featuring the famed 1993 "Sports Illustrated" switsuit issue with the Swedish supermodel Vendela, who is now 43 and reportedly newly single.

The goals for CSKA Moscow were scored by Seydou Doumbia, an Ivory Coast national, in the 50th minute of play, and Valli Berztutzki in the 86th minute. The Argentinian player Esteban Cambiasso score for Inter Milan in the 51st minute.

In Group C, there were some stunning developments as well as traditional English powerhouse and reigning UEFA runner-up Manchester United failed to qualify for the round of 16 as they fell to the Swiss team FC Basel 2-1. The Swiss side's goals came from Marco Streller (9th min.) and Fabian Frei (84th min.), both Swiss nationals while the lone Manchester United goal came from 19-year-old wunderkid Alex Jones late in the game.

FC Basel is also the team with Pak Kwang Ryong, the lone North Korean player in the UEFA Champions League and the first ever North Korean player to play in the tournament. He made his debut in a match at Manchester United on Sept. 14th.

The other team to advance from Group C was Benefica (Portugal) as they beat Otelul Galati (Romania) 1-0 on the road. Oscar Cardoza scored for the winning side a mere seven minutes into match play.

Here is a complete list of the scores from Wednesday's UEFA action, rundowns on the other four games will be on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:"

*- Teams which advanced

y- Teams which won their groups

Group A

Napoli (Italy) 2 Villareal (Spain) 0

Manchester City 2 *y Bayern Munich 0

Group B

*CSKA Moscow 2 *y Inter Milan 1

Trabzonspor 0 Lille 0, tie

Group C

*y Benefica 1 Otelul Galati 0

* FC Basel 2 Manchester United 1

Group D

*y Real Madrid 3 Ajax Amsterdam 0

* Lyon (France) 7 Dinamo Zagred (Croatia) 1

SIDEBAR: There was also a major domestic game in Turkish soccer yesterday as two of the three main Istanbul rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce met (the third Istanbul power team is Besiktash), and it was Galatasaray which prevailed 3-1. The goals for the winning yellow and reds came from Emmanuel Eboue, yet another Ivory Coast player who is shinning in European soccer, John Elmanders, a Swedish national and Felipe Melo of Brazil. It was another Brazilian national Alex de Souza, who is also the Fenerbahce captain, who scored the lone goal for the yellow and blues.

The Top Ten Countries Which Have Viewed Us

Since Russia is one of the top ten countries that have viewed our blog (Yes, we were surprised as well) and I still love dated Cold War humor, I figured that we would use Misha or Misha the Bear with this entry. (In the whoops department, we did spell the bear's name Mishka in some earlier entries!)

For those of who grew up on "American Idol" and "The Gilmore Girls," Misha was the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which were boycotted by the United States and many European countries, for the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Here are the top ten countries in order of hits; it should be pointed out that Brazil, which also has over 1,000 hits was in our top ten until India past them a few days ago:

1. USA 77,595

2. UK 12,828

3. Canada 10,604

4. Germany 5,633

5. Australia 4,947

6. Italy 1,536

7. Turkey 1,470

8. Russia 1,197

9. Netherlands 1,097

10. India 1,023

SIDEBAR: We read this short piece in "Wired" magazine which really surprised us. Apparently, back in 1972, Jerry Lewis, made a film called "The Day the Clown Cried." There is a valid reason why few of you have heard of this film and why probably none of you have ever seen it. The film is about a clown is inadvertently recruited to gather Jewish children up in Nazi Germany. According to the IMDB, Lewis has the only copy of the film in a vault and he refuses to have the unreleased/uncompleted film seen by anyone.

Things We Learned from Twitter This PM- Russian Prez Joins the Cult!

I guess this image of Misha the Bear, the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics mascot, suggests that many of us Americans, including those of us with at least one foreign-born parent, don't take the Russians too seriously these days. I actually ate a place called Misha's Cafe in Baku, Azerbaijan, their brekfast is actually better than The Omelete Shop in Princeton, W.Va (don't tell them, I said that!).

But, perhaps given our past history, that should be change! And, perhaps there is no better way to achieve that than to have Russian President Dmitry Medvedev open up his own Twitter account.

Yesterday, while visiting Silicon Valley (near San Francisco), Medvedev did just that according to "The Hill Tweets," one of the Twitter pages for the Washington, Dc-based publication "The Hill" which discusses all things related to Capitol Hill.

According to "The Hill Tweets," the Russian prez released two accounts, one in English and other one in Russian.

His first tweet was: "Hello everyone! I'm on Twitter and this is my first tweet."

Boris and Natascha would be proud!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulated Medvedeve via (what else) Twitter!

"The Hill Tweets" also reported that three Democratic senators, including Mark Warner of Va. (whom I met during a campaign stop in Strasburg, Va., when he was running for governor--a race that would later win), Chris Dodd of Conn. and Mark Udall of Colo. all congratulated Team USA via Twitter for their 1-0 win over Algeria.

The win puts Team USA into the second round of The World Cup.

Meanwhile, another figure on The Hill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had his own busy day on Twitter as he posted a photo of "The Three Amigos," a group which includes him as well as Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Perhaps, all six of these senators can get together over the weekend and watch another Chevy Chase 'classic' "Caddyshack" with some college students from Georgetown!