7 Words in Turkish (7 of 7): The Word for Shrimp

Greetings to our blog visitors from Albania, Bahrain and Chile.

Though we have been busy binge watching "Breaking Bad,"AMC's surreal dark drama which is concluding in a few weeks, via Netflix, we did make time for this entry....(I sense the show has helped New Mexico's tourism industry, even though it is about meth dealers).

So, the Turkish word for shrimp is karides.

Shrimp and grits is a popular dish in Charleston, SC, which is arguably the cuisine capital of the South.

For the word for shrimp in Norwegian, go to our 7 Words in Norwegian series on our sister blog:

http://www.poliitcscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Silly Photo to Fill Space: Things Republicans Like

The great Mel Brooks, who is thankfully still with us, said the best way to get even with your enemies is to make fun of them. And, we can't think of any way to get back at real-life Yosemite Sam characters than to stick to them. We sure hope the late great Soupy Sales, who railed from West Virginia (which has alas evolved into a red state) would agree with us.

Today, we are thus featuring a Big Foot Monster Truck in our first in our month-long series of Silly Photos to Fill Space dedicate to Things Republicans like.

For those of you in Antwerp, Belgium, who have not been exposed to this side of American culture, the Big Foot, which shares its name with a mythological creature of the woods, is basically a big pickup truck with big wheels that arbitrarily crushes things.

When I happened to be in the parking lot of the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, on the eve of a monster truck show, I was amazed how many people were lining their vehicles up to get in.

This weekend, at least three incarnations of Big Foot will be touring America; the Summit Racing Big Foot #18 will be in Grand Forks, North Dakota, on March 9th.

Meanwhile, its cousin Bigfoot #15 will be in Jonesboro, Arkansas, for shows on both March 8th and 9th and Bigfoot #10 will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state which actually went blue for Barack Obama!

http://www.bigfoot4X4.com

Virtual Postcard from Indiana-The Town of Santa Claus

Yes, there actually is a town called Santa Claus, Indiana. It's relatively easy to find the 47579 zip code, which is in the southwestern part of the state. The town of some 2,000 residents is located off the busy I-64 highway, which is one of longest east-west roads in America.

The town's logo is: "Celebrate Christmas every day of the year here." It is the only juridiction with the name Santa Claus in the world, and Christmas cards from children around the world are sent here as is apparently the case with North Pole, Alaska.

Heritage High School is the local high school in a town that was originally named Santa Fe, which was changed because of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

We passed Indiana several days ago on our own east-west roadtrip.http://www.santacalusin.com

This is NOT an Endorsement-3 Third Party Candidates

Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, a former Congressman from Rocky Mount, Va., is trying to become Virginia's ninth president. Good luck!

Here is a look at Goode and two other individuals running for president as third party candidates, and yes_ one of them is actress/comedian Roseanne Barr, who also turns 60 today.

Virgil Goode: In an interview with "Huffington Post Politics," Goode, who served in Congress from 1997-2009, said that President Barack Obama had done a bad job in the White House, and if elected Mitt Romney would be just as ineffective.

Ironically, Goode, who went from Democrat to Republican to the Constitution Party, a third party with a far right agenda, could help Obama win a second term since he man from Franklin County has a loyal following in south central and southwest Virginia. He is expected to take votes away from Romney, and "Politico" shows Virginia, our home state, as a virtual dead heat which is very slightly leaning towards the Republican Party candidate.

Goode also helped Doug Wilder become Virginia's first black governor, but this was when Goode was a Democrat. No one seems to be sure if Goode actually underwent an ideological change as he has been known for being fiercely independent. Even when he was a Democrat, Goode had a more conservative voting record than the likes of Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va).

The Rocky Mount native has also been a strong supporter of guns and the tobacco industry, which went through his congressional district in areas, such as Danville and South Boston.

Goode was defeated by Democrat Tom Perriello in 2008; though Perriello was respected on the Hill for being a hard-working freshman, he was voted out by the conservative constituents in his district who favored Robert Hunt, who is now running against John Douglass to keep his house seat.

Jim Clymer is Goode's running mate.

Gary Johnson: The former Republican who served as governor of New Mexico from 1995-2003 is known for supporting radically low taxes. But, he is most known for calling for the legalization of marijuana. During his time in Santa Fe, Johnson worked to decriminalize pot. Johnson also opposes the war in Afghanistan and he has called for immediate troop withdrawal. Interestingly,  Johnson has received support from ardent liberals who see Barack Obama as being 'conservative.' And, as one might expect, Johnson is popular with the Ron Paul crowd, and he has been supported by the libertarian magazine "Reason." Johnson's running mate is Jim Gary, a California judge, who supports legalization of marijuana.

Roseanne Barr: Surprisingly, there are two presidential candidates who were born in Utah. Neither of them is Mitt Romney, who was born in Michigan, and both Barr and Rocky Anderson, who are both running to the left of Obama, are not Mormons.

Barr won an Emmy for her title role in the sitcom "Roseanne" (1998-1997), and she was a standup comedian before that. After losing the Green Party bid to Jill Stein, Barr joined the Peace and Freedom Party, which has actually been in existence since it dawned as a protest group opposed to the Vietnam war in 1968.

Cindy Sheehan, who became well-known as an anti-war activist after her son who was serving in the military was killed in Iraq, is Barr's running mate; neither of them has held political office. 


http://www.goodeforpresident2012.com

http://www.garyjohnson2012.com

http://www.reason.com

http://www.roseanneforpresident2012.org/

For a look at three other third party candidates, go to our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Bonus Road Trip- New Mexico to Iowa

Hello. And, for those of you in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, welcome to my blog.

As most of my faithful followers know (and, I have no idea how high or how low my following really is), I like to make fun of Republicans. And, with candidates as extreme as Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Ron Paul, it is frankly very hard not to make fun of them!

I must profess that even though his politics and ideas are extreme and radical, it is hard to make fun of Herman Cain. For one, he is an African-American and secondly I liked his Godfather's Pizza for quite a while. And, Cain certainly looks as cool as the Richard Roundtree, the original Shaft, who is also an African-American republican.

But, it is easier to make fun of Ron Paul. To be honest, I actually endorsed him for the Republican nomination in 2008 simply because I admired any Republican willing to speak out against the Iraq War. But, since I am an uber-partisan Democrat, the endorsement probably didn't help him much. And, within the last four years, we've all heard the Texas congressional rep (yes, he actually holds a federal office) express some real far-out things, including some highly controversial remarks about
9-11. One may have attributed such sentiments to the far-left intellectual scholar Noam Chomsky, except that those remarks were made by Paul during a Republican debate!

I have also noticed that if there is an alien sent here from outer space to take over the world in the political forum, it would have to be Paul. I mean with Republicans making illegal immigration one of their main cause celebres, especially for Bachmann, it is highly ironic that one of their own might be from Mars!

So, we decided to see how far Roswell, New Mexico, is from Ames, Iowa, since Roswell is associated with UFOs and since Ames, also the home of Iowa State University, is where a key political straw poll takes place.

For, our two destinations, we went with the UFO Museum in Roswell (there is also one in Istanbul, Turkey_ of all places!) and The Cafe Ames in Iowa.

So, what is the answer; is it:

A) 16 hours even
B) 16 hours, 30 minutes
C) 16 hours, 45 minutes
D) 17 hours, 15 minutes

If you get this right, we will promptly send you a copy of "Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits" on 8-track tape (that is a joke!).

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Bush 'Executes' 253 People

Perhaps "The Onion" decided to tweet this faux story they ran back in 2000 because Illinois officially abolished the death penalty today, but we just loved the headline even though 'the story' is almost 11 years old:

"Bush executes 253 New Mexico Democrats"

"The Onion" is a satire newspaper/magazine which now has its own show on IFC. In the 2001 fake news article, the publication said George W. Bush ordered the execution of 253 Democrats in Las Cruces, N. Mex., so he could get the state's five electoral points away from Al Gore.

They even had this great faux quote from the ever-diabolical Karl Rove: "We express great sorrow for the families of the condemned."

We must admit that as much as we love "The Onion," they have gone over the line at times. I do think the 2009 faux story proclaiming that female Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson from Iowa had died after a fall from the uneven bars was in remarkable bad taste. And, the then-17-year-old gymnast said she strongly disapproved what "The Onion" did.

But, the 2000 classic faux story about the 'actions' of Bush is vintage "Onion" material. And, of course, Fox News runs stories which are just as ridicilous, but they pass them off as genuine news!

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Tommorow, I am hoping to finally post the last ten films I've seen. It is going to be quite a strange list indeed!

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!

DC Diary- Some Very Expensive Tamales

Much of Day Three of our Christmas Family Trip to Washington, DC, which was on Wednesday, was spent at the fairly new Smithsonian Native American Museum.

Among the things we found out at this rather large museum was that rock pioneer Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) of Seattle was of Native American heritage, in addition to being black and he wore fancy costumes (one of which was on display) to pay homage to his heritage.

But, before we went through the museum which also featured art exhibits and historical/cultural displays, we ate lunch....and, a very expensive lunch at that in the museum's cafeteria.

My sister and I both got tamales with two sides, and the dishes cost a staggering twenty dollars each! My mom got a vegetarian soup and a sweet potato tart while my brother-in-law had either a pizza or a burger with a Bohemia beer and a cheesecake. The meal cost a shocking $95!

I asked my brother-in-law (who is not actually named Sven, nor is he Swedish- see earlier entry) is Bohemia was a Czech beer, but it turned out to be Mexican. While researching this piece, I found out that Bohemia, like another Mexican beer Pacifico, is made in the Pilsner style which originated in a part of what is now the Czech Republic.

My brother-in-law had a slight dispute as we were dinning as I had recalled an article in "Esquire" that stated the best tamales in America were found in Mississippi. He countered that they were actually found in New Mexico.

As it turns out, both of us could very be right.

Tamales are a traditional Latin dish, that is even found in India, made of masa, a corn-based starch dough. Along with Mexico, the Latin form of tamales can be found in Cuba, Argentina, El Salvador, Belize and Guatemala among other countries.

Tamales came to the United States in 1893, and quickly became popular among African-Americans, hence the reason why they are popular in the Deep South, particularly Mississippi, as well as in western states like Arizona and New Mexico with large Hispanic populations.

One place where one can find tamales in the South is at Fat Mama Tamales in Natchez, Miss., while there is a restaurant called Leona's Taurante in the hamlet of Chimayo, N.Mex, which also specializes in the dish.

One can even order frozen tamales from santafetamales.com (phone: 505-471-4766), including red chile tamales, green chile tamales and vegan tamales.

SIDEBAR: We want to congratulate the town of Strasburg, Va., about one hour and 15 minutes south of Washington, DC, on their 250th anniversary which is being celebrated tonight. The town is home to The Strasburg High School Rams, The Hotel Strasburg and The Strasburg Emporium, which is among the most popular antiques malls in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Quote of the Week- Georgia O'Keefe

Today, we continue our Quotes of the Week series for December with quips from famous artists. On our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," we have a quote from the late Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, whose work was exhibited in Berlin, Germany, earlier this year.

For this entry, we quote the late American painter Georgia O'Keefe (1887-1986) whose work can be regularly at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, N. Mex. Currently, there is also an exhbit of her work at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio.

Here is a quote from O'Keefe which makes me think of a Maureen Dowd book that makes fun of men which I almost got for a female friend today, before realizing it might be indict me (as well as other members of my tribe!):

"I feel there is something unexplored about a woman that only a woman can explore."

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Illegal Alien

I guess today's entry might attract those who read "The National Review" as well as those who read "UFO Magazine" (I read neither).

Since the Academy Awards, which will air on Sunday, have two science-fiction films this year "Avatar" and "District 9" up for Best Film this year (coincidentally, my one-two worst films of the year, but I generally like sci-fi films-in fact, I think "ET" should have won in 1982 over "Gandhi"), we thought we'd find some science-fiction related photos.

There happens to be a UFO Museum in Istanbul, Turkey- of all places. I've actually been there, and it's quite an interesting museum which is amazingly close to the Covered Bazaar.

But, of course, there is one such place here in America as well. The Roswell UFO Museum in Roswell, N.Mex., is hosting an annual festival from July 2-5th this year. Perhaps, Marvin the Martian will stop by as well.........