Apocalypse Now 2: The Republicans on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Yes, for the very first time in the history of "The Daily Vampire," we are using four images as the U.S. House of Representatives in Congress, which is controlled by the likes of far right figures, such as Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va., pictured top), is likely to close down the federal government.

This means that real-life Ranger Smiths (middle image, from "Yogi Bear") and the actors in the Ford's Theater production of "The Laramie Project," about a riveting anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming, may not go to work when the sun rises in the morning (this is just speculation, especially with regards to Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, though it is a national park).

So, here are some tweets from the right and the left and maybe even one or two from the center:


1. LOLGOP: "If House Speaker John Boehner is really going to ofer a clean bill, all Freedwomworks is going to break loose."

2. WXII News (NBC affiliate in Winston-Salem, NC): "Panda cam at the National Zoo to go dark in shutdown."

 3. Southpaw: "The Speaker just did an impression of the President of the United States on the House floor."

4. DenverPost: "#CoFlood: Colorado National Guard flood work could be delayed by shutdown."

5. Ford's Theatre: "'The Laramie Project' is so real. It'll be a real treat to everyone who comes to see it,' Cokie Roberts."

6. WashingtonPost: "Employees who witnessed the Navy Yard shooting will be exempt from shutdown furloughs."

7. Philly City Paper: "Republicans succeed in taking away the Liberty Bell because of Obamacare or something."

8.National Review (a conservative publication): "Obamacare's operating system might be fixable; it's faulty economic logic sure isn't."

9. Markos Moulitsas (liberal editor of "The Daily Kos"): "Reminder: Obamacare more popular than shutdown, Congressional Republicans."

10. Huffington Post: "Government shutdown looms after moderate GOP rebellion fails."

http://www.nationalreview.com/

http://www.dailykos.com/

http://citypaper.net/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.c-span.org

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

UPDATE: Oct. 1, 2013..........It now appears that Ford's Theatre will not be able to perform "The Laramie Project" at the Ford's Theatre because the theatre itself is a national park and the U.S. federal government has shut down. The matter is made more confusing by the fact that the theatre, as a stage group, is private. Ford's Theatre put a Facebook message up that it was looking for alternative stages for the production of the play, which was well-praised in the DC-media. Our sincerest thoughts go out to the actors, stage-hands and set designers as they work through this difficult situation.

More College Nicknames- Bulldogs, Purple Aces and Explorers

We should point out that Tyrone Garland (pictured bottom) is actually in the NCAA tournament even though the Virginia Tech Hokies, the team I grew up with, is not. This is because Garland transferred to La Salle, the Philadelphia school in the A-10 won their play-in game over Boise State. Today, the La Salle Explorers face Kansas State in Kansas City, Mo, which is a mere two hours away from Manhattan, Ks., which is the home of the Kansas State Wildcats.


Here is our look at this and other college school nicknames:


More Smart Schools:

1. Radford University Highlanders (Va., Big South)#
 2. UCLA Bruins (Cal; Pac 12_ pictured top)*
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (Cal; Big West)
4. UNC Tarheels (NC, ACC)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Ball State Cardinals (Ind.; Mid America)
6. Elon Phoenix (NC, Big South)
7. Southern Utah Thunderbirds (Utah, Big Sky)
8. Fla Gulf Coast Eagles (Fla; Atlantic Sun)*

Canines and Wolves:

9. Gonzaga Bulldogs (Wash; WCC)*
10. Washington Huskies (Wash.; Pac-12)
11. UM-Baltimore Retrievers (Md., America East)
12. Michigan Wolverines (Mich., Big 10-pictured center)*

Best of the Rest:

13. Cal State Northridge Matadors (Cal.; Big West)
14. Cleveland State Vikings (Ohio; Horizon)
15. La Salle Explorers (Pa., A-10)*
16. Evansville Purple Aces (Ind., Missouri Valley)
17. Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos (Mo., Summit)

#- Radford is my alma mater, so I put it in as a smart school as a bit of a joke. The New Jersey Institte of Technology which is unquestionably a smart school has the same nickname.


*- Teams which are in the NCAA 68-team field

http://www.goexplorers.com

Tweets of the Day_ Politcs, Weather and Halloween Stuff

Earlier today, I overheard the following at a pancake house in the Roanoke, Va., metro area: "I got these great Swedish candies for Halloween, there are called Toberlone." Uhmm...just one problem, that's a Swiss candy! Those, I must profess, I didn't know how to spell the name of the Swiss chocolate candy until I googled it just now.

And, Happy Anniversary to us! This blog was launched four years ago today on Oct. 31st, 2008.

With that, let's look at the afternoon tweets:

1) (@occupywallst) Occupy Wall Street: "#OWS (Occupy Wall Street) rapid response to #Sandy shows importance of building network for mutual support. When government falls short, people stand tall."

2) @WSJ (Wall Street Journal): "Halloween is on hold for many kids in #Sandy's path as municipalities cancel  trick-or-treating."

3) @SheHasWorth (She Has Worth, a women's publication in California): "Happy Halloween! And remember you can still dress up cute without giving away your 'treats.'" (hmmm....yeah, we think there is a double-meaning there too).

4) @LOLGOP (LOL GOP, a liberal satirist): "You notice that for Halloween, I'm dressed up as a sluty elephant."

5) @TeaPartyCat (Top Conservative Cat, another liberal satirist): "The real victims of Hurricane Sandy are the pundits desperate for polling which has been postponed."

6) @Keswick_theatre (Keswick Theatre is a venue in Philadelphia): "Happy Halloween! What are you dressing up as this year? Anything music related?"

7) @RockyMtnMike (Rocky Mountain Mike, a radio personality in Vail, Colo.): "Happy Halloween! Mitt Romney Vampire Hunter."

8) @nprnews (NPR News): "If Dick Cheney's dogs can dress up for Halloween, so can you."

Quote of the Day/Week- Vincent van Gogh

We conclude our month-long series of quips from famous artists with a quote from Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), though we are not good at math, we just realized that we have outlived the Dutch master!

There is a new van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and we were hoping to read a "Wall Street Journal" piece about it, but someone in our office threw it away by accident (whoever it was, Javier the Intern shall be blamed!). But, there is a similar article from "Newsweek" on the web which seemingly suggests that the exhibit is meant to make the art museum gazer if van Gogh was sane or not.

Here is his quote, and quite frankly we don't care about a dead man's sanity status:

"I often think that the night is more alive and more colorful than the day."

SIDEBAR: Thanks to the PRI/public radio program "The World," which airs on many NPR stations here in America, we have some catch phrases for the day: this coming from a piece about fashion and coupling in Pakistan. These catch phrases are: "What the fatwa" and "ghetto hijab."

And, for some reason, Ferris Bueller, the fictional high school teenager played by Matthew Broderick in the 1985 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," is trending today on Twitter.

Quote of the Day- Neil Simon

We continue with our series of quips from famous playwrights this month with a quote from Neil Simon. Though "The Odd Couple" is my favorite Simon play, "Barefoot in the Park" appears to be the most popular one. There is a great audio version of the play with Laura Linney (tv's "The Big C") from Los Angeles Theatre Works (LATW).

Here is the quote:

"If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor."

SIDEBAR ONE: Various sources have said that the following joke from stand-up comic Nick Helm was considered to be the funniest one at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland: "I need a password eight characters long, so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

SIDEBAR TWO: Though I am a human secularist, as the son of a late Muslim Turkish immigrant, I want to wish everyone in the greater Muslim community in the United States, Turkey and around the world a Happy Eid ul-Fitr, which falls on August 30th this year. Eid ul-Fitr, also known as Seker Bayrami (Sugar Holiday) in Turkey, marks the end of the 30-day Ramadan period. We imagine those who faithfully followed the fast in places like Austin, Tex., which was very hot this week, were tempted to go for the Dasani or Gatorade.

The alt weekly "C'ville Weekly" in Charlottesville, Va., has an interesting story about how Ramadan is being celebrated by Muslim inmates in Virginia prisons, which agreed after pressure from the Virginia ACLU to adjust dinning schedules for Ramadan for those following Islam.

And, irregardless of one's faith, Turkish food is always among the finest cuisine one can have. In the Philadelphia area, Divan Turkish Kitchen is considered to be among the best Turkish restaurants in the City of Brotherly Love.

Things We Learned from Twitter Today- Alaska Senator May Get Teabagged

Since this blog is known to be as objective as Fox New, Radio Havannah, "The National Review" and "Mother Jones," we should openly state that we think the Tea Bag movement is pretty much a rabid right-wing exercise in banality, or it is essentially a hippie movement in reverse.

Nevertheless, these delusional maniacs have made a considerable political impact on the American landscape (but then again so did Che Guevarra in Latin America).

Yesterday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) got a taste of this as she is now losing to Tea Party right-wing radical Joe Miller by about 2,500 votes according to a tweet from WashDCNews, which lead to a CNN article about the Alaska Republican primary, which was held yesterday.

Miller, who was backed by the demonic diva Sarah Palin, is winning the race with about 84 percent of the votes in Alaska accounted for. Murkowski is like 'the old John McCain' of the Senate as she has voted against the GOP 30 percent of the time. Interestinly enough, McCain beat the right-wing pit bull he was facing yesterday.

The winner will face Democrat Scott McAdams, who is the mayor of Sitka. Alas, for him, Alaska is about as progressive as Qom, Iran.

Speaking of Iran, the prime minister of their main nemesis Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is an alumnus of Cheltenham High School in Philadelphia (actually in the 'burb of Wyncote, Pa.) as is former New York Yankees great Reggie Jackson.

Cheltenham is our "High School of the Week" along with schools from Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The school nickname is The Panthers. Abington Senior High School are their rivals. And, Dr. Elliot Lewis is the principal.

50 Beers From Around the Globe- Mythos (Greece)

It may seem a bit ironic (since I am a Turkish-American) that today's entry features Mythos Beer from Greece, which is bottled in both green and red bottles, but hey we like Greeks except those fervent nationalists who claim every city in Turkey except the western, industrial Black Sea port city of Zonguldak (Turkish people will get the joke; I hope!).

Mythos is apparently available in the USA.

While thinking of Greek restaurants in the USA, I found two unique-looking ones in Philadelphia, which has a large Greek-American population. They include Byblos Restaurant and Bar and Karnella Restaurant, which appears to be run by a Greek Cypriot family.

Closer to home, there is The Acropolis Restaurant in Greensboro.

Shakespeare Over Soccer?!

The United State men's national soccer team hosted Turkey yesterday afternoon in a 'friendly' game in Philadelphia, which resulted in a 2-1 victory for the home team.

A few hours prior to learning about the game, I brought tickets to see a matinee performance of William Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well" at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton, Va., some four and a half hours south of Philly.

The soccer game was airing on ESPN-2 at 1:30 p.m., just a half hour before the curtain was to rise, so I phoned a friend in North Carolina to see if by chance he would tivo the game for me. As it turned out, Osman Bey (not his real name) was taking the whole extended family, a party of 11 people including his toddler grandchildren, to Philly for the game!

The game was apparently an exciting one as Turkey scored first on a goal from Arda Turdan, who plays for Istanbul powerhouse GalataSaray, in the 27th minute. But, the second half completely belonged to the home squad as Team America scored an equalizer in the 58th minute as Robbie Findley, who plays for the current MLS champ Real Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah) lofted a pass to American star Landon Donovan of the L.A. Galaxy who in turned passed the ball to teammate Jozy Altidore who scored the goal.

Then, Clint Dempsey, on another Donovan assist, snuck the ball past Turkish goalie Volkan Demirel, who plays for another Istanbul powerhouse FenerBahce, in the 75th minute to give Team America a 2-1 lead which they held on to until game's end.

The match was played in front of 55,047 people at Lincoln Field. Afterward, Donovan told reporters that: "We're going to be good as we want to be." Team American next faces England in the World Cup in South Africa in June. Vice President Joe Biden will be attending the game in person.

As for the Turkish side, the newspaper "Today's Zaman" speculated that partisan Turkish soccer fans might be hostile towards new team coach Guus Hiddink (a Dutch citizen) if play doesn't improve. Turkey did not qualify for this year's World Cup though their arch rivals Greece did.

The Turkey-USA game put me in a bit of a political quandary as I am a Turkish-American, and though I grew up in Roanoke, Va., I felt compelled to root for my late father's country.

But, apparently, my situation was not as awkward as the one that Guiseppe Rossi, 23, an Italian-American soccer player who grew up in Clifton, NJ, faced as he chose not only to play for Italy, but he scored two goals for his team in a win over the United States earlier this year! Hence, some partisan American soccer fans have taken to calling him 'Judas.'

As for "All's Well That Ends Well," the production was simply delightful though I was glad I didn't have a Blackberry which might have forced me to check the score of the game during the play's intermission.

The ever-gorgeous actress Kelly McKinnon was delightful as The Countess and the barefoot pilgrim Mariana as was African-American actress Brandi Rhome who played the roles of Diana and Steward in the production. She plays Juliet in one of the troupe's other current plays "Romeo and Juliet." Rick Blunt also stood out as Parolles as did Josh Carpenter who played The Duke and (interestingly enough!) the widow.

For more information about tickets and performances, log on to www.ASCstaunton.com or call 1-877-MUCH-ADO.

Happy New Year's from Grape Ape

While trying to find an image of Grape Ape, the Hanna Barbera cartoon which ran from 1975-76, we stumbled upon a photo of an ape who is purple?!

And, for those of you living in the Philadelphia area, good news! The Philadelphia Zoo is open tomorrow (Jan. 2). Of course, it might be cold up there, but hopefully the monkeys will be out in full force. Somehow, I doubt any of them will be purple though!

Quote of the Day- Bill Cosby

Last week, we went with quotes from New Yorkers so this week we are going with quotes from two famous Philadelphians on our two respective blogs.

Today, we start with comedian/actor Bill Cosby who gave the commencement address at North Carolina A & T University in Greensboro, NC, last year:

"I don't know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is to please everybody."

Our other blog, "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" will feature a quote from W.C. Fields.