(10 for 10; 2nd Entry): Our Most Popular Blog Entries: Silly Dog Photo to Fill Space

Greetings to our blog readers in Guatemala, Slovakia, and Saudi Arabia.........whoops, sorry about the hot dog image!

In our ten years of blogging, we have often been surprised and some times stunned by which entries prove to be more popular than others. When I posted an entry about hot dogs, as in two dogs dressed like hot dogs (center image), on August 18, 2009, from a small town library in North Carolina, I never could have imagined that it would yield more hits than any entry we posted before or since.

Because our blog is, for some reason, popular in Russia and Ukraine, I suppose it's not shocking that our blog entry with a quote from the legendary gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, (top image) who competed for the Soviet Union on her native Belarus, became popular, but it's still surprising that it got over 5,000 hits.

Another popular entry with a quote from a celebrity was one from Feb. 9, 2009, featuring reality tv show Heidi Montag ("The Hills") who endorsed John McCain for president, and that apparently wasn't enough for the Republican Arizona senator to get enough votes to win over Barack Obama.

Our second most popular entry featured Mr. Potato Head (pict. bottom), which still seems popular almost five years after its posting as it inches towards the 20,000-hit mark.

Here are our most six most popular blog entries, with links to those entries (alas some photos from the entries have been removed from the net):

1. Silly Photo to Fill Space-Hot Dogs. Aug. 18,2009. 21,464 hits.

2. Bonus Silly Photo to Fill Space-Mr. Potato Head. Dec. 10, 2010. 19,985 hits
http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2010/12/bonus-silly-photo-to-fill-space-mr.html

3. PSA-Don't Drink and Drive. May 27, 2010. 13,240 hits.

4. Quote of the Day: Heidi Montag. Feb. 9, 2009. 7,928 hits.

5. Quote of the Day: Svetlana Boginskaya. April 19, 2012. 5,250 hits
http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2012/04/quote-of-dayweek-svetlana-boginskaya.html

6. Political Confusion Test (21 of 21)_ The Oak Ridge Boys vs. The Village People. Aug. 14, 2009. 5,142 hits

http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2009/08/political-confusion-test-21-of-21.html

Best Ten Comic Strips Sunday Greensboro News and Record: Hoorary for the Unicorns

Greetings to our blog readers in Belgium, Cyprus, and Slovakia, all European Union countries. We just got a notice from our server that we are supposed to tell all EU nation citizens who might come to this blog about our cookies. We have no idea what that really means, but we will try to accommodate you in any way you can, or we'll just refer to Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).....we just love making fun of Republicans.

Foxx does not actually represent Greensboro, NC, in Congress, but we gather she represents Winston-Salem, NC, of course, here in the Land of the Free they change the lines often, which doesn't really seem democratic. I guess we should send our complaints to Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) but we don't live in Colorado!

Today we going with  comic strips from the"News and Record," the main daily newspaper for Greensboro.

We really like "Phoebe and Her Unicorn," which is carried by that newspaper, and this Sunday's strip with Phoebe talking to her pet unicorn about crying at the movies was quite touching. We also liked "WuMo" which dealt with archeologists finding remains of a human pyramid in Egypt.

"Judge Parker," a comic strip in soap opera format, featured a conversation in front of horses, unlike Mister Ed, they can't seem to talk. (Bottom image is of Secretariat).

Here is our top ten:

1. Phoebe and Her Unicorn

2. Foxtrot

3. WuMo

4. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

5. Pearls Before Swine

6. Doonesbury

7. Non-Sequitur

8. Jump Start

9. Judge Parker

10. Ziggy

http://www.visitgreesnboro.com

http://www.gocomics.com 

http://www.comicskingdom.com

Last Ten Films We've Seen: Looking for Prozac Nation

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Slovakia, and Finland......we are delighted that full diplomat relations have been established between our country the United States and Cuba!

Here are the last ten films we had seen as of last week. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" and "Prozac Nation" have been notoriously hard to find, so we glad to have them off of our cinematic bucket list. "Love and Mercy" is the new film about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. He was played by two actors: Paul Dano (the young Wilson) and John Cusack (the older Wilson).

The pedestrian stop and go lights at the bottom are a holdover from East Germany in Berlin; "A Coffee in Berlin" is the only foreign-language film on this particular list, though "Prozac Nation" has a Norwegian director.

Fun thing we learned while putting this list together is that over $1 million of $7 million budget for "Dazed and Confused" went to film's soundtrack; we assume this means Foghat's 1975 rock hit single "Slow Ride" is expensive!

We originally got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

Here is the list:

1. Looking for Mr. Goodbar. director: Richard Brooks. 1977 w/Diane Keaton

2. Prozac Nation. dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. 2003.

3. The Lineup. Don Siegel. 1957

4. Bone. Larry Cohen. 1972.

5. A Coffee in Berlin. Germany. Jan Ole Gerster. 2012.

6. The Immigrant. James Gray. 2013.

7. Trishna. Michael Winterbottom. 2011.

8. Dazed and Confused. Richard Linklater. 1993

9. Entourage. Doug Ellin. 2015.

10. Love and Mercy. Bill Pohlad. 2014.

Our Top 10 from the Sunday Washington Post: WuMo's Take on Noah's Ark

Greetings to our blog readers in England, Slovakia, and Cameroon........

Our top two Sunday comic strips from the June 14th "Washington Post" issue both refer to the Bible. As "WuMo" features two cheetahs who want to get on board Noah's Ark and "The Argyle Sweater" includes a take on what the childhood of Biblical characters experience including John the Baptist being nearly drowned the Jerusalem Public Pool.

Third place goes to our friend Keith Knight and his strip "Knight Life" features mom, dad, and an older brother giving an infant advice.

Other strips in the top ten include a  "Candorville" with a satirical look at arguing with those who supported the Iraq War promoted in and planned by George W. Bush, "Lio" building a model giraffe, and a brief history of wasps from "Mark Trail."

Here is the top 10:

1. WuMo

2. The Argyle Sweater

3. Knight Life

4. Frazz

5. Foxtrot

6. Candorville

7. Lio

8. Speed Bump

9: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

10. Mark Trail


http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.gocomics.com

Top Ten Sunday Comic Strips from the "Roanoke Times:" Yeah, No Room for Hi and Lois

Greetings to our blog readers in Tunisia, Germany and Slovakia...........

Today, we are blogging while listening to "The Best of Bread," a compilation of hits from the '70s soft rock band Bread fronted by David Gates, who is alas like the last or next to last guy from the band who is still alive. And, we are also one hour away from the series finale of "Mad Men," which might possibly end with a song from Bread.

Here are our top ten comic strips, which include an independent business owner who wants to protest the government ("Pearls Before Swine") which reminded us of the comic book guy from "The Simpsons," a dragon preparing to snack on a knight ("Speed Bump") and Garfield coming in second to Odie at a talent show ("Garfield"), perhaps next time the 37-year-old cat should take up juggling or tap dancing:

1. Speed Bump

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Garfield

4. Doonesbury

5. Get Fuzzy

6. Non-Sequitur

7. Agnes

8. Dilbert

9. Mutts

10. Jump Start

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

http://www.gocomics.com/Agnes

Sunday Jan. 11th Washington Post Comics Survey: The Usual Suspects

Greetings to our blog readers in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovakia............hmm, we've been watching too much Fox News lately (just kidding, we know Slovenia is the country that was once part of Slovakia, and who has time for Fox News when there are "Green Acres" on reruns on TVLand).....

The images above are from 1) "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," a kitschy science fiction tv show that aired on NBC circa 1980 (we are using as our image for 'Brewster Rockit'), 2) The Village People, which were at the center of the gag used in "The Argyle Sweater," and 3) A sea turtle for "Sherman's Lagoon," this week Sherman the shark had a visit with Fillmore the sea turtle where they discussed the weather, the government and the season premiere of "American Idol" (we are kidding, they actually talked about E-bay).

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine #

2) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy #

3) The Argyle Sweater #

4) Speed Bump #

5) WUMO #

6) Garfield (highest ranking ever in our WP survey) #

7. Prickly City #

8. Baldo (first-time entry in our survey) #

9. Sherman's Lagoon *

10. Knight Life #

#-Gocomics strips

*-Comics Kingdom strips

http://www.gocomics.com/

http://comicskingdom.com/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Last Ten Films I've Seen: Mostly Netflix Week

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, Brazil and China.

Why do we have images of a map of Italy, the Athens, Ga., indie rock icons REM, and photo of a grizzly bear chasing a salmon in Alaska? They all relate to the last ten films I've seen; it should be pointed out that one of the films "The One I Love" shares its name with a song by REM, hence the reason why we have an image of the band fronted by Michael Stipe that was one of the best during the 1980s.


All of these films, except "The Trip to Italy" and "The One I Love," which were both showing at the local art house cinema, where viewed either through Netflix or Netflix streaming; two of the films, "A Trip to Italy" and "What Maisie Knew" feature English actor Steve Coogan:

1) "Point Blank." France. 2010. Dir: Fred Cavaye (no connection to Lee Marvin film with the same name)

2) The Trip to Italy. 2014. Dir: Michael Winterbottom.

3) "The One I Love" 2014. Dir: Charlie McDowell w/Elisabeth Moss from "Mad Men."

4) Grizzly. 1976. Dir: William Girdler (yes, it is a guilty pleasure film)

5) "Passion" 2012. Dir: Brian De Palma (remake of the French film "Love Crime")

6) Trance. 2013. Dir: Danny Boyle (Films features a very nude Rosario Dawson!)

7) What Maisie Knew. 2012. Dir: Scott McGhee, et al.

8) The King of Thieves. Slovakia (in German). 2004. Dir: Ivan Fila

9) "Paradise: Faith" Austria. 2012. Dir: Ulrich Seidl (first film in a triology)

10) Buddy. Norway. 2003. Dir: Mortem Tyldum

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.netflix.com

Little Thinkers Quotes (15 of 16): Vincent Van Gogh

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovakia, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia.

Also, we want to say a special hello to our good friends Mitt Romney, Michael Moore and Dick Vitale; we are sure all three of them are looking at this blog instead of watching college basketball or men's speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia!

Here is the quote from the great Dutch master:

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

Image to Fill Space: A Pug

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador, Venezuela, Sweden, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaysia, Tajikistan and The Bahamas.

We'll have something more substantial in tomorrow's blog entry.

Soccer Week (5 of 8): Games of the Week Results

There were a handful of soccer games played tonight in Europe: Among them is the Turkish Super League match-up between two Istanbul teams, Fenerbahce and Kasimpasha. Thanks to two goals from Pierre Webo of Cameroon (pictured here) the Yellow Canaries came from behind for a 3-2 win over Kasimpasha. Yes, we are wondering why Webo is not wearing a yellow jersey with blue stripes (Fener's traditional uniform colors) too!

Here are the results from the Games of the Week entry posted on Friday:

France:

Lille 0 Nice 2 (both goals came from Argentine national Daro Cvitanich)

Lyon 0 Rennes 0 (tie)

Also, Paris St. Germain won over Bordeaux 2-0

Turkey:

Bursapor 0 Besiktash 3 (Three international players: Hugo Almeida of Portugal; Tomas Sivak of Slovakia, who is also the team captain; and Julien Escade scored for BJK).

Kasimpasha 2 Fenerbahce 3

Also, GalataSaray tied Antalyaspor 1-1

Italy:

Inter Milan 1 Juventus 1-1 (tie)

Napoli 2 Atalanta 0

Greece:

Veria 1 PAOK 2 (Miguel Vitor of Portugal and Miroslav Stoch of Slovakia scored for PAOK)

OFI Crete 1 Asteras Tripolis 1 (tie)

Spain:

Villareal 2 Real Madrid 2 (tie)

Atl. Madrid 4 Almeira 2 (Goals from Spanish stars David Villa and Koke for Atl Madrid)

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

http://nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2013/09/soccer-week-1-of-8-games-to-watch-in.html (Friday's entry)

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Soccer Night-Turkey: Ah Those Altintop Twins

Merhabalar to everyone/ Herkese hello demek istedim..... Hmmm....Turkglish is perhaps not a language which is spoken much in the blogosphere, but, well we try to be original.

We made a big (insert English or Turkish obscenity here) goof last week when we said Fenerbahce was playing Swiss team FC Basel in the UEFA Europa League while English powerhouse Chelsea was playing Benefica of Portugal.

In actuality, Chelsea was playing Basel, whom they defeated, and Fenerbahce alas fell to the Portuguese side in Lisbon 3-1, which eradicated the Yellow Canaries' 1-0 win a week prior in Istanbul. Of course, since this blog is based in America (our executive editor Tilly Gokbudak, who is me, is a Turkish-American), we aren't quite sure how the aggregate system works in soccer, and we think there should be a best 2 out of 3 system instead.

Of course, Turkish futbol blogger Ahmet Bob Turgut, one of our favorite people to follow on Twitter, would have never made this mistake.

Before we go into our dated scores from last week, let's explain a few thing, starting with the twins: Hamid Altintop of GalataSaray (formerly with Read Madrid; pictured top) is the twin brother of Halil Altintop of Trabzonspor (pictured bottom). They are both 30. If for some reason, we got the two mixed up, hopefully, Ahmet Bob Turgut will correct us.

And, we have two new scores from today (Saturday): First, Kayseri upset Trabzonspor 2-1, so we image Halil is not in not in a happy mood right now, but hopefully he'll have a great olive and feta cheese Turkish kahvalti/breakfast (it's 7:30 a.m. and Sunday in Turkey as we are writing this).

We found out that Kayseri, a central Turkish team, has Icelandic national Gretar Steninsson, we presume he is one of the few Icelanders in the TPL.

But, our beloved BursaSpor doubled up on struggling OrduSpor 4-2 with two goals from Slovakian Stanislav Sestak.

The logo in the middle is of Sivasspor which beat bottom-dwelling Istanbul BB last week, but tomorrow, they have the daunting task of facing Burak Yilmaz, Didier Drogba and league-leading GalataSaray.


In leagues standings, these are the top four teams:

1. GalataSaray 65

2. FenerBahce 58

3. Besiktash 52

4. Bursaspor 50

And, here are the results from LAST weekend:

1. BursaSpor 1 Akhisar 1, tie

2.  Trabzonspor 2 Ankara GB 0

3. Elazig 1 Karabukspor 0

4. Sivasspor 4 Istanbul BB 1

5. Mersin 1 Antalyaspor 1, tie

6. Besiktash 2 OrduSpor 0

7. Fenerbahce 2 Kayseri 1

8. GalataSaray 1 GaziantepSpor 0

9. Eskisehir 2 Kasimpasha 1

We are also going to arbitrarily mention Turkish Airlines in the hopes that they will give us a free plane ticket from JFK (New York) to Istanbul.

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Our sister blog)

Friday Night Tweets: Balance Beams and Ski Slopes

It was our hope to have at least one sports every week on this blog. Hmmmmm. In reality, there are perhaps too many distractions for that. But, since this is one of these "Applebees Fridays," you know one in which you had plans and for one reason or another none of them came to be (for those of you in Nepal: Applebees is an American chain restaurant. There are probably eight in Scranton, Pa.), we thought we'd post various tweets, many of which deal with collegiate or pro athletics.

One thing we found out, but not through Twitter, was that the host University of North Carolina Tar Heels women's gymnastics team edged out the North Carolina Wolfpack by a 195.050-194.875 score. For the visiting 'Pack,' junior Diahanna Ham posted a 9.9 on bars. We didn't see results on the Tar Heels gymnastics site, but we did learn that senior Elizabeth Durkac, from Yorktown, Va.,(pictured center) was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week.

Here are the Friday Night Tweets; we have added some things for clarity:

1) Seattle Weekly @seatlleweekly: "Study: Young adults carry less debt, but it might not be a good thing."

2) Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins: "Things are getting chippy @ConsolEnergyCtr. Tomas Kopecky of the Panthers is in the box for slashing. #Pens now on the PowerPlay. (Spoiler Alert: The Penguins won their home game over the Florida Panthers 3-1; Kopecky is from Slovakia).

3) Auburn Gymnastics @Augymnastics: "Abbey Habitcht of Auburn up next with a small check on her leap series, an awesome series, and a small hop on her dismount." (Auburn was facing LSU in a home meet tonight; no report on which team won the meet).

4) Visit Colorado @Colorado:" Have you ever been lucky enough to ski in a tee shirt? Come to Colorado and you can!" (This is the reason we have an image of Jamaican aerial skier Errol Kerr, top image, even though he is not from Colorado).

5) WBTV-News @WBTV-News (WBTV is the CBS-affiliate in Charlotte, NC): "Tractor trailer crash shuts down North Bound I-77 for several hours."

6) University of Washington Gymnastics @UWGymnastics: "Loud roar in here during starting lineups for Arizona natives and UW freshmen Keirsten Graber and Sheridan Metcalf. And, we mean LOUD!" (UW was facing Arizona State in a road meet).

7) The Baltimore Sun @baltimoresun: "Oscar trivia: Nearly half of this year's acting nominees are previous Oscar winners."

8) BYU Lacrosse @BYULacrosse: "1 more hour until the big game! We want to hear some score predictions." (Brigham Young is facing Chapman, a school in Las Vegas, as we are posting this).

9) WSOC Weather @WSOCWeather (WSOC is the Charlotte, NC, affiliate for ABC): "Ever wonder what it is like to live in London or Seattle, step outside."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.gopack.com

http://www.colorado.com

http://www.jamaicaskiteam.com

Comic Strip Dialogue- Be Aware of Scorpions and Hermit Crabs

We started blog entries with comic strip dialogues on a whim several weeks back, and we've discovered that they've become hits with the blog-viewing public, perhaps even in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovakia (for those of you in Slovenia, this a joke, I was actually good at geography in high school; geometry_ not so much)!

We are not going to quip any lines from "Doonesbury, " because we suspect that if we got a cease and desist order it would come from Garry Trudeau, even though we love the politics of his comic strip.

Of course, I am asking myself is this cool....like an Andy Warhol soup can kinda thing, or is this sort of illegal, like something Banksy, who ironically did a take on Charlie Brown in one of his most famous pieces of art/vandalism. We won't be quoting Charlie Brown here, but we will be quipping Linus.


These comic strip all appeared in yesterday's Sunday edition of "The Washington Post:"

1) "Nelson, I told you to pick up your Lego blocks." (from "Pickles")

2) "That was Liz, she had to cancel our date" (from "Garfield")

3) "Yes....Is there a problem?" (from "Knight Life," my favorite comic strip......shout out to Keith Knight, please don't sue me)

4) "Help! Help! Help!" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

5) "I've been trying to find out why I didn't vote" (from "Candorville," my favorite comic strip....shout out to Darrin Bell....please don't sue me)

6) "Soooooooooooo, what are you getting mom for Christmas?" (from "Sally Forth")

7) "Pay attention to expiration dates" (from "Reply All")

8) "Ed, will you please hold my purse?" (from "Dustin")

9) "Well, that's offensive" (from "Speed Bump")

10) "You're Touched All Right! What's Going on Here?" (from "Judge Parker")

11) "Relax, Honey! Just my inner child running wild" (from "Dennis the Menace")

12) "Well, my dear, I wouldn't want to deprive you of so great a pleasure" (from "The Amazing Spiderman")

13) "Sometimes, I don't think you're committed to this relationship" (from "Sherman's Lagoon," said by a hermit crab, top image)

14) "You come back here and turn on this tv! If anyone is someone, I am!!!" (from "Peanuts," said by Linus)

15) "Quick! What can kill giant scorpions?"  (from "Brewster Rockit")

16) "I hate this procedure. It's cruel and absurd." (This is actually from "Post" columnist Gene Weingarten from his weekly column 'Below the Beltway,' he also cow-writes the comic strip "Barney and Clyde").


http://www.shermanslagoon.com

http://www.candorville.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

http://www.replayallcomic.com

10 People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (2 of 10)- Truck Driver in Indiana

First of all, thanks to those of you in Slovakia, Ecuador and Finland for visiting our blog today. Just last week, I got the best-selling book "Procrastination"  by Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen, and I have actually delayed this entry for three days now, so let's get to it. Note: Be sure to read the disclaimer at the end of the entry.

Here is a profile of today's fictional character_

Name: Danny Givens

Age: 37

Profession: Truck Driver

Residency: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Will Likely Vote for: Mitt Romney


In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to win the presidential vote in Indiana since Lyndon B. Johnson, and this took even the most objective, non-partisan political experts by surprise. Obama edged out John McCain by a 50-49 percent margin. McCain won Allen County, where Fort Wayne is, by a 52-48 margin. Obama won the state's more liberal area, including Saint Joseph County, where South Bend and Notre Dame University is, by a 58-42 margin.

Obama's largest margin of victory, however, was in neighboring Lake County while McCain had his highest percentage of votes in rural northern Indiana in Kosciusko County, where the town of Warsaw is.

In the 1996 election, Bob Dole edged the eventual victor Bill Clinton by a slim 47-42 percent margin. But, George W. Bush was able to defeat both Al Gore and John Kerry with relative ease. However, in 2004, when Bush got 60-precent of the vote, then Sen. Evan Bayh (D) got 62 percent of the vote.

There are circa three million truck drivers in the United States. Though we could not find sources to verify this, it is widely believed that in the South, truck drivers tend to be partisan Republicans whereas in northern and mid-western states where labor unions are significantly stronger, they tend to be more independent-minded.

Some ten years ago, I read a "Washington Post Magazine" article about an African-American truck driver passing through the hamlet of Toms Brook, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley where there is a large truck station, who was surprisingly held extreme right-wing political views.

Since Indian's current governor Mitch Daniels (R) has a strong national presence, it seems like the Hoosier State will likely go back to the Republicans this year, but Obama did pull a major upset there just four years ago.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Danny Givens is a fictional character. There is a Danny Givens who is a pastor in Minnesota, but in no way, is our fictional character indicative of him or his political views. The person who is picture is not Danny Givens, and the person in the picture's political views are not known.

Though this blog is satirical in nature, with a center-left bias, this series is not meant to be partisan. It simply reflects the author's theory that indeed every vote counts.

www.journalgazette.net

www.fortwayne.com

http://www.indems.org

http://www.indgop.org

People with Long Names List, Part 2

It took an act of Congress to get this image above, and it is not because the Anglo-French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (b. 1971), who I have a huge crush though she is married with children, is smoking. There are various versions of this photograph on the web, and most of them were too big for our purposes.

On the first list of People with Long Names we featured men with difficult surnames, including Finnish ski-jumper Matti Hautmaki. This time we are posting women with long names here, and featuring a new men's with long names list on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here is the list (apologies in advance to anyone whose name we don't spell correctly!!!)which features women from all over the world:

1. Charlotte Gainsbourg_ The actress who starred in everything from French romcoms like "My Wife is an Actress" to shocking art films like "Antichrist" is also quite a good singer. Her late father Sergei Gainsbourg was one of the most admired singers in France during the '60s and '70s.

2. Nil Karaibrahimgil_ This Turkish singer who is somewhere near 30 years old is heard quite often on radio stations in Istanbul, and she prefers to simply call herself 'Nil.' We understand why.

3. Johana Sigurdordottir- This Icelandic prime minister is among the few world leaders who has publicly acknowledged that they are gay or lesbian. Charlotte Gainsbourg may have problems if she chose to reside in Iceland since the country is reportedly in the process of passing a de facto ban on smoking!

4. Simona Peycheva- Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast; we always try to include at least one eastern European on these lists.

5. Dominika Cibulkova- Yes, there are other tennis players from the Czech Republic or Slovakia with long, difficult names who are more famous (such as the one named Martina), but since this young Slovak tennis star reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals a few weeks ago, we thought we'd put her on the list so we could look hip.

6. Kalliopi Sarasopoulou- She is a Greek pop singer; we also try to include a person with a Greek name on these lists as they can tend to even longer than Turkish names!

7. Lilia Podkopayeva- This Ukrainian Olympian was quite impressive during her years as an impressive international gymnast, especially on the floor exercise. At 32, she would be still young enough to compete for just about any sport besides gymnastics.

8. Severa Nazarkhan- She is a singer from Uzbekistan who wowed the world with her 2003 record "Yol Bolsin," which was released through the English record lable Real World.

9. Tricia Olszewski- This film critic for "City Paper" in Washington, DC, really hated the Rutger Hauer film "Hobo with a Shotgun," but I saw it any way. It was 'ineteresting.'

10. Deepa Ranganathan- She is a leading researcher in sleep/wake patterns...need I say more!

50 Beers Around the World- Zlaty Bazant (Slovakia)

We aren't sure if we've been to Slovakia or not though I did go through Czechoslovakia as a kid in the 1970s. But, Slovakia wanted a divorce so now there is the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

And, Zlaty Banat, which means Golden Pheasant, has been dubbed the best beer in Slovakia. The brewery was founded in the city of Hurbanova in 1969 and a travel site for Bratislva, the Slovakian capital proclaims that Slovaks are tenth in beer consumption around the world.

We imagine that the Germans and Canadians are ahead of them, though there is no research to back this up!

Friday Geo Quiz (July2010 Only)

As a casual listener to the NPR series "The World" which had a great segment on Turkish immigrant families who have now spent several generations in Germany since a guest worker program was introduced in the late 1960s, I thought I would dedicate a series of "Geo Quiz" segments (which are featured on the news show broadcasts).

These particular entries are only going to focus on countries in the World Cup, and yes we know all six countries have officially been eliminated as of today (Editorial Comment: Go Holland!).

But, nevertheless, we thought this might help ninth grade geography students at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md. (an actual place) particularly those who are taking the class over again in summer school. It should be pointed out that there was a heatwave in the region this week, and reportedly Richmond, Va., was (yikes!) reportedly 102 degrees at one point in mid-week.

So, here is the question kids:

Which one of these four World Cup countries (pictured above) is NOT landlocked:

A) Slovakia
B) Paraguay
C) Switzerland
D) Slovenia

If you get the answer right, I may have to send you a Partridge Family record I got at Happy's Flea Market in Roanoke, Va., a few years ago. Alas, you will have to pay for the postage!

Kudos to Team USA (In Spite of Ghana Loss)

Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and goalie Tim Howard had an impressive World Cup tournament. We are proud of the American team which won their group over three quality teams in England, Slovenia and Algeria. Even though they lost to Ghana 2-1 on Saturday, we are very proud of team.

Donovan, 28, who scored the goal against Ghana on a penalty kick, will be rejoining his Los Angeles Galaxy teammates soon in MLS play as the team looks to improve on last year when they lost in overtime to Real Salt Lake in the league's title game.

Other countries of the world were disappointed by the weekend's results, including Mexico which lost to Argentina 3-1 yesterday.

A Mexican waiter Los Tres Magueyes Restaurant in Cary, NC, (well actually it was another Mexican restaurant in North Carolina, but this place does really exist!) told me on Friday: "Maybe, we beat Argentina. Maybe, we don't."

Much like the American team, Mexico had a good World Cup, but they simply faced a daunting opponent in Argentina which has yet to lose a game in South Africa.

For other World Cup news, check out our blog entry on Paul the Octopus on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

You know while I'm doing this, I could actually be watching the Holland-Slovakia game which is going on right now. I imagine we know who tennis player Daniela Hantuchova is rooting for?!

Quote of the Week- Daniela Hantuchova (Slovak Tennis Star)

Ay Karumba! We royally screwed up the first try with this, so we will keep this one simpler. A tip to other bloggers, try to limit your labels and be sure to save your entries, or else.........?????!!!!!!!!!

So, we turn our attention to Slovak tennis goddess Daniela Hantuchova, born in 1983, as we continue to quote 32 people from the 32 countries in the World Cup.

Slovakia was once a part of Czechoslavakia, but the political split which occured some 20 years ago did not prevent Hantuchova from becoming doubles partners with Czech tennis legend Martina Navratilova.

Hantuchova was among the female tennis players profiled in a 2008 feature in "The Daily Mail" (UK) about young, hot female tennis players from eastern Europe. It was a bit tabloid, but very interesting! Though, I think I found out from some place else that Hantuchova studied classical piano for eight years.

She has also posed for lots and lots of swimsuit photos, and like virtually all gorgeous women in the world with the exception of a few lipstick lesbians, Hantuchova (of course!) has a boyfriend but we don't really care about him!

As for accomplishments on the court, Hantuchova reached the semi-finals of the 2008 Australian Open and she will be the 24th seed at Wimbledon.

Here is her quote:

"I guess the attention paid to appearance is something that belongs to tennis too."

SIDEBAR: If you have time, check out the YouTube video featuring replays of the World Cup soccer game between the United States and England with Leggos! It is on the blog "The Knight Shift" (theknightshift.blogspot.com) which belongs to my friend Chris Knight, of Reidsville, NC.

There were other things we were going to post here, but I want to avoid another disaster in the 'chemical lab!"