10 for 10 (8th Entry): The First Line of a Hip Novel............The H-Bomb and The Jesus Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, Greece, and Lebanon..........sorry, we don't have the score of the Indianapolis Colts-New York Jets football, but we will name-drop Frank Gore and Geno Smith in the hopes that will yield us more hits!

Today is actually the 10th anniversary of our blog, and let's go ahead and do this before we run into technical problems for a third consecutive time............?!

A few years ago we had fun posting entries with the first lines of novels like "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville or "1984" by George Orwell, so we are going a bit retro tonight.

Here is the first line of "The H-Bomb and The Jesus Rock," a 2010 gem of a novel by John Manderino from a small publishing house:

"First of all the name is Toby, not Tubs. You want to call me Tubs? Go somewhere else for your cards. I'm talking about baseball cards."

10 for 10 (4th Entry): Say Hi 2 a Calico Cat...

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Slovenia, and Mexico....

We are continuing our trying to catch up series of blog entries with one dedicate to the calico cat, a popular breed of cat here in America and perhaps the world.

No, we don't actually own one.

There are many cats available at animal shelters here in virtually every community in the United States.

Today, we are choosing these three at random:

http://www.hsaconline.org/ (Humane Society of Alamance County (Burlington), North Carolina

http://plannedpethoodrockymount.com/ (Franklin County Animal Shelter in Rocky Mount, Virginia)

http://foothillsanimalshelter.org/ (Jefferson County, Colorado Animal Shelter near Denver)

Last Ten Songs We've Heard on Simon-FM: Disco and the Hair Bands

Greetings to all of our fans in Norway, Slovenia, Moldova and Iraq and Iran.:).....I guess now thanks to modern technology you can listen to 98.7 (Simon-FM, Greensboro, NC) in those parts of the world just as well as you can from High Point, NC!

From the noon hour on Friday, we jotted down the ten songs they were playing; the stations features an eclectic mix of songs from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, but while they proclaim to 'play everything' we have yet to hear them play a song from Turkish pop star Tarkan (I guess one can call their hotline and asked for his popular song "Dudu" if they so choose, it can't hurt........well, I suppose!)......


Here are the ten songs they played during that hour in reverse order:

1) You Dropped a Bomb on Me. Gap Band. 1982.

2) Black Water. The Doobie Brothers. 1974.

3) Your Love. Outfield. 1986.

4) What It's Like. Everlast. 1998.

5) Good Vibrations. Marky Mark and the Funky Buns. 1991.

6)  Rock and Roll All Nite. Kiss. 1975 (pict. bottom)

7) Sister Christian. Night Ranger. 1984 (pict. center)

8) I'm Your Boogie Man. KC and the Sunshine Band. 1977.

9) We're Not Gonna Take It. Twisted Sister. 1984 (pict. top)

10) Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye). Steam. 1969.

Whew! We almost typed 1069 for that last song's release year. Now, we can't get the imagine of Vikings singing "Na Na Hey Hey" out of our skull!

http://www.987simon.com

http://www.visitgreensboronc.com

http://www.visitwinstonsalem.com

http://www.twistedsister.com

http://www.nightranger.com

http://www.tarkan.com

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

Top Ten Things We Should Blog About More in 2015 (our tenth anniversary year!)........: Soccer and Politics

Greetings to our blog readers in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Vietnam, three places where we are surprisingly more popular than we could have ever expected! Perhaps, you guys will catch up with Slovenia (for my fellow Americans who flunked geography that's a former Yugoslav republic, yeah, that probably doesn't assist you any.......)

For the 109th time this year, we once again make fun of Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va; pict. top) who is apparently fighting for companies like Amazon who don't have to pay taxes. Assuredly, this means he will have to take Jeff Bezos out for pizza the next time he's in Washington, D.C., where one may also run into Vice President Joe Biden (pictured bottom, hopefully, those of you going to Princeton University know he's the second man in charge at The White House.).

The man in the middle is Chelsea star Didier Drogba, a star player from the Ivory Coast, who also had a stint with the Istanbul soccer powerhouse Galatasaray, our favorite team. And, since the men in red and yellow tied Ankara GB 1-1 on Thursday, we presume, he is greatly missed.

Here are the top ten things we SHOULD blog more about in 2015, a year in which we will mark our tenth year of blogging!:

1. European soccer

2. Fox News nonsense

3. Israel/Palestinian nonsense

4. Cong. Bob Goodlatte

5. The Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va. (our favorite crazy Baptist minister)

6. Joe Biden

7. Taylor Swift

8. "Family Circus"

9. Global Warming

10. The death penalty/doing my laundry (tie)

Turkish Soccer Scoreboard: Galatasaray Wins the Battle of Our Favorite Turkish Teams

Greetings to our blog readers in Hungary, Kuwait and Japan as well as of course Turkey and here in the United States.

Ironically, none of three Turkish nationals who also play in the Turkish Premiere League are from the traditional Istanbul powerhouse Galatasaray, the lone Turkish team in the UEFA Champions League. On Saturday, Galatasary, my personal favorite team (I am a Turkish-American) defeated my second favorite Turkish team Bursaspor 2-0 with goals from Burak Yilmaz (52m) and Olcan Adin (90m). This was also Bursapor's first domestic game without the team's long-standing star player Pablo Battalla who now plays for Beijing Guoan in China.

For Gaziantepspor, located in southwest Turkey, the young rising star Muhammet Demir (pictured top) scored two goals in the 72nd and 78th minutes for the team's 2-1 win over Sivasspor.

In another clash of mid-level teams, Eskisehirspor from the western city of Eskisehir, the hometown of Cuneyt Arkin, a Turkish matinee idol from the '70s, got goals from Hurriyet Gucer (pict. bottom) in the 65th minute and Erkan Zengin, a Swedish national of Turkish heritage, who kicked in the game-winning goal in the 76th minute.

Cenk Tosun (43rd min) delivered the only goal for Istanbul powerhouse Besiktas, which was recently eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal, but BJK will now play in the Europa League. BJK beat Mersin 1-0.

Lastly, it was alas not a good weekend for Rajko Rotman, a Slovenian national, who plays for Basakdemir; he got a red card for his Istanbul team Basaksehir, but the team managed to still get a 1-1 draw with cross-town rival Kasimpasa.

Here are the soccer scores from weekend play in Turkey:

Bursaspor 0 Galatasaray 2

Mersin 0 Besiktas 1

Fenerbahce 3 Karademir Karabuk 2

Kayseri Erciyes 0 Trabszonspor 0, tie

Sivasspor 1 Gazinantepspor 2

Eskisehirspor 2 Konyaspor 1

Rizespor 1 Ankara GB 1, tie

Balikesirspor 1 Akhisar GS 2

Basaksehir 1 Kasimpasa 1, tie

Link to Ahmet Bob Turgut's blog on Turkish soccer:

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

English Premiere League Scoreboard: Arsenal Beats Everton 2-2

Greetings to those of you in Scotland and Slovenia, especially since many people in those countries are watching the UEFA match between Celtic United and Maribor!

In the English Premiere League (EPL), Montenegro international player Stevan Jovetic (pictured top scored two goals to secure defending champ Manchester City's 3-1 win over Liverpool yesterday.

Over the week, French star Olivier Giroud who plays for Arsenal slipped the ball between past American star goal-keeper Tim Howard who plays for Everton for a come from behind 2-2 tie, which felt like a win for Arsenal as the road side was down 2-0 at half-time.

Arsenal will now host Istanbul powerhouse Besiktash, which is the favorite team of our friend Ahmet Bob Turgut. The two teams played to a highly exciting 0-0 tie in Turkey (it was perhaps the best 0-0 game we've watched in years).


It was also a good weekend for Belgian national Nacer Chadli (pictured center) who scored two goals for the London squad Tottenham Hot Spurs in their 4-0 thumping of cross-town Queens Park Rangers (QPR).

Finally, Nathan Dyer (pictured with soccer ball, bottom) scored the lone goal in the 21st minute to propel Swansea, the only EPL team that is currently based in Wales, to a 1-0 win over the recently promoted Brunley.

Here are the rest of the EPL scores:

1) Manchester City 3 Liverpool 1

2) Everton 2 Arsenal 2, tie

3) Tottenham Hot Spurs 4 QPR 0

4) Swansea 1 Burnley 0

5) Sunderland 1 Manchester United 1, tie

6) Chelsea 2 Leicester 0

7) Crystal Palace 1 West Ham 3

8) Hull City 1 Stoke City 1, tie

9) Southhampton 0 West Brom 0, tie

10) Aston Villa 0 Newcastle United 0, tie

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.flashscore.com

 http://www.nbcsports.com/soccer

http://www.foxsports.com/soccer

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (1 of 6):: Slavoj Zizek

Today, we start a new series of quotes from people who are not in the mainstream. And, we can't think of a better place to begin than with modern Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, 65, who states that he is actually a communist. Zizek is also known as an ardent film connoisseur and his sharp wit. Here is his quip:

"I agree with Sophocles: the great luck is not to have been born, but as the joke goes on, very few people succeed in it."

http://www.philosophypages.com

The Last Ten Films I've Seen: Avoid the Bad Mafya Babasi Film

It has been a full two weeks since we last posted a blog entry. Of course, in the modern age, two weeks is like six and a half years, or is it like 14 minutes? We will let the Slovenian modern philosopher Slavoj Zizek, a fellow film connoisseur, answer that question. In the mean time, here are the last ten films I've seen (mafya babasi is the Turkish term for mafia father/boss):

1) The Serpent and the Rainbow 1988. Director: Wes Craven (Image #1: It's actually a snake-handling church in West Virginia).

2) Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. 1960. dir: Karel Reisz

3) Massacre Mafia Style. 1978. dir-Duke Mitchell (Image #2, which is of Al Capone; this is a terrible movie which aired during TCM Underground)

4) Begin Again. 2013. dir: John Carney. w/Keira Knightley

5) It's a Disaster. 2012. dir: Todd Berger. w/Julie Stiles (Image #3: A Mushroom Cloud)

6) Goodbye, First Love. France 2011. dir: Mia Hansen-Love

7) Airplane! 1980. dir: Jim Abrahams, et al.

8) Life Itself. doc. 2014. dir: Steve James (film about Roger Ebert's last days)
 
9) Bastards. France. 2013. dir: Claire Denis

10) Bill Cunnigham New York. doc. 2010. dir: Richard Press

The Olympic Lists (8 of 10) Balkan and Black Sea Regions Combined

There are six countries in the Black Sea: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Russia. As all of you know, the Olympic games are being held in Sochi, Russia, which is right across the sea from Trabzon, Turkey, one of the largest cities on the Black Sea.

Balkan nations consist of the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey among other.

We are combining the two regions for this list:

1) Alisa Agafonova. 23. Turkey. Ice Dancing. She is pictured here with partner Alper Ucar. Agafonova is a Ukrainian who gained Turkish citizenship to compete with Ucar.

2) Alexandr Smyshylyaev. 25. Russia. Men's Free-Style Skiing.

3) Alxandra Jekova. 26. Bulgaria. Women's Snowboarding.

4) Zoltan Kelemen. 27. Romania. Men's Figure Skating.

5) Panagiosta Tsakiri. 23. Greece. Women's Cross-country skiing. She was the flag bearer for Greece.

6) Dmytro Pidruchnyi. 22. Ukraine. Men's Biathlon.

7) Tina Maze. 30. Slovenia. Women's Alpine. She has won two gold medals.

8) Iason Abrahamshvili. 25. Georgia. Men's Alpine.

9) Andrea Komsic. 17. Croatia. Women's Alpine Skiing.

10) Vuk Radenovic. 30. Serbia. Men's Bobsledding.

http://www.bulgariaski.com/

http://www.goturkey.com/

http://www.visitgreece.gr/

http://www.visitrussia.com/

The Olympic Lists (5 of 10): Athletes from the European Union Nations

Yes, we are buried in snow here in Virginia as our folks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington DC, New York City..............in fact, we may get at least 24 inches........maybe even up to 32 inches by day's end! The Weather Channel is reporting 14 inches in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., at this hour.

But, for those of you not watching the live figure skating from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, we have a list of Olympic athletes from 10 of the 28 European Union countries:

1) Tina Maze (pictured) 30. Women's Slovenia. Women's Alpine Skiing. Has won gold and bronze.

2) Viktor Roanenkov. 20. Estonia. Men's Figure Skating.

3) Lelde Priedulena. 20. Latvia. Women's Skeleton.

4) Matthias Mayer. 23. Austria. Men's Alpine Skiing. Won gold.

5) Coline Mattel. 18. France. Women's Ski-jumping. Won bronze.

6) Zoltan Kelemen. 27. Romania. Men's Figure Skating.

7) Ireen Wust. 27. Netherlands. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. (She is the lesbian athlete who got a surprising hug from Russian premiere Vladamir Putin).

8) Felix Loch. 24. Germany. Men's Luge. Won gold.

9) Andrea Kesler. 24. Hungary. Women's Short-track Speed-skating.

10) Marcus Kruger. 23. Sweden. Men's Hockey. Plays for Chicago Blackhawks. His team bat the Czech Republic 

http://www.weather.com/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Top Ten Olympic Lists (1 of 10): The Flag Bearers; 55 is NEVER Too Old to Compete

Greetings to our blog readers in Kenya, Honduras and Taiwan (yes, we are aware none of these countries are Winter Olympics contenders). We intended to start this whole project on Thursday, in conjunction with the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Sochi, Russia, which is somehow two hours ahead of Trabzon, Turkey, even though the two cities are across the Black Sea from each other.

Here are ten flag-bearers; there will be ten more on our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


Here we go:

1) Greece. Panagiota Tsakiri. Women's Cross Country (pictured top)

2) Mexico: Hubertus von Hohenlohe. Men's Alpine (actually a 55-year-olf European prince who was profiled in "Mental Floss," pictured center)

3) Finland. Enin Rukajarvi. Women's Snowboarding (pictured bottom)

4. Australia. Alex Pullin. Men's Snowboarding.

5. Belgium. Hanna Marien. Women's Bobsled.

6. Sweden. Anders Sodergen. Men's Cross-country Skiing.

7. Jamaica. Marvin Dixon. Men's Bobsledding.

8. Great Britain. Jon Eley, Short-track Speed-skating.

9. Germany. Maria Hofl-Reisch. Women's Alpine Skiing.

10. Slovenia. Tomaz Razinger. Men's hockey.

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.redbull.com

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

http://www.nbcsports.com/

http://www.visitrussia.com/

Little Thinkers' Quotes (13 of 16): Kurt Vonnegut

Here is today's quote from Kurt Vonnegut, author of "Slaughterhouse Five." When I was a reporter in Woodstock, Va., several years and touring the local jail, I was amused to see there was a copy of this novel in the prison library:

"True terror is to wake up one morning and realize that your high school class is running the country."

http://www.vonnegut.com/

I also have to wonder if Vonnegut ever met the engaging Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek before the author's death in 2007.

Kudos to Radford University Highlanders for Winning Big South Volleyball Crown

Greetings to our blog-readers in Slovenia, Israel and Algeria.

Tonight, it is with great pleasure that I report that Radford University, my beloved alma mater, won the Big South Women's Volleyball tournament in Clinton, SC, yesterday, by defeating Coastal Carolina University in straight sets. However, the game was a very tight one as the Highlanders won the opening set 36-34! Typically, in order to win a set one team has to reach 25.

Radford U (25-9), located in Radford, Va., and the top seed in the tourney, won the game over CCU, a school from Conway, SC (near Myrtle Beach), and the second seed by a score of (36-34, 25-23, 25-22).

For the Highlanders, Cheyanne James had 16 kills, and Rachel Wiechecki and Emma Denninger had 11 kills each. Wiechecki was also named tournament MVP.

The Big South title is the fifth overall for the Highlanders, and the first for the school since 2000.

As an alumni, I must profess that I still miss Rowdy Red (pictured top) our old mascot.

SIDEBAR ONE: Our tweet of the night goes to "Writer's Digest," a magazine centered on helping both pro and amateur writers write: "#midnightprompt Your spouse is in bed asleep but you can't sleep. There's a knock at the door. The person changes your life forever."

SIDEBAR TWO: Cartoonist Terri Libenson's strip "The Pajama Diaries" is not in the Sunday comics pages of the two Sunday newspapers I read most weeks, but her work is quite remarkable. In a strip that will be published on Tuesday, there is a touching scene between an adult daughter and her mother.

Libenson also posted a blog entry with the strip which she candidly admits to suffering from writer's block at times. She said life distractions, such as her daughter's Bat Mitzvah, are one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome.


http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.writersdigest.com

http://www.pajamadiaries.com

Presidential Quotes (1 of 16): William Henry Harrison

Greetings to our blog-readers in Moldova (?!), Slovenia and Portugal.

Yes, we have many unique and interesting ideas which are perhaps more exciting than quoting American presidents from waaaay back in the day, but if we quoted the late, great English playwright Harold Pinter, people might well still ignore us.

We are kicking off this series today because it is the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Tex., presumably by Lee Harvey Oswald (though Oliver Stone begs to differ) he was the last of eight American presidents to die in office. Four died of assassinations, including William McKinley, whom we will quote on our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com and four died of natural causes.

We begin with William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, who was the first one to die in office and it was from natural causes. In fact, Harrison was only in office for one month before his death. 

Previously, we have quoted the first eight and last American presidents, so now we are filling in the gaps.

Here is the quote from Harrison, who hailed from Charles City, Virginia:

"I contend  that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free."

PS- Though we have discontinued the practice of using quotes from our favorite Sunday comic strips, this line from "Judge Parker" that we saw in "The Washington Post" got our attention: "Call your man in Niger and tell him we're going to pay the ransom."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williamhenryharrison

Image to Fill Space: A Vintage VW Bug

It is hard to believe, but when I was a child circa 1977, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak, actually drove us from Frankfurt, West Germany, to Istanbul, Turkey. To my recollection, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were among the countries we drove.

And, of course, we drove through the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia), where we encountered some very hilly roads.
http://www.vwclub.org/

Soccer Week (8 of 8): Suppose They Gave a Soccer Game in Cyprus, and No One Cared (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Hmm....we were going to post a photo of Trabzonspor's Turkish soccer player Yusuf Erdogan, but what we got were photos of Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is about as popular amongst Turks abroad as Porky Pig cartoons are in Dubai (forgive the political humor).

At any rate, this image is of Marco Streller, the Swiss international and captain of the Swiss team Basel, which is ranked 51st in UEFA club standings. He kicked the winning goal for Basel in the Champions League. Basel went into London on Tuesday and shocked the global soccer community with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Our lead though is in reference to today's soccer game in Limassol, Cyprus, between traditional Turkish soccer power Trabzonspor and Appolon Limassol, the team that surprised Europe last year by reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Even though Cyprus is just across the sea from Turkey, Trabzonspor traveled quite a ways for the game as Trabzon is located in northwestern Turkey.

For those who feel asleep in your history class at Cornell University (next time we'll pick on Princeton), Turkey and Greece had a short, but ugly war over Cyprus in 1974. Even though I was four years old at the time, I remember the Cyprus War quite well, or at least as well as the Vietnam War, for my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey.

Thankfully, no one on either side of my family died in Famagusta or Hanoi.

Before we get to the ten European soccer teams you've never heard of, let's look at some scores that will help you the blog-reader get through this entry:

UEFA Champions League:

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shkhar Donesk (Ukraine) 2

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Benfica (Portugal) 2 Anderlecht (Belgium) 0

UEFA Europa League:

Apollon 1 Trabzonspor 2

Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) 1 Odessa (Ukraine) 2

PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 0 Ludogorets (Bulgaria) 2

Standard Liege (Belgium) 1 Esberg (Denmark)  2

Freiburg (Germany) 2 Liberec (Czech) 2...........tie game

Rubin Kazan (Russia) 5 Maribor (Slovenia) 2

Now here on the 11 teams you've never heard of:

1. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): This was considered the second biggest upset in the Champions League. Brazilian international Alex Teixeira scored both goals for the Ukrainian club in their 2-0 win in Spain).

2. Basel (Switzerland)

3. Benfica (Portugal): They are seemingly a team which always sneaks up on other teams in European play.

4. Anderlecht (Belgium)

5. Apollon Limassol (Cyprus): "The Daily Hurriyet," an English-langauge newspaper in Turkey said Trabzonspor won in 'Greek Cyprus,' but we don't like to get into politics here. Well, at least, not when we are writing about soccer. Gaston Sangoy (Argentina) scored for the Cypriot team in the team's close loss to Trabzonspor.

6. Trabzonspor (Turkey): This squad is one of only two teams outside of Istanbul that has won a Turkish domestics championship; Bursasapr from Bursa is the other team.

7.Dyanmo Zagreb (Croatia)

8. Ludogorets (Bulgaria): Amazingly enough Virgil Misidja a Dutch international player for this Bulgarian team kicked in the second goal in his native country today to help Ludo upset PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

9. Esberg (Denmark): Not to be confused with Swedish team Elfsborg, which is also in the Europa League, this Danish squad celebrated a road win in Belgium thanks to the game-winning goal from Musaga Bakenga, a Norwegian player of Congolese heritage.

10. Rubin Kazan: This team which plays in the Tartar region  of Russia boasts Gokdeniz Karadeniz, one of Turkey's better exports. Today, he scored a goal today in their win over Maribor of Slovenia.

11. Maribor (Slovenia): Today's lop-sided loss to Rubin Kazan was apparently closer than the score sheet indicates. Maribor is a competitive team from the former Yugoslavia and today the team saw a goal from Slovenian national Martin Milec.



http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.trabzonspor.org.tr (in Turkish)

http://www.russianfootballnews.com

http://www.apollo.com.cy

http://www.uefa.com

Free Form Blogging: Famous Female Athletes

Greetings to our blog visitors in Dubai, Slovenia and Peru.

It has been a good while since we posted a free form blog where we just use words, topics, things which are trending on Twitter, yada, yada, yada, and tonight, we are going to come with a short piece involving female athletes, many of which we saw on ESPN's "Nine for IX" documentary on female athletes.

The six athletes we are using former American gold-medal winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton (pictured top), soccer star Mia Hamm who lead the USA to a World Cup title in 1999 (pictured center), Gabrielle Reece, a beach volleyball superstar (we expect she help us get hits from Dubai, Oman and Yemen), Indy race car driver Danica Patrick, East German gold-medal winning figure skater Katarina Witt and tennis Wonder Woman Martina Navratilova.

Witt and Reece both posed for "Playboy," Hamm posed for the cover of "Washingtonian Magazine" and Retton for those Wheaties boxes.

Here we go:

"Mary Lou Retton, a country girl from Fairmont, W.Va, won gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and assuredly if Twitter had been around back then, she would have trending for a full six weeks. Mia Hamm went on to play for the Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce, an Istanbul powerhouse, and she broke a huge gender barrier for women (this is a joke, but there is now a women's soccer league in Turkey and ironically not one in America). Gabrielle Reece is probably driving a Prius with a bumper sticker that says: "Real athletes don't wear shoes." Amazingly enough, she is now 43 years old. But, Katarina Witt and Martina Navratilova are older than that. Witt was manipulated by the East German regime. Navratilova is now a gay rights activist and a novelist/writer; we assume she doesn't live in Topeka, Kansas. Danica Patrick is the only one of these athletes who has competed directly with men
in a men's sport. Of course, lots of guys hate her for this, but we think they are really just jealous because she is sooo out of their league."

Hmm....yeah, I don't think we need to file a copyright for this.

And, kudos to our beloved Salem Red Sox who defeated the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 1-0 in Salem, Va., in the first game of a best of three playoff series. The winner plays for the Carolina League championship.

http://www.gabriellereece.com/

http://www.miafoundation.org/

http://www.danicaracing.com/

http://en.katarina-witt.de/

http://www.martinanavratilova.com/

http://marylouretton.com/

Blogging in 3.5 Minutes (or less.........) Turkey's six largest cities

Hmmm..............trying to post a blog entry in 3.5 minutes, which is also the same length as the Elvis Costello anthem "Peace, Love and Understanding," is always a challenge.

First, let's say hello to our fans in Latvia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, three countries which didn't exist when I was born in 1970!

Also, in order to arbitrarily increase hits today, we will mention Selma Blair, Anna Paquin and Miss Utah (alas with this compressed amount of time we don't have time to ask Google for her name!).

Here are the six largest cities in Turkey, my late father's country, which is in many times my country as well. We also like to take a moment to dedicate his entry to Duran Adam/The Standing Man (yes, we don't have to ask Bing what his name is as well) :

1. Istanbul (pictured) 13 million

2. Ankara (the capital) 4.5 million

3. Izmir 3.3 million

4. Bursa 1.9 million

5. Adana 1.57 million

6. Gaziantep 1.5 million


http://www.turkey.org

http://www.tourismturkey.org

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Stars of "Three Amigos"

Wow! We were actually experiencing Blogger's Block, something we seldom get stuck in here. In fact, if anything we have too many ideas, and we've worried that blogging was keeping us from doing the important things in life like grooming our pet Yorkie Terrier Mandy (this is a joke...btw).

But, we were listening to the Queen record "The Game," and the track "Another One Bites the Dust" made us realize that our faithful readers in Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (yes, we do get regular hits from these places!) had to have a new entry for today.

So, we came up with a look at what is now a bit of a retro web site, since it became popular way, way back in the late 1990s: It is The Oracle of Bacon; the site refers to actor Kevin Bacon and it was devised by a former University of Virginia student.

For this entry, we initially thought we'd check out some very obscure actors, by American standards, including the late Turkish comic actor Kemal Sunal, who is three degrees removed from Kevin Bacon, but we thought that might just cause too much confusion.

Hence, we came up with the three stars of the kinda cult film "Three Amigos" (1986) which was a comedic homage of sorts to "The Wild Bunch."

Those three actors are Steve Martin (pictured top), Chevy Chase (pictured bottom) and Martin Short.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have both actually been in films with Bacon. Steve Martin was in "Novocaine" (2001) with the original "Footloose" star while Martin Short teamed together with him in "The Big Picture" (1989).

But, Chase is two degrees removed from Bacon. He starred in the film "Vegas Vacation" (1997) which also featured Jeffrey Donovan who was with Bacon in "Sleepers"(1996).

Steve Martin is also a highly regarded banjo player (in addition to being a writer), and he will perform with the Steep Canyon Rangers in Waterbury, Conn., on June 21.

So, there you go Blogger's Block is over, now we have to take care of insomnia!

http://www.oracleofbacon.com

http://www.stevemartin.com