Quote of the Week- Maya Angelou

This Quote of the Week which is being done in conjunction with the Fourth of July as we are quoting famous Americans on Mondays this month. Since Bastille Day, the French day of independence in on July 14th, we will be quoting famous French people on Wednesdays this month as well.

I thought this quote from poet Maya Angelou who teaches just down the proverbial road at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, would be appropriate since we are working on the laundry!:

"Achievement brings its own anticlimax."

SIDEBAR: The Twitter feeds were quite busy this p.m.

We learned that Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle is lobbying to win a new Best in Seattle poll in "Seattle Weekly."

Nathan Tabor, a conservative activist in Winston-Salem who I normally differ strongly with, had an interesting link about a Texas store which sold an American flag with 61 stars. I guess they're counting Guam and Puerto Rico and some other places!

Cartoonist Darrin Bell who pens "Candorville" said: "I'm alone in a Cosco and so scared."

While "Zippy the Pinhead" himself (an alternative comic strip from Bill Griffith) said: "The Korean War must have been fun!"

Lastly, we learned that University of Michigan gymnast Kari Pierce who is actually from Ann Arbor, Mich., had a birthday today. We don't know; however, if she is old enough to drink an Amstel Light at Applebee's just quite yet!

Happy Father's Day from Robert Reed

We actually meant to post this much earlier in the day, but I was working on my exam for students at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Roanoke, Va. (not actually where I work).

But, Happy Father's Day to all. Alas, my father Mehmet Gokbudak, a Turkish immigrant, died of a heart attack at age 62 in 1983 when I was just 13 years old but we remember him fondly. Perhaps, this entry is a bit ironic because he didn't like us watching "Happy Days" (as we discussed in an earlier entry) but he had no such qualms with "The Brady Bunch."

The series which starred Robert Reed (1932-1992) lasted from 1969-74, and it featured Florence Henderson and as the mom. Unfortunately, Reed died from complications due to AIDS, but there are many fans of the show who will never forget him.

I had expected many web sites and blogs dedicated to the show, but some of the ones I had found borrowed the Brady Bunch but they had nothing to do with the actual show (like some blog that has vampire in its name, but nothing to with Christopher Lee movies!). One of them was actually from an evangelist family in a place like Twin Falls, Idaho.

But one legit Brady blog features a 'guide to morals, themes, and definitions' of the show, which makes one think there might be someone writing a term paper on the sitcom as if it were an Akira Kurosawa film!

We leave with this quote from Reed, who was apparently an H.G. Wells fan:

"I've always thought of science fiction as being, at the same level, as 19th century business."

GIFT IDEAS FOR DAD: Well, it is really too late for this, but if you live in Denver, you may want to give him a cupcake from The Big Fat Cupcake located on 129 Adams Street which boasts that it won the 2009 Colorado Cupcake challenge!