Quote of the Day/Week-Mia Hamm

Today, we continue to quote American athlete who won either team or individual medals at the Olympic games with a quip from Mia Hamm, the decorated soccer player who helped her team to gold in women's soccer at the 2004 Athens Olympics in Greece.

Hamm, who turned 40 on St. Patrick's Day, is originally from Selma, Ala., and as a college student athlete she helped lead the North Carolina Tarheels to four NCAA titles.

Here is her quote:

"True champions aren't always the ones that win, but those with the most guts."

Things We Learned from Wikipedia This Week- How Many Titles DC United Has Won

We continue our examination of soccer clubs around the world by going to our own backyard today and focusing on the Major League Soccer team DC United(well, I do live outside the DC Metro area, but it is the closest MLS team to North Carolina).

I've decided to change the format of this entry series, by presenting information in the form of a trivia question, like one you might see on mentalfloss.com about who was on the cover of the classic Beatles record "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" (Fred Astaire was on the cover?!).

So, here is the question: DC United has won more MLS titles than any other team in the league; how many titles have they won?

Is the answer:

A) 3

B) 4

C) 5

D) 6

DC United hosts the New England Revolution on July 20, which will be college night, so if you go to Georgetown, George Mason University or the University of Maryland, you can take in a soccer game for $15.

Talon the Eagle is the team's mascot; Josh Wolff is new captain for United. And, the team that started with the league in 1995 features a player from Zimbabwe named Joseph Ngwenya, 30.


SIDEBAR: Yes, assuredly 9,000 other bloggers are mentioning that Japan beat the United States team in a penalty shoot-out to win the 2011 Women's World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany.

The official score of the game is 2-2. On the American side, Alex Morgan and Abby Wombach contributed the two goals. For Japan, which trailed much of the game, the goals came from Aya Miyama and Homore Sawa, who also got the tournament's golden boot.

We will miss U.S. goalie Hope Solo, 30, but hopefully she will make it back for the next World Cup.

Incidentally, psychologists say those who win bronze medals tend to be happier than those who win silver since the silver-medal winners are likely to think about the gold they could have gotten. So, perhaps, it bears mentioning that Sweden won the third place game over France by a 2-1 score.

Things We Learned from NPR Last Week_ Problems with the Other Neighbor

It is well-known that the rivalry between Turkey and Greece is, perhaps after the rift between India and Pakistan, one of the most intense ones anywhere in the world. The two did almost go to war over an uninhabited goat island, relatively close to Bodrum, Turkey, and the Greek island of Kos, in 1996.

But, today, both countries seem to be both plagued with domestic problems as Greece has made international headlines because of the country's financial crisis, and Turkey is in the process of dealing with political gridlock as the conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the opposition People's Republic Party do not get along. This fact was even mentioned by Suzy Hansen in a recent article in "The New Republic" about Erdogan's overbearing cult of personality.

And, perhaps most surprisingly, they are both dealing with 'other neighbors.'

On this blog, we will discuss Turkey's problems with Syria, and on our sister blog, we will examine the lesser-publicized rift between Greece and Macedonia.

Turkey and Greece have many overlapping culture entities, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the world of shadow puppet theatre. The Figures of Karagoz (the guy with the beard) and Hacivat (the one with the slight mustache) have represented Turkey's inner conflict between the village simpletons, represented by Karagoz, and the urban elites, illustrated through Hacivat.

The plays were reportedly first performed for Sultan Selim the Grim circa 1517. Karagoz remains a major cultural attraction in Bursa, Turkey, the fourth largest city in Turkey where many Karagoz performers and puppet-makers reside, including members of Celikkol family (Ugur Celikkol, who is a tour guide in Bursa, is a personal friend).

In Greece, there is a version of Karagoz called Karagiozis, and the fact that he is a rural dweller as well is made obvious by the fact that like Fred and Braney from "The Flintstones," he goes around barefooted.

As for the Turkish-Syrian problems, the excellent NPR series "The World" said last week that Syria is straining Turkey and Syria's joint 'no problems' foreign policy as refugees are fleeing Syria in droves since Damascus ordered crackdowns on anti-government activists. The domestic conflict in Syria has (as of last week) claimed an astonishing 13,000 lives, making it the second worse mess in the Arab World at the moment behind Libya (with Yemen being a close third).

The Arab Spring fall-out is also drawing Turkey into a Sunni-Shiaa entanglement according to Turkish political commentator Nihat Ali Ozcan of "Hurriyet," the country's most-read newspaper. In a column last week, Ozcan also said that a 'Turkey-Syria-Iran' triangle is forming. This week, Ozcan added that the incresing, though still perhaps a bit remote possibility of a Turkish invasion of northern Syria, could cause the same problems for Turkey that George W. Bush's war in Iraq caused America.

In his comments, Ozcan declared that military intervention in the Middle East may replace dubious politicians, but there is no guarantee that the repalcements will be Westernized democrats.

SIDEBAR: In the world of sport, as the BBC calls it, host country Germany beat Nigeria 1-0 today in the Women's World Cup. France also destroyed Canada 4-0. The ESPN networks will broadcast America's next match with Colombia on Saturday at noon.

Quote of the Week-Umberto Eco

Today our quote of the week comes from Italian novelist Umberto Eco (b.1932) who is best known here for his debut novel "The Name of the Rose," which was the basis for a Sean Connery film of the same name.

Since, we were unable to quote four Italians for our series within a series this month, we will quote one more Italian next month.

This year, Italy is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the country's unification.

Here is the quote from Eco:

"Better reality than a dream: if something is real, then it's real and you're not to blame."

SIDEBAR: Interestingly enough, Italy and Argentina, two countries which are traditional powerhouses in men's soccer are not among the 16 countries at the 2011 Women's World Cup, which is currently underway in Germany.

Today, Team USA won a 2-0 victory over North Korea, one of George W. Bush's 'Axis of Evil' nations (which amazingly enough did not include Syria!). For Team USA, both goals came in the second half from Lauren Cheney and Rachel Buehler. Goal-tender Hope Solo, who is known for being outspoken, delivered the shut-out in Dresden.

In other Group C action, Sweden beat Colombia 1-0. Both Sweden and Norway are considered to be stellar teams when it comes to women's soccer.