Dexter Trivia (1 of 4)- Where Was Michael C. Hall Born?

Today is our first of a proposed four-in-a-row entry series dedicated to the Showtime serial killer drama "Dexter," which also has elements of dark comedy. In fact, in one episode Dexter, played by Michael C. Hall, makes a reference to the cartoon "Dexter's Laboratory."

"Dexter," which premiered on Oct. 1, 2006, is going to have its seventh season premiere on Sunday, Sept. 30. The show will be followed by a season premiere of "Homeland," another Showtime show. It begins its second season. "Homeland" won the Emmy for Best Drama. And, that program male lead actor Damian Lewis beat out Hall, who has been nominated four times for "Dexter" (five times overall), for Best Actor.

Interestingly enough, Lewis was born on Feb. 11, 1971, so the two actors were born a mere ten days apart.

But, Hall, who is the subject of our first question, did win a Golden Globe for Dexter in 2010.

Today, we ask: "Which state capital was Hall born in on Feb. 1, 1971?"

Is the answer:

A) Harrisburg, Penn.

B) Richmond, Va.

C) Atlanta, Ga.

D) Raleigh, NC


http://www.sho.com

http://www.dexterwiki.wetpaint.com

http://www.dexter-tv.com

http://www.geniuneginsu.com

10 People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (6 of 10)_ Michigan

Name: Oscar Lee Davidson

Age: 45

Race: African-American

Residency: Kalamazoo, Michigan

Occupation: Car mechanic

Will Likely Vote for: Obama

In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama won 12 out of 15 of Michigan's congressional districts, including four held by Republicans. Kalamazoo, in southwestern Michigan, is not a part of the state where Obama fared as well John McCain. Kalamazoo's metro area is located within the fourth district represented by Cong. Dave Camp (R) where McCain won 50-48 percent. The Arizona senator fared even better in the sixth district which is held by Cong. Fred Upton (R).

But, in urban area, such as Detroit, Obama decimated McCain; this includes the 14th district represented by Dem. John Conyers Jr. (D) which he carried by a whopping 86-14 percent. African-American voters also voted for Obama by a 95-4 percent margin and that number is expected to be similar this year.

The non-partisan "Politico," a daily web site and journal dedicated to politics has Obama winning Michigan, a key swing state, 49-41 percent.

Michigan is the home state of the very liberal filmmaker, activist Michael Moore, but the rural sector is very Republican, as is the case for most American states outside of New England. Michigan is also the birth state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney, whose late father Sen. George Romney represented the state.

The state has actually lost a point in the Electoral College; it was worth 17 points in 2008. It will be worth 16 points this year.

The Kalazmazoo-metro area has 336,589 residents according to the latest census. The local newspaper "The Kalamazoo Gazette" is dedicating a series to important issues that ballot-voters are considering in this year's election.

http://www.kalamazoocity.org

http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo

http://www.michigandemocrats.com

http://www.migop.org

http://www.politico.com

Happy 50th Anniversary to "The Jetsons"

The animate, universally-loved space-age cartoon sitcom "The Jetsons" debuted 50 years ago yesterday on Sept. 23, 1962. Since the show is set in 2062, in a world of flying cars and robotic house servants, it is now half-way to the time it was set in.

There is one member of the voice cast who is still alive as Janet Waldo who voiced the teenage Judy Jetson is alive in her late '80s. Penny Singleton (1908-2003), who voiced her mother Jane Jetson lived to be 95. Singleton also played the comic strip character Blondie on film.

It's hard to believe that in real time Elroy would be 60 and his sister Judy would be 66; perhaps they would be members of the AARP.

For more info about "The Jetsons," go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time:"

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.cybercomm.nl/~ivo/

http://www.aarp.org

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin (3 of 6)_ The Romatik Cuneyt

It is midnight here in New York (not really where I am at), 8:00 a.m. in Dubai, high noon in Hong Kong and 2:00 p.m. in Sydney, where ever you are you are with the Daily Vampire.

Today, we continue our series with a look at the careers of two vintage action film actors, Cuneyt Arkin of Turkey and his lesser-know counterpart (yeah, we are being sarcastic) Chuck Norris.

Arkin, now age 75, who is three years older than Norris, was also known as Cuneyt Baba (Father Cuneyt) in Tukey. He also made a lot of romantic films with Turkish screen goddess Turkan Soray, now age 67. In 1970 alone, they made many films together. One of my personal favorites is "Hayatim Sana Feda/My Life Belongs to You, Feda."

The film is patterned after Douglas Sirk melodramas from the 1950s, such as "Magnificent Obsession" and "Written in the Wind," which usually starred the late Rock Hudson.

In "Feda," Arkin plays Harun whose reckless driving causes him to hit the car driven by Soray's Zeynep, a character who is a lounge singer. She goes blind from the accident, and a guilty Harun tries to make it up to her. They fall in love. Interestingly enough, this film, came out the year I was born, which was also when "Love Story" became a huge box-office hits and one of the most questionable Best Picture nominees.

So, as we always do with these entries, we are asking which actor won the Best Oscar in 1970, the year of the 'romatik Cuneyt' (in Turkish, romantic is spelled with a 'k'). Is the answer:

A) Ryan O'Neal

B) John Wayne

C) George C. Scott

D) Jack Nicholson

E) Robert Redford

Incidentally, it is now 7:00 a.m. in Istanbul, Turkey.


The answer to last week's entry was B) F. Murray Abraham; he won the Best Actor Oscar for "Amadeus" in 1984, when Norris made "Missing in Action."

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.chucknorris.com

Weekend Tweets Log_ Happy 52nd Birthday, Scott Baio

We are posting some tweets that we saw on Twitter between 1:30-2:30 p.m. east coast time today. First let's us explain the above images: 1) We thought we'd go with an image of two "Happy Days" characters Joanie and Chachi to go along with a tweet from the PBS' documentary series and because Scott Baio is turning 52 today; 2) We are going with one of the two Ernest Hemingway books I've read (and, I have a degree in English) in honor of the National Book Festival, happening this weekend in Washington, DC,; 3) an image of two British kids enjoying a game of soccer. We are being a bit ironic here as Liverpool faces Manchester United tomorrow, and we expect to be a rowdy crowd. In fact, according to the BBC, security measures have been upgraded for the game.

Here are the tweets:

1) @frontlinepbs ("Frontline"): "A HS dropout will end up costing taxpayers an average of $292K over a lifetime."

2) @TheWriterMag ("The Writer Magazine"): "#TheNatBookFest is a powerful and inspiring mix of genders, genres, generations and cultures. One nation under books!"

3) @libraryofcongress (Library of Congress): "More than 500 @JWLWDC volunteers @NatBookFest! Thanks to this good and loyal group and happy 100th anniversary!"

4) @liverpool (Liverpool FC): "Liverpool v. Man Utd. Predictions please......?"

5) @CoryBooker (Newark, NJ's mayor Cory Booker, who spoke at the Democratic Convention):  "We just landed in Tampa. The Garden State meets the Sunshine State, a great combination!"

6) @MayorMarkK (Chapel Hill, NC's mayor Mark Kleinschmidt who attended the Democratic Convention): "let's be responsible out there @ChapelHillPD #ChapelHillPD will step up enforcement of alcohol laws for UNC v. ECU football on Sat." (At last check, UNC was winning the game 7-3).

7) @Gamecocksonline (South Carolina Gamecocks Athletics): "Fans cheer as palyers at Williams Brice Stadium. Go #Gamecocks." (At last report, the 'cocks were tied 0-0 in their home football game against Missouri."

As it turns out, Scott Baio is associated with many terms in the Urban Dictionary. They are a bit too explicit for National Public Radio, so if interested, we suggest you go to this link: http://www.urbandictionary.com

Other Links:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.nationalbook.org

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.sitcomsonline.com

http://www.happydaysfans.com

http://www.pbs.org

Today is Our 7th Anniversary of Blogging

Today, we celebrate the 7th anniversary of our blogging venture, which began as something like weekly lists of what we were buying at the grocery store, to what is now, more or less the exact same thing.

For this special anniversary blog entry, we thought we'd use an entire entry with dialogue from the Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, comic book section of "The Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va.  Let's begin:

 1) "I'm ugly, that's all"

2) "School is a microcosm of society ..... a puzzle of where everyone is a piece trying to see where they fit in."

3) "Some things just dare to be tried, dad."

4) "Who can answer how much is nine minus seven?"

5) "I've decided that I'm a people person."

6) "Did you poke me on Facebook?"

7) "Where is he? What's going on?"

8) "Has anyone seen a small brown purse:

9) "Why do I always leave it to Sunday night to start panicking about when I should do my homework?"

10) "Your nose piercings look ridicilous."

11) "I'll get right on it, boss."

12) "The weekend is almost over."

(From "For Better or Worse, Agnes, Zits, Mutts, Baby Blues, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Dilbert, Sally Forth and Speed Bump, Blondie and "Hi and Lois;" the image are of Linda Cardellini from the 1999 tv show "Freaks and Geeks, four cards with sevens, and a water cooler, since one was featured in the "Blondie" strip).

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Overheard at a McD's in North Carolina: We Couldn't Have Made This Up...

Yes, I can verify that I did hear this exact conversation at a McDonald's in North Carolina last night; this is the exact dialogue and it has not been altered in any way, shape or form:

"Is the Koran a book of The Bible? Is Mohammad like their Jesus?"

Hmm.....and, yes, on that note, this might be our shortest entry in our seven years of blogging.

10 People Who Will Decide Next President (5 of 10)

Name: Adam Youngman

Age: 26

Race: White

Residency: Glendale, Arizona

Will Likely Vote for: McCain....ooops, sorry we mean Mitt Romney

Baxter the Bobcat is the actual mascot of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, which one game below .500. Though Arizona was considered a possible swing state when we devised this blog series, it now appears that Romney will win the state unless his problems with foot and mouth disease further catch up with him.

Arizona's governor Jan Brewer is a highly controversial right-wing figure who has clashed with President Barack Obama over immigration. The state of Arizona borders Mexico.

Of course, if the person in the mascot's outfit is really named Adam Youngman that is puerly coincidental, and this is a fictional person indicative of a given demographic. We also don't know what the mascot's actual political leanings are?!

http://www.azdem.org

http://www.azgop.org

 

Blogging in Very Busy Times

Since we are very pressed for time these days, we thought we'd save time by emulating "Sesame Street."

So, today's entry is brought to you by the letter "m," which is also the title of a classic early German film. M is the 13th letter of the English alphabet. It would be interesting to see Cong. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is very conservative, and Cong. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a progressive leader, engage in a spelling bee.

We are also brought  to you by the 6, which is the first prime number that is neither a square number nor a prime number.

We are also adding Millard Fillmore, from the Whig Party, who was the 13th president of the United States from 1850-1853.

And, our city of the day is Bursa, Turkey, the fourth largest city in Turkey which has a population of 1.7 million; it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1326 to 1365.

http://www.bursa.bel.tr

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.millardfillmore.org

http://www.sesamestreet.org

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin- Missing in Action

Today, we continue with our light-hearted series asking which actor won Best Actor in the years that American action movie star Chuck Norris, who has a bridge named after him in Slovenia_ of all places, or his Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Arkin, who has made over 300 films even though he is semi-retired.

Incidentally, in 1974, Art Carney won Best Actor (see last entry in series) when Cuneyt Arkin made "Once Vatan/My Country First."

We also have an entry to match this one on our other blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Today, we are asking which actor won Best Actor when Norris made "Missing in Action," a mediocre film which actually managed to have three sequels, in 1984; is the answer?

A. Albert Finney

B. F. Murray Abraham

C. Tom Hanks

D. Jeff Bridges

E. Robert Duvall

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com/tr

Tweets from Saturday Night_ Middle East Madness

The finger-pointing from Republican presidential team Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, or DynoMutt and Blue Falcon as we call him here in the office towards the Barack Obama administration for catastrophic riots which started in Egypt on Tues., the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11th, and then fostered into a even more horrifying frenzy in Libya, where American Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed along with three other American diplomats and ten Libyans who were providing security to the embassy in Benghazi, which is not actually Libya's capital.

Today, we also learned that a mosque in Harrisonburg, Va., a city that is home to James Madison University, which is a two-hour drive from both Washington, DC, (to the north) and my hometown of Roanoke, Va. (to the south), was vandalized with the words: "This is America." Harrisonburg is also the city where a FBI agent arbitrarily raided the home of a man of Arab heritage during this country's Sept. 11th period.

All of these events are very disturbing to those of us who are Americans of Middle Eastern heritage, as it reminds us of the quote from the late great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa: "In an insane world, only the mad are sane."

Some of the other tweets of the night dealt with the presidential election here in America.

Here are some tweets from the 20:00 or 8:00 p.m. hour, New York time, this evening:

1) @Wolf Blitzer (CNN host Wolf Blitzer): "So sad to hear US evacuates families and non-emergency personnel from Tunis. I was there last year when things were encouraging."

2) @BillMaher (Outspoken liberal comedian Bill Maher): "These middle east protestors r different these days- taking pics of themselves throwing rocks and yelling: 'hashtag down with America."

3) @NPRInskeep (Steve Inskeep): "Top religious authority lists reasons why murder of US ambassador was against Islam."

4) @TheMuslimGuy (Arsalan Iftikhar): "TV ALERT: I will be on 'CNN Sunday Morning' tomorrow @ 8:30 a.m. EST on anti-Islam movie and protests around the world...Fun Stuff, I know...Sigh."

5) @Terry-McAuliffe (former Democratic strategist Terry McAuliffe): "Met some llamas for Obama at the Albermale Dems BBQ."

6) @Coffeepartyusa (Coffee Party): "The man who made the anti-Muslim video has a foreign-sounding name. Let's hire Trump and Kobach to declare he's not American."

7) @WSOC-TV (WSOC is Charlotte, NC's ABC affiliate): "Mitt Romney's son goes door to door for his dad in Charlotte."

Remembering Sept. 11th ...on Its' 11th Anniversary

Today, we remember the 2,977 people who died on Sept. 11th. We have decided to include an image of a Hassidic Jew and Arsalan Iftikhar aka 'The Muslim Guy,' 35, who is a leading progressive Muslim advocate in the United States, to show that as cliched as it may seem America's greatest strength is its diversity, and even the atrocities of 9-11 have not changed that.


http://www.jewishtimes.com

http://www.themuslimguy.com

http://www.911memorial.org

http://www.nyc.gov/nypd

http://www.flight93crash.com

Ten People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (4 of 10)

Well, kids, it has been a long time since we last posted in this series, July 6th was the latest one in fact. And, since the American presidential election is less than two months away, we have some catching up to do.

Today, we focus on my home state of Virginia, with this fictional person in mind:

Name: Nelson Faulk

Occupation: Naval Officer

Party Affiliation: Independent

Race: Afrircan-American

Age: 24

Residency: Norfolk, Va.

Will Likely Vote For: Obama on a coin-toss

In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama got 71 percent of the vote in Norfolk. While the city is overwhelmingly Democratic surrounding areas, such as Virginia Beach, tend to vote Republican.

The Hampton Roads area is home to both a large naval base and the Rev. Pat Robertson's headquarters, so it's not surprising that both Obama and Mitt Romney have sought this region out on the campaign trail. In fact, Romney declared Paul Ryan to be his running mate aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk.

Radical right-wing candidate Virgil Goode, a former member of Congress from Rocky Mount, Va., who served as a Republican and (before that) ironically as a Democrat, will take a long-shot at becoming Virginia's ninth president as he represents the Constitution Party. 

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.mittromney.com

http://www.vademocrats.org

http://www.rpv.org

Cuneyt Arkin vs. Chuck Norris_ (1 of 4)

We were going to dedicate a blog entry to Turkish action movie star and matinee idol Cuneyt Arkin on Friday, which was his 75th birthday, but we fell asleep in the Salt Lake City Public Library (yes, that is a joke!; we don't even live in Utah).

Arkin is best-known in the West for his 1982 film "Dunyayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World," which is more commonly known as "The Turkish Star Wars."

But, we are going to refer back to 1974 when Arkin starred in a film with Turkish starlet Fatma Girkik titled "Once Vatan," it was about a Turkish solider who goes back to Cyprus to fight the Greeks all by himself, and, of course, Cuneyt wins.


So, we are going to simply ask which actor won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1974, the year this film, which I saw circa 1993 on the TRT  (Turkish Radio Television), while I was in Antalya, Turkey.

Is the answer?:

A) Art Carney

B) Jack Nicholson

C) Gene Hackman

D) Dustin Hoffman

E) Al Pacino

We will have the answer in a few short days....

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr/

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for an entry on Chuck Norris)

http://www.slcpl.org (The Salt Lake City Public Library; it is quite a nice building, actually)

Entry Using Trendy Topics- Clinton Names Every GOP President Except Ford

Today, we decided we would compose a post with trending terms from various sources, including Twitter and Bing. Of course, our prime focus is on the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, which competed with an NFL football game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys; the terms we are using are: Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Elizabeth Warren, Eddie Murphy, Charlotte NC, Michelle Obama, Chris Christie, Al Gore, Boston kreme donuts and the Dallas Cowboys.

Here is our composition:

"Tonight in front of a packed house in Charlotte, NC, former president Bill Clinton named every Republican president since Dwight Eisenhower with the one exception of the late Gerald Ford: Assuredly, Bill O'Reilly will think of a way to spin this so the Romney/Ryan ticket gets more votes in Michigan, which is Ford's home state as well as Ford's (as in the car) home state. Elizabeth Warren who is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass) have a stirring speech about the need to fight over corporate loopholes and banking deregulation. Eddie Murphy was not in attendance in Charlotte, but another false rumor about his death circulated on the Internet. Michelle Obama was also in attendance, and even though the conservative magazine "The Weekly Standard" was among the sources that leaked the surprise cameo at the end of Clinton's speech by President Barack Obama.

Al Gore, Clinton's vice president, was giving commentary about the DNC on Current-TV, a network he owns, which probably doesn't advertise in "The Weekly Standard" and vice versa. Though there were no reports about what Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) was doing tonight; one could easily assume that he was eating a dozen Boston kreme donuts as the New York Giants were playing the Dallas Cowboys during the same time of the convention on NBC.

SIDEBARS: Monday proved to be a luck y day for major league baseball teams which had Olympic athletes throwing out first pitches. In the nation's capital, gold-medal winning swimmer Katie Ledecky of Bethesda, Maryland, threw out the first pitch in the Washington Nationals' 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Similarly, three member of the U.S. Women's gymnastics team, also known as the Fierce Five, who team gold in London threw out the first pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers. McKayla Maroney, Gabbie Douglas and Kyla Ross hurled the first pitch in the Dodgers' 4-3 home win over the San Diego Padres.

http://www.fordmuseum.gov

http://www.clintonlibrary.gov

http://www.weeklystandard.com

http://www.current.com

The Last Tweets from Charlotte- Obama's Warren Buffett Problem

As the Democratic National Convention starts in about one hour, we have one last round-up of tweets before this evening's speeches get underway. Bill Clinton will be speaking in the key-note address on Wednesday night. Other key speakers will include Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, Tex., who delivers his speech tonight in Charlotte, NC, as will First Lady Michelle Obama.

We have a 1970s era NASCAR car at the bottom because the NASCAR Hall of Fame is in Charlotte.

Here are some tweets from the 4:00-5:00 p.m. hour (eastern U.S. time) today, both regarding the Democratic convention and other political soup du jours:

1) @cnnbrk (CNN Breaking News): "CNN Poll: Romney  gets convention bounce of 1 point."

2) @OpenSecretsDC (Opensecrets.org): "Mitt Romney raises $100 million for this straight month reports @politico."

3) @tnr  (The New Republic, a center-left magazine): "Bite the hand that feeds? Obama needs corporate America's money but can't stand the taint."

4) @BlairMiller9 (Blair Miller_ a reporter for WSOC-TV/Channel 9, which is Charlotte's ABC affiliate): "Cool moment in the arena. Amber Riley practicing the National Anthem_ nailed it several times. She plays Mercedes on 'Glee.'"

5) @WBTV_News (WBTV is the CBS affiliate in Charlotte): "RT (retweet) @PCameronWBTV: VP Biden, wife and son are on the ground in Charlotte. Lookout for rolling road blocks across town."

6) @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a reporter for the liberal publication "Mother Jones"): "Just saw Chris Matthews mobbed by MSNBC fans at the nifty MSNBC pavilion. Tremendous love for MSNBC on the streets of Charlotte."

7) @EzraKlein (Ezra Klein, a columnist with "The Washington Post"): "Like Romney, I also prefer muffin tops to muffins. But unlike Romney, I figure they tasted better because they were less healthy."


http://www.cnn.com

http://www.opensecrets.org

http://www.tnr.com

http://www.wsoctv.com

http://www.wbtv.com

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.nascarhall.com

Tweets Log from Charlotte_ Here Come the Mayors

We logged some tweets from last night regarding the Democratic National Convention, including some from those who will be attending and/or speaking in Charlotte, NC. Mayors figure prominently at the DNC as one of the key speakers will be Mayor Cory Booker (pictured top with New Jersey Devils helmet), the mayor of Newark, NJ. Mayor Anthony Foxx, the Democratic mayor of Charlotte, will also be very involved as the Queen City hosts its very first major political convention.

The third image is of a cup of coffee because The Coffee Party is the counter to the far right-wing Tea Party movement.

We hope we have this clear to those of you checking in from Dubai, Istanbul and Hong Kong.

Here are some sample tweets:

1)@MayorMarkK (Mark Kleinschmidt, not to confused with a German Olympic rower of the same name, is the mayor of Chapel Hill, NC): Attending the LGBT delegate welcome party @ #DNC2012. Untiy!

2) @CoryBooker (Cory Booker): Tuesday night around 6 pm RT (retweet) @alli_bachmann Mayor Booker: When are you speaking at DNC?

3) @theobserver (Charlotte Observer): "Follow our #DNC2012 Twitter account, @DNC2012clt for more news and info about the convention.

4) @DaveAtNorth (Dave Allen): Who is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower? Would you believe it's Barack Obama?

5) @thedailytarheel ("The Daily Tarheel" is the student-run newspaper of the University of North Carolina): With #DNC2012 only two days away, protestors are flooding into Charlotte to voice their discontent with both parties.

6) @nationaljournal ("The National Journal" is a non-partisan political magazine): Google, Facebook to court Dems in Charlotte with trendy parties.

7) @Kevinjk (Kevin Kopplin, a Wisconsin delegate at the DNC): "Just stopped in my hotel's bar. Upon return, we have three states staying in this place, but Wisconsin appears to be the only one drinking."


http://www.ci-chapel-hill.nc/us

http://www.corybooker.com

http://www.charlotteobserver.com

http://www.dailytarheel.com

http://www.nationaljournal.com

http://www.comevisitcharlotte.com

http://www.wisdems.com

http://www.demconvention.com

Pre-Convention Tweets from Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC

One ironic thing we found out while putting this together is that the Carolina Panthers, the football team for Charlotte, NC, the city hosting the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be playing their first game on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Tampa, Fla., is the city that hosted the Republican National Convention, which ended with Mitt Romney's platform speech on Thursday night.

But, today, we are posting tweets from earlier this afternoon regarding the DNC in Charlotte. The images above are of: 1) James Taylor, the folk/adult contemporary singer will be performing at the DNC on Thursday; Taylor is a North Carolina native. 2) The donkey is the traditional mascot of the Democratic Party and 3) a cheerleader for the Carolina Panthers.

Here are the tweets:

1. @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a liberal journalist who works for "Mother Jones"): Already time for another convention. Anyone have any suggestions what to do in Charlotte tonight?

2. @BuzzFeedAndrew (Andrew Laczynski): Occupy Protestors of DNC Banks got bailed out. Charlotte got sold out. Remind me again what stadium the DNC is in.

3. @karentravers (Karen Travers): 10 copies of Sunday NY Times at 7-11 near my Charlotte airport hotel. I can't even find it in Northwest DC sometimes! Well done Queen City!

4. @TheClothier (William Wilson): 90% of the population of Uptown Charlotte are police officers. I've never felt so safe, yet so trapped.

5. @ChuckTodd (Chuck Todd, a White House correspondent for NBC News): In place on floor of Charlotte Convention, will be doing a quick report on gender battleground state politics for @meethepress.

6. @debprice50 (Deb Price, a right-wing Tea Party activist): Obama campaign says it will fill football stadium for convention finale....yeah...right.

7. @LOLGOP (A satirical pro-Democrat tweeter): Silence has asked Mitt Romney to stop using its stuff at his rallies.

http://www.demconvention.com

http://www.demconvetnion.com/blog/

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.nbcnews.com

http://www.panthers.com

Virtual Postcard from North Carolina- The Old Guilford Mill

With the Democratic National Convention gathering in Charlotte as of this weekend, we thought we'd send out a Virtual Postcard from North Carolina, which is also my state of residence.

The Tarheel State is home to many unique attractions, including the Old Guilford Mill in Oak Ridge, NC, just north of Greensboro, which is two hours north of Charlotte.

Starting tonight, we will be posting tweets from those observing the DNC first-hand as well as tweets expressing the political thoughts of today here in America, from both progressive and conservative perspectives.

The Old Guilford Mill is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Among the products offered at the mill are: rye, buckwheat and rice flours and corn meal.

http://www.oldguilfod.com

20 Things To Do List for September- Get a Haircut

With an image of Bulgarian stamps, a Japanese barber (that's not me in the barber's chair, in fact, I've never been to Japan) and a poster for Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," which is apparently being revived on Broadway, we are posting our 20 Things To Do List for September:


1) Read the overcoming procrastination book (by Jane B. Burka, et al)

2) Use Craig's List more often

3) Wear the Batman tie more often

4) Get stamps

5) Visit the Unitarian Universalists  congregation in your area

6) See an ACC college volleyball game

7) Get a haircut

8) Watch Democratic Convention on PBS

9) Call Bob

10) recylcle

11) wash car

12) Write an essay

13) shoot hoops

14) Listen to "All Things Considered" on NPR on Mondays

15) Get more orange juice

16) Go to make-shift Facebook high school reunion in Bethesda, Maryland*

17) Have coffee some place besides Starbucks

18) See a local stage play

19) Go to a Turkish-American event

20) Laundry

*-Bethesda is not where I really reside; it's an in-joke for those of you who have read this blog day in and day out for the last seven years.


http://www.kramers.com (Bookstore in Washington, DC, where we originally saw the book mentioned in #1)

http://www.craigslist.com

http://www.neckties.com

http://www.uua.org

http://www.charlestonuu.org (We chose the Charleston, SC, UU congregation at random)

http://www.gopack.com (We chose North Carolina State's athletic page at random, nothing against Duke or UNC).