Quote of the Day/Week- Al Gore

Today, we continue our month-long series of quotes from American vice presidents. Today, we quip Al Gore, 64, who served under President Bill Clinton, who is for some strange trending on Twitter today. My fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur hosts "The Young Turks," a progressive political talk show on Gore's Current-TV at 7:00 p.m.

Gore is also known for being an advocate for global warming, which seems to be quite accurate given that Minnesota is now as hot as Alabama on any given day in July.

We have a quote from Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here is Gore's quote:

"The day I made that statement about inventing the Internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the camcorder."http://www.algore.com
http://www.current.com

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."

Road Trip USA (10 of 10)_ Tuscaloosa to Champaign

Well, hopefully, the images below of University of Alabama gymnast Kayla Hoffman and University of Illinois gymnast Melissa Fernandez, both of whom recently graduated from their respective schools (we presume) will hold up. The image we had of Borat at a rodeo in Salem, Va., my hometown, alas ran into technical difficulties.

Hoffman was named SEC Female Athlete of the year. Along with her teammates Geralen Stack-Eaton and Ashley Priess, she help the Crimson Tide win yet another NCAA title in women's gymnastics.

Fernandez was named the female athelete of the year for the University of Illinois; her counterpart for male athlete of the year for the school was NCAA track champion Andrew Riley.

Today, we are going to focus on the distance between Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Champaign, Illinois, where these two school are located.

For this, we chose two random places in both towns. For Tuscaloosa, we went with the Handstooth Sports Bar, which states on its web site that "Sports Illustrated" named it as the best sports bar in the country.

For Champaign, we are going with The Art Theatre, a cinema downtown that is now showing "Tree of Life" and the killer-tire movie "Rubber." (Having seen them both, I would definitely recommend "Tree of Life," but I think that is an obvious choice).

The school's also have two happening college radio stations. WVUA (90.7-FM/Tuscaloosa) is featuring the local band Calooh Callay in their spotlight. As we were working on this blog entry at 5:30 p.m., Connecticut time, DJ Natalie Wontorczyk was presumably playing a band like Arcade Fire for WPGU (107.1-FM/Champaign-Urbana).

So, is the distance between these two college towns:

A) 9 hours 15 minutes

B) 9 hours 45 minutes

C) 10 hrs 15 mins

D) 10 hrs 45 mins

For bonus points, you can guess which one of these two schools is the alma mater for my cousin Kurt Gokbudak (it's the one in the Big 10, which now has 12 schools?!).

SIDEBAR: We gave up on getting out of her on time about an hour and a half ago, but before we leave the office here in Bridgeport, Conn. (not really where I am at), I thought I would mention Crested Butte, Colo. A relative of mine went there last week for the annual Wild Flowers Festival that ended yesterday. But, one can still visit western Colorado and see wild flowers, such as the elephant flowers, columbine, blue flax flowers and Canadian thistle flowers. Alas, according to MapQuest, Crested Butte is a 31-hour-drive from where I am at the moment, and the commute would probably even more arduous if it started in Bridgeport, Conn.

PS: In the Whoops Department, this entry was meant for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." But, as it is, we will be 'taking a day off' here to go hiking in Zion National Park (yes, that is a joke!) The Borat image we mentioned was supposed to go with an entry on that blog about Kazakhstan.

Special Quote of the Week- Michael Jordan

Today's quote comes from His Airness Michael Jordan who won six NBA titles for the Chicago Bulls (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998). Curiously, much like Bjorn Borg got burned out with tennis, Jordan shocked the world by retiring at a young age to try baseball. So, he played mostly minor league baseball with teams like the Birmingham Barons where he hit three homeruns.

But, he came back in a veyr big way perhaps to the nausea of other NBA stars like Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz who went to Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals.

Jordan is the pride and joy of my state of residence, which is North Carolina (I'm from Roanoke, Va.), and he has arguably replaced NASCAR legend Richard Petty (who hails from Randleman, NC) as the Tarheel State's favorite son.

His Airness went to Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, NC, and he later played and won a NCAA title with the University of North Carolina Tarheels, a team that then coached by Dean Smith.

Here is Jordan's quote:

"Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game."

Incidentally, the Birmingham Barons lost to the Huntsville Stars 6-2 in Huntsville, Alabama, last night. The two plays play each other again this evening.

Congrats to the Alabama Crimson Tide

Even though we were sort of rooting for Utah or UCLA, we want to congrdaulate the University of Alabama's women's gymnastics team on their fifth NCAA title. The NCAA championships were held over the weekend in Cleveland. Alabama won the title with a 197.65 score over UCLA (197.375) and the University of Oklahoma (197.25).

Nebraska, Utah and Michigan rounded out the Super Six. Surprisingly, the University of Florida which had been ranked number one at times this year did not make the Super 6 Finals. Shockingly, another strong gymnastics contender Stanford did not even get past regionals!

Crimson Tide coach Sarah Patterson said she was proud of her team for coming together as a team in Cleveland.

We will post all-around and individual results on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." Geralen Stack-Eaton (pictured here) from Alabama was one of the event winners.

SIDEBAR: Kudos also to Caroline Kilel of Kenya who won the Boston Marathon earlier today. She beat out second-place finisher American Desiree Davila and her fellow Kenyan and third-place finisher Sharon Cherop.

We Are Postponing the Top 10 Entry (for the moment)

We are going to post our Top Ten list of very long names, but we think Mon., April 25 will be the better time for that as opposed to today since our last entry took as long as reading "War and Peace" would.

Since we knew we would mention Leo Tolstoy's epic 1,225 page novel which perhaps an inmate at the Birmingham, Alabama, city jail on 425 6th Avenue, South, is reading to pass the time, we will point out a few things we learned about the work here.

__ It was originally published in 1869

___Novel begins in 1805 during the reign of Tsar Alexander I and it details the years in which Russia was invaded by Napoleon starting in 1812.

___Made into 1956 Hollywood film with Henry Fonda and Audrey Fonda, as well as the more critically-acclaimed very long (we think it lasts like ten hours) version made in Russia in 1968.

_ "War and Peace" has also been adopted into an opera and stage play.

Elif Batuman, a fellow Turkish-American (I don't know her personally) wrote about her love for Tolstoy and other Russian authors in her recent memoir "The Possessed."

And, in all likelihood University of Virginia professor and author Sina Vaidhyanathan will make our hardest names in the world list. In his latest book "The Googlization of Everything," he states that the small town of Eu, France, actually considered changing its name so that it would not be confused with the EU (European Union) on Google search engines.

As for "War and Peace," one can probably find it at PackBackers (a student bookstore at North Carolina State) and the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo.

This weekend is also Independent Record Store Weekend, and if one is in Athens, Georgia, they may want to visit Wuxtry Records where I found a rare cd from the late German New Wave pop artist Klaus Nomi when I was visited the town two weeks ago.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today_ Rosa Parks Never Paid 'The Fine'

Of course, we know Rosa Parks was not fined for sitting on a school bus in High Point, NC, (we are rushed for time, so this is the only image we could find!), but according to a tweet from the ultra-hip magazine "Mental Floss," which I should ask my mom to get me a subscription for over the holidays, the Civil Rights activist never 'paid up' for her 'transgression' in Montgomery, Ala., 55 years ago today:

Here is the exact tweet:

"Rosa Parks was fine $14 for refusing to give up her seat on that bus ride of Dec.
1, 1955. She never paid it."

SIDEBAR: We have also learned that thankfully actor Morgan Freeman, 73, did not die today. Many were wondering why he was a hot trending topic today. It turns out he made a gaffe while on a tele-prompter in Zurich, Switzerland, while lobbying for the 2022 World Cup alongside former president Bill Clinton, who was in Greensboro last night. The jet lag must be tourturing our beloved former prez!

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Blue Shark Found in a River!

Zut alors! Wow! We are actually ahead in our blog entries as generally don't post this entry until Wednesday, which of course means we are neglecting vital aspects of our professional, social and personal lives, but we shall catch up even if it means hanging out at the Waffle House in Burlington, NC, (not where I actually am at the moment) until hmm.......4:35 a.m.!

Today, we learned from a tweet from "The Montreal Gazette" that a blue shark, a species which can grow up to 13-feet long, was captured in the St. Lawrence River in the Quebec province of Canada.

Fisherman who were trolling the river in the Gaspe region of Quebec found the blue shark sometime during daylight hours on Sunday.

The shark has been sent to the Exploramer Museum for further study.

Canadian blue sharks are more commonly found off the Atlantic Ocean of Nova Scotia.

Perhaps, the next time the San Jose Sharks of the NHL come to play the Montreal Canadiens, they can ask if the fish can become their mascot....?!

SIDEBAR: The Internationalist Book Store in Chapel Hill, NC, has a unique project which continues on Aug. 25 as they invite area residents and customers to gather in the store from 6:30-8:00 p.m. to send books to prisoners who are serving time in Alabama and Mississippi. Perhaps, "The Count of Monte Crisco" will be one of the titles! The establishment is also featuring the book "Resisting Reagan" by UNC sociology professor Christian Smith. The book details how some 100,000 Americans marched in the streets to protest Ronald Reagan's involvement in the wars which afflicted El Salvador and Nicaragua during his time in office.

Know Your Congress Reps and Senators (Entry 12 of 21)

Today, we feature Sen. Ricahrd Shelby (R-Al) in our series which is devoted to various members of both political parties from both houses of Congress.

Interestingly enough, Shelby is one of three senators we've featured who have switched parties. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and James Webb (D-Va) are the other two switcherios though neither of those senators defected while in office.

Shelby was elected to the senate when he was a Democrat in 1986. He was always considered to be one of the most conservative Democrats in Washington, DC, as he was pro-life, anti-gun control and an advocate for a flat tax.

The senior Alabama senator also worked with Ronald Reagan on defense issues.

Shelby is considered to be more independent-minded than fellow Republican Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

Even though a falling out with Bill Clinton lead to his departure from the Democratic Party, Shelby voted to acquit the president of impeachment charges in 1999.

More recently, Shelby has worked on the AIG bail out, and he even called into question Barack Obama's citizenship!?