7 Words in Turkish (7 of 7): The Word for Shrimp

Greetings to our blog visitors from Albania, Bahrain and Chile.

Though we have been busy binge watching "Breaking Bad,"AMC's surreal dark drama which is concluding in a few weeks, via Netflix, we did make time for this entry....(I sense the show has helped New Mexico's tourism industry, even though it is about meth dealers).

So, the Turkish word for shrimp is karides.

Shrimp and grits is a popular dish in Charleston, SC, which is arguably the cuisine capital of the South.

For the word for shrimp in Norwegian, go to our 7 Words in Norwegian series on our sister blog:

http://www.poliitcscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Word of the Day: Zeitgeist

Greetings to those of you blog readers in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey (you have to love our sense of humor) as well as any of you who might be checking us out domestically from Maine, Hawaii or Wyoming. Welcome to "The Daily Vampire"!

Anyway, we are aware that Jimmy Carter is trending on the Internet as is the controversial "Rolling Stone" cover, but we will stick with our basic plan, which is to secretly invade Albania (just kidding)!

For those of you who reside in Bolivia, Honduras or Mexico, we imagine the English language must have its challenges and that is certainly true with the word 'zeitgeist' which actually derives from German.

A zeitgeist as it is defined by Wikipedia means: "Intellectual fashion or prevailing school of thought which influences at the same juncture or 'spirit of times.'

We can use it in the following sentence: "I felt the zeitgeist in Ingmar Berman's film 'Persona,'" the classic Swedish film which is pictured above..........hmm.........yeah guess that doesn't help much, but we tried!

Greek Premiere League Soccer Scores

Yes, perhaps, there are not many things as shocking as a Turkish-American blogging about Greek soccer results over the weekend. But, in spite of the Greek-Turkish Cold War which unofficially from 1974 following a war over Cyprus until 1999 when both countries provided mutual relief support to devastating earthquakes within both countries which occurred just a few months apart, relations between the two neighboring countries are apparently at relative ease at the moment.

In fact, Deniz Baykara, a Turkish national, plays for the Greek first division team Panthrakikos, and Theofanis Gekas, a Greek soccer player, is a member of the Turkish first division team Akhisar.

Ironically, it was not a good weekend for either of those clubs as Panthrakikos lost lost to Atromitos 1-0 and conversely Akhisar also lost in their match again Elazigspor by the same score of 1-0.

The above image we are featuring for this entry is of Senegalese national Pape Sow, who kicked a goal for his Panathinikos in the 73rd minute in a 2-0 win over their Athens rival AEK. Sow's teammate Spaniard Vitolo kicked an earlier goal at the 55-minute mark in the win. There are now, in recent years, many Spanish soccer players in Greece, so much so that they were the subject of many international soccer stories last season. 

Greek soccer player Nikolaos Kaltsas had a good day on the field as well as he scored two goals in his team Veria's 3-1 win over Aris.

Hungarian national Laszlo Lencse also had two goals to lead his team Asteras Tripolis to a 2-1 win over Giannia.

And, the Thessaolinki powerhouse team PAOK left the field with a 4-2 win over Panionios with crucial goals coming from Albanian player Ergys Kace and Greek player Dimitris Salpingis.

Here is a look at the scoreboard:


Veria 3 Aris 1

Panathinaikos 2 AEK Athens 1

Asteras Tripolis 2 Giannia 1

PAOK 4 Panionios 2

Atromitos 1 Panthrakikos 0

Skoda Xanthi 4 Levadiakos 1

Olymiakos Pireaus 4 OFI Crete 0


http://www.greeksoccer.com

Highlights from My 40 Things To Do List

Yes, I did actually make a 40 Things To Do List. No, I don't think I will all these things accomplished in a week, but I will try. This is actually a throw-back to what I did in my early days of blogging, back in 2005.

I did post grocery lists, and much to my shock, those entries were more popular than my political entries regarding my opposition to capital punishment or how George W. Bush was going to gradually destroy the world, which did more or less actually happen. But, we must give the man credit, they did build a statue of him in Albania (no joke). Of course, I'm not sure how this will help them with tourism.


So, here are some highlights of the list. The images go with the first three items on the list, paying bills, class reunion and buying gorceries. The number in parantheses is actually where the item was on my list. Of course, the more personal stuff will not be listed! (well, except number 8):


1. Pay bills (#1)

2. Go to college class reunion at Radford University (#11)

3. Get some groceries: be sure to get some Jarritos Mexican sodas (#22)

4. Write a short play (#4)

5. Use the laptop more often; you paid enough for the stupid thing (#9)

6. Recycle (#23)

7. Use LinkedIn more often (#28)

8. Forget about Angie*, if you never hear from her again, you can always join a Turkish liberal human secularist singles group (well, anything beats e-harmony!).
(#29)

9. Donate money to local NPR station, or least five dollars (#34)

10. Take fall foliage photos when the opportunity permits itself (#36)

*-Not her real name

Happy Oscar Hangover Day

For starters, let me go ahead and congratulate Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and David Fincher (just kidding, we know Tom Hooper won for directing "The King's Speech," but we couldn't resist, especially since most of us Gen-Xers were rooting for Fincher's film "The Social Network") for their Oscar wins last night.

Even if we disagree with the Academy's decisions (Fincher was robbed!), we respect the great work that went into what they did to win each of their respective Oscars.

Of course, for film fanatics, such as myself, there is nothing worse than the day after the Oscars.

I was up until 1:05 eastern time, USA, (also known as New York time), watching the Jimmy Kimmel special with Tom Hanks last night. Kimmel's show featured a hilarious spoof of "The King's Speech" with Mike Tyson (yes, it was really the former boxer himself) was coaching a George W. Bush impersonator who just couldn't help mess up verbally each and every time he came to the podium.

So, I felt like I did as a 19-year-old kid (my age in 1989) who had just drunk way too much raki in Istanbul, Turkey.

For those who don't know much about the alcoholic spirit, we will give a brief cultural and historical synopsis (with help from Wikipedia), especially for those of you in Eugene, Ore.

Since, those of you in that time zone might well still behind a computer as we are typing this (it's now about 6:30 p.m., New York time) and can't wait to go home to your wife, kid and orange goldfish:


"Raki pronounced rakuu is a non-sweet arise-flavored alcoholic drink popularly consumed in Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia and Bulgaria alongside seafood and mezze. Raki is also known as 'the Lion's milk.' It became popular from 1839-1876 during the 'liberal' period of the Ottoman Empire."

So, if you were wondering how a strong alcoholic drink that can knock you out like a punch from Mike Tyson became hip in a Muslim country, there you have it (we changed some of the wording from raki's Wikipedia entry to make it easier to read and more humorous).