Top Ten Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Jump Start Gets the Bronze

Greetings to our blog readers in France, Russia, and Bulgaria......

Today, we bring you the last installment in our favorite Sunday comic strips of the week series.

This was a week when Bill Griffith used his comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead" (not in "The Roanoke Times") to make fun of another comic strip "Funky Winkerbean" (which is in "The Roanoke Times"). Both strips share the same distributor Kings Features.

Our favorite comic strip from "The Roanoke Times" was "Speed Bump" http://www.gocomics/speedbump which featured several ducklings taking selfies of each other. Second place goes to "Get Fuzzy" in which a cat and a dog fight over a baby rattler, which one can presumably find at a Toys R Us http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy ............. Lastly, we went with "Jump Start" for third place which revolved around an African-American and a white mother with children almost colliding in the produce aisle of a grocery store http://www.gocomics.com/jumpstart

Here is the top ten:

1. Speed Bump

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Jump Start

4. Non Sequitur

5. Garfield

6. Agnes

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. Dilbert

9. Doonesbury

10. Zits

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

For a look at our favorite comic strips in the "Martinsville Bulletin" go to our sister blog at http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Comic Strips Survey from Father's Day Roanoke Times: We Like This Week's Doonesbury

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Bulgaria, and Indonesia.......

A lot has happened since we last tweeted one week ago today: 1) There was a mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of nine African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, here in America, sparking a national debate between guns and racism. 2) President Barack Obama surprised the world by sitting down for an interview with edgy comic podcast host Marc Maron in Los Angeles. 3) And, Muslims around the world started celebrating Ramadan, which according to the Turkish English-language newspaper "The Daily Sabah" is quite challenging in Iceland where there is 18-22 hours of daylight per day. There are about 770 Muslims residing in Iceland, and adjustments have been suggested for the holiday period's fasting period.

Our images for the week are of: 1) The Jetsons family as "Doonesbury" tackles how fathers are adjusting to modern parenting; 2) Since "Dilbert" features a character who looks just like Turkish shadow puppet Karagoz (center image, the dude with the long beard and a drum; Hacivat is his frenemy; 3) Doctor Who for "Pearls Before Swine" which features a British alien (not in the E.T. sense)

Here are our ten favorite comic strips from Sunday's "Roanoke Times":

1) Doonesbury

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Dilbert

4) Pearls Before Swine

5) Zits

6) Jump Start

7) Non Sequitur

8) Agnes

9) Mutts

10) Speed Bump (this comic strip was number one for four weeks in a row!, but not this week).....

http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

The Top SNL Cast Members (according to The Nerve): Sorry, Tom Petty

Greetings to our blog readers in Bulgaria, Estonia and Scotland.....

Today, in honor of the 40th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live," the live American sketch comedy show which first aired in October of 1975, we provide you with a list of the top best not ready for prime time players as written by our good friend pop culture journalist/blogger Phil Nugent of "The Nerve" who will hopefully not sue us for the amount of money former cast member Joe Piscopo (Nugent ranked him 60th, we would place him higher) annually.

Here is the list:

1. Eddie Murphy (1980-84, pict. top)

2. Will Ferrell (1995-2002, pict. center)

3. Bill Murray (1977-80, pict. bottom)

4. Phil Hartman (1986-1994; he was murdered in 1998)

5. John Belushi (1975-79, he died in 1982 at age 33)

6. Dan Aykroyd (1975-79)

7. Amy Poehler (2001-08)

8. Mike Myers (1989-95)

9. Dana Carvey (1986-93)

10. Tina Fey (2000-06)

Here are other cast members as they were ranked:


Dennis Miller ( #67)

Fred Armisen (#37)

Maya Rudolph (#34)

Jane Curtin (#21)

Norm Macdonald (#26)

Tim Meadows (#12)

http://www.thenerve.com

PS: We subtitled this entry "Sorry, Tom Petty," because the singer once made fun of Murphy and Piscopo in a song he wrote.....

Our Sunday Comics Survey from "The Washington Post:" Two Perfekt Strips

Greetings to our blog readers in Bulgaria, Chile and El Salvador..........

Today, we survey our top ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Feb. 8th edition of "The Washington Post," for our top ten favorites from the Feb.1st edition of 'The Post,' go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Among the comic strips in our top ten are two strips that we gave perfect 10s too (ice skater Ashley Wagner would be sooo proud), they are "Lio" and "Brewster Rockit," but on a coin flip, we went with "Lio," which features a Felix the Cat (pictured top) nod, in addition to six other comic strips felines, including (of course) Garfield (Bill Murray would be proud) and Krazy Kat from way, way back in the day......

The Danish import "WuMo" came in a close third with a brilliant strip about the food chain of the piranha (cent. image is of the cult classic 1978 film "Piranha"), and in ninth place, "Rhymes with Orange," which is also carried by "The Martinsville Bullletin" in Martinsville, Va., featured a rat who finally figured out a way to get out of a maze.

Lastly, we salute our day sponsors, including the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Ga., and Arena Stage in Washington, DC, now staging the late August Wilson's theatrical gem "King Hedley II." Well, ok, so we don't anyone associated with either entity (we just like making fun of local NPR stations, they won't get this in El Salvador, will they?!)....

Here is our top ten:

1) Lio

2) Brewster Rockit

3) WuMo

4) The Argyle Sweater

5) Prickly City (highest rating for strip)

6) Sherman's Lagoon

7) Foxtrot

8) Baldo

9) Rhymes with Orange

10) Pearls Before Swine

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.georgiaaquarium.com

http://www.arenastage.org

Sunday Comics Survey from The Washington Post: We Love WUMO

Greetings to our blog readers in Algeria, Serbia and Lithuania.

Today, we reveal our ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post," which came out on Sept. 21, 2014. The newspaper has an eclectic mix of comics, some of which are aimed at young demographics ("Reply All," "Knight Life"), some of which are aimed at folks over 50 ("Doonesbury"and "Sally Forth" ) and some of which are aimed at people who are 92 or older and living in a retire home in Bethesda, Md. ("Dennis the Menace," "Pickles").

The images above are of 1) the planet Mars which was the subject of a gag in "WUMO," 2) Mae West for "Sherman's Lagoon" since the strip was focused on Sherman's wife who is quite sardonic and 3) dragons in Varna, Bulgaria, for "Rhymes with Orange" as Hilary B. Price which had dragon ordering 'hero sandwiches' from a fast food place..........yes, we presume the hilarious strip will be misunderstood in Uzbekistan as well!

Here is the top ten:

1) WUMO

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Sherman's Lagoon

4) Rhymes with Orange

5) Judge Parker

6) Lio

7) Speed Bump

8) The Argyle Sweater

9) Dustin

10) Frazz

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

For our "Roanoke Times" comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quotes from the Little Thinkers (3 of 16): Charlie Chaplin

Greetings to our blog-readers in Italy, France and Bulgaria.

Today, we quote the great actor/filmmaker/composer Charlie Chaplin, whose classic film "City Lights" is available from the Criterion Collection: http://www.crterion.com

There is also an independent bookstore in San Francisco, Calif., called City Light.

Here is his quip:

"This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to survive in it."

http://www.charliechaplin.com

No Blong Entry Tonight as I am Sick as a Dog..........

We did actually put the term "Dogs in Bulgaria" into Google to come up with this image, which may or may not be from Bulgaria. I imagine Dogs in Greece, Dogs in Romania and Dogs in Turkey look fairly similar to this one.

Bear us as we try to come up with a more meaningful blog entry tomorrow or some time within the next two weeks!

Sports Desk_ Weekend Soocer Results from Obscure Countries Around the World

Today, we were debating if we wanted to post up a political entry making fun of Congressional Republicans, such as our pal Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah, we actually don't know him), but then we also thought a UEFA Champions League update, but then we thought: "Well, everyone in Europe knows the scores and few people here in America care."

So, we decided to post scores from four relatively obscure countries, which don't make the ESPN FC highlights. Here, we will give partial scores from Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia. On our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com we shall provide partial scores from weekend play in Azerbaijan and Serbia.

As always, we like to salute soccer's bad boys, or players who got sent off with red cards, and this week's poster men are Macedonian international Vanco Trajanov who is also the captain for C. Burgas and Saudi Arabian international Mishel Al-Agmi who plays for Al Shoalah FC.

Here we go:

Bulgaria

Beroe 2 Litex Lovech 3

N.Burgas 0 Lok. Sofia 2

CSKA Sofia 3 C. Burgas 0

Lok. Sofia 1 Ludogorets 2

Tables:

1.Ludogorets

2. Litex Lovech

3. Botev Plovdiv

Saudi Arabia (very confusing, as all teams start with Al):

Al-Ittihad FC 2 Al-Taawan 1

Najron 1 Al-Ettifaq 0

Al-Nasr 2 Ah-Shoaloah 0

Al Nadha 1 Al Ahli 5

League Tables

1. Al-Hilal

2. Al-Nasr

3. Al Ahli FC

http://bulgariatravel.org/

http://www.air.bg/en/

http://74.81.82.58/~bulgaria/

http://www.saudiembassy.net/

Image to Fill Space: A Vintage VW Bug

It is hard to believe, but when I was a child circa 1977, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak, actually drove us from Frankfurt, West Germany, to Istanbul, Turkey. To my recollection, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were among the countries we drove.

And, of course, we drove through the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia), where we encountered some very hilly roads.
http://www.vwclub.org/

Soccer Week (8 of 8): Suppose They Gave a Soccer Game in Cyprus, and No One Cared (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Hmm....we were going to post a photo of Trabzonspor's Turkish soccer player Yusuf Erdogan, but what we got were photos of Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is about as popular amongst Turks abroad as Porky Pig cartoons are in Dubai (forgive the political humor).

At any rate, this image is of Marco Streller, the Swiss international and captain of the Swiss team Basel, which is ranked 51st in UEFA club standings. He kicked the winning goal for Basel in the Champions League. Basel went into London on Tuesday and shocked the global soccer community with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Our lead though is in reference to today's soccer game in Limassol, Cyprus, between traditional Turkish soccer power Trabzonspor and Appolon Limassol, the team that surprised Europe last year by reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Even though Cyprus is just across the sea from Turkey, Trabzonspor traveled quite a ways for the game as Trabzon is located in northwestern Turkey.

For those who feel asleep in your history class at Cornell University (next time we'll pick on Princeton), Turkey and Greece had a short, but ugly war over Cyprus in 1974. Even though I was four years old at the time, I remember the Cyprus War quite well, or at least as well as the Vietnam War, for my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey.

Thankfully, no one on either side of my family died in Famagusta or Hanoi.

Before we get to the ten European soccer teams you've never heard of, let's look at some scores that will help you the blog-reader get through this entry:

UEFA Champions League:

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shkhar Donesk (Ukraine) 2

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Benfica (Portugal) 2 Anderlecht (Belgium) 0

UEFA Europa League:

Apollon 1 Trabzonspor 2

Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) 1 Odessa (Ukraine) 2

PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 0 Ludogorets (Bulgaria) 2

Standard Liege (Belgium) 1 Esberg (Denmark)  2

Freiburg (Germany) 2 Liberec (Czech) 2...........tie game

Rubin Kazan (Russia) 5 Maribor (Slovenia) 2

Now here on the 11 teams you've never heard of:

1. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): This was considered the second biggest upset in the Champions League. Brazilian international Alex Teixeira scored both goals for the Ukrainian club in their 2-0 win in Spain).

2. Basel (Switzerland)

3. Benfica (Portugal): They are seemingly a team which always sneaks up on other teams in European play.

4. Anderlecht (Belgium)

5. Apollon Limassol (Cyprus): "The Daily Hurriyet," an English-langauge newspaper in Turkey said Trabzonspor won in 'Greek Cyprus,' but we don't like to get into politics here. Well, at least, not when we are writing about soccer. Gaston Sangoy (Argentina) scored for the Cypriot team in the team's close loss to Trabzonspor.

6. Trabzonspor (Turkey): This squad is one of only two teams outside of Istanbul that has won a Turkish domestics championship; Bursasapr from Bursa is the other team.

7.Dyanmo Zagreb (Croatia)

8. Ludogorets (Bulgaria): Amazingly enough Virgil Misidja a Dutch international player for this Bulgarian team kicked in the second goal in his native country today to help Ludo upset PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

9. Esberg (Denmark): Not to be confused with Swedish team Elfsborg, which is also in the Europa League, this Danish squad celebrated a road win in Belgium thanks to the game-winning goal from Musaga Bakenga, a Norwegian player of Congolese heritage.

10. Rubin Kazan: This team which plays in the Tartar region  of Russia boasts Gokdeniz Karadeniz, one of Turkey's better exports. Today, he scored a goal today in their win over Maribor of Slovenia.

11. Maribor (Slovenia): Today's lop-sided loss to Rubin Kazan was apparently closer than the score sheet indicates. Maribor is a competitive team from the former Yugoslavia and today the team saw a goal from Slovenian national Martin Milec.



http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.trabzonspor.org.tr (in Turkish)

http://www.russianfootballnews.com

http://www.apollo.com.cy

http://www.uefa.com

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Stars of "Three Amigos"

Wow! We were actually experiencing Blogger's Block, something we seldom get stuck in here. In fact, if anything we have too many ideas, and we've worried that blogging was keeping us from doing the important things in life like grooming our pet Yorkie Terrier Mandy (this is a joke...btw).

But, we were listening to the Queen record "The Game," and the track "Another One Bites the Dust" made us realize that our faithful readers in Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (yes, we do get regular hits from these places!) had to have a new entry for today.

So, we came up with a look at what is now a bit of a retro web site, since it became popular way, way back in the late 1990s: It is The Oracle of Bacon; the site refers to actor Kevin Bacon and it was devised by a former University of Virginia student.

For this entry, we initially thought we'd check out some very obscure actors, by American standards, including the late Turkish comic actor Kemal Sunal, who is three degrees removed from Kevin Bacon, but we thought that might just cause too much confusion.

Hence, we came up with the three stars of the kinda cult film "Three Amigos" (1986) which was a comedic homage of sorts to "The Wild Bunch."

Those three actors are Steve Martin (pictured top), Chevy Chase (pictured bottom) and Martin Short.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have both actually been in films with Bacon. Steve Martin was in "Novocaine" (2001) with the original "Footloose" star while Martin Short teamed together with him in "The Big Picture" (1989).

But, Chase is two degrees removed from Bacon. He starred in the film "Vegas Vacation" (1997) which also featured Jeffrey Donovan who was with Bacon in "Sleepers"(1996).

Steve Martin is also a highly regarded banjo player (in addition to being a writer), and he will perform with the Steep Canyon Rangers in Waterbury, Conn., on June 21.

So, there you go Blogger's Block is over, now we have to take care of insomnia!

http://www.oracleofbacon.com

http://www.stevemartin.com

Things We Learned on Bing Today_ All Things Washington DC

Hmm.........we suppose if Bill O'Reilly or some fringe right wing tv or radio personality is reading this, he might be wondering why we have a photo of President Barack Obama with Bulgarian Ambassador Elena Poptodorova; well, O'Reilly can read below to find out in this edition of 'Things We Learned on Bing Today.'

1) Elena Poptodorova, 52, is the Bulgarian ambassador to the United States; she took office in 2010.

2) Cong. Ralph Hall (R-Tex.), 90, a former Democrat, is the oldest active member of the House of Representatives; Cong. John Dingell (D-Mich.), 86, is the oldest Democrat in the House.

3) Cong. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), 30, is the youngest member of the House.

4) Mayor Vincent C. Gray, 70, is the current mayor of Washington, DC. The office was previously held by Adrian Fenty.

5) Coach John Thomspn III, 47, has been the head coach of Georgetown University's men's basketball team since 2004. Thompson, the son of legendary Hoyas coach John Thompson, previously coached at Princeton University, his alma mater.

Links:

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.cq.com

http://www.c-span.org

http://www.bulgaria-embassy.org

http://www.guhoyas.com

Tilly Gokbudak is NOT Moving to Bulgaria (It was an April Fool's Prank)

For those of you in El Salvador, Dubai and Sri Lanka who read this blog on a daily basis, it is time to fully fess up. Though the American College of Sofia in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia is a real place, I have not accepted a job as an English teacher there. In fact, I have not been to Bulgaria since our family traveled through there en route from Belgrade, Serbia (it was the capital of Yugoslavia then) to Istanbul, Turkey, when I was a child in the 1970s.


We also need to add a correction to yesterday's piece as the national airlines of Bulgaria is actually called Balkan Bulgarian Airlines; perhaps they can find you a flight from JFK or Dulles to Sofia or Varna (another Bulgarian city).

Approximately 11-14 people fell for my prank yesterday, but it is nothing compared to what my good friend and fellow blogger Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, did for April Fool's Day of 2009.

For that prank, Knight convinced people all over the globe that a radical minister named the Rev. Johnny Robertson from the Church of Christ in Martinsville, Va., created an unholy scene in Vatican City, of all places!

Here is a sample of that entry (we will post a link bellow):

"Johnny Robertson has been arrested in Vatican City following what is being called a 'coordinated and persistent' attempt to threaten Pope Benedict XVI within the very Papal Apartments of the Apostolic Palace."

Knight said in a April 9, 2009, entry that he received messages from both the State Department and Vatican City expressing concern about the 'incident.'

http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2009/04/breaking-hard-johnny-robertson-arrested.html

http://www.theknightshift.blogspot.com


http://www.air.bg/en (Balkan Bulgarian Airlines)

http://www.acs.bg (American College of Sofia)

http://www.bulgaria_embassy.org (Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, DC)

http://www.allaboutclowns.com

Tilly Gokbudak is Moving to Bulgaria in August

All of us here at "The Daily Vampire" are pleased to announce that our managing editor Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be me, is moving to Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach at the American College of Sofia.

He was accepted there for a full-time position teaching English, and Gokbudak will also travel to his late father Mehmet Gokbudak's native Turkey to assist elementary school teachers teach English in the provinces of Edirne, Tekirdag and Kiriklareli.

Turkey and Bulgaria share a common border, and there many ethnic Turks in Bulgaria.

But, we are happy to announce that this blog will not discontinue in any way.

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).

Our Favorite Olympic Athletes (2 of 4)_ The Flying Dutchman, et al

Here is a look at some of our favorite male athletes from countries besides the United States (we profiled Americans yesterday):

1.) Usain Bolt, 25, Jamaica, track and field (sprinter)_ As everyone except a yack herder in Mongolia knows that Bolt won gold in the men's 100-meter in a blazing 9. 63 seconds.

2) Tony Estanguet, 34, France, canoeing (pictured top)_ This athlete won gold in single canoeing in 97.06 seconds; we think this might be the most dangerous sport in the Olympics with pole vault being a close second; table tennis is arguably the safest sport.

3) Jordan Jovtchev, 39, Bulgaria, men's gymnastics_ Though he didn't win a medal at the 2012 London Olympics, Jovtchev, who once lived in Oklahoma, came back for a record sixth Olympics in men's gymnastics. He competed on rings where he finished seventh in an an event won by Arthur Zanetti of Brazil. Jovtchev has previously won a total of four silver and bronze medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.
Jovtchev was also the flag-bearer for Bulgaria, which has surprisingly not medaled yet.

4) Riza Kayaalp, 22, Turkey, Greco-roman wrestling (pictured center)_ Kayaalp is so far the only Turkish athlete to medal in London; he won a bronze in the 120-kg class of his sport, an event that was won by Mijan Lopez of Cuba.

5) Andy Murray, 25, Great Britain, tennis_ Murray, who is the fourth-ranked men's tennis player in the world, defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in straight sets to the delight of the home crowd on Saturday.

6) Epke Zonderland, 26, The Netherland/Hollan, men's gymnastics_ Zonderland won gold on the horizontal bar event yesterday. The Flying Dutchman beat out the likes of Zou Kai (China) and Jonathan Horton (USA) for the gold.

http://www.usainbolt.com

http://www.tonyestanguet.com

http://www.andymurray.com

http://www.dailyhurriyet.com

http://www.insidegymnastics.com

Monday Morning (USA Time) Olympic Tweets- West Virginia Wins Gold

Since we have spent a lot of time covering women's sports so far at the 2012 London Olympics, we have actually come to the realization that we have neglected our own gender!  Hence, we looked at some tweets in the 09:00-10:00 hour (New York time) which focused on men's athletics. Hopefully, American feminist rights advocate Gloria Steinem is satisfied so far!

Before we get to that, in Olympic news, Krisztian Berki (pictured bottom) won gold on the men's pommel horse yesterday, winning the fourth gold medal for Hungary. He won a tie-breaker over Louis Smith of the hosting nation Great Britain. Smith's teammate Max Whitlock took bronze.



Here are the tweets; some contain SPOILER ALERTS:

1) @WVUgymnastics "A Mountaineer takes gold!!!! Congrat Nicco Campriani on your Olympic-record win in 3 men's positions! You make all of WVU proud!" (Campriani, pictured top, who competes for Italy,won both gold and silver today in men's air rifle; he is indeed the first West Virginia alumni to win a gold medal at the Olympics).

2) @InsideGym: "Wondering if that will be the last time we see the amazing Jordan Jovtchev at the Olympics?" (This is in reference to the Bulgarian men's gymnast who was the flag-bearer for his country).

3) @PostSports: "VIDEO. Men's 100-meter sprinters say they weren't affected by a spray bottle from the stands Sunday night" (This is in reference to the bottle-throwing incident from a Dutch person in the stands as Usain Bolt of Jamaica was about to compete in the 100-meter race, which he won).

4) @DMoceanu (Dominque Moceanu): "Congratulations to @MakaylaMaroney on winning her silver medal on VT EF & @jake_dalton for making the FX EF. Way to represent #TeamUSA!"

5) @chicagotribune: "U.S. Judo player expelled from Olympics after testing positive for pot." (The athlete is Nicholas Delpopolo).

6) @SuzyKhimm (reporter Suzy Khimm): "The Olympics are the only place where journalistic objectivity goes out the window." (Hence, the reason why we have posted an image of Sam the Eagle, the mascot of the 1984 Olympics, pictured center, as opposed to Wenlock and Mandeville, the 2012 London Olympics mascot. Of course, we are being ironic as the jingoism in much of NBC's coverage seems over-the-top, having said that, Michael Phelps really did quite well in the pool).

http://www.olympicmuseum.de

http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.dominique-moceanu.com

http://www.dominiquedawes.com

http://www.insidegymnastics.com



7) @dominquedawes (Dominique Dawes): "Gabby is competing in the individual events finals on bars. Stay tuned."

7

Parade of Nations (One of Four)- Greece to Kazakhstan

The Parade of Nations occurred during the 2012 London Olympics on Friday, and we have decided to post four entries each on two blogs (a total of eight entries) dedicated to the flag-bearers of each of the 64 countries we are showcasing.

Since Greece is traditionally the first country at the start of the parade, we are going to start with them here as well. For those of you who are visiting this blog from Turkey, please note that we mention Turkish flag-bearer Nesilhan Darnel (women's volleyball) on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here are the first eight nations:

Greece- Alexandros Nikoladis (men's taekwondo)

USA- Mariel Zagunis (pictured above, women's fencing)

Afghanistan- Nesar Ahmad Bahawe (men's taekwondo)

Australia- Lauren Jackson (pictured below, women's basketball)

Bulgaria- Yordan Yovchev (pictured middle, men's gymnastics)

Denmark- Kim Waae Knudsen (women's canoeing)

Egypt- Hesham Nesbah (men's judo)

Kazakhstan- Nurmakhan Tinliyev (men's wrestling)

http://www.london2012.com

http://www.nbcolympics.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.marielzagunis.com

http://www.bulgariatravel.org

Teaser- Here Come the Olympics

The 2012 London Olympics get underway with the opening ceremonies on Friday. Those of us in the United States will once again be relying on the voice of Bob Costas, the NBC sports announcer who broke through as a baseball announcer, to help guide up through an event with 10,500 athletes from 204 countries.

Jordyn Wieber, 17, (pictured above) will likely be one of the American athletes which Costas and company will focus on the most as she is the 2011 all-around champion in women's gymnastics.. Since Mary Lou Retton, 44, gave a break-through performance at the 1984 Olympics, the sport has been among the most popular ones for tv spectators in this country on a continuous basis.

Guor Marial, 28, an Iowa State alum who is a marathon runner, will be one of the very few athletes not representing one of the 204 countries at the summer games as his country South Sudan which broke away from Sudan is not yet recognized in the international sports community. Similary, Marial has not lived in the United States long enough to qualify for citizenship. So, he will be walking in the opening ceremonies under the Olympic flag.

For those of us of Turkish heritage, there is also excitement because for the first time since 1960 Turkey will have teams competing in The Olympics. There are actually two teams from Turkey that will be at the games in both women's basketball and women's volleyball.

Nevriye Yilmaz, 32, the first Turkish woman to play in the WNBA, with her last stint being with the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2004, is one of the most-recognized members of the squad. Yilmaz was actually born in Bulgaria, but her family of Turkish ethnicity emigrated to Turkey when she was nine.

Amazingly enough, one of Yilmaz's teammates for Team Turkey is an African-American basketball player Quanita Hollingsworth, 23, a Virginia Commonwealth Univeristy alum who now plays for the New York Liberty. She obtained Turkish citizenship to play for Turkey's national team.

Hollingsworth said she will have mixed emotions when Turkey plays the United States in group play; the two countries also face each other in women's volleyball (see earlier entries about Turkey and the Olympics..

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Image to Fill Space- The Pocket Hercules

Since I have just recently started working out, for the first time in six years, and on the occasion of the up-coming 2012 London Olympics, I thought it would be ironic (as I will never achieve his kind of muscular build) to feature an image of Turkish weight-lifting legend Naim Suleymanoglu.

Suleymanoglu, now age 45, won Olympic gold in three successive summer games: 1988 Seoul Olympics, 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The weight-lifter whose name caused problems for American tv announcers is also perhaps the most high-profile athlete to defect from one country to another. Though there have been some athletes like the barefoot runner Zola Budd who was from South Africa, during apartheid, who moved to England to compete for the United Kingdom during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Suleymanoglu left Bulgaria in a much more defiant manner.

His defection from Bulgaria to Turkey, two countries that neighbor each other, came in Australia, of all places. Suleymanoglu left Bulgaria because ethnic Turks, such as himself, were persecuted by the then-communist regime in Sofia. But, now Bulgaria and Turkey actually get along quite well, the same cannot be said for Turkey and Syria. Suleymanoglu reportedly had a heart attack in 2009, at an incredibly young age, but we were unable to find detailed information on the web about his predicament.

We had wondered what happened to the Soviet weightlifter who was featured in the opening montage of the now-defunct "ABC's Wide World of Sports," and while we researching this piece, we thought we'd dig up that info.

We had assumed the weightlifter was Armenian, but Vasily Aleskseyev (1942-2011), who died last year at the age of 69, is listed as being Russian according to Wikipedia.

But, there is an Armenian weight-lifter Tigran Martiosian who won a world championship in 2010 in Antalya, Turkey, a country which Armenia has complicated relations with.

As for the other famous figure in the opening montage, the Slovenian (which was then a part of Yugoslavia) ski-jumper Vino Bogataj is alive and well; in fact, in recent years, he has been a ski instructor.