DC Week (1 of 8): A Quote from George Washington

We start DC Week with a simple entry featuring a quote from America's first president George Washington. Of course, thanks to the likes of Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va., forgive the editorial commentary), the Washington Memorial is closed as are all national parks in Washington, DC, and around the nation.

One fiasco that the shut down caused was the scheduled cross-country journey of a Tyrannosaurs Rex skeleton belonging to a 67 million-year-old dinosaur, whose name is Wankel T-Rex, from Montana to the nation's capital where it was to be displayed at the Smithsonian Natural Museum of Natural History.

Oh well................

As for Washington, his face is on our one dollar bills (I suppose those of you in El Salvador, Moldova and  Zimbabwe already knew that) and if one is to find a one-dollar bill at the Beach Bum Café in Honolulu, Hawaii, you can see where it originated_ perhaps it originated at a gas station in Passaic, NJ.

Here is our quote from the first prez:

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

Oh, and we should add that there is a high school in Danville, Va., named for GW.

http://www.gwmemorial.org

http://www.mountvernon.org

http://www.wheresgeorge.com

http://www.beachbumcafe.com

http://www.danville-va.gov/

Quote of the Day- Thomas Jefferson

Greetings to our blog readers in Jamaica, Japan and Jordan, as well domestic visitors from Iowa, Indiana and Illinois; today, we continue our series of quotes from the first eight and last eight American presidents (quotes are also on our sister blog "Politic, Culture and Other Wastes of Time: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com ).

Today, we feature our third president Thomas Jefferson, from our home state of Virginia. Amazingly enough, despite going to Charlottesville, Va., many times, I have yet to visit Monticello http://www.monticello.org), his historic home located there.

Jefferson also founded the University of Virginia, where Ralph Sampson was a star basketball player in the early 1980s (he was the subject of a recent "Washington Post Magazine" cover story), and the school's college radio station is affectionally called WTJU-FM (http://www.wtju.net)

And, Jefferson is one of four presidents who are mascots for the Washington Nationals, along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, which seems a bit ironic (he was infamously assassinated at Ford's Theatre), and Theodore Roosevelt, who seldom wins the mascot derby (http://wwwblog.letteddywin.com).

Yesterday, the Nationals won their home game over the San Diego Padres 8-5.

Here is TJ's quote: "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."

http://www.washington.national/mlb.com

Presidential Quotes: George Washington

Today's quote of the day is the first in our series on the first eight American presidents, quotes from the last eight can be found on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

For those interested in seeing where your dollars go, we suggest you check out: http://www.wheresgeorge.com

One time we got a 'Where's George' one dollar bill from a Starbucks in Hawaii, we have no idea where it ended up!

Here is a quote from George Washington:

"Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected."

SIDEBAR: Andy Warhol made them famous, and we learned yesterday that a can of Campbell's tomato bisque soup has 130 calories; the company is based in Camden, New Jersey.

Quote of the Day- Jeff Daniels

The always provocative center-left magazine "The New Republic" tweeted the following question tonight (paraphrase): "Will partisan presidential campaign rhetoric still continue during the Olympics?," which does keenly illustrate that right now The United States of America is perhaps as politically divided as our southern neighbors Mexico, where we gather they are still tallying the votes.

So, since this is an election year, and we have already quoted presidents, vice presidents and even candidates who lost the election and never became 'el presidente' (ie. John McCain and John Kerry), we thought we'd quote actors who have played American president on film and for television.

We start with Jeff Daniels, 57, who I saw in concert (yes, he sings too and he is quite good at it) at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC, last year. Daniels is known for films like "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (dir. Woody Allen, 1984) and "Squid and the Whale" (dir. Noah Bambach, 2005), but he played Gen. George Washington in the tv movie "The Crossing" (2000). The actor/singer is currently starring the hit HBO series "The Newsroom" and he is on the cover of this month's "Cigar Aficionado" magazine.

Interestingly, Oscar-winning, liberal-turned Tea Partier actor Jon Voight played Washington in the right-wing comedy "An American Carol" (2008) which spoofed Michael Moore, but the film did not perform well at the box office nor did it help get McCain elected. Voight also played Franklin D. Roosevelt" in the film "Pearl Harbor," so he will be quoted here at some point this week.

For the moment, here is the quote from Daniels:

"And the actors tend to want to watch themselves very often. I'm one of those guys."

http://www.tnr.com

http://www.cigaraficiando.com

http://www.gwu.edu

http://www.mountvernon.org

http://www.jeffdaniels.com

http://www.carolinatheatre.org

http://www.michaelmoore.com

Quote of the Day/Week-George Washington

Today's quote of the day comes from George Washington, the first American president. This month we are quoting the first eight American presidents on our two blogs. A quip from the second president John Adams is available on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," our sister blog.

We have time constraints and we are very hungry (it's fish taco time), so we will keep in short with just a quote from George Washington, who has a high school named after him in Danville, Va. (and assuredly one hunderd other places) and a university named after him in Washington, D.C. His estate in Mount Vernon, Va., relatively close to Washington, D.C., is open to the public.

Here is the quote from the man on our one dollar bills, which reminds me that through the web site http:wheresgeorge.com, I was able to discover that my bill had originated quite a ways down the highway from me, in the city of Jacksonville, Fla.:

"Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company."

And, thanks to those of you in places like Mumbai, India, for checking in with us today.


http://www.mountvernon.org

http://www.gwmemorial.org


http://www.wheresgeorge.com

Quote of the Week/Month- Barack Obama

First of all, I have noticed that someone has used the posting section of this blog, which does not advertise any product or company, to promote a product or company. Since I don't have time and energy to delete all their posts, I will just say if we did advertise or promote any product or company, we would start with Blue Bird Taxi in Greensboro, NC, because one never knows when they will need a cab!

This month, since we are having presidential elections in the United States (I suppose even village dwellers in the central African country of Burundi are aware of that), I am quoting the last eight presidents on our two blogs.

Next month, we will quote the first eight presidents, which of course, would begin with George Washington.

Though more people know I'm a Democrat than people who realize that the great Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula, is long dead, this entry is not meant to be partisan in nature. Of course, having said that, we certainly aren't endorsing Newt Gingrich for president though we are curious about what his proposed moon colony project would look like?!

Here is our quote from the 43rd and current president of the United States:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the changes that we seek."