Salute to NCAA College Sports (3 of 3)

The six student athletes pictured here are: 1) Tacko Fall, a 7'6 freshman from Senegal, Central Florida, men's basketball; 2) Nikki Taylor, women's volleyball, Hawaii, 3) Nick Fields, men's lacrosse, Johns Hopkins, 4) Amanda Leveille (from Canada), women's hockey, Minnesota, 5) Dante Holmes, men's basketball, North Carolina Central; 6) Johanny Sotillo, women's gymnastics, Iowa

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/

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!

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.

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Costa Rican Frog

Yes, since Costa Rica is one of my top countries to seek political asylum in should Mitt Romney become president of the United States, and today is Leap Day, I thought a photo of a Costa Rican frog was in order.

When I went on a cruise to The Bahamas last month, our version of "The Love Boat" captain told us when the sun would set each day.

So, with that it mind and given that the sun has already set in places like Eskisehir, Turkey, as of this posting (it is 1:00 p.m. on the U.S East coast, so I presume it is either 19:00 or 20:00 in Turkey), I will include sunset times for various American cities, some are suburbs while others are college towns, and we have included both Fairfax, Va., and Fairbanks, Alaska, to be cheeky.

Sorry to our Canadian followers, we are snubbing you today, but we hope to post the sunset for Calgary, Alberta, one day real soon.

Here are the sunset times for the following eight American towns, cities and 'burbs (all times are local times); the earliest sunset is for the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill., and the latest, as one might expect, is for Honolulu, Hawaii:

Fairfax, Va. 6:01 p.m.

Akron, Ohio 6:16 p.m.

Skokie, Ill. 5:40 p.m.

Boulder, Colo. 5:52 p.m.

Tempe, Ariz. 6:24 p.m.

Palo Alto, Calif. 6:02 p.m.

Fairbanks, Alaska 6:06 p.m.

Honolulu, Hawaii 6:35 p.m.

Bonus Road Trip- Hawaii (2 of 10)

Today, in our latest installment of road trips around the United States, we head to the island of Oahu in Hawaii for what is likely to be our shortest road trip.

Even though Hawaii is not one of the eight states I've never been to (not sure if this includes Michigan as I have been to the Detroit Airport to change planes), it is not a state that comes up very often. Though, Sarah Vowell, one of our favorite authors, has a relatively new book about how the Aloha State came to be one of the
50 states, even though Athens, Greece, is actually closer to Washington, DC, than Honolulu.

And, we go to Honolulu, which is home to the Pyramid Restaurant, an establishment serving Middle Eastern food, for our first destination. The Pyramid is located on Kapahulu Avenue.

For our next city on Oahu, we go to the KOA Pancake House (one of seven in the island-wide chain) on California Avenue in Wahiawa, which has a population of 16,000 folks.

Hawaii is, of course, known for other things besides the music of lounge singer Don Ho (1930-2007) whose biggest hit was "Tiny Bubble" in 1966 and pineapple, but we only have so much time!

So, our question today is just far apart are Honolulu and Wahiawa_ yes, you can get there from car!

Is the answer:

A) 32 minutes

B) 35 minutes

C) 38 minutes

D) 41 minutes

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- It Might Be Hard to Get to Honolulu

Many of us woke up this morning to hear that a major tsunami and earthquake struck northern Japan while most of us were sleeping. At least, 60 people are reported dead and one presumes that number is going to jump significantly. This somehow made Godzilla a trending topic on Twitter today!

The same tsunami is expected to hit Hawaii and possibly Alaska within a short period of time.

So, this tweet from Hawaiian Airlines came as no surprise:

"Anyone flying Friday on Hawaiian Airlines should check Hawaiian's web site....click on flight status before going to the airport."

Egyptian journalist Nadia El-Awady also tweeted about the possibility of massive political protests in Saudi Arabia which could possibly resemble the early stages of similar demonstrations that occurred in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

This was her tweet:

"Twitter reports of tight security in several Saudi cities. Can't wait to see developments. Lived there 3 yrs. Country truly needs change."

Quote of the Week: Harry Truman

Hello and Welcome to our listeners in Hilo, Hawaii; War, West Virginia; Calgary, Canada; Anqtigua, Guatemala; Quito, Ecuador; Lisbon, Portugal; Accra, Ghana; Eskisehir, Turkey; Qom, Iran; Tora Bora, Afghanistan; and Pyongyang, North Korea.

Forgive the BBC World Service satire as we focus on tonight's entry dedicated to our great American president Harry Truman. One can visit the Harry Truman Library in Independence, Mo, where there is a current timely exhibit on "Memories of Korea" until Dec. 31.

Here is our Truman quote, which is part of our focus on the last 12 presidents before Barack Obama (FDR-GWB):

"A president needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it."

SIDEBAR: Former president Jimmy Carter will be at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, but there are many other guests of interest this week, including author Noah Feldman who has a new book on FDR's battles with The Supreme Court on Monday. And, on Wednesday, one of favorite unapologetics liberal journalists Matt Taibbi of "Roling Stone" who coined the term: "Medicare-motor-scooter conservatives" in article about the big Tea Party convention in Louisville, Ky., a few months ago will be talking at Politics and Prose about his new book "Griftopia."

Today, the bookstore had this very amusing tweet: Overheard_ "This bookstore is like my outlet mall," we take that as a compliment.

SIDEBAR TWO: Today's trending topics on Twitter and AOL are Obama Busted Lip, Willie Nelson, Wal-Mart, Kim Kardashian, Hallee Berry, Signs of a Drinking Problem, File for unemployment.

We will add Noam the Gnom and Zinn the Mink which are gnomes in homage of Noam chomskey and the late Howard Zinn that the liberal "The Nation" magazine are trying to sell to help them compensate for a half-million deficit. We imagine this will work better than trying to get subscriptions from folks in places like Provo, Utah, Lynchburg, Va. and Paducah, Ky.

High School of the Week- Springfield Southeast (Illinois)

Though he is actually an alumnus of The Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, we are featuring a photograph of President Barack Obama with our High School of the Week entry for Springfield Southest High School in Springfield, Ill., because the state capital of Illinois is effectively where Obama's political career began to flourish when he was a member of the state senate there some ten years ago.

We must profess that Illinois offered many potential choices for High School of the Week selection process: Actor Bruce Dern, who recently turned 76, is an alumnus of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Bill Murray graduated from the private Loyola Academy in Wilmette, the classic 1985 teen angst film "The Breakfast Club" was filmed at Maine North High School in Des Plaines and my cousin Brent Gokbudak went to Niles West High School in Skokie where his teammate on the gymnastics team was none other than future Olympian Bart Conner! (All of these schools are in suburbs of Chicago).

But we chose Springfield Southeast HS, a school with an enrollment of some 1,350 students according to Wikipedia, over all of them. The school nickname is The Spartans, and there are both boys and girls hockey teams at the school as well. Elbert Kern is the football coach for The Spartans. And Jason Wind is the school's principal.

Of course, even folks in Karachi, Pakistan, know that Seymour Skinner (his 'real name' is Armin Tamzarian according to Wikipedia) is the principal of the elementary school in the fictional Springfield on "The Simpsons." There is speculation that the Springfield in the cartoon series was based on Springfield, Mass., but that has never been verified.

High School of the Week- Kalani High School (Hawa'ii)

We temporarily leave the continental United States as we select Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawa'ii as our 'High School of the Week,' (an additional entry will be posted on Friday for another school).

The Falcon is the school mascot, hence the reason why we posted an image of a falcon though in hind sight maybe we should have gone with '70s cartoon dog Dyno-Mutt's sidekick The Blue Falcon, and red and white are the team colors.

Mitchell Otani has apparently replaced Gerlad Teramae, who was mentioned as the school principal on Wikipedia, as the new principal of the school from what we gahtered on the school's web site.

Kalani HS also happens to have a slam poetry club and a robotics club.

Lenn Sakata who was a member of the 1983 Baltimore Orioles team which won the World Series is an alumnus of Kalani HS.

We tried to find out what they were offering for their school lunch today. I was so hoping not only to find it, but to see if they were offering something with pineapple. But, such is the life of a blogger........