World Cup Soccer Lists (4 of 4): The Names We Will Remember

Wow! We didn't realize that Arjen Robben of The Netherlands and Tim Howard of the United States look like twin brothers! For more info on world soccer, we recommend a true expert Ahmet Bob Turgut:

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

And, kudos to Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for calling an excellent game yesterday in Argentina's penalty shoot-out win over The Netherlands, but I suspect we will see much more of Robben, who plays for Bayern Munich.

Here is our list:

1) Joel Campbell. 22. Costa Rica. Olympiacos (Greece; pictured top)

2) Arjen Robben. 30. Netherlands. Bayern Munich (pictured center)

3) Tim Howard. 35. USA. Everton (England, pictured bottom,)

4) Marouane Fellaini. 26. Belgium. Manchester U.

5) Thomas Muller. 24. Germany, Bayern Munich

6) Rais Mbolhi. 28. Algeria. CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria, where he plays goal-keeper)

7) Luis Suarze. 27. Uruguay. Liverpool (I guess we can objectively say he is the most scandalous futboler on the planet)

8) Faryd Mondgram. 43. Colombia. (no club team, he is the oldest player ever to play in a World Cup)

9) Xherdan Shaqiri. 22. Switzerland. Bayern Munich.

10) Mathieu Valbuena. 29. France. Marseilles.

11) Angel di Mira. 26. Argentina. Real Madrid.

Teaser for DC Week (1 of 2): Meet the Dutch Ambassador

On Thursday, we will begin a one-week, eight entry series entitled "DC Week" (We chose not to name it "Washington Week" because we don't want Gwen Ifill, our favorite television political/government reporter, who host a PBS called "Washington Week" to sue us for $2.3 million).

We will feature all sorts of fun things, which we aren't quite ready to disclose yet, and we are also weary of the fact that Edward Snowden may have too much time on his hands, and in his spare, he may opt to surf the internet, where he could come across this blog.

The reason for this series is to support our nation's capital during a time of great economic turmoil for the city as the federal government, which oversees the Smithsonian Institute, is closed for business as is the city's historic Ford's Theatre.*

In case you are wondering about the images, they are of: 1) Cong. Gerry Connolly (D-Va., who represents the northern Virginia suburbs of DC); 2) The Lincoln Memorial (which is alas closed for business due to the shut down) ; and Ambassador Rudolf Bekink (pictured with President Barack Obama) who is the Dutch ambassador to the United States.

*- But, the current production of Ford's Theatre's play "The Laramie Project" may continue at another location in DC; we hope to have that info to you the blog-reader in Latvia by tomorrow.


http://connolly.house.gov/

http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

http://dc.the-netherlands.org/

http://www.washdiplomat.com/

http://washington.org/

Soccer Week (7 of 8): Dutch Soccer Game Has Three Cards

During domestic weekend action in the Eredivise (Dutch Premier League), one game between Heerenveen and Gromgen featured six goals and three red cards, one of which went to Dutch nationl Tjaronn Chery (pictured).

The game's other two red cards went to Mitchell Dijks of Heerenveen  and Jim Letschert of Gronngen.

Other highlights from Holland/The Netherlands included a two-goal performance form Belgian Steve de Ridder of Utrecht and two goals from Chery's teammate from Iceland, Alfred Finnbogason, who should have made our soccer players with long names list, who kicked in two goals for Heerenveen.

One lowlight which was shown on soccer highlights shows around the globe was Dutch player Maikel van der Werff's unfortunate own goal which helped his team Zwolle lose to traditional Dutch power Ajax Amsterdam 2-1.

Here are the scores:

Utrecht 2 Waalwijk 1

AZ Alkmaar 3 Go Ahead Eagles 0

Heerevveen 4 Gromgen 2

Roda 1 Breda 5

Njmegen 3 Feyrenoord 3 (tie)

Twente 2 PSV Einhoven 2 (tie)

Cambour 2 Heracles 0

Ajax Amsterdam 2 Zwolle 1

http://www.dutchnews.nl

http://www.rnw.nl

http://www.holland.com


SIDENOTE: This marks our 1,500th entry on "The Daily Vampire"...........yes, we are surprised by how long we've stuck with this blog as well.

Soccer Week (2 of 8): Americans Abroad

We are going to present you with a list of 11 American soccer players, which is the same number of soccer players on a team. All of the players except Orozco Fiscal who plays for Puebla in the Mexican Premiere League play for European teams.

The player pictured is Aron Johannsson who plays for traditional Dutch power AZ Alkmaar.

Here is the list:

1) Jozy Altidore (Sunderland, English Premiere League)*

2) Tim Howard (goalkeeper, Everton, EPL)

3) Geoff Cameron (Stokes City, EPL)

4) Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna, Austria)

5) Michael Bradley (AS Roma, Italy)

6) Steve Clark (goalkeeper, Honefoss, Norway)

7) Orozco Fiscal (Puebla, Mexico)

8) Aron Johansson (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)

9) Jermaine Jones (Shalke '04, Germany)

10) Sacha Kljesten (Anderlecht, Belgium)

11) Tony Taylor (Omonia Nicosai, Cyprus)

http://www.goal.com

http://www.yanks-abroad.com

http://www.politcscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Sister blog)

*-His name is (yikes!) not spelled correctly on our links....

Things We Learned on Bing Today: KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Founded in 1919

Since we are a bit pressed for time today and we want to find out new information on the latest round of police crackdowns against protestors in Istanbul, Turkey, stemming from the government's decision to graze historic, scenic Gezi Park in Taksim Square, we are going to return to an old stand-by.

For these segments, we ask a major search engine a general question. Today, it was: "When was KLM founded?"

As it turns out, the Dutch carrier happens to be the world's oldest airline operating under its own name. KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) was founded in 1919; the major hub of the airline is Shiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

KLM has 136 destinations around the globe. It merged with Air France in 2004, and the Dutch airline is also a member of the SkyTeam Alliance.

Perhaps, it's time to go back and visit Amsterdam, we we did in 1993 to revisit the Vincent Van Gogh Museum!

The Netherlands is also one of the countries in which the blog receives the most amount of hits, though per capita, we think either Latvia or El Salvador might be the two countries in which we are most popular...........perhaps?!

http://www.klm.com

http://www.rnw.nl/

Dutch Soccer Results (from weekend of March 15-17)

Siem de Jong, (pictured) a Dutch national, helped propel his league-leading Ajax Amsterdam with two goals (20th and 59th minutes) over AZ Alkmaar, one of their primary rivals, in a 3-2 road win. His fellow Dutch teammate Daley Blind scored a goal for Ajax in the 22nd minute. For AZ, American Jozy Altimore, a former New Red Bulls player scored as did Norwegian national Markus Henriksen.

Serbian soccer player Filip Duricic also had great outing in the Dutch Premiere League, known as Eredivise, with two goals for his team Heerenveen in their 3-1 win over NEC.

Ajax has a one-point lead in the league tables over PSV Eindhoven and Feyennoord.

Here are the tables:

PEC Zwolle 3 Roda JC 2

Heracles 2 VVV 0

Heerenveen 3 NEC 1

PSC Eindhoven 2 Waalwjik 0

Vitese 4 ADO Den Haag 0

NAC Breda 4 Willem II 0

Ajax Amsterdam 3 AZ Alkmaar 2

Feyendoord 2 Utrecht 1

Twente 3 Groninsen 0 

http://www.rnw.nl (Radio Netherlands)

This Blog Will Go On....

Yes, there have been way too many distractions as of late, but we are hoping to continue this blog in 2013, though in all probability not with the fervent frequency we've posted with in recent years.

One of our hopes this year is to post a Weekly World Weather Update on Wednesdays, starting on Jan. 23, and we are also going to attempt to post Sports Desk Updates on Mondays, hopefully with the start of Mon., Jan. 21.

Today, we are going to provide a sneak peak of our proposed world weather series with a look at the temperature in Bursa, Turkey, which is the country's fourth largest city.

Bursa is also the hope of our good friends Haviat and Karagoz (he's the dude with the beard on the right); all temps are Fahrenheit:


Athens, Georgia* 73 (sunny, slear)

Bursa, Turkey 49 (cloudy)

Chapel Hill, NC* 67 (partly sunny)

Dubai, United Arab Emirates 65 (clear)

London, England, UK 37 (rainy)

Provo, Utah* 18 (cloudy)

Utrecht, Holland 30 (cloudy)

*-American cities, each of them are also college towns.

How to Say Turtle in Four Different Languages

Perhaps, it is because we love the comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon" (see last entry), which features not only the exploits of Hawthrone the Hermit Crab, but also Fillmore the Sea Turtle or because we like the folk/rock band Trampled by Turtles, from Minnesota, that will perform at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, once they have finished touring the United Kingdom and Ireland, but we thought we'd look up the word for turtles in eight different languages.

The other four will be posted on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times:" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoftime.blogspot.com


Here we go:

1) Kaplumbaga- Turkish pronounced Kap-loom-baah

2) Schildpad- Dutch

3) Zelva-Czech

4) Tartaruga- Italian

http://www.slagoon.com

http://www.trampledbyturrtles.com

Olympic Cities Destination Quiz (4 of 6)- Amsterdam to St. Louis

If one takes the quiz on the online version of "Mental Floss" asking which cities have hosted the Olympics, there is a  distinct possibility that Amsterdam, which hosted the games in 1928, and St. Louis, which hosted the Olympics in 1904, might be the ones which one might well forget.

The 1904 St. Louis Olympics were only the third Olympics; the first two were held in Athens, Greece, and Paris, France, respectively. Those games are perhaps best remembered for the story of Cuban marathon runner/postal carrier Andarin Caruajal (1875-1949) who begged on the streets to raise funds to travel to Missouri. He ended up finishing fourth!

The Netherlands hosted the games 24 years later with 46 countries participating, which was up considerably from the mere 12 countries who competed in St. Louis. Among the notable events of those games was American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), who was later cinema's Tarzan, winning two gold medals in men's swimming. The 1928 Amsterdam Olympics were also the first ones sponsored by Cocal Cola.

In case you were wondering, that is a map of St. Louis (there were way too many photos of the Arch to choose from) above. The below image is of KLM, the main airline for The Netherlands/Holland.

So, we are asking just how far these two destinations are from each other, my apologies to folks in Turku, Finland, who use the Metric system, but we are going with miles here; is the answer?:

A) 4,374 miles

B) 4,474 miles

C) 4,574 miles

D) 4, 774 miles

http://www.klm.com

http://www.holland.com

www.rnw.nl

http://www.explorestlouis.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

UPDATE: Since it has been more than 24 hours since we posted this, we'll go ahead and tell you the answer; it is A) 4,374 miles.

Quote of the Day/Week- Vincent van Gogh

We conclude our month-long series of quips from famous artists with a quote from Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), though we are not good at math, we just realized that we have outlived the Dutch master!

There is a new van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and we were hoping to read a "Wall Street Journal" piece about it, but someone in our office threw it away by accident (whoever it was, Javier the Intern shall be blamed!). But, there is a similar article from "Newsweek" on the web which seemingly suggests that the exhibit is meant to make the art museum gazer if van Gogh was sane or not.

Here is his quote, and quite frankly we don't care about a dead man's sanity status:

"I often think that the night is more alive and more colorful than the day."

SIDEBAR: Thanks to the PRI/public radio program "The World," which airs on many NPR stations here in America, we have some catch phrases for the day: this coming from a piece about fashion and coupling in Pakistan. These catch phrases are: "What the fatwa" and "ghetto hijab."

And, for some reason, Ferris Bueller, the fictional high school teenager played by Matthew Broderick in the 1985 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," is trending today on Twitter.

Quote of the Day/Week- Anton Leeuwenhoek

Though his name is just slightly less difficult to spell than that of acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Blissfully Your's), we are quoting the great Dutch biologist Anton Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) today as part of our month-long series of quotes from scientists and artists. Previously, on this blog, we quoted Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin for this series.

Here is the quote from Leeuwenhoek (yes, we got it right; it takes a few tries though!):

"A man has always to be busy with his thoughts if anything is to be accomplished."

Quote of the Day/Week- M.C. Escher

Today's quote from a famous artist is from the famous Dutch abstract master M.C. Escher (1898-1972) who became known for his mathematically inspired paintings, such as "Drawing Hands" (1948, pictured).

The painting shows a sheet of paper with two flat wrists and two hands facing each others.

Here is Escher's quote:

"I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough."

It's Been a Messy Week

Things haven't quite been this bad, but snow, sleet and ice were reported throughout our Bethesda, Md.-Rock Hill, SC, viewing area (of course, this is a joke since even folks in Yerevan, Armenia, or Mumbai, India, can access this blog).

But, we are focusing on the important things in life for the time being. Once those pesky things are taken care of, we will post our usual shananigans once again!

In the meantime, you can go to Youtube and watch a chainsaw juggler in Amsterdam, Holland, (yes, there is actually such a video!) until we get a chance to post a legitimate blog posting either tomorrow or some time early next week.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus!

Quote of the Week- Edvard Munch

Dagnamit! Well, that's what my friend Susan Paige from Bethesda, Maryland,(pse) said when she missed the Edvard Munch exhibit at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, that ended on Halloween. But, the good news is that she can now go to Rotterdam, Holland, to see an exhibit of the classic Norwegian artist's work!

Munch, best know for the pictured image ("The Scream") is perhaps the most famous Norwegian of all time although theatre people like my friend Sal Edmunds of Boones Mill, Va., (also a pse-fake name and fake residency for a real person living in a real place) would argue for Henrik Ibsen.

But, we never take sides here unless we're pummeling Sarah Palin!

The National Gallery, for its part, is now showcasing early Victorian British photographs until Jan. 28, so there's no need to kick a fire hydrant (which I actually did after narrowly missing a Norman Rockwell exhibit at The Corcoran Gallery, which is also in DC, some ten years ago).

Here is today's quip from Munch:

"But, can they (great works) get rid of the worm that lies gnawing at the roots of my heart? No, never."

One has to wonder if those sentiments were also felt by Australian artist Lloyd Graham and fellow painter Sarah Irani when they completed their 'masterpieces' which are hanging from the walls of The Museum of Bad Art (yes, it is an actual place) in the Brookline, Mass., area.

Irani's "Mama and Babe" looks like a picture of Cher with an orphaned child, while Graham's "Artist as a Young Man" appears to be a bad portrait of Bob Dylan.

Both paintings are a part of the museum's blue people series, which you can see on the net (if we showed those pictures here, they'd assuredly shoot us!).

I also love "Worried Guy," an anynomous painting of a man who looks like Medusa after a sex change, which was rescued from something like a trash can in Seattle.

50 Beers Around the World #39- Stella Artois (Belgium)

Today, we are featuring Stella Artois, a Belgian beer primarily brewed in England, which was considered a high end beer since they advertised in high-brown magazines, but now one can even find the brew at a Sheetz gas station in Lynchburg, Va.!

Of course, Belgium is known for other things besides beer, but we can only think of Tintin (just kidding!).

According to Wikipedia, Belgians apparently drink a lot of beer_ some 93 liters per person annually! Of course, Wikileaks could tell us if the Emir of Kuwait secretly drinks it at his hotel room in Paris. (just kidding, again!).

Belgium also produces some 800 different brands of beer, which is remarkable given it is a relatively small country which is the size of Maryland or Connecticut.

Tintinland also has many beer festivals, in cities like Antwerp, Bruges and Brussells.

Additionally, there is a Christmas beer festival in Essen, a northern Flemish town that borders Holland. Essen is also where a lot of international cyclists like Bart Aernouts and Tom Meeusen reside.

I was in Tintinland way back in 1993, and much to my surprise the first beer I had in Brussells was from Norway?!

Top 10- Best Countries I've Been To (Besides Turkey and the USA)

We are dedicating today's entry to students at Berlin Senior High School in Berlin, NH, where the principal is Gary Brisson, the school nickname is The Mountaineers and the school newspaper is "Mountaineer Today."

While school at UNC starts on Monday and at my alma mater Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Va., begins on Aug. 23, students at BSHS have summer vacation until Sept. 1 when school starts (must be nice!).

Berlin, NH, is incidentally where John Irving's famed novel "The Hotel New Hampshire" takes place. It was made into a film with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster in 1984. I found a copy at an antique store in Fairfield, Va. (between Lexington and Staunton) which I read during a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was actually better than the movie (and I'm not someone who always says that!).

I thought it would be quite subjective to put the USA, the country of my birth and residency, and Turkey, where my late my father was from and a place I have been to many times on the list since that would be blatantly subjective and we are not working for Fox News!

So, here is the list:

1. Holland
2.Canada
3. France
4. Guatemala
5. Greece (I know this will not go well with my friends in Ankara!)
6. Italy
7. Hungary
8. Germany
9. Belgium
10. England/UK

It should be pointed out that while I have been to both Germany and New Hampshire, I haven't been to either Berlin!

And, there are many countries on this list, including England, Hungary and Italy that I have not been to in a very, very long time (since I was a child in the '70s).

Cyprus and Luxembourg both just missed the cut.

Viva Espana!

Since virtually all the public libraries in my part of North Carolina were closed yesterday (as was everything except emergency services and the local Mexican restaurant) since it was Sunday, I didn't get to post this entry sooner.

But, even though I was rooting for The Netherlands/Holland, I wanted to congratulate Spain on winning the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Andres Iniesta kicked the game-winner in the 116th minute of play. His teammate Xica was named MVP of the World Cup and Germany's Thomas Muller won the Golden Boot.

Paul the Octopus had predicted that Spain would win on Sunday, and he had picked eight consecutive game winners throughout the World Cup. According to sports handicappers in England, anyone who listened to Paul and bet accordingly would have made themselves $4,500! Paul was given a replica World Cup for his accomplishment.

Tanja Munzig, a spokesperson at Paul's aquarium in Germany, said the octopus would be staying put in his tank despite all the media hoopla:

"We've had lots of offers, but he will definitely be staying and returning to his old job---making children smile."

Spain's World Cup victory was mared by terrorist bombings in Uganda which killed 74 people (at last report).

Nate Henn, 25, was the only American killed by the blasts which occured in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Internet columnist Michelle Ruiz said Henn was living his dream by being a relief worker in Uganda.

Vicky Collins of "The Hufington Post" said she ate the Ethiopian Village restaurant which was the site of one of the blasts back in June. Collins said she was sickened by the attacks.

Xenophobic Criminals in Greensboro?!

According to the police blotter in the Greensboro newspaper "Yes Weekly!," Greensboro police responded to an emergency call at 10:40 p.m. on June 29 from the Tienda Mexicana store on West Market Street which turned out to be an armed robbery.

Store employee Maria Ruiz and her 9-year-old sister were in the store when two black men in their late teens or early twenties came in and one of them pointed a gun at Ruiz's face. The second suspect jumped over the counter and demanded cash.

The two then sped off in a black four-door vehicle. Anyone who may have info is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (336.373.1000).

SIDEBAR ONE: We expect Glenn Beck's head will explode over this one (and, we would love to see that happen actually!) as the Mexican beer Tecate aired several ads en espanyol on ESPN-2 last night during Friday Night Fights.

SIDEBAR TWO: A Mexican waiter at a local Mexican restaurant, a Greek co-worker of mine and a Turkish friend of mine in Greensboro all think Spain will beat Holland- the team I am both picking and rooting for in the World Cup final tomorrow. We'll see what happens tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.

TEASER: Next Saturday, we will be debuting a new series called "The Weekly Top Ten List." We will either go with our top ten favorite people to follow on Twitter or the my top ten favorite cities in North Carolina. Among the candidates for the top slot on my Top Ten Favorite people to follow on Twitter list are "Yes Weekly!" reporter Jordan Green, conservative activist Nathan Tabor of Winston-Salem (who I rarely agree with, but it's fun to see what's on his mind), comic strip character Zippy the Pinhead who we presume to really be his creator Bill Griffith or the acidic-tongued stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman.

Friday GeoQuiz- How Large is Utrecht, Holland?

Wes


Since Holland is playing Spain for the World Cup title on Sunday, we thought we'd focus our dual GeoQuiz entries (the other one is on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times) on the two countries involved.

For this entry, we focus on The Netherlands and the Dutch city of Utrecht. It is the fourth largest city in Holland, and the home to footballer Wesley Sneijder who has been a star player for the Dutch team. Sneijder also hails from Utrecht, which is also home to the Dom Tower (pictured above).

Utrecht is also the main rail hub of The Netherlands as well as one of Holland's leading cultural cities which like Amsterdam boasts lots of impressive canals. We presume there is good beer and cheese in Utrecht as well.

The city is also Sister Cities with the likes of Leon, Nicaragua, and Brno, Czech Rep.

One of our local bands (well, they are just down the road) The Carolina Chocolate Drops from Durham, NC, will be performing in Utrecht at The Rosa on Nov. 10. Closer to home, the band performs at Duke University in their hometown on Sept. 25. I saw them at a bluegrass fest in the rural hamlet of Eden, NC, two years and they were quite impressive!

Here is our question about Utrecht which we dedicate to ninth graders at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC (near Greensboro) where a family friend is a member of the school's wrestling team:

How large is Holland's fourth largest city?

A) 275,000
B) 300,000
C) 350,000
D) 425,000

If you know the answer, I will send you a copy of "The Oak Ridge Boys' Greatest Hits" on eight-track!

SIDEBAR: We are always looking to see where people are visiting us from here on this blog. Today, we are wondering if anyone from Metz, France, or Paris, Texas, happens to stumble upon this entry. If you are from one of these towns or Utrecht, Holland, feel free to email us at tango74@aol.com

PS- The answer to last week's quiz was Slovenia.

My World Cup Final Four Picks

Without commentary which will have to include some other time, my final four are Argentina, Holland, Uruguay and Spain. I pick Argentina to win the World Cup. One of their star players Lionel Messi is pictured above.

I would personally love to see Argentina play The Netherlands in the World Cup final for sentimental reasons. Those same two countries met in the 1978 World Cup final which was in Argentina in 1978.

That was the year I first started watching international soccer in Black Sea Eregli, Turkey, where the whole country watched the games with black and white tvs. Now, Turkey not only has color tv, but satellite and cable services with up to 200-plus channels, where they can watch reruns of "Gunsmoke" like the 'rest of us."