Potluck Quote of the Day (10 of 10): Natalie Portman

Tonight's Quote of the Day is from Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman ("V for Vendetta;" "Black Swan;" "Garden State") who was on the cover of the New York Times' T-Magazine (which covers fashion); one of our favorite films with the Israeli-born Portman is "Closer" with Julia Roberts and Jude Law:

"If you're an actress or a musician, everyone thinks you're hot."

http://www.natalieportman.com

http://www.nytimes.com

Potluck Quote of the Day (1/10): Noam Chomsky Meets Marvin the Martian

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Israel and Costa Rica......

Why are we featuring an image of Mars with a quote from left-wing philosopher/linguist/historian Noam Chomsky, one of America's leading critics of the Vietnam War, who happens to still be alive at age 87?

Well, just read this quote. And, thanks to the kids from Duke University for helping us with this research......(we are actually UNC fans here, but we wanted to be nice....and since all the college students are on break for the summer, perhaps, they will be reading this instead of playing video games)....

We gather that Speak of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is a closet admirer of Chomsky's work (yeah, we just said that to get your attention)....

This will be our first of ten quotes from people who have achieved fame and/or notoriety in a variety of fields.

Here is the quote:

"If there were an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long."

https://chomsky.info/

http://mars.nasa.gov/

http://www.wxdu.org/ (Duke's student-run college radio station; they were playing Frankie Cosmos at last report, actually that was another college radio station).........

Ten Songs We Heard in One Hour on Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.): When in Rome.........

Before we list ten songs in a row that we heard on Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va.) from 11:00-midnihgt on Friday night, we thought we'd share with you that one of the performers listed Bon Jovi will be holding concerts in Singapore which is celebrating its 50th anniversary today on Sept. 20th. The band will also perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 3rd.

Here are the ten songs we heard during that hour:

1) "The Promise," When in Rome. 1987. (top image

2) Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You), Kelly Clarkson. 2012 (the image of the deep-fried Oreos is in homage to the song's title)

3) Refugee, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 1980 (3rd image, of refugees fleeing Afghanistan)

4) Brickhouse, The Commodores, 1977.

5) Push, Matchbox Twenty. 1997.

6) Wanted Dead or Alive, Bon Jovi. 1987.

7) West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys. 1984

8) Love Me Like You Do (from "50 Shades of Gray"), Ellie Goulding. 2015

9) Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel. 1986.

10) The Long Run, The Eagles. 1979

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.kellyclarkson.com

http://www.bonjovi.com

The Republican Candidates for President: Worst to Best........

We gather that it's entirely possible that folks in Ankara, Turkey, and Tel Aviv, Israel may have been watching the Republican debate on Fox News from Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday night, even though it was 2:00 a.m. when the debate aired in Turkey and Israel, two countries which are both seven hours ahead of Cleveland, Washington DC, and New York.

Here in America, 24 million people were watching including Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the most liberal Democratic candidate in the face, who was followed and retweeted by more people than anyone else during the GOP debate that he was watching live.

While everyone from David Letterman to Garry Trudeau was rightfully lampooning Donald Trump, whose candidacy seems like a joke, given that he has zero political experience and a reputation for insulting people for the sake of doing just that, there are actually three candidates who are worse than Mister Clown.

These include Rick Perry (pict. top) the notorious former governor of Texas who left years of scandal and probable wrongful executions behind him when he ran for president for the first time four years ago, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas,pict. center) a darling of the Tea Party movement who is probably less progressive than members of the Iranian Parliament, and Mike Huckabee (pict. bottom) an evagelical former governor of Arkansas who dropped a Nazi Germany reference against President Barack Obama.

Here are the candidates from worst to best, to be 'fair and balanced,' we have the candidates listed from best to worst on our sister blog http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

1. Rick Perry, Texas

2. Ted Cruz, Texas

3. Mike Huckabee, Arkansas

4. Donald Trump, New York (currently first in the field)

5. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania

6. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana

7. Scott Walker, Wisconsin

8. Ben Carson, Maryland

9. Jeb Bush, Florida

10. Rand Paul, Kentucky

11. Jim Gilmore, Virginia (currently the last field, the only candidate we have met in person)

12. Marco Rubio, Florida

13. John Kasich, Ohio

14. Carly Fiorina, California (the only woman in the GOP field)

15. Chris Christie, New Jersey

16. George Pataki, New York (at 72, the oldest Republican in the race)

17. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics

http://www.politico.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.nationalreview.com (A conservative journal)

http://www.thenation.com (A liberal journal)

http://www.theonion.com/politics (A satirical site)

The Last Ten Records We've Listened To: New Wave and Soft Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Ireland and Israel: Well, we thought finding an image of the Cesar Romero Joker from the '60s tv version of "Batman" with Adam Best would easier to use than one of the late Heath Ledger in the same role for one of the franchise blockbuster movies, but actually the reverse is true!

Here are the last ten records we have listened to........

1. Nick Lowe. The Rose of England. 1985.

2. The Tubes. Now. 1977.

3. The Steve Miller Band. The Joker. 1973

4. Badfinger. Magic Christian Music. 1971

5. Slade. Stomp Your Hands and Clap Your Feet*. 1974.

6. Culture Club. Kissing to Be Clever. 1982.

7. The Plastics**. Welcome Back. 1981.

8. Chris de Burgh. The Getaway. 1982.

9. Sad Cafe. Sad Cafe.*** 1980

10. Squeeze. Cool for Cats. 1979 (pict. top)

*- Album was released as "Old Borrowed and Blue" in U.K.

**- A short-lived Japanese New Wave band.

***-This was actually not the band's first record.

Roanoke Times Comics Survey: Get Fuzzy Edges Out Pearls Before Swine

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Tajikistan.......

Today, we look at our top ten favorite Sunday comic strips that were in the Nov. 30th edition of "The Roanoke Times." Traditionally, we survey both "The Roanoke Times" comic strips and "The Washington Post" comic strips, though we have had some big distractions lately. For our "Washington Post" comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

This week, "Get Fuzzy" snugs the top slot just barely ahead of "Pearls Before Swine," both comic strips featured 12 panels this week, which is a bit risky and unusual.

"Get Fuzzy" which revolves around the spat between a Siamese cat named Bucky (top panel) and a clueless dog named Satchel. This week, the dog asks the cat how many cats it takes to screw in a light bulb and fireworks ensue.

In "Pearls Before Swine," the title character Rat (middle image) is stuck in calling center hell as he is trying to get a lower airline fare by pretending he needs to go to the funerals.........for several 'recently deceased' relatives.

In third place, "Zits" has parents arguing as to whether they should keep their son Jeremy's grade school art projects, which reminds me that a clay dinosaur (bottom image) I made in 1975 at an elementary school has been missing like an FBI fugitive for perhaps a full decade now!

Here is our top ten:

1) Get Fuzzy

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Zits

4) Speed Bump

5) Garfield

6) Doonesbury

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Agnes

10) Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

Last Ten Films I've Seen: Lots and Lots of Imports

Greetings as always to blog readers around the world, including those of you in Australia, Canada, and Germany.

This is our first entry since the catastrophic, seismic, Armageddon nightmare, mid-term elections, which saw the Republican gain more houses in the U.S. Congress and completely take over the U.S. Senate, but fortunately Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) did prevail over Ed Gillespie.

Even though we differ with his politics and his policies, we want to congratulate Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) who has represented Virginia's sixth district since 1993, and now, thanks to perfect gerrymandering, he probably will be representing the Sixth district until the year 2045 (correction: he turns 103 in 2055), when he will be circa 103 years old. Thus, we are using the image of Goodlatte (center) for the film "Dear White People" which is on this list. We are also looking for photos of Goodlatte in a bathing suit, but alas there are none to be found on Google.

Of the ten films we last watched, eight are from foreign countries, including Kazakhstan, Romania, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Turkey, Iran and Norway.

Finally, so none of you are confused, the bottom image is of the Oklahoma Sooners bandwagon used when the team plays home football game; "August: Osage County," a film based on a play takes place in Oklahoma. It stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

Here is the list:

1. "Tuesday after Christmas." Romania. 2010. dir: Radu Muntean.

2. "Uszipin." Israel. 2004. dir: Giddi Dar

3. "Headhunters" Norway. dir: Mortem Tyldum

4. "Ichi the Killer" Japan. 2001. dir: Takashi Miike.

5. "Waiting Room" Turkey. 2004. dir: Zeki Demirkubuz.

6. "Dear White People" 2014. dir: Justin Simien.

7. "Schizo." Kazakhstan. 2004. dir: Gushat Omarova

8. "August: Osage County" 2014. dir: John Wells

9. "Leila" Iran. 1997. dir: Dariush Mehrjui

10. "Abel" (or "Voyeur"). Netherlands. 1986. dir: Alex van Warmerdam

Last Ten Films I've Seen (as of Oct. 16th): Watching a Three-Hour Doc on a Friday Night

"The Autobiography of Nicolea Ceausescu" is a three-hour documentary about a Romanian Cold War dictator who was eventually executed by gunfire by his own people after 22 years of dictatorial rule, and last Friday night was soooo boring (as Moon Unit Zappa would say) that I ended up watching it on Netflix! The film uses official footage and has no narration. One shocking thing I learned from the film was that American Richard Nixon actually traveled to Bucharest to meet Nicolea Ceaucescu.

Other films on the list include "Au Hasard Balthazar," a brilliant, but depressing film about the life of a donkey, which could have been filmed in Greece or Turkey as easily as France. "4:44: Last Day on Earth" is a dire film with Willem Defoe about what the end might be like. Lastly, "Alan Partridge," starring Steve Coogan as the title character who is also a radio dj, is quite hilarious; the green coffee cup above is in his honor. We tried to use a Manchester United coffee cup, but we believe those images are perhaps copyrighted.

Here is the list:

1) Au Hasard Balthazar. France. 1966. Director: Robert Bresson

2) For All Mankind. Documentary. 1989. Dir: Al Reinert

3) McCabe and Mrs. Miller. 1971. Dir: Robert Altman

4) Lebanon. (Israeli film). 2009. Dir:Samuel Maoz.

5) Chico and Rita. Animation. Spain. Dir: Tono Errando, et al

6) 4:44: Last Day on Earth. Dir: Abel Ferrara

7) Alan Partridge. 2013. Dir: Declan Lowney.

8) Marwencol. Documentary. Dir: Jeff Malmberg

9) Zanjeer. India. 1973. Dir: Prakash Mehra.

10) The Autobiography of Nicolea Ceausescu. Documentary. 2010. Romania

http://www.criterion.com/

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.tcm.com

http://www.filmlinc.org

The Sunday Roanoke Times Comics Survey: The March of the Penguins

Greetings to our blog readers in Israel, Egypt and Poland.

The comic strip "Arctic Circle" would have been our top comic strip of the week, but we saw it on the Internet. But, we certainly hope the comic strip which on Sunday took a hilarious dig towards global warming deniers gets more newspapers.

In the mean time, we are focusing on the circa 21 comic strips that run in the Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va. This week, our three favorite comic strips focused on a penguin wearing Jimmy Choo high heels ("Speed Bump"), an over-the-top unicorn gag ("Pearls Before Swine") and an office place spat over how to be successful ("Dilbert").

The third place finish for "Dilbert" is our highest ranking ever for Scott Adams' comic strip; the Sticky Notes are one of our features in its honor.

Here is the top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Dilbert

4) Doonesbury

5) Non-Sequitur

6) Agnes

7) Zits

8) Get Fuzzy

9) Garfield

10) Funky Winkerbean

http://www.gocmics.com/speedbump

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.gocmics.com/nonsequitur

Quotes from Off the Beat Path (6 of 6): Alice Cooper

Greetings to our blog-readers in Iceland, The Netherlands, Austria, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey.

We hate snakes (well the poisonous ones and pythons), but that's the case with the American '70s glam rock/heavy metal star Alice Cooper, who will be playing at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, on Oct. 22.

Here is his quote from the singer best known for "School's Out" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy":

"The most joyous times of the year are Christmas mornings and the end of school."


http://www.alicecooper.com

http://www.greesnborocoliseum.com

Top 10 Roanoke Times Comics...........yeah, we are just not getting around to posting this.....

Greetings to those of you in the Netherlands, Australia, and Israel.......even though we aren't fans of Benjamin Netanyahu here........domestically, we want to send greetings to those of you in Hartford, Baltimore and Dallas.

What do The Three Bears, King Midas and the late Rodney Dangerfield (all pictured above) have in common you might ask? Well, our favorite Sunday "Roanoke Times" comic strips (the newspaper serves Roanoke, Va., and surrounding areas) touched upon the three bears (Non-Sequitur), royalty (Speed Bump) and stand-up comedians (Doonesbury)............here is the list:

1) Non-Sequitur (a first time number one)

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Funky Winkerbean

5) Pearls Before Swine

6) Zits

7) Garfield

8) Agnes

9) Dilbert

10) Get Fuzzy

http://www.roanoke.com

When It's 8:00 p.m. in New York, It's (now) 2:00 a.m. in Istanbul (until March 30th)

Yes, we know: "Always use people in photographs" is the conventional wisdom of journalism, but we are a bit rebellious and unconventional here at "The Daily Vampire."

On a serious note, we are saddened to hear about the death of Berkin Elvan, a Turkish youth who was hit in the head by a tear gas canister during street riots over the summer protesting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Putin act (and, we are a bit subjective here as well). Elvan's death has triggered new protests all over Turkey, but it seems that a change in power in Ankara seems unlikely even though it is assuredly what is needed now.

Here are our looks at the times in other parts of the globe as Daylight Savings Time is in effect for both the United States and Canada and perhaps elsewhere.

We are going to assume the time is 8:00 p.m./20:00 in New York, which is the reason for the Brooklyn hot dog (top image) that might get us blocked in Internet cafes in Karachi, Pakistan, or Tel Aviv, Israel, but c'est la vie say the French, and when it is 8:00 p.m. in New York, it is this time in the cities listed below:

1) Chicago/Dallas 7:00 p.m.

2) Amsterdam 1:00 a.m.

3) Dubai 4:00 a.m.

4) Buenos Aires 9:00 p.m.

5) London (pictured center) 12:00 a.m./midnight

6) Sydney 11:00 a.m.

7) Istanbul 2:00 a.m. (pictured bottom, a horse carriage driver in Burgaz Island, Istanbul)

8) Mexico City/Salt Lake City 6:00 p.m.

9) Seoul 9:00 a.m.

10) Los Angeles/Vancouver 5:00 p.m.

11) Cape Town, South Africa 2:00 a.m. (same time as Istanbul and Athens)

12) Baghdad 3:00 a.m.

http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/

http://www.visitlondon.com/

http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/home/au/en

http://www.turkishairlines.com

"The Washington Post" Comics Survey: The Gold Goes to Denmark ("WUMO")

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Israel and Singapore.

And, our shout-outs to celebrities who regularly  visit this blog, including George F. Will, Alicia Sacramone and Tonya Harding (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

Chicken McNuggets may not be very appetizing, but they were the subject of a hilarious comic strip "WUMO," which originated in Denmark of all places.

Our favorite second comic strip from the Sunday, Feb.9th edition of "The Washington Post" was "Speed Bump." This week's edition of Dave Coverly's strip had one of the Easter Island (Chile) heads acting up and irritating his mother.

Other comic strips which made the top ten include: 1) "Sherman's Lagoon" where an albatross gives romantic advice to a turtle; 2) "Lio" where the title character visits an aquarium and takes delight upon seeing a squid; 3) and "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" where Frankenstein and his would-be-bride have a lovers spat.

Here is the top ten:

1) WUMO

2) Speed Bump

3) Lio

4) The Argyle Sweater

5) Sherman's Lagoon

6) Rhymes with Orange

7) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

8) Pearls Before Swine

9) Dustin

10) Judge Parker

SIDEBAR: Kudos to Samantha Peszek from the UCLA Bruins' women's gymnastics team; she had a perfect ten on bars yesterday in a meet against Arizona State, which was won by the Bruins.

http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

Little Thinkers Quotes: Andy Warhol (5 of 16)

Greetings to our blog-readers in Israel, Ethiopia (?!, well perhaps) and Kazakhstan.

Today, we continue our Little Thinkers series with a quote from the great American pop artist Andy Warhol, who was famous for painting soup cans as well as avant garde portraits of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Mao Tse-Tung, among others.

In art, the Baltimore Museum of Art recently recovered a Renoir that was stolen form the museum in the 1960s, the person who had the painting claimed that it was purchased for seven dollars at the Harpers Ferry Flea Market in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

There is an Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Here is his quote:

"Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets."


http://www.warhol.org

http://www.artbma.org

Quotes from The Little Thinkers (1 of 16): Jesus Christ

Greetings to all our blog-readers in Bhutan, Israel and Pakistan (we couldn't resist!)....but, perhaps there will be lots of people who read this in Serbia and Poland instead.

Today, there is actually a one-percent chance that the Rev. Jonathan Falwell from the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., started by his father Jerry Falwell, will glance at this liberal, secular blog, since we will be quoting Jesus Christ.

This entry marks the first in our Little Thinkers series, dedicated to some very creative novelty puppet-makers called the Unemployed Philosophers Guild.

As it turns out, Thomas Road Baptist  has moved into the high tech era and now offers streams of its sermons live online. In fact, they have a countdown clock to Sunday at 9:00 a.m. (EDT), which is 4:00 p.m. in Istanbul, Turkey, where one, maybe two people might tune in to the broadcast. A second sermon begins at 11:15 a.m.

Edgewood Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, also known as The Edge, was an overt opponent to gay marriage in the Tar Heel State, and it is a very large church as well, but there was no mention of simulcasts on their web site. But, this month, they are focusing on the Ephesians.

Of course, there are liberal churches as well. In fact's there's even a Unitarian Church in Lynchburg, where there is also one least one synagogue and one mosque!

Here is our quote from Jesus Christ:

"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give them to the poor, and you will have the treasure of heaven."

http://www.trbc.org/

http://www.theedgebc.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com/LittleThinkers

Kudos to Radford University Highlanders for Winning Big South Volleyball Crown

Greetings to our blog-readers in Slovenia, Israel and Algeria.

Tonight, it is with great pleasure that I report that Radford University, my beloved alma mater, won the Big South Women's Volleyball tournament in Clinton, SC, yesterday, by defeating Coastal Carolina University in straight sets. However, the game was a very tight one as the Highlanders won the opening set 36-34! Typically, in order to win a set one team has to reach 25.

Radford U (25-9), located in Radford, Va., and the top seed in the tourney, won the game over CCU, a school from Conway, SC (near Myrtle Beach), and the second seed by a score of (36-34, 25-23, 25-22).

For the Highlanders, Cheyanne James had 16 kills, and Rachel Wiechecki and Emma Denninger had 11 kills each. Wiechecki was also named tournament MVP.

The Big South title is the fifth overall for the Highlanders, and the first for the school since 2000.

As an alumni, I must profess that I still miss Rowdy Red (pictured top) our old mascot.

SIDEBAR ONE: Our tweet of the night goes to "Writer's Digest," a magazine centered on helping both pro and amateur writers write: "#midnightprompt Your spouse is in bed asleep but you can't sleep. There's a knock at the door. The person changes your life forever."

SIDEBAR TWO: Cartoonist Terri Libenson's strip "The Pajama Diaries" is not in the Sunday comics pages of the two Sunday newspapers I read most weeks, but her work is quite remarkable. In a strip that will be published on Tuesday, there is a touching scene between an adult daughter and her mother.

Libenson also posted a blog entry with the strip which she candidly admits to suffering from writer's block at times. She said life distractions, such as her daughter's Bat Mitzvah, are one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome.


http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.writersdigest.com

http://www.pajamadiaries.com

Futbol Notebook: Two Red Cards for Standard Liege

It is very unusual for three cards to be issued in one game, but yesterday, in Europa League play, M.Carcela-Gonzales and his Standard Liege (a Belgian team) teammate Kanu, a Brazilian national, both got sent off. The winning team Salzburg (Austria) also got a red card; Salzburg won the game 2-1.

By pure chance, another team from Belgium (Genk) played another team from Austria (Rapid Vienna), that game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Here are some of the Europa scores from yesterday (a whopping 24 games were played in total):

Betis (Spain) 1 Guimares (Portugal) 0

Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine) 3 Thun (Swiss) 0

Salzburg (Austria) 2 Standard Liege (Belgium) 1

Freiburg (Germany) 1 Estoril (Portugal) 1 (tie)

Genk (Belgium) 1 Rapid Vienna (Austria) 1 (tie)

PAOK (Greece) 3 M. Haifa (Israel) 2

For more scores, go to our sister blog:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Soccer Week (4 of 8): Players with Very Very Long Lastnames

Who is this Greek soccer player who plays for the Greek league team Panathinaikos? Well, you will have to find out by scrolling below because we don't want to try to spell his name twice.

We only needed to look a few European (UEFA) leagues to come up with this list. Among those who were eliminated from contention because of long surnames that were simply not long enough was Turkish soccer Gokhan Deirmeci of Kayserispor, a team that plays its games in Kayseri, Turkey.

Here are some last names you probably will not envy, but then again not all of us can be as luck as Dr. Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz......yes, that is his real last name, and most Turkish names, including our very own Tilly Gokbudak's are longer than that):

1. Jakub Blaszcykowski (Polish player with Bayern Leverkusen in Germany)

2. Kyriakos Papadopoulos (Greek player with Schalke 'O4 in Germany)

3. Konstantinos Triantafylloppoulos (Greek player with Panathinaikos in Greece; he is the mystery player who is pictured.......you see why I'm only spelling his name once!) *

4. Stefanos Kragiopoulos (Greek player with Iraklis in Greece)

5. Adrian Mierzejewski (Polish player with Trabzonspor in Turkey)

6. Oguz Daglaroglu (Turkish player with Akhisar Belediyespor in Turkey)

7. Tigran Gharabaghtsyan (Armenian player with Ararat Yerevan in Armenia)

8. Rey Mammadbayli (Azeri player with AZAL PFK in Azerbaijan)

9. Shimon Abudhatzira (Israeli player with Maccabi Haifa in Israel)

10. Sergei Parshivlyuk (Rusian player with Spartak Moscow, we almost didn't get his name right!)

11. Aleksandr Ryazanatsev (Russian player with Rubin Kazan in Russia)

http://www.greeksoccer.com

http://www.turkish-futbol.com

http://www.armenia-soccer.com




*- Hopefully, we spelled the Greek player pictured correctly!

Word of the Day: Zealot

Greetings to our blog readers in Latvia, where we are surprisingly very popular, Canada and Israel.

Since Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American who is a Muslim, has made headlines as his book about Jesus Christ entitled "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus Christ" is hitting bookstores, we thought we'd take a closer look at the definition.

A zealot is any person who is fervent and relentless in a religious or political ideal.

Thus, the term can apply not only to Jesus Christ, but also Mahatma Gandhi (pictured), Che Guevara and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

http://www.rezaaslan.com

Quote of the Day- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

We are dedicating this entry to the collective memories of Mehmet Ayvalitas, 20, who was killed in Istanbul, and Abdullah Comert, 22, who was killed in Antakya (Hatay/Antioch) during protests against the Islamist AK-Party government headed by Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is in Morocco today where he gave an apology for the excessive use of brute police force. But, for many of us of Turkish heritage as well as Turkish citizens of other ethnicities, Erdogan's best apology will be a full resignation.

The story of the protests, which are now being called "The Turkish Spring," is even a popular topic on "The Jerusalem Post" web site; Turkey and Israel have had strained relations due to Erdogan and his fellow right-wing counterpart Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's unyielding nationalist foreign policies.

Egyptian activist Gigi Ibrahim who was one of the leading figures in the Tahrir Square demonstrations in Cairo has also tweeted her views on the events in Turkey which started out as a small protest against the government's plans to build a development on Gezi Park, the last remaining open space in Istanbul.

This quote is from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, in 1923:

"Mankind is a single body and each nation is a part of that body."

SIDEBAR: Many years ago, I wrote this unmailed postcard to a friend in what was then Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Today Belgrade is the capital of Serbia:

"Hi friend. This is just a test to see if you get this postcard. Peace and keep in touch. I'm always your friend no matter what happens."

The postcard was a photo image of Skyline Drive near Front Royal, Virginia.