Today's Potluck Quote (3 of 10): Thomas Nagel

Simone Biles. Simone Biles. Simone Biles.

Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps.

Usain Bolt. Usain Bolt. Usain Bolt.

For those of you suffering from Olympics fatigue, you might want to watch "Lassie Come Home" with Roddy McDowell tonight on TCM at 9:45 p.m.

Hmm.........yeah, I guess if you live in Australia or New Zealand, you will need other alt programming suggestions.

We actually love the Olympics, but we sense it would be better to visit Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when it is perhaps a bit less crowded.

Today's quote of the day is from Serbian-born living philosopher Thomas Nagel:

"Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions."

http://www.tcm.com

20-Word Fiction (8 of 10): The Extroverted Novelist

Greetings to our blog readers in Latvia, Greece and New Zealand.........

Here is tonight's 20-Word Fiction Entry:

"If you were Mark Twain, you'd stay home and write a novel tonight. Wouldn't you? Maybe? Perhaps? Just stating the obvious."

You can visit the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut (not where we are) either in person or on the web at this link (we gather Ira Glass the host of "This American Life" was there recently):

 https://www.marktwainhouse.org/ 

His boyhood home of the "Tom Sawyer" author in Hannibal, Missouri http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/ is also a museum.

(10 for 10; 6th Entry): Virtual Postcard from Maryland

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Jamaica, and Sweden......

Today, we feature an image of Keyote (pictured) the mascot of the Frederick Keys in Frederick, Maryland, a Carolina League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.

We had a chance to visit Frederick and meet Keyote back in August on a surprisingly hot day in which Frederick was actually hotter than Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! (The Keys play the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the Carolina League; the Pelicans won the league title earlier this week).

While we were in Frederick, we also had a chance to dine at Ayse Meze Lounge, a Turkish restaurant downtown, where we feasted on lahmacun, also known as 'Turkish pizza.'

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday afternoon (or evening/night in other parts of the world). We are currently listening to "The Moth Radio Hour." This week's NPR show has a story performed by former American astronaut Michael Massimino who talks about what earth looks like from outer space. The radio shows airs at 8:00 p.m. on WNYC (New York).


http://www.visitfrederick.org/

http://www.downtownfrederick.org/

http://aysemeze.com/

 http://www.visitmaryland.org/

http://www.themoth.org

http://www.wnyc.org/

Top Ten Sunday May 31st Roanoke Times Comics: Hi and Lois is Actually Hilarious........how did that happen?

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, Russia and New Zealand.............

Here is a look at our ten favorite comic strips from the latest Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper serving Roanoke, Va., and surrounding areas, including the hamlet of Boones Mill, Va., which is reportedly one of the most notorious speed traps in the country.

Our top comic strip is "Speed Bump" by Dave Coverly which this week features a regular Joe green lizard meeting a hipster green lizard; we imagine he is waaay past The Decembrists or Arcade Fire.

For our second place comic strip, which is "Pearls Before Swine," we go with an image of Lily Tomlin from her "Laugh In" days when she played Ernestine the annoying phone operator, who would be unemployed today. In the strip, Rat is writing a letter to a major company after being forced to hold on the line for an unfathomable amount of time .....(we've all been there, right?!).........

Lastly, our image of the '80s home video game classic Pitfall, for an unexpected gem from "Hi and Lois" as the dad realizes he has a vast collection of casualties of modern technology. It's almost enough to make one wish they had held on to that 8-track tape player or that vinyl copy of "Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits."

Here is our top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Hi and Lois

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Dilbert

6) Doonesbury

7) Zits

8) Garfield

9) Agnes

10) Jump Start

http://www.roanoke.com/comics

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.lilytomlin.com

Sunday Comics Survey from Feb. 8th Roanoke Times: Pastis Goes for the Punt

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Croatia and France.......

And, our deepest condolences to the friends and families of the three Syrian Muslim college students who killed in their Chapel Hill, NC, apartment yesterday.

On a lighter note, here are our ten favorite comic strips from the most recent edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper of Roanoke, Va.

For starters, "Pearls Before Swine," a Stephan Pastis comic strip, makes fun of Norwegian lemmings one of whom goes for a pass thrown by another lemming and well, you can guess the rest. One of the surviving lemming says (SPOILER ALERT) that he will not be going to Disneyland. Our top image of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who won his fourth Super Bowl, is used for the strip, though he is not mentioned in 'Pearls.'

Third place goes to the single-panel gem "Speed Bump" which has a male angel being presumably nagged by his wife about reading a novel instead of going to bed. For this, we chose the late Daniel Foster Wallace novel "Infinite Jest," (pict. center) which is over 1,000 pages long! Perhaps, an inmate at Red Onion Prison in southwest Virginia is reading the novel. If so, they may actually finish it. A literary major at Brown University in Rhode Island, conversely, may not get to the end!

And, fifth place goes to "Agnes" who is questioning her teacher about the overload of homework (bottom image: an algebra calculator).

Here is our survey:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Doonesbury

3) Speed Bump

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Agnes

6) Garfield

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Zits

10) For Better or For Worse

For last week's "Roanoke Times" comics survey, go to our sister blog http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Our Favorte Comic Strips from Sunday, Dec. 14th Roanoke Times: Drones Away

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Estonia and New Zealand.....

Today, we turn our attention to our 10 favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Dec. 14th edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. (yes, we are a bit behind schedule).

Our top choice is "Pearls Before Swine," in which Rat, one of the three title characters along with Goat and Pig, promises that if he is elected president that he will get one drone to spy on every person on earth at all times; hey, I'd still vote for him over Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney! (forgive the political humor).

"Speed Bump" has a hilarious take on what modern tech would have been like in medieval times, and these means trouble for Sir Textalot as he faces an opponent in a horseback joust in Dave Coverly's single-panel comic strip. Hence, the reason for our image of a "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" poster.

Lastly, "Family Circus" makes a rare appearance in our top ten with a strip that depicts every parent in a grade school auditorium taking photos and videos with mobile devices, we thought it would be humorous to go with an image of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" (middle) as this would assuredly be a difficult play for youngsters to perform.

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Garfield

5) Dilbert

6) Zits

7) Get Fuzzy

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Family Circus

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Comic Strips Survey from Sunday Washington Post: We Love Keith Knight and Clown Gags

Greetings to those of you reading this blog in Turkey, New Zealand and Canada. And, "Gunaydin" (Good Morning in Turkish) to those of you in Baku, Azerbaijan as well.

It was a very close survey this week, and we had a number of comic strips from "The Washington Post" that we adored this week, including "Lio," "Judge Parker" and "The Argyle Sweater" which just missed making our top ten.

But, the following comic strips did make the cut:

"Rhymes with Orange:" This week, Hilary B. Price's comic had a brilliant clown gag which would have made Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman proud as the clown finds out that the man knocking at his door is a much more unsettling figure than a Jehovah's Witness.

"Sherman's Lagoon:" Once again, a great comic strip from Jim Toomey revolving around a Galapagos turtle and a shark about what they should have for dinner.

"Knight Life:" Keith Knight's strip features a vintage play on words, and a crustacean, which one might likely find more often in "Sherman's Lagoon." And, it is the one of the funniest strip episodes to take place in a bath tub.

"Reply All:" Hmmm....to talk with a friend sitting beside you at Starbucks or showing Instagram photos of your pet poodle to your friends back home in Vermont. Donna A. Lewis' strip illustrates a problem which is not just one confronting Millennials.

Here is our survey:

1. Rhymes with Orange (image #1)

2. Sherman's Lagoon (image #2)

3. Knight Life (image #3)

4. Pearls Before Swine

5. Reply All

6. Foxtrot

7. Agnes

8. WUMO

9. Dustin

10. Big Nate

http://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/tortoises/

http://rhymeswithorange.com/

http://shermanslagoon.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife#.UyZ6JelOWUk/

The Olympics Lists (9 of 10): Athletes from Asian-Pacific Countries, Including one 'Russian'

We are almost near the finish line! Yes, indeed.

Here is a list of 10 athletes from Asian-Pacific countries as well as some from countries that are located within the vast Pacific Ocean, which I've only seen one time in San Diego, Calif.:

1) Noriaki Kasai. (pictured) 41, Japan. Men's Ski-jumping. Won silver and bronze.

2) Zang Hong. 25. China. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold.

3) Viktor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-Soo). 28. Russia. Short-track Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. Ahn is actually a South Korean who was offered to be in the Olympics representing Russia, and he won!

4) Lee Sang-hwa. 24. South Korea. Women's Short-track Speed-Skating.

5) Michael Martinez. 17. Philippines. Men's Figure Skating. Martinez has become a social media sensation.

6) Katharine Eustace. 38. New Zealand. Women's Skeleton.

7) Pan-To Barton Lui. 20. Hong Kong. Short-track Speed-Skating. He is the only athlete representing Hong Kong.

8) Lydia Lassila. 32. Australia. Free-style skiing. Won bronze.

9) Jossi Wells. 23. New Zealand. Men's free-style skiing. Ouch! (he finished fourth, the event was won by American David Wise).

10) Mao Asada. 23. Japan. Women's Figure Skating. The event is traditionally the most watched event during the games; competitions starts today.

http://sochi2014.olympics.com.au/

http://www.olympic.org.nz/sochi-2014

http://jossiwells.com/

Little Thinkers (16 of 16): Louis Pasteurized Milk

Greetings to our blog readers in Croatia, Norway and New Zealand. And, to those of you who have the misfortune of being on death row in Huntsville, Texas, perhaps for a murder you didn't commit. Oh....our best regards to Gov. Rick Perry (editorial comment: Thank God, he's not our president).

From what I've been told, we 've had many celebrities visit this blog recently, including Bill Bragg, Toby Keith and Neil Diamond.

Here is today's quote from Louis Pasteur, the last in our series of Little Thinkers quotes:

"It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes."

Eid Mubarak/Happy Ramadan from Nasreddin Hoca

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, France and New Zealand.

We also want to send a special Ramadan greeting to our friends in Turkey, Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Now, that Ramadan is complete, we can all go out for halal hot dogs and an Efes Pilsen Beer*......:)

The image above is of the famed Nasreddin Hoca, a comical Persian philosopher who reportedly rode his donkey backwards; Nasreddin lived in what is now central Turkey in the provinces of Konya and Nevsehir.

*-Efes Pilsen is a Turkish beer made from the pilsener formula developed in the town of Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

Free Form Blog Entry: We'll See How This Goes

Today, we are trying something new. I am going to use six terms: Richard Nixon, Julie Delpy (a French actress now in "Before Midnight," pictured center), New York Mets, Star Trek, New Zealand and Efes Pilsen (a Turkish beer) and try to make a flash fiction piece out of it. Don't try this at home!


Here we go:

"Stan was reading an article about the 'Nixon in China' opera in 'Mental Floss' when his ex-girlfriend Diane called and asked him if he wanted to come over to her apartment in Brooklyn and watch '2 Days in New York' with Julie Delpy and Chris Rock.

But, Stan realized he had promised his friend Woody that he would go to the New York Mets game with him. Though, Stan wasn't as interested in baseball as he had been in his youth. He wasn't even sure whom the Mets were playing. 'Is the Pittsburgh Pirates?,' he asked to himself.

Then, Stan got another call from a platonic female friend Florence who wanted to see the new Star Trek movie with. 'Star Trek' was another thing Stan had lost interest in. He then realized that women in black bikinis were about the only things from his twenties which still interested him.

He then imagined himself traveling to New Zealand, and getting away from it all. Stan then opened his fridge, and he found a mysterious bottle of Efes Pilsen, a Turkish beer. 'Where the hell did this come up,' Stan asked?

Stan popped open the brew and watched C-Span trying to decide what he would do that night, and which of the friends he shouldn't try to disappoint. Two hours later, he was still watching C-Span."


http://www.c-span.org

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.startrek.com

Virtual Postcard from Colorado-The Boulder Theatre

Well, we are no longer in the great western state of Colorado, but we were there last week. This image is of The Boulder Theatre in downtown Boulder, Colo., the venue no longer shows films on a regular basis, but it does host traveling bands. On Thursday, the hip folk band Trampled by Turtles plays there, and on June 1st, the '80s band The BoDeans, one of the best bands out of Wisconsin, comes to the 80302 zip code.

While we were visiting Boulder, we learned that Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the capital of a remote former Soviet republic- of all places, was one of Boulder's main sister cities. For the residents of Boulder, Dushanbe's mayor Maksud Ikramov commissioned local Tajiki artists to build a teahouse which was disassembled and shipped to Boulder.

Boulder, which is home to the Colorado University Buffaloes, also has an excellent bookstore called The Boulder Book Store, where one can find both the liberal magazine "The Nation" and the conservative journal "The National Review," which is fitting that Colorado is a swing state in this year's election. Like most college towns, except Lynchburg, Va., and Provo, Utah, Boulder is a fairly liberal place and that is evident by its many marijuana dispensaries. Local news sources said several such businesses were closing due to their close proximity to schools (1,000 feet is apparently where authorities draw the line).

Colorado is also home to Colorado Springs, an evangelical Mecca (is that an oxy moron, or what) which home to Focus on the Family and several other right-wing groups.

The Boulder Book Store is hosting author Geraldine Brooks for a book signing of "Caleb's Crossing" on May 19th.

Boulder is also sister cities with Lhasa, Tibet, Yateras, Cuba, and Kisumu, Kenya.

Our special 'virtual postcard' greetings go out to blog readers from Chile, Lebanon and New Zealand, who visited our blog today!

http://www.bouldermmdispensary.comhttp://www.boulderteahouse.comhttp://www.bouldertown.com

Things We Learned on Google Today- Polish Goalie Ruled in Russian Soccer

We first asked Google what was the most popular soccer team in Moscow, and we realized there were two popular teams in the Russian capital: Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow. And, we have been confused ever since.

But, we decided to focus on Spartak Moscow, a team that plays a road game against PFK Kryliya Sovetov in Samara, Russia, tomorrow.

We then asked Google who was the best player in the team's history, and we are not entirely sure this is the right answer, but we got "Wojciech Kowaleski." I was thinking: "Hey, this guy is Polish. Russians and Poles hate each other's guts, don't they?"

Kowaleski, 34, know plays for the Greek Cypriot soccer team Anorthosis Famagusta, which actually plays in Larnaca since Famagusta is in Turkish Cyprus (I went there in 1991). If you want to know why the island is split, you will need to ask Google about what exactly happened in 1974, but we aren't getting into that here (especially since I'm half-Turkish).

The Polish goalie played for Spartak Moscow from 2003-07, and he has been the goalie of the Polish national team.

As for the team, Spartak Moscow won 12 Soviet Championships, second only to the Ukrainian team Dyanmo Kiev, which now plays in the Ukrainian Premiere League. Spartak Moscow last won the Russian Cup in 2003. And, the team reached to the 1990 UEFA semi-finals before losing to Marseille (France) 2-1.

We were surprised to see that Aiden McGeady, an Irish soccer star, plays for Spartak Moscow. Conversely, Luke Wilshire, from New Zealand, plays for Dynamo Moscow.

Beers from Around the World (#49) Kingfisher from India

We are concluding our Beers Around the World segments on our two respective blogs today, and we start with Kingfisher Beer, an Indian beer known by its motto: "The King of Good Times."

Kingfisher is indeed India's most popular beer, and according to its web site, it boasts that it is available from Norway to New Zealand.

Kingfisher can also be found widely in America, though I'm not 100 percent certain they serve in The Chefs of India restaurant in Cary, NC, (a Raleigh suburb) even though I've heard it's a great place to dine.

The beer has a 4.8 percent alcoholic content, but for Gen Y Bollywood movie-goer types Kingfisher does have the Kingfisher Blue which has an eight percent alcoholic content. And, the brand also offers the seasonal Kingfisher Red.

This reminds me that it's been a while since I've seen a Bollywood film, though we gather (and we could be wrong about this) that many are being shown at the Glasgow Film Festival currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland. Some Bollywood films have been known to last close to four hours in running time!

50 Beers Around the World- Tui Beer (New Zealand)

Long day. Long commute. Aching feet. Nagging headache. It's time for a Tui Beer from New Zealand, but ahhhh wait- I'm blogging from a public library in Graham, NC*, and there is not a single bar in Alamance County that carries this brand!

(*Not really where I am at; btw, we fixed the glitch with the photo of Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri)

But, if one is in Wellington or Auckland, they can indeed have a Tui. The beer is produced by DB Breweries and it is promoted through clever ads which according to Wikipedia use sterotypes, heavy irony and the phrase "Yeah, right."

The Tui brand also has kitschy models actually called The Brewery Girls, and an online New Zealand web site called The Changing Room offers (we kid you not!) Tui-brand Cheekie knickers.

SIDEBAR: While I was lying about being at a public library in Graham, NC, where I may have been debating about which version of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" that I want to check out, I am in fact actually drinking an Amstel Light (they didn't have Tui) at the Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas (home of the bacon martini!) with arch conservative, Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle who is trying to rob Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev) of his seat. She actually seems to have a good sense of humor, especially when it comes to making fun of Mexicans, but of course, I'd have to be awfully drunk to vote for her.

Quote of the Week- Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam

Since this week is the final week of the Muslim Ramadan holiday, we thought we'd quip the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. Of course, we are referring to Yusuf Islam who transformed himself from a legendary hippie folk/rock/pop singer to a devout Muslim who refused to record music for years.

Stevens/Islam courted controversy when he made highly controversial and dubious comments about author Salman Rushdie when the novelist's book "The Satanic Verses" came out some 20 years ago.

But, Stevens/Islam has lately made news by going on a world tour which has taken him to places as remote as New Zealand.

Interestingly the artist formerly known as Prince who is now known as Prince again underwent his own spiritual metamorphosis by becoming a Jehovah's Witness. He has even been known to go door-to-door and proselytize in a disguise in his native Minneapolis area!

According to Stevens/Islam's web site, he announced on July 21 that his daughter Hasana gave birth to a son named Muhammad Sulaiman which makes the singer a grandfather (presuming it is his first grandchild). The singer is known for such classics as "Peace Train" and "Moon Shadow."

Here is our quote today from Stevens/Islam:

"A person who steals bread during a famine is not a thief."

Quote of the Day- Film Director Peter Jackson

Typically, many fellow cineastes are a bit surprised that I did not consider myself to be a serious admirer of film director Peter Jackson, who has put New Zealand's film industry on the proverbial map with his famous "LTR" triology.

But, I was very impressed with his most recent film "The Lovely Bones" and I was stunned to see that many critics, who cited Susan Sarandon's over-the-top performane as a serious flaw, did not agree with me.

Today, we are featuring the Oscar-winning Jackson (b. 1961) as our representative for New Zealand as we continue to quote people, who may be alive or dead, from all 32 countries in the World Cup which begins on Friday in South Africa.

While researching this piece, we found out that Jackson collects World War One model airplanes.

Here is his quote:

"New Zealand is not a small country but a large village."