Remembering Nelson Mandela with a Quote from Him

Nelson Mandela died two days ago in his native South Africa.

Former President Bill Clinton said Mandela would ask to speak to Chelsea when he called the White House to ask her if she had done her homework. Chelsea Clinton went on to graduate from Stanford.

Though former Vice President Dick Cheney made disparaging remarks about this remarkable man, he was lauded by politicians on both sides of the aisle in the United States. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) and Cong. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) praised his contributions to ending Apartheid while Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) praised Mandela for being a champion of human rights.

Here is a quote from Mandela:

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

SIDEBAR: Alas, it was a rough night for us as spectators as all four of the teams we were rooting for somehow fell in the NCAA tournament: Cal upset North Carolina, LSU came from two sets down to win over Michigan, Radford University posted a great second set but still fell in straight sets to host Minnesota, and in spite of winning the first set against Utah, the Yale Bulldogs lost to the Utes 3-1.

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

College Volleyball Notebook: Four to Watch: Minnesota Hosts Radford

If you include Chicago traffic, a drive from Radford, Va., to Minneapolis is about 20.5 hours, and that journey passes through Madison, Wisc., another host city in the first round of the NCAA tourney.

The Radford University Highlanders will be in Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Gophers on Friday. Two of the stand-out players for both teams include Rachel Wiecchecki (pictured top), a junior who guided RU to a Big South championship, for the Highlanders, and Tori Dixon (pictured bottom) , a member of the all Big-10 Conference Team who has also overcome open heart surgery, for the Gophers.

Here are Four Games to Watch on Friday, all times are eastern

Radford @ Minnesota 8:00 p.m.

Florida State vs. Georgia Southern 5:00 p.m. Gainesville, Fla.

The FSU Seminoles feature two all-ACC team members in Ashley Neff and Katie Mosher

Purdue vs. Central Arkansas at the University of Missouri

Purdue's outside hitter /setter Val Michael, a junior, was named to the all-Big 10 team

Michigan State vs. Ohio University

The MSU Spartans feature Kori Moster, the Big 10's defensive player of the year.

 For more games in the tourney, go to our sister blog:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.purduesports.com

http://www.msuspartans.com
.

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

College Volleyball Notebook: Radford U and Yale are Among Emerging Small School Teams

While our last entry was on teams in the ACC, a conference with three nationally-ranked programs, we now turn our attention to two smaller schools which are having great years.

The first one is Yale University. The Bulldogs' Mollie Rogers (pictured top) was named co-Ivy League Player of the Week along with Alexis Censke of Penn. With home weekend straight-set wins over Columbia and Cornell, Yale also won their fourth consecutive Ivy League with two remaining games in the season. Brittani Steinberg of the Bulldogs had 15 kills in the win over Columbia.

Meanwhile, Radford University (the alma mater of the blog editor), is gradually pulling ahead in the Big South Conference with one remaining weekend of play, which will include two games on the road.

For the Highlanders, Rachel Wiechecki (pictured bottom) was named Big South Player of the Week. She led her team to a home victory over Campbell University with 22 kills and 19 digs in a game that went to the full fifth set. Additionally, she had 20 kills on Saturday when the Highlanders won another home game in straight sets over High Point University.

Here are weekend scores for the Ivy League, Big South and other east coast games.

Friday:

Big South:

Radford 3 Campbell 2

Winthrop 3 Gardner-Webb 0

High Point 3 Liberty 2

UNC-Asheville 3 Presbyterian 2

Other scores:

Yale 3 Columbia 0

NC A &T 3 Savannah State 0

Wofford 3 Elon 1

Saturday:

Big South:

Radford U 3 High Point 0

Winthrop 3 UNC-Asheville 2

Liberty 3 Campbell 0

Other Scores:

Penn 3 Harvard 2

Furman 3 Elon 1

UNC-Greensboro 3 Wofford 1

Princeton 3 Dartmouth 2

Brown 3 Columbia 0

Yale 3 Cornell 0

Sunday:

Univ. of Rhode Island 3 George Washington 1

Sports Desk: College Volleyball Notebook...........A Good week for Tarheels and Highlanders

There were an unholy number of women's college volleyball games played over the weekend, as unlike some college sports, such as gymnastics and lacrosse, virtually every school in the country seems to have a women's volleyball, even The Citadel, a military institution in Charleston, SC, which only let women become students in recent years.

Let's start with the University of North Carolina Tarheels, as the team swept Notre Dame, a new ACC member, for a second time this year. This particular match being at home in Chapel Hill, NC.

Jovana Bjelica (pictured top), a graduate student from Belgrade, Serbia, who formerly played for Florida International University, had 16 kills, five digs and four service aces in the win over the Fighting Irish.

For her efforts in that game, as well as a win over North Carolina State earlier in the week, Bjelica was named ACC Player of the Week. The 'Heels are now 13-0, and ranked #11 in the country.

The other UNC_ this being the University of Northern Colorado Bears in Greeley, Colo._ had a tough bout with Weber State which ended in a 3-2 affair that was won by the school from Utah. But, Kendra Cunnigham, a junior from Eaton, Colo,, had 20 kills for the Bears.

And, Rachel Wiechecki, a junior from Wilmington, Del., had 14 kills and 20 digs to help Radford University in Radford, Va, your's truly'a alma mater, to a straight set win over arch rival Liberty. It was a home game for the Highlanders, and the team's first win over the Flames in several years. The Highlanders also won tonight over North Carolina Central 3-2 in Durham, NC.

Here are 15 weekend women's college volleyball games and their results:


Harvard 3 Darthmouth 0

UNC-Asheville 3 Gardner-Webb 1

Georgia 3 LSU 2

Virginia Tech 3 Wake Forest 1

*UNC 3 Notre Dame 0

JMU 3 William and Mary 2

Colorado 3 UCLA 2

Princeton 3 Penn 2

Duke 3 UVA 0

Ohio State 3 Michigan 1

*Weber State 3 Northern Colorado 2

Miami (Fl) 3 Boston College 2

Kentucky 3 Alabama 1

Long Beach St. 3 UC-Santa Barbara 2

*Radford 3 Liberty 0

*-Featured games

Incidentally, the middle image is a replica of the volleyball that was a companion to Tom Hanks in the film "Castaway."


http://www.ruhighlanders.com/index.aspx?path=wvball&tab=1

http://www.goheels.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&SPID=12977&SPSID=668175&SITE=UNC&DB_OEM_ID=3350

http://uncbears.com/sports/wvball/index

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

More College Nicknames- Bulldogs, Purple Aces and Explorers

We should point out that Tyrone Garland (pictured bottom) is actually in the NCAA tournament even though the Virginia Tech Hokies, the team I grew up with, is not. This is because Garland transferred to La Salle, the Philadelphia school in the A-10 won their play-in game over Boise State. Today, the La Salle Explorers face Kansas State in Kansas City, Mo, which is a mere two hours away from Manhattan, Ks., which is the home of the Kansas State Wildcats.


Here is our look at this and other college school nicknames:


More Smart Schools:

1. Radford University Highlanders (Va., Big South)#
 2. UCLA Bruins (Cal; Pac 12_ pictured top)*
3. Cal Poly Mustangs (Cal; Big West)
4. UNC Tarheels (NC, ACC)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Ball State Cardinals (Ind.; Mid America)
6. Elon Phoenix (NC, Big South)
7. Southern Utah Thunderbirds (Utah, Big Sky)
8. Fla Gulf Coast Eagles (Fla; Atlantic Sun)*

Canines and Wolves:

9. Gonzaga Bulldogs (Wash; WCC)*
10. Washington Huskies (Wash.; Pac-12)
11. UM-Baltimore Retrievers (Md., America East)
12. Michigan Wolverines (Mich., Big 10-pictured center)*

Best of the Rest:

13. Cal State Northridge Matadors (Cal.; Big West)
14. Cleveland State Vikings (Ohio; Horizon)
15. La Salle Explorers (Pa., A-10)*
16. Evansville Purple Aces (Ind., Missouri Valley)
17. Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos (Mo., Summit)

#- Radford is my alma mater, so I put it in as a smart school as a bit of a joke. The New Jersey Institte of Technology which is unquestionably a smart school has the same nickname.


*- Teams which are in the NCAA 68-team field

http://www.goexplorers.com

The Funny Pages Dialogue_ Let's Go Shopping

a

A few weeks ago, we thought about writing up a strange conversation involving nothing but dialogue from Sunday comic strips. Of course, this is, in part, because we envy people like cartoonist Stephen Pastis of "Pearls Before Swin." We still love his comic strip even though he created a character called Ataturk the Spitting Llama. In case this is your first time visiting our blog, it is edited by a 'prominent' Turkish-American named Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be, well, me. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

And, we have nothing against Pastis, who is a Greek-American, although we may ask Jim Toomey who draws "Sherman's Lagoon" to create a character called Karamanlis the Octopus, after former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.

So, with that, here is some dialogue from comic strips featured in the Oct.14, 2012 edition of "The Roanoke Times."

"Shopping? Ok. I've got $126.13....How much do you need? (from "For Better or Worse")

"White Castle Rules!" (from "Agnes")

"What Happened?" (from "Baby Blues"

"Well, I'll be. She's sound asleep!" (from "Classic Peanuts, a line said by Charlie Brown)

"So, what's going on here?" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

"Take a look at this resume" (from "Dilbert")

"What's wrong, Red? You look frustrated." (from "Sally Forth")

"Tomorrow is another day." (from "Garfield")

"We need a little bull session after the game." (from "Hi and Lois")

SIDEBAR: We are diligently waiting for the score from today's Wake Forest-University of North Carolina women's field hockey (well, we believer, men's field hockey which is very popular in Pakistan, is not an NCAA sport) in the second round of the ACC tournament. The Tar Heels are hosting the Demon Deacons in Chapel Hill, NC, and the game is in session as we speak.

But, the reason for this mention is because we noticed in yesterday's edition of "The Daily Tar Heel" that UNC midfielder Kelsey Kolojechick has a very long name! UNC beat my alma mater Radford Univeristy* at home in their final regular season game 6-1 but we won't hold it against them.

For Wake Forest, Jess Newark, a freshman, scored a goal and two assists in the team's 3-1 first round win over Boston College.

And, we will salute Alayna Versage, a junior for RU, on being named all-conference in her sport (the Highlanders do not compete in the ACC).

Of course, field hockey has become a bit more popular since the gold-medal winning Dutch field hockey team got lots of coverage at the London 2012 Olympics.

*Radford University is located in Radford, Virginia.

THIS JUST IN: Though we are not in Chapel Hill, we can report a final as UNC wins over Wake Forest 4-0 to advance to the ACC final, which UNC will also host. Kelsey Kolojechick had an assist in the victory.


http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.hiandlois.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.wakeforestsports.com

Casualties of Modern Technology (7 of 12)_ Transistor Radio

When young folks today listen to the classic Van Morrison song "Brown Eyed Girl" (1967) and they hear the reference to a transistor radio, they may have no idea what the great Irish singer is talking about.

The transistor radio is defined by Wikipedia as a small portable signal receiver using transistor-based circuitry. Pocket-size forms of the transistor radio, which were developed in 1954, had a major impact around the world as they changed the radio-listening experience as these devices were portable as opposed to earlier radios.

In the 1970s, the transistor radios began to lose popularity and by the 1980s, people of our generation (the Gen Xers) were all into the boom-boxes, leaving everyone to screech when the mid-80s Wham (the band with George Michael) hit ballad "Careless Whisper" blasted away. Yes, we still get goosebumps thinking back on those days.

Though Bell Labs first developed the transistor radio in 1947, both Germany (well then West Germany) and Japan were major players in the development of the technology for the device.

SIDEBAR: Yes, as of this writing, there are new Big South scores and one game between the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers and the home team Radford University Highlanders of Radford, Va. (the author's alma mater) is at half-time, while another game between visiting Campbell and the home team Liberty gets underway tonight, but we are just going to focus on the conference games from Thursday night.

The VMI Keydets pulled off another huge home win over Charleston Southern in a high-scoring 90-81 affair. Keith Gabriel scored 31 points for the Lexington-Va. school as his teammate Stan Okoye scored 17 points.

For the visitors from Charleston, SC, Kelvin Martin, the reigning Big South Player of the Week had a career-high 31 points despite the loss.

Here are the scores from Thursday night's Big South action:

*- home team

*Liberty 61 Coastal Carolina 57
*VMI 90 Charleston Southern 81
*UNC-Asehville 71 Gardner-Webb 61
Presbyterian 77 *Radford 64

Sports Desk- Radford Wins Bracket Busters Game

In the world of journalism, objectivity is a key element of the profession. In blogging, however, we can show not-so-subtle favoritism. And, I am doing exactly that right now as I am promoting my alma mater Radford University (in Radford, Va).

The RU Highlanders (6-23) have had a tough season but they defeated the visitors from Bighamton University (Bighamton, NY) in a Bracket Busters match-up on Saturday afternoon by a score 64-59. The home team was paced by Blake Smith, a junior guard from Charlotte, NC, who came of the bench and scored 15 points. Javente Green and R.J. Price also had an outstanding game for RU. And, Tolga Cerrah, a personal friend of mine who hails from Ankara, Turkey, added a key dunk during RU's second-half 14-6 run.

But, in all fairness, the key victory on Staurday for the conference arguably came up the road in Lexington, Va., where the VMI Keydets pulled a mild upset by downing William and Mary, from Williamsburg, Va. VMI (13-14) was lead bu Stan Okoye, a junior guard from Raleigh, NC, in the Keydets' 73-65 win.

In another key regional matchup the Winthrop Eagles, a Big South school in Rock Hill, SC, (where my late grandfather Dudley 'Doc' Sturgis once taught economics) lost to Appalachian State, a team in the Southern Conference, in Boone, NC, on Saturday by a score of 79-64.

For the home team Mountaineers seniors Isaac Butts and Omar Carter scored 15 points each and for the visiting Eagles senior Matt Morgan scored 22 points.

Kevin Martin, a forward for Charleston Southern, was named Big South Conference Player of the Week as he averaged 21 points in wins over conference rival Gardner-Webb and bracket busters opponent Wofford.

Here is a list of how the bracket buster results from Saturday for teams in the Big South Conference. The schools from the conference are marked with #s and the home teams are marked with *s.



*Northwestern State 100 #Campbell 86
*# Radford 64 Binghamton 59
*Morgan State 81 *Liberty 69
*#VMI 73 W and M 65
*Ohio 81 UNC-Asheville 62

*App St. 79 # Winthrop 64
*Tenn. Tech 77 # Coastal Carolina 71
*Stephen Austin 69 # High Point 62

*# Gardner-Webb 57 Delaware St. 56
*# Char. So. 77 Wofford 59
* Jacksonville St. 67 # Presbyterian 48

NOTE: We should point out that the image here is of Rowdy Red, who was mascot when I was at Radford U. Ironically, the school might not be happy with me because I am not using the current mascot The Highlander, and if that is the case they should forward their complaint to Javier the intern, who deals with such matters. (This is a joke; there is no Javier the intern here).

Happy Thanksgiving from Charlie Brown

As is our tradition whenever there is a holiday, we like to wish it from a cartoon character, kitschy celebrity (such as Barry Manilow) or whacko politician (ie. Michele Bachmann). And, today we go with the legendary comic strip character Charlie Brown, the brainchild of Charles Schultz (1922-2000).

When I was tutoring a student taking an English class, I actually compared Charlie Brown to Willy Loman, the character at the center of Arthur Miller's stage play "Death of a Salesman," in order to get the student to grasp the play's themes and simplify them.

Charlie Brown made his debut in "Peanuts" on Oct. 2, 1950. Snoopy came into the picture two days later. The beloved pooch also made its Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade debut as a float in 1968, a full 16 years before a float for Garfield, the comic strip cat created by Jim Davis that debuted in 1978, made his way down lower Manhattan in 1986.

Today's parade also feature a reincarnation of a float for the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog and a float created by filmmaker Tim Buron, called Character B.

Charlie Brown is noted for his rivalry with Lucy van Pelt, who pulls the football away from him as she did in the very last original "Peanuts" strip on Feb. 13, 2000.

The Little Red Head Girl is the figure of Charlie Brown's infactuation, but since he represents futility across the board, he never gets to meet her_ not even for a date at Starbucks (yes, we are aware there were no Starbucks around in 1950; it was a joke). She never actually physically appears in any of the comic strips, but her face has been shown on tv specials for "Peanuts." The character usually appears in strips that were written by Schultz around Valentine's Day.

Charlie Brown is also associated with the holidays because of both the Thanksgiving special, which first aired on Nov. 20, 1973, and the Christmas special, which premiered on Dec. 9, 1965, before folks in the United States started celebrating Christmas in September!

SIDE DISH: As we reported yesterday, my alma mater Radford University played the Univeristy of Kentucky, the #2-ranked men's basketball team, in Lexington, Ky., last night. And, like Charlie Brown trying to kick the dreaded football, the Highlanders came up very short in an 88-40 loss to the Wildcats. Terrence Jones scored 17 points for the home team; Jonathan Edwards scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds for RU.

SIDE DISH TWO: Yes, folks started lining some time ago for the Black Friday Sale at Target which gets underway at midnight here on the East. According to a tweet from "The Charlotte Observer," some 15 customers had started lining up at the main Charlotte, NC, Target store circa 8:00 p.m., a full hours before the madness begins.

Highlights from My 40 Things To Do List

Yes, I did actually make a 40 Things To Do List. No, I don't think I will all these things accomplished in a week, but I will try. This is actually a throw-back to what I did in my early days of blogging, back in 2005.

I did post grocery lists, and much to my shock, those entries were more popular than my political entries regarding my opposition to capital punishment or how George W. Bush was going to gradually destroy the world, which did more or less actually happen. But, we must give the man credit, they did build a statue of him in Albania (no joke). Of course, I'm not sure how this will help them with tourism.


So, here are some highlights of the list. The images go with the first three items on the list, paying bills, class reunion and buying gorceries. The number in parantheses is actually where the item was on my list. Of course, the more personal stuff will not be listed! (well, except number 8):


1. Pay bills (#1)

2. Go to college class reunion at Radford University (#11)

3. Get some groceries: be sure to get some Jarritos Mexican sodas (#22)

4. Write a short play (#4)

5. Use the laptop more often; you paid enough for the stupid thing (#9)

6. Recycle (#23)

7. Use LinkedIn more often (#28)

8. Forget about Angie*, if you never hear from her again, you can always join a Turkish liberal human secularist singles group (well, anything beats e-harmony!).
(#29)

9. Donate money to local NPR station, or least five dollars (#34)

10. Take fall foliage photos when the opportunity permits itself (#36)

*-Not her real name

The Backpackers Are Beside BestBuy (entry 6 of 6)

NOTE: This is the final entry in the series. The odd-numbered ones can be found at Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time (www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.com)

Tuesday, August 16, had been a dreadful day though it was less hot than it had been in the days and weeks prior to it, if my recollection is accurate on that.

But, as evening struck, I was ready to take a photograph of the seventh and final sculpture in the public art displays as part of Art in Roanoke's civic campaign.

That seventh sculpture was "The Happy Wanderers" (pictured here, but obviously not in its present location) by Floyd County artist Charlie Brouwer, who was an art professor at my alma mater Radford University for 21 years. The sculpture was located near BestBuy at Valley View Mall. It consists of two backpackers, one is a man and the other is a young child (yes, it is the reason for the name of this series).

According to the Art in Roanoke web site, Brouwer was inspired by a hike he took with his 3-year-old grandson. He has made similar sculptures, including "The Pursuit of Happiness" that depicts a man carrying what appears to be a birdhouse. Brouwer has also made "Together," conveying what appears to be a mother holding her infant daughter.

"The Happy Wanderers" is made from locust wood, screws and preservative staining.

I knew the piece was near Valley View Mall, which is arguably the most congested part of Roanoke, Va., a city that has somehow not changed population in fifty years. In fact, an article in "The Roanoker" magazine said the city had just gained 68 people from the 1960 U.S. Census Report. Those 68 people are probably all working at Valley View Mall, which was built circa 1985.

At first, I expected that I would see the sculpture from the road. After all, it seemed improbable that one could not see a wooden sculpture, even if SUVS or Humvees were tail-gating one's bumper. But, that wasn't the case.

So, I went into Dick's Sporting Goods Store, and an employee said these words: "The backpackers are beside BestBuy." In all actuality, they are between Target and BestBuy, but it was those directions which eventually lead me to the sculpture. Though I had to circle the parking lot of the adjoining mega-stores to find it.

"The Happy Wanderers" is a nice sculpture, but of the seven, it seems to be the one that is the most misplaced. But, I can imagine the folks at Art in Roanoke had a difficult time finding a place suitable for it given that it seems to be a piece that would go better with a rural landscape.

Amazingly enough, even though Roanoke has not grown much in population, there seem to be very few open spaes left in the city. But, there are several eye-sores and vacant buildings as is seemingly the case just about everywhere else in the region.

SIDEBAR: The answer to last week's quiz about the distance between Murphy and Manteo, NC, two cities in the same state which are actually worlds apart is
d) 9 hours, 25 minutes.

Things We Learned From Twitter This PM-Nebraska May Defect

It seemed like my efforts to find out if anything new or extraordinary was going on in the world when I was checking tweets an hour and a ago was going to turn up nothing new or extraordinary.

But, then I read a tweet from KCTV, a Kansas City television station, which said the following:

"Orangebloods.com said Nebraska regents have informally agreed to leave for Big Ten. A formal announement will come Friday."

Does this mean that The University of Nebraska will now have in-conference rivalries with the likes of Ohio State, Illinois and Wisconsin instead of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas State?

The Corn Huskers are known nationally for their football program, but the school in Lincoln, Neb., also has outstanding programs in both women's volleyball and women's gymnastics.

The Lady Huskers volleyball team is now touring China according to the Nebraska athletics' web site.

Similary, the school's women's gymnastics team finished seventh at the NCAA championships in Gainesville, Fla., in April. They were lead this past season by seniors Kathryn Howard and Kylie Stone (pictured here).

Erin Davis, a standout junior, returns to the squad next year. During a meet with Illinios and Minnesota, Davis scored a perfect 10 on the vault.

SIDEBAR: I want to congratulate fellow Radford University alumnus John Marks who graduated from Highlander U in 2007 (11 years after I did). Marks was named Teacher of the Year for the City of Roanoke, Va. (my hometown) recently. He is a sixth and eighth grade math teacher at James Madison Middle School.

MY NCAA Final Four Predictions

This will come as a shocker to all college basketball insiders like ESPN's Dick Vitale, Bobby Knight and Jay Bilas, but I am going to go out on the proverbial limb and predict an all Big East Final Four, which is scandalous considering that as North Carolina residents we should all be pulling for Duke University (the notable exception are those who live in Chapel Hill), which is one of the four number one seeds.

But, I see a rematch of the 1985 NCAA final classic between Georgetown University, the Big East tournament's runner-ups, and Villanova University, but this time I think the Hoyas will prevail and pull off a shocking national championship run!

My other two Final Four teams are West Virginia University and Syracuse University, whom Bill Clinton has picked to win it all.

Of course, Georgetown will need to defeat 14-seeded University of Ohio in Providence, RI, first, while West Virginia will face a tough Morgan State team out of Baltimore, which deserved better than a 15th-seed.

Syracuse will face Vermont in Buffalo, NY- a team that upset them once in another NCAA tournament and Villanova will face Robert Morris University in Providence.

As for Duke, they will face the winner of the Winthrop University-Arkansas Pine Bluff game. I would love to see them face the Winthrop Eagles from Rock Hill, SC, since that is my cousin Mike's alma mater and they beat my alma mater The Radford Highlanders in the Big South Tournament!

Oh No! It's #%&*# Snowing Again!

A tweet from "The Roanoke Times" New River Valley Bureau said it best: "It's snowing again here in Pulaksi County."

Not only was it snowing in Dublin, Va., today, but it was also snowing in North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland as well as parts of Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The storm is also striking the Washington, DC, metro area.

Here in the Greensboro, NC, area the snow dropped some eight inches in most areas, prompting cancellations of events and services across the Triad metro area. The storm had a similar impact in Charlotte and Raleigh.

In my hometown of Roanoke, Va.- two hours north of Greensboro, flights were scrapped and shopping malls were closed. My alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., canceled its home game against UNC-Asheville. The school is supposed to host its annual homecoming weekend starting on Friday.

Other games in the region were scrapped as well including North Carolina A & T's home game with Coppin State in Greensboro. The mostly African-American college is supposed to get national recognition on Monday when the new International Civil Rights opens in downtown Greensboro.

The museum is opening in conjunction with the famous sit in at the old Woolworth's building where the museum will be housed which involved NC A & T students. The sit-in occured on Feb. 1, 1950. The inclement weather forced a gala that was scheduled for Sunday night for the museum to be rescheduled.

The owners of the Backstreet Buzz Coffeehouse in Reidsville, NC, opened for breakfast this morning, but they decided to close in the afternoon as the snow continued to mount.

In Richmond, Va., at least two college basketball games are going on as scheduled though Virginia Commonwealth University tweeted that video highlights of its home game with Georgia State would be unavailable since camera trucks could not come in due to the bad weather.

In Washington, DC, the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team tweeted that it took the team bus an hour and a half to get to their hotel from Dulles International Airport. The route normally takes a little over a half hour. The Lightning will play the Washington Capitals tonight.

DC Metrobus also announced that the bus service would only provide transportation for snow emergency routes this evening.

In Durham, NC, motorist Nancy Harmon told News 14 Carolina that everyone was driving very carefully as the roads were very slippery and treacherous. Gary Stephenson told the same news outlet that snow was coming down heavily in Raleigh.

North Carolina's governor Beverly Purdue (D) announced a state of emergency for the Tarheel State.

The Cat's Cradle night club in Carrboro, NC, near Chapel Hill, announced that tonight's scheduled concert with the band Urban Sophisticates would not go on as planned. The Chelsea Theatre art-house cinema in Chapel Hill also said it would close for the day.

But, the Byrd Theatre in Richmond is going through with its second run screenings of two George Clooney movies, "The Fantastic Mister Fox" and "The Men Who Stare at Goats."

The Greensboro area will see many attractions closed for the weekend including the Greensboro Children's Museum and the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC.

A state championship for North Carolina cheerleaders was postponed in Winston-Salem, and a Mosaic concert in Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum that was scheduled for Sunday night is also not going to be performed this weekend.

News-14 Carolina also reported a fatal car accident in Charlotte.

Many church services in the Greensboro area have also been scrapped, including ones for the Stokesdale Church of God in Stokesdale, NC, the Solid Rock Baptist Church in High Point, NC and The Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, NC.

The weather is also affecting progressive churches as the Unitarian Universalist Church in Greensboro and the Unity Church in Winston-Salem canceled Sunday services. One also expects that the Islamic community will be affected as well as the Divan Triad Cultural Center in Greensboro will probably have to cancel scheduled Sunday afternoon activities.

But, some events went on as scheduled anyway in North Carolina as the North Carolina State men's basketball team hosted North Carolina Central University from nearby Durham. The Wolfpack won the game 77-42. One would expect that few people would have probably come to the predicted mismatch under normal weather conditions, but assuredly those who made it to the game had more fun than they would have if they had been shoveling out their driveways.

DAGNAMMIT!!!! I'M SICK!!!!

Well, apparently this will be the first blog entry in quite some time to have no picture with it, but that's the least of my problems. I have been under the weather since late Thursday night. I actually slept for 17 hours on Friday (between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.). It has been a very frustrating week ever since I got back from Washington, DC, on Monday night. It literally feels like nothing is going right whatsoever.

I was supposed to see my alma mater Radford University play High Point University in High Point, NC, tonight. I hope they win without my presence there. The Radford U Highlanders are currently undefeated in Big South Conference play. Clarence Thomas, the most ultra-conservative member of the U.S. Supreme Court gave the commencement at HPU a few years ago, which makes me even prouder to have graduated from RU!

We were going to have an image with this entry, but that didn't work out either. I'll save it for the Silly Picture to Fill Space bit on Tuesday.

Among the entries I hope to have in the coming weeks are ones devoted to ACC basketball, women's college gymnastics, the latest in the Know Your Senators and Congressional Reps series and the latest in the Dead or Alive series in which we ask if someone like Abe Vigoda or Monty Hall is in fact alive or dead. I suppose I can reveal that the subject of our last entry Pat Boone is indeed alive and well. Since I am not a right-wing nut, I'm not sure we should have made him the subject of a blog entry but I must profess that the Youtube video of him singing a Christmas carol alongside a Fred Flintstone and Dyno-Mutt mascot is a classic!

Well, that's all for now as I have some cough syrup I need to take.

If you want to check out some other blogs this weekend (I shall be back on Monday, I hope!) you can go to my friends' blogs:

http://www.knightshift.blogspot.com

http://www.moviezzz.blogspot.com

I guess I will have to watch that "Are You Being Served?" marathon on PBS tonight:(

PS- Alas, High Point won the basketball game over Radford U.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Camels

The state of North Carolina has banned smoking in restaurants and bars.

(Editorial Comment: HOOORAY!!!!)

Though there are people like my libertarian friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, who are not pleased that the state which had an economic base around tobacco is now going smoke-free.

I read a story in "The Daily Tarheel," the student-run newspaper of the University of North Carolina that the Hookah Bliss hookah bar in Chapel Hill, NC, was not pleased with the measures that went into effect at the start of 2010, several months ago but I have not heard an update on what they were going to do about the matter.

But, this does mean that one can now go into the Flat Irons bar in Greensboro where I saw my good friend Bruce Piephoff, a local folk singer, perform two years ago, without coughing a lung out.

My home state of Virginia passed essentially the same measures which went into effect on Dec. 1, 2009, which now means I can have breakfast at the Waffle House on Franklin Road in Roanoke, Va., and actually taste what I'm eating!

Interestingly enough, one university in NC- Campbell U (located Buies Creek- 45 minutes south of Raleigh) is nicknamed the Camels. Though, I think this is because it is a Christian school rather than any affiliation with tobacco.

The Campbell Camels' men's basketball team pulled an upset over the weekend in Spartanburg, SC, when they beat USC Upstate 82-69. On Thursday night, the Camels face Mercer University in Macon, Ga. There were once conference foes with my alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va. The RU Highlanders defeated Gardner-Webb University from Hickory, NC, by a 75-45 margin last night in a home game. Right now, the team seems to be (pardon the pun....) smokin'!

Duke Beat Radford U in Men's Basketball

For the first since losing to the University of North Carolina in the opening round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Greensboro, NC, this spring, my alma mater Radford University, located in Radford, Va., came to Durham, NC, to play the Duke Blue Devils.

The result was alas more or less the same as Duke beat RU 104-67. Though more Duke alumni were probably focused on the Blue Devils' football game with the University of Miami (Fl) on the same afternoon, which Duke lost.

But, I expect good things from the Radford University men's basketball team, which I wrote about in the Greensboro alt weekly "Yes Weekly!" earlier this year (when RU was playing UNC).

The RU Highlanders, a team which is the defending Big South Conference champion, plays their conference opener at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, on Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

The team's next home game will be against Roanoke College from Salem, Va., on Dec.
13. The Highlanders will be in the Triad on Jan. 19. 2010, to face High Point University.

Meanwhile, the next home game for the Blue Devils men's basketball team will be against St. John's on Sat., Dec. 5, and their ACC home opener will be against Clemson on Sat., Jan 3., 2010. I'm sure Coach K will have the team ready for both games.

I have to think if the Highlanders were to have played the Blue Devils at the Dedmon Center, RU's home gym, that the outcome would have probably different....we may have lost by just 36 points!

PS_ One team that Radford University fared better than was the English soccer team Wigan Athletic- they lost to Tottenham by a score of 9-1 yesterday! I also want to applaud my favorite Turkish soccer team Bursaspor for winning 1-0 over Gaziantep. In the MLS (the USA's main soccer league), Real Salt Lake edged out the Los Anglese Galaxy to win the MLS Cup.

New Series- Dead or Alive- Entry 1 of 11

Call it "The Abe Vigoda Question" but there are times when all of us see someone in a tv show or a movie and ask: "Is that person still alive?"

Since I have the vintage '80s comedy film "Caddyshack" in my Netflix que in the hopes of actually inviting people over to see the film with me for a house pary (the last time I did this one person showed up), I thought I would go with Ted Knight.

I am actually going to show four films over two weeks with Rodney Dangerfield in them. FYI, Rodney is alas no longer with us.

Yes, you may know if Knight is dead or alive, but I will not reveal that until our next entry.

But, here are some fun facts about the beloved comedic actor:

-He was born on Dec. 7, 1923, in Terryville, Conn.

-Knight was decorated five times for bravery during World War II

-Played the antagonist Ted Baxter on the '70s sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"

-Looks exactly like one of my all-time favorite Republicans Barry Goldwater (it should be noted I am a Democrat, and I probably would have voted for LBJ if I had been alive in 1964, but you still got to love that Arizona senator....who is dead by the way).

-Knight plays a cell guard in "Psycho" (1960). He got a mere $150 for the part.

-Spokesperson for Southgate Shopping Center near Cleveland in the 1970s.

-Wore college sweat shirts sent in by real college students for his '80s sitcom "Too Close for Comfort." (pictured here). I wonder if he ever wore a sweat-shirt from Radford University (my alma mater).

-Was voice of The Flash and Superman for those silly '70s cartoon that all of us Gen X boys vegged out on during our Saturday mornings. 'Course, today most of us have grown up and started our own blogs!

Congrats to the UNC Tarheels Basketball Team

A belated congratulations to the University of North Carolina Tarheels for winning the NCAA men's basketball championship over Michigan State earlier in the week.

Those who've visited this blog know that the 'Heels beat my alma mater Radford University during a game in Greensboro, NC, in the first round.

President Barack Obama picked the 'Heels (even though I live in NC, I did not!). He was actually in my father's country, Turkey earlier in the week. I was glad to see someone besides Bush as our president. Now, I just hope someone can replace the Turkish president and prime minister!