Tweets from Sunday Night: Scientists Study Crabs

We were hoping to get a blog post in yesterday as July 20th is the date when the late American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon 45 years ago yesterday; conversely, also on July 20th, the late Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit decided to send Turkish troops to Cyprus to protect the Turkish Cypriot residents of the island 40 years ago yesterday. This started a short, but bloody war between Turkey and Greece over the island nation, which remains divided to this day.

Since we had a tweet from an actor pretending to be God, we wanted to use an image of George Burns, but when we couldn't find one that was suitable, we chose instead to go with the fringe minister Rev. Johnny Robertson in Martinsville, Va., who was once in a public feud with our friend and fellow blogger Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC.

Here are last night's tweets:

1. Ali Spignola (an electronics musician): I've never seen an owl that wasn't pissed off (top image).

2. WNYC (New York NPR station): A black woman (Mikki Kendell) disguised herself online to see what the Internet was like as a white man.

3) J. Freedom du Lac (features writer for The Washington Post): Can discarded sea containers help create more affordable housing, or is this mostly a gimmick?

4) Washington Post: Babies start mentally rehearsing speech long before they actually say their first words.

5) Tweet of God: I have absolutely no plan for your life (middle image, read second paragraph)

6) Charlotte Observer: :School starts Monday for 2,500 Charlotte students.

7) Baltimore Sun: Scientists tally crabs and see how reef building affects them.

Things To Do List: All That Jazz

Here is our latest installment of the semi-weekly Things To Do List, which seems popular, or at least in Latvia and Slovakia (yes, for some reason we are popular in these places), and frankly is a lot easier to do than what we are planning which hope to get to between now and doomsday whenever that may be (perhaps our 'good friend' the fringe pastor the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., can give us a clue!)

1. Eat a gyro

2. Write a letter to "The Daily Tar Heel"

3. Listen to jazz on NPR

4. Recycle

5. Laundry

6. Get the Sunday "Washington Post"

7. Take a pilates class

8. Watch English soccer game you taped today

9. Write a poem

10. Watch "The Antiques Roadshow" on PBS

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.thedailytarheel.com

http://www.bennygoodman.com

http://www.antiquegrandfatherclocks.com

Virtual Postcard from Virginia

We were initially going to go with an image I myself took of a dog next to a fire station in the Grandin village section of my hometown, Roanoke. Then, we thought about going with an image of Foamhenge, near Natrual Bridge and Lexington, the latest creative project from eccentric artist Mark Cline, who resides in that area in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Foamhenge has gotten worldwide attention through CNN.

But, ultimately we decided to go up Route 11 from Lexington to New Market, a distance of some 70 miles, where one can see the Doofy Johnny Appleseed statue beside a restaurant/hotel. There is another Johnny Appleseed statue in Fredericksburg.

New Market is most famous for a Civil War battle, and the Endless Caverns tourist attraction, which also produces great bottle water, is near that community as well.

SIDEBAR: Our deepest thoughts go out to the family of the Rev. Mack Wolford Randall, a snake-handling pastor from Matoaka, West Virginia, who died yesterday while using a rattlesnake during a sermon; as the old cliche goes; 'Don't try this at home.'

But, West Virginia should not be the only state one thinks when it comes to fringe ministers. We gather that the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., has pretty much done everything radical or unimaginable except snake-handling.

SIDEBAR TWO: We are intending to take a brief hiatus, well until Tuesday, which means we will not have to time to congratulate Northwestern University for winning an NCAA title in women's lacrosse. But, though several members of my family have gone to various Big Ten schools, none of them have gone to Northwestern.

http://www.sillyamerica.com

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Sofia Coppola Likes Rango

Since I have longed though that film director Sofia Coppola was a private person, I was surprised when I heard her give an interview to Terry Gross for the NPR show "Fresh Air." And, I was even more stunned to see that she has a Twitter account.

And, apparently, the director of "Lost in Translation" who turns 40 in May likes the new animated film "Rango" that stars Johnny Depp (well his voice any way):

"Rango is such an amazing film, has anyone seen it? It's like Chinatown for kids, even the old turtle resembled John Huston."

I thought the tweet was a bit ironic since in a book about the Oscars writer Danny Peary said that "Chinatown" should have been chosen as the Best Film of 1974 instead of "The Godfather, Part 2," which Sofia's father directed. (We're not getting into this debate, as fighting and arguing with radical rapture-seeking right-wing extremists like the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va.*, is our top priority around here!).

As for Sofia Coppola's new film "Somewhere" is showing at one of our favorite cinemas, the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC (Raleigh). They are not showing "Rango," but they are also screening "Barney's Version" which a friend of mine in Bethesda, Maryland, really enjoyed!

*- Yes, this is a real person and (of course!) he has his own tv show!

Status Update- Thank God, It's Spring Break

It may be ironic that as someone who is not quite a religious person, such as myself, is praising an almighty deity which may or may not exist (we will let Bill Maher and Glenn Beck debate this, both of whom are coming here to Greensboro, NC, for lavish ticket prices soon, but we are much more inclined to agree with Maher).

But, as a teacher, I am glad that spring break has arrived. I would never share this with my students (who hopefully never read my blog) but I actually have Alice Cooper's original 1975 version of "School's Out," which has been covered by the heavy metal band GWAR, on vinyl!

While I was in Chapel Hill, NC, a few weeks ago, I noticed that evangelicals and fundamentalists were meeting each other (nicer word for confronting) on the campus of The University of North Carolina.

According to "The Daily Tarheel," UNC student Nick Sienerth, a freshman from Burlington, NC, held up a sign for the Church of the Spaghetti Monster, a group formed in Oregon to make fun of fundamentalists, while the Rev. Gary Birdsong, who is seemingly as radical as his counterpart the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville(who we believe has publicly said some not very nice things about gays), was 'visiting' campus.

During that sojourner, I also visited the Internationalist Bookstore on Franklin Street, where I found a nifty book about the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who said that 'God is dead.' Assuredly, those sentiments are not too popular in Eden, NC, which is 'considerably' more conservative than Chapel Hill.

Incidentally, we chose Richard Pryor for this photo because we thought he provided the 'voice of God' in the early '80s Biblical satire "Wholly Moses." Through modern technology (well Wikipedia and the IMDB) we were proven wrong! Pryor was a pharaoh instead.