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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A) 4,374 miles

B) 4,474 miles

C) 4,574 miles

D) 4, 774 miles

http://www.klm.com

http://www.holland.com

www.rnw.nl

http://www.explorestlouis.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

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

Turkish Earthquake Survivor Heads to Olympics

For the first time in the history of women's Olympic gymnastics, there will be a competitor from Turkey as Goksu Uctas, 22, will be representing Turkey at the 2012 London Olympics, which start in two weeks on July 27th.

Uctas, who was born in the southeastern province of Gazinantep,  grew up in the Bolu province (some three hours east of Istanbul ) when her and her family had to come to terms with the 1999 earthquake which killed between 17,000 and 18,000 people. That quake had struck some of the most populated regions of Turkeys, including Istanbul and Bursa.

Uctas, who idolized Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, trained outdoors as a nine-year-old child during that period in her young life.

For the first time ever, Turkey will send more female athletes than male athletes to the summer games, as three other Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar will send female athletes to the Olympics for the first time.

Uctas won a silver medal on vault at the 2009 Mediterranean Games in Italy; this year at two separate world events, the gymnast won gold in floor, silver on the vault and silver on the game (Czech Republic) and a bronze in floor (Qatar).

She has apparently become a media sensation in Turkey, and stories about her have been written in media outlets around the world.

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (3 of 6) Montreal to Moscow

Today, we continue our series of the distances between cities which have hosted the Olympics, with a question about far about Montreal, Canada, site of the 1976 games, are from Moscow, Russia, which hosted the event when the city was the capital of the since-deceased Soviet Union.

We are going with Misha the Bear, the mascot of the 1980 Olympics, here since we dined at a place called Mishka's Restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan, back in 2008. Ironically, the place had great hamburgers and french fries, which one would associate with, well, capitalism.

During the 1976 Olympics, Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored three perfect 10s; American Bruce Jenner won gold in the decathlon and is now on the front of retro Wheaties cereal boxes (at least in the United States) and American boxer Sugar Ray Leonard beat out Cuban boxer Andres Aldama for gold.

But, Aldama was able to win the gold himself four years later due to the large Olympic boycott of the United States and 64 other countries. Nadia (we prefer to break the rules and use her first name) won gold on beam and bars during the 1980 Olympics as well.

So just how far apart are Moscow and Montreal?

Is the answer:

A) 4,225 miles

B) 4, 395 miles

C) 4,705 miles

D) 4,885 miles

UPDATE: The answer is B

Quote of the Day/Week-Michael Phelps

Welcome to the May 23, 2012, edition of our blog. Today, we will continue quoting American athletes who won gold or silver medals at the summer Olympics in honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. We want to thank those of you from Greece, Lebanon and Bangladesh who have visited our blog today.

Today's quote is from swimmer Michael Phelps, 26, from Baltimore, Maryland. Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics and eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is second only to Soviet gymnast Laris Latynina, 77, in terms of total medals won. But, Phelps may well pass her as he is slated to compete in London.

Here is his quote:

"I always thought it would be neat to make the Olympic team."

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (1 of 6)-Paris to Sydney

Today, we begin our much-planned project involving the distances between cities which have hosted the Olympic Games. We were stunned to learned that it has been a very long time since Paris, France, a city that also hosted the second summer Olympics in 1900, has hosted the Olympics. In fact, the last time was in 1924, when the American Olympic delegation sent 288 athletes, including Frank Kriz (1894-1970) won won gold on vault in men's gymnastics.

Sydney, Australia, hosted the games just one time_in 2000, though Melbourne hosted the Olympics (equestrian events were held quite far away in Stockholm, Sweden, that year) in 1956.

For those games, the American Olympic team consisted of 586 athletes, including Nick Hysong, now age 40, who won gold in men's pole vault, a track and field event. Hysong was actually born just one year after Kriz died (the men's gymnast died in 1970; Hysong was born in Dec. of 1971).

Now, we are going to ask those of you checking from Dubai to Denver how far a part these two cities are. Is the answer?:

A) 10,510 miles

B) 10, 530 miles

C) 10,550 miles

D) 10, 570 miles

One can fly a number of airlines to get to this route including (we presume): Malaysian Airlines, Quantas Airlines and Air France.

http://malaysianairlines.com

http://www.airfrance.com

http://www.quantas.com.au

SIDEBAR: The answer to our quiz on "The Jetsons" is A) 1962. The show was set in 2062, 100 years into the future. The cartoon is thus celebratings its 50th anniversary.

Quote of the Day/Week-Shannon Miller

Today, we start our series with a month of quotes from American athletes who won gold or silver medals at the Summer Olympics, with a quip from Shannon Miller, now age 35, who remains one of America's most decorated international gymnasts.

Alas, tragedy has happened recently in Miller's as she underwent chemotherapy for cancer last year, but she has reportedly made a solid recovery and we wish her the best.

Miller, originally from Edmond, Oklahoma, was part of "The Magnificent Seven," which if, of course, not a reference to a western movie with Charles Bronson, but rather the nickname of the 1996 American team that won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Amanda Borden, Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu were also a part of that historic team. At those very same Olympics, Miller won individual gold on balance beam.

Before the Atlanta Olympics, Miller won five medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, including two silver medals and three bronze medals, which included the team bronze from those games.

It was recently announced that Miller will be part of the Yahoo! sports team covering the 2012 London Olympics. Swimmer Summer Sanders and decathlete Dan O'Brien will be joining Miller in London.

Here is her quote:

"At an Olympic game, you want to enjoy it, especially if you know it's going to be your last one."http://www.shannonmillerlifestyle.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Svetlana Khorkina

Today's quote/day week, our final one for April in our series of quips from gold or silver-winning Olympic international athlete (summer games); tomorrow we will start quoting famous American Olympians.

Last week, we quoted the Belorussian gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya; today we quote her names sake the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, 33, who won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics on the uneven bars.

But, she is best-remembered for a series of equipment mishaps which plagued the Russian team in Sydney, forcing them to be awarded with silver medals at the games instead of gold; this quote is a reflection by Khorkina regarding those unfortunate series of events:

"I knew well in advance even before I stepped on the stage for my first event that I was going to lose."

SIDEBAR: There are perhaps very few people who would see both the slapstick/frat boy humor film "The Three Stooge," a modern update on Curly, Larry and Moe, and the French art film "The Kid with a Bike." But, I saw both films over the weekend, and for the most part, both were exactly what I expected.

For those of you living in the Washington, DC suburb of Farifax, Va., (not where I saw the films), you can "The Three Stooges" at United Artist Farifax Towne Center 10, while "The Kid with a Bike" can be seen at Cinema Arts Theatre.

The French is also playing at Galaxy Cinema in Cary (Raleigh), NC, and at the Aperture Cinema in Winston-Salem, NC.http://www.cinemaartstheatre.comhttp://www.mygalaxy.comhttp://www.aperturecinema.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Svetlana Boginskaya

For those of unfamiliar with the blog, we really enjoy linking one entry to another. And, we also love irony. So, what is better than following a quote from Ronald Reagan, the most fervent anti-communist president in American history, with a quote from the Belarusian gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, 39, who once competed for the Soviet Union.

Ironically, Boginskaya now lives in Houston.

The gymnast known as "The Belarusian Swan" is one of three great female gymnasts from Belarus, along with Olga Korbut and Nelli Kim.

Boginskaya won an individual gold medal on vault in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and she helped her teams win team gold medal at the 1988 games and also at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

She surprised the gymnastics world with a very impressive comeback in 1995, and she wound up competing for Belarus at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, which became famous for the United Team dubbed "The Magnificent Seven," which featured Dominique Dawes and Dominique Moceanu. Boginskaya retired for good in 1987, at the age of 24, which is older than when most Olympic gymnasts retire.

Her quote is quite 'ironic' given that Boginskaya's flamboyant floor routines were among the most startling in the gymnastics sport:

"I don't think many people will remember me when I retire."

This is part of our series on international athletes who won gold or silver medals in Summer Olympics past as the world is gradually getting ready for the 2012 London Olympics.

Quote of the Day/Week- Alexander Popov

Today, in honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics, we are quoting famous Olympic athletes from yesteryear. This month, we are focusing on international athletes and next month we intend to quote more American Olympic medalists.

For today's quote, we are going with the great Russian swimmer Alexander Popov, 40, who won two gold and two silver medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and again at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Additionally, Popov won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He is now a swimming coach in Australia; here is his quote:

"If we can convince you to take this historic opportunity today, together we can change the world tomorrow."

Quote of the Day/Week_ Nadia Comaneci

Today we start quoting international athletes who have gold or silver medals at the Olympics with a quote from the legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, 50, who is now married to American gold medal-winning gymnast Bart Conner. The gymnastics power couple reside in Oklahoma. There is also a gymnastics academy named after Comaneci in Izmir, Turkey.

Last week, we quoted American gold medal gymnast Dominque Dawes.

Here is Nadia's quote:

"As an Olympic champion gymnast, I have always stayed involved in my sport."

Bonus Quote of the Week- Dominique Dawes

Like students at my alma mater of Central High School in Woodstock, Va*, we are getting for spring break. So, we are planning not to post an entry until Sunday.

But, we will leave our loyal fans in Cyprus, Russia and Slovenia (I have no idea why, but we get an unusual amount of hits from those three countries!) with a quote from the great Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes, 35, who is a native of Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dawes, who also acted on Broadway in a revival of the musical "Grease," was the first African-American women's gymnast to win a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Dawes was part of the 'magnificent seven,' the nickname given to that gymnastics team, which also included Shannon Miller, Amanda Borden and Dominique Moceanu.

Dawes also won bronze medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In 2010, Dawes was appointed as co-chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

We used this quote for our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" back on Feb. 1, 2001, and it proved to be quite popular:

"I found through research that between 50 and 70 percent of young girls who describe themselves as overweight are actually normal weight."

*- Central High School in Woodstock, Va., is a real place, but the school whose nickname is the Falcons is not my alma mater; it is like Javier the Intern, one of the running gags on our blogs.

Quote of the Day/Week- Mark Spitz

Today, we continue to quote American athletes who won medals at the Olympics; next week, we will start quoting international athletes though we suspect it will be very difficult to find a quote from Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanolgu, aka The Pocket Hercules, who won gold in three different Olympics.

But, we were able to find a good quip from swimmer Mark Spitz, 62, who actually won nine gold medals over two Olympics. After winning two team gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Spitz literally made a good splash when he won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics; that record held until another American swimmer Michael Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The major achievement by Spitz, who is Jewish, was sadly overshadowed by the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

Here is the quote from Spitz:

"I just tried to keep my cool and continue with my race plan: to win."

Quote of the Day/Week-Mia Hamm

Today, we continue to quote American athlete who won either team or individual medals at the Olympic games with a quip from Mia Hamm, the decorated soccer player who helped her team to gold in women's soccer at the 2004 Athens Olympics in Greece.

Hamm, who turned 40 on St. Patrick's Day, is originally from Selma, Ala., and as a college student athlete she helped lead the North Carolina Tarheels to four NCAA titles.

Here is her quote:

"True champions aren't always the ones that win, but those with the most guts."

Quote of the Day/Week- Muhammad Ali

Last month, we quoted boxing great Muhammad Ali, who turned 70 in January, on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" in honor of Black History Month.

Today, we are quipping Ali as we continue to quote American athletes who won gold or silver medals at the Summer Olympics. Ali won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, though he ended up throwing the medal in a river as he struggled with the social environment of the world around him.

Here is his quote:

"A man who views the world the same way at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life."

Quote of the Day/Week- Alicia Sacramone

We were going to quote American Olympic gold medal winners this month (for those of you blogging in from Argentina or Greece, I will quote international gold medal winners next month), but we realized two things: 1) Alicia Sacramone, women's gymnastics team captain of the 2008 Beijing Olympics team won a team silver and 2) Sacramone is sure to get more hits per day than 1984 Los Angeles gold medal winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton. So, we are 'cheating' today, by quipping Sacramone.

The 2012 Summer Olympics will take place in London this summer.

In 2010, Sacramone made a huge comeback by winning a gold medal on vault at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam, Holland.

Sacramone is a graduate of Winchester High School in her native Winchester, Mass.

In 2006, Sacramone had the tremendous distinction of competing in college gymnastics for Brown University in Providence, RI, while taking a full class load and still competing as an elite gymnast!

Last year, Sacramone made headlines again, but this time because she posed nude (the actual published pictures are actually partial nude shots) for the 'Body Issue' of "ESPN" magazine along with women's soccer star goalie Hope Solo.

Here is Sacramone's quote:

"Missing the Olympic team gave me the push I needed. I stepped it up a couple of notches and did my stuff."

SIDEBAR: It appears to be a virtual certainty that no local colleges will represent the Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC, area in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Today, North Carolina A & T fell to Howard University from Washington DC in the MEAC tournament. Three other local universities fell in their respective conference tournaments: Elon and UNC-Greensboro lost in the semi-finals of the Southern Conference, which was won by another North Carolina college in Davidson (which is near Charlotte) and High Point lost to eventual Big South champions UNC-Asheville in the the quarter-finals of the Big South Conference.

This means that Wake Forest, a very low seed in the ACC tournament, must somehow prevail over the likes of UNC, Duke and Florida State in Atlanta this weekend for a team from the Triad to get into the NCAAs.

Quote of the Day/Week- Aretha Franklin

Today, in honor of Black History Month, we quote the Queen of Soul, who is Aretha Franklin, 69, who has been battling serious health problems as of late.

Franklin is perhaps best-known for her catchy r&b number one smash hit "Respect"
(1967). In recent years, she has performed at the 2009 Presidential Inaguration for Barack Obama.

Franklin was also the god-mother to the recently deceased pop singer Whitney Houston, who was found in a Los Angeles hotel room on Feb. 11. Houston was 48. To our knowledge, no conclusive report on her cause of death has been released to the media.

Here is the quote from Franklin:

"Don't say Aretha is making a comeback because I've never been gone."

SIDEBAR: We want to wish one of our favorite Olympic and college gymnasts Yvonne Tousek a happy 32nd birthday. Tousek competed for Canada in both the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

As a college gymnast at UCLA, Tousek earned the NCAA bars titles in 2001. Her Bruins teams won three of the school's six NCAA team titles in women's gymnastics.

Over the weekend, UCLA tied Oregon State with a 196.775 at Oregon State that also included the California Bears, which finished last in the three teams meet.

UCLA got strong results in the all-around competition from Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who finished third with a 39.375, and from Vanessa Zamarripa, arguably the hardest college gymnast's name to spell (we think we got it right, hopefully) who finished fourth overall with a 39.325.

The Bruins host Arizona State on Sunday.

Things We Learned on Google Today_ Barcelona Kicks Butt

Since FC Barcelona has advanced to face Manchester United in the UEFA League finals, which is apparently watched with religious fervor in every country in the world except the United States and maybe Bhutan, we thought we'd tell everyone some facts that everyone in Spain assuredly already knows.

I asked Google: "How many UEFA League Championships has FC Barcelona won?" and the answer appears to be three (1992, 2006 and 2009). We also learned that FC Barcelona became the first team to win a domestic cup, a domestic league title and a UEFA Champions League title in the same year, 2009.

The current team features two Spanish socccer gods in David Villa and Pedro. The team has also featured international stars like Ronaldinho from Brazil and Lional Messi from Argentina.

The other image in this entry is Cobi, who was the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Speaking of which, we understand the American Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller who competed in several Olympics, including Barcelona, is battling cancer; she's only in her early 30s. I have not heard about her status, but we certainly wish her the best as well as a complete recovery.

We have no idea what Cobi's gender is (oh with a shirt and tie, he must be a man), or much about the mascot. We had to use Google to remind us who was mascot of the Barcelona Olympics actually!

And, lastly, an interesting thing about Bhutan, according to the NPR show "The World," one can not smoke there. In fact, they sent a Buddhist monk in Bhutan to prison for three years (?!) for smuggling smokes! Even though I haven't smoked since I was 20 years old in 1990, this seems a bit much, but I'm sure this means the air in the Himalayan nation is quite clean now!

GeoQuiz- When in Rome.......

Today's GeoQuiz entry focuses on Rome. We were initially going to ask how many Starbucsk there were in the ancient capital, but as it turns out, there are no Starbucks in Italy?!

So, instead, we will ask which year Rome hosted the Summer Olympics. We will give you one hint, it was after the film "Open City" (pictured here) was made, which was in the 1940s.

Was the year?:

A) 1992
B) 1956
C) 1960
D) 1952

The answer to last week's GeoQuiz was "B."

SIDEBAR: The Irish supergroup U-2 will be performing in Istanbul, Turkey, one of our favorite cities in the world, on Sept. 6. Road trip, anyone? (Well, it would be a long flight from Greensboro, wouldn't it?!)