Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin (3 of 6)_ The Romatik Cuneyt

It is midnight here in New York (not really where I am at), 8:00 a.m. in Dubai, high noon in Hong Kong and 2:00 p.m. in Sydney, where ever you are you are with the Daily Vampire.

Today, we continue our series with a look at the careers of two vintage action film actors, Cuneyt Arkin of Turkey and his lesser-know counterpart (yeah, we are being sarcastic) Chuck Norris.

Arkin, now age 75, who is three years older than Norris, was also known as Cuneyt Baba (Father Cuneyt) in Tukey. He also made a lot of romantic films with Turkish screen goddess Turkan Soray, now age 67. In 1970 alone, they made many films together. One of my personal favorites is "Hayatim Sana Feda/My Life Belongs to You, Feda."

The film is patterned after Douglas Sirk melodramas from the 1950s, such as "Magnificent Obsession" and "Written in the Wind," which usually starred the late Rock Hudson.

In "Feda," Arkin plays Harun whose reckless driving causes him to hit the car driven by Soray's Zeynep, a character who is a lounge singer. She goes blind from the accident, and a guilty Harun tries to make it up to her. They fall in love. Interestingly enough, this film, came out the year I was born, which was also when "Love Story" became a huge box-office hits and one of the most questionable Best Picture nominees.

So, as we always do with these entries, we are asking which actor won the Best Oscar in 1970, the year of the 'romatik Cuneyt' (in Turkish, romantic is spelled with a 'k'). Is the answer:

A) Ryan O'Neal

B) John Wayne

C) George C. Scott

D) Jack Nicholson

E) Robert Redford

Incidentally, it is now 7:00 a.m. in Istanbul, Turkey.


The answer to last week's entry was B) F. Murray Abraham; he won the Best Actor Oscar for "Amadeus" in 1984, when Norris made "Missing in Action."

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.chucknorris.com

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 Week- R.Crumb

One of our heroes R. Crumb, the creator of "Mr. Happy" and "Fritz the Cat," is heading down under to speak at Sydney Opera House in Australia on Aug. 21, which is a long, long way from here in Goldsboro, NC (I am actually in a different town in the Tarheel State, but all of us are experiencing near 100-degree heat!).

Here is his quote:

"When I come against the real world, I just vacillate."

In our last entry on our other blog, we mentioned Safe Haven for Cats in Raleigh, NC. The no-kill cat shelter has an ad in the current pet issue of "Independent Weekly" which can give a ten-dollar discount of spaying and neutering. The shelter's phone number is 919-872-1128_the picture of the tuxedo cat in the ad looks amazingly like our beloved family cat Godzilla (not his real name) who turned seven last week.

THE WHOOPS DEPT- this entry was meant for the other blog!

Friday GeoQuiz-What's the Weather Like in Sydney?

For today's installment of our weekly Friday GeoQuiz, we ask you the blog-reader a mere simple question: What is the weather like in Sydney, Australia, today?

Is the answer:

A) 64 degrees

B) 66 degrees

C) 67 degrees

D) 70 degrees

We dedicate this entry to another Olympic city (well, we say this in jest) Moscow, Idaho, also home to the University of Idaho and Moscow Senior High School. Perhaps, the later has Misha the Bear as their mascot.

The Olympics were held in Moscow, Russia in 1980 and in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

Yvonne Tousek, one of my favorite college gymnasts of all-time, finished 15th at the 2000 Olympics while competing for her native Canada. Today, she is a performer with Cirque du Soleil and she travels around the globe. Her UCLA teammates Jamie Dantscher and Kristen Maloney got a bronze team medal in gymnastics after the Chinese team who initially finished third was disqualified for having under-age gymnasts.

Halil Multu won a gold medal for Turkey, my late father's country, at the Sydney Games in weight-lifting (flyweight division).

We are blogging today from the Pyongyang Public Library in Pyongyang, North Korea. Well, in all seriousness, it is a public library in a small town like Mount Airy, NC (but we aren't in Mount Airy, where "The Andy Griffith Show" took place). We say this because Twitter and Facebook are banned here, however one can probably access certain 'Danish web sites' here if they wanted to. There's nothing like living in a 'free and open society' is there?

As for North Korea, Open Radio for North Korea is reporting that more people in that country fear their own leader Kim Jong-il than les etats unis. I suppose that's a good thing?!

SIDEBAR: Our friends at The Floyd Country Store in Floyd, Va., (well, we don't actually personally know anyone who works there) are celebrating their 100th anniversary. And, tomorrow night (Sat.), there will be a performance from the bluegrass band Slate Mountain Ramblers at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 at the door. The band is headed by Richard Bowman from the tiny hamlet of Ararat, Va., in Patrick County. Despite its name, there are reportedly no Armenian-Americans in Ararat, Va. (forgive the ethnic humor!).

SIDEBAR 2: The answer to last week's question is D) Cesme, Turkey