Top 20 List: The Most Influencial People in the World

We read an excellent story in "The New Republic" (Dec. 9, 2013 issue) about who actually were the most influential people of all time. The story was an extended review of a new book entitled "Who's Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank?"...........We will publish the list on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," but here we are going to compile our own slightly subjective list.

We will put parentheses around where the individuals stand on the "TNR" list in parentheses; we will also mark if the individual has a Little Hinkers doll in their image, as is the case with Charlie Chaplin, pictured bottom, with a star (*):


1.* Jesus Christ (pictured) (1)

2. Mohammed (the reason for the image of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey) (3)

3.* William Shakespeare (4)

4. *Gandhi

5. Aristotle (8)

6. Thomas Jefferson (10)

7. *Karl Marx (14)

8. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

9. * Albert Einstein (19)

10. *Socates

11. Martin Luther King, Jr.

12. *Abe Lincoln (5)

13. George Washington

14. Charles Darwin (12)

15. *Leonardo Da Vinci

16. *Sigmund Freud

17. *Eleanor Roosevelt

18. *Florence Nightingale

19. *Charlie Chaplin (pictured bottom)

20. *Mozart


http://www.newrepublic.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/

http://www.visitistanbul.org

Quote of the Day- Thomas Jefferson

Greetings to our blog readers in Jamaica, Japan and Jordan, as well domestic visitors from Iowa, Indiana and Illinois; today, we continue our series of quotes from the first eight and last eight American presidents (quotes are also on our sister blog "Politic, Culture and Other Wastes of Time: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com ).

Today, we feature our third president Thomas Jefferson, from our home state of Virginia. Amazingly enough, despite going to Charlottesville, Va., many times, I have yet to visit Monticello http://www.monticello.org), his historic home located there.

Jefferson also founded the University of Virginia, where Ralph Sampson was a star basketball player in the early 1980s (he was the subject of a recent "Washington Post Magazine" cover story), and the school's college radio station is affectionally called WTJU-FM (http://www.wtju.net)

And, Jefferson is one of four presidents who are mascots for the Washington Nationals, along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, which seems a bit ironic (he was infamously assassinated at Ford's Theatre), and Theodore Roosevelt, who seldom wins the mascot derby (http://wwwblog.letteddywin.com).

Yesterday, the Nationals won their home game over the San Diego Padres 8-5.

Here is TJ's quote: "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."

http://www.washington.national/mlb.com

Quote of the Day- Nick Nolte

Today, we continue to quote actors who have played presidents with a quip from Nick Nolte, 71, who came to fame in the late-1970s thanks in part for his performance in the tv mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man," which was a sensation at the time.

Notable films in Nolte's filmography include "48 Hours" (dir. Walter Hill, 1982), "Cape Fear" (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990) and "The Prince of Tides" (dir. Barbara Streisand, 1991).

He played President Thomas Jefferson in the feature film "Jefferson in Paris" (dir. James Ivory, 1995) with Gwyneth Paltrow playing his daughter. Ironically, Paltrow's mom Blythe Danner played Martha Jefferson, the mother of Paltrow's character in real life, in the musical film "1776" (dir. Peter H. Hunt, 1972).

Today, on our other blog "Poltics, Cultures and Other Wastes of Time," we are quoting Charlton Heston who played Jefferson in a tv movie entitled "The Patriots," as Heston played another president Andrew Jackson in the feature film "The Buccaneer" (dir. Anothony Quinn, 1958).

Here is Nolte's quote:

"If you have a film that's valid, you stick your ass on the line."

SIDELINE: In a quick sports note, in minor league action in the Carolina League, the hometown Lynchburg Hillcats (Lynchburg, Va.) fell to the Potomac Nationals (Woodbridge, Va., near Washington, DC), a farm team of the Washington Nationals, by a score of 10-1. The Nationals scored on nine runs in the fourth inning of the game. For the visitors, Matt Grace, 23, a UCLA alumni (6-10), was the winning pitcher over Cody Martin, 22 (10-7) for the Hillcats. The same two teams play tomorrow.


http://www.nicknolte.com

http://www.monticello.org

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

http://www.washingtonnationals.mlb.com

Quote of the Day- James Monroe

Pop singer Justin Bieber, the Supreme Court and Tropical Storm Debby are trending on Bing. We sense that this quote from James Monroe (1758-1831) will not go viral. but we'll see what happens.

One of the most surreal things regarding American presidential history is that three of the first five presidents died on the Fourth of July; none have died on that day since.

Both John Adams, the second president, and Thomas Jefferson, the third president, died on July 4, 1826. Monroe died on that exact date five years later.

Four of the first five presidents, everyone except Adams, was from Virginia, including Monroe.

Here is his quote:

"A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue."

Quote of the Day/Week- Thomas Jefferson

Today, we continue quoting the first eight American presidents in honor of the up-coming presidential election in the United States in November. Egypt just had elections over weekend, and Mexico is expected to hold them this week.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), one of eight presidents to come from Virginia and the first one from the Democratic Party, has approximately 16 high schools named after him, including ones in Alexandria, Va., Brooklyn, NY, and Dallas, Tex.

The late comic actor Danny Kaye (1913-1987) who our sixth grader teacher mistakenly told us was dead (this was 1982, he did indeed die five years later) graduated from the JHS in Brooklyn, while actress Brenda Vaccaro, who is alive and presumably well, graduated from the school of the same name in Dallas.

Jefferson's historic home Monticello is a major tourist destination in Charlottesville, Va. I was supposed to go there on an ninth-grade field trip, but I overslept (the bus left at circa 7:30 p.m.) ...oh well!

Here is Jefferson's quote:

 "A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit."

http://www.monticello.org