10 for 10 (8th Entry): The First Line of a Hip Novel............The H-Bomb and The Jesus Rock

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, Greece, and Lebanon..........sorry, we don't have the score of the Indianapolis Colts-New York Jets football, but we will name-drop Frank Gore and Geno Smith in the hopes that will yield us more hits!

Today is actually the 10th anniversary of our blog, and let's go ahead and do this before we run into technical problems for a third consecutive time............?!

A few years ago we had fun posting entries with the first lines of novels like "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville or "1984" by George Orwell, so we are going a bit retro tonight.

Here is the first line of "The H-Bomb and The Jesus Rock," a 2010 gem of a novel by John Manderino from a small publishing house:

"First of all the name is Toby, not Tubs. You want to call me Tubs? Go somewhere else for your cards. I'm talking about baseball cards."

Special Quote of the Week- William Shakespeare

We really, really like bobble-head dolls here at "The Daily Vampire," even though there is only one in the office, which is of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo; it has never been taken out of its box.

Since Monday was "Talk Like Shakespeare Day," we thought we'd borrow a quip from The Bard, who incidentally died on April 23rd, 1616, just three days before what would have been his 52nd birthday (he was born on April 26th, 1564, we hope we did the math right, which reminds us of a t-shirt that says 'English Major: You Do the Math.')

Before we get to our quote, which hope not to forget about, we want to remind folks in the Washington, DC-metro area, that Folger Theatre inhttp://www.folger.edu/theatrehttp://www.kateeastwoodnorris.com Washington, DC, which specializes in Shakespeare plays, will be bringing "The Taming of the Shrew" to the stage from May 1-June 10.

The production will be unique in that it will take place in the Wild West, circa 1880.

The Folger performances will be directed by Aaron Posner with original music from Cliff Eberhardt. The production will star real-life husband and wife Cody Nickell and Kate Eastwood Norris, who interestingly enough has two surnames of American action movie stars.

The 'Shrew' was the basis for the Broadway musical "Kiss Me Kate!"

Here is Shakespeare's quote:

"It is the stars; the stars above us, govern our conditions."

Quote of the Day/Week- Fidel Castro

Because of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and many older Cuban-Americans' desire to rid the world of him, many Cuban-Americans (yes, there are exceptions) lean right, but their vote will not matter in Sioux City, Iowa. And, perhaps, with the latest field of Republicans, which includes the ardent right-winger Newt Gingrinch, many Cuban-Americans might just go with President Barack Obama next year. Well, we can hope.

For our friends in Uzbekistan, it should be pointed out that most Cuban-Americans live around Miami, Florida.

In no way are we endorsing Fidel Castro or his view of the world, but he has been known to give great quotes:

"Men do not shape destiny; destiny produces the man for the hour."

IN THE WHOOPS DEPT- this was meant for the other blog; oh well.

Road Trip- Vermont to Montana

Usually when we have an entry about coffee, we go with an image of Too Much Coffee Man, the beloved cult comic strip icon created by (mr) Shannon Wheeler in 1988. Wheeler, who now lives in Portland, Oregon, is actually a Facebook friend of mine, and I figured at some point he might get irked with me for using his beloved creation, that was turned into an opera!, without his permission. Wheeler's comic strips also included Too Much Coffee's beloved friend Too Much Espresso Man, who was a man with a little coffee cup over his head.

So, we are going with an image we saw on a poster at the late, great Backstreet Buzz coffeehouse in Reidsville, NC, instead.

And, our focus today is actually the distance between two coffeeshops which are very, very far apart.

The first of the two destinations is the Radio Bean, a coffeehouse in Burlington, Vermont, a city that is said to be one of the very best places to have coffee here in les etats unis.

The other coffee joint is Liquid Planet is Missoula, Montana, located in one of the eight states I have not physically visited (well, I did go to the Detroit Airport once to change planes so I'm not sure if Michigan should count as one of the eight, but I've definitely never been to Montana).

According to Mapquest, road construction around the Chicago suburb of Gary, Indiana, may pose problems for anyone who is actually traveling this route which would also go through southern Minnesota and South Dakota.

So, just how long would it take to get from Burlington, Vt., to Missoula, Mont.?

Here are your choices:

A) 40 hours, 45 minutes

B) 43 hours even

C) 45 hours, 15 minutes

D) 48 hours even

By the way, that is a bobblehead doll of a newlywed couple on a motorcycle heading on for a honeymoon. I imagine they would choose a trip that took considerably less time!

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Jesus Christ Bobblehead Doll

Yes, this was on our Silly Gifts Wish List, but I didn't get it! The Jesus Christ bobblehead doll retails for $9.95 from the bobbleheadstore.net and it is available at novelty stores nationwide, though it may be hard to find in Konya, Turkey (the most conservative city in the Muslim country).

There is some irony as my favorite religious-themed movie is "Monty Python's Life of Brian" (1979) which many Christian conservatives views as blasphemy!