The Olympic Lists (5 of 10): Athletes from the European Union Nations

Yes, we are buried in snow here in Virginia as our folks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington DC, New York City..............in fact, we may get at least 24 inches........maybe even up to 32 inches by day's end! The Weather Channel is reporting 14 inches in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., at this hour.

But, for those of you not watching the live figure skating from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, we have a list of Olympic athletes from 10 of the 28 European Union countries:

1) Tina Maze (pictured) 30. Women's Slovenia. Women's Alpine Skiing. Has won gold and bronze.

2) Viktor Roanenkov. 20. Estonia. Men's Figure Skating.

3) Lelde Priedulena. 20. Latvia. Women's Skeleton.

4) Matthias Mayer. 23. Austria. Men's Alpine Skiing. Won gold.

5) Coline Mattel. 18. France. Women's Ski-jumping. Won bronze.

6) Zoltan Kelemen. 27. Romania. Men's Figure Skating.

7) Ireen Wust. 27. Netherlands. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. (She is the lesbian athlete who got a surprising hug from Russian premiere Vladamir Putin).

8) Felix Loch. 24. Germany. Men's Luge. Won gold.

9) Andrea Kesler. 24. Hungary. Women's Short-track Speed-skating.

10) Marcus Kruger. 23. Sweden. Men's Hockey. Plays for Chicago Blackhawks. His team bat the Czech Republic 

http://www.weather.com/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Quote from The Composers- Richard Wagner

Ah, yes. Those of us who live between Smyrna, Ga., and Floyd, Va., were snowed in over the last two days due to a fluke snowstom which really hammered Spartanburg, SC, of all places, as well as the Atlanta and Charlotte metro areas.

This gave me a chance to catch up on reading as I somehow read the late Swedish author Steig Larsson's "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (the second book in the series) in its entirety, and it is a 750-page novel! I also watched all 13 episodes of the third and last season of "Arrested Development" which was on the air from 2003-05 (loved the part where they went to Mexico!).

So, this brings us to our quote of the day from a late, great composer. And, we are going with the ever-controversial Richard Wagner (1818-1883) who was admired by none other than Adolf Hitler because der fuhrer felt that Wagner's music embodied his imperial view of Germany. Thus, there have been misgivings about conducting Wagner's music live in Israel.

Wagner is also known for "The Ring Cycle," a series of four operas based on Germanic mythology. "Gotterdammerung/Twilight of the Gods" is the final opera in the series, and Wagner also composed the famous opera "Parsifal" in 1882.

Here is his quip:

"Achievements, seldom credited to their source, are the result of unspeakable drudgery and worries."

Classical music fans in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area might be interested to know that violinst Yura Lee will be giving two performances in the Gate City with The Greensboro Symphony on Jan. 20 and Jan. 22.

One can go to the sympphony's web site greensborosymphony.org for more information.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today: Snows-a-Coming to Northwest USA

According to a tweet from "The Seattle Times," there is a winter storm warning that has been issued for the Cascades region of central and eastern Washington state where they are expecting (double yikes!), one to three feet of freaking snow by Friday afternoon!

Comic strip artist/political cartoonist Keith Knight who pens "The Knight Life" will be protesting in front of "The Seattle Times" today as they newspaper dropped his comic strip. According to the comic strip's web site, Knight said he was ironically on his way to Seattle to give the editor a fruit basket for deciding to add "The Knight Life"!

And, "The Onion" also has a 'story' about the Northwest part of the United States today as they put together a mock article regarding people's opinions over the disclosure that the property which was once the location of the Unabomber's log cabin in a remote part of western Montana is up for sale. Kylie Laskin (since "The Onion" publishes fake stories, we have no idea if she is a real person) said: "That (the property) would be a perfect place for my Kevorkian van."

We also want to pass our condolences to the friends and family of Elizabeth Edwards who passed away at her home in Chapel Hill, NC, yesterday from a seven-year fight with cancer. But, I must profess I'm glad I backed out of volunteering for her estranged husband John Edwards for the South Carolina primary. We all know what happened there!

Top trending topics on Twitter today include: Grinch, Birthday Ian, Yoko Ono, Pearl Harbor, Rubin and Glee Christmas.

Silly Picture to Fill Space-Groundhog Day

Bill Murray has said that "Groundhog Day" is one of his favorite movies.

I guess irregardless of what the groundhog in Pennsylvania indicated North Carolina and Virginia are about to get slammed with another major winter storm on Friday, according to both Eric Chilton (weather person for WFMY 2, CBS affiliate in Greensboro, NC) and Robin Reed (weather person for WDBJ 7, CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va.).

I need to actually spend time doing things on my to-do list today, such as paying the electric bill, calling "The New Republic" about a 'missing issue' and doing the laundry (well, I never do the laundry!) so this will be a shorter entry than normal.

In the meantime, enjoy your Groundhog Day, which also happens to be the birthday of my friend Uzay Tumer, a Shakespearean actor who made it big as a celebrity waiter on the NBC reality tv show "The Restaurant."