High School of the Week- Kalani High School (Hawa'ii)

We temporarily leave the continental United States as we select Kalani High School in Honolulu, Hawa'ii as our 'High School of the Week,' (an additional entry will be posted on Friday for another school).

The Falcon is the school mascot, hence the reason why we posted an image of a falcon though in hind sight maybe we should have gone with '70s cartoon dog Dyno-Mutt's sidekick The Blue Falcon, and red and white are the team colors.

Mitchell Otani has apparently replaced Gerlad Teramae, who was mentioned as the school principal on Wikipedia, as the new principal of the school from what we gahtered on the school's web site.

Kalani HS also happens to have a slam poetry club and a robotics club.

Lenn Sakata who was a member of the 1983 Baltimore Orioles team which won the World Series is an alumnus of Kalani HS.

We tried to find out what they were offering for their school lunch today. I was so hoping not only to find it, but to see if they were offering something with pineapple. But, such is the life of a blogger........

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Country Music DJ

The joke here is that obviously, aside from perhaps a college radio station show, no one actually plays vinyl for radio stations any more, but we love this photo!

Alas, I have decided to discontinue the Silly Picture to Fill Space series for at least a few months for the new High School of the Week series, which will now move to Tuesdays. We have posted perhaps close to or just over 100 silly photos on our two blogs for quite a while now, but we think the jokes are getting as stagnant as a Jay Leno monologue!

Our feature series within a series is Summer Jobs, which is in itself becoming as a joke as Labor Day is approaching, but we thought we'd suggest the field of country music djs for college students looking for a part-time job even though many radio stations have laid off djs because of the recession (I know of one incident that occured at an adult contemporary station in Greensboro, NC, earlier this year).

But, there are some country music stations that are thriving. Since our feature city for the month of August is Lynchburg, Va., we will cite 108-FM WYYD, a sponsor of the Lynchburg Hillcats, which is based in or around The Hill City (they cover the Roanoke market as well). WYYD has traditionally been a powerhouse station in the market (note: we don't have the latest Arbitron ratings) and as of this morning, they were playing "Pieces of My Heart" by Faith Hill, "All My Friends" by Luke Bryan and "The Life" by Kenny Chesney.

FROM THE OOPS! DEPARTMENT: No one cited us for it or complained about it, but we erred in Saturday's entry about the Durham Bulls game with the Gwinnett Braves. Though the Braves have one of the best minor league baseball records in the country, they did in fact lose that partcular game on Friday night by a 4-3 margin as we saw in a Greensboro newspaper. But, the Bulls beat the Charlotte Knights yesterday
8-5. Though we know absolutely no one with the Bulls, we regret the mistake!

Quote of the Week- Conway Twitty

So I was sitting at a Waffle House-type 24/7 diner in the Roanoke, Va., area at around 5:15 a.m. last Monday (not a time when I am normally awake) and I noticed an image of the late Conway Twitty (1933-1993) beside Brce Sprinsteen on the jukebox.

Coincidentally, since he is 60 (until Sept. 23), Springsteen is the same age that Twitty was when he abruptly died from a brain aneruism after performing in Branson, Missouri, 17 years ago.

We will quote Twitty and Springsteen on our two respective blogs. Twitty, the one who was a country crooner, got his stage name from the towns of Conway, Ark., and Twitty, Tex. Though he was born in Mississippi, Twitty grew up in Helena, Ark.

Twitty had 55 number one country hits. Some of the songs he is known for include "Hello Darlin" (1970), "You've Never Been This Far Before" (1973) and "Don't Call Him a Cowboy" (1985).

A fan of his work keeps a blog at conwaytwittymusic.blogspot.com (last updated in March of 2010), and he has an official web site at conwaytwitty.com

Here is his quote:

"A good country song takes a page out of somebody's life and puts it into music."

50 Beers From Around the World- Peroni (Italia)

Our 50 Beers Around the World entry for the day is Peroni, a popular brand from Italy. It is widely available here in the United States, except for perhaps Provo, Utah (we couldn't resist)!

The brewery opened in 1846 and moved to Rome in 1864 when we were having a brewhaha in places like New Market, Gettysburgh and Vicksburg.

The English beer giant SABMiller brought Peroni in 2005.

SIDEBAR_ I wanted to wish milestone birthdays to my friend Bob in Woodstock, Va. (turned 80 on Aug. 10), Woody in Richmond, Va. (turned 40 on Aug. 20), actor
Ben Gazzara (turns 80 today) and my great aunt Jo in Rock Hill, SC, who turns 100 on Sunday!

Top Ten Favorite Minor League Baseball Teams -Slight Hometown Bias

The mascot here belongs to the Bowie Bay Sox from Bowie, Md., who play in the AA Eastern League, but the team that will top my list is The Salem Red Sox from Salem, Va. I was born and raised in Salem, Va. In fact, legendary baseball player Dave Parker played for the then-Salem Pirates in the '70s before going on to glory with the Pittsburgh, who haven't experienced a glory year in quite some time.

The famous Durham Bulls from Durham, NC, who were featured in the 1988 movie "Bull Durham" are our number two team. The Bulls won the coveted Minor League World Series last year.

While the Akron Aeros from Akron, Ohio, who play the Bay Sox in the Eastern League rank third. Their home stadium Canal Park is perhaps the nicest minor league stadium I've ever been to.

Salem lost a road game to Kinston 2-1 last night. The two teams play each other again at 7:05 tonight. Their next home game is Aug. 31 against the Potomac Nationals.

Durham won its game over Gwinett 4-3 last night, and the next home game for the Bulls will be against the Charlotte Knights on Monday at 7:05 p.m.

Akron plays the Erie Sea Wolves tonight at home.

And, the Bay Sox play the Altoona Curve, another team on this list, at home starting Aug. 30.

One day, when we get a chance, we'll have to post a photo of the West Virginia Power's mascot......he is even more amusing than the Gumby-look alike who is the mascot of the Altoona Curve!

As a rule, I decided not to put more than one team from each state on the list, hence I am snubbing our hometown Greensboro Grasshoppers. But, they do host the Savannah Sand Gnats from Savannah, Ga., this week. They, in fact, made the list!

Here is the list!:

1. Salem Red Sox

2. Durham Bulls

3. Akron Aeros

4. West Virginia Power

5. Myrtle Beach Pelicans

6. Altoona Curve

7. Salt Lake City Bees

8. Savannah Sand Gnats

9. Bowie Bay Sox (pictured)

10. Louisville Bats

'Official' High School of the Week- Madison Central High (Ky)

Since women's college gymnastics season is right around the corner, well it doesn't start until January, we thought we'd go with an alma mater of a college gymnast.

We arbitrarily chose Madison Central High School from Richmond, Ky, where University of Kentucky gymnast Hillary Ferguson (pictured here) went to school.

Ferguson, who will is now a senior, has had an outstanding career as she scored a 9.825 on vault against Florida in 2009. She also got an impressive 9.875 on bars in a meet against Ohio State in 2008.

As for her alma mater, the team mascot for Madison Central High School is The Indian (not this particular Indian) which has been declared to be politically incorrect at the NCAA level. The team plays a war chant during football and basketball games.

The school principal is Elmer Thomas. And, the school's state champion baseball team went 40-0 during the 1982 season.

As for the Wildcats, the UKy football team plays at Louisville on Sept. 4. Ferguson and her teammates host Illinois on Jan. 8.

SIDE NOTE- Our next High School of the Week feature will be displayed on Tuesday. We are looking for a high school in Hawa'ii. If you have any suggestions, for a future segment, you can publish a comment here or email me at tango74@aol.com

Things We Learned From the BBC Today- Islamic Facebook Comes to Egypt

Those who attend services at The Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, (pictured here) may now have a way to socially network in a way that is suitable to Islamic principles, according to a report from Jon Leyne of the BBC.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main government opposition group which is at times known to be a bit strict and radical (not the BBC's word) though it consists of more moderate factions as well, has launched its very own Facebook-style social newtworking media called Ikhwanbook.

The aim of the group, which is headed by Fareed Abdelkhalek, who is now 95 years old, is to spread Islamic values. The look of the site is similar to Facebook, but it will show more respect to Muslim values.

The group has proclaimed that the government in Cairo has not allowed it many other avenues of free expression or media communication. They added that the group has no desire to compete with Facebook, which is surprisingly popular in Egypt (as well as Turkey and Greece).

The Muslim Brotherhood started in 1928 as a way to rid Egypt of British control.

The BBC airs in North Carolina from WUNC 91.5-FM at 10 p.m. every night.

SIDEBAR- We have decided to add a special "High School of the Week" segment on both Tuesdays and Fridays until we have gone through high schools from all 50 states. So far, we have collectively mentioned the names of high schools from 26 states on our two blogs. Tomorrow, we will start with an entry for Madison Central High School in Richmond, Ky.