Quote of the Day- Mike Schmidt

Today, I thought I would go with two baseball legends who were stars when I was avidly watching baseball as a little boy (I actually rarely watch baseball now!).

Back in 1980, when I was ten years old, Mike Schmidt helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a World Series championship by defeating the Kansas City Royals, a team that was once a perenial power.

Schmidt, now 61, is from Dayton, Ohio, and he graduated from Fairview High School. He played for the Phillies his entire career from 1972 until 1989. The third-baseman was a 12-time All-Star, and he was named National League MVP in 1980, 1981 and 1986.

Here is his quote:

"I could ask the Phillies to keep me on to add to my statistics, but my love for the game won't let me do that."

SIDEBAR: I was able to name all 43 of the American presidents (Barack Obama is actually classified as the 44th president because Grover Cleveland served two separate terms) in 4:47 on mentalfloss.com

It was actually my seventh or eighth try at achieving this. The last president who came to mind was Chester Arthur, the 21 president who was also a Republican. In case you are wondering, the new movie "Arthur" nor the original 1981 Dudley Moore film it's based upon have anything to do with President Arthur!

Quote of the Week- Robert Frost

As National Poetry month comes to a gradual close, we are featuring a quip from Robert Frost (1874-1963) who is perhaps best known for his poem "Fire and Ice" that perhaps 93 percent of us were required to read in high school.

We learned that there are actually two Robert Frost museums in New England. The Robert Frost Stone Home Museum is in South Shaftsbury, Vt. And, the Robert Frost Place Home, which is also the house where the poet resided from 1915-1920, is in Franconia, New Hampshire. Obviously, this might be quite a field trip for students from Provo High School in Provo, Utah (a real place)!

Here is the quip from Frost:

"A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer."

Lastly, fans of Gary Shteyngart (whew, we almost didn't get it right!) who feel that the author of the great novel "Absurdistan" was snubbed from our "Difficult, Long Names" list yesterday should know that we are planning to post another such list in May.

Top Ten Lists- People with Long, Difficult Names (Males)

Here is an arbitrary list of famous or relatively famous people with long, difficult names. Since my name is Tilly Gokbudak, each of them has my full sympathy! A random top ten list of women with long names will be on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

1. Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul_ (pictured) Whew! We almost didn't spell this one right. But, I suspect many people would have this problem. The 40-year-old Thai director is known around the world by cineastes for his eccentric, off-beat 'small movies' like "Tropical Malady."

2. Siva Vaidyanathan_ This American author of Indian heritage (b.1966) is a media scholar and author. He teaches at the University of Virginia and his current book is "The Googlization of Everything." Yes, we are double-checking his name. It appears to be spelled right!

3. Eugeny Viktrorovich Pluashenko. This 28-year-old Russian figure skater won Olympic gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

4. Gebre Gebremariam. An Ethiopian long-distance runner who finished third in last week's Boston Marathon; he also won the 2010 New York Marathon.

5. Zach Galifianakis_ Famous Greek-American actor from Wikesboro, NC, who was in "The Hangover" and "Due Date." His father was a member of Congress.

6. Matti Hautamaki_ This 29-year-old Finnish ski-jumper won silver medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and at the 2006 Turin Olympics.

7. Naim Suleymanoglu_ This 44-year-old former Turkish weight-lifter actually defected from then-communist Bulgaria. He went on to win Olympic gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Also known as the 'Pocket Hercules,' Suleymanoglu has alas suffered major health problems in recent years.

8. Rod Blagojevich. This disgraced former Illinois governor is one of the very few Democrats I would never vote for.

9. Volker Schlondorff. He is a legendary German film director best known for cinematic version of "The Tin Drum" (Germany, 1979.)

10. Ross Bagdasarian Jr. This Armenian-American is continuing his late father's legacy as the voice of "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

We hope we got all their names right!

Motto of the Week- Why Nothing Gets Done

"Dirty dishes. Laundry. Friends. Frenemies. Women. Platoinc relationships. Potential relationships. Cellular Phones. Blackberrys. E-Harmony. Facebook. Twitter. Read book of poems by Nikki Giovanni. Write an essay/blog entry/short novel/short play/screenplay/novel. Mom. Grade papers. Fix car. Call the doctor's/dentist's office. Volunteer for local animal shelter/NPR station. Give to Habitat for Humanity. Send birthday card to co-worker. See the new happening, current indy film.

Why Nothing Gets Done....."

If it's not obvious, I've ventured into some creative writing away from the blogosphere lately.

We dedicate this entry to the Spring Center Laundromat in Silver Spring, Md, a place we've never been to, but it seems like a cool place. Their business hours are from
8:00 a.m.-11 p.m., seven days of the week. They also offer free wi fi!

Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)- Portland, Maine to Altoona, Pa.

You know you've been blogging way too long when you google a term like 'lobster van' on Google Images, and you get a link to your own blog! Such is the case with this image, which is from Myrtle Beach, SC. We have also previously used the Shell Gas Station in Winston-Salem, NC, first built in 1930 which no longer in operation, but has thankfully been preserved as a tourist attraction.

But, today we are actually asking you the devoted blog-reader who has assuredly been with me ever day since we start in September of 2005 how far apart the city of Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa. Of course, since most of our fans are in Uzbekistan and Norway (well, we like to believe that though we were actually linked to an Uzbeki web site--not sure if it still exists!), they are probably confused!

Of course, everyone knows, well everyone outside of Tashkent and Oslo, knows that Maine is known for their lobsters and that is why we chose that image. But, even folks in les etats unis, may not know that Altoona, Pa., is the headquarters of Sheetz, which has like 3.4 million gas stations on the east coast. I have pumped gas at their stations in Ridgeway, Va., Greensboro, NC, Akron, Ohio, and well_Altoona, Pa., among many other places.

Both Portland, Maine, and Altoona, Pa., also have double-A minor league baseball teams in the Eastern League. Friday night, the Portland Sea Dogs lost 9-7 to the New Britain Rock Cats in Connecticut. They host the Binghamton Mets from New York state at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. We were curious to see what a sea dog looked like, and we saw this great image from jellyfishday.blogspot.com, but this blog's managing editor Dennis Alexander* thought the lobster was more suitable.

As for the Altoona Curve, they lost to the Richmond Flying Squirrels (I guess they got permission from the Jay Ward estate as well as the copyright holders of "Rocky and Bullwinkle") in Virginia 3-2 on Saturday.

For this project, we looked at the distance between Longfellow Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Maine, and Robert's Service Station in Altoona, Pa., which may be one of the three not-Sheetz gas stations in town.

Uh huh, it looks like our Honduran intern Javier**, who is on Spring Break from George Mason University, actually forgot to Mapquest this. Sorry, dear readers. We will have a talk with Javier.

But, we have the answer now; is it:

A) 9 hours

B) 10 hours

C) 11 hours

D) 12 hours

Speaking of indy bookstores, we just saw Sarah Vowell promote her new book "Unfamiliar Fishes" about the American colonization of Hawai'i on C-Span 2 (Book TV). Vowell's talk was recorded at Book People, an indy bookstore in Austin, Tex.

Catherynne M. Valente will talk at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, about her new book "Deatless" on Apr. 28 at 7:00 p.m. The book is apparently about the conflict between magical history and actual history.

The answer to last week's Weekend Road Trip Quiz was C) 41 hours, 57 minutes_ that's how far apart Las Vegas and Pawtucket, RI, are. See you back here soon....I hope!

*- Dennis Alexander is my psedonymn and in-joke; it is rarely used

**-Yeah, as you expected, there is no Javier the intern!

Happy Children's Day in Turkey

With Earth Day and Easter being on this weekend here in the United States, few may realize that a very important holiday, Children's Day, is being celebrated on April 23rd in Turkey, my late father's home country.

The national holiday was started by the Republic of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and it was first officially recognized in 1927, when my father Mehmet Gokbudak was six years old.

According to Wikipedia, many people in Turkey feel that International Children's Day, which is June 1, was inspired by the Turkish Children's Day, which is known as Cocuklar Bayrami.

When we were living in Turkey when I was from 1977-79, I participated in a Children's Day parade in Eregli, which is near the western Black Sea port city of Zonguldak. I forget if I marched in 1978 or 1979, or both years. I was in my school uniform, which all Turkish children are still required to wear to school (I really missed wearing "Spiderman" t-shirts as I did back in Roanoke, Va.)

Alas, things are becoming quite unsettled in Turkey's neghbor Syria where the BBC reports that more than 70 protestors have been killed across the country with the highest casualties being cited in the Damascus suburb of Deraa.

AlJazeera, which is only available in the United States in few localities, like Toledo, Ohio, in addition to some coverage on Link TV, reports that there was a major student demostration at Damascus, Syria. The Quatar-based news agency also said there was a similar protest in Latakia, which is the main Syrian port.

"The Christian Science Monitor" said protests broke out in Homs, which is Syria's third largest city behind Damascus and Allepo. The Boston-based news agency said government officials used live bullets and tear gas to crack down on demonstrators.

Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad, 45, has been power since his father's death in
2000; Syria has been in the family's hands for over 40 years.

There is not report yet as how this will affect Turkey, which is one of Syria's main trading partners though the two countries have at times had strained relationships and territorial spats.

Status Update_ Today, I Learned About Blue Lobsters

Of course, when one mentions the word lobster, you either think of an overrated American chain restaurant (Red Lobster), Maine or the '80s New Wave band from Athens, Ga., the B-52s (pictured here).

But, until I read a story in the current issue of "Mental Floss" by Adam K. Raymond, I was not fully aware of blue lobsters. According to Raymond, one in every four million lobsters are blue. They are this color because of a gentic defect.

We tried to get a picture of a blue lobster up here, but they were quite difficult to hotlink.

If one wants to learn more about lobsters in general, I highly recommend Trevor Corson's excellent 2004 book "The Secret Life of Lobsters." Corson also wrote "The Story of Sushi."

Within a few days, we are hoping to let you know how far apart Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa., in case you really, really want to know!