Kudos to UNC on ACC Men's Lacrosse Title

The University of North Carolina (UNC) won its first ACC men's lacrosse title since 1996 when the Tar Heels held their home turf in a 16-13 win over the University of Virginia.

According to goheels.com, the game was played in front of 4,001 fans in Chapel Hill, NC, and both the 'Heels and the Cavaliers had to deal with the proverbial elements of mother nature as the game was played in the rain.

For the 'Heels, Davey Emala and Chad Tutton scored seven goals each. Their teammate Marcus Helman (pictured center, we believe) was named as the outstanding ACC Tournament Player.  To play UVa, the 'Heels first had to defeat their arch rivals Duke; Virginia had to upset Maryland.

For the Cavs, Matt White scored seven goals.

'Teels goalie Kieran Burke had 17 saves.

The 'Heels trailed 5-3 after the first quarter, but they took a 10-7 lead by half-time.

UNC now goes to 12-3 and looks forward to the NCAA tournament, but due to their disappointing finish the Cavs at 7-8 are not going to the tournament, a rarity for the school in Charlottesville, Va., for the sport.

SIDEBAR ONE: We saw that Link-TV, a non-profit progressive television outlet in America thanked Rick in Floyd, Va., for his support; we want to thank Rick too.....for no particular reason.

SIDEBAR TWO: Today's sponsors are Doomsday Dating, which we heard about from a female stand-up comedian from Winston-Salem, NC; she insisted she wasn't kidding about the existence of this Davidian singles group, and yes they do really exist!

SIDEBAR THREE: Since we completely neglected the Yale Bulldogs for the team's first ever men's hockey title as captain Andrew Miller lead his team in a 4-0 upset win over their cross-town New Haven, Conn., rival the Quinnipiac Bobcats....yes, we think that must be the NCAA's most difficult to spell school as well...at the Frozen Four in Pittsburgh, but we are pointing it out now.

SIDEBAR FOUR: Tomorrow, we kick off Soccer Week (pardon the pun), and as a teaser, we will issue a SPOILER ALERT to the six people in America who were taping the English Premiere League game between two lower-ranking teams Aston Villa and Sunderland (perhaps Rick from Floyd, Va., was one of them). Aston Villa really kicked butt by a 6-1 score today.

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.dailytarheel.com

http://www.doomsdaydating.com

http://www.linktv.org

http://www.yalebulldogs.com

http://www.visitfloyd.org

http://www.visitchapelhill.org

Where's Josh Ritter?

For starters, we should point that our title is not to imply that singer/writer Josh Ritter is a missing person; it is rather a take on "Where's Waldo?"_ we are also going to explain where Ritter is performing in the coming weeks.

I have seen Ritter at Cat's Cradle three times in the last six years, and he is absolutely amazing in concert. Of course, now that I'm in my early forties, I'm glad I know the difference between Ritter and Andrew Bird.

Alas, the titles of his songs and records escape, but that's why we have Wikipedia right?

Here is where Ritter will be playing soon; and we are including a link to WXYC-FM, the student-run radio station of the University of North Carolina as he will be performing at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, a  community which literally borders Chapel Hill:

May 8 State Theatre Portland, Maine

May 9 Calvin Theatre Northampton, Mass.

May 11th and 12th 9:30 Club Washington, DC (both shows are sold out)

May 12 Cat's Cradle Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC

May 13 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC

http://www.joshritter.com

http://www.930.com

http://www.catscradle.com

http://www.wxyc.org

http://www.whereswaldo.com

English Premiere League Soccer Tables_ Manchester United Reigns Supreme

It was a very good week for Dutch national Robin van Persie  (pictured top) who scored a hat trick in Manchester United's 3-0 win over Aston Villa, which secured MU with the English Premiere League titles as they have 84 points with just a few games remaining.

Cross-town rivals Manchester City are a distant second with 68 points. They had a dismal weekend as they lost 3-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, which is in fifth place with 61 points. American Clint Dempsey (pictured bottom) previously with Fulham and the New England Revolution in the MLS, scored a goal for the victors in the 76th minute of play.

Brothers Ryan Bennett and Elliot Bennett helped secure a win for Norwich in the team's 2-1 win over last place Reading, while German national Per Mertesacker helped Arsenal, sitting in third place with 63 points, to a 1-0 win over Fulham.

And, Luis Suarez, the star striker from Uruguay who made a dubious handball that lifted his national team to victory over Ghana in the last World Cup, scored an impressive literal last minute goal in the 97th minute to help his Liverpool squad (pictured center) tie Chelsea, in fourth place with 62 points, 2-2. This does remind one of the title of an American documentary film "Harvard Beats Yale 29-29."

Here is the complete table for weekend play; Chelsea is in action tomorrow for a UEFA match with Benefica of Portugal:

1. Stoke 2 QPR 0

2. Sunderland 1 Everton 0

3. Swansea 0 Southhampton 0, tie

4. West Brom 1 New Castle 1, tie

5. West Ham U 2 Wigan Athletic 0

6. Arsenal 1 Fulham 0

7. Norwich 2 Reading 1

8. Tottenham Hotspur 3 Manchester City 1

9. Liverpool 2 Chelsea 2,, tie

10. Manchester United 3 Aston Villa 0

http://www.premiereleague.com

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare

Today is both William Shakespeare's 449th birthday, and it is National Talk Like Shakespeare Day here in America. Apparently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel formally recognized the occasion at city hall today.

There are plenty of Shakespeare productions going on domestically (and, assuredly in England and other parts of the world as well).

The American Shakespeare Center (we still like to call them Shenandoah Shakespeare, their old name) in Staunton, Va.,  is performing both "Twelfth Night" and "Love's Labour Lost," right now.

Just down the road in High Point, NC, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival is holding auditions for "MacBeth" or the Scottish Play from April 29-30th.

And, the Reduced Shakespeare Company will be performing throughout the United Kingdom as well as well as performances in Urbana, Ill., on April 27th and in Columbia, Md., on June 22nd.

We are told that they can do "Romeo and Juliet" in 14 and a half minutes!

http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org

http://www.amerianshakesperacecenter.com

http://www.ncshakes.org

http://www.reducedshakespeare.com

Happy Children's Day

Since today April 23rd is National Children's Day in Turkey, we thought we'd continue with our annual tradition of posting images of Turkish children for this blog entry.

It was 35 years ago today that I participated in a Children's Day parade in the town of Eregli in Zonguldak province.

The TRT (Turkey Radio Television) organizes a festival each year where children from around the world gather in Turkey. Last year, children from Azerbaijan, Egypt and Vietnam were among the participants.

The first Children's Day was celebrated on April 23, 1920, and it was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's iconic political leader who formally established The Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. October 29th is now recognized as Republic's Day. May 19th, a day set aside to recognize youth and athletics in Turkey, is also one of Turkey's main state holidays.

Things To Do List: All That Jazz

Here is our latest installment of the semi-weekly Things To Do List, which seems popular, or at least in Latvia and Slovakia (yes, for some reason we are popular in these places), and frankly is a lot easier to do than what we are planning which hope to get to between now and doomsday whenever that may be (perhaps our 'good friend' the fringe pastor the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., can give us a clue!)

1. Eat a gyro

2. Write a letter to "The Daily Tar Heel"

3. Listen to jazz on NPR

4. Recycle

5. Laundry

6. Get the Sunday "Washington Post"

7. Take a pilates class

8. Watch English soccer game you taped today

9. Write a poem

10. Watch "The Antiques Roadshow" on PBS

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.thedailytarheel.com

http://www.bennygoodman.com

http://www.antiquegrandfatherclocks.com

SPOILER ALERT: Kudos to Florida on Winning NCAA Women's Gymnastics Crown

The University of Florida Gators are only the fifth school to win a NCAA Women's Gymnastics title; they join the ranks of UCLA, Utah, Georgia and Alabama. Each of those schools, except Utah, qualified for the Super Six finals.

In victory, the Gators edged out second-place Oklahoma, third-place Alabama, the two-time NCAA champ and fourth place UCLA, the host school. LSU finished fifth; Georgia came in sixth.

For Gators' Coach Rhonda Faehn, a UCLA alum in her 11th year as coach of Florida after a coaching stint at Penn State, the title comes after years of heart-breaking near misses, includes last year's NCAA Championships in Georgia.

The Gators team consists of two Olympians: British national Marissa King, who also celebrated a birthday on Saturday and American Bridget Sloan, who is a freshman from Pittsboro, Ind.

Other stand-outs on the squad include Kytra Hunter (pictured top), Randy Stageberg (pictured bottom), Ashanee Dickerson and Alaina Johnson.

Here is the order of finish:

1. Florida 197.575

2. Oklahoma 197.375

3. Alabama 197.100

4. UCLA 197.100

5. LSU 197.050

6. Georgia 196.675

We issued a SPOILER ALERT because the meets airs on ESPN-U at 8:00 p.m. on April 30th.

For a look at the individual results from today's competition, go to our sister blog:
http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com