7 Words in Turkish (6 of 7): Oysters

Greetings to our blog-readers in Argentina, Belgium and China.

Even though I am 90-percent fluent in Turkish (or maybe just 89 -percent), I didn't know the Turkish word for oysters; it is ISTIRIDYE; I am not using all caps because I've gone insane or towards political extremism, but rather because the Turkish word for oysters is hard to spell. And, we certainly didn't want to eff that up.

For some genuine underwater laughs, we recommend the "Sherman's Lagoon" comic strip. The Sunday edition of the strip is carried by the Sunday editions of "The Washington Post" and "The Denver Post" as well as other newspapers throughout the United States (see link below).


http://www.shermanslagoon.com

7 Words in Turkish (5 of 7): Shark

Though Shark Week on the Discovery Channel has passed us by, we have the Turkish word for shark for you today. An interesting note is that in Turkish, the word for dog 'kopek' and the word for fish 'balik' are combing together for this word. (Just last week, a 14-foot, 700-pound tiger was caught off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in America.)

So, the Turkish word for shark is kopekbaligi, or shark=kopekbaligi.

SIDEBAR ONE: We thought it was interesting when we found out that the embassy for Azerbaijan in Washington, DC, has a Facebook page, but the Canadian embassy does not! Gary Doer is the Canadian ambassador to the United States; Elin Suleymanov is Baku's man in DC.

SIDEBAR TWO: As someone who has read Dale Carnegie's classic self-help book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," in order to overcome my personal insecurities, it is refreshing to hear a different take from the American comic/actor/talk show host Marc Maron, who told "Rolling Stone magazine" the following: "Bitterness is a sure fire way to ruin your career. I've pissed off Adam Sandler. I've pissed off Jon Stewart. I've been ruse to people I've been jealous of."

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com

http://www.azembassy.us

http://www.wtfpod.com (Marc Maron)

7 Words in Turksih (4 of 7): Dolphin

Dolphin=Yunus

One can see dolphins and other sea animals at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland (see links below):

http://www.aqua.org

http://www.baltimore.org

For our blog series "7 Words in Norwegian," click here: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

7 Words in Turkish (3 of 7): Whale

Whale=Balina........the blue whale would be 'mavi balina.'

This reminds me of the time I saw a Greenpeace activist, dressed as a whale, protesting in front of the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC, which is right across the street from the Turkish embassy.

http://www.greenpeace.org

http://www.visitjapan.jp

http://www.goturkey.com

For the Norwegian word for whale, check out our sister "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" (link below)

7 Words in Turkish (2 of 7): Octopus

Octopus=Ahtapot

For what these words are in Norwegian, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

7 Words in Turkish (One of Seven): Fish

Fish=Balik (pronounced baalick)

Before We Take a Week Off: Top 10 Embarrasing Ways to Die

Greetings to our friends in the Netherlands, Turkey and Mexico.

We went back and forth on this, but we decided it would provide relief from a subject matter that makes sitting through episodes of "Six Feet Under" difficult to sit through. Speaking of which if actor Michael C. Hall has time on his hands and visits this blog, we just have to ask: "What the expletive are you gonna do after 'Dexter'"? Hopefully, those of you in Utrecht, Gaziantep and Puebla got the joke (those are cities in Holland, Turkey and Mexico).

Here we go with the Top 10 Most Embarrassing Ways to Die:

1. Drowning while fishing in the New River in West Virginia.

2. Choking on a Pay Day candy bar.

3. Trying to take a photo of Gustave the man-eating crocodile while vacationing in Burundi (We heard about him through "Mental Floss" magazine)

4. Tripping into an on-coming DC Metro subway train (a DC-Metro map is our middle image)

5. Getting hit in the head by a foul ball at a Detroit Tigers baseball game.

6. Getting hit by an on-coming car after shopping at K-Mart.

7. Smoke inhalation from smoking Camels in bed.

8. Getting struck by lightning while trying to fix satellite tv.

9. Getting run over by your very own car or truck (Alas, this did actually happen to a mail carrier in Charlotte, NC)

10. Slipping on a banana peel

http://www.wvtourism.com

http://www.vistwv.com

http://www.wmata.com (DC Metro web site)

http://www.goturkey.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

For a link on our sister blog about 10 more embarrassing ways to die:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com