Things We Learned on Twitter Today- The Spanish Quarter in N'Orelans?!

There won't exactly be bull-fighting on Bourbon Street, but the Twitter site for VisitNewOrleans tweeted the following today:

"You don't need to be in Spain for the Running of the Bulls."

This message was posted before Spain won a historic World Cup semi-final game by a
1-0 score over Germany thanks to Carles Puyol who scored in the 73rd minute of play.

According to VisitNewOrleans, folks from the city will gather at The Ernst Cafe/The Chicury Sunday at 11:30 a..m. They will be spotting bullhorns and re-enacting the fabled Spanish event in a PEAT-friendly manner as there will not actually be bulls running loose in New Orleans. The Twitter site jokingly said most folks there will likely be intoxicated.

This sounds like a perfect place for the Rev. Franklin Grahama (R-NC) to visit on a Sunday morning as the ultra-radical televangelist once said that New Orleans deserved Hurricane Katrina because it was a 'city of sin.'

In other tweets, the Los Angeles Chinese restaurant The Mandoline Grille reported that they were having a lunch special on Vietnamese chicken curry today (hey, it's only 1 p.m. over there right now!).

And, "The San Francisco Weekly" tweeted that for $8 area residents can have a 'lobster corn dog' (shouldn't they have this in Portland, Maine, instead?!) at a place called Unwind on Union, which is actually located in Laguna, Calif. (we presume that's a San Fran 'burb).

Closer to home, both Bluefield, W.Va. (91 degrees) and Blacksburg, Va., aka Hokietown (94 degreees) broke record temperatures yesterday.

Meanwhile, it is in the mid-90s here in Mount Airy, NC, (not actually where I am at) where the public library has actually banned Twitter, which is probably quite populat at those Internet cafes in Baku, Azerbaijan, where I checked my email for the week I was there in 2008. The irony is that Azerbaijan happens to be a dictatorship!

Silly Photo to Fill Space- the Late Wally the Warthog

Alas, when The Winston-Salem Warthogs (1995-2008) because The Winston-Salem Dash, the beloved Wally the Warthog was sent to a pork processing plant in Tarheel, NC, and Bolt became the Winston-Salem, NC, minor league baseball team's new mascot.

In all seriousness, we miss Wally the Warthog but perhaps he will come back to the ballpark for a cameo one day.

We are, oh btw, continuing our summer jobs series with a focus on Winston-Salem, also known as Camel City and for being the home of Krispy-Kreme Doughnuts.

While college students who are coming back home from schools like Wake Forest or East Carolina can't dress up like Wally, perhaps they can dress up like Bolt. Well, actually they may have to apply for the job for next summer, but they can perhaps work the concession stand. Hey, I did it for the Salem Avalanche (now the Salem Red Sox) in Salem, Va.

There is also a new baseball stadium issue in Camel City which has reportedly been causing Mayor Allen Jones headaches, well we don't mean that literally.

The Dash won their game last night in Lynchburg, Va., against the Lynchburg Hillcats by a 5-3 score. Tonight, they return home to face the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at 7:00 p.m.

Winston-Salem is also the home of UBU the Band (well they were based in nearby Jamestown, and are now in Charlotte), a dinner band which hit the Top 40 in 1991 with "Right Here, Right Now" (oh that was pop singer Jesus Jones). UBU the Band is performing at High Point University in High Point, NC, on July 18.

Quote of the Week- Maya Angelou

This Quote of the Week which is being done in conjunction with the Fourth of July as we are quoting famous Americans on Mondays this month. Since Bastille Day, the French day of independence in on July 14th, we will be quoting famous French people on Wednesdays this month as well.

I thought this quote from poet Maya Angelou who teaches just down the proverbial road at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, would be appropriate since we are working on the laundry!:

"Achievement brings its own anticlimax."

SIDEBAR: The Twitter feeds were quite busy this p.m.

We learned that Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle is lobbying to win a new Best in Seattle poll in "Seattle Weekly."

Nathan Tabor, a conservative activist in Winston-Salem who I normally differ strongly with, had an interesting link about a Texas store which sold an American flag with 61 stars. I guess they're counting Guam and Puerto Rico and some other places!

Cartoonist Darrin Bell who pens "Candorville" said: "I'm alone in a Cosco and so scared."

While "Zippy the Pinhead" himself (an alternative comic strip from Bill Griffith) said: "The Korean War must have been fun!"

Lastly, we learned that University of Michigan gymnast Kari Pierce who is actually from Ann Arbor, Mich., had a birthday today. We don't know; however, if she is old enough to drink an Amstel Light at Applebee's just quite yet!

Happy Birthday Amerika Birlesik Devletleri * from Daffy Duck!

I realize that since it's gradually approaching midnight here on the east coast of les etats unis** the only folk still watching fireworks might be in Reston, Wash. (a 'burb of Seattle), nevertheless we wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July.

My favorite Russian emgire rock band (well, we love Gogol Bordello too!) The Red Elvises tweeted the following message even though it appears they are in Moscow, and we don't mean the college town of Moscow, Idaho:

"We my be Russia now but any excuse to celebrate is good! Happy 4th of July America."

Meanwhile, our beloved Durham Bulls*** defeated the Gwinnett Braves from Georgia 6-4 in front of a record-breaking crowd of 11,674 fans in Durham, NC, tonight.

*-How you say USA in Turkish

**-How you say USA in French

***-Yeah, I know I should perhaps be more loyal to the Salem RedSox since I'm from Salem, Va., and the Greensboro Grasshoppers since I am a resident of the Triad (Greensboro, NC-area) as opposed to the Raleigh-Durham area, but hey none of those teams had a movie made after them! (I'm of course referring to "Bull Durham" with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon which first came out in 1988). I will say for my hometown that the Salem Fair is going on right now, and apparently some people drive from Fairbanks, Alaska, to enjoy the smell of (how should we put this?!)_ the bull---t!

World Cup Players Worth Remembering

Today, since there are two quarter-final World Cup games to be played, we thought we'd share with you some of the players we will remember most from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

We have compiled 12 names, and we will post six of them here and six of them on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which just recently got over 25,000 hits (well considering how poor the ratings once were this is good for us!)

Most of this info on all these players came from Wikipedia as I am a casual futbol fan though I have seen quite a few World Cup games though admittedly I feel asleep watching the first half of the Slovakia-New Zealand first round game, which aired very early here in les etats unis, and I promptly went back to bed!

Here are the six soccer players we are profiling here:

1) David Villa. (pictured here). Spain. Age 28. Plays for Barcelona. Wears #7. Has scored an impressive 42 goals in 62 games, including both goals in 2-0 win over Honduras in the first round and the lone goal in 1-0 win over Portugal to put Spain in quarter-finals. They play Paraguay later today.

2) Landon Donovan. United States. Age 28. Plays for Los Angeles Galaxy. Born in Ontario, Calif. Wears #10. Has scored 45 in 127 international games. In World Cup play (2010), he scored goals against Algeria, Slovenia and Ghana, which was alas not enough to win the game.

3) Lionel Messi. Argentina. Age 23. Plays with Villa for Barcelona (wow!). Helped Barcelona win the 2009 UEFA Cup. Scored an amazing four goals versus Arsenal (English team) in a 4-1 win over them on April 6. In World Cup play, he has scored once versus Mexico and twice versus South Korea. Argentina has yet to lose a game in South Africa. They play Germany in less than an hour.

4) Cristiano Ronaldo. Portugal. Age 25. Plays with Real Madrid. With six-year $132 million contract, Ronaldo is the world's most expensive soccer player. Had a disappointing World Cup, though he scored an impressive goal in the team's 7-0 drubbing of North Korea.

5) Lucas Barrios. Paraguay. Age 25. Plays for Barrusia Dortmund (German team). Was actually born in Argentina, but has Paraguayan mother. Got Paraguayan citizenship in the spring to play for national team. Has scored three goals in first international appearances. Nicknamed The Panther. Paraguay plays Spain later today.

6) Asamoah Gyan. Ghana. Age 24. Plays for Rennes (French team). Club teammates with American national player Carlos Bocanegra, a UCLA alum. Ironically, the two teams met in the last round where Ghana prevailed thanks to an extra-time goal by Gyan. But, alas Gyan choked yesterday in the 121st minute of play by missing a penalty kick versus Uruguay. Gyan redeemed himself by scoring on a penalty kick in the final stage of the game, but ultimately Uruguay won the match to advance to semi-finals.

Friday Geo Quiz (July2010 Only)

As a casual listener to the NPR series "The World" which had a great segment on Turkish immigrant families who have now spent several generations in Germany since a guest worker program was introduced in the late 1960s, I thought I would dedicate a series of "Geo Quiz" segments (which are featured on the news show broadcasts).

These particular entries are only going to focus on countries in the World Cup, and yes we know all six countries have officially been eliminated as of today (Editorial Comment: Go Holland!).

But, nevertheless, we thought this might help ninth grade geography students at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md. (an actual place) particularly those who are taking the class over again in summer school. It should be pointed out that there was a heatwave in the region this week, and reportedly Richmond, Va., was (yikes!) reportedly 102 degrees at one point in mid-week.

So, here is the question kids:

Which one of these four World Cup countries (pictured above) is NOT landlocked:

A) Slovakia
B) Paraguay
C) Switzerland
D) Slovenia

If you get the answer right, I may have to send you a Partridge Family record I got at Happy's Flea Market in Roanoke, Va., a few years ago. Alas, you will have to pay for the postage!

PSA- Have a Safe Fourth of July

We want to use this weekly Thursday 'PSA' (Public Service Announcement) entry to wish everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July even if they live in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

But, in all seriousness, The American Civils Liberty Union (ACLU) tweeted today that they are advising anyone traveling to see their aunt in Yuma, Ariz., what their rights are should they be stopped by a federal or state law enforcement officer in Arizona which recently passed a new highly controversial anti-immigration bill. Among the fears expressed by Hispanics who live in The United States legally is that they will be stopped and harrassed simply because of their ethnicity. The ACLU has full details about what perspective travelers passing through Arizona should know at their web site http://www.aclu.org

In more fun news, The Durham Bulls are having a Fourth of July homestand in Durham, NC. Tonight, the Bulls play the Louisville Bats, a team they beat 5-4 in 10 innings last night thanks to a bases loaded walk which scored Jose Lobaton. The Bulls will also have four straight nights of fireworks starting with tonight's game, which will be underway in about 20 minutes.

Another minor league team in North Carolina, the Asheville Tourists of Asheville won their game last night with one of their in-state rivals The Kannapolis Intimidators by a 2-1 count thanks to a ninth inning homerun from Orlando Sandoval. The game was played in Asheville.

In World Cup news, a Twitter site devouted to strange news reported that an Austrian man is selling his bejewelled vuvuzela on the Internet for $20,800. And, Austria was not even in the World Cup!