Happy Halloween...

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Many people are surprised to know there is a Turkish film version of the Dracula story called "Drakula Istanbul'da" (Dracula in Istanbul). The 1953 film is actually based on a novel called "Vlad the Impaler" by the Turkish novelist Ali Riza Seyfi
(1879-1958).

Atif Kaptan (1908-1977) played the Bela Lugosi role, and according to a book I read by cult film authority Pete Tombs, smoke scenes were devised when the film's director Mehmet Muhtar (1925-1995) told crew members to smoke lots and lots of cigarettes!

In his later years, Kaptan appeared in several action movies with the Turkish cinematic icon Cuneyt Arkin.

Road Trip- Trenton, NJ, to Seattle

Like Bela Lugosi, our Road Trip series has returned from the dead!

Today, we ask you the faithful blog-reader, and if you are one of the 13 people reading this blog you are quite faithful!, to guess how far it is from Trenton, NJ, to Seattle, Wash. (well, there is only one Seattle, right?).

To do this, we Mapquested the mileage between two Turkish restaurants in each zip code. Our choices were the Trenton Kebab House in Trenton and the Bistro Turkuaz in Seattle.

Here are the choices:

A) 48 hours, 40 minutes

B) 46 hours, 30 minutes

C) 45 hours, 10 minutes

D) 43 hours, 20 minutes

SIDEBAR: It seems like Burlington, Vermont, where it is 70 degrees as we speak would be a nice place to me especially since it is scorching in my part of the world. Today, it was 98 degrees in Norfolk, Va., 97 degrees in Baltimore and 93 degreees in Philadelphia!

SIDEBAR TWO: Though we haven't listened to the music of Los Straitjackets as much as we should, we want to wish the band's guitar player Danny Amis success in his battle with cancer. The Nashville-based band plays Spanish-language versions of rock and roll favorites and they are known for sporting Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) masks on stage. A benefit concert for Amis will be taking place soon according to the NPR show "Fresh Air."