The Rabbit Ears Quiz (12 of 12)_ Heidi, Girl of the Alps

Today, we close our series on tv shows which aired from the late '60s to the early '80s, with a segment that is actually dedicated to two Japanese cartoons, which were both based on classic German children's stories (we should point out that Heidi was actually written by Swiss author Johanna Spyris in 1880, but it was first published in German).

We'll start with "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," which was part of the anime "World Masterpiece Theatre" productions, which also included Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. The Heidi cartoon ran for a full year in 1972; I saw in on the TRT (Turkish Radio Television) some five years later.

The legendary film director Hayao Miayazaki, now age 71, who directed the films "Spirited Away" and "Princess Monoke" was responsible for the Heidi cartoon's screen design and layout.

Isao Takahata, now age 76, who directed another acclaimed Japanese animated film "Grave of the Fireflies" (1998) about the horrors of World War 2, directed many episodes of the Heidi cartoon.

Another popular Anime cartoon was "Maya the Bee," which originally ran in Japan from 1975-76. It was based on the German book of the same name, which was written by Waldena Bansels in 1912.

"Maya the Bee" was also very popular in Europe. I saw in on the TRT, circa 1978, when I was eight years old, where it was known as "Ari Maya" (ari is the Turkish word for bee). The cartoon was also trendy in Greece, Israel and Bulgaria, as well as many other countries.

Both "Heidi" and "Maya the Bee" lasted for the exact same number of episodes. Today, we are asking what that number was.

Is the answer?:

A) 36

B) 42

C) 52

D) 60

http://www.animenews.com

http://www.funimation.com

UPDATE (July 5, 2012): The answer is C) 52

Congratulations to the University of Alabama for Winning Gymnastics Title

Yes, college gymnastics fans will undoubtedly notice that the headline and the photo of Georgia gymnast Kat Ding, a senior from Sparks, Nev., may not seem to go well, but please read the entry first!

And, before we get to that, I forgot to thank blog readers from Belgium, Portugal and Australia on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire,' in addition to them, I want to thank those of you from Bulgaria and Indonesia who have stopped by here in the last 24 hours.

The University of Alabama did indeed win its seventh NCAA championship in women's gymnastics on April 21, and this was the first time that the Crimson Tide had successfully defended its title.

For Tide senior Geralen Stack-Eaton, it must have been a particularly rewarding weekend for she also won an individual title on the balance beam.

Meanwhile, Ding defender her national title on bars with a 9.875 and she had a 9.995 on floor, which gave her a title on that apparatus as well; Ding edged out Stack-Eaton, the defending floor champ, and Ellyse Hopfner-Hobbs of UCLA, who is perhaps the top Canadian gymnast in the world at the moment.

Kyra Hunter of Florida won both the coveted all-around title as well as an apparatus title on vault. The Gators finished a very close second to the Tide in the team competition with the Bruins of UCLA coming in a close third.

Next year, UCLA hosts the NCAA championships in the sport.

Since Monday was National Children's Day in Turkey, the country of my late father Mehmet Gokbudak, we thought we'd feature this image of a Turkish girl that we believe was taken at a large holiday festival in the resort town of Kusadasi.

During the last year when I lived in Turkey (we resided in Zonguldak province in the western Black Sea from 1977-79) Turkish Radio Television, also known as the TRT, started an international children's festival with delegations from other countries around the world.

This year, the participating countries included Egypt, Finland and South Korea.

Here in the United States, individual Turkish-American organizations, such as ATA-NC in Cary (Raleigh), NC, hold local events in honor of Children's Day.http://www.ata-nc.org

While researching this piece, we discovered that the most-celebrated Children's Day is actually on June 1st. It is celebrated in many former Soviet republics, including Armenia, Azerbaijan and (of course) Russia as well as former communist country, including Turkey's neighbor Bulgaria.

Quote of the Day/Week-Maya Angelou

First of all, thanks to our blog-readers in Bulgaria and Honduras. I've been to one of those countries-Bulgaria, though it was when I was a child 35 years ago. And, I've been close to Honduras with visits to Belize and Guatemala.

Today, we are quoting the great poet Maya Angelou who turned 84 yesterday. This is also National Poetry Month in America.

Angelou spent several years in Ghana during the 1960s. The poet, who is also known for being a Civil Rights activist, has in recent years been a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and she recited her poem "On the Rushes of Morning" during Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.

Here is her quote:

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

Virtual Postcard from Washington DC_ The National Zoo

Since we just got back from Washington, DC, we thought we'd share a Virtual Postcard with you of the National Zoo, even though we did not go to the esteemed zoo; in fact, we've never been there?!

To make this fun for you (thanks for those of you who are reading this in Bulgaria, we walked past your embassy), and quick for me, we thought we'd do a DC By the Numbers entry. We think most of these numbers are at least fairly accurate.

In addition, we threw in figures from some silly things we noticed, like the number of women wearing unseasonable shoes (one was even in flip flops?!), but we did not count the joggers or dog walkers, though a part of me wishes we had.

Here we go:

310- Number of miles between Politcs and Prose, an independant bookstore in Washington, DC, on Connecticut Avenue and The Regulator, an indy book outlet in Durham, NC.

61- Number of people we saw riding bicycles, motorcycles or vespas!

32- Number of museums in Washington, DC, this includes the National Zoo, the National Cathedral and Ford's Theatre

31_ Number of women wearing unseasonable shoes. In addition to the woman in flip flops, there was another woman in sandals.

27- Ah, yes, the annoying cute young couples, one can see them everywhere in DC. One couple who smooched as we were approaching Farragut North on the Red Line really took the cake. The girl looked like a fashion model, the guy looked like a chemistry lab geek. Go figure!

13_ Number of players on the Georgetown Hoyas' men's basketball roster.

10_ Number of Starbucks in Washington, DC, alone

7_Number of Starbucks in the DC suburb of Fairfax, Va.

5-Number of Starbucks in another DC 'burb of Bethesda, Md.

3- Number of animal shelters in DC, according to the search engine we used (ok, so it was Google). We certainly hope Helga, a gorgeous, spayed female black cat who is 5 years and two months old, finds a home soon. It has been reported that many pets, like people, are now homeless in DC. Go to warl.org to find out more Helga and other cats and dogs in the city.

2- The number of hours I expect to actually sleep tonight.

The Rabbitts Ears Quiz- Entering the Land of the Lost

Today, we focus on a children's tv show and cult classics, which lasted 43 episodes from 1974-76, before being remade into a tv show of the same name in 1991, and then a royal box office cinematic flop of the same name in 2009 with Will Farrell. The film, amazingly enough, somehow ballooned up to $100,000,000 in costs and it only regained $50,000,000 back. But, perhaps, if it got people in Sofia, Bulgaria, interested in a tv show from our childhood then it was all worth it!

All three incarnations of "Land of the Lost," which was yet another Sid and Marty Krofft venture, revolve around the Marshall family from Indiana. The father Rick, his son Will, and his daughter Holly all managed to get trapped in an alternative universe filled with dinosaurs and evil lizard people. So, I guess it's sort of like "Jurassic Park Meets Swiss Family Robinson" (I actually came up with that, excuse the temporary narcissism).

The agrresive lizard people were called Sleestak, in case it comes up at a Jeopardy game at a science-fiction convention. Of course, you will still get decked by a man from New Jersey who has read "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" at least 30 times.

Our question today is a relatively simple one. As I was browsing through a buyers guide on lunch boxes from tv shows of our vanishing youth, I was stunned by how much ones from the Krofftt series, which also included "H.R. Pufnstuf*" and "Sigmund and the Sea Monster" were going for. Sure enough, if you have the thermos with your "Land of the Lost" lunch box and you don't live in Malibu, Calif., you might make a down payment on your condo!

What is the (most expensive) "Land of the Lost" lunch box on e-bay worth; is the answer?:

A) $149

B) $179

C) $199

D) $224

*-The spelling for H.R. Pufnstuf (not Puffnstuff) on our tags is wrong; forgive us for the error!

PS_ The answer to last week's Bonus Road Trip, which asked how far Mount Airy, NC, is from Milwaukee, is B) 14 hours.

Quote of the Week-Italian Playwright Dario Fo

Today, we continue quoting famous Italians this month (and, we will add one in July) by quipping playwright Dario Fo (b. 1926) who is best-known for his play "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" (1970). Interestingly enough, the play had its American debut at the famed Washington, D.C., playhouse Arena Stage. The theatre is now performing the Tennessee Williams classic "The Glass Menagerie."

Fo's plays deal with themes, such as Italy's dealings with organized crime, the Catholic church's political stance on abortion and the Middle East.

Here is the quote from the playwright who also penned "Trumpets and Rasberries" (1981):

"Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state of affairs possible."

We first heard about Fo through a Jeopardy question, of all things.

SIDEBAR: This will give us a good preparation for our upcoming People with Long Names List, Part Two, which we hope to post within the next few weeks.

We have recently become more interested in tennis after watching an HBO documentary on the rivalry between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg between the years 1979-1982.

So, here are the results of today's women's quarterfinals tennis matches from Wimbledon.

For starters, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat the Austrian Tamira Paszek. The Russian tennis goddess Maria Sharapova destroyed Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. In a close match, Sabine Lisicki of Germany won over Marion Bartoli.

And, finally, it a match between two eastern Europeans with long, difficult games, the Czech star Petra Kvitova edged Bulgarian Tsetana Pironkova.

We certainly hope we got the results right, and perhaps more importantly spelled all these names correctly!

Yes, We Have Experienced Distractions

Since I have used the test pattern image from TRT (Turkish Radio Television) in the 1970s when I lived there from 1977-79 (though my late father was Turkish, I was born in America) and watched American shows such as "Space 1999" and "Flipper" many times on this blog, I thought I would go with the test patter from Bulgarian-TV around that same time. But, I had to settle with this test patter from Swedish TV instead. Somehow, I don't expect there was all that much difference between test patterns back then. Curiously, I'm not sure how often the test pattern comes up in the modern age. It could yet be another Casualty of Modern Technology.

Speaking of which, I just had to get up and change sides on a vinyl record version of "Stop Making Sense," a 1984 concert album from Talking Heads. I am now listening to "Once in a Lifetime," which may have inspired the Coen Brothers to make their quirky, dark comedies where a man's leg goes through a wood chipper in Minnesota.

While vinyl is making a comeback these days, so are zealous extreme forms of the Christian faith here in America. I respect people's faith, but when they start saying the world will end on Saturday (and, yes, there is a pretty significant group out there which has made this gloomy forecast), I think the rest of us have a Constitutional right to say: "Hmmmm...yes, you are insane."

Additionally, more businesses have actually implemented religion into the names of their hotels and restaurants, in addition to those that put "He Lives," "The Tomb is Empty" or "He is Risen" on their store marquees assuredly driving any Egyptian gas station managers to decide they would rather have a Whopper at Burger King.

Amazingly enough, there is apparently a restaurant called Jesus Kitchen, in North Hollywood, Calif., of all places.

And, if you want to make sure 'God is spending the night with you," then the Christ the King Motel in Kingsport, Tenn., a place I have seen for myself, might be the place for you as long as there are no Jews, Buddhists, Muslims or Hindus in your party. There is another Christ the King Motel in Beckley, W.Va., but we could not find out if the two places with the same name had the same owners. Assuredly, they may kick you out of your room if you come to the front desk to ask where the Coke machine is as you are dressed in a Slayer t-shirt.

Turkish Soccer Results....

It has been a busy hectic week, and it's only Monday?!

Anyway, it is for this very reason, that we are putting off some other blog entry projects until a day when life is as slow as it on a Sunday afternoon in War, West Virginia, in the far southwestern part of the state which is perhaps a good place to go (aside from an asylum or a prison) if you want to read all 1,225 pages of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in its entirety!

So, with that in mind, let's turn to sport as they say on the BBC, and here are the results from weekend action in the Turkish Premiere League. I should note that my late father came from Turkey, and since his favorite team was GalataSaray, I know he would want me to jeer those who root for their arch rival Fenerbahce, but alas those fill-in-the-blank Yellow Canaries** won as well!:


Kayseri 1 Eskisehir 1

Istanbul BB 1 Antalya 1

Gaziantep 1 Manisa 0

Ankara Genclerbrligi 2 Konya 1

Trabzon 2 Bucaspor 1

GalataSaray 3 Kasimpasha 1

Fenerbahce 1 Karabukspor 0

Sivas 1 Ankaragucu 1

It should be noted that the game between the BursaSpor Crocodiles* (yes, we don't think there are any crocs in Turkey, not even at the Ankara Zoo!) and the Besiktash Black Eagles was cancelled. We presume, given the fervent passion of the fans on both sides, it was for security reasons. Elif Batuman, a fellow Turkish-American I've never met, wrote an excellent, haunting piece about Besiktash fans for "The New Yorker" several issues ago. Amazingly enough, Che Guevara is one of the fans' icons! Since many of the most fervent soccer fans in Turkey are a bit right-wing, this came as quite a surprise to me!

And, as a gesture of ethnic political goodwill, which will of course do absolutely nothing to ease tensions between us Turks and our Armenian friends, I will mention that the three teams atop the Armenian Premiere League are Ulisses, Gandzasar and Pyunik.

As I jokingly tell my friends who have neither ethnic background, if a Turk and an Armenian happen to come across each other at a Buddhist temple during a mutual tourist visit to Bhutan, yes they would probably go at it!

But, as far as the dispute we have with our Greek comrades over who has the better yogurt and feta cheese, well, of course, it is us Turks! Of course, I'm overlooking the fact that an Egyptian friend of mine said that Bulgarians were actually better at making these products than either of us.


*-There is actually a notorious man-eating crocodile named Gustave in the central African country of Burundi; I wonder how that country's tourism department gets around that!

**- Yes, Turkish soccer teams have nickanmes which are almost as strange as some minor league baseball teams--my favorite nickname is the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers who are based in Appleton, Wisc., where there might be six people of Turkish and Armenian heritage combined!

Beers from Around the World_ Hansa from Norway (#44)

Today, we are reviving our Beers Around the World series with Hansa, a Norwegian brew that is produced in Bergen and Sarpsborg (Norway's second and fifth largest cities, respectively).

According to an Internet web site, it is apparently available in some parts of New Jersey. But, somehow, we don't expect halal markets in Paterson are the place to look, though when we have time we can ask Mayor Jeff Jones (yes, he is the mayor of Paterson) if he knows of a place to find Scandanavian beers in town. Of course, since I'm half-Turkish, I can make fun of halal markets where one can always find great yogurts actually, especially if they are from Bulgaria or Lebanon (I should say that Turkish yogurt is perfectly good too before I offend my constituency---not there are many here in Welch, W.Va*).

As for Hansa, it was founded in 1997 and the Hansa Borg brewery has 26 percent of the beer market in Norway. And, apparently, beer has been in Norway for close to one thousand years.

SIDEBAR: Earlier today, while taking a quiz on mentalfloss.com we learned that Crown and Sugarlof is the name of a London pub, which happens to be on Fleet Street (where the macabe musical play "Sweeney Todd" takes place) as opposed to a Charles Dickens story. Apparently, the pub has a very relaxed atmosphere and they are not open on Sundays, which makes me wonder if the owner might be someone from Provo, Utah?!

*-We don't actually live in Welch, W.Va, but we understand they have a great drive-in movie theatre there!