Top Ten Lists, Obscure World Capitals, Latin America Edition

You know you are getting old when you make a comment like 'don't drink the Kool Aid' and a 19-year-old kid who is going to Duke University in Durham, NC, and should thus be smarter than you,doesn't get the joke.

But back in 1978, one psychotic minister named Jim Jones did indeed orchestrate a mass suicide of around 900 people, most of whom had followed Jones from San Fransico to the small country of Guyana in the northeast corner of South America.

Guyana is one of ten countries that we are listing here as we give the names of various capital cities in Latin America.


1. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean)

2. Paramaribo, Suriname (South America)

3. Quito, Ecuador (South America)

4. Bridgetown, Barbados (Caribbean)

5. Georgetown, Guyana (South America)

6. Asuncion, Paraguay (SA)

7. St. George's, Grenada (Car.)

8. Belmopan, Belize (Central America)

9. Managua, Nicagua (CA)

10. San Jose, Costa Rica (CA)

Republican Humor- Dear Casey

The following is meant to be political satire. Just so everyone in Generation Z or those of you from Belarus get the joke, Dear Casey or The Long Distance Dedication was a segment that was "Casey's Top 40," an American fm-radio music show when I was a teenager in the 1980s.


"Dear Casey:


I know that even though you are a political liberal like myself and a fellow person of Middle-Eastern heritage, you may hesitate to play this song for a truck driver I don't know in Sioux City, Iowa, as I am making this request for poltical reasons. Casey, I am afraid that the Republicans will nominate another execution-happy evangelist governor of Texas for their presidential candidate, and should Rick Perry actually become president I would have to flee America for Costa Rica or Iceland. Even though I'm sure those countries are wonderful places, I am not fluent in either Spanish or Icelandic, and I imagine this would make life very difficult for me. So, Casey, it is for these reasons that I am dedicating Conway Twitty's 1973 smash hit "You've Never Been This Far Before" to that truck driver I don't know in Sioux City, Iowa, in the hopes that_ and I never thought I'd say this_ vote for Mitt Romney in his town straw poll."

Conway Twitty (1933-1993) is alas no longer with us. I am actually a fan of his music (believe it or not) even though I'm not usually a listener of country music. Twitty was originally from Helena, Arkansas, and he is also known for his "Hello Darlin'" which was a big hit for him in 1971. Anyone living in the Chapel Hill, NC, area (not where I reside) may find vinyl records of his albums at All Day Records in nearby Carrboro, NC.

Casey Kasem is thankfully alive and well at age 79, which means that if Twitty were still alive they would be about the same age. Kasem was born in Detroit, and is active in both politically liberal and Arab-American causes (I am actually a Turkish-American). In addition to the famous radio show he hosted, Kasem was the voice of Shaggy on the original "Scooby-Doo," which first aired in 1969.

Status Update_ Today Has Been a Fairly Rotten Day

There are always days which fall through the cracks for whatever reason, and for me today was one of those days.

But, while discovering this image of rotten bananas, we were able to research the banana fruit and learn some relatively interesting and potentially useful information.

Bananas are native to South and Southeast Asia. The fruit is grown in 107 countries. Bananas became cultivated in Latin America by the Portuguese.

The top five banana-producing countries are India, the Philippines, China, Ecuador, and Brazil. Costa Rica which produces many of the bananas found on American grocery store shelves ranks eighth in world production.