Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight_ Obama Celebrates Team USA Golds

Lots of tweets tonight regarding the 2012 London Olympics; let's jump in the pool:

1) @CaseyMatthews50: "Congrats to Oregon Alum Galen Rupp for taking silver today in the 10k!"

2) @BarackObama: "President Obama celebrating the Olympic and Paraolympic athletes of Team USA in his weekly address."

3) @UCLAAthletics: "All-time UCLA medal count now up to 242 after Mark Hunter's silver in rowing," (the middle image is of the UCLA mascot).

4) @forrestfire: "Quit Russian around and Czech out the  Olympics. I'm covered in Greece from the Turkey I ate earlier, but I'm still Hungary. Poland."

5) @destineehooker: "Sweet dreams everyone. USA x Turkey tomorrow." (The top image is of American women's indoor volleyball player Destine Hooker. Turkey, ranked eighth in the world in the sport, plays the USA, ranked first, tomorrow in a highly anticipated game.)

6) @StayAdventurous: "In battle of beautiful women Czech Republic beat Brasil today." (Indeed, Czech women's beach volleyball players Marketa Slukova and Kristyna Kolocova upset the Brazilian duo of Maria Antonelli and Talita Antunes. The image below is actually of a beach volleyball game in Turkey. The tweeter splled Brazil as Brasil. There is a photo of the Czech duo posing topless_with hands covering bare breasts on the net_but, we don't want to lose readers in Dubai!).

http://www.usavolleyball.com

http://www.tvf.org.tr

http://www.uclabruins.com

http://www.goducks.com

http://kolocova_slukova.cz

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (2 of 6)_ Mexico City to Rome

Well, we couldn't find a mascot for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, but Pique the chilli pepper was the mascot for the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico 18 years later (Argentina won that cup).

Since 1968 was a year of political turmoil in the United States, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, China, Argentina....ok, you get the idea, there were two major political protests at the Olympics in Mexico City. In America, the most-known protest involved two African-American athletes Tommie Smith, now 68, who won gold in the 200 meter relay, and John Carlos, now 67, who gave the black power salute during the playing of the American national anthem at their medal ceremony. Interestingly enough, the silver medal winner in that race the late Australian runner Peter Norman (1942-2006) politically supported the protests.

The Mexico City Olympics, which featured athletes from 112 countries, also featured a protest from Czechoslavakian gymnast Vera Caslavska (who would now compete for the Czech Republic), now age 70, a winner of four gold medals at the games who bowed her head in protest when the Soviet Union's national anthem was played after the balance beam final.

The 1960 Rome Olympics were also quite eventful as two African-American athletes came home with gold medals including the late Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994) who won three gold medals in track, and Muhammad Ali who won gold in the light heavyweight boxing class.

So how far in Mexico City from Rome?

Is the answer:

A) 6,273 miles

B) 6,373 miles

C) 6,473 miles

D) 6,573 miles

The answer to yesterday's quiz is that "Hogan's Heroes" ran for 166 episodes.

Quote of the Day- Martina Navratilova

Today, we quote tennis legend Martina Navratilova, 55, as we continue to quote famous people from each of the 16 countries in the Euro 2012 Cup which are taking place in Poland and Ukraine.

Though, Navratilova has been an American citizen since 1991 and she sought political asylum from then-Czechoslvakia in 1975 at age of 19, she is undoubtedly one of the most famous people from the Czech Republic, along with the recently deceased playwright/prime minister Vaclav Havel.

Navratilova was in the news in 2010 when she announced that she had been treated for breast cancer. She is also an avid gay rights supporter.

Here is her quote:

"I've been in the twilight of my career longer than most people had their career."

http://www.martinanavratilova.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Vaclav Havel

Today, we conclude our month-long series of quotes from famous people who died in 2011 with a quip from Vaclav Havel, a Czech playwright/essayist who also became the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic when they formally divorced from Slovakia. Havel was also a dedicated opposition human rights leader when Czechoslovakia was under communism.

There are seemingly few writers who go on to become political leaders. The only one we can think of at the moment is the late Bulent Ecevit, a poet and journalist who became prime minister and president of Turkey. Ecevit is most-known for being the Turkish prime minister in 1974 when Turkey and Greece fought a brief, but ugly war in Cyprus.

Havel died on Dec. 18, 2011, at the age of 75; here is his quote:

"Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world around you."

Things We Learned on Google Today- Kharkiv is Ukraine's Secnd Largest City

Hmm....Google is not always correct about everything. When I asked Google who was the Ukraine's most famous athlete. It/They responded with Anna Kournikova, the retired RUSSIAN tennis starlett who is more known for her off-the-court life as she was in a relationship with some pop star (yaaaaawn!).

Of course, another hot Russian female tennis player has been making more headlines lately and that is Maria Sharapova who lost yesterday in the Wimbledon women's tennis championship to Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic. Sharapova is also engaged to some Serbian NBA player (yaaaaaaaawn again!).

But, Google did tell us that Kharkiv, not Odessa (which is actually the fourth largest Ukrainian city) is the country's second largest city. It ranks behind Kiev, but ahead of the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk, which may have the longest name for any major city in Europe.

Kharkiv has 1.46 million people, and it is known for its metro system and Freedom Square. It is also sister cities with Cincinnati, Ohio, which is best known for its baseball team (ironically called the Reds, forgive the Cold War humor) and for being the setting of a 1970s sitcom set in a radio station which Ukrainians are probably not too familiar with.

The city also has The Annuciation Cathedral, which is one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world. Kharkiv also has many Bronze artificats, and it is the hometown of weightlifter Igor Rybak.

Since the city was occupied by Nazi forces in World War II, there is some dark history in Kharkiv as 300,000 of the city's Jewish resident were killed during the Holocaust.

The city is in the northern part of the Ukraine. I wonder if there chicken is as good as the chicken in Kiev....well, we couldn't resist!

This is actually the fourth in our series on profiles of former Soviet Republics. The other three were Uzbekistan, Russia and Kygystan, which is arguably the hardest country in the world to spell!

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!

Status Update- I Have Not Been Kidnapped by Aliens

Many people have been wondering if I was kidnapped or if I had flown to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, to get away from it all as it has been eight days since our last blog entry here.

But, I am alive and well.....hmm, well for the most part. (We try to avoid personal details here though I did almost start a blog about my bout with prostatitis in
2008; it is a prostate problem involving frequent urination).

There is apparently an Australian play called "Tom Stoppard is Dead." It is refering to the famous playwright Tom Stoppard, who is originally from what is now the Czech Republic but he resides in England. Stoppard, who was also born in 1937, is in fact alive, but the play is a take on his famous early 1967 play "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead." Nevertheless, one has to wonder what Stoppard made of the title.

Another person who is alive and well is the actor George Segal who I recently saw in the 1965 film "Ship of Fools," which is sort of like a serious version of "The Love Boat" and featured a lot of famous actors, including the late Lee Marvin, who is one of my favorite screen stars. Segal turned 76 in February.

Segal, like Steve Martin, is also an accomplished banjo player. And, we learned that he was the actor who was originally in mind to play Dudley Moore's character in the movie "10," which made Bo Derek famous (it should not be confused with the acclaimed Iranian film of the same name for well obvious reasons!). Alas, Dudley Moore is no longer with us.

Another actor who is alive who was seemingly disappeared is Emilio Estevez. While his brother Charlie Sheen has made a public ass of himself, Estevez has been living a quiet life. In 2010, he starred and directed in the low budget film "The Way" which also featured his dad Martin Sheen. Estevez, who is perhaps best known for his role in "The Breakfast Club" is now almost 50 years old! (He was born in 1961).

50 Beers from Around the World (#42 Pillsner Urgell from Czech Rep.)

Today we feature the very popular brew Pillsner Urgell from the Czech Republic, which is widely available in America. The brew is the original pillsner brand, which has spread all over the world to include the likes of the Turkish beer Efes Pilsen and the Mexican beer Pacifico.

Pillsner Urgell started in Pilsen (in Bohemia), and it is now also brewed in Poland and Russia. The beer has a heavier body, but it has less alcohol than most American beers.

According to the web site czechbeerguide.com, one of the best bars in Prague, the Czech capital, is U Flecku.

Here is les etats unis, if one is in Dallas, Tex., The Libertine Bar, which has Tempura Asparagus for $8, is open tomorrow. We are not sure at what point!