Remembering Andy Griffith

Though he was best know for his tv sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-68) which was set in fictional Mayberry, North Carolina; the town was based on the town of Mt.Airy in northwest North Carolina, which is located near Pilot Mountain and the Virginia border, Andy Griffith, who died this week at age 86, was also known for his towering performance as Lonesome Rhodes in the Elia Kazan film ("A Face in the Crowd").

Griifith is a North Carolina icon, and in this month issue of "Our State" magazine, a travel and leisure state magazine for North Carolina, Griffith was among those featured, along with NASCAR star Richard Petty and famed tv preacher Billy Graham.

"The Andy Griffith Show" is still popular in both the Greensboro, NC, and Roanoke, Va., markets where the reruns continue to run on weekday evening.

With Griffith's death, the oldest member of the adult cast (Ron Howard who played Opie is know an Oscar-winning film director) is Jim Nabors, who is 82.

Bonus Road Trip (5 of 10)_ Mayberry to Milwaukee

Today, we look at the distance between Mount Airy, NC, which is the real-life Mayberry as it is where Andy Griffith originally hails from (he is now retired in the North Carolina coastal village of Manteo, a bit far from Mount Airy), and Milwaukee.

Ron Howard, now a film director, was on both "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Happy Days," and hopefully, anyone logging in from somewhere like Karachi, Pakistan, has some familiarity with iconic American tv sitcoms from yesteryear. If not; oh well!

For this, we took the distance between Snappy Lunch in downtown Mount Airy, a town that borders Virginia, and WTMJ (Channel-4, Milwaukee).

And, the answer is:

A) 13 hours

B) 14 hours

C) 15 hours

D) 16 hours

SIDEBAR: We jokingly said that the winner of our "Rabbit Ears Quiz" grand prize was Aysegul Denizli, from Izmir, Turkey. This was a name we had conjured up off the top of our heads. But, there does indeed happen to be a real Aysegul Denizli. She is a marketing executive in Istanbul. What a coincidence?! We certainly hope she doesn't ask for her cat toy (that was the grand prize).

50 Beers Around the World #40- Guinness (Ireland)

Today's beer is one of the most popular exports here in les etats unis. Guinness Beer is also still the king of beers (oops, that is Budweiser's trademark, oh well!) in Ireland.

Guinness Beer was started by Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) in Dublin, accoding to Wikipedia. The info site also states that studies have shown that drinking Guinness is good for the heart. You may want to check with my fellow Turkish-American Dr. Oz before you head to the beer section of the Food Lion in Mount Airy, NC.

I must profess that if I had to share a beer with someone besides Uma Thurman, who would assuredly shun me as all gorgeous women seemingly do (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!), it would have to be Chevy Chase. As we stated in our last entry about the Turkish yogurt drink ayran, Chase once starred in a Turkish tv ad for Cola Turka, which people all over the globe can now see on Youtube, well with the exception of Pyongyang, North Korea, and Qom, Iran, perhaps.