Olympic Cities Destination Quiz (5 of 6)- Helsinki-Antwerp

Hey kids, for those of you who are not sitting at a multi-plex in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, watching "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises," we offer you free entertainment and a geography lesson as we look at the distance between Antwerp, Belgium, which hosted the Olympics way back in 1920, and Helsinki, Finland, which did the honors in 1952.

A mere 29 countries competed in Belgium, but among them was American swimmer Duke Kahanamoku (1890-1968), whew glad, we double-checked the spelling!, who won gold. He would later become an actor and an icon in his native Hawaii.

In Antwerp, Italian fencer Nedo Nadi (1894-1940) won a record five gold medals in his sport.

As for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, which had 69 countries participating, Soviet/Ukrainian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya (1921-2001) who might have the longest surname in Olympics history won an all-around gold medal in women's gymnastics and six medals overall. In 1990, she emigrated to Israel.

So, we are asking just how far apart these two European Olympics cities are from one another; is the answer:

A) 1,061 miles

B) 1,265 miles

C) 1,333 miles

D) 1,409 miles

Note: The above images are of the iconic Belgian comic book hero Tintin and his dog Snowy, and a member of the very unique Finnish band the Leningrad Cowboys.

Olympics Cities Destination Quiz (4 of 6) Melbourne-Munich

Today, we continue our Olympics Cities Destination quiz series in honor of the 2012 London Olympics, which start on July 29th, with a look at how far Melbourne, Australia, and Munich, Germany, are.

Apologies to our international audience as we are doing this in miles.

Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympics, which were the first ones held in Australia. They are one of  only two  summer games where athletic events were held outside the host country as equestrian events were held in Stockholm, Sweden; the other games where an event took place away from the home was 1920 Antwerp Olympics in Belgium, in which yachting events were held in neighboring Holland.

Some of the highlights of the Melbourne games were Australian men's swimmer Murray Rose (1939-2012) who died in April winning three gold medals; his teammate Dawn Fraser (pictured above) won two gold medals for the host country.

Munich hosted the 1972 Olympics which were greatly overshadowed by tragedy as Palestinian terrorist took 11 Israeli coaches and athletes hostage and later killed them in what became known as the Munich Massacre.

But, there were also tremendous athletic accomplishments in then-West Germany as American men's swimmer Mark Spitz, now 62, won seven gold medals which was recently surpassed by Michael Phelps.

Similarly, women's Soviet/Belarusian gymnast Olga Korbut, now 57, won three gold medals while also performing a ground-breaking backward somersault on the balance beam.

 Korbut was on a 1996 postage champ issued by the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan; she now lives in Arizona.

Quote of the Day/Week-Nastia Liukin

Today, we get back to quoting American athletes who won either or both gold and silver medals at the summer Olympics with a quote from Nastia Liukin, 22. Amazingly enough, her mother, former Soviet/Russian rhythmic gymnast Anna Kotchava, 42, is only six weeks older than me. Her father Valeri Liukin, 45, a former Soviet/Kazakh gymnast who won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics is Nastia's coach.

According to the May 15th edition of "The Inqusitir," Nastia Liukin, a native of Texas, intends to compete at the Olympic women's gymnastics team trials in San Jose, Calif., on June 28th. Those trials will determine which gymnasts get to compete at the 2012 London Olympics.

Here is Nastia's quote; we presume it's in regards to the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Shawn Johnson was one of her Olympic teammates) where she won gold:

"I think it's going to be a little more exciting and a little more confusing."

Quote of the Day/Week-Olga Korbut

Today, in honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics, we are quoting the great Belorussian gymnast Olga Korbut who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1972 Munich Olympics and again at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, which saw the emergence of Romanian gymnastics star Nadia Comaneci. Korbut, 56, who now lives in Arizona, won four gold medals and two silvers during her Olympic career.

We quoted Korbut back in November when we were quoting famous Russians. We quickly saw on Korbut's Wikipedia page that we had whoops!, made a major mistake. Today, Belarus and Russia are two separate countries.

Here is her quote:

"This is probably why, my life is easier, and my family is very happy, because we never lie (to) each other."

Things We Learned on Google Today_ All Things Azerbaijan

Today, we conclude our look at the 15 former Soviet Republics which are now independent nations (the early entries, including Uzbekistan, ran on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire") and we end it all with Azerbaijan, the only country of the 15 that we've actually been to.

From Google, we learned that Elin Suleymanov, an alumnus of The University of Toledo in Ohio, is the new Azeri ambassador to the United States, as of late October. Suleymanov speaks Russian, English, Turkish and Czech.

His counterpart in Baku, the Azeri capital, is Matthew J. Bryza, who was appointed as the American ambassador to Azerbaijan in January.

We also learned that Ganja, with a population of 313,000 in western Azerbaijan is the country's second largest city after Baku. It is sister cities with Newark, NJ, and Izmir, Turkey. When Ganja was in the Soviet Union, the city was called Kirovabad.

Ganja also has a significant Armenian population since it is relatively close to the border with Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia have had many ethnic clashes since both countries became independent 20 years ago.

Prior to our googling venture today, we learned many other things about Azerbaijan from an excellent article about the country in the Sept./Oct. issue of "Mental Floss, including the legend that the quaint city of Lerik, near the Iranian border has a high number of people who live to be 100 or more.

Apparently, and according to the article, a "New York Times" reporter came across one such resident in 1998 who claimed he was 121 years old. The man reportedly said that fresh air and easy living were why he had lived so long.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Gyumri is Armenia's Second City

Today, we continue our look at former republics of the Soviet Union that are now independent countries with a look at Armenia. By the way, we think this sheep is from Scotland. Armenia is a predominantly rural country that overlooks Mount Ararat, with lots of hills, and therefore, lots and lots of sheep.

As it is, since I am a Turkish-American (Turkey and Armenia are traditional rivals, and yes there is a controversial, dark chapter of history between the two sides which we are not going into), there are plenty of other things I will need to do here, including making sure that I have spelled Armenia's prime minister Tigran Sargsyan's name correctly. Sargsyan is relatively close to age to President Barack Obama, as he is 51, which makes him a year older than Obama.

Gyumri is actually the answer to what is Armenia's second largest city behind the capital Yerevan. It is in fairly close proximity to Kars, Turkey.

In May of 2010, Gyumri was the site of major political demonstrations organized by the Armenian National Congress. During these protests, former prime minister Hrant Bagratian criticized the government in Yerevan, according to Radio Free Europe.

Gyumri has a population of 168, 918, roughly the same size as the American city of Greenville, South Carolina. Gyrumi has many historic Orthodox churches, including Saint Jacob and Holy Mother of God.

The city is also home to a large domestic brewery and the Armenian League soccer team FC Shirak, a team that has a player named Hovhannes Tahmazyan, who turns 42 in January (wow!).

Gyumri is also the hometown of Soviet Olympic weight-lifting great Yurik Vardanian who won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

This is the next-to-last profile of former Soviet states in our series. The final entry will be dedicated to Azerbaijan.

SIDEBAR: We wanted to give a quick update from yesterday's first round NCAA women's volleyball games. The University of North Carolina Tarheels prevailed over the tenth ranked California Bears in a game that was played in 'neutral' Malibu, Calif., which is considerably closer to Berkeley than Chapel Hill.

The 'Heels won the match 3-2 (25-17, 16-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9). Junior Emily McGee lead the way with 23 kills and 18 digs for UNC. The 'Heels now face Pepperdine on the California school's home court.

But, the 'other UNC' the University of Northern Colorado was swept by Hawaii in a game that didn't finish until the wee hours of the morning on the east coast as it was played in Honolulu. The final score of that match was 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-15). Hawaii had a 29-1 record coming into the match, and were highly favored; they will next play Colorado State.

It was also a bad day for UNC's traditional rival Duke University (the two teams only played each other once this year in Durham, NC, a game that Duke won) as they fell to Tennessee 3-1 in a game that was played on the Lady Vols' home court; the Vols next face Ohio State.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Kutaisi is Georgia's Second City

In case you are wondering, the image above is of Kazbegi Beer (well we ran into a tech glitch so the image is of Georgian folk dancing instead, but all beer bottles look similar, don't they?!), which is the most popular brew in Georgia, as in Tblisi not Atlanta.

The former Soviet republic of Georgia is now an independent nation though it has been dealing with ethnic unrest as Abhazia and South Ossetia, two states within Georgia, want independent nationhood status for themselves, much as Chechnya wants a divorce from Russia. If all of this is confusing, then just ask Condi Rice to clarify it for you (not that we are Republicans here).

Kutaisi has a population of 186,000, and it has Georgia's second highest population behind the capital Tblisi. Kutaisi, which is some 150 miles west of Tblisi, is relatively close to the geographic center of Georgia.

The city also sits along both banks of the Rioni River (yes, we got all this info from Wikipedia), and it is bounded by the northern Imereti foothills. Much like neighboring Azerbaijan, Georgia has hot summers and cold winters.

FC Torpedo Kutaisi is the local soccer team, and the landmark attraction in Kutaisi is the Bagrati Cathedral, which is now in ruins.

As for the Georgia where former president Jimmy Carter grew up and still resides, Augusta is the state's second largest city. We wrongly assumed it was Savannah, which is actually the Peach State's fourth largest city.

THE WHOOPS DEPARTMENT: In Saturday's entry, I did not spell liberal reporter Suzy Khimm's name correctly; we did in fact spell it as Suzy Khim. She has an excellent Twitter page, which I highly recommend, even if the person reading this happens to be Condi Rice. Khimm wrote an excellent article in the December 2010 issue of "Mother Jones," which is actually to the left of me, about Virginia's militant far right wing Republican attorney general whose name I can't spell any way.

PS_ The answer to our "Rabbit Ears Quiz" from last week was c) 31. "Star Trek" had 79episodes whereas "Space 1999" had 48 episodes. Thus, 31 is the mathematical difference between them. Aysegul Denizli* of Izmir, Turkey, won our grand prize for guessing the correct answer. Our grand prize is indeed an 8-track tape from the
'70s of American honky tonk truck-driving songs.

*- Fake name, though there might very well be a woman somewhere in the world with that name! And, there were no prizes for guessing correctly.....

Quote of the Week- Olga Korbut

Today's quote of the week comes from Olga Korbut, (whoops! I just realized she is from Belarus, not Russia) as we quote famous "Russians." Korbut (b. 1955) was a famed Olympic gymnast who won gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Here is her quote:

"It's better to have a rich soul than to be rich."

Things We Learned on Google Today- Latvia's Second Largest City is the Same Size as Roanoke, Va.

On Google today, we learned that the former Soviet republic of Latvia's second largest city, after the capital Riga, is Daugavplis. With a population of between 102,000-111,000, it indeed has the same population as my hometown of Roanoke, Va.

Daugavplis, Lativa, is located on the Daugav River, which is where the city got its name. The city is also surrounded by lakes and nature parks, according to Wikipedia (I have never been to Latvia myself).

As for the country of Latvia, they are known for beer and folk dancing as well as bob sledding, including Mihalis Arhipovs, 26, who competed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

It should be pointed out that we had problems getting an image of Latvian bobsledders, so we settled for an image of the Jamaican bobsledding team instead!

This is the tenth entry in our series of former Soviet republics which are now independent countries; the last one we profiled was Tajikistan, which is, assuredly, a long way from Latvia.

Things We Learned on Google Today- When in Tajikistan...

When in Tajikistan, the latest country we are looking at in our series on former Soviet republics that are now independent countries, one should speak Tajik. It is the official language of Tajikistan, and according to Google and Wikipedia, the Persian-type language is also spoken widely in neighboring Uzbekistan.

Here are some other facts about the landlocked nation:

1) The capital and largest city of Tajikistan is Dushande.

2) Tajikistan was part of the Samandi Empire (existed from circa 800-1000 A.D) which also included parts of Afghanistan, Iran and Russia.

3) The Russians Are Coming was perhaps first uttered in 1864 when the Ruskies invaded Tajikistan, which later lead to it becoming a Soviet republic.

4) Sadly, Tajikistan is the poorest country in central Asia, and the country suffered a major famine in 2001.

5) Amazingly enough, there is a small Jewish population in Tajikistan; they call themselves the Bukhara Jews.

6) Tajikistan is a land-locked country that borders Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan and Krgyzstan.




SIDEBAR: Tomorrow, we will start a special three-part series on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. Among the entries we hope to post is one Marie-Rae Sopper, who was slated to become the new women's gymnastics coach at the University of California-Santa Barbara. She was killed on her way to California aboard Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon. Sopper, who was a collegiate stand-out at Iowa State, was 35 years old.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Chisinau is the Capital of Moldova

Well, since we couldn't find any good images of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova which has a population of 700,000 people, we thought we'd go with this image of Iana Varnacova, who is 19 or 20 years old. She happens to also be known as Miss Moldova 2008.



This is the eighth entry in our series of looks at countries that were republics in the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan, which is quite far from Moldova, was our last entry.



Moldova is a landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine. Romanian is Moldova's official language, and the main religion is Orthodox Christian. Stuffed cabbage rolls are a popular dish in Moldova.



SIDEBAR ONE: We loved this tweet from comic actor Rainn Wilson of tv's "The Office" yesterday: "Obama single-handedly kills 87 Al Qaida militants with Dragon-style kung fu. GOP questions why he didn't fight Tiger-style." Yeah, I imagine Michele Bachmann would say something like that!



SIDEBAR TWO: While we are profoundly kiskanc (Turkish word for jealousy) of Thomas Mars, lead singer of the French band Phoenix, we wish him and his new wife, filmmaker Sofia Coppola well. They were married yesterday in Italy. We weren't able to find out if Bill Murray, who starred in Sofia's most famous film "Lost in Translation" was among the guests.

Things We Learned on Google Today- President of Turkmenistan Has Very Long Name

We don't have a list of every world leader in front of us, but we firmly believe that Turkmenistani President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov has the longest surname of them all! He became president of Turkmenistan in 2007 after replacing 'president for life' Sapurmurat Niyazov who died in December of 2006.



The current president, like the man before him, has been cited for human rights abuses by Amnesty International (amnesty.org), but hey we worry more about Republicans here! And, in all seriousness, while human rights abuses are a serious matter, I want to focus on this very remote country that few Americans have probably been to.



The capital of Turkmenistan is Ashagabat, which sounds like a city in a "Harry Potter" book, which has a population of 695,300.



Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan border this former Soviet Republic.



There is apparently lots of unique cuisine in Turkmenistan, including the national dish plov (pictured here) which consists of mutton, rice and carrots.



Blogger Jon Rosenweig visited Turkmenistan and he discovered some other foods there, including chorek, which sounds similar to the Turkish dish borek, both of which consist of baked bread. There is also kohlbasa, a lunch dish made from fried kielbas with onions and boiled eggs.



Turkmenistan is the seventh former Soviet republic we have profiled in this series; Belarus was the pervious one.



SIDEBAR_ He's back. "Independent Weekly" in Durham, NC, is reporting that fringe Republican candidate Vernon Robinson will challenge Cong. Larry Kissel (D-NC), a moderate in North Carolina's 8th district.



Robinson, who has been nicknamed The Black Jesse Helms, challenged Cong. Brad Miller (D-NC) in 2006, even though he does not reside in Miller's 13th district.



To our knowledge, the only political office that Robinson has ever held was in Winston-Salem where he was a city council member who allegedly missed a lot of meetings.



Robinson also managed to get lots of media attention, even outside of North Carolina, for his racist anti-Hispanic ads back in 2006.

Things We Learned on Google Today- All Things Belarusian

Today, we continue our look at the former Soviet republics that are now independent countries with a look at Belarus. Though known for some dubious things, such as the fact that President Alexander Lukoshenko has ruled the nation with an iron fist since 1994. This lead former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to say that 'Belarus was the last true remaing dictatorship in Europe.' Assuredly, Hillary Clinton, in spite of political differences, would agree with that sentiment.

We asked Google what the population of the capital city of Minsk was, and the answer is 1,837,000 people. The whole country of Belarus has a population of 9.5 million.

But, one of the most famous people from Belarus, former Olympic gymnast Svetlana Bogenskaya (pictured here), born 1973, lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and two kids. Editorial comment: Are there any gorgeous women who aren't taken? The gymnast won gold on vault at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and she retired at a late age (for gymnasts) in 1997.

She is still active with gymnastics as she has an online retail business selling sporting equipment pertaining to gymnastics.

Things We Learned on Wikipedia This Week- Capital of Kazakhstan

We are continuing our look at former republis of the Soviet Union today with Kazakhstan. The second largest former Soviet republic behind Russia was made famous/infamous by the film "Borat" (2006) starring Sacha Baron Cohen as the fake television reporter from Kazakhstan.

The film, which was in my top five list for the best films of 2006, will always be a special to me because the rodeo scene where Borat/Cohen tricked rodeo-goers into singing a butchered verison of "The Star Spangled Banner" was filmed at a rodeo in my hometown of Salem, Va. And, just today, I saw that the Internet Movie Database indicated one of the film's factual goofs is that it shows Salem, which neighbors the larger city of Roanoke, as being in the eastern part of Virginia as opposed to southwest Virginia.

Many of the Kazkakhstan village scenes for the movie were actually filmed in Romania. In one of the scenes, the audience is introduced to Borat's neighbor Nursultan Tuyakbey, who is a cross between the names of the current Kazak president/dictator Nursultan Nazabayev and his political opponent in the mid-2000s Zharmakan Tuyakbey.

In April, Nazabayev ran virtually unopposed and got close to 100 percent of 'the vote.'

Today's question is what is the capital of Kazakhstan? Is the answer:

A) Alma Ata

B) Astana

C) Chimkent

D) Pavlador

This is the fifth of 17 entries in this series, and the first one presented in trivia question form. The other four Soviet republics in this series were Uzbekistan, Russia, Kyrgzstan* and (the) Ukraine.

*-This has to be one of the hardest countries in the world to spell!

SIDEBAR: My friend Bruce Piephoff, a folk singer in Greensboro, NC, may not be heading out to Kazakhstan for a concert anytime soon, but he will be performing a live set for WXDU (88.7-FM, Durham), the student-run radio station of Duke University at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. My personal favorite song of his might very well be "I Remember Asheville," even though I've only been Asheville, NC, one time!

Things We Learned on Google Today- Bishkek is the Capital of Kyrgyzstan

It has been a long time since we posted a Things We Learned on Google Today entry. May 5th was the last date to be exact. But, we continue with our look at the 13 former republics in the Soviet Union with a look at Kyrgyzstan. It was the only republic I forgot in a "Mental Floss" quiz on the magazine's web site, and it might very well be the hardest country to spell in the world: K-Y-R-G-Y-Z-STAN.

Bishkek is indeed the capital city of...here we go again...., and the city has a population of 762,308, which means that it is a lot larger than the hamlet of War, West Virginia.

The capital city is located in the Chuy Province and the city's name is also the name of the country's national drink, which is a milk beverage.

Bishkek is surrounded by rivers and mountains and the city is relatively close to the border with Kazakhstan, the country that Borat made famous/infamous in the film "Borat." Incidentally, the hilarious rodeo scene in "Borat" was filmed in my hometown of Salem, Va. (near Roanoke).

Amazingly enough, there is actually a Catholic church in Bishkek, though the country is predominantly Muslim.

Both liberals and conservatives in America has criticized this country with a long name for various reasons, including human rights abuses and religious intolerance, but we are not here to be political (did I just say that?!).

The country has also had considerable ethnic strife which makes international headlines quite frequently, though much of that unrest has lost media attention due to the uprisings in places like Libya and Syria. And, to be honest, we are not sure how well the former Soviet republic is managing right now, but we certainly wish them well. We also forgot to check is there was a McDonald's in Bishkek.

SIDEBAR: Maine is the apparently the place to be here on the east coast as it is a cool 76 degrees in the state's capital city of Augusta. In comparison, the weather in the mid-Atlantic region was periliously hot as my hometown of Roanoke, Va., was at 93 degrees. Greensboro, NC, was almost as hot at 91 degrees. And, to top it off, Bethesda, Maryland, our favorite suburb, was 96 degrees. Thsi reminds me, I really need to get my air-conditioner fixed!

Quote of the Week- Red Emma Goldman

Today, we conclude our series of quotes from left-wing radicals with a quip from Red Emma Goldman (1869-1940), who may even more lived a more interesting,well-travelled, and certainly less tragic life than her fellow Bolshevik Leon Trotsky.

Goldman is described by Wikipedia as being known for anarchism and giving fiery speeches.

She helped develop the anarchist philosophy of North America. Goldman was born in Lithunia, which became a republic of the Soviet Union (today it is an independent state). She moved to New York in 1885, where she would help create the anarchist journal "Mother Earth" (not to be confused with "Mother Earth News"). The publication lasted from 1906 to 1917.

Goldman was exiled back to the Soviet Union in 1917, but she was not impressed by what she saw. Though it did not change her political ideology, the experience lead to Goldman's penning "My Disillusionment in Russia" (1923), which was very critical of the violence that she witnessed there.

The anarchist leader eventually moved to Canada, where she died in Toronto at age 70.

We should add that while we find Goldman an interesting political figure, and we aren't certainly not in Newt Gingrich's corner (in fact, we think he and Goldman are more or less equally far apart from the political center), by any means, we think it is safe to say Goldman's views are startling to this day and we in now way endorse them. This quote by her illustrates that point quite vividly:

"We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet, we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs form flying machines upon helpless citizens."

SIDEBAR- It has been quite the scorcher in the states of Virginia and North Carolina since Sunday. Over the last two days, the following high temperatures were either reported or expected in Virginia: Richmond, 97; Roanoke, 92; Blacksburg, 90; and Appomattox, 100 (?!). Meanwhile in North Carolina, things are not any cooler: Raleigh, 98; Charlotte, 98, Greensboro, 97; Wilmington, 94----perhaps it is a good time to escape to Maine!

What We Are Working On.....

Since a lot has happened in the world since I last blogged on Thursday and I am now done looking at emails from L.L. Bean (apologies to the Maine-based company, but nice white shorts are not my priority right now!), I will give you the reader a glance of what to expect on this blog this week.

1. Since May 1st is a day associated with radical socialists, we will start quoting famous people from the far-left starting on Tuesdays this month. Though I'm not one myself, I love agitating Republicans, well except my good friends attorney Johann Hallbjorn in Bethesda, Maryland (the Icelandic name is a fake name, and Johann doesn't live in the DC Metro area), and journalist Aarne Eerikainen in Knoxville, Tenn.,(the Finnish name is also a fake name as well and Aarne doesn't have anything to do with the Volunteer State---that we are aware of).

2. On Wednesday, we will have a quote from a famous novelist. Perhaps, you've already read his book on Kindle?! Other quips from other authors will follow on Wednesdays in May.

3. On Thursday, we are planning to actually write a serious entry (?!) on how I came close to being at the scene of a terrorist bombing, not involving the now deceased eshol eshek (Turkish word for son of a donkey; it is a high insult there) Osama bin Laden, on strangely enough Sept. 10, 2001, in Istanbul, Turkey. The blast, which was a suicide bombing, killed two Istanbul police officers whom I had physically seen some 20 minutes prior to their untimely deaths. The bombing also killed an Australian tourist named Amanda Rigg, who was only 22.

Rigg's story was the feature of a 2007 "Sydney Morning Herald" I found on the web. Her death unfortunately became a bureaucratic nightmare for her family in Australia as the government would not let them recieve monetary compensation for her death as they had with terrorism victims in more universally recognized incidents, such as the bombing at a resort on the island of Bali in Indonesia. My interest in writing about my own experience again is due to the death of bin Laden, and the impact that terrorism leaves on all of us, irregardless of how large or small such incidents are in scale.

4) On a lighter note, this Friday, we hope to officially start a new series called "Things We Learned on Google Today." It will begin with a look at a country that was a republic in the former Soviet Union. We may not start with Kyrgystan since it was the only country from the old USSR that I could not name on a mentalfloss.com quiz! I did manage to get the other 12 right though.

Incidentally, we've included The Smurfs and their villain Gargamel here because they have been invading my dreams lately. We learned about them in research for this entry, but alas due to time constraints, we will share those unique little things some other time!

Beers Around the World (#48)- Saku Beer (Estonia)

We are on the verge of closing out our Beers Around the World series, and today we choose one of the smallest and newest members of the European Union, the former Soviet Republic of Estonia, which is one of the three Baltic Sea nations, including Latvia and Lithunia.

Estonia has a population of 1.34 million, and the capital city there is Tallinn. But, Saku Beer is brewed in the city of Saku, Estonia.

The Saku Brewery is as old as Estonia itself (politically speaking) as it formed in 1991 when the old USSR fell apart. Saku Beer is now listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange, and it has 40 percent of the domestic market.

Saku Beer is also the sponsor of Tartu Ulikol, a pro basketball team in Estonia.

As for the country, Andrus Ansip is the current prime minister. And, Estonia is the wealthiest of the former Soviet republics. It was also a place where the new Jim Carrey film "I Love You, Phillip Morris" which only opened in a small number of cinemas here is America was a big hit for reasons that no one is quite sure of.