Bonus Picture to Fill Space- Big Bass

Today, since we are behind with entries, we are featuring an entry of a big bass, this one presumably caught in a river or lake in Texas.

For those residing near Clarkesville, Georgia, there will be a senior fishing rodeo at Moccasin State Park from 8:00-11:00 a.m.; for more info, one can call (706) 947-3194.

SIDEBAR ONE: For those who like the intellectual side of sports, the public radio series "Only A Game" broadcast nationally through WBUR/Boston will feature a segment on the controversial new Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen (hmmm...we just realized the Marlins might be the only pro sports team with the name of a fish) who surprisingly praised Cuba's Fidel Castro, which did not go over to well whttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifith Miami's Cuban-American community.

SIDEBAR TWO: Kudos to the following six women's college gymnastics teams (the other six are listen on our other blog "The Daily Vampire") for qualifying for nationals:

Champaign, Ill., Regionals: 1. Oklahoma 2. Stanford; Auburn, Ala., Regionals: 1. Georgia 2. Oregon State; Seattle Regionals: 1. Alabama 2. LSU

Bonus Road Trip (7 of 10)- Columbia, Mo., to The Indepence Bowl

Since we originally started the Road Trip series back in the spring of this year, we set out to try and cover every state, including Alaska and Hawaii (for the Aloha State, we used a short drive on the island of Maui). And, we think got all the states except for possibly Missouri.

So, we are including the Show Me State here just to be 100-percent certain. Since we are sort of based in North Carolina, this may seem like high treason as the University of North Carolina Tarheels will face the Missouri Tigers for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

This is actually an early bowl as it will be played on Monday, Dec. 26, at 5:00 p.m./Chapel Hill, NC, time.

For this entry, we chose two Mexican restaurants as our points of destination. La Siesta on North 9th Street in Columbia, Missori, the city where the Tigers are based, is the Mexican restaurant for Mizzou. And, for Shreveport, we have chosen Superior Grill, which also has three other restaurants in Louisiana and one in Alabama. In Sheveport, the restaurant can be found on Lime Avenue.

If you are in Chapel Hill, NC, we saw that our friends at the Turkish restaurant Tallula's on Franklin Street about 15 hours and 30 minutes from the Superior Grill in Shreveport, La.

But, we are looking for the distance between Columbia and Shreveport; and the answer is:

A) 9 hours, 45 minutes

B) 10 hours

C) 10 hours, 15 minutes

D) 10 hours, 30 minutes

E) 10 hours, 45 minutes

SIDEBAR ONE: Lots of books with very long titles are out these days, including this one we saw mentioned in "Rolling Stone" and later at a book retailer in Washington, DC: "Free Ride: How Digital Media Parasites Are Destroying the Cultural Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back" by Robert Levine, who is also a contributing editor to "Rolling Stone."

SIDEBAR TWO: We love headlines from the satirical news publication "The Onion," and this header from today's edition was as always quite funny and very dark: "(Detroit) Tigers Sign Jim Leyland Through His Death in 2012."

It should be pointed out that the legendary baseball manager Jim Leyland is alive and well; in fact, he turned 67 on Dec. 15th.

Happy Mother's Day in Advance from Joan Crawford

Much to our shock and amazement, we found out that the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, which is one of the most famous cinemas in America, is presented a special 30th anniversary screening of "Mommie Dearest." The 1981 film starring Faye Dunaway about allegations that legendary actress Joan Crawford (1905-1977) will be shown at 7:00 p.m. A local transvestite named Peaches Christ, who is apparently popular in the communtiy, will present the film. Ticket prices are (and, we are not making this up) from $20-40.....wow, an opera in Roanoke, Va., might actually be cheaper.

Crawford won an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and her last screen appearance was in the horror film "Trog" (1970). Her daughter Christina Crawford wrote the 1978 memoir "Mommie Dearest" which became the basis for the film version which was badly recieved, yet it did become a camp film with a large cult following; John Waters even provides commentary on the dvd of the film though he had nothing to do with its production.

Dunaway has publicly stated that she disdains the film, and we assume she will not be in San Francisco for the screening on Saturday night (that might actually be worth the price of admission!).

Ironically, both Christina Crawford, now 71, and Dunaway, now 70, are close to the age that Joan Crawford was when she died which was 72.

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention my fellow Turkish-American Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz) in our last entry. Your mom might like his book "You: Being Beatiful" over his other book "You:On a Diet," which might be an even bigger mistake than buying a Syrian friend a weiner from Trolley Stop Hot Dogs in Boone, NC (a real place).

And, of course, since we have a strong center-left bias, we have to poke fun of our far-right friends. The right-wing blog "I Hate the Media" which is criticizing us liberals for making Barack Obama out to be The Mighty Thor for his killing of Osama bin Laden reported earlier in the week that the San Diego Padres were giving free admission to veterans, past and present; the team also wore camoflage. Since my stepfather the late Donald Sullivan was a WW-2 vet, we think that is very noble of the Padres. Though, the camoflage seems a wee bit over-the-top.

So, we wanted to inform the folks at "I Hate the Media" that the Padres were also the first team to play in Mexico when they faced the New York Mets for three games between Aug. 16-18, 1996. I'm they 'appreciate' us digging up that fact for them.

Quote of the Day- George Brett

Today, I am quoting the two legendary third baseman who were the center-point of the 1980 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Kansas City Royals.

Alas, Mike Schmidt's Phils beat George Brett's Royals, but the American League slugger got his own World Series ring in 1985 when the Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals.

Brett, now 57, is originally from West Virginia, and he played his entire 20-year career (1973-93) with the Royals. Bret was also a 13-time All-Star and he was named American League MVP in 1980.

Here is his quote:

"If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out."

SIDEBAR_ I know magazines must be desperate for subsribers these days due to the increasingly annoying digitalization of everything. But, I was still VERY surprised to get a subsription request from the conservative magazine "The Weekly Standard." I am a liberal Democrat (but I live in a place that's more like Provo than Provincetown) and I subscribe to the center-left journal "The New Republic."

But, I did exchange a few pleasant emails with William Kristol, and as much as I disagree with him, especially about Sarah Palin, I can not say anything negative about him personally.

In the current issue, "Weekly Standard" contributor Jonathan V. Last has an article about how Superman will supposedly lose his American citizenship. I didn't get a chance to read the article, so it would be an assumption on my part that the article blames President Barack Obama. But, the right will probably blame him for yesterday's tornadoes in Alabama. As it turns out, Last, which would be a very bad last name for a politician, is an avid comic book fan. He apparently eulogized Captain America. This leads to wonder what he thinks about my personal favorite Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. But, he probably doesn't have time to read this blog!

Special Quote of the Day- Willie Mays

Today, we quote baseball legend Willie Mays, who is still alive and well at age 79. Mays played from 1951-1973 with the New York/San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets (at the end of his career).

He is considered to be one of the very, very best players to ever play the game along with Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Hank Aaron.

Mays made 24 All-Star Game appearances and he hit 660 homeruns. But, surprsingly enough, he only won one World Series with the 1954 New York Giants. May is also known by his nicknmae "The Say Hey Kid" and he mentioned in the John Fogerty song "Centerfield."

Here is the quote:

"Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson."

Special Quote of the Day- Johnny Bench

"I can throw out any man alive," Johnny Bench.

For those too young to remember, Bench, a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds, who is now 63, was a vital part of the Big Red Machine. Alas, the Reds who had won 102 games during the regular season were upset in the 1970 World Series by the Baltimore Orioles.


FYI- In case, you are wondering who is Terry Gross (yikes, we almost spelled her name with an 'i'!) going to interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" today, the answer is former "SNL" star/current "30 Rock" star/wonderful Sarah Palin impersonator Tina Fey. For those of you in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where we think at least one person reads this blog, we're pretty sure you will have to go the "Fresh Air" web site (http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/) to listen to show since public radio is probably not otherwise available in the former Soviet republics.

PS- In case, I seemed a bit too harsh or critical of Barracuda yesterday, I just want to say I have seen the light: "I Love You, Big Brother" (reference to George Orwell's novel "1984").

Special Quote of the Week- Jackie Robinson

Today's quote of the day comes from the baseball great Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) who was born in Cairo, Georgia, and went on to become Major League Baseball's first African-American player when he joined the then-Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Ironically, Robinson died at 53 as did Babe Ruth, who is featured on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," and the Bambino also passed away a year after Robinson's historic entrance into baseball.

Here is the quote from Robinson:

"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants to quit when's ahead."

Base ball with Cola

Yesterday after lunch, room thirteen went to go and practis base ball with Cola. Cola use to play base ball, that’s why Cola came to our school and teach us base ball. When Cola was telling us what to do, I didn’t know what to do because I could’t under stand Cola. Then Cola told us to be in coulors. There were only two coulors to chose from. A red coulor and a blue coulor. The red team had to field and the blue team got to bat. I wanted to bat, but I could’t because I was in the red team and I could’t change because it’s just wasting our time. When the person was bating,the person that was fielding had to catch the ball.Then we had to change over. So the people that was fielding is bating and the people that was bating is now fielding.Then we were finished and we had to sit under a tree and Cola was saying to us practis and practics until I come back in 2 weeks time.