As the World Churns

By Bob Nicolaides

Turks lived without the Latin alphabet’s Q, W, and X ever since their leader Moustafa Kemal changed it to that from the Arabic they’ve since they arrived in the neighborhood some 700 years ago. In fact, back in 2005, a Turkish court fined some Kurds (about 20 of them) 100 liras for holding up placards containing the letters Q and W. The reasoning was that the use of those letters violated a November 1 1928 law on adoption and application of Turkish letters, the purpose of which was the changing of the writing system. Now, what’s so repugnant about these letters that a law should exist for their banishment?  For starters, those letters appear in the Kurdish language and restricting a minority language is one way to oppress a minority which amounts to 25% of their country’s population. But lo and behold after 85 years the letters have been exonerated through the Turk PM’s ‘Democratization Package’ of September 30 2013. But, god forbid one dares use diphthongs. That’s the loathed Hellenes discovery, so they’re till hell freezes over…….. It snowed in Cairo a fortnight ago for the first time in, well ... a long time! According to the Los Angeles Times, "Local news reports said the last recorded snowfall was more than 100 years ago," I for one I can attest to that for I’ve never seen snowfall in my twenty years in Egypt. Whatever the exact number is, though, the point is that it basically never snows in Cairo…..The twinning of the municipality of Sparta in the Peloponnese and Vladimir prefecture in central Russia was discussed by Sparta Mayor Stavros Argitakos and Russian Deputy Tourism Minister Evgeny Pisarevsky, who was in Greece

Outgoing Consul General Sofianou

Athanassios Burlotos

The charming and charismatic Consul General of Cyprus in New York Koula Sofianou was feted during the Cyprus Society of Philadelphia’s annual Dinner Dance on Saturday, November 23^rd at the Lucien Manor in Berlin, NJ. The honor was for her ‘steadfast leadership in promoting our Greek Cypriot heritage and culture in the US ever since she took office in November 2009.’Stelios Tsinontides, PhD, the president of the Cyprus Society of Greater Philadelphia spoke first with his welcome comments, after which, the president of the Cyprus Federation of America Costas Tsentas took the podium and in turn, George Chacali , the Ambassador of Cyprus to the United States introduced the honoree and made the presentation of the award to the very deserving diplomat. The recognition of the 2011-12 graduates followed, after which the Cypriot Dancers of Philadelphia gave a remarkable performance. Ms Sofianou by the way, is leaving her post early in 2014 to assume new responsibilities at the Foreign Ministry in Nicosia, and as a consequence, we’re all going to miss her terribly.….The Fifth District of Ahepa , Cancer Research Foundation, Inc. gave its 24^th Annual Fall Gala on Saturday, November 2, at the Pines Manor in Edison, NJ endowing five Foundations and individuals with the Foundation gifts…  Greek Spirit TV’s George Burlotos’ who helped author the book on individual lives of mostly WWII Army Veterans of Hellenic descent in South Jersey, says the book is already in print and circulating. It was published early in December and copies go like hotcakes….Another Burlotos, this one by the first name of Athanasios, a grandson of the TV show producer and host, graduated with honors from Revere High this past summer and now is attending Ohio State with all expenses-I mean everything-paid for him due to his scholarly aptitude…...Dean C. Pappas is now Vice President/CFO at Gesthotel, Inc…

Boutsikaris: In 'Bourne' cast



Aniston dad: Theroux annoyed

NBC is negotiating for a four-part miniseries based on Rosemary’s Baby movie in which John Cassavetes starred. Contrary to the picture which was set in New York, this is set in Paris. Could it be that Roman Polanski figures in it just like the iconic 1968 movie he made?…..Justin Theroux is reportedly unhappy with Jennifer Aniston moving her dad in. The pair only recently finished renovating their $21million mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles, and Justin is said to be annoyed after his fiancée invited her father, John, 80 and his second wife, Sherry, 57, to live with them. A source said: ''Justin is steaming mad over Jen's offer. He told her that having her dad ambling about the house is a huge 'buzz kill'. He worries it's going to destroy their love life before they've even tied the knot. ''Justin tried to plead his case, but Jennifer told him she's made up her mind. She said he has no right to even question her because of how much time he's been away.''…Maybe it's the lightning whip, but we think The Legend of Hercules trailer looks downright fun. It's definitely not a great sign that the movie opens January 10, but still. There's a lightning whip……Revolution’s Tracy Spiridakos plays Dawn, Morning Randolph’s sister (Mircea Monroe) in Pucks! who now proves merely the latest temptation for Matt. Pucks! By the way may be in its last gasps of life…… Tina Fey hosted the American Museum of Natural History’s gala Thursday and drew laughs with her political barbs….Zach Galifianakis is a natural Santa Claus, and since he still hasn't accepted offers to remake Tim Allen's Santa Claus movies, last Friday's Comedy Bang! Bang! might be our only chance to see him in the role. Galifianakis nails Santa's jolliness and tacit perviness. I’m just joking…….Dennis Boutsikaris, two-time Obie award winner is in the cast of The Bourne Legacy….

Alexander Payne’s work (direction and screenplay) Sideways Paul Giamati and Anthony Hadden Guest playing superb characters looks like one long playing commercial for wine and grapevines with the plot as an afterthought  instead of the other way around. Nevertheless, that doesn’t take anything away from the screenplay which is very interesting. It must be noted that Greek American Payne’s Nebraska got four nominations in the Golden Globes.… For a brief moment, Melina Matsoukas was employed as Beyoncé's creative director. Imagine tht job? “It was on her last album, and it was a month and a half before I was like, “You know what? I think I’m just going to go back to being a director,” she said with a laugh, less than 48 hours after Beyoncé dropped her surprise visual album, Beyoncé. “It was a very overwhelming job, and because I was doing that, I wasn’t able to direct any videos.” There were no hard feelings when she stepped down from the position: Matsoukas went on to produce all the visuals for Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter tour, and she was indeed freed up to direct more videos, including her seventh with Beyoncé, Pretty Hurts, which they shot over three days in New York late last summer. (Matsoukas has also directed for Rihanna — winning a Grammy for We Found Love — Lady Gaga, and Britney Spears.) ….Steve Nicolaides (no relationship) was the production manager for the flick When Harry met Sally with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan…In The Call, Maria Nikcolakis is the Production coordinator…

 

The Greek film Miss Violence received an award for the best scenario (Alexandros Avranas and Costas Peroulis) at the 24th international film festival of Stockholm. Alexandros Avranas' film has also won the silver lion at the 70th film festival of Venice while Themis Panou won the lead actor award ….Kostas Ferris, the award winning director of Rebetiko is preparing to stage a  mini play called Gabriela and Joujou to be performed in Athens. The same celebrity recently did a documentary on his high school, Ambeteios in Cairo Egypt, which was shown to the gathering in Athens of the school alumnis on its 150th Anniversary. No, I didn’t attend that event though I should’ve since I myself am one of the alumnis, but I didn’t know on time. Not only am I an alumni, but a  classmate and a close friend of Costas….. Andreas Boussios is to be congratulated for his new post which is Managing Editor of Athens Views the English language newspaper now circulating in..where else?..Athens, of course. However, some hoodlumns jumped him in the street the other day, causing injuries to the new editor.. .

Lady Gaga: Floppop!

It’s already known as ARTFLOP. On Nov. 6, amid the kind of hype not seen since Michael Jackson floated a statue of himself down the Thames River, Lady Gaga released her third studio album, “ARTPOP.”And not since Jackson has such a globally famous, white-hot pop star had such a rise and precipitous fall: “ARTPOP” is on track to lose $25 million for her label, Interscope, prompting ­rumors of imminent layoffs. But it’s not just album sales. When Gaga opened this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, her performance was eclipsed by the twerking Miley Cyrus. Gaga’s work as both host and performer on a recent “Saturday Night Live” was underwhelming, and her recent ABC special, “Lady Gaga & The Muppets’ Holiday Spectacular,” had a dismal 0.9 rating among viewers ages 18 to 49, with just 3.6 million viewers total. “That ‘Applause’ Gaga is hearing these days has been reduced to a polite golf-clap,” said The Wrap, referring to the title of her first single from the album.

My wishes for a Happy New Year go to all my readers, in the hope that they’ll be more columns to read and more important news to write about in 2014…

Word of the Month: Oxygen;  Οξυγόνο-What we breathe.