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Jim and Peri's Blogs of July 2006
The Learning Practical Turkish Website
July 31, 2006
Blog »
Internet Survival Kit --
Turkish ADSL Chronicles # 1
When Türk Telecom was finally able to deliver ADSL Broadband capability down here to us on the beach in 2005, it came not a moment too soon -- to stop the bleeding of our Internet phone bill, which had leaped suddenly and alarmingly in mid-summer to $150 a month for simple 56kbps dial-up service...
Continue reading "Strolling down the Turkish Internet's memory-lane"...»
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July 28, 2006
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No Comment #3 -- Teetotaling flight attendants want passenger alcohol-ban
A fast-growing number of male flight attendants who work for Turkish Airlines (Türk Hava Yolları -- THY) have declared that they may refuse to serve alcohol, even on international flights, to paying passengers. That's because, according to their strict reading of Muslim doctrine, drinking of alcohol is a sin against Islam...
Continue reading "Transportation Minister warns Teetotaling Flight-Attendants"...»
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July 27, 2006
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Turkish Political Parties -- Right, Left, Center?
Turkish political parties are not always easy to understand -- at least not for us. So when we find a good 'Visual Aid' to help us in the effort, we're grateful. In the chart shown here, for example, the major Turkish political parties are ranked from Right to Left ideologically -- from Conservative to Liberal...
Continue reading "Politics of the Right and Left... only!"...»
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July 23, 2006
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Another Turkish idiom the Government won't like...
Do you remember the 'Ali Dibo' idiom we spoke about a couple of weeks ago? (http://www.learningpracticalturkish.com/foreign-language--006-07-02.html)
Well, we found another similar one yesterday -- with its origin story intact -- in the Editor's Opinion column of Gözcü Gazetesi...
Continue reading "A mountain gave birth to a mouse"...»
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July 21, 2006
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Turkish Personal Names -- an update
We still make additions and revisions to the 'Personal Names' dictionary page -- though these days, we confess, it's mostly when we receive a specific site-visitor request. Like the one we received yesterday -- from Kezban E. that said: "I have searched in vain for the meaning of 'Kezban'. I
was named after my Turkish grandmother and am called Keziban. If you
can be of assistance I would greatly appreciate it..."
Continue reading "Our 'Turkish Personal Names' Dictionary"...»
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July 19, 2006
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Media names Turkey's #1 Entertainer
Arabesque Singer and TV Variety-show Hostess Seda Sayan swept her competition yesterday to become the Turkish Media's "Entertainer of the Year". That's according to media-monitoring statistics developed by Ajans Press -- a Turkish-owned international media-watch research company based in Istanbul. The statistics reflect counts...
Continue reading "It's Seda Sayan"...»
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July 16, 2006
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No Comment #2 -- The Turkish Homophobia Awards of 2006
Lamdaistanbul is an organization whose purpose is to change negative opinion and attitudes, produce solidarity, and solve problems of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals (LGBTT).
Last year the group began to distribute the 'Hormonlu Domates' (Hormon-fed Tomatoes) Homophobia awards. The goal of the awards is to encourage people and institutions to rethink their attitudes about LGBTT. Previous 'Hormonlu Domatoes' winners have included...
Continue reading "Turkish Gay Pride"...»
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July 13, 2006
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Turkish Language collides with Political Correctness
In 1949 when George Orwell wrote the bleak, then-futuristic novel
'1984', he introduced the
concepts of a State-sponsored language called 'Newspeak' and a
'thought police' that enforced its use. Is there, we wonder, a similarity between the Turkish Language Society under direction of
religious-right Prime Minister Erdoğan's office (that will implement a new
vocabulary-censorship program) and Big Brother's thought-police-force
(with its Newspeak enforcement agenda)?...
Continue reading "Censored Turkish Language, coming your way"...»
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July 11, 2006
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Bikini Beauty Poll with a surprise result
It's summer in Turkey, of course -- and a lot of celebrity news arises from the goings on of Turkish celebrities on beach holidays.
The other day for example, the paparazzi caught Singer/Dancer (and now mother-of-three) Sibel Can in a revealing tanga 'popo' shot on the deck of the tour boat she'd rented. The incident prompted Uçan Kuş Magazine (a gossipy rag with a website presence at www.ucankus.com) to poll its website visitors on the question, "Which Turkish celebrity would you most like to see in a bikini this summer?...
Continue seeing/reading "Banu Alkan gets the nod"...»
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July 8, 2006
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An International Study with an outhouse smell
When I saw the full coverage that Hurriyet Gazetesi gave (in its June 24 issue) to the latest provocative and disturbing 'experts report' from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, I decided to investigate further. For certain, the things that Hurriyet attributed to the Pew Report were disturbing. Such things as...
Continue reading "Disputing the Experts"...»
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July 6, 2006
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No Comment #1 -- Getting Divorced in Turkey
"We'd been together in bed on our wedding night," went the testimony of the bridegroom..."And my wife showed me a piece of cloth with a red substance on it. I remarked, 'That looks like paint to me', but she vehemently denied it. Then, suddenly, I felt something hard under the pillow and when I looked, I found a tube of red paint...
Continue reading "Caught red-handed, wins on appeal"...»
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July 4, 2006
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Battle of the Three Turkish Beauties and the Swimsuit King
Swimsuit-tycoon Zeki Başeskioğlu is internationally famous, his bathing suits routinely show up in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and he has boosted the careers of any number of world-class super-models including Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and Eva Herzigova. Now in his 70's, Zeki has been cast by some in the media as a 'professor of beauty' -- and the other day he let it go to his head...
Continue reading "Swimsuit King goes down!"...»
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July 2, 2006
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"Ali Dibo" -- A New Turkish Idiom
In the last several months a new term for 'political favoritism' has emerged in Turkey. The term is "Ali Dibo Şirketi" (Ali Dibo Business-Company) -- or just plain "Ali Dibo" for short. And it refers to any company (usually a local municipal one) that 'wins' business contracts mainly because of its political ties to the ruling AKP political party...
Continue reading "The birthing of a new Turkish idiom"...»
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