This Week's Winner of the Dave Parker Award for Excellence: Fred & Barney

This dated advertisement could also fit under the category of "Things Done Changed".

Boy, those were the days, when children's cartoons characters would slang smokes for the suits at Philip Morris and the like. I'm struggling to see any parallels between underage cigarette use and commercials such as the above - but it's a lazy Friday and I got turkey on my mind.

Turkey? Yes turkey. It's Thanksgiving for our American friends to the south, and by virtue of the fact that I have a sister on scholarship to an school in the States who's visiting, me mammy is whippin'-up a nice bird for the fam.

Speaking of Turkey...



That would be the home supporters of Turkish football club Besiktas welcoming new off-season acquisition Allen Iverson, who signed a 2-year deal to play with the Besiktas Basketball Club in Istanbul. You have to be happy for the guy. He's gone through some difficult family issues concerning divorce and a daughter's health over the last while, compounded by the fact that the once perennial all-star couldn't find a club that would start him - that smile made my day - no homo.

Now his only concern should be to avoid Fenerbahce and Galatasaray fans when on a promenade throughout the beautiful continent dividing city of Istanbul. Them Turks are passionate about their clubs, especially the three Istanbul clubs who between them, share a fair amount of hatred.

Don't believe me? Ask Graham Souness. The Englishman was the manager of Turkish side Galatasaray in the mid 1990's. Following a defeat of cross-town rivals Fenerbahce, Souness ran to the midfield point and stuck a massive flag donning the famous Galatasaray Gold & Red for all the angry Fenerabahce supporters to see. Bloody English and their ignorance of other people's hatred.



The hatred shared by the Instanbul clubs for one another is so great, that in the Fenerbahce dominated part of Istanbul, the McDonald's signs are blue and gold, and not the common red and gold also used by Galatasaray. I'm not kidding.