College Game Day Facebook Feeds (Mostly Women's Gymnastics): Lots of Pink Meets

Here are some Facebook feeds for this afternoon, mostly regarding college gymnastics. At least three college women's gymnastics teams: UNC, Arizona and West Virginia are holding pink meets for Breast Cancer Awareness:

1) UNC Gymnastics: "WEAR PINK!!! And come out tonight and support your Tar Heels as they take on Pitt at 7pm in Carmichael."

2) Michigan Hockey: "51 days, it's finally game day at the Yost! No. 12 Michigan Hockey hosts No.9 Wisconsin tonight at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised on the Big 10 Network."

3) Arizona Gymnastics: "Come support the Gymcats this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. as they take on Pac-12 rival Washington. It's our breast cancer awareness meet so wear pink!"

4) UCLA Gymnastics: "Meet Day! UCLA at Cal tonight in Sadiqua Bynum's hometown of Berkeley. Watch it live on Pac-12 Lost Angeles."

5) Radford University Highlanders: Ayana Avery of Radford women's basketball breaks single-season record for three-pointers in 63-62 win over Coastal Carolina."

6) Nebraska Gym: "Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. come help the Huskers light up the night against Minnesota. First 800 fans get free light-up wand.

7) UNC-Greensboro Athletics: "Men's Hoops Looks to Maintain Momentum Saturday Against Georgia Southern."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

Sports Desk_ College Basketball Teams by Area Code in Virginia (2 of 2)

Juvante Reddic, the reigning Atlantic Ten Player of the Week, who is from Winston-Salem, NC, and plays for Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond is one of many stars playing for the schools listed below, by area code.

Other star players from these area codes include Joe Harris (UVA), Kendall Anthony (Richmond) and Aaron Bacote (ODU).

434

UVA (15-5, Charlottesville, ACC): Next game @ Notre Dame tonight on ESPN-U.

Liberty University Flames (9-12, Lynchburg, Big South): Next game @ Coastal Carolina on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.

Longwood Lancers (7-14, Farmville, Big South): Next game vs. Gardner-Webb on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.

703

George Mason Patriots (7-13, Fairfax, Atl. 10)" Next game @ St. Louis on Sat. @ 2:30 p.m.

757

Old Dominion Monarchs (10-10, Norfolk, Conf. USA) Next game @ UAB on Thurs. @ 8:00 p.m.

Norfolk State Spartans (12-9, MEAC): Next game @ Miami (Fl) on Sat. @ 4:00 p.m. ESPN3

Hampton University Pirates (10-10, MEAC): Next game @ Coppin State on Sat. @ 4:00 p..m

William and Mary Tribe (12-7, Williamsburg, Colonial Ath.): Next game vs. Delaware on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.

804

VCU (16-4, Atlantic 10): Next game vs. Fordham on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.

University of Richmond (14-6, Atlantic 10): Next game @ St. Louis on Wed. @ 8:00 p.m.

http://www.longwoodlancers.com

http://www.virginiasports.com

http://www.richmondspiders.com

http://www.odusports.com

http://www.nsuspartans.com

College Basketball Teams by Area Code for Virginia and Washington, DC (1 of 2)

The mascot for the James Madison University Dukes in Harrisonburg, Va., may be our featured image, but there are seven teams from the nation's capital and our beloved home state of Virginia that we are featuring here (interestingly enough two Washington DC schools are hosting teams from Philadelphia this week and two Virginia schools head to Boston for games on Wed. night) :

202 (Washington, D.C)

1. American University Eagles (12-7, Patriot League): Next Game vs. Navy 7:30 p.m., Wed.

2. George Washington University Colonials (16-3, Atlantic-10): Next game vs. LaSalle (Philadelphia) @ 7:00 p.m. tonight.

3. Georgetown Hoyas (11-8, Big East): Next game vs. Villanova @ 9:00 p.m. tonight

4. Howard University Bison (5-15, MEAC): Next game @ Florida A & M on Saturday.

540 (Roanoke, Harrisonburg, Blacksburg)

1. JMU Dukes (7-13, Colonial Ath., pictured): Next game @ Northeastern (Boston, Mass.) on Wed. at 7:00 p.m.

2. VMI Keydets (10-9, Lexington, Big South) @ UNC-Asheville, Tues. at 7:00 p.m.

3. Radford University (13-8, Big South, our alma mater): Next game @ Winthrop (Rock Hill, SC on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.)

4. Virginia Tech Hokies (8-11, ACC): Next game @ Boston College on Wed. @ 7:00 p.m.

http://www.jmusports.com/

http://www.gwsports.com/

http://www.ruhighlanders.com/

http://www.hokiesports.com/

Top Ten Comics Not in The Roanoke Times: Kalimari, Please

Yes, this entry features an image of a squid; the last entry featured an image of a whale. So, there you have it: The Squid and the Whale!

We looked at some 40 comic strips not in "The Roanoke Times."

Our three favorites, included "Arctic Circle" where a squid comes out of nowhere in the final panel, "Lio," where a demented young boy is watching tv with his alien pals, and "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," where the title character is a very sore loser at chess.

We also enjoyed "The Argyle Sweater" where Spongebob Square Pants makes an appearance, in, of all things, a police lineup!

Here is our top ten:

1. Arctic Circle

2. Lio

3. The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee

4. The Argyle Swater

5. Brewster Rockit

6. Sherman's Lagoon

7. Animal Crackers

8. Reply All

9. The Pajama Diaries

10. Knight Life


http://www.aqua.org/ (National Aquarium in Baltimore)

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ (Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta)

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

Top Ten Comic Strips from The Sunday Roanoke Times.........yes, Pearls wins again

Stephan Pastis, the man who created Ataturk the Spitting Llama (thanks ok, us Turkish-Americans know our yogurt is better than Greek yogurt), once again wins our sweepstakes with his "Pearls Before Swine" trip in which a family trip to Key West, Fla, to go whale watching takes a Twilight Zone episode turn, which is, of course, hilarious.

"Get Fuzzy" was second as Bucky, Rob Wilco's out of control Siamese cat, goes on a rant about how a kid who has memorized Pi is not really smart of be interviewed on network television.

And, a cat was also featured in "Dilbert" where the title character was curiously absent. Here the cat gives personal advice to Dilbert's boss on how to seem caring around employees since he is a man incapable of empathy.


Here is the top ten from the Sunday "Roanoke Times:"

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Dilbert

4.Doonesbury

5. Garfield

6. Funky Winkerbean

7. Zits

8. Speed Bump

9. Agnes

10. Blondie


http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics/getfuzzy

http://www.stephanpastis.wordpress.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.whalewatching.com

http://www.mainewhales.com


http://www.fla-keys.com

http://www.newport-news.org  (Newport News, Va., is said to be a good place for whale watching)

Little Thinker Quotes (12 of 16): Oscar Wilde

"True friends stab you in the front," Oscar Wilde.

SIDEBAR: Since there is a bit of a Polar Vortex around here, we thought we'd post some temps around American and across the world, including Nagano, Japan, where the 1998 Winter Olympics took place:

37 degrees- Nagano, Japan

34 degrees in Richmond, Va.

27 degrees in Hartford, Conn.

22 degrees in Malmo, Sweden

15 degrees in Chicago

5 degrees in Kiev, Ukraine

http://www.oscarwildesociety.com/

Little Thinkers Quotes (11 of 16): Edgar Allan Poe

We saw a wax museum figure of Edgar Allan Poe in an old Vincent Price film the other night; here is his quote, which reminds me of a dream I had last night in which I was an assistant film director for Sofia Coppola, of all people, on a movie set:

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."

http://www.poemuseum.org (Poe Museum in Richmond, Va)

http://www.poeinbaltimore.org

Little Thinkers Quote of the Day: Florence Nightingale

"The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm."

Quote of the Day (9 of 16): Karl Marx

"If anything is certain, it is that I myself am NOT a Marxist," Karl Marx.

http://www.philosophytalk.org/

Top Ten Men's College Basketball Teams: Arizona is Numero Uno

Greetings to our blog readers in Finland, Italy and Japan.

Today, we actually have an image of another Wildcat De'Mon Brooks of Davidson University with this entry (both Davidson and the University of Arizona are nicknamed Wildcats), but our focus in on the Wildcats in Tucson, Ariz., as they are the number-one ranked team in the land. But, Davidson also had a major 93-82  victory on the road at UNC-Greensboro.

Before we get to the Top Ten, here are some conference players of the week in men's basketball:

ACC: Rasheed Sulaimon (Duke)

SEC: Marshall Henderson (Ole Miss)

Big 10: Nik Stauskos (Michigan)

Big 12: Naadir Thorpe (Kansas)

PAC 12: Delon Wright (Utah)

Big South: Rodney Glasgow (VMI) and Javante Green (Radford U, our alma mater)

Southern Conference: De'Mon Brooks (Davidson, pictured)

Now, here is the Top Ten, all times for the teams' next games are eastern):

1. Arizona (18-0) Hosts previously ranked Colorado  on Thurs. @ 9:00 p.m.

2. Syracuse (18-0) @ Miami on Sat. @ 1:00 p.m.

3. Michigan State (18-1; the team JUST won over Indiana 71-66)

4. Villanova (16-2) Lost to Creighton 96-68 on Monday

5. Wichita State (19-0) @ Illinois State on Wed. at 8:05 p.m.

6. Florida (15-2) @ Alabama on Thurs. at 7:00 p.m.

7. San Diego State (16-1) @ San Jose State 10:00 p.m.

8. Kansas (14-4) Won 78-68 over Baylor on Monday, will play @ TCU on Sat. @ 9:00 p.m.

9. Wisconsin (16-2) @ Minnesota Wed. at 9:00 p.m.

10. Iowa (15-3) @ Michigan, Wed. 7:00 p.m.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/


http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball

SIDEBAR: "The Sporting News" features a very amusing photo essay by contributor Ryan Fagan who saw four games in one day in North Carolina: Boston College @ UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina State @ Duke in Durham, Davidson @ UNCG in Greensboro (mentioned top) and The Citadel @ Elon in Elon; the home team Phoenix (yes, that is their nickname) won the game 75-66.

SIDEBAR #2: We also have a feature on the Top Ten teams in women's gymnastics; the Florida Gators, who are ranked third in that sport, is the only team that ranks in the top ten in both sports.

Special Quote of the Day: Martin Luther King Jr.

"A Genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: The Scream

Greetings to our blog readers in Egypt, Poland and Australia.

Today, the Danish comic strip "WUMO" wins our survey for the best comic strips in "The Washington" with a brilliant satire of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's legendary painting "The Scream."

We also enjoyed today's "Lio," by Mark Tatulli, in which the title character plays a nifty gag on his father, and "The Argyle Sweater," which features a cool satire of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

Here is our top ten:

1. WUMO

2. Lio

3. The Argyle Sweater

4. Speed Bump

5. Dustin

6. Pearls Before Swine

7. Knight Life

8. Reply All

9. Judge Parker

10. Prickly City

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

To see our top ten from "The Roanoke Times," go to: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day: Abraham Lincoln

Greetings to our blog readers in Lithuania, Thailand and South Sudan, actually I'm pretty sure we never had a hit from there.

Today, we quote Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American president, who was assassinated at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.

Today, the Ford's Theatre offers both tours and stage productions. Starting on Jan.24th (until Feb. 23rd), Ford's Theatre will be producing the musical "Violet," which is based on "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts.

There is also the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.

Here is the quote from Lincoln, who has reportedly been the third person who has the most books written about him, behind Jesus Christ and William Shakespeare:

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

http://www.fordstheatre.org

http://www.alplm.org

Little Thinkers Quotes (7 of 16): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Greetings to our blog-readers in Slovakia, Panama and Vietnam.

Tonight, we feature a special quote from Wolfgang Amadus Mozart, who has been the subject of the award-winning play and movie "Amadeus"as well as a '80s pop song by the late Falco, who also hailed from Mozart's Austria.

For those who enjoy listening to classical music on the radio, we highly recommend WETA, an NPR station in Washington, DC, dedicated virtually exclusively to classical music.

For those who want to see a symphony, as luck would have it, The Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland, Ohio, is performing Mozart's 'greatest hits' this weekend (our words!).........

Here is the quote from Wolfgang Amadeus:

"There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper."

SIDEBAR: Brigham Young University's men's basketball team won a road game over San Francisco (university) last night; the final score was 83-76.

The visiting Cougars, which has a roster that includes former Wake Forest U stand-out Chase Fischer, were lead by Kyle Collingsworth (soph. guard who happens to hail from Provo, Utah, where BYU is located) who put in 19 points. His teammate and fellow Utah resident Skyler Hlaford Jr. added points for the Cougars (12-7, 4-2 in West Coast Conference). The home town Dons (yes, that is really the team's nickname!), which have a record of 12-7, 4-2 in the WCC, were lead by 26 points from Cole Dickerson. The game aired nationally on the ESPN networks.

Little Thinkers Quotes (6 of 16): Pablo Picasso

Greetings to our blog readers in Iceland, Costa Rica and Tunisia.

Today's quote of the day comes from the great Spanish painter Pablo Picasso:

"Action is the foundational key to all success."

Little Thinkers (5 of 16): Claude Monet

Greetings to our blog-readers in Kuwait, Bolivia and Ireland.

Today's quote is from the French impressionist Claude Monet. Some of Monet's painting are on display at the Denver Art Museum's 'Passport to Paris,' exhibit which runs until Feb. 9th.

Here is the quote:

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

http://www.claudemonetgallery.org

http://www.denverartmuseum.org

Sports Desk: UNC Edges NC State in Home Gymnastics Meet

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Sweden and Mongolia........we do actually hits from there every now and then!

When I first saw the results of the meet in Chapel Hill, NC, yesterday between the home University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the visiting North Carolina State Wolfpack, I mistakenly thought that NC State had won.

Though we try to be completely objective when it comes to college gymnastics, to prevent an influx of hate emails from Athens, Ga., or Tuscaloosa, Ala., but so that no one would be wrong about the outcome we posted an image of the UNC mascot Rameses ** over the NC State mascot Mr. Wuf.

The final score of the meet was UNC 194.975 NC State 193.950.

Amazingly and ironically enough, the Wolfpack actually swept the all-around with Brittni Watkins leading the way with an AA score of 39.325.

Watkins also won the bars  (individual scores) event with teammates Stephanie Oullette scoring a 9.8 and Diahanna Ham scoring a 9.725 on the event. Lexi Cappali scored the highest on the bars for UNC with a 9.875, one of the two events that UNC won along with the floor exercise.

The 'Pack won the balance beam as Hannah Fallanca, who went to Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, a city that is some 80 miles west of Raleigh, winning the event with a 9.925. Haley Watts, who had the top AA score for the 'Heels, came in second on the beam with a 9.900.

On vault, the 'Pack featured strong performances from Watkins (9.875), Oullette (9.825) and Fallanca (9.775). Though NC State won the event, UNC closed the gap on the vault with stand-out scores from Cappali (9.775) and Watts (9.75).

The two teams will see each other again on Friday, as NC State hosts a home meet in Raleigh.

In addition to UNC, traditional Big 10 powerhouse Michigan and Towson University (Maryland) will be heading south to face the 'Pack.

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Wuf * shows up on Friday.

*_Yes, there is actually a Mrs. Wuf as well.

**_ We have Rameses spelled incorrectly in our link.....we forgot the 's' at the end

Our Premature Top 10 Films of 2013: We Haven't Seen the Coen Bros Film .........yet

Yes, we still haven't seen "Inside Llewyn Davis," "Her" or "The Wolf of Wall Street," but here is our premature top ten films of the list; we are doing this in conjunction with tonight's Golden Globe Awards. Kudos to tonight's early winners_ Jennifer Lawrence ("American Hustle") and Jacqueline Bisset (TV's "Dancing on the Edge") and Elizabeth Moss (TV's "Top of the Lake):

1) "12 Years a Slave"

2) "Before Midnight"

3) "Blue Jasmine"

4) "Stories We Tell"

5) "Dallas Buyers Club"

6) "Philomena"

7) "Nebraska"

8) "Gravity"

9) "American Hustle"

10) "Captain Phillips"

http://www.filmcomment.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Can Anyone Top Stephan Pastis?

Greetings to our blog readers in Cyprus, Peru and New Zealand.

Welcome to another edition of "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which dates back to Sept. 21, 2005! But, our friend and fellow blogger Chris Knight has been around longer than us as he just celebrated the tenth anniversary of his blog "The Knight Shift."

Special greetings to those of you checking us out from The o2 Lounge in Breckenridge, Colo., and Crooks Corner Restaurant in Chapel Hill, NC, which are a mere 26 hours and 45 minutes away from each other! Hope all is well in Colorado and North Carolina.

Today, we look at our favorite comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. The competition is a little less steep than "The Washington Post," which features "Sherman's Lagoon," "Rhymes with Orange" and "Brewster Rockit: SpaceGuy," but "The Roanoke Times" does have "Hi and Lois," which "The Washington Post" does not.

Our sweepstakes winner for today is once again "Pearls Before Swine," which proves that we are over his character Ataturk the Spitting Llama (Tilly Gokbudak, the editor of this blog, who is me, is a Turkish-American. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the patron saint of modern Turkey, well in the secular sense).

Today, Stephan introduced a complicated concept for a 'Brain Alert' system for older people who can't remember that Jimmy Carter was president before Ronald Reagan. The last panel ends more perfectly than a season finale of "Homeland." We'll leave it there, so we don't have to issue a 'spoiler alert' (I'm still shocked at the season finale of "Homeland.")

The runner-up strip was the increasingly surprising "Garfield," which seems to have gotten exceptionally more funny since it has been parodied by "Garfield Minus Garfield." Garfield has actually around since 1978, which means at 36, he is older than the world's oldest cat, who reportedly lives in York, South Carolina, a border town with just under 10,000 people (ok, we are making that up).

"Get Fuzzy" was a bit shockingly literate today as it seemed to evoke George Orwell's "Animal Farm" or perhaps we are reading too much into it!

Here is today's top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Garfield

3) Get Fuzzy

4) Doonesbury

5) Zits

6) Speed Bump

7) "Non Sequitur"

8) Agnes

9) Dilbert

10) Funky Winkerbean

http://www.theo2lounge.com


http://www.crookscorner.com

http://www.stephanpastis.wordpress.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

Little Thinkers Quotes (4 of 16): Salvador Dali

Greetings to our blog-readers in Croatia, Mexico and Singapore.

Today, we quote the great Spanish painter Salvador Dali, who was photographed while jumping with three cats by Phillipe Halsman, who also photographed several glamorous actresses who were jumping while barefoot, including Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Jean Seberg. Halsman also photographed Richard Nixon while jumping. There is an amazing article about the photographer on the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine: http://www.mentalfloss.com

At the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., near Tampa, will feature some paintings from Andy Warhol from Jan. 18-Apr. 27th. Warhol has his own museum in Pittsburgh.

Here is our quote from Dali:

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

http://www.thedali.org

http://www.salvadordali.com

http://www.warhol.org

Little Thinkers Quotes (3 of 16): Marilyn Monroe

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Japan and Argentina.

Our quote today comes from Marilyn Monroe. Wasn't she great in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (we're kidding! It was Audrey Hepburn who starred in that film; Marilyn starred in "Some Like it Hot").

Here is her quip:

"Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one is tired, hurt and bewildered."

http://www.marilynmonroe.com

Little Thinkes Quotes (2 of 16): Sigmund Freud

Greetings to our blog-readers in Guatemala, Greece and Germany.

Today, we are quoting the great Austrian psycho-analyst/philosopher Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who is associated with the playful Freudian slippers, which are being sold through the "Mental Floss" magazine web site.

We imagine that if Freud were still alive and living in Bethesda, Maryland, he might jump on a Metro train and head down to Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in Washington, DC. The book shop has actually copyrighted the term 'politics and prose,' which we means we can't open a bookstore in Blacksburg, Va., and call it Politics and Poetry.

Politics and Prose is hosting a reading from the great Russian emigre novelist and author Gary Shteyngart ("Absurdistan") tonight; he has just written a non-fiction book called "Little Failure: A Memoir."

Here is our quote from Freud:

"Time spent with cats is never wasted."

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.politics-prose.com

Quotes from The Little Thinkers (1 of 16): William Shakespeare

We gather that the Bard is known as Willie Shakespeare in Johnson City, Tenn., and today our first quote in this 16-entry series with quotes from historical figures begins with a quip from William Shakespeare.

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., is currently performing the Shakespeare play "As You Like It," which has a performance on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

And, Criterion Classics posted a promotion today for the late Japanese cinematic master Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood," which is based on the Bard's "King Lear."

Here is a quote from Shakespeare:

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."


http://www.americanshakespearecenter.org

http://www.visitstaunton.com

Polar Vortex Tweets: Lots of Chattering Teeth

We would add some commentary, but we want to be able to watch the local 6:00 p.m. news, which airs in 21 minutes, so here we go:

1) Shawn Reynolds (a Weather Channel correspondent): "As of 2 p.m., Texas is the only state in the lower 48 that is not below freezing."

2) WDBJ7 Weather (CBS station in Roanoke, Va.): Thankfully, not as windy tonight, but it will still be colder than ice. Warming to the 30s on Wed.

3) Digitriad (Channel 2, CBS station in Greensboro, NC): Flu death reported in Randolph County, 14th in NC

4) WXII (NBC station in Winston-Salem, NC): Feels like temperatures won't improve much this afternoon. 30s for highs late tomorrow.

5) Markos Moulitsas ("The Daily Kos"): I went on a training ride last night and was complaining that temps had dropped to 47F.

6) WRAL (NBC Station in Raleigh, NC): Trapped indoors by arctic blast? Here are some fun ways to avoid cabin fever from GoAskMom (refers to Sarah Hall, a contributor to the station's news).

7) Reagan Airport (Washington, DC): Water cleaning continues at bag claims #3 to #7. Bags are dry and have been relocated for pax.

8) 6abc (Philadelphia): Major delays on Amtrak Northeast corridor due to downed wires.

9) Tom Tomorrow: So 'cold weather' = no global warming is just another permanent fixture of the right wing landscape right now.

10) 11 News (NBC station in Atlanta): ICY CONDITIONS are being reported on I-20 West bound toward Turner Hill Rd.

http://www.weather.com

http://www.wunderground.com

Cold Weather in America: A Look at Domestic and Global Temps

In places such as Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, today was actually Manitoba Moose weather. The Polar Vortex also struck the mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, including the Washington, DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor on I-95.
Here is a look at some temps in America and in traditional cold spots around the world; all temps are Fahrenheit, and most are what we call 'Bulwinkle Weather':

Bodo, Norway (near Arctic Circle): 36

Columbia, SC: 28

Greenville, SC: 26

Raleigh, NC: 25

Winston-Salem, NC: 23

Richmond, Va.: 22

Nashville, Tenn: 21

Roanoke, Va: 19

Lynchburg, Va: 19

Louisville, Ky: 18

Annapolis, Md.: 18

Huntington, WVa: 14

Philadelphia: 13

Columbus, Ohio: 9

Chicago: 6

Cleveland: 3

Pittsburgh, Pa: 3

Toronto, Canada: 3

Kars, Turkey: 0

Omsk, Russia (Siberia): -2

Duluth, Minn: -3

Fargo, ND: -4

Winnipeg, Canada: -11

http://www.wunderground.com

http://www.weather.com

http://www.visitnorthernmanitoba.ca/ (tourism site for northern Manitoba, you may want to go there in the spring!)

http://www.mooseworld.com

Sports Desk: Princeton Tigers Go to Lynchburg and Win

Earlier in the season my alma mater Radford University, a Big South school, faced the Cornell Bears, an Ivy League team, and won. But, given that Big South schools stretch from Lexington, Va. (VMI) to Charleston, SC, (Charleston Southern), and Ivy League are from the northeast, the two conferences don't play with each other that often.

But, on Saturday, the Princeton Tigers in their last game before the start of conference play, headed down to Lynchburg, Va., to face the Liberty Flames on Saturday in the first meeting in men's basketball between the two schools.

And, it was Princeton (11-2), a team which traveled from New Jersey, which prevailed with an 80-74 win that was propelled by T.J. Bray (pictured) who almost matched his career-high with 24 points and his teammate Ben Hazel who added 18 points. For Liberty, John Caleb Saunders scored 25 points.

SIDEBAR: There was a shocking upset in Winston-Salem, NC, on Sunday night, as the home court Wake Forest Demon Deacons shocked the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, ranked 19th in the country at the time, 73-67.

The win was the first for Wake Forest over UNC since 2001 in a series that the Tar Heels have dominated in more recent years. Senior Travis McKie from Richmond, Va., lead the home team in scoring with 16 points, and he shot 7 for 11 from the floor.

SIDEBAR 2: Well, when the West Virginia Mountaineers joined the BIG 12, geographic rivalries went out the window as the closest conference school to Morgantown, WVa., is (we believe) Iowa State, located in Ames, Iowa.

Tonight, WVU traveled even farther away as they headed to Lubbock, Tex., and got an 89-86 (OT) win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Juwan Staten lead WVU in scoring with 25 points, and Terry Henderson hit a crucial three-pointer with :18 left to play in regulation.

Comic Strip Dialogue from The Roanoke Times: Any Cheese Will Do

With Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sandwiched between Gouda cheese, which should hopefully get us some hits in the Netherlands, and a chocolate glazed donuts, which New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie can eat by the dozen (well, even if we were Republicans, we'd have to admit the guy is a bit fat, but at least he's to the far-left of Rick Perry, the execution-happy Republican governor of Texas), we give you dialogue from comic strips which appeared today in "The Roanoke Times."

The Gouda cheese is in reference to "Blondie" as Dagwood asks Elmo, who is presumably the neighbor's son, what kind of cheese he wants on his sandwich. Zizek is in reference to a line in "Dilbert" about philosophy. And, chocolate donuts tempted both John and his beloved title character cat in today's "Garfield."

Here we go:

1) "How are you feeling today, Agnes?" (from "Agnes")

2) "I'm trying to develop a new philosophy for my life" (from "Dilbert")

3) "Look, we agreed this wouldn't be easy.....we BOTH have to be strong." (from "Garfield)

4) "How about Gouda? I've got some smoked Gouda!" (from "Blondie")

5) "It's a New Year Tradition" (from "Jump Start")

6) "Exercise is great, but it's important not to overdo it," (from "Pickles")

7) "You sneeze like a gerbil," (from "Zits")

8) "Now Boarding. Rows five and above" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

9) "Nice. So what's our exit strategy?" (from "Doonesbury")

10) "Security." (from "Pearls Before Swine")

http://www.slovenia.info/

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/

http://www.philosophytalk.org/ (NPR show about philosophy)

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Top 10 Best Comics from This Sunday's Washington Post: Don't Wash the Flamingos

Wow! We had the hardest time finding an image of Captain Crunch! Anyway, no one wants to hear about the cumbersome side of blogging.

Greetings to our blog readers in the Bahamas, where we danced with some flamingos at the zoo in Nassau.

"WUMO," our favorite comic strip of the day featured (SPOILER ALERT) a man telling his wife not to wash flamingos with the laundry. This made us wonder if John Waters, who directed the cult film "Pink Flamingos" saw this strip. Of course, there is a .00009% chance that he reads our blog.

Our runner-up strip is our friend Keith Knight's comic strip "Knight Life," in which Keith (along with "The Pajama Diaries," it's an autobiographical strip) listens to a friend who is as fat as a Japanese sumo wrestler rant about how he likes to make rebellious New Year's resolutions.

Lastly, Captain Crunch, the character who promotes the 70s-era breakfast cereal that is still around and probably not recommended for middle-age adults with diabetes (we're pretty sure our fellow Turkish-American Dr. Mehmet Oz would agree with us) is part of the punchline in "Brewster Rockit."

Alas, "Rhymes with Orange," "Judge Parker" and "Reply All" were among the good comic strips which didn't finish in our top ten, but "The Washington Post" (Sunday edition) has some 30-plus comic strips.

1. WUMO

2. Knight Life

3. Doonesbury

4. Brewster Rockit

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6. Foxtrot

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. Lio

9. The Argyle Sweater

10. Dustin

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo#.UsoHxzYo6Uk

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife#.UsoIKDYo6Uk

http://www.bahamas.com/#/ragged

http://www.visitjapan.jp/en/

http://www.capncrunch.com/#show

Top 10 Comic Strips NOT in Our Local Newspapers: Love Those Yorkies

Many of the slots in local Sunday comic strips sections, even in large city newspapers, are taken up by legacy strips, such as "Hagar the Horrible" and "Beetle Bailey." But, there are actually many great comic strips out there.

This is a companion piece to our blog entry on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com/2014/01/arctic-cold-comic-strip-spectacular-1.html

The funniest strip of these ten is from "La Cucaracha," a comic we were not familiar with today, which features a Mayan temple made from ice (the top image is of Tikal, a Mayan ruin site in Guatemala). Other highlights were "Pooch Café" (the reason for the Yorkshire terrier in the bottom image) and "Todd the Dinosaur" (the reason why we Barney in the middle_ The Rev. Joseph Chambers in Charlotte, NC, said the purple dinosaur was an example of socialist propaganda?!!!).

Here is a list of ten comic strips that we saw on the web today, none of these strips are in either "The Roanoke Times" or "The Washington Post:"

1. La Cucaracha 8.2

2. Pooch Café 7.8

3. Todd the Dinosaur 7.6

4. Tundra 7.5

5. The Pajama Diaries 7.5

6. Pros and Cons 7.3

7. The Other Coast 7.2

8. Mother Goose and Grimm 7.2

9. Arctic City 7.1

10. Overboard 7.0

http://www.gocomics.com/lacucaracha/#.UsoBCTYo6Uk

http://www.gocomics.com/poochcafe#.UsoBTzYo6Uk

No Blog Entry Today as I'm Sick as a Cat

Since I am under the weather today, we will feature this image of a Siamese cat roaming the streets of Sofia or Varna or some other Bulgarian city. We got this image from googling 'Cats in Bulgaria.'

We also want to mention that the great '80s independent rock band Big Head Todd and the Monster, which we believe are from Athens, Ga., will perform at the fabled 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, on Sat. Jan. 18th; the concert costs $27.50, which costs as much as a parking lot ticket in the nation's capital. Somehow, we can't imagine that Congs. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) will be there???!!!

Speaking of Goodlatte, though we are opposed to him politically, he is from my hometown of Roanoke, Va., as is cult film director Charles Cullen, who turns 50 today. His film "The Day the Whole $%#&*@ World Blew Up" is clearly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman (yes, we are kidding!).......but, Charles Cullen of Roanoke, Va., should not be confused with the other Charles Cullen.

The other Cullen, who is just three years older than our Charles Cullen, is the most notorious serial killer in New Jersey history!

http://www.930.com

http://www.bigheadtodd.com

http://www.catchannel.com

http://www.cullenstudio.net

No Blog Entry Today as I am Sick as a Dog

American English idioms may be lost on our blog readers in Uzbekistan, so we will refer to the NPR radio series "Way with Words" http://www.waywithwords.org and the ever-hip Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com or perhaps even the Scrabble dictionary http://www.scrabble.com

We got this image when we googled in the term: "Dogs in Turkey," but we are not sure if this fella is from Malatya, Erzurum or Kars (forgive the Turkish humor). We imagine dogs in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan look fairly similar to this one?!

We shall try to post a more meaningful blog post when this nasty cold has left the building.....

The Most Influential People List..........(from an article in "The New Republic")

The reason for this entry is that we read a great article by Cass R. Sunstein in "The New Republic" which was an extended book review of "Who's Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank." The length of the subjects' Wikipedia pages was one consideration. We should warn reader that this is a CONTROVERSIAL list. The image of Karl Marx at the top is the Little Thinker toy based on his image:


1) Jesus Christ

2) Napoleon

3) Mohammed

4) William Shakespeare

5) Abe Lincoln

6) George Washington

7) Adolf Hitler

8) Aristotle

9) Alexander the Great

10) Thomas Jefferson (Monticello, his historical home in Charlottesville, Virginia, is pictured in the middle)

11) Henry VIII

12) Charles Darwin

13) Elizabeth I

14) Karl Marx (pictured top)

15) Julius Caesar

16) Queen Victoria

17) Martin Luther

18) Joseph Stalin

19) Albert Einstein (pictured bottom)

20) Christopher Columbus

http://www.newrepublic.com

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.monticello.org

http://www.visitcharlottesville.org