20-word Fiction: The Comedian (1 of 10)

Greetings from Atlanta:

Saw a great stand-up comic last night. I forget his name. Had one too many vodka shots.


(This is a work of fiction; the comedian pictured is Adam Cayton-Holland. He has been featured on Conan O'Brien)......

Top Ten Things To Do List (Satire): Read Golf Digest

Tonight is yet another exciting Sunday night in which one can't wait to sit by the barns in Boones Mill, Virginia, and gaze up at the stars while swatting mosquitoes.

BTW, we did not go to Indiana for the Final Four, that was an April Fool's Joke, you know that right?

Here is a satirical look at what needs to be taken care of this upcoming week:

1. Get the current issue of "Golf Digest"

2. Actually play a game of golf, or at least, indulge in some Putt-Putt...

3. Go to Bethesda, Maryland, to visit F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave (center image)

4. Call "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" to ask for today's Sunday paper even though I reside 7.5 hours away (the Atlanta Braves start baseball season tomorrow.....we think)

5. Mapquest directions to Omaha, Nebraska, to see an Omaha Storm Chasers game even though I live 18.5 hours east of there.

6. Play Donkey Kong for 9.5 hours at one time

7. Watch the entire first two seasons of "Doctor Who"

8. Laundry

9. Recycling

10. Oil Change

https://www.facebook.com/omahastormchasers

http://www.fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org/

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/

http://www.ajc.com/

http://www.golfdigest.com/

Sunday Best from the Washington Post

Greetings to our blog readers in Colombia, Honduras and Canada...

Why do we have images of Gil Gerard from his "Buck Rogers" day (an NBC sci fi show that aired circa 1979), '60s cartoon favorite Atom Ant and a bunch of green golf balls???!!!

This is because all of these things relate to our favorite comic strips from this Sunday's "Washington Post." "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," which we actually first saw in "The Atlanta Journal Constitution" in 2007, wins this week with a great comic strip about a carbon copy selfie?! The comic strip is also in the "News and Record" in Greensboro, NC.

Second place goes to "Lio," which shows an alien octopus scaring away the rug rats from "The Family Circus" comic strip. The bronze medal goes to "The Argyle Sweater" which shows Army ants having a picnic in what could be lower Manhattan. Fourth place goes to the always funny and hip Keith Knight and his autobiographical comic strip "Knight Life," which this week, shows a man who literally has his eye on the (golf) ball. Tiger Woods would be proud!

Knight will be singing books at an event in San Fransisco from Oct. 9th-11th. 


Here is our list:

1. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

2. Lio

3. The Argyle Sweater

4. Knight Life

5. Speed Bump

6. Reply All

7. WUMO

8. Rhymes with Orange

9. Frazz

10. Sherman's Lagoon

http://www.ajc.com

http://www.accessatlanta.com/

http://www.news-record.com/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit

http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife

http://www.kchronicles.com/

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (May 25th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in South Africa, Iceland and Portugal; domestically, we want to give a shout-out to our blog readers in Raleigh, NC, Atlanta and Seattle...........if we can ever get to the Northwest and see the Space Needle.........

Since Discovery Channel's Shark Week is nearing, it is only appropriate that "Sherman's Lagoon," a comic strip about a shark finishes in our top ten.

The above images are all in conjunction with three strips from the May 25th Sunday edition of "The Washington Post" (the Aug. 3rd comics pages disappeared like Harry Houdini). The living opossums eludes to "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! which feauted possum obits! The laundry of clothes is a nod to "Rhymes with Orange," which featured a circus cyclist who had to strut around in the buff since he couldn't get his clothes washed, and, of course, the "Jaws the Revenge" (or Jaws 4) poster is a reference to "Sherman's Lagoon."

1. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

2. WUMO 

3. Lio

4. Rhymes with Orange

5. Judge Parker

6. Speed Bump

7. Doonesbury

8. Frazz

9. Sherman's Lagoon

10. Foxtrot

Sunday Roanoke Times Survey: Doonesbury Brilliantly Satires Dubya

Garry Trudeau hit the high mark in political satire on Mother's Day with "Doonesbury" when he made fun of former president George W. Bush's new painting hobby, which was even the subject of a political story by "New York Times" political beat writer Peter Baker. The punch line of the strip is highly political, and perhaps it will lead to "The Spartanburg Herald Journal" in Spartanburg, South Carolina, dropping the strip (we actually have no idea which strips are in that newspaper). Hence, "Doonesbury" is our comic strip of the week from those published in the Sunday "Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va.

"Funky Winkerbean" was a close second with its Starbuck Jones comic book cover series which featured a live octopus. We were unable to find a good image of a live octopus, so we went with this photo of an octopus on a plate in Greece. Our apologies to our good friends at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta (well, we actually don't know a single who works in an aquarium).

Third place goes to "Speed Bump"," which features two dogs sitting on a couch as they watch a cat movie with subtitles. We didn't wan tto violate artist Dave Coverly's copyright, so we decided to go with an image of Cuneyt Arkin, a Turkish '70s action movie icon, which is made funnier with subtitles.

Here is the survey results:

1) "Doonesbury"

2) "Funky Winkerbean"

3) "Speed Bump"

4) "Agnes"

5) "Pearls Before Swine"

6) "Get Fuzzy"

7) "Zits"

8) "Garfield"

9) "Dilbert"

10) "Jump Start"


http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.speedbump.com

http://www.goupstate.com/

http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu/

http://www.visitgreece.gr/

http://www.goturkey.com/

http://www.aqua.org/

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/

http://www.roanoke.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

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

7 Words in Norwegian (4 of 7): Dolphin

Dolphin=Delphin

I first became aware of dolphins by watching reruns of "Flipper" during the two years when I lived as a child in Turkey (1977-79) on TRT (Turkey Radio Television), which also aired Jacques Cousteau documentaries.
 
One can see dolphins and other living sea animals at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Ga. (see link below):

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org

or the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland: http://www.aqua.org

For our "7 Words in Turkish" series, go to: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Casualties of Modern Technology (10 of 12)- The Station Wagon

Given sky-rocketing gas prices and concerns that oil barons in Dubai are getting wealthy at American motorist's expense, one of the few areas where the right and left agree here in the United States, the station wagon is clearly a highway dinosaur, though I did spot one in a rural part of North Carolina several weeks ago.

The station wagon, according to Wikipedia, is an automobile that has a sedan/saloon with its roof extended. The vehicle also consists of of a three-box design or 'an auto with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver.'

The car was first developed in 1922, and the full-size station wagon, including the Ford Country Squire, hit the highways in 1967. But, the decline of the station wagon started in the 1970s as its gas-guzzling reputation made motorists opt for more economical imports, such as cars from Toyota.

But, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, made especially for the Chevy Chase 'vehicle' (pardon the pun) "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983) helped keep some station wagons on the road until the end of the Reagan administration.

Station wagons were also quite popular at drive-ins, especially for features that were more family friendly such as "Old Heavenly Dog" (1979), which also starred Chase.

One drive-in theatre which has made a successful comeback is the Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, Va., the country's only non-profit drive-in. From Friday night until Sunday night, Hull's will screen a double-header consisting of "John Carter" and "Wrath of the Titans."

Other drive-ins which are active include the Highway 21 Drive-In in Beaufort, SC, one of the very last remaining drive-ins in South Carolina. It is screening "Battleship" and "Think Like a Man" on screen one; while "The Avengers" and "Dark Shadows" show on screen two.

Further down south, the Starlight Drive-In in Atlanta, one of the very few drive-ins with six screens, is showing several double-headers, including "Think Like a Man" and "21 Jump Street" on screen one.

While out west, 88 Drive-In in Commerce City, Colo., which is the Denver metro area's only drive-in venue will show "The Avengers" and "John Carter."

http://www.cinematreasures.org

http://www.hullsdrivein.com

http://www.hwy21drivein.com

http://www.88drivein.com

http://www.starlightdrivein.com

NCAA Gymnastics Preview_ Kat Ding of Georgia

The University of Georgia Gym Dawgs team is back in contender mode this year thanks in large part to Kat Ding, a senior from Sparks, Nev.

Ding was named SEC Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 14 for her 39.550 performance in a win over Arkansas. In that meet, Ding finished first on bars with a 9.95 and she tied for first on vault with a 9.9 during the meet with the Razorbacks.

Ding was also featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of "Sports Illustrated" (Feb. 27th issue). Ding also scored another 39.550 in a win over Kentucky.

Other gymnasts for the fifth-ranked Gym Dawgs, which will be vital as the team hosts the NCAAs in Gwinnett, Ga., (an Atlanta suburb some 45 miles from the UGA campus in Athens), are Gino Nuccio, Shayla Worley and Noel Couch.

Quote from Shakespeare_We'll Keep it Short

Hmmm... quoting William Shakespeare a collective ten times on two blogs during this month of December was not a very bright idea, but we like to finish things we have started; the image above is from an early film version of "Hamlet."

Here is our latest quip from the Bard:

"Absence from those we love is self from self-banishment."

While researching this post, we learned that the Georgia Shakespeare theatre company in Atlanta is seeking funds to keep operations up. On Dec. 16th and 17th, they will host a holiday cabarte entitled "Cocoa and Cards." Both performances start at 7:00 p.m., and we wish them well.

SIDEBAR: Amazingly enough, we had no idea that today would have been Mexican artist Diego Garcia's 125th birthday when we quoted him yesterday. Today, a painting by Rivera, who was Frida Kahlo's romantic partner, was used as Google's doodle.

Bonus Silly Photo to Fill Space- Ayran

Today, we feature ayran, the yogurt milk beverage that is very popular in my late father's country Turkey. An Istanbul taxi driver named Atilla Kalkan gave me the recipe back in 2008. Alas, efforts to find him on Facebook failed (though there are a lot of Atilla Kalkans out there!).

One can find ayran at Harmony Market in Cary, NC (Raleigh, Phone: 1-919-380-0077) along with other Turkish food items with the noteable exception of raki (the Turkish version of the greek spirit ouzo) as they do not have an ABC license.

For our friends in Georgia, ayran should be available at Bereket Turkish Grocery in Atlanta (phone: 770-613-9950), where one can also get a Cola Turka...a Turkish cola beverage which once featured commercials with Chevy Chase! (Yes, that is true).

One can not find ayran at Texas Tavern in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., though it can be found (if you ask) at Arzu International, which is also downtown. So, if you are inclined to have a cheesy western at Texas Tavern for breakfast (a scarmbled egg sandwich with a hamburger pattie and cheese, ask your doctor before eating!) and Izmir kofte (lamb dish which unlike cheesy westerns does NOT cause heart attacks) for lunch at Arzu then the Star City is the place to be!

NOTE: Ayran was one of the items listed on my Christmas wish list. Of course, this is ironic because Turkey is a Muslim country and I actually prefer Festivus over all religious holidays. The beverage can also be purchased online in the United States (and perhaps Canada) from tulumba.com in New York.

Thanksgiving Day Blog-a-Thon Starts with Shakespeare Quote

We start our crazy idea of having a Thanksgiving Day Blog-a-Thon (I sure hope my friends and fellow bloggers Moviezzz and Chris Knight have better things to do today; even if that means eating their grandma's green bean casserole!) with a quote from William Shakespeare:

"I say there is no darkness, but ignorance."

Since the holidays are upon us, many stage companies which perform Shakespeare productions are opting for Christmas plays, which Shakespeare didn't write (alas, our intern Javier went hope to visit family in Honduras this weekend, so we can't verify this!).

Hence, the Georgia Shakespeare Company in Atlanta is performing a stage version of the 1983 holiday cult film "A Christmas Story" from Dec. 7-26 (box office is 404-264-0020).

And, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point will be performing Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" from Dec. 3-19.

Things We Learned from Twitter Today- Black Lips Recording New LP

The Atlanta flower-punk rock band The Black Lips is recording a new album according to a tweet by Paste Magazine.

In an article originally published in Spin, the band said their yet-to-be-named record will be out in early 2011. The Lips' lead singer Cole Alexander said the album would be the band's most commercial one yet.

Alexander added that the lp will include one country song called "Dumpster Diving," and that the Lips are experimenting with new instruments including a human skull?!

Interesting things about the band include the fact that they supposedly recorded one of their records at a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, and they are known for lavish stage shows which include nudity and flaming guitars.

We will now take a moment to dedicate this entry to students at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Ariz., home of the Phoenix Suns, which is yet another 'High School of the Week.' The school principal is Dr. Anne Marie Woolsey. They are called The Titans, and they will play Paradise Valley High School in a home game on Sept. 10.

It is also 88 degrees in Phoenix today. I hope that made your day!

Tweet of the Moment_ For Our Friends in Georgia

This tweet was posted last night by 'Zippy the Pinhead' (or perhaps his creator, cartoonist Bill Griffith):

"I'm gliding over a NUCLEAR WASTEDUMP near Atlanta, Georgia!"

I also saw on Twitter last night that the Denver Food Guy had posted a recipe for Greek octopus dishes, which reminds me that given the current economic crisis this may (or may not) be a good time to go to Samos---that is a Greek island 35 miles off the coast of Kushadasi, Turkey.

And, we saw that some fringe right-wing lunatic in Marshall, Tex., posted a billboard asking if those of us who voted for President Barack Obama were 'embarrased yet?'

I was amused by this for several reasons: 1) Obama is a good president--certainly 10 times better than George W. Bush 2) Sarah Palin has become even more of a diva nightmare since the presidential campaign, and let's face it if John McCain had won the election she would be the one actually running the country?! and 3) Texas was not even a swing state, so essentially any votes cast for Obama in the Lonestar State really didn't matter much.

Interestingly enough, The Republican Party has decided to follow me?! on Twitter.