20-Word Fiction: A Real-Life John Hughes Movie

Greetings to our blog readers in Spain, Brazil and Japan............

Today's second 20-word fiction story imagines what a real-life Ferris Bueller would do on his day off if he lived in Roanoke, Va., as opposed to Chicago. This year marks the 30th anniversary of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," a film from the late John Hughes which stars Matthew Broderick.

Originally this story had Ferris going to the Mill Mountain Zoo where he fed a pygmy goat, but with a mere 20 words that part had to be omitted, though we feature a photo of that kind of goat here.

We also support the Sleepy Goat farm in Pelham, NC, just over the state line from Danville, Va., their goat cheese is awesome! In the We Caught It department, we originally said the goat farm was in Yanceville, NC, another town in Caswell Country (not that it matters as we are not "Atlantic" magazine!):

"Ferris decided to skip class on Thursday, but he quickly realized Roanoke is not an exciting place during the week."

http://www.mmzoo.org/

http://www.sleepygoatfarm.com/

http://www.theatlantic.com/

Our Top Ten Comics from Sunday, Dec. 14th Washington Post: Bill Cosby Had a VERY Bad Year

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Sweden and Australia......

Today, we focus on our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post"(Sunday, Dec. 14th edition). For those of you in Kazakhstan who may have never been to America, Sunday is the day when color comic strips are posted in newspapers and web sites, such as http://www.gocomics.com

"The Washington Post" has substantially more comics than small-town newspapers like "The Register and Bee" in Danville, Va. And, there are comic strips for virtually every demographic, including "Reply All" (young women), "Baldo" (Hispanics), "Mark Trail" (children) and "Beetle Bailey" (Republican senior citizens men with hearing airs...........our apologies to Mort Walker).

Darrin Bell's "Candorville" is our top comic strip of the week for the first time in the survey (there are over 30 comic strips in the Sunday Post) when the title character, an African-American man presumably in his late twenties, overhears two school children talking about why their parents don't want them to watch "The Cosby Show." For those of you in Uzbekistan, there are some serious criminal allegations aimed at Bill Cosby (pictured top), a former stand-up comic and sitcom star.

"Candorville" is followed closely by "Pearls Before Swine" in which Rat declares that he wants to be president of the United States so he can aim drones to spy on every living person on earth. Of course, if he were running as a Republican for Congress in South Carolina, he could say something that outlandish and get elected as Congs. Joe Wilson and Mark Sanford, two of the most dubious members of Congress, did on Election Day (forgive the political commentary).

We used "Three Little Pigs" as our image for "Pearls" because Pig is one of the three major characters in the strip (Goat is the third).

Third place went to "Speed Bump," which depicts a medieval jousting the age of social media.

And, in fourth place, there was a hilarious look at Star Wars fanatics in Keith Kinght's "Knight Life," in which guys dressed like Storm Troopers are camping out for tickets to the next Star Wars film, which is due out next year.

Here is our top ten:

1. Candorville

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Speed Bump

4. Knight Life

5. Lio

6. WUMO

7. The Argyle Sweater

8. Dustin

9. Prickly City

10. Doonesbury

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.gocommic.com

We Are Suffering from Blogger's Block

Yes, this bout with blogger's block reminds me of the days when I taught English as a Second Language at a minimum-security prison in Yanceyville, NC, just across the border from Danville, Va. I should point out that I wasn't an inmate there myself!

But, hopefully, someone in Finland, Croatia or Iran is actually reading this, and hopefully that person realizes that even in America one can become bored and confused and somehow try to function!

Of course, people like Mark Twain, Nazim Hikmet* and F. Scott Fitzgerald never had to worry about blogger's block!

*- A famous Turkish poet who died in Moscow some 50 years ago.

PSA_ October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

From the Muslim Eid Mubarak holiday to Halloween, from the presidential elections to Hurricane Sandy, the month of October, which is also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is a busy one indeed. The tenth month is also National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, and it is with this in mind that we are posting an image of Yorkshire Terrier puppy.

Here is a list with links of animal shelters in North Carolina, which is our state of residency; these include shelters from Yanceyville, a rural town near Danville, Va., as well Raleigh, Greensboro and Charlotte.

http://www.americanhumanesociety.org

http://www.aspcacaswell.org

http://www.spcawake.org

http://www.adoptshelterpets.org

http://www.humanesocietyofcharlotte.org

The Last Tweets from Charlotte- Maryland Congresswoman Comes Home to Carolina

Though none of these tweets pertain to former New York governor Mario Cuomo (pictured top; his son Andrew is now in charge in Albany) or to dinosaur skeletons, we thought we would use them because several speakers at the Democratic National Convention, including Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, will try to reach the barometer set by Cuomo when he gave a dynamic speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.

And, the dino-skeleton is because Charlotte boasts a very popular natural science museum called The Discovery Place, located in the heart of downtown in the Queen City.

Here are tweets from about an hour ago (4:00 p.m./16:00 eastern time, or 20:00 GMT) with explanations:

1) @PoliticalTicker (CNN Political Ticker): "Obama expecting to get 'misty' during first lady's speech (tonight)."

2) @wamu885news (WAMU 88.5 News; the Washington DC-based NPR station): "We spoke to Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards this morning  about what she expects from #DNC2012." (Cong. Edwards was born in Yanceyville, NC, which borders Danville, Va., her fourth district includes many DC suburbs in Maryland).

3) @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): "Watch Chuck Norris' stern warning about the 1,000 years of darkness' that Obama will bring if re-elected."

4) @ABC11WTVD (WTVD is the ABC-affiliate in Raleigh, NC): "Gov. Bev Perdue seems fired up heading to the #DNC_ telling a fellow Dem: 'Let's kick some asses.'"

5) @UtahDemocrats (Utah Democratic Party): "@VoteScottHowell now speaking with Senator (Harry) Reid at the @LBSDems event." (Scott Howell is a conservative Utah Democrat of the Mormon faith who is challenging long-term incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch).

6) @TheNation (The Nation, a liberal magazine): "Activists call for the immigration reform Obama promised when he ran for office."

7) @DavidShuster (David Shuster, a tv-journalist with the liberal Current-TV who ironically worked for the conservative network Fox News): "Biggest demonstration today in Charlotte: 3 people urging sinners to 'repent or burn in hell.' Police amused."

http://www.wamu.org

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.wfae.org (Charlotte's NPR station)

http://www.wunc.org (Raleigh-Chapel Hill's NPR station)

http://www.utahdemocrats.org

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.nc-politics.com

http://www.discoveryplace.org

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Tired Dog

We are literally dog-tired, hence we are resurrecting Silly Picture to Fill Space with an image of a dog who we believe is from Ecuador- of all places!

But, closer to home, those of you who wish to adopt a dog like Allie, a Brittany Spaniel, from the Caswell County Animal Shelter in Yanceyville, NC, (near Danville, Va., and an hour north of Chapel Hill) can call 336-694-4921.

The shelter is also in need of puppy and kitten food.

Quote of the Week- Sissy Spacek

Today, we are featuring quotes from two Academy Award winners who happened to co-star with Jack Lemmon (1925-2001, who is quoted on our other blog "The Daily Vampire") in the highly political 1982 thriller "Missing" about an American journalist who vanished in Chile during a right-wing coup which lead to the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006).

Spacek currently lives on a farm outside Charlottesville, Va. She has been active in state politics as she has lobbied the General Assembly to consider the links between uranium mining and cancer as a highly controversial uranium mining project is being considered at the Coles Hill Farm in Pittsylvania County, north of Danville, Va. The subject was profiled in an excellent article by Andrew Rice in the current issue of "The New Republic."

Spacek is originally from Quitman, Tex., where she was homecoming queen at Quitman High School. After gaining prominence for her excellent performance in "Badlands"
(1973), Spacek became one of the very few actresses ever nominated for Best Actress for a performance in a horror film "Carrie" (1976).

But, the film she would Oscar for would turn out to be "Coal Miner's Daughter"
(1980). Spacek won over an impressive list of nominees including Gena Rowlands who gave a brilliant performance of her own in "Gloria" that year.

Interestingly enough, both Spacek and Rowlands have been featured guests at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville over the years. The festival, which be held from Nov. 4-7, 2010, announced today that it would drop its long-standing programming policy of presenting films based on a similar theme.


Spacek has recieved a total of six nominations, including one for her outstanding role in the contemporary thriller "In the Bedroom" (2001).

Here is her quote:

"You don't forget the movies, but you forget the details of them."

Images of Virginia (9 of 10) North Theatre in Danville

We are abruptly coming to a conclusion of this ten-part series which we began earlier in the fall (it has been preempted some 12-14 times, rough estimate).

Today, we focus on the historic North Theatre in downtown Danville, Va.

The cinema was reopened a few years ago after being closed for many, many years.

While the North does show movies as special screenings, including a Fellini retrospective in 2006 which shocks me to this day, they also host concerts and plays.

On Dec. 17, the North will be the venue for The Little Theatre of Danville's stage production of "It's a Wonderful Life." The play, which is aimed at children (though adults can attend) starts at 7:30 p.m.

Perhaps, the ghost of Jimmy Stewart will be in attendance to answer questions about what it was like to work with Frank Capra, and what the after-life is really like.

SIDEBAR: Our sister site "The Daily Vampire," which seems to be far more popular (and this is the one with a photo of Sarah Silverman!) has a blog entry about The Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va.