20-Word Fiction: Fishing in Kentucky

Todd went fishing in Kentucky. He caught a big bass. On his way home, Todd accidentally peed in his pants.

Tweets Considering All Things DC (1 of 2): Interesting Suggestion About the Creation Museum

A tweet from LOLGOP, which makes fun of the Tea Party and Republicans, posted a tweet today about one thing conservatives would want in the federal government; it concerns the Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky. When I saw liberal folk singer Billy Bragg play at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, I was amazed he visited the Creation Museum! But, again, so has Bill Maher.

Here are the tweets about Washington, DC:

1. The Fix: "(Imagine) The government shutdown debate as a game of ping pong."

2. LOLGOP: "#GOPDemands: Move the Creation Museum into the Smithsonian and/or depict the Founders as riding dinosaurs."

3. Ambassador Namik Tan (Turkish ambassador to the USA): "President Abdullah Gul's interview with "The Washington Post"....Assad must go."

4. Ezra Klein: "The falling deficit has been a disaster for the GOP."

5. The Daily Edge: "#GOPDemands: National buyback program to replace dangerous video games with assault weapons." (This is meant to be satirical).

6. Roll Call: "OMG!! A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN. Or maybe not."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/

http://creationmuseum.org/ (Not an endorsement)

http://www.rollcall.com/

Our Ten Favorite Comic Strips of the Week: Cubicle Dwellers, Aliens and Rural Kentuckians

Though it has never been mentioned in the comic strip, we suspect that "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith," one of the oldest running American comic strips in existence, takes place in a remote, rural place like Harlan, Kentucky, where one will likely find revival preachers.

It makes this initial entry on our ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday pages, along with "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" in which 'our hero' must be fight to save planet Earth from an alien insectoid invasion, and "Dilbert" in which a bald-headed executive gives workplace strategies to Dilbert.

By the way, there is a UFO Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, of all places, not far from where the Gezi Park protests, against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the authoritarian prime minister of Turkey. 

Here are the Top Ten, in alphabetical order, as opposed to order of preference:

1) "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith"(John Rose is now the cartoonist of the strip)

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

3) ""Dilbert"

4) "Doonesbury" (this one was really awesome!)

5) The Duplex

6) "F-Minus"

7) "Knight Life" (Keith Knight continues his 'Life's Little Victories' series)

8) "Mother Goose and Grimm"

9) "Non Sequitir"

10) "Speed Bump"

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

http:///www.ufoevidence.org (not an endorsement)

http://www.harlancountytrails.com

Virtual Postcard from Kentucky- Horse Park in Lexington

We continue our eight part series (four entries with a pause for two other entries within the next few days) with a Vitual Postcard from the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, which might make one want to watch "Seabiscuit" again.

It was Thanksgiving Day here in America, and social media made the day interesting for us as we got Happy Thanksgiving tweets from Kevin Spacey, Julian Castro (the Democratic mayor of San Antonio, Texas) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska), all of whom are three people we have never met; Sen. Nelson is retiring at the end of his term this year.

The day was also special for us because our good friend Bruce Piephoff, a folk singer in Greensboro, NC, has a song called "Notes from Knoxville," which I like to listen to around Thanksgiving. I must profess that as much as I admire another folk singe Arlo Guthrie, I'm not sure I have the patience to listen to his Thanksgiving song "Alice's Restaurant Massacre"or "Alice's Restaurant," which lasts close to 19 minutes; Piephoff''s song is some 13 minutes and 30 seconds shorter (we believe).

Piephoff will be playing at Southern Bistro in Greensboro on Thurs., Nov. 29 and Tues., Dec. 4. Greensboro has a vibrant local music scene and on Sunday, at the Green Bean coffe house downtown, there will be a performance by Julian Sizemore followed by Patrick Ferguson starting at 7:00 p.m.http://www.kentuckytourism.com

http://www.horsepark.com

http://www.brucepiephoff.net

http://www.thegreenbeanblogspot.com

http://www.southernbistro.com

Virtual Postcard from West Virginia- Babcock State Park

Today, we are starting an entry series dedicated to our rather lengthy road trip for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend from Roanoke, Va., to Denver, Colo. For those of you in Europe, this might be as far or farther than a drive from Paris, France, to Van, Turkey, a city in far southeastern Turkey which is near the Iranian border.

The image above is from the lovely Babcock State Park in central eastern West Virginia, in relative close proximity to Beckley. It is an even more amazing when snow is around the structure and the adjoining creek.

More on the road trip in tomorrow's blog where we will share an image of Kentucky.

http://www.wvtourism.com
http://www.visitwv.com
http://www.babcocksp.com

Tweets from DNC in Charlotte_ An Empty Chair for bin Laden

Today, we continue logging tweets from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) which officially gets underway tomorrow in Charlotte, NC, but many meet and greet events, including delegation breakfast talks, have started up.

"The Washington Post" is focusing on Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland (pictured top) as he is one of the most -coveted speakers at the convention. Former Virginia governor Tim Kaine, who is running for an open U.S. senate seat, will also speak in Charlotte. Just so there is no confusion, O"Malley is not the governor of North Carolina, that distinction belongs to Gov. Beverly Perdue, also a Democrat, who is stepping down this year at the end of her term.

We are also using a coffee cup from the Turkish coffee Kahve Dunyasi (Coffee World) since many progressives have started the Coffee Party in opposition to the far right Tea Party movement, which has actually propelled fringe candidates, such as Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), into congressional representatives!

Here is a look at some of the tweets from last night, from the right, the left and the center:

1) @theobserver (Charlotte Observer): Was that George Clooney jogging down Tryon Street?

2) @DavidCornDC (David Corn, a liberal journalist with "Mother Jones"): Even Clint Eastwood said we were halfway through a comeback! That is, before he began his career as a performance activist.

3) @reason ("Reason" is a libertarian magazine): Charlotte protests already bigger than in Tampa.

4) @KyDems (Kentucky Democratic Party): Ky Democrats starting to arrive in Charlotte. KDP is finishing convention walk through.

5) @ChrisRockoz (We thought this was the real Chris Rock, but it appears to be an impersonator. Nevertheless, it is very amusing): Democrats should have an empty chair for the entire DNC and when someone asks who it belongs to, they can say Osama bin Laden.

6) @StephenFHayes (Stephen F. Hayes, a columnist for the conservative publication "The Weekly Standard"): Advice to all in #Charlotte. Avoid the Orange Cab company. An hour late for pickup. Told four times cab was 'five minutes' away.

7) @BarryHouse (Barry House is a liberal activist in Illinois): I wish just once #Democrats would be as vicious at their convention as #Republicans always are at theirs.


http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.kydemocrat.com

http://www.reason.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.mddems.org

http://www.charlotteobserver.com

Quote from International Writers_ Franz Kafka

This just in, a mere three days after they have their vice presidential candidates debate in Danville, Ky., Vice President Joe Biden and his challenger Paul Ryan will have a wrestling match during half-time of the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game in Cleveland on Oct. 24th. They chose the occasion because Ohio is a swing state; I'm sure the late comic actor Andy Kaufman would be proud.

We are joking, of course, but like us, the satirical publication "The Onion" is having fun at the candidates' expense, one recent 'story' this week said that perhaps Paul Ryan should have told Mitt Romney about the guy he's dating.

With that, today we start a series of quotes from famous world-known writers. And, we begin with the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whom I'm amazed to see that I've actually outlived him, as he died in his very early forties.

Kafka is well-known for penning "The Trial" (1925); here is his quote:

"A book should be an axe, to break the frozen sea within us."

http://www.clevelnadbrowns.com

http://www.theonion.com

Virtual Postcard from Kentucky- Churchill Downs

Today was one in which I spent much of it on the road as we traveled throughout West Viginia and Kentucky, and we will visit Ohio tomorrow.

I was actually a bit east of Louisville, but Churchill Downs, along with the Kentucky Horse Farm in nearby Lexington, as arguably the most iconic placees in the Bluegrass State.

The next Kentucky Derby, the popular horse race which takes place at Churchill Downs, will be on May 4th and 5th,, 2012.

Animal Kingdom, the current winner of the last Kentucky Derby, is a Brazilian bred stallion. The horse has so far earned 2.37 million dollars in earnings.

Currently, Animal Kingdom has just recovered from surgery and he is scheduled to compete at the 2012 Dubai World Cup.

We certainly wish Animal Kingdom well.

The Backpackers Are Beside BestBuy- Entry One

I started my odyseey to take photographs of all seven public art displays that are part of the Art in Roanoke campaign rather arbitrarily.

My friend Stevlana (pse) and I were walking around the Grandin Court area near the Grandin Theatre when we stumbled upon "Trojan Dog" (not to be confused with the Trojan Horse in Troy, Turkey; we could not find a suitable image of the piece for this entry). The "Trojan Dog" is the creation of Roanoke's Ann Glover, who reportedly was inspired by Japanes carving pieces. It should be noted that the "Trojan Dog" is a white dog, rather than a dalmation.

On Sunday, the next day, I came back to the No. 7 Fire Station on Memorial Avenue to snap several shots of "The Trojan Dog." I didn't realize very few of the other six art pieces would be that easy to locate.

Much to my shock and horror, the original postcards that I found at a local coffeehouse with the locations of the seven pieces were no longer available. Thus, I would have to find the other six without a map!

The next one I came across was "Connect," (which is pictured) in downtown Roanoke near the offices for "The Roanoke Times." The piece has also been displayed in Lexington, Ken., where the artist Ericka Strecker is from. Strecker says that she likes to look for objects which have a connection to each other.

I snapped several shops of "Connect" as a jogger passed me by, without even sparing a glance to see what I was doing.

'This series continues on our other blog, "Politics Culture and Other Wastes of Time" (see links below). Entry #3 is scheduled to be posted here tomorrow morning."

SIDEBAR: I had the chance to see the band Poverty Level perform at a great coffeehouse near Greensboro, NC, which is sadly no longer around. But, one can see the Patrick County, Virginia, almost literally perform in their own backyard when they play The Front Porch Festival this weekend in Stuart, Va.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Obama/Chavez 2012

We actually posted that header to make fun of radical Republicans/Tea Partiers/Doomsdayers (editorial comment: the Rapture is not going to happen on May 21, 2011) rather than to support them. The image is of Maoist protesters in Nepal.

Today, we saw this great tweet from The Muslim guy, otherwise known as Arsalan Iftikhar, who has been, like me, a supporter of Pres. Barack Obama:

"Rep. Paul Brown (R-Ga.) once said President Obama will establish a Marxist dictatorship."

And, we also want to express support for all NPR stations as they are unfairly being targeted by right-wing activists. But, we want to mention WUNC-FM (91.5-Chapel Hill) in particular. Today, Frank Stasio interviewed UNC professor David Halperin who has written a novel called "Journal of a UFO Investigator." The book, which I have to get or read, has become a hit with readers, especially in North Carolina.

Stasio's North Carolina-oriented show "The State of Things," which also features stories of national and even international interest, airs at noon and is repeated at 9:00 p.m. (on Fridays, the station does not rebroadcast the show). It is also available for downloads.

NOTE: We experienced many technical difficulties with our entry on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," so I hope those of you who have time and are feeling bored at your desk job in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or Louisville, Kentucky, can take a look at it. The link is listed on this site.

Things We Learned From the BBC Today- Saudi Arabia to Allow Blackberrys

Yes, we are actually referring to those electronic telecommunication devices which were made famous in part by then-candidate Barack Obama during his run for the presidency. But, we couldn't resist an image of blackberries that you might find in rural West Virginia or wherever these things are grown!

But, after much dispute the Saudi Arabian government apparently will allow Black Berry service to continue in the kingdom according to the BBC.

Riyadh was apparently unhappy that Black Berry handsets automatically scrambled messages and sent them to Canada in a measure that was aimed at trying to find perspective terrorist suspects.

We are dedicating tonight's entry to students at Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, as the Ghosts (yes, that is their actual nickname, but we think Harvey Comics would sue if they used Casper as their mascot) are our bonus High School of the Week (to make up for the fact that we forgot to name one last week).

Paterson, NJ, is believed to have the highest concentration of Turkish-Americans per capita in the country though I myself live far away in the coal-mining town of Hazard, Kentucky (that is a joke, but even though I live nowhere near there it's not much of a stretch!).

The high school was actually made famous as it was depicted in the Morgan Freeman movie "Lean on Me," which was based on a true story that happened there.

The current principal is Karen Johnson.

Eastside High is 70 percent Hispanic, and the school goes from grades nine through twelve.

The legendary beat poet Allen Gingsberg, one of my personal favorite figures of the '60s, is arguably the school's most famous alum.