Our 10 Favorite Comic Strips from The Martinsville Bulletin: Witches' Brew

Greetings to our blog readers in Poland, Serbia, and Italy.......

This week, for the very first time we are featuring a survey of comic strips from "The Martinsville Bulletin" in Martinsville, Va; the small city best known for its NASCAR speedway is about half-way between Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, NC. It is also the city where a small-time over-the-top evangelist the Rev. Johnny Robertson, whom we frequently make of, is head-quartered. We believe he has claimed that only the people who attend his church can go to heaven. Ok........

The winner of the survey is "Rhymes with Orange" which features two witches arguing over how to cook a prince in their witch stew, "Garfield" finishes second with John asking the world's only 37-year-old cat to help him with some needed home improvements, and "Dilbert" comes in third with Dilbert arguing with his boss over work place strategy to resolve problems, which seems to be a recurring theme in the office place set strip.

We also have "Snuffy Smith," now drawn and written by John Rose of Harrisonburg, Va., in which pop culture catches up with the century-old strip as the dialogue is about zombies and "The Walking Dead." And, for the very first time in our history of surveys, "Hagar the Horrible" cracks the top ten with a gag about lottery winnings. Helda, Hagar's wife since the strip was first released in 1971 (we believe) was not in the Sunday strip.

Note: Wendy the Witch, a Harvey Comics character was our first choice of images for a witch, but we had to settle with one from "Bewitched," a popular sitcom in the 1960s.

Here are our top ten strips from the Bulletin:


1) Rhymes with Orange

2) Garfield

3) Dilbert

4) Snuffy Smith

5) Zits

6) The Lockhorns

7) Mutts

8) Hi and Lois

9) Funky Winkerbean

10) Hagar the Horrible

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/

Quote of the Week- Mark Twain

Today, we conclude with our month-long quips from cultural radicals and subversives from Mark Twain. Though he is considered a mainstream author today, there have been various times when Twain's works have been considered controversial. The use of the n-word vernacular that was used quite often at the time of publication (1885) of Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has caused a stir at times for some local schoolboards even though no could rationally suggest that Twain was a racist.

The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., is among the most popular tourist attractions in the Nutmeg State.

Here is Twain's quote:

"A person who won't read has advantages over a person who can't read."

SIDEBAR ONE: Though I am a Democrat, David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, is among my favorite politically conservative pundits as he talks in terms of broad pictures as opposed to the likes of Rush Limbaugh who today proclaimed that Barack Obama 'wanted Hurricane Irene to be a huge disaster.'

Of course, like most liberals, my favorite conservative pundit is (of course!) David Brooks, but Frum, who is also keen and objective in his commentary, is a close second.

Yesterday, Frum tweeted the following regarding how Hurrican Irene affected his weekend: "Side benefit from Irene: taking my daughter to see Declaration and Constitution at National Archive with no line at all. Unprecedented."

SIDEBAR TWO: Speaking of Hartford, I actually saw a Hartford Whalers bumper sticker in Roanoke, Va., today. This was interesting to me because the Hartford Whalers have not existed since the team left for the Tarheel State and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

As the 'Canes, the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006, which actually made some people in North Carolina pay more attention to hockey than NASCAR-racing. But, of course, since racing legend Richard Petty is from Randleman, NC, and the late Dale Earnhardt hailed from Kannapolis, NC, that didn't really last. Of course, their offspring is involved in the sport as well.

But, I found out some interesting information while googling the Hartford Whalers. The current minor league hockey team in Hartford renamed themselves the Connecticut Whale last year to honor the Hartford Whalers. And, ironically, the team's previous name was the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the same nickname for North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes now play (they temporarily played in Greensboro).

The Hartford Whalers existed from 1979-1997. And, they left, in part, because the likes of then-governor of Connecticut John G. Rowland, a Republican, didn't want to spend tax payer money on a new hockey arena for the team.

But, there is still an active group that wants to bring the Hartford Whalers back in one way or another (perhaps having a new team with that name, such as what happened with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL). And, The Whalers Watchers, as they are called, will meet in Hartford on Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

As for the Connecticut Whale, they have their home opener on Oct. 15

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Smokey the Bear

I just realized that I'm not sure if this '70s PSA icon who said: "Only you can prevent forest fires" is spelled Smoky the Bear or Smokey the Bear.

Thankfully, I am no longer working for a smalltown newspaper and we don't need to actually verify such things to make some chain-smoking, Dunkin' Donuts-eating managing editor happy.

Amazingly enough, a small-town newspaper I once interviewed for, "The Bristol Herald-Courier" won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting yesterday! I believe their offices are actually in Bristol, Va., but the newspaper also covers Bristol, Tenn. Before this, they were known for being one of the few newspapers in the country that belonged to two different state press associations. Bristol, Va/Tenn., is best known for hosting an annual NASCAR race, and perhaps one day that racetrack (located in Tenn.) will be the host of a Republican convention.

Know Your Mayors (Entry 11) Charlotte's Pat McCrory

The state of North Carolina will see many municipal elections on Tuesday, but few will probably be as closely watched as the one to replace current mayor Pat McCrory.

McCrory is the longest-serving mayor in the Queen City's history as he is now finishing up his seventh two-year term. The current election will mark the first time that McCrory has not been on the municipal ballot in 20 years.

The Republican Charlotte mayor ran for governor in 2008, but lost to current governor Beverly Perdue.

McCrory is an alumnus of Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC (outside Greensboro and High Point) and Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. He worked for Duke Energy for many years before turning his attention to civic politics.

McCrory has managed to become a long-serving mayor in spite of the fact that Democrats and independents in Charlotte outnumber Republicans by a three-to-one margin. According to today's "Charlotte Observer," the mayor has a sixty percent approval rating.

The mayor is credited with lowering Charlotte's violent crime rate by adding 330 new police officers. He is also lauded for bringing the NASCAR Hall of Fame to the Queen City.

Charlotte is the 18th largest city in America with a population of 687,456. The city's suburbs now stretch into South Carolina, and include my mom's hometown of Rock Hill, SC, which was once a college town with a farming community. The city has grown by 20 percent since McCrory was first elected.


UPDATE: Democrat Anthony Foxx won the highly contested election.



The race for McCrory's succesor will between Democrat Anthony Foxx, and African-American who is 38, and Republican John Lassiter who is 55.