Our Top Ten Comics from Feb. 1st Roanoke Times: Escape from the Snow

Greetings to our blog readers in the Czech Republic, Lithuania and South Africa.........we expect the bottom picture of pigs swimming in The Bahamas may cause us fewer hits today in Iran and Pakistan, but hopefully, those folks will rejoin us tomorrow!

We are using the top image of a snowman in Maryland for "Speed Bump," our weekly winner in which Mrs. Snowman getting mad at her husband for fetching her arm (made of a stick) to Rin Tin Tin (a dog).

Second place goes to "Garfield," the highest ranking for the comic strip in our survey (over a three and a half year period), as Garfield, Odie and John are suffering from 'cabin fever' (middle image, a cabin in Vermont) and the tension causes the family cat to agitate his owner in a profound way.

Lastly, we salute "Jump Start" by Robb Thompson for a fourth place finish, the highest ever for the strip, as Clarence, one of the title characters is enjoying a vacation in a sunny place (yes, this is the reason for the pigs in the Bahamas) while it snowing back home, as it is in cities like Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, within the last few days.

Here is our survey:

1) Speed Bump

2) Garfield

3) Doonesbury

4) Jump Start

5) Get Fuzzy

6) Agnes

7) Zits

8) Pearls Before Swine

9) Dilbert

10) Funky Winkerbean

For this week's survey, go to our sister blog at "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Six Degrees of Separation- Rin Tin Tin (Entry 7 of 11)

Today, we check out how many degrees of separation actor Kevin Bacon is from a golden star of the silent film era Rin Tin Tin, who is pictured above. This is the first time we have linked the star of "Footloose" and "A Few Good Men" to a dog!

Rin Tin Tin was in "The Show of Shows" with Ann Sothern in 1929. She was in "Crazy Mama" with Cloris Leachman in 1975 and she was "New York, I Love You" with Bacon in 2008.

Therefore, Rin Tin Tin is three degrees removed from Bacon.

During the research of this piece, we learned there is a modern-day Rin Tin Tin dog (www.rintintin.com) who does things like visit school children in Tulsa!