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/

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times: Hooray for Agnes

Greetings to our blog readers in Sweden, South Africa, and Cyprus......

It's perhaps fitting that this week's Sunday comic strip "Pearls Before Swine" which features its Goat character in the lime light (well in a dim limelight) is the top finisher in our weekly survey of Sunday comic strips from "The Roanoke Times" as there are some cool pygmy goats from Cameroon at the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke, Va.

For those who have never traveled to Roanoke, it is a city of 100,000 people which is an hour north of Martinsville, Va., home of the Rev. Johnny Robertson who is rumored to have the most over-the-top Southern Baptist church in the world, well at least in Henry County.

Our third-place finisher is "Agnes," which is why we have an image of the late Agnes Moorehead who played the mother in the late 1960s sitcom "Bewitched."

Fifth place goes to Get Fuzzy, which has some knock knock jokes, so we went with an image of Mormons.

Liberal comedian Bill Maher is actually coming to Roanoke on Friday for the first time, we hope he really socks it to Donald Trump, who was brilliantly lampooned in today's (Monday) "Zippy the Pinhead."

Here is the list:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Agnes

4. Dilbert

5. Get Fuzzy

6. Doonesbury

7. Funky Winkerbean

8. Garfield

9. Zits

10. Jump Start

http://www.mmzoo.org/

http://www.visitroanokeva.com/things-to-do/

http://www.visitmartinsville.com/

Comic Strips Dialogue: We Quote Pickles

Three years ago, we used to take dialogue from comic strips and put them in order to make a full conversation. We are using an image of the play "Defending the Caveman" for the comic strip "B.C." Similarly, we are using the Northside High School (Roanoke, Va.) logo for "Hagar the Horrible," who is also a Viking. And, lastly, we using sinks from a Turkish bathroom for the line we are using from the comic strip "Take It from the Tinkersons."

Here we go (Don't Try This at Home or On Your Blog...it's time-consuming):

1. "Mmmm! Something sure smells good!" (Pickles, Aug. 2nd)

2. "Let me give you a cooking lesson." (Baldo, Aug. 2nd)

3. "Go away. I already beat you once!" (B.C., July 19th)

4. "Try to relax! Focus on your peaceful surroundings! Don't think about work!" (Hagar the Horrible, Aug. 2nd)

5. "Hey, I know real people!" (Garfield, July 19th)

6. "You're a Bob Dylan fan, right Cosmo?" (Shoe, July 19th)

7. "Wow! Talk about false advertising." (Adam at Home, May 3rd)

8. "Diner was marvelous, mom." (Hi and Lois, May 3rd)

9. "I........Have to Go to the Bathroom" (Take it from the Tinkersons, May 3rd)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Last Ten Songs on Steve FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va): Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Greetings to our blog readers in Afghanistan, Brazil and the Netherlands.........

Today, we look at ten songs that were played between 5:00-6:00 p.m. (17:00-18:00) eastern United States on the variety mix radio station Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va).

For the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, just underway, the station is playing an all '80s weekend, which actually started on Thursday at noon. http://www.1061stevefm.com

The two earliest songs that were played were "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"by Pat Benatar; both songs were released 35 years ago in 1980. Benatar is currently touring on the road, and she will play the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC, on July 8th and the Brown Theatre in Louisville, Ky., on July 16th. http://benatargiraldo.com/ http://www.warnertheatredc.com 

(The image of Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves are in reference to Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Show, Ali is originally from Louisville where Benatar plays later in July).

The most current song was "Need You Tonight" from INXS, released in 1987 http://www.inxsonline.com

The set also featured the mega-hit "West End Girls" (London's West End is the center image) by Pet Shop Boys http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/ as well as "Photograph" from Def Leppard http://www.defleppard.com/ (the image of Marilyn Monroe is because an actress playing her was in the video for "Photograph") and "Some Like It Hot" by the '80s supergroup The Power Station, which featured the late Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran.

Def Leppard will be performing with Styx and Tesla in Toronto, Canada, on July 14th, and Oshkosh, Wisc., on July 18th.

Here is the list:

1) Come on Eileen. Dexy's Midnight Runners. 1982

2) Let's Hear It for the Boy. Deniece Williams, 1984

3) Photograph. Def Leppard. 1983.

4) West End Girls. Pet Shop Girls. 1984.

5) Hit Me With Your Best Shop. Pat Benatar. 1980.

6) Jam on It. Necleus. 1984.

7) Need You Tonight. INXS. 1987

8) Back in Black.AC/DC. 1980

9) Gloria. Laura Branigan. 1982.

10) Some Like It Hot. The Power Station. 1985.

Our Top 10 NPR Series on Our Local Station: Ira Glass Takes the Blue Ribbon

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Latvia and Mexico......unlike Donald Trump, we have nothing folks from our southern border.

These are our ten favorite National Public Radio shows which air on WVTF/RadioIQ (Roanoke, Charlottesville,Va.); many of these shows are regional in nature and do not air nationally, but the top are among the most popular NPR series nationally.

These images are for 1) This American Life which is hosted by Ira Glass and features stories on a fixed topic which usually take place somewhere in America; 2) the radio tower is for "Radiolab," a show that was described by '80s teen cinema icon Molly Ringwald as a 'This American Life' for science people (paraphrasing); and 3) Aziz Ansari, the comic/actor was a guest on both "This American Life" and "Studio 360" last week.

Here is our top ten:

1. This American Life

2. Radiolab

3. Studio 360

4. The TED Radio Hour

5. A Way With Words

6. Your Weekly Constitutional

7. Philosophy Talk

8. New Dimensions

9. Thistle and Shamrock

10 (tie). Animal Planet; Back Story

http://www.waywordradio.org/

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.radiolab.org/

http://www.montpelier.org/center/radio

http://www.wvtf.org

East Coast NPR Stations

http://www.wbur.org  (Boston)

http://www.wypr.org (Baltimore)

 http://www.wfdd.org

(Winston-Salem, NC)

http://www.wunc.org (Chapel Hill, NC)

http://www.wxvu.org (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Our Top Ten Comic Strips from Today's Mother's Day Sunday Roanoke Times: Oh, Look, It's a Kangaroo

Greetings to our blog readers in Iran (perhaps), Japan and Costa Rica.........

Our top ten comic strips from today's "Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va., which David Letterman calls the greatest city in the world (we're just kidding, he sez that for New York City), include a "Speed Bump" strip in which there is a surprise:
http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

"Non-Sequitur"  features a man who sees surprise messages in the night sky which his wife is oblivious to: http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur

Third place goes to "Get Fuzzy" which features a kitchen argument: http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

We also enjoyed today's "Mutts" which features a quote from the late '60s era stand-up comic Lenny
Bruce (pict. bottom) who once said he hated to visit small towns because once you see the canon in the park there is nothing else to do: http://www.gocommics.com/mutts

Here is our top ten: http://www.roanoke.com/comics

1. Speed Bump

2. Non-Sequitur

3. Get Fuzzy

4. Pearls Before Swine

5. Zits
 
6. Agnes http://www.gocmics.com/agnes

7. Dilbert http://www.dilbert.com

8. Doonesbury http://www.doonesbury.com

9. Jump Start

10. Mutts

For our survey of the comic strips from today's Washington Post, go to http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

Last Ten Songs We've Listened To on Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va: Everything Except Kenny G

Greetings to our fans in Sweden, Croatia, Ukraine, Egypt and Greece (kudos on your new prime minister.........). Now that we have perhaps officially entered the world of The Jetsons (but, where are the flying cars?), it is actually possible for people in Anchorage, Alaska, and Bucharest, Romania, to listen to an eclectic pop-rock fusion radio station in Roanoke, Va.

So, with that in mind, here are the last ten songs we heard on 106.1 (SteveFM-Raonoke, Va) from the 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. hour on Friday afternoon. These songs are in reverse order:

1) Dark Horse. Katy Perry. 2013.

2) Keep on Loving You. REO Speedwagon. 1980 (pict. bottom)

3) Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen. 1975.

4) Never. Heart. 1985.

5) Clocks. Coldplay. 2002 (pict. center)

6) Janie's Got a Gun. Aerosmith. 1989. (pict, top)

7) Your Smiling Face. James Taylor. 1977.

8) Tainted Love. Soft Cell. 1981.

9) Moves Like Jagger. Maroon 5. 2011.

10) Hold on Loosely. 38 Special. 1981.

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.visitroanoke.com

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.aerosmith.com

http://www.speedwagon.com

Last Ten Songs We Heard on 106.1 Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va., Earlier in the Week....

Here are ten songs in a row that we heard on 106.1 Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va., on Dec. 20th, 2014, from the hours of 7:00-7:59 p.m.:


1. Team. Lorde. 2013.

2. Kiss. Prince and the Revolution. 1986.

3. Take the Long Way Home. Supertramp. 1979 (pict. top)

4. The Tide is High. 1980. Blondie

5. Something to Talk About. Bonnie Raitt. 1991.

6. Love in the Elevator. Aerosmith. 1989.

7. Stayin' Alive. The Bee Gees. 1977 (pict. center)

8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. U2. 1987 (pict. bottom)

9. Shake It Off. Taylor Swift. 2014.

10. Photograph. Def Leppard. 1983.

www.1061stevefm.com

www.raonokedoesntsuck.com

Halloween Tweets: Mach Ado About Silly String

Greetings to our lovely blog-readers in Wales, Slovakia and Jordan.

Tonight, we focus on tweets from Halloween night.

1) David Corn (liberal reporter): "Since when did most kids come to feel entitled to two pieces of candy, not one, when they trick and treat?"

2) Brent Watts (Channel 7 Roanoke, Va., weather reporter): "Reports of thundersnow in North Carolina as this system vamps up"

3) Bill Amend (cartoonist of "Foxtrot"): "For Halloween, I've dressed up as a bored middle-aged guy surfing the web while imagining everyone he knows having fun."

4) Mother Jones (liberal magazine): "Silly string is illegal here_but only on Halloween."

5) CNN: "A game company wants to help creator of 'Operator' with his operation costs."

6) Scott Simon (NPR reporter): "Man on streets dressed as what daughters call 'wee wee' for Halloween. Does he think women will this debonair"?

7) Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): "A year ago today, I was sworn in Vice President Biden as a Senator from the great state of New Jersey."

http://www.wdbj7.com/

http://www.foxtrot.com

http://www.motherjones.com

http://scottsimonbooks.com/

Comic Strips Survey from the Roanoke Times: Will Anyone in Portugal Read This

Yes, we are wondering if anyone in Portugal or Romania for that matter reads our Sunday comics strips, but if you are checking us out from Lisbon or Bucharest, we hope the weather is nice in your respective nations today.

We are featuring photos of a random exotic fish, a Siamese cat, and Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va), because each of them pertains to the top three comic strips in "The Roanoke Times." (I suppose the next time we choose a photo of a House of Representatives members we will go with Cong. David Price, D-NC, to show we are nonpartisan, even though we make no secret of our center-left politics here).

"Speed Bump" by Dave Coverly was this week's winner as his strip showed a fish who had combed his hair just for his date, who was also a fish. Second place went to "Get Fuzzy" which depicts a mad Siamese cat named Satchel. Finally, the bronze medal goes to "Pearls Before Swine" which ventured into new territory by making fun of how corporate donations to members of Congress taint the political system. "Pearls" is usually an apolitical strip!

"Blondie" edged out "Dilbert" for tenth place. The two comic strips seem radically different, but unusually enough they are the two comic strips which seem to focus most on the workplace, except we never actually see Mrs. Dilbert (if there is one) in Scott Adams' strip.

Here is our top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Pearls Before Swine

4) Doonesbury

5) Non-Sequitir

6)Funky Winkerbean

7) Garfield

8) Zits

9)  Agnes

10) Blondie

To see our Washington Post comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

Little Thinkers' Quotes (13 of 16): Charles Dickens

Today's quote is from Charles Dickens, a favorite author of my friend Tom Angleberger, now a well-known children's book writer. Dickens is best-known for penning classics like "A Tale of Two Cities," "Oliver Twist" and "A Christmas Carol."

A new film about Dickens' love interest entitled "The Invisible Woman" stars Felicity Jones. The film is now showing at the Grandin Theatre in my hometown of Roanoke, Va.; and Jones recently made the cover of "Film Comment" in a photo still from the film.

Here is the Dickens quote:

"There is wisdom of the head, and wisdom of the heart."

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.grandintheatre.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from The Sunday Roanoke Times.........yes, Pearls wins again

Stephan Pastis, the man who created Ataturk the Spitting Llama (thanks ok, us Turkish-Americans know our yogurt is better than Greek yogurt), once again wins our sweepstakes with his "Pearls Before Swine" trip in which a family trip to Key West, Fla, to go whale watching takes a Twilight Zone episode turn, which is, of course, hilarious.

"Get Fuzzy" was second as Bucky, Rob Wilco's out of control Siamese cat, goes on a rant about how a kid who has memorized Pi is not really smart of be interviewed on network television.

And, a cat was also featured in "Dilbert" where the title character was curiously absent. Here the cat gives personal advice to Dilbert's boss on how to seem caring around employees since he is a man incapable of empathy.


Here is the top ten from the Sunday "Roanoke Times:"

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Dilbert

4.Doonesbury

5. Garfield

6. Funky Winkerbean

7. Zits

8. Speed Bump

9. Agnes

10. Blondie


http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics/getfuzzy

http://www.stephanpastis.wordpress.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.whalewatching.com

http://www.mainewhales.com


http://www.fla-keys.com

http://www.newport-news.org  (Newport News, Va., is said to be a good place for whale watching)

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

No Blog Entry Today as I'm Sick as a Cat

Since I am under the weather today, we will feature this image of a Siamese cat roaming the streets of Sofia or Varna or some other Bulgarian city. We got this image from googling 'Cats in Bulgaria.'

We also want to mention that the great '80s independent rock band Big Head Todd and the Monster, which we believe are from Athens, Ga., will perform at the fabled 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, on Sat. Jan. 18th; the concert costs $27.50, which costs as much as a parking lot ticket in the nation's capital. Somehow, we can't imagine that Congs. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) will be there???!!!

Speaking of Goodlatte, though we are opposed to him politically, he is from my hometown of Roanoke, Va., as is cult film director Charles Cullen, who turns 50 today. His film "The Day the Whole $%#&*@ World Blew Up" is clearly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman (yes, we are kidding!).......but, Charles Cullen of Roanoke, Va., should not be confused with the other Charles Cullen.

The other Cullen, who is just three years older than our Charles Cullen, is the most notorious serial killer in New Jersey history!

http://www.930.com

http://www.bigheadtodd.com

http://www.catchannel.com

http://www.cullenstudio.net

Top Ten Favorite Comic Strips from The Roanoke Times: A Bronze Medal for Doonesbury

Why do we have images of: 1) a brown rat; 2) colorful fire hydrants (the one with Oscar the Grouch is our favorite; and 3) a Clemson Tigers football helmet. Well, read below and you shall find out.

Our comic strip of the week for the comic strips in "The Roanoke Times," a newspaper based in Roanoke, Va., which covers much of southwest Virginia is "Pearls Before Swine." In one of the best overall comic strips in recent weeks, artist Stephan Pastis used 20 panels to show one of the strip's title characters, a mouse, having problems with a computer. We didn't realize until after reading the strip that the mouse was having problems with a mouse (as in a computer tool).

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine (yes the brown rat is in reference to this strip)

2) Get Fuzzy (this week's strip features a dog and a fire hydrant with little dialogue)

3) Doonesbury (great strip on a singles e-harmony style group for married people?!)

4) Speed Bump (the reason for the football helmet is because Dave Coverly's strip focused on a football huddle; our first choice was a Northwestern U football helmet)

5) Zits

6) Blondie

7) Agnes

8) Dilbert

9) Funky Winkerbean

10) Garfield


http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

Out Top 10 Favorite Comic Strips from the Roanoke Times (Oct. 27th edition)

This entry was supposed to be posted way back on Oct. 30th, but we got distracted, and yeah life happens. But, we are back now. And, we will resume where we left off, as we look at our ten favorite comic strips from the Oct.27th Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va.


Here we go:

1. Doonesbury (Image One_ a Virginia Tech Hokies helmet. The strip dealt with college football and academics).

2. Pearls Before Swine (Image Two_ this is of a pygmy goat from Cameroon residing at the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke_ a goat is one of the main characters in "Pearls Before Swine")

3. "Garfield" (Image Three)

4. Funky Winkerbean

5. Agnes

6. Dilbert

7. Zits

8. Blondie

9. Hi and Lois

10. Get Fuzzy

http://www.exemplum.com/mmzoo/SitePages/index.aspx

http://www.doonesbury.slate.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Today is This Blog's 8th Anniversary

It was on this day that we started blogging with this blog eight years ago. Very few of us from the 'Keystone Kops' days of the blogosphere have kept up with our blogs for this long. One person who comes to mind is my good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC.

I should point that the Chris Knight I know was not on "The Brady Bunch" (it aired before he was born, and when I was an infant), nor is he the singer who is playing Kirk Avenue Music Hall in Roanoke, Va., on Sept. 29th.

http://kirkavenuemusic.com/

Nor is he related to the great cartoonist Keith Knight of "K-Chronicles" and  the "Knight Life" comic strip, which runs in the Sunday "Washington Post." Keef, as he likes to call himself, is actually an African-American. The Chris Knight I know, and the other two Chris Knights are all white guys.

http://www.kchronicles.com/


But, the Chris Knight I know is the guy aired a Star Wars-themed tv ad when he unsuccessfully ran for an open seat for the Rockingham County School Board in 2006. (Interestingly, both Chris Knight the blogger and Keith Knight are huge Star Wars fans).

 http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/

http://www.theforce.net

The most popular blog entry on this particular blog is one that discusses a tweet from Bristol Palin (Sarah Palin's daughter.) It has close to 15,000 hits. We are still amazed by that!

Here's to eight more years.....

Although I'd like to take a day off and go to the Museum of Bad Art in Massachussetts:

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

Before We Take a Week Off: Ten More Embarrasing Ways to Die

Greetings to our blog readers in Latvia, Spain and Cyprus, and we send out a special greetings to Glenn Beck, Edward Snowden and Paris Hilton: Three of our favorite celebrity narcissists.

Let's go to the big list on ten ways no one wants to die:

1. Getting hit by a Valley Metro bus in Roanoke, Va. (top image)

2. Seizure from playing War of the Warcraft for 48 straight hours.

3. Getting struck by lightning while playing mini-golf in Ocean City, Maryland.

4. Choking to death on a bowl of Rice Krispies (center image)

5. Getting hit by a foul ball at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game.

6. Getting struck down in the parking lot by an oncoming vehicle after shopping at Target.

7. Smoke inhalation from house fire caused by smoking Marlboros in bed.

9.  Drowning while fishing in the Dan River in Eden, North Carolina.

10. Getting hit by a falling coconut from a tree while vacationing in Belize (bottom image).

http://www.valleymetro.com

http://www.us.battle.net/wow/

http://www.ococean.com

http://www.ncnorthstar.com/

http://www.travelbelize.org/

Coming Soon to This Very Blog Near You (No Promises): Ten Most Embarrasing Ways to Die

Greetings to our blog readers in El Salvador, Latvia and Jordan or wherever you may be today.

Oh...........In case you are wondering, yes, the image of the late French mime Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) is being used just to grab your attention.


Here are some blog entries we are contemplating/considering:

1) More Casualties  of Modern Technology: It's been a good two years since we ran this series, but it seems that pay phones, clothes lines and mixed tape cassettes are not the only things which have been mushroom clouded due to the advent of the new age (my apologies to the Grammar Girl for using mushroom cloud as a verb).

2) A List of Ten Embarrassing Ways to Die: Getting hit by a Valley Metro Bus in Roanoke, Va., does come to mind, but of course, there are two issues with possibly posting this entry: 1) There might well be someone who is a relative of a person who was eaten by Gustave the man-eating crocodile in the central African nation of Burundi; 2) I may get hit by a Valley Metro Bus myself!

3) How to Say Certain Words in Norwegian or Turkish: Did you know they call sharks 'the dog fishes' in Turkish (the actual word is kopekbaligi), and of course, we are arbitrarily mentioning that because we suspect that with the Discovering Channel's upcoming Shark Week that anything relating to sharks shall be trending.

Au revoir for now mon amis...........


http://www.valleymetro.com/

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/shark-week

Random List of Ten Things To Do in Roanoke, Virginia:

This is a complementary post to one posted on "The Daily Vampire," this is a list of things to do in and around Roanoke, Va., my hometown, alas some places didn't make the list this time around.

Here we go:

1. B and D Comics (Yeah, that's why we have comic book character Cable, pictured top)

2. No Shame Theatre: A place where anyone can show off their talent as long as it's not over five minute and does not involving nudity (we guess boxer shorts from Target are ok....yes, it's the reason for the clown/magician in the middle...we wanted to go with a chainsaw juggler, but those images were hard to come by).

3. The Grandin Theatre: A cool, vintage cinema. "Vertigo" was the first I saw there when it initially re-opened in 1984.

4. Salem Farmer's Market (Salem)

5. O. Winston Link Museum

6. Oddfellas Cantina (Floyd): This nifty place in the village of Floyd, a long 29 miles from Roanoke, is a great place for weekend brunches.

7. Salem Red Sox (the local baseball team, they are playing the Frederick Keys right now as we speak)

8. Double Apple Restaurant and Hookah: There aren't many places to find authentic Middle Eastern food in Roanoke, but this restaurant on Brambleton Avenue pleases that need. And, they have great humus!

9. Too Many Books: One of the last remaining independent bookstores in Roanoke; it's located in the Grandin Village relatively close to the Grandin Theatre.

10. Dixie Caverns (Salem): A popular tourist attraction...don't hit your head on the stalagmites!

UPDATE: The Salem Red Sox beat the visiting Frederick Keys 13-9 last night, but this evening the team from Maryland came out on top by a score of 5-3.

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.bandcomics.com

http://www.grandintheatre.org

http://www.noshame.org/roanoke

http://www.market.salemva.gov

http://www.oddfellascatina.com

http://www.toomanybooksroanoke.com

http://www.dixiecaverns.com

There is more on our sister blog site "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com