Potluck Quote (2 of 10): Slavoj Zizek

According to the Instagram site for "Mental Floss," the American embassies for nations of Slovenia and Slovakia get together once a month to exchange letters that are meant for the other. We imagine the folks at "Washington Diplomat" are fully aware of this.

And, perhaps by merely mentioning Peter Sagal, the host of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," who actually wrote a play called "Denial" some twenty years ago, we can get a few more domestic hits for this blog.

Today, we quote Slovenian left-leaning philosopher Slavoj Zizek who is probably not admire by either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio:

"When I really love someone, I can only show it by making aggressive and bad-taste remarks."

20-Word Fiction: Reading at Home

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, France and Cyprus.........

Today's 20-word story is our ninth in a series of ten; they are sort of written on the spot; you can presume it takes place in High Point, NC, if you life:

"Mary was reading 'Fight Club' in her den when the ceiling collapsed. She wished she had gone to Starbucks instead."

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/

http://www.starbucks.com/

10 for 10: The Nine Countries Outside of America Where This Blog Is Most Popular..........

On Sept. 21st, this blog will be celebrating its tenth anniversary, and while we are not completely sure how to celebrate, we have chosen to start by acknowledging our blog readers around the world. Though this following list consists of large countries, we want to also thank blog readers from smaller nations like Malta, Slovenia, and Jordan, who have the time to check us out.

The images above are in conjunction with three of the countries on this list, the Russian dolls are for (of course) Russia, the Hindu love god Shiva is for India, and the women at the bottom associated with a bossa nova song about a beach we can't spell represent Brazil (yeah, that was a bit awkward).....

Here is the list, that we dedicate to Bill Griffith, the artist who draws up "Zippy the Pinhead,"our folk singer friend Bruce Piephoff from Greensboro, NC, and the late, great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune:

1) Russia 34, 974

2) Germany 11,421

3) United Kingdom 10,612

4) Canada 10, 085

5) France 6,320

6) Ukraine 4,407

7) India 3,256

8) Australia 2,467

9) Brazil 1,971

Our sister blog is The Daily Vampire: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Top Ten Sunday Washington Post Comic Strips from May 24th: Selfie Narcissism is Vast and Growing

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, Pakistan, and Canada....

Today, we look at our ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday May 24th edition of "The Washington Post" as we listen to an old Doc Watson bluegrass song on "Back Porch Music" from WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill, NC)........

Both "WuMo" and "Lio" made fun of the selfie sticks which are apparently retailing for $30 at Target stores here in the United States. "Lio" went one step further by putting Frankenstein taking a selfie with Lio, the ten-year-old boy who is the title character of the comic strip.

Though it did not make our top ten "Mark Trail" had a cute educational strip about gorillas; it even featured King Kong.

Here is the top ten:

1) WuMo

2) Lio

3) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

4) Speed Bump

5) Foxtrot

6) The Argyle Sweater

7) Sherman's Lagoon

8) Pearls Before Swine

9) Dustin

10) Knight Life

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Best Comics from Sunday, Jan. 18th from GoComics: Gotta Love F-Minus

Greetings to our blog readers in Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and........well, we're not sure how popular we are in eastern Europe/the Balkans/the former Yugoslavia anyway!

GoComics is the premiere comics distributor in America with over 200 comic strips, including "Garfield," "Dilbert" and "Get Fuzzy." We couldn't possibly have checked all their strips on Sunday, but from the 40-50 that we did check out, we were able to find ten which really stood out.

The images above are of: 1) Lucy from "Peanuts" actually for "The Argyle Sweater" which made fun of Charlie Brown, who will be the place kicker for the Seattle Seahawks for Super Bowl Sunday (yeah, no one in Macedonia will get that joke); 2) the cactus for "Reality Check" in which Bugs Bunny gets lost in the desert thanks to faulty GPS directions; and 3) a parking spots war photo for "F-Minus," the single-panel strip, which this week had a driver drop someone's hoodie in a parking spot to assure that the right person got it.

Here are the top ten:

*-comics in "The Washington Post" (Sunday edition)

#-comics in "The Roanoke Times" (Sunday edition)

1) The Argyle Sweater *

2) Reality Check

3) F-Minus

4) The Flying McCoys

5) Foxtrot *

6) Speed Bump *#

7) Get Fuzzy #

8) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy*

9) WUMO *

10) Brevity

http://www.gocomics.com/fminus/2015/01/18 (the Sunday F-Minus strip)

http://www.gocomics.com/fminus

http://www.gocomics.com/realitycheck

http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater

Our Top Sunday Comic Strips from the Roanoke Times for the Week of December 7th

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil!

This week, "Doonesbury," which had an exceptional gag with scenes from the comic strip's six main characters and their unique story lines in six different panels. Since the comic strip reminded us of a soap opera, we decided to use an image with the cast of "Young and the Restless" to go with this Sunday's "Doonesbury," but we somehow doubt that Garry Trudeau watches soap operas?!

"Pearls Before Swine" featured a satire of a job interview in which Rat, who has even fewer people skills than Dilbert (for those of you in Slovakia Dilbert is in the comic strip "Dilbert;" we're not making fun as you are our favorite former Yugoslav republic**) tries to be candid and honest to his futility.Oh btw, the snazzy Mexican men's dress shoes are used as our image for "Pearls."

Lastly, "Get Fuzzy," which usually revolves around squabbling between a cat and a third comes in third place as the house pets have it out over a broccoli casserole, or something like that!

Here is our top ten from the Sunday Dec. 7th "Roanoke Times," which does not carry "Rhymes Before Orange," WUMO," Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," "Sherman's Lagoon," "Dustin," "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee"........................but, hey still have "Hi and Lois"!

1) Doonesbury

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Get Fuzzy

4) Dilbert

5) Jump Start (highest rating ever for this comic on our survey)

6) Garfield

7) Speed Bump

8) Zits

9) Agnes

10) Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.gocomics.com











**_ This is a joke! Unlike quite a few Americans, I know that Slovenia is the country that was once part of Yugoslavia.

Meet Your Republican Congressman (2 of 3).........and guess when he will turn 103.......

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, France and Mexico..........

Here are 10 members of Congress (the House of Representatives) the year they will turn 103....oh, btw, all of them are Republican, which probably means they aren't well-versed in The Urban Dictionary:

1) Cong. Scott Rigell (R-Va, pict. top) 2063

2) Cong. Walter Jones (R-NC, pict. center, man responsible for term 'freedom fries') 2046

3) Cong. Billy Long (R-Mo) 2058

4) Cong. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) 2067

5) Cong. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla) 2047

6) Cong. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) Deputy Majority Whip. 2052.

7) Cong. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) 2054

8) Cng. Tom Price (R-Ga) 2057

9) Cong. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala) 2058

10) Cong. Trent Franks (R-Az, pict. bottom) 2060

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/

http://www.theonion.com/section/politics/

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (for more GOP reps and the years they turn 103)

Best of Sunday Washington Post Comics (Oct. 12th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovenia, Netherlands and Italy, we recognize that all three countries had club team defeats today in UEFA Champions League play today, but if you are from Slovenia and you root for Maribor, just go ahead and enjoy London and forget about the penalty kick from Didier Drogba of Chelsea and the other four or five goals that followed. Yeah, I guess that is easier said than done as we say here in America.

Our personal favorite comic strip from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 12th edition) was "Lio," in which the title character sees an alien who looks exactly like one in the Alien films with Sigourney Weaver, clips off a tab from a poster to learn how to dress for Halloween.

The silver medal went to American gymnast Nastia Liukin (just seeing if you were doodling) or rather "Sherman's Lagoon" in which Sherman the shark and his family try to get holiday photos at a Walgreen's in Dayton, Ohio (or some place like that).

A moving tribute to Robin Williams as Mork (center image) in "Mork and Mindy" was our third-place pick, and "Mark Trail," which featured an amazing illustration of a rock python strangling a crocodile (bottom image is of the beloved children's lit character Gena the Crocodile).....yeah, we have a bit of an off-beat sense of humor here.

Here is the top 10:

1) Lio

2) Sherman's Lagoon

3) Brewster Rockit

4) Mark Trail

5) Zits

6) Candorville

7) Knight Life

8) Doonesbury

9) Frazz

10) Judge Parker

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://shermanslagoon.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit

http://www.tvland.com/

http://www.hulu.com/mork-and-mindy

http://www.marktrail.com

http://www.nastialiukin.com/

Last Ten Films We've Seen (as of Oct. 9th): Imports; Lots of Imports

A verse from "The Holy Koran," a bus-stop shaped like a school bus in Athens, Georgia, and a Slovenian folk dance are our three images here in reference to: 1) The Reluctant Fundamentalist; 2) I Am Waiting; and 3) Spare Parts, a film from Slovenia. "Spare Parts" was released as part of the Film Movement dvd series, but it appears the company has lost copyright rights for the films as it is no longer listed as one of their selections (we found the film through a local library).

Interestingly enough, Turkish actor Haluk Bilginler is in both "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" and "Innocence."

Here is the list:

1) The Reluctant Fundamentalist. 2012. Director: Mira Nair.

2) Love Crime. France. 2010. Dir: Alain Courneau. w/Kristin Scott Thomas

3) Innocence. Turkey. 1997. Dir: Zeki Demirkubuz.

4) I Am Waiting. Japan. 1957. Dir: Koreyoshi Kurahara

5) Spare Parts. Slovenia. 2003. Damjan Kozole.

6) Wadjda. Saudi Arabia. 2012. Haifaa Al-Mansour.

7) Gone Girl. 2014. David Fincher (excellent movie!) w/ Ben Affleck

8) The Arbor. Documentary. 2010. Clio Barnard.

9) Prisoners. 2013. Denis Villenuuve.

10) Hustling. TV Movie. 1975. Joseph Sargent w/Jill Clayburgh and Lee Remick

http://www.filmmovement.com

http://www.criterion.com

Last Ten Films I Saw Before Last Week: Indy Films, Foreign Films and Guilty Pleasures

Greetings to our blog readers in Japan, Slovenia, and Scotland (good luck with your impending divorce, which I am politically opposed to).

The above images of a) Jehovah's Witnesses (for the film "The Visitor," which has nothing to do with them), a Scottish terrier (for "Dog Day Afternoon") and a 1977 caprice (for "Blue Caprice," a disturbing, but solid film about the DC snipers) all relate to a film on the list. "Blue Ruin," which was filmed around Lexington, Va., and "Paradise: Love" were viewed via Netflix streaming. Films from "Boy" (#6) to "Bucket of Blood") were taped off TCM; "The Visitor" aired as part of TCM Underground.

Here is the list:


1. Fill the Void. Israel. 2012. Dir: Roma Burshtein.

2. Bucket of Blood. 1966. Dir: Roger Corman

3. The Visitor. 1979. Dir: Guilio Paradisi. (Released through Alamo Drafthouse Films)

4. La Pointe. Courte. France. 1955. Dir: Agnes Varda

5. Dog Day Afternoon. 1975. Dir: Sidney Lumet w/Al Pacino

6. Boy. 1969. Japan. Dir: Nagisa Oshima

7. Blue Ruin. 2013. Dir: Jeremy Saulnier

8. Blue Caprice. 2013. Dir: Alexandre Moors.

9. Paraside: Love. Austria. 2012. Dir: Ulrich Siedl (part of a triology)

10. Life After Beth. 2014. Dir: Jeff Baena w/Aubrey Plaza

www.tcm.com/underground/

www.netflix.com

http://drafthousefilms.com/

www.ifcfilms.com/

The Olympics Lists (7 of 10): Snow Sports

While we are doing the laundry, one of the few activities one can do after a major snow storm, we thought we'd take a break and give you yet another Olympics athletes list:

1) Mark McMorris. (pictured). Age 20. Canada. Snowboarding. Won bronze.

2) Anatasiya Kuzmina. Age 29. Slovakia. Women's Biathlon. Won gold (the only medal so far for her country).

3) Peter Prevc. Age 21. Slovenia. Ski-jumping. Won silver.

4) Nina Li. Age 31. China. Aerial Skiing.

5) Jared Goldberg. Age 22. USA. Alpine Skiing. Interesting enough, we found out about him through an Israeli publication's article on Jewish athletes at the games.

6) Julia Mancusco. Age 29. USA. Alpine Skiing. Won bronze.

7) Jess Christensen. Age 22. USA. Free-style Skiing. Won gold.

8) Jacky Chamoun. Age 22. Lebanon. Women's Alpine Skiing. She is embroiled in a scandal back home due to some topless photos she had taken of her.

9) Aleksandr Smyshylyaev. Age 25. Russia. Men's Free-style Skiing. Won bronze.

10) Rana Okada. Age 23. Japan. Women's Snowboarding.

http://www.canadasnowboard.ca/en/

http://usskiteam.com/

Comic Strip Dialogue from The Roanoke Times: Any Cheese Will Do

With Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sandwiched between Gouda cheese, which should hopefully get us some hits in the Netherlands, and a chocolate glazed donuts, which New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie can eat by the dozen (well, even if we were Republicans, we'd have to admit the guy is a bit fat, but at least he's to the far-left of Rick Perry, the execution-happy Republican governor of Texas), we give you dialogue from comic strips which appeared today in "The Roanoke Times."

The Gouda cheese is in reference to "Blondie" as Dagwood asks Elmo, who is presumably the neighbor's son, what kind of cheese he wants on his sandwich. Zizek is in reference to a line in "Dilbert" about philosophy. And, chocolate donuts tempted both John and his beloved title character cat in today's "Garfield."

Here we go:

1) "How are you feeling today, Agnes?" (from "Agnes")

2) "I'm trying to develop a new philosophy for my life" (from "Dilbert")

3) "Look, we agreed this wouldn't be easy.....we BOTH have to be strong." (from "Garfield)

4) "How about Gouda? I've got some smoked Gouda!" (from "Blondie")

5) "It's a New Year Tradition" (from "Jump Start")

6) "Exercise is great, but it's important not to overdo it," (from "Pickles")

7) "You sneeze like a gerbil," (from "Zits")

8) "Now Boarding. Rows five and above" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

9) "Nice. So what's our exit strategy?" (from "Doonesbury")

10) "Security." (from "Pearls Before Swine")

http://www.slovenia.info/

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/

http://www.philosophytalk.org/ (NPR show about philosophy)

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Presidential Quotes (13 of 16): Richard Nixon

Today, we quote our personal favorite Republican President, Richard Nixon (it should be pointed out that we are Democrats here). One can visit the Nixon Library Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif.

A poster of Nixon bowling in the Coen Borthers film "The Big Lebowski" has also become a part of pop culture. And, a Lebowski Fest will be taking place in Tampa, Fla., from Jan. 31-Feb.1, 2014.

But, before we quip Nixon, let's throw in one from Al Capone in the hopes that it will increase our hits from Belgium and Slovenia: "Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class."

Here is our quote from Nixon: "Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."


http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/

http://www.nixonfoundation.org/

http://www.lebowskifest.com

Image to Fill Space: The Yugo Car

We learned today that "Time" magazine considers the 1985 model of the Yugo, a car that was made in the former Yugoslavia, to be one of the 50 worst cars of all time. We have no idea when this car was made.

Yugoslavia disbanded after a tumultuous civil war: The modern countries which were a part of the Land of Yugos, include Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro* and Kosovo.

*-This marks the very first time we've mentioned Montenegro on this blog..............

Image to Fill Space: A Dalmation

Greetings to our blog readers in Senegal, South Africa, Honduras, Jamaica, Chile, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Australia, Japan, France, Iceland, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

Tomorrow, we shall have something more substantive.

Free-Style Blogging: Let's Talk About ...........

Ok, take notes kids, this is how this works. We take some news items and political topics, such as climate change and Edward Snowden, and then mix them in with general things, such as Turkish Airlines (tonight's sponsor......yeah, that is a joke, but we hear they are great to fly with). And, then we make a complete blog entry out of them, which should get us noticed in Slovenia.

The topics will be marked with a single parenthesis.

Let's get rolling:

"Hmmmm..........I've noticed whenever I watch Fox News, they never seem to talk about 'climate change' even though all the glaciers in 'Iceland' are melting. Perhaps, this is because their average viewer lacks the attention span to read one 'Archie Comics.' But, they've been sooo brain-washed that at this point they would vote for 'Darth Vader' if he had an R by his name.

Of course, folks to the left of me (yes, there are always some of these people except in Provo, Utah), are focused on 'Bradley Manning' and the 'NSA.' My advice to 'Edward Snowden' would be to get on a 'Turkish Airlines' flight from Moscow to Istanbul where he can work at a tea house and inexplicably go unnoticed, but his narcissist ego may not like that.

There is also a lot of talk about the controversial 'Rolling Stone' cover, but no one mentions the fact that the cover story about the Boston Marathon bomber is quite well-written. And, in case, one is wondering, it's now 70 degrees and cloudy in 'Greensboro, NC'..........thanks for that info, Mr. Google.' 

Silly Image to Fill Space- Apathy

I was all set to write a follow-up from yesterday's entry about college gymnastics, but I am simply overwhelmed with Apathy. Maybe, it's because of the weather or perhaps it is because I'm in the Bible belt and folks here take Easter a bit too seriously, especially someone like the Rev. Johnny Robertson from Martinsville, Va.

Or, it perhaps because we are not getting as many hits from small European countries like Malta, Latvia and Slovenia, as we had been getting.

But, forwhateverreason, this is the mood I am in.

However, stay tuned kids. We are making a very big announcement tomorrow.

PS- We do want to take time to wish our good friend Chris Kinght, I am referring to the blogger who ran for a Rockingham County, NC, school board seat, with a lavish Star Wars-themed commercial, not the child actor of the same name from "The Brady Bunch."

Quote of the Day/Week_ Pablo Picasso

Today's quote of the day comes from the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) who would be celebrating the fact that his country will play against Italy in the Euro Cup 2012 Championships, but if he were alive today, Picasso would be 110 years old (he was born in October, yeah, we double-checked on Google).

We are quoting Picasso because he is one of the subjects of the Unemployed Philosophers Guild plush toy doll series; these items usually retail for circa $17.95.

Since we spent way too much time quoting Andy Warhol on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," which gets more traffic than this blog, except in Slovenia and Ukraine, we will go ahead and just quote Picasso here:

"Every positive value has its price in negative terms....the genius of Einstein lead to Hiroshima."

SIDEBAR ONE: We learned today from the Urban Dictionary that one of the new words of the moment is 'dorkus malorkus,' which is Latin for dork. The term originated in an episode of "The Simpsons," where Bart, who would now be 31 if he aged in real time, uses this term to express disdain towards his sister.

SIDEBAR TWO: Among the topics trending on Twitter as of 8:00 p.m., Belfast, Maine*, time, are: Obamacare, John Roberts, a trio of NBA draft basketball players: Andre Drummond, Austin Rivers and Harrison Barnes as well as Bill Bell, the mayor of Durham, NC, where "The Herald-Sun" is the local newspaper. Ok, the last one is a joke, Mayor Bell, who is a real person with his own Wikipedia page, is not trending on Twitter, but his hometown minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls host the Norfolk Tides for the Fourth of July. The city is also home to Duke University where Austin Rivers played college basketball.

*- We are not actually in Belfast, Maine, as of this posting, but it is a lovely town, and we see that the Colonial Theatre (a historic cinema there) is screening "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."


http://www.colonialtheatre.com

http://www.cinematreasures.org

http://www.pablopicasso.org

http://www.philosophersguild.com

http://www.durhamnc.gov

http://www.heraldsun.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Ingmar Bergman

Today, we continue to quote people associated with the 16 countries in the Euro 2012 Cup being played in Poland and Ukraine. And, we are going to quote the late, great film director Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) who was from Uppsala. Bergman was known for many outstanding cinematic ventures, including "The Seventh Seal," "Persona" and "Fanny and Alexander."

The Swedish soccer team has the daunting task of facing a star-studded English soccer team in Kiev, Ukraine, tomorrow. The Swedes are in a virtual must-win situation.

Here is Bergman's quote:

"The theatre is like a faithful wife. Film is the great adventure_ the costly, exciting mistress."

SIDEBAR: Since we are popular in Slovenia, we thought we should congratulate the Los Angeles Kings for winning their first ever NHL Stanley Cup titles by defeating the New Jersey Devils four games to two.

Though soccer and basketball are more popular than hockey in Slovenia, Anze Kopitar, 24, who was one of the key reasons for the Kings winning the cup has made the sport more popular in the former Yugoslav republic. Kopitar is also the first Slovenian national to hoist the Stanley Cup.http://www.losangeleskingsinsider.com

Top 10 Countries to Run Away To If Romney Wins

Yes, if former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney ascends to the Oval Office, those of us who are politically center-left, Democrats, progressives and even perhaps even Libertarians may want to seek shelter or political asylum in a foreign country as one will quickly realize his 'I'll find a job for you' will work only for members of his billionaires boys club.

So, here are ten suggestions to get away from it all for at least four years should Armageddon strike as it did when George W. Bush was elected in 2000:


1) Slovenia (pictured above): Amazingly enough this former Yugoslav republic is flourishing and the country recently made headlines for actually naming a bridge after Chuck Norris!

2) Argentina: Like most of of Latin America, Argentina had a turbulent period in the 1970s, but happy days are apparently here again.

3) Costa Rica: This will give a chance to finally see a blue frog!

4) Iceland: 24 hours of daylight during the spring and summer months will allow one to play golf at 3:00 a.m. Iceland Air recently began flights to Denver!

5) Norway: Kayaking in the fjords should give a person the opportunity to forget about partisan gridlock on the Beltway.

6) South Africa: Could give you a chance to see lions and cheetahs.

7) Cyprus (pictured below): The Turks and Greeks will probably argue over this island nation for centuries to come, but there are lots of great beaches and if problems resurface there is always the American embassy in Nicosia (the castle pictured is actually in Kyrenia; to let you on the in-joke, Tilly Gokbudak, the 'executive editor of this blog' is a Turkish-American).

8) Chile: See Argentina

9) Estonia: Tajikistan, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia.....yes, most of the former Soviet Republics have not really benefited from the collapse of the USSR, but Estonia is managing quite well.

10) Canada: Winner of the coin flip over France.


http://www.slovenia.info 

http://www.tourism-costarica.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://progressive-blogs.com