Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: The Post-Mother's Day Hangover

Greetings to our blog readers in Algeria, Sweden and the Czech Republic.....


Today, we post our top ten favorite comic strips from today's "Washington Post" which includes a little kid losing a battle with the printer from hell ("Lio"), a kid demanding macaroni and cheese at all costs ("Candorville"), and a stubborn Obi Wan Kenobi (pict. bottom) holding out on the clarinet in an orchestra with other "Star Wars" characters ("The Argyle Sweater"). Perhaps, Benny Goodman, the late clarinetist from yesteryear would be proud.

Other highlights included a millennial female deciding to wear yoga pants for all occasions ("Reply All"), a fabulous drawing of an octopus by James Allen ("Mark Trail") and Scott Santis taking a funny cheap shot at those of us who are progressive ("Prickly City"). The guy who does the right-wing comic strip "Mallard Fillmore" was perhaps quite amused.

Here is our top ten:

1. Candorville http://www.gocomics.com/candorville

2. Lio http://www.gocomics.com/lio

3. The Argyle Sweater

4. Reply All http://www.gocomics.com/replyall

5. Mark Trail

6. Speed Bump

7. Pearls Before Swine

8. WuMo

9. Prickly City

10. Sherman's Lagoon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

Our Top Ten Comics from Sunday, Dec. 14th Washington Post: Bill Cosby Had a VERY Bad Year

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Sweden and Australia......

Today, we focus on our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post"(Sunday, Dec. 14th edition). For those of you in Kazakhstan who may have never been to America, Sunday is the day when color comic strips are posted in newspapers and web sites, such as http://www.gocomics.com

"The Washington Post" has substantially more comics than small-town newspapers like "The Register and Bee" in Danville, Va. And, there are comic strips for virtually every demographic, including "Reply All" (young women), "Baldo" (Hispanics), "Mark Trail" (children) and "Beetle Bailey" (Republican senior citizens men with hearing airs...........our apologies to Mort Walker).

Darrin Bell's "Candorville" is our top comic strip of the week for the first time in the survey (there are over 30 comic strips in the Sunday Post) when the title character, an African-American man presumably in his late twenties, overhears two school children talking about why their parents don't want them to watch "The Cosby Show." For those of you in Uzbekistan, there are some serious criminal allegations aimed at Bill Cosby (pictured top), a former stand-up comic and sitcom star.

"Candorville" is followed closely by "Pearls Before Swine" in which Rat declares that he wants to be president of the United States so he can aim drones to spy on every living person on earth. Of course, if he were running as a Republican for Congress in South Carolina, he could say something that outlandish and get elected as Congs. Joe Wilson and Mark Sanford, two of the most dubious members of Congress, did on Election Day (forgive the political commentary).

We used "Three Little Pigs" as our image for "Pearls" because Pig is one of the three major characters in the strip (Goat is the third).

Third place went to "Speed Bump," which depicts a medieval jousting the age of social media.

And, in fourth place, there was a hilarious look at Star Wars fanatics in Keith Kinght's "Knight Life," in which guys dressed like Storm Troopers are camping out for tickets to the next Star Wars film, which is due out next year.

Here is our top ten:

1. Candorville

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Speed Bump

4. Knight Life

5. Lio

6. WUMO

7. The Argyle Sweater

8. Dustin

9. Prickly City

10. Doonesbury

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.gocommic.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/

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin (4 of 6)_ The Biggest Punch

Good morning to folks in Dubai, and good afternoon to those of you in Hong Kong.

We continue our series of trivia questions relating to the films of Turkish '70s superstar Cuneyt Arkin, 75, and American '80s action film icon Chuck Norris, with a look at "En Buyuk Yumruk/The Biggest Punch" (1983), which somehow has a 6.6 on the Internet Movie Databse.

The film was made one year after Arkin teamed with awful director extraordinaire Cetin Inanc on "Durnyayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World," also known as "The Turkish Star Wars" since it ripped off "Star Wars."

So, which actor won Best Actor when Arkin made this film 29 years ago; is the answer?:

A) Robert Duvall

B) Robert DeNiro

C) F. Murray Abrham

D) Steve Martin

E) Michael Caine


The answer to the last segment in this series is C) Richard Dreyfuss, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1977.

SIDEBAR: The answers to our "Dexter" quiz are as follows: 1) D 2) A 3) C 4) B

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin- Turkish Star Wars

Known of "Cuneyt baba" (Father Cuneyt) or "Cuneyt abi' (Big Brother Cuneyt), Cuneyt Arkin is a legendary cinematic icon in Turkey; of course, one should point out that there are valid reasons why he has never won a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

We are continuing our series, which has a matching entry featuring Arkin's counterpart Chuck Norris, at our other blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com in which we look at which actors actually won Best Actor Oscars during the years that these actors made some of their most famous films.

The answer to our last entry is Dustin Hoffman who won in 1979 for "Kramer vs. Kramer," needless to say neither Norris or Arkin were nominated.

Today, we are asking which actor won Best Actor in 1982, the year Arkin made "Dunyayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World," which is best-known as "The Turkish Star Wars" in the West since it ripped off the George Lucas film, and it also borrowed Queen's theme song from "Flash Gordon." Copyright laws are now more rigorous in Turkey.


So, is the answer?:

A) Michael Caine

B) Ben Kingsley

C) Paul Newman

D) Dustin Hoffman

E) Peter O'Toole

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr/

Happy Birthday, Cuneyt Arkin

Today, we celebrate the 74th birthday of '70s Turkish action movie icon Cuneyt Arkin who turned 74 on September 7th. Arkin was born on this date in 1934 in Eskisehir, Turkey.

While he has over 300 films to his credit, we only have time to mention four here.

The first one is "Hayatim Sana Feda/My Life is For You, Feda" (1970),a romantic comedy, melodrama which was likely influenced by 1950s Hollywood melodramas, which were often directed by Douglas Sirk and starred Rock Hudson.

In this film, a Romeo who has burned his bridges has a chance to reclaim his Juliet, a female Turkish lounge singer played by Turkan Soray, the queen of Turkish cinema who often starred with Arkin, after she goes blind.

In 1973, Arkin starred in the first of what would be several films based on the popular "Kara Murat" comics, including "Kara Murat Versus the Black Knight" (pictured here). The basic plot is that Kara Murat, an ancient warrior in the days of the huns, goes after the bad guys and kicks some major ass in the process.

Turkey and Greece went to far over Cyprus in July of 1974, which lead to the production of many action films with nationalist themes. This would include "Once Vatan/My Country First" (1974) in which Arkin plays a Turkish agent who goes to Cyprus and goes kung fu on the Greek villians. Such films were, to my knowledge, also made in Greece around this era, with the roles reversed. And, yes to answer your question, "Once Vatan" is basically a Turkish Chuck Norris movie.

Lastly, Arkin will always be best known for "Dunayi Kurtaran Adami/The Man Who Saved the World" (1982), which is also known as "The Turkish Star Wars." The film borrows music and actual sequences from the George Lucas classic, but the similarities end there. The plot is a very strange one to summarize, but the film has aliens in muppet-fleece who decide that central Turkey is for unexplained reasons the best place to invade. But, they are no match for Arkin's gymnastics tumbling and kickboxing abilies.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Darth Vader Dogs

We thought we'd post an entry with this vintage photo of a dog dressed like Darth Vader. Some friends and co-workers are urging to keep my promise of dressing up like the Star Wars for Halloween as I jokingly promised a few weeks ago, but costumes are going for (yikes!) $90 online. My friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, might be inclined to buy it though since he loves Star Wars, so much so that he once used in a local political campaign when he ran for school board offie in 2006.

The Asheville Humane Society in Asheville, NC, is sponsoring a special event aimed at increasing adoptions over the upcoming Halloween weekend. The event called The Halloween Dog Festival will be held on Sat. from 1-5 p.m., and it will include costume categories for both large and small dogs.

Among the mutts that are up for adoption in Asheville are Cassandara, an 11-month-old spayed retriever lab, Anchoive, a five-year-old terrier/chihuahua and Honeycomb, a nine-month-old female lab beagle.

For more info, one can call 828-761-2001.

Happy Birthday Cuneyt Arkin

Cuneyt Arkin, Turkey's leading machismo action movie hero of the 1970s turns 73 today.

We are big fans of Arkin who is perhaps best known in the rest of the world for his gymnastics stunts that he performed as the lead in the famous/infamous 1982 film "The Man Who Saved the World," which is also known as "The Turkish Star Wars" since it was a rip-off of the George Lucas mega-blockbuster.

Arkin, who has appeared in more than 250 films, made his debut with "We Are Not Alone" in 1964. Up until the '70s, he was predominantly a romantic leading man along the lines of Gregory Peck or Rock Hudson with Turkish cinema goddess Turkan Soray often playing his conquests.

But, that quickly changed when Turkey's brief war with Greece over Cyprus in 1974 caused a nationalist frenzy in Turkey which was illustrated through Arkin's film of the period, most notably "Once Vatan/My Nation First" (1974).

Arkin also starred in "Little Cowboy" (1973), which is perhaps the ultimate oxy moron- a Turkish Western!

Though none of his films are available in the United States except through Turkish good distributors like tulumba.com, several of his films like "Lion Man" (1975) and "Holy Sword" (1982) have developed underground cult followings.

SIDEBAR: The world basketball championships are underway in Istanbul and both The United States and Turkey have performed well so far. Turkey beat France 95-77 and the team will next face Slovenia on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Team America, with NBA players like Kevin Durant, bounced the African nation of Angola out of the tournament with a 121-66 win in which a former Montana State player named Divaldo Mbguna scored four points for the losing side.

Turkey also won a road game by a 3-0 score against Kazakhstan (which is where the fictional journalist Borat hailed from) in a European Cup qualifier on Friday.

50 Beers Around the World- Brahma (Brazil)

For today's entry devoted to 50 Beers From Around the World we go to Brazil where they serve Brahma Beer, which started in 1888. The brew is found in Moscow, London, Toronto, New York, Milan and (we should hope) in Rio de Janeiro.

SIDEBAR: For those living in the Chapel Hill area or visiting Tarheel Town, you may want to go to the next-door town of Carrboro, NC, where you will find Carrburritos. The Mexican eatery where I have yet to dine myself (though I have driven past it) is said to be a cool happening place which offers substantially better burritos than ones you would find at any given Taco Bell.

SIDEBAR TWO: The Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd, Va.,- one of the nicest little towns in southwest Virginia is hosting Irish Night next week as they do on every first Friday of the month. Reservations are highly recommended as is the establishment's Mexican dishes.

SIDEBAR THREE: My good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, always has some interesting posts on his blog www.theknightshift.blogspot.com
Recently, he has talked about why "Interview with a Vampire" author Anne Rice is leaving the church though she is not giving up her faith (cites quarrelsome nature of religion among her reasons), how 'Darth Vader' robbed a bank in Long Island at gunpoint and how some comic book fans at ComicCon in San Diego organized a counter protest to the Rev. Fred Phelps (perhaps America's most notorious homophobe) holding up signs which read: "God Hates Jedis."

Happy Star Wars Day! (with Kudos to Tom Angleberger)

Since I found out through Twitter that today is Star Wars Day, which I'm sure my friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, is recognizing (he once dressed like a Jedi knight to a local school board meeting to protest a proposed dress code ordinance), I thought I would plug my friend Tom Angleberger's new book (Tom and Chris are actually my only two friends-nudge, nudge, wink, wink) "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda."

Angleberger, who previously wrote another children's book under the pen name Sam Riddleberger, is also a coulmnist for "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. He was interviewed by that paper's reporter Ralph Berrier Jr. about how he got permission from George Lucas to use Yoda in his book. Angleberger replied that he actually dealt with the Star Wars licensing department instead. And, a woman who works for Lucas took the book home to her ten-year-old boy. He loved it, and thus the force was with Tom (we couldn't resist).

Ironically, Angleberger once interviewed me about a midnight screening of the famous/infamous film "Turkish Star Wars" (1982) with legendary cult action star Cuneyt Arkin, who is now 72 years old (a year younger than Warren Beatty!) that I was hosting at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., in May of 2005 on the eve of my graduation from grad school.

Out of curiosity, I just looked the film's Wikipedia page, and I found that in addition to "Flash Gordon" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the science-fiction film had 'borrowed' music from the likes of "Moonraker," "Ben Hur" and "Planet of the Apes" (that's two Charlton Heston movies!).

Those who live in DC metro area can meet Angleberger at Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Va., on May 14.

The book has been published internationally though we aren't sure if one can buy it in Oslo or Istanbul, but it should be available at the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Colo., which happens to be our favorite indy bookstore on planet Earth!

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Star Wars

I'm sure my good buddy Chris Knight from Reidsville, NC, who has a blog at: http://www.knightshift.blogspot.com

He loves "Star Wars." I think he's seen "Return of the Jedi" 17 times, which is 16 times more than I've seen it. Though my cousin and Mike sure had a good time when we saw it a now-closed cinema in Rock Hill, SC, back when were kids in 1983 when movies didn't cost $400 million to make (excuse the 'Avatar' joke).


I got this idea when I saw an amazing photograph of a man dressed as a storm trooper walking around a hotel in Roanoke, Va., during a science fiction convention in the Sunday "Roanoke Times." But, that photo is apparently not on the web, so we're using this one instead.

I was also going to link this photo to the Roanoke Police Department, but their web site is not as cool as the Chicago Police Department's web site, so we will mention them instead. According to the Windy City's PD, they recently gave Christmas presents to two youths who were badly injured in a fire back in November.

Of course, we like all police officers irregardless of how hip or unhip their department's web site is. But, if one looks at the Chicago Police Department's web site (chicagopolice.org), you will definitely want to have a hot dog at a Cubs game with one of their officers. 'Course, with my luck, their police chief Jody Weis is probably a White Sox fan!