Sunday Comics Roanoke Times Survey: It's Another Great Week for Funky Winkerbean

There are 21 comic strips in the Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times" and so far this year, even "Family Circus" (one of our least favorite comic strips) has cracked the top ten, but "For Better or Worse" never has, and that streak continues this week as well.

But, why focus on comic strips we'd like to see dumped for "Sherman's Lagoon" when the newspaper which has a circulation of about 100,000, does have some splendid comic strips as well as ones which are surprisingly good at times, "Dilbert" and "Garfield" are both good examples of comic strips which have come back from the dead, well at least that's the case with the one about a 36-year old cat.

Here is our top ten:

1) Funky Winkerbean (see top image of a "Swamp Thing" comic book): We simply love it when the strip's writer/artist Tom Batiuk designs his own versions of retro comic book characters with Starbuck Jones. In this week's strip, Starbuck Jones is seen fighting off a saber-toothed octo-shark. Yikes!

2) "Pearls Before Swine" (see middle image of Ron Cey): Perhaps the usage of former Los Angeles Dodgers great Ron Cey won't be understood by readers of Stephan Pastis' strip in Manchester, Sydney or Hong Kong, but we loved this week's strip which also features an homage to "The Godfather." Pastis never fails to surprise us.

3) "Speed Bump"

4) "Get Fuzzy"

5) "Zits" (see bottom image): This week, "Zits," a comic strip focusing on a 16-year-old boy who never ages, has Jeremy's mom using a Polaroid camera, one of our favorite Casualties of Modern Technology, which is like 'so totally' lost on him. Images/hallucinations of Fred and Wilma Flintstone add to the hilarious effect of the strip.

6) "Dilbert"

7) "Agnes"

8) "Garfield"

9) "Mutts"

10) "Doonesbury"

http://www.roanoke.com

http://baltimorecomiccon.com/

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

http://zitscomics.com/

Silly Photo to Fill Space- A Day Without Shoes 2013

Today is the one day of the year where George Jetson can act like Fred Flintstone and go into work barefoot to recognize the plight of starving children in Honduras and Zimbabwe, but we imagine Cosmo Spacely would not appreciate the gesture, as it is 'One Day Without Shoes' Day.

Of course, for those of you who actually reside in Honduras and Zimbabwe, we should point out that we are making references to two vintage American cartoons of yesteryear: "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons."

But, since the world is literally becoming a smaller place, we expect many of you in Honduras and Zimbabwe- hopefully all of you have at least one pair of shoes, are familiar with those animated entities.

We do appreciate the cause, but since one of us here had a tetanus scare as a child for walking barefoot and stepping on a nail, we are not personally participating in this global cause/event today.

And, we hope you like this image of two barefoot lovers in the rain, which would also be great for a community theatre production of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park;" it was surprisingly tough to find a great photograph for this entry!

Links:

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com

Olympic Cities Distance Quiz (1 of 6) Athens to London

Today, we begin a six-part series on the distances between various cities which have hosting the Olympic Games. As of this summer, London, England/U.K., will be the first city to host the games three times. The previous two times were in 1900 and 1948.

Athens, Greece, has hosted the modern summer Olympics twice, including the initial games in 1896 and in 2004.

American swimmer Ann Curtis who won gold in women's 400 meter free-style swimming back during the 1948 Olympics is still alive at age 86.

The American delegation sent 300 athletes to the 1948 Olympics.

In 2004, there were significantly more American athletes in the field as 536 athletes were sent to Greece. Among them were Misty May and Kerri Walsh who won gold in women's beach volleyball.

So, what is the distance between Athens, Greece, and London, England; is the answer:

A) 1,466 miles

B) 1,476 miles

C) 1,486 miles

D) 1,496 miles

Several airlines travel the Athens-London route; they include British Airways and Olympic Air (Greece).

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://www.london2012.com

http://www.britishairways.com


http://www.olympicair.com




SIDEBAR: The answer to our quiz question regarding "The Flintstones" is A) 1960.

The Rabbit Ears Quiz (10 of 12)_ The Flintstones

Today, we are literally going back to the stone ages, as we profiled the beloved cartoon "The Flintstones," an ABC cartoon that was based on the first popular tv sitcom "The Honeymooners." The cartoon ran for six seasons and consisted of 166 episodes. When I was a child, I saw the cartoon in Turkey on the TRT (Turkish Radio Television) where the series was called "Tas Devri" (pronounced Tash Devreeh) which does literally mean "The Stone Ages."

While researching, this we realized there is actually an American community called Bedrock, Colo., the far-west Colorado. The community has a post office which opened in 1883, and we hope it survived the major post offices closing announced yesterday here in the United States. The zip code for Bedrock, Colo, is 81411. But, if you send a postcard to Fred Flintstone at 345 Cave Stone Road Bedrock, Co. 81411, you will probably not get a reply (the Cave Stone Road address was one of several used for the Flintstone family on the show).

The tv-Bedrock is actually larger than Bedrock, Colo., as it has a population of 2,500. Though everyone reading this blog probably knows this, Fred was married to Wilma and they had a daughter named Pebbles. Conversely, their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble had an adopted son (according to Wiki, he was adopted?!) Bamm-Bamm.

And, of course, there was the family pet dinosaur modeled after the typical family dog, named Dino (pictured). We have to wonder if the Rev. Joseph Chambers of Charlotte, NC, who called Barney the Dinosaur a Marxist ploy to make children ardent left-wingers felt the same way about Dino.

But, today's question, and those of you in Dubai and Singapore can play as well, is:

What year did 'The Flintstones' originally air?

Is the answer:

A) 1960

B) 1961

C) 1962

D) 1963

And, if you get it right, we will send out a Yabbbbbaaaadaaabaaayooo for you!

North Carolina High School Football Roundup

The Western Alamance Warriors (pictured here) were among the victors in high school football action on Friday night in the Greensboro, NC, region. While, the mighty Reidsville High School Rams who had a very impressive 57 games in a row fell at home to Cummings High School by a 28-7 score.

Kudos once again to our beloved Ragsdale High School Flying Tigers who beat rival Northwestern Guilford High School 24-21.

This list of North Carolina scores includes schools that are mostly within a one-hour radius of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point:

Cummings 28 Reidsville 7
Smith 27 Page 18
North Davidson 24 Reagan 14
Ragsdale 24 NW Guilford 21
Western Alamance 25 Williams 21
Mount Tabor 39 Reynolds 7
Mount Airy 37 Northern Surry 7
Dudley 24 Southeastern Guilford 10
Rockingham County 18 Eastern Guilford 14
Forsyth 14 Asheboro 0
Northwood 35 Carrboro 34
Salisbury 56 Central Davidson 37 (wow!)
High Point 41 Parkland 20

SIDEBAR: In ACC football action, UNC won a rare victory over UVA as the Tarheels spanked the Cavs' 44-10. North Carolina State lost an out-of-conference game to state rival ECU 33-27 and hapless Duke gave their best, but fell to Miami (Fla) by a 28-13 score.

SIDEBAR TWO: Happy 50th wedding anniversary to Fred and Wilma Flintstone of Bedrock, Pa. (There is actually a Bedford, Pa; I ate a Denny's there once! By the way, I hate semicolons!). "The Flintstones" are indeed 50 years old this week as the ainmated series first aired in 1960.