20-Word Fiction: The Bird Watcher

When I was with a bird-watching group in Highland County , Va., the smallest county in our state, we came across bird-watchers from Raleigh, NC, and Washington, DC. But, after the day was over with I realized my idea of bird-watching involved Woody Woodpecker cartoons on Youtube.

Here is tonight's 20-Word Fiction entry:

"The bird-watcher got obsessed with a yellow-billed oxpecker. That was before the bird crapped on his bald head."

The link below is for those who like to go bird-watching in Central Park in New York City:
http://www.birdingbob.com/

20-Word Fiction: Sunday Night with Clarence Thomas

We dedicate this post to 'my congressman' Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) who is playing a came of kick the can to prevent President Barack Obama to finding a Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia who died while on a hunting trip to Texas.

If November's election were on Tuesday and Goodlatte were to run against Woody Woodpecker, the red-haired bird would get my vote.

Though he is to the left of us, as we support Hillary Clinton while he supports Bernie Sanders, many years ago left-wing documentary filmmaker proposed running ficus plants against embodied, entrenched members of Congress; we fully agree with him on that point!

Here is our short, short, short story:

"The Supreme Court in my mind has voted 4-3 to stay awake; of course, Justice Clarence Thomas abstains as always."

http://www.michaelmoore.com

Top Ten Comics from Sunday's The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC, July 19th edition): Dustin Gets a Gold Star

We initially believed that we had misplaced the July 19th Sunday comics section of "The Sun News" in Myrtle Beach, SC, when we found it as it was an archeological stone from ancient Egypt!

Our favorite comic from the newspaper is "Dustin," in which a young adult son walks by his whimsical mom with an overloaded laundry basket.

The second-place strip is "Off the Mark" in which a museum patron is listening to head phones with info on the art who stumbles upon a blank wall with a large hang nail which indicates that a painting, perhaps as prestigious as Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (pict. center). Munch's masterpiece was actually stolen from a museum in his native Norway.

Third place goes to "Ziggy," not to be confused with "Zippy the Pinhead" by Bill Griffith, which today made fun of Mike Huckabee (we're still laughing over that one). Ziggy makes fun of a landmark once featured in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, that is Niagara Falls, which borders both the United States and Canada. In "Ziggy," the title character is talking to his pooch when he realizes that it is time to use the bathroom!

We have decided to arbitrarily put "Hagar the Horrible" in the tenth position as a running gag.

Here is the top ten:

1) Dustin

2) Off the Mark

3) Ziggy

4) Stone Soup

5) Doonesbury

6) Garfield

7) Dilbert

8) Blondie

9) Curtis

10) Hagar the Horrible

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com

http://www.thesunnews.com

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Our Top 10 Favorite Comic Strips from Go Comics: The Flying MCoy Wins the Gold

The images above are in reference to: 1) "The Godfather" is used for "The Flying McCoys," which this Sunday featured a waiter giving a patron at an Italian restaurant too much ground pepper, yeah, it made us think of the Olive Garden too; 2) "Chilly Willy the Penguin" is used for "WuMo" where someone discovers an eskimo, a penguin, and a polar bear have been in a freezer!; and 3) the roller coaster is used for "Foxtrot" where Paige tries to recover from an uncomfortable luna park experience.

Here is our top ten:

1. The Flying McCoys

2. Lio

3. Doonesbury

4. WuMo

5. Foxtrot

6. Reality Check

7. Off the Mark

8. Phoebe and Her Unicorn

9. F-Minus

10. Stone Soup

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/

http://www.gocomics.com

PSA- Love Thy Neighbor

This is simply a companion entry to our PSA on "The Daily Vampire," which focuses on the controversial new immigration platform in Arizona. While that entry deals with Mexico, this one profiles Canada.

Ironically, "Dudley Do-Right" is an American cartoon from the brainchild of the late Jay Ward who also created "Rocky and Bulwinkle" (The moose is perhaps the hardest cartoon character name to spell in the English language as I have seen it spelled Bullwinkle as well!).

Bill Scott (1920-1985) who was the voice of Bulwinkle was also the voice of the beloved Canadian mounty as well as George in "George of the Jungle." (Both Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle were played by Brandon Fraser on screen).

Dudley Do-Right, which aired in 1969, made a cameo in a Rocky and Bulwinkle Fan Club segment as he was the title character in a play by the Russian villian Boris Badenov.

In his own show, Dudley was head over heels for Nell Fenwick and his arch nemesis was Snidely Whiplash.

While researching this piece, we stumbled upon the fact that the actor who voiced Snidely (the late Hans Conried) was also the voice of Wally Walrus on "The Woody Woodpecker Show!"