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/

Last Ten Films I've Added to My Netflix Que: Vintage '70s Films, etc.

Well, actually, a lot of these films are from the late 1960s........so, I guess the headline is a tad bit misleading.............oh well!

Here are the last ten films I've added to my Netflix que:

1) "Brimstone and Treacle" (1982. w/Sting dir-Richard Loncraine)

2) "Downhill Racer"(pict. top; 1969. w/ Robert Redford dir-Michael Ritchie)

3) "Barbara" (Germany. 2012. dir-Christian Petzold)

4) "Frances Ha (2013. dir-Noah Baumbach)

5) "Computer Chess" (2013. dir-Andrew Bujaki)

6) "The Conjurling" (2013 dir-James Wan)

7) "Soylent Green" (1973. w/Charlton Heston dir-Richard Fleischer)

8) "Badlands" ( pict. middle; 1973 w/Sissy Spacek dir-Terence Malick)

9) "Head" (pict. bottom- poster by Daniel Clowes; 1968 w/The Monkees, dir-Bob Rafaelson)

10) "California Suite" (1978 dir-Herbert Ross)

http://www.netflix.com

College Volleyball: Good Weekend for Kentucky

Though it's known more for its men's basketball program, the University of Kentucky also boasts a strong nationally-ranked women's volleyball team, and this weekend, the Wildcats won two SEC home games over South Carolina and LSU.

For her efforts over the weekend, including the Wildcats' five-set win over LSU, Anni Thomasson (pictured here, she's number 4), a freshman who was a prep standout in Newark, Ohio, was named SEC Player of the Week. Thomasson had 30 kills and 22 digs in the win over the Tigers.

Here is a look at select college volleyball scores from major conferences:

Kentucky 3 South Carolina 0

Michigan State 3 Northwestern 1

Louisville 3 Houston 2

UNC 3 Clemson 1

Duke 3 Maryland 0

Virginia Tech 3 Florida State 1

Ohio State 3 Purdue 1

UVA 3 Miami (Fla) 1

Kentucky 3 LSU 2

Missouri 3 Alabama 1

Michigan 3 Northwestern 1

Nebraska 3 Minnesota 2

College Volleyball Notebook: Good Weekend for the Other UNC

As we posted on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com the University of North Carolina Tarheels had an outstanding weekend with two home wins over Clemson and Georgia Tech.

As it turns out, it was also a good weekend for the University of Northern Colorado Bears in Greeley, Colo., as the team won a pair home games including a three-set sweep over Sacramento State on Sunday.

Ashley Guthrie (pictured) was named Big Sky Player of the Week for her efforts, which included 33 assists, six digs and four kills in the Sacramento State win.

Here is a look at west coast college volleyball scores from weekend play:

Northern Colorado 3 North Dakota 1

Stanford 3 Colorado 0

UCLA 3 Oregon State 0

Santa Clara 3 BYU 1

Cal 3 Colorado 1

Hawaii 3 UC-Santa Barbara 2

Northern Colorado 3 Sacramento State 0

USC 3 Oregon State 0

Stanford 3 Utah 0

Oregon 3 UCLA 2

Futbol Notebook: Two Guys Get Red Cards in Dutch Soccer

Tow Dutch futbolers Ard von Peppen (pictured bottom) for Roda and Ingo van Weert for Waalwijk got red cards in domestic play over the weekend. But, the week was a much happier for Siem de Jong (pictured top), a Dutch player who is the captain of Ajax Amsterdam, as he scored two goals as did Aron Johannsson, a American national of Icelandic heritage who plays for AZ Alkmaar, a team that tied this weekend.

A third soccer player Jarchinio Antonia, a Dutch international for Go Ahead Eagles (yes, that is the name of a Dutch soccer team), kicked in two goals within a two-minute (in the 9th and 10th minutes of play).

But, the player of the week had to be Alfredo Finnbogason, an Icelandic player, as he landed a hat trick with three goals for his team Heerenveen.

Here are the complete results of Dutch weekend soccer play:

Feyenoord 2 AZ Alkmaar 2 (tie)

Nimegen 0 Ajax Amsterdam 3

Breda 2 PSV Eindhoven 1

Roda 1 Go Ahead Eagles 4

Heerenveen 5 Waalwijk 2

Zwolle 1 Twente 1 (tie)

Den Haag 3 Cambur 0

Heracles 0 Groningen 3

Vitese 3 Utrecht 1


Vites tops the league, with AZ Alkmaar in second place, followed by Ajax Amsterdam in 3rd.

There was a huge soccer game between two Istanbul powerhouses Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, for the week in Turkish soccer, visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day for Veteran's Day from Jimmy Stewart

Today, we honor military veterans for Veteran's Day with a quote from Jimmy Stewart, who set aside his Hollywood career, to serve in World War II.

Here is the quote from Stewart:

"Never treat your audience as customers, always partners."

We have a quote from Stewart's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" co-star Lee Marvin on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Our Top Ten Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday "Washington Post": It's Shark Week Again

What do a lemon shark, Gil Gerard (as Buck Rogers in the early '80s tv show "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century") and the board game Operation have in common? Well, they all sprung to mind when looking at today's comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post.

We last profiled our fav Sunday Post strips some ten days ago on "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com and as was the case then "Sherman's Lagoon" was our favorite comic strip again.

Here is a list of the top ten, which includes the always hip comic strip "Knight Life" by Keith Knight and "Candorville" by Darrin Bell.

1. Sherman's Lagoon (yeah, that's the reason for the lemon shark)

2. "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (yep, he's the reason for Gil Gerard)

3. "Pearls Before Swine"

4. "Lio" (today's strip dealt with Family Board Game Night, thus we came up with 'Operation')

5. "Knight Life"

6. "Dustin"

7. "WUMO" (we believe this comic strip is a new one)

8. "Candorville"

9. "Prickly City"

10. "Reply All"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.........."Foxtrot" just missed the cut, maybe next time!

http://shermanslagoon.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/

http://www.gocomics.com/lio#.UoBZnzYo6Uk

http://www.knightlifecomic.com/