Our Top 10 Favorite TV Shows of 2014: We Must Like Sex and Violence

Greetings to our blog readers in the Netherlands, Croatia and Yemen (is our blog available there? Yeah, I don't know either), and a special Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun to our friends in Turkey, my late father's country.

Here is our top ten (amended Jan. 4, 2014):

1. Rectified. Sundance Channel. Second Season. (image #1, the show deals with an inmate coming home to his zip code in small town Georgia, hence the reason for the prison cell)

2. Maron. IFC-TV. Second Season. (Mark Maron continues to impress us, but he could probably care less)

3. The Americans. F/X. Second Season (the reason for the middle image of Ronald and Nancy Reagan)

4. Halt and Catch Fire. AMC. First Season

5. The Affair. Showtime. First Season. (image #3, a postcard of a hotel room from yesteryear)

6. Master of Sex. Showtime. Second Season.

7. Homeland. Showtime. Fourth Season

8. Mad Men. AMC. Eighth Season

9. Orphan Black. BBC America. Second Season

10. Portlandia. IFC-TV. Fourth Season. (Fifth Season starts Thurs., Jan. 8th)

UPDATE: We revised this from the dubious initial version in which we thought it would be a good idea to include three shows we've never seen! They were: 1) Game of Thrones; 2) Orange is the New Black and 3) The Waling Dead, but we shall keep The Game of Thrones tags anyway.......:)

http://www.sundance.tv/

http://www.ifc.com

http://www.sho.com

Our Favorte Comic Strips from Sunday, Dec. 14th Roanoke Times: Drones Away

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Estonia and New Zealand.....

Today, we turn our attention to our 10 favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Dec. 14th edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. (yes, we are a bit behind schedule).

Our top choice is "Pearls Before Swine," in which Rat, one of the three title characters along with Goat and Pig, promises that if he is elected president that he will get one drone to spy on every person on earth at all times; hey, I'd still vote for him over Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney! (forgive the political humor).

"Speed Bump" has a hilarious take on what modern tech would have been like in medieval times, and these means trouble for Sir Textalot as he faces an opponent in a horseback joust in Dave Coverly's single-panel comic strip. Hence, the reason for our image of a "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" poster.

Lastly, "Family Circus" makes a rare appearance in our top ten with a strip that depicts every parent in a grade school auditorium taking photos and videos with mobile devices, we thought it would be humorous to go with an image of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" (middle) as this would assuredly be a difficult play for youngsters to perform.

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Garfield

5) Dilbert

6) Zits

7) Get Fuzzy

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Family Circus

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Top Ten Things We Should Blog About More in 2015 (our tenth anniversary year!)........: Soccer and Politics

Greetings to our blog readers in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Vietnam, three places where we are surprisingly more popular than we could have ever expected! Perhaps, you guys will catch up with Slovenia (for my fellow Americans who flunked geography that's a former Yugoslav republic, yeah, that probably doesn't assist you any.......)

For the 109th time this year, we once again make fun of Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va; pict. top) who is apparently fighting for companies like Amazon who don't have to pay taxes. Assuredly, this means he will have to take Jeff Bezos out for pizza the next time he's in Washington, D.C., where one may also run into Vice President Joe Biden (pictured bottom, hopefully, those of you going to Princeton University know he's the second man in charge at The White House.).

The man in the middle is Chelsea star Didier Drogba, a star player from the Ivory Coast, who also had a stint with the Istanbul soccer powerhouse Galatasaray, our favorite team. And, since the men in red and yellow tied Ankara GB 1-1 on Thursday, we presume, he is greatly missed.

Here are the top ten things we SHOULD blog more about in 2015, a year in which we will mark our tenth year of blogging!:

1. European soccer

2. Fox News nonsense

3. Israel/Palestinian nonsense

4. Cong. Bob Goodlatte

5. The Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va. (our favorite crazy Baptist minister)

6. Joe Biden

7. Taylor Swift

8. "Family Circus"

9. Global Warming

10. The death penalty/doing my laundry (tie)

The Top Ten Films of 2014 (rough draft): Of course, we went with "Boyhood"

It is a bit premature perhaps to be doing this as I have yet to see many of the top films of 2014 as many of them will of course as always be released on or after Christmas Day, but since everyone else is posting their top 10 films of 2014 list, I may as well go for it.

This was an exceptional year for film in every capacity.

For those of you new to this blog, I always go with an image referring to something about the film rather than an image of the film itself.

We are also using the word 'Rough Draft' in the title as a joke, everyone feels the urge to change these lists when they have seen more films from the year of release (here in the United States).

Here is the list:

1) Boyhood (dir. Richard Linklater, image #1 is of the 1969 children's show "H.R. Pufnstuf)

2) Gone Girl (dir. David Fincher, the middle image is the universal symbol for women)

3) Birdman (dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the bottom image is of the early anime cartoon "Battle of the Planets")

4) The Grand Hotel Budapest (dir: Wes Anderson)

5) Life Itself (documentary. dir: Steve James. Will air on CNN in January)

6) The Unknown Known (doc. dir: Errol Morris)

7) Blue Ruin (dir: Jeremy Sauhier)

8) Begin Again (dir: John Carney)

9) Interstellar (dir: Christopher Nolan)

10) "A Most Wanted Man" (dir: Anton Corbijn)

Worst Movie of the Year: "Wrong" (appropriately titled, dir: Quentin Dupieux)

Most Underrated: "The Skeleton Twins"

Most Overrated: "Snowpiercer"

Most Disappointing: "Only Lovers Left Alive"

A Most Impressive Debut: "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"

Most Interesting Mediocre Movie: "Life After Beth"

http://www.filmcomment.com

New and Improved Top Ten American Cities We'd Like to Visit: From Miami to Vancouver

Since we returned back from Costa Rica on Black Friday, we've been thinking about where else would like to travel during our time here on earth, and if we die a premature death like Austrian pop star Falco, we hope we can come back to life as the Buddhistst suggest, so we can visit Detroit (actually a city which just missed making this life).

For this list, we are focusing on North American cities, and our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com we look at cities we would like to visit in Europe.

It should be pointed that cities we adore, like Denver, New York and Baltimore are not on this list because we wanted to focus on cities we've never visited.

And, without any further interruptions, here is the list:

1) Miami, Florida ("Miami Vice" is pictured top)

2) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (The logo for the Vancouver Canucks is pictured center)

2) Seattle, Washington (pictured bottom)

4) San Francisco, California

5) Portland, Oregon (but, we have been to Portland, Maine, this Portland is the one where "Portlandia" takes place)

6) Guadalajara, Mexico

7) Los Angeles, California

8) Minneapolis, Minnesota

9) Dallas, Texas

10, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/

http://www.tourismvancouver.com/

http://www.visitseattle.org/Home.aspx

Last Ten Songs We Heard on Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va.

Here are ten songs in a row that we heard while listening to 106.1 Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.) http://www.1061stevefm.com/main.html on Monday afternoon between the hours of 3:00-4:00 p.m.; we did omit one song from Bon Jovi to make this list seem a tad bit niftier.

Steve-FM is part of the national I Heart Radio http://www.iheart.com/ chain, and apparently there is another Steve-FM in Spartanburg, SC http://www.visitspartanburg.com/

The image of Bill Clinton is used not for political reasons (even though we voted for him....twice!) but because "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac was his 1992 presidential campaign theme song. We are using Pink Panther because there is a song by the singer Pink (we need to get more familiar with her work), a Basil Ratbone's Sherlock Holmes refers to the smash hit "Private Eyes" by Hall and OAtes, our favorite musical act to perform karaoke to.

Here are the ten songs in order:

1) Don't Stop. Fleetwood Mac. 1977http://www.fleetwoodmac.com/splash

2) Wild Thing. Tone Loc. 1988

3) Cherry Bomb. John Cougar Mellencamp. 1987

4) So What. Pink. 2008. http://www.pinkspage.com/us/home

5) When Doves Cry. Prince. 1984 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/prince

6) Breakdown. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 1976,

7) Private Eyes. Hall and Oates. 1981 http://www.hallandoates.com/

8) Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). Eurythmics. 1983.

9) Long Train Running (Without Love). The Doobie Brothers. 1973.

10) Stray Cat Strut. Stray Cats. 1982.

Our Top Sunday Washington Post Comics of the Week for Dec. 7th

Greetings to our blog readers in Lithuania, Ukraine and Georgia!

There are many comic strips which don't get into even the largest American newspapers, such as "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog," "The Flying McCoys," "The Fusco Brothers" and "Strange Brew," but here is a sample of comic strips which are in the "Washington Post."

The large metropolitan newspaper serving the nation's capital as well as much of Virginia and Maryland has an eclectic mix of legacy comic strips like "Beetle Bailey" and "Hagar the Horrible" as well as nationally established comic strips such as "Zits" and "Pearls Before Swine" as well as some trendy comic strips with cult followings like "Prickly City" and "Reply All."

"WUMO," a single panel import from Denmark, is perhaps our most favorite comic strip in the Sunday edition, but this Sunday's comic strip featuring a failed effort by a teenager to leap from the moon to earth didn't work for us, but some of our usual favorites, like "Lio," "Brewster's Rockit" and "Sherman's Lagoon" once again made the proverbial cut.

"Lio" focused on the title character having a false sense of confidence with his new paint by the numbers (hence the reason why we have the late Bob Ross for our top image), "Doonesbury," which came in second, focused on panels dedicated to each of the strip's anchor characters, and "Brewster's Rockit" featured a major brewhaha over a workplace coffee maker aboard a spaceship (Captain Kirk would be proud).

"Dustin," which has nothing do with Dustin Hoffman (bottom image), examined a father and son debating if an older man and a younger woman were romantically involved like the late Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon were back in the day or if they were father and daughter.

Meanwhile, "Sherman's Lagoon" also focused on dating, but for this comic strip, Jim Toomey had Sherman the Shark and Mrs. Shark going out on a date as a married couple who know each other just a bit too well.

Here is our top ten:

1) Lio

2) Doonesbury

3) Brewster Rockit

4) Dustin

5) Pearls Before Swine

6) Knight Life

7) Sherman's Lagoon

8) The Argyle Sweater

9) Foxtrot

10) Judge Parker

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Our New and Improved Countries We Want to Vist Bucket List

Greetings to our blog readers in Cambodia, Spain and Portugal, which are three countries which missed our cut.

Since we have recently arrived back from Costa Rica, a country that always made it onto my top 10 countries to visit list, we thought we'd provide an update, which once again has Iceland (see top image) at the top.

Morocco is second (middle image, strawberry vendor in Tangier) and Norway is third (bottom image of Bergen), and with some research as to suggestions by both Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide, countries like Georgia and Macedonia made it on to the list, as did one of the world's tiniest nations.

We were delighted to see Turkey, my late father's country, ranked high in the Rough Guide, but since we have been there 15 times, we thought we'd focus on countries we've never visited.

Here is the bucket list:

1) Iceland

2) Morocco

3) Norway

4) Georgia

5) Chile

6) Panama

7) Scotland

8) Malaysia

9) Macedonia

10) San Marino (the tiny country we were referring to)

http://www.lonelyplanet.com

http://www.roughguides.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://www.visitmorocco.com

http://www.visitnorway.com

Roanoke Times Comics Survey: Get Fuzzy Edges Out Pearls Before Swine

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Tajikistan.......

Today, we look at our top ten favorite Sunday comic strips that were in the Nov. 30th edition of "The Roanoke Times." Traditionally, we survey both "The Roanoke Times" comic strips and "The Washington Post" comic strips, though we have had some big distractions lately. For our "Washington Post" comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

This week, "Get Fuzzy" snugs the top slot just barely ahead of "Pearls Before Swine," both comic strips featured 12 panels this week, which is a bit risky and unusual.

"Get Fuzzy" which revolves around the spat between a Siamese cat named Bucky (top panel) and a clueless dog named Satchel. This week, the dog asks the cat how many cats it takes to screw in a light bulb and fireworks ensue.

In "Pearls Before Swine," the title character Rat (middle image) is stuck in calling center hell as he is trying to get a lower airline fare by pretending he needs to go to the funerals.........for several 'recently deceased' relatives.

In third place, "Zits" has parents arguing as to whether they should keep their son Jeremy's grade school art projects, which reminds me that a clay dinosaur (bottom image) I made in 1975 at an elementary school has been missing like an FBI fugitive for perhaps a full decade now!

Here is our top ten:

1) Get Fuzzy

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Zits

4) Speed Bump

5) Garfield

6) Doonesbury

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Agnes

10) Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

Last Ten CDs We've Listened To: Folk, Indy and Jazz

Greetings to our blog readers in Ireland, Uruguay and South Africa.

Here are the last ten compact discs we've listened. Yes, we have based this on our regular Last Ten Films We've Seen series, an idea we got from "Film Comment" magazine, as they frequently ask movie directors, such as Quentin Tarantino or Sofia Coppola, what are the last ten films they have watched.

Here's is our list; Bruce Piephoff, a Greensboro, NC, singer featured on this list, is a good friend of our's, alas, we have never met David Bowie. The top image is of the late rock singer Alex Chilton, a song about him was on The Replacements' cd "Pleased to Meet Me" (1987) and the bottom image is of folk singer Sufjan Stevens:

1) Bruce Piephoff. Soft Soap Purrings. 2014. Folk

2) The Replacements. Pleased To Meet Me. 1987. Indy

3) David Bowie. Hunky Dory. 1971.Rock

4) Steely Dan. Countdown to Ecstasy.1973. Rock

5) Pink Floyd. Animals. 1977. Rock

6) Sufjan Stevens. Illinoise, 2005. Indy/folk (the recording features a ballad about a notorious serial killer!)

7) Superchunk. On the Mouth. 1992.Indy/punk

8) Talking Heads. Face the Music. 1979. New Wave/rock/punk

9) The Police. Regatta de Blanc. 1979. New Wave/rock/punk

10) Pat Metheny Group. Letter from Home. 1989.  Jazz.

http://www.reverbnation.com/brucepiephof

http://thereplacementsofficial.com/pages/home

http://www.davidbowie.com

http://sufjan.com/

http://www.superchunk.com/

The DC List (3 of 3)..........Last Group of Republican Congressman.............and when they turn 103

Welcome to our beloved blog readers in Croatia, Costa Rica and Brazil!

For those of you who live outside America, the Republican Party is a far right wing coalition of Jump-4-Jesus evangelicals, Yosemite Sam gun nuts, fringe anti-government anarchists, rich greedy multimillionaires and war mongering radicals who like to see us invade the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Of course, in spite of this, we respect their members who serve in public office and the long hours they put in up in Washington, DC, and on the golf courses they play on for fundraisers.

Here are ten more Republican House members and the years in which they will turn 103, when their seats might become competitive again:

1. Cong. Rob Wittman (R-Va., pict. top) 2062

2. Cong. Richard Hudson (R-NC, pict. center) 2074

3. Cong. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC, pict. bottom) 2070

4. Cong. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) 2069

5. Cong. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) 2073

6. Cong. John Culberson (R-Tex.) 2059

7. Cong. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) 2063

8. Cong. Chris Smith (R-NJ) 2056

9. Cong. John Duncan (R-TN) 2050

10. Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc., failed 2012 veep nominee) 2073

http://www.newsmax.com/ (Right wing journal we disagree with)

http://www.motherjones.com/ (Left wing journal we are more inclined to agree with)

http://www.politico.com

http://www.thehill.com

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

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com  (for more GOP reps and they will turn 103)

The DC List (2 of 3): More Republican Members of Congress........and, when they turn 103

Greetings to our readers around the world, including those of you in Wales, Poland and Portugal.

Today, we continue making fun of Republican members of Congress (the House of Representatives) as we give you the year they will turn 103, which is when their comfortable perfectly gerrymandered seats might be vulnerable to Democrats, God forbid!!! (sarcasm intended)

There are actually two women on this list, including Cong. Ann Wagner (R-Mo, pict. bottom) and Cong-elect Mia Love (R-Utah), a black woman representing a 99-percent white district, who along with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas proves that Republicans are actually better at affirmative action than Democrats (David Duke and Rush Limbaugh must be fuming!).

Here is your list:

1) Cong. Randy Forbes (R-Va, pict. top) 2055

2) Cong. Patrick McHenry (R-NC, pict. center) 2078

3) Cong. Ann Wagner (R-Mo, pict. bottom) 2065

4) Cong. John Boehner (R-Ohio, house speaker) 2052

5) Cong. Jeff Miller (R-Fla) 2062

6) Cong. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okl.) 2080

7) Cong. elect Mia Love (R-Utah) 2078

8) Cong. Austin Scott (R-Georgia) 2072

9) Cong. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala) 2050

10) Cong. Matt Salmon (R-Az) 2061

http://www.mallardfilmore.com (Right-wing comic strip we don't agree with)

http://www.townhall.com (Nope, we don't agree with them either)

http://www.thenation.com (More inclined to agree with them)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

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

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

The DC List (1 of 3): Meet Your Republican Congressional Members...........and, guess when they will turn 103

Greetings to our blog readers from Argentina, France and Malaysia.......we are coming to you live from the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, well, actually, we just said that to get your attention!

At any rate as even yack herders in Mongolia now by now there were mid-term elections to determine which party gets control of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and alas (yes, we are biased), the Republicans won. But, after watching "The Partridge Family" reruns for five straight days and getting mopped and depressed, we thought of what Mel Brooks once said: "The best way to get even with your enemies is to make fun of them."

So, as gerrymandering will assure that Republicans will hold their seats for years and years on end even if they smoke pot on a ski trip to Colorado or run over an old woman's foot with their Hummer in a Target parking lot in Florida, we thought we'd let you the voter know when your Republican Congressional member is scheduled to turn 103! Oh, and of course, we forgot to add if you are playing Angry Birds as bills are being voted on in the floor; it is actually an addictive game, we'll give you that!

And, of course, we once again, choose to make fun of our own Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) who was first elected to the House of Reps in 1992 during the infamous Newt Gingrich takeover of the house.

Here is when your rep turns 103 years old:

1) Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC, pictured top) 2046

2) Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va, pictured center) 2055

3) Cong Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) 2070

4) Cong. Martha Roby (R-Ala) 2079 (she's a young one, especially for a Republican!)

5) Cong. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla) 2066 (whew! We almost didn't spell his name right....)

6) Cong. Darrell Issa (R-Cal.) 2056

7) Cong. Tom Graves (R-Ga) 2073 (that's also the year I turn 103!)

8) Cong. Steve King (R-Iowa) 2052

9) Cong. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) 2058

10) Cong. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) 2053

http://goodlatte.house.gov/

http://foxx.house.gov/

http://chaffetz.house.gov/

http://www.c-span.org/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

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

http://www.politco.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com    (for more reps who turn 103)

Last Ten Films I've Seen: Lots and Lots of Imports

Greetings as always to blog readers around the world, including those of you in Australia, Canada, and Germany.

This is our first entry since the catastrophic, seismic, Armageddon nightmare, mid-term elections, which saw the Republican gain more houses in the U.S. Congress and completely take over the U.S. Senate, but fortunately Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) did prevail over Ed Gillespie.

Even though we differ with his politics and his policies, we want to congratulate Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) who has represented Virginia's sixth district since 1993, and now, thanks to perfect gerrymandering, he probably will be representing the Sixth district until the year 2045 (correction: he turns 103 in 2055), when he will be circa 103 years old. Thus, we are using the image of Goodlatte (center) for the film "Dear White People" which is on this list. We are also looking for photos of Goodlatte in a bathing suit, but alas there are none to be found on Google.

Of the ten films we last watched, eight are from foreign countries, including Kazakhstan, Romania, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Turkey, Iran and Norway.

Finally, so none of you are confused, the bottom image is of the Oklahoma Sooners bandwagon used when the team plays home football game; "August: Osage County," a film based on a play takes place in Oklahoma. It stars Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.

Here is the list:

1. "Tuesday after Christmas." Romania. 2010. dir: Radu Muntean.

2. "Uszipin." Israel. 2004. dir: Giddi Dar

3. "Headhunters" Norway. dir: Mortem Tyldum

4. "Ichi the Killer" Japan. 2001. dir: Takashi Miike.

5. "Waiting Room" Turkey. 2004. dir: Zeki Demirkubuz.

6. "Dear White People" 2014. dir: Justin Simien.

7. "Schizo." Kazakhstan. 2004. dir: Gushat Omarova

8. "August: Osage County" 2014. dir: John Wells

9. "Leila" Iran. 1997. dir: Dariush Mehrjui

10. "Abel" (or "Voyeur"). Netherlands. 1986. dir: Alex van Warmerdam

Halloween Tweets: Trick-or-Treat Invasions

Greetings to our beloved blog-readers in Scotland, Switzerland and Kuwait.

Today is not only Halloween; it also marks the sixth anniversary of our blog "The Daily Vampire." Perhaps some of you remember 2008, The Beatles had just arrived in America, Chairma Mao Tse Tung became the leader of China and a marijuana-inspired cartoon with a talking dog named "Scooby Doo"debuted on television..........:)

In case, you are wondering the bottom image is from the Turkish horror film "Drakula Istanbul'da/Dracula in Istanbul"!

Here are some unique tweets from Halloween night:

1) News&Record: Trick-or-treaters invade Greensboro neighborhood.
 
2) UNC Swag: Everyone in Chapel Hill tonight, please be safe and careful in what you do.....

3) Abraham Lincoln: Tonight in 1865, Lincoln, Mary, and Miss Clara attended Grover's Theatre for opera "The Magic Flute." She was with them at the assassination.

4) Bill Amend (the cartoonist from "Foxtrot"): All right enough with the sad Halloween boredom. Booze, meet Springsteen. Booze and Springsteen, meet Bill Amend.

5) Top Conservative Cat (a satiric tweeter): Next on Fox News, President Obama lures children to pagan festival at the White House.

6) Marc Maron (stand-up comic, star of "Maron" on IFC): "Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh! WTFHaloween!!!!"

7) The Coffee Bean (a LA-based coffee producer): "Spooky Halloween greetings 2 U from Ur friends at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Have fun and be safe tonight."

http://www.visitgreensboronc.com/

http://www.visitchapelhill.org/

http://www.foxtrot.com/

http://www.wtfpod.com/

http://www.coffeebean.com/

Survey of the Best Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 19th edition)

Greetings to those of you reading this blog in Germany, Ukraine and Cyprus, and special greetings to those of you have just joined us after watching the Florida gubernatorial race debate between incumbent Rick Scott (R) and his challenger Charlie Crist (D) or for those of you who are already bored with the World Series, which is starting tonight.

This week, we really liked the "Pearls Before Swine" take on the old Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First," but it was a week full of great comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post. The Danish import WuMo had Yoda, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh meeting in the children's section of a public library, perhaps they were in Hartford, Conn. (we have a gag about how we are posting from the Hartford Public Library even though we've never been in that building). "WuMo" got second place in our survey.

The bronze medal went to Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, no, we just said that to keep you from daydreaming; it actually went to "Rhymes with Orange" which features selfies from the whole family. We're sure our friends at the Urban Dictionary who have coined terms like 'shoefie' and 'brofie' got a hoot out of the Hilary B. Price strip (http://www.urbandictionary.com) The selfie gag is the reason why Kim Kardashian is in our top image slot.

We also enjoyed the educational comic strip "Mark Trail" which focused on various spiders like tarantulas (pictured center) and scorpions; the strip revealed that some spiders actually dine on fish?! Perhaps, they would like Red Lobster.

The cutting edge comic strip "Candorville" had a take on man seeing a shrink, and for that we are featuring an image of Lucy from "Peanuts," a nice comic strip that will probably be in newspapers until the year 2073, when Lucy will be 116 years old.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. WuMo

3. Rhymes with Orange

4. Speed Bump

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6, Dustin

7. Lio

8. Big Nate

9. Mark Trail

10. Candorville

http://www.hplct.org/ (The actual web site of the Hartford Public Library)

http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/ (The actual web site of the Salt Lake City Library in Utah; they have 12,711 followers on Twitter)

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://marktrail.com/

http://rhymeswithorange.com/

http://www.candorville.com

Comic Strips Survey from Sunday Roanoke Times (Oct. 19th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Uganda and Finland; and to our domestic friends in New Jersey, Utah, and Florida.

This week, we resume our look at our favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Oct. 19th edition of "The Roanoke Times," for our favorite strips from last week, visit our sister blog at http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Our favorite comic strip of the week was "Pearls Before Swine," by Stephan Pastis which did a brilliant take on the Abbott and Costello (top image) skit "Who's on First," but in this satire, Rat asks Goat "Which band did Keith Moon play for?"; the answer is The Who, and all the shenanigans roll from there.

"Dilbert," which has substantially jumped in our rankings in recent weeks, features an office visit from a robot (center image) who actually doesn't speak in Scott Adams' strip, which finishes second in our survey this week.

The bronze medal goes to East German ice skater Katarina Witt (we were just trying to see if you were paying attention). Actually, the third place finisher is Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump," a single long panel strip that has some Tennessee raccoons (actually, we have no idea what they are from) digging up trash through backyard garbage cans as well as community recyclable bins that one might find in a hip college town like Boulder, Colorado.

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Dilbert

3) Speed Bump

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Non-Sequitir

6) Zits

7) Agnes

8) Doonesbury

9) Garfield

10) Jump Start

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.dilbert.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

http://www.boulderweekly.com/