Sunday Washington Post Comic Strips Survey: We Really, Really Like the Argyle Sweater

This Sunday's "Washington Post" comic strips offered a satire of "Sesame Street" ("The Argyle Sweater") which may NOT go over well with Big Bird fans (or Cookie Monster fans), an awkward mother and son moment ("Knight Life"by Keith Knight), "Big Nate" struggling with loads on homework and "Lio" working on some finger-painting, much to his father's shock and horror.

We are also featuring comics from "The Roanoke Times" (Roanoke, Va.) and "The News & Record" (Greensboro, NC) this week. We will denote strips in the Roanoke newspaper with a (^) and those appearing in the Greensboro newspaper with an (*).

Here are the top ten comics of the week:

1) The Argyle Sweater (Oscar the Grouch, featured in the strip, pictured top)

2) Knight Life

 3) Speed Bump ^

4) Big Nate (image two)

5) Sherman's Lagoon

6) Lio (image three)

7) Pearls Before Swine ^*

8) WUMO *

9) Dustin

10) Brewster Rockit:Space Guy ^

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

http://www.gocomics.com/

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/comics-a-z/

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for our survey of Sunday comics from "The Roanoke Times")

Tweets of the Night_ Politics, Sports and Religion

AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! This just in: The Washington Nationals have lost in the deciding Game 5 to the St. Louis Cardinals by a 9-7 score.

In case you are wondering, the third image is of an Armenian Orthodox priest. Since I am a Turkish-American, I thought of no greater irony, my favorite word in the English language, than to use an image of him for this entry. Above him is the American vice president Joe Biden and a kid playing little league baseball.

Here are 12 tweets from about 2.5 hours ago:

1) @MLBJesus (Major League Baseball Jesus): Thou shall pitch Strasburg in Game 5.

2) @JournalNow (Winston-Salem Journal): High Point University poll shows post-deabte bump for Romney among North Carolina voters.

3) @cnni (CNN International): Report says Turkey to avoid Syrian airspace.

4) @_faris (Faris): Saturday morning, the life version of "The Walking Dead."

5) @timesland (Roanoke Times Sports): Halifax County comes back from 20-0 and defeats Franklin county 37-36 in double over-time.

6) @seattletimes (Seattle Times): "Arrest in Seattle Tour de Banks robberies."

7) @katrinanation (Katrina vanden Heuvel, managing editor of the liberal journal "The Nation"): "Joe Biden may have bracing set of old teeth but Paul Ryan lying through his young teeth."

8) @sesameworkshop (Sesame Workshop): "We are a non-partisan, non-profit organization. We do not comment on campaigns, but we're happy we can agree that everyone likes Big Bird!"

9) @thekinghtshift (Chris Knight, blogger from Reidsville, NC): "Big Bird is a monument to all your sins #obama #romney."

10) @mtaibbi (Matt Taibbi, liberal reporter for "Rolling Stone"): "Apparently, Obama needs to rush the passer more."

11) @BigBird (a liberal blogger who is not related to "Sesame Street"): "GOPer sent me an email why Obama's out of touch with times, using an AOL account"

12) @BaltSunSports ("Baltimore Sun" sports, alas the Baltimore Orioles also lost tonight): "Memorable season will have #Orioles aiming even higher in 2013."

Ten People Who Will Decide the Election (10 of 10)- Ohio

It is 5:00 a.m. in Liverpool, England; 7:00 a.m. in Eskisehir, Turkey; and 8:00 a.m. in Yerevan, Armenia. On a personal note, we are hoping the Armenian-American news and opinion web site http://www.asbarez.com publishes my comments regarding the very interesting, heated inner party political race between Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.); it should be pointed that the 'executive editor of this blog' is a Turkish-American named Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be me. They have apparently been reluctant to do so, and even though my statements were not hostile towards the Armenian community, we are concerned that the reason maybe because of ethnic politics.

But, for right now, we are focusing on Ohio, and the city of Akron, Ohio, which is home to Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, and here is our fictional voter, who will be making a big decision in 26 days:

Name: Thanh Nguyen

Residency: Akron, Ohio

Occupation: Bartender

Will Likely Vote for: Barack Obama

There are no exact numbers of how Vietnamese-Americans are voting in the 2012 election, at least to our knowledge, but Barack Obama did win Ohio by a 4.6 % margin over John McCain in 2008. Currently, "Politico" shows Obama with a slight .8% lead over Mitt Romney.

Summit County where Akron is located went to Obama by a 58 to 42 % margin in 2008. And, the local newspaper "The Akron Beacon-Journal" reported that Romney gave a stump speech in nearby Mount Vernon where he promised to lower taxes.

To our knowledge, Big Bird did not come up, but Romney's mention of the beloved "Sesame Street" character and a hint of the possibility that he would guy public broadcasting in the United States if elected has many educators and parents concerned.

According to a column in today's online version of "The Washington Post," the controversial Obama campaign video with Big Bird, which the producers of "Sesame Street" have asked to be removed, has 1.6 million views on Youtube.

http://www.politico.com

http://www.ohio.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/thefix

http://www.barleyhouse.com (a bar in Akron, Ohio)

10 People Who will Decide Election (9 of 10) _Iowa

Today, we are continuing our series of how a given person in each swing state could potentially play a pivotal role in the American presidential election, which will be watched from Dover, Delaware, to Dubai.

The image above is a campaign button for George McGovern (D) who is the oldest living man who has run for the president. The former South Dakota senator who is now 90 lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.

Here is a look at our fictional voter of the day:

Name: David Harrison

Occupation: Community College Teacher

Residency: Davenport, Iowa

Age: 35

Political Leanings: Democrat, will vote for President Barack Obama


It is no secret that like Big Bird on "Sesame Street" whom Republican presidential candidate turned into a social sensation when he said he would cut federal spending for PBS during the debate last week that teachers generally vote Democratic because the party has traditionally been more supportive of education and teachers' needs as well as school funding.

The Big Bird comment was the topic of a recent "Washington Post" column by Glenn Kessler which asked: "Does Mitt Romney want to kill Big Bird?;" the same newspaper also published a stunning column by college professor Frank Portnoy who argues that America's long marathon presidential race is good for the country. One can assume that both Democrats and Republicans may actually unite in opposition to Portnoy's theory, even intellectually it was fairly well laid out.

Among the stories in the most current issue of "The Quad City Times," which serves Davenport, Iowa, and surrounding areas, the local police department is seeking a three-year contract and a three-percent pay raise.

In the comments section, a reader who attended a Paul Ryan rally in Clinton, Iowa, said that the Obama campaign had taken her comments in which she asked the vice presidential candidate about his plan to fix the economy out of context.

According to "Politico," Obama has a 48-6 to 45.5 percent lead over Romney.http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.politco.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.qctimes.com

Dexter Trivia (4 of 4)_ How Far Is Omaha from Miami?

For the first time in a long while, we are posting an entry at a peak time (between 9:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m.), but we are going with trending topics, such as Katie Holmes and Big Bird, though we hope arbitrarily mentioning both of them inflates our numbers. Of course, we are amazed how Mitt Romney who acted as obnoxious as Bill O'Reilly is the perceived winner of last night's debate in Denver.

Alas, we were unable to find a cool Dexter lunchbox image, but this one will do just as well, we hope.

In episode 67 from the 6th season, Dexter embarks on a road trip to Nebraska. So, we are asking how far is Omaha, Neb., from Miami, where the show is set. Obviously Miami, Okl., a small town near Kansas, would be a quicker driver than one to Miami, Fla., from the Cornhusker State.

So, is the answer?:

A) 1,641 miles

B) 1,651 miles

C) 1,661 miles

D) 1, 671 miles

Actual Church Sign I Saw Today....

PRAY FOR BIG BIRD

I spotted it on Route 220 between Greensboro, NC, and Roanoke, Va., in the hamlet of Ridgeway, Va., which is near the speedway town of Martinsville.

We're not sure what it means. But, if you know, by all means leave a comment here!