Sunday Best: Honest Abe Makes for Great Gag

Here is our weekly Sunday comic strip survey, and this weekend we turn our attention to the comics section of the May 18th edition of "The Roanoke Times," in which "Pearls Before Swine" made fun of Abraham Lincoln (he is tweeting about going to a play at Ford's Theatre), "Speed Bump" made fun of angels in heaven, "Zits" made fun of lazy teenage boys and "Doonesbury" made fun of Jeb Bush.

As we sip on Zevia zero calorie ginger ale, here are is our weekly top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Zits

4) Doonesbury

5) Dilbert

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Garfield

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Agnes

10) Blondie

PS: Earlier this week, we had an entry for graduation commencement speakers across the United States, today we add three more: 1) Col. Michael S. Hopkins, a NASA astronaut, University of Illinois; 2) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Clemson University and 3) Conan O'Brien, Dartmouth.

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.zevia.com

http://www.dartmouth.edu 

Monday Night Post-Debate Tweets: Triumph the Comic Insult Dog Wins Debate

Tomorrow morning, we are hoping to post an entry dedicated to the 24 countries mentioned in the foregin policy debate from Boca Raton, Fla., tonight (12 countries on each of our two blogs). But, for right now, we have lots and lots of tweets to get to.

Before we do that, the first image is of far right political figure Sarah Palin; the former Alaskan governor was John McCain's running mate in 2008. The Second figure is a game of chess. And, the third is of Conan O'Brien's Triumph the Comic Insult Blog. The BBC says some 10 million tweets have been tweeted. They further report that folks in Colombia were disappointed that Latin America wasn't discussed more. Of course, how this debate will impact voters in swing towns like Akron (Ohio), High Point (North Carolina) and Reno (Nevada) remains to be seen.

Here are the tweets:

1) @JoshuaGreen (Joshua Green is a columnist for "The Boston Globe"): "Haha, Palin's trashing both candidates on Fox News in hapless, tongue-tied signature style."

2) @CrowleyTime (Michael Crowley, a reporter for "Time" who has also written for "The New Republic and "Rolling Stone"): "The Iraq exchange was confusing but I think Obama got away with pretending he's glad we're fully out when that really wasn't actually his policy."

3) @GregMitch (Greg Mitchell is a blogger for "The Nation," a liberal journal): "Disgusting how so many pundits ignore national security and only care how worker in Ohio reacts on economy."

4) @Chris_Moody (Chris Moody is a reporter for Yahoo News): "Not joking; both Pauly Shore and Triumph the Insult Dog are in debate spin room tonight."

5) @AlexMacGillis (Alex MacGillis a contributor to "The New Republic"): "Actually think it's a bit unfair to judge challenger against POTUS on foreign policy stuff. But, Romney was more anxious than previously."

6) @LailaLalami (Laila Lalami is a contributor to "The Nation"): "If Romney loses the election, he can always become a 'Hair for Men' model! Wait no. He'll buy the company and ship the jobs overseas."

7) @ariannahuff (Arianna Huffington, the founder of The Huffington Post): "Wouldn't have predicted that North Mall would get more mentions than Europe."

8) @citizencohn (Jonathan Cohn is a columnist for "The New Republic"): "GOP post-debate spin: Sure Obama won on points. But his aggressive posture proves that he was losing."

Quote of the Day/Week- Joe Frazier

Last month, we had hoped to quote the great boxer Joe Frazier (1944-2011) as one of the quips from famous people who died last year, but as it is, he also fits into our efforts this month to quote famous African-Americans in honor of Black History Month.

Next month, we are hoping to quote famous gold medalists. We learned while researching this piece that Frazier, who died at age 67 from cancer was a gold medalist at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He defeated Hans Huber from West Germany.

Frazier, whose nickname was Smokin' Joe, was known for his bitter rivalry with Muhammad Ali. The two ironically became close friends even though they said terrible things about it each other at several junctures during their careers.

The two boxers met three times. Frazier won the first bout at Madison Square Garden in New York for what was dubbed 'the fight of the century' on March 8, 1971. Frazier would win that fight which saw the likes of Woody Allen in attendance.

Ali won the subsequent meetings between the two, including the 1975 'Thrilla in Manila," which did indeed take place in The Philippines.

Here is Frazier's quote:

"Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people."

SIDEBAR ONE: Since we are huge admirers of William Shakespeare, we thought we'd mention that in the hamlet of Hamlet, NC (some 75 miles east of Charlotte) it is 51 degrees and rainy today.

SIDEBAR TWO: As a fellow progressive Turkish-American, I want to salute Cenk Uygur, who coincidentally is a mere 17 days younger than me, for standing up to a right-wing electronic media outlet which said that Uygur looked like the notorious Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheik Muhammed.

The comments were made in response to Uygur's interview with right-wing commentator Andrew Breitbart, on the Feb. 14th broadcast of Uygur's Current TV show, which airs at 7:00 p.m., New York time. Breitbart apparently disclosed that his 'stop raping people' jeers that he made at Occupy DC protestors was a publicity stunt.

Uygur confronted the haters by juxtaposing his face over that of the terrorist's through computer animation, a technique made famous by comic talk show host Conan O'Brien, who is seemingly and surprisingly popular in Turkey. O'Brien's own show airs at 11:00 p.m., New York time, on TBS. Steve Martin is scheduled to appear on that show tonight.

SIDEBAR THREE: Lastly, kudos to the UNC-Greensboro men's basketball team as they upset College of Charleston (from Charleston, SC) 78-63 on the UNCG Spartans' home court last night. Derrell Armstrong paved the way for the home team with 30 points.

The UNCG Spartans (12-15) were profiled by North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC-FM, Chapel Hill) since the team's coach Wes Miller, 29, is the youngest head coach in Division One basketball. Miller has been serving as a temporary coach since then-coach Mike Dement resigned in December.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Conan O'Brien

We were initially going to try to figure out the distance between Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., and Akron University in Akron, Ohio, but yesterday's entry took almost as long as it would get from Duke University's campus in Durham, NC, to Hampton University's campus in Hampton, Va. That trip would take three and a half hours! But, the Blue Devils are playing the Pirates in 'neutral' Charlotte, NC.

Nevertheless, since it is Saint Patrick's Day, we though we'd mention the Notre Dame-Akron game even though it is actually going to be played tomorrow in Chicago at 1:40 p.m., New York time.

We also imagine that they will still be partying hard at Fiddlers Hearth, an Irish pub in South Bend, where the band Driving Irish will perform at 9:00 p.m. local time tonight.

As for the city of Akron, their hometown baseball team the Akron Aeros has their season opener against the Binghamton (NY) Mets at 7:05 p.m. on April 7th.

Tonight's Conan O'Brien Show is a rebroadcast from January that will feature retired talk show host Larry King and snowboarder Shaun White.

O'Brien posted this hilarious tweet on Twitter today:

"St.Patrick's Day is named for St. Patrick, the first guy to feed Guiness to a snake."

Before I head to Bethesda, Md.*, for a pet-sitting trip (I assume the locals are disappointed the Maryland Terps didn't get in, but two area teams the Georgetown Hoyas and the George Mason Patriots did!), I want to wish my dear sister Eva Svensson from Goteborg, Sweden**, a happy 37th birthday. Yes, she is a St.Patty's baby.

We also want to wish the NPR station 88.5 WFDD (Winston-Salem, NC) success with their on-going fund-drive which will hopefully off-seat any draconian measures that Tea Partiers might be able to push through Congress to cut federal funds for NPR.

Many people have projected that mostly small NPR stations in rural areas, like WETS-FM in Johnson City, Tenn., would be affected the most if such measures went into effect.

As I have told my friends to the right of me: "Mozart is not a Maoist." And, NPR should not be caught up in this culture war at all.


*- I am not actually going to Bethesda, but we love mentioning that DC-suburb.

**-My sister is not named Eva Svensson, nor does she reside in Sweden. But, today is her 37th birthday.

David Lynch_ the 1,000th Person I'm Following on Twitter

Film director/artist David Lynch just became the 1,000th person I'm following on Twitter. I must profess that following newsmakers and celebrities is a very fascinating affiar. Though the likes of Conan O'Brien have perhaps rightfully made fun of people like me.

Lynch's 2000 film "Mulholland Drive" was just named 'Film of the Decade' by "Film Comment" magazine. My own personal favorite film of the decade "Cache/Hidden," a French film from Austrian director Michael Haneke finished 16th on that list. I will be posting a final update of the list I submitted for the magazine's reader poll here, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

Reporter Jordan Green, of the Greensboro, NC, weekly newspaper "Yes Weekly!" had a great column in last week's edition about Twitter. Green stated that the recent tragedy in Haiti has made Twitter the most important outlet for news and information. I couln't agree more, though one pitfall of Twitter came about this week when tweeters said that Johnny Depp died from a fatal car crash in France (he didn't!).

I also hope to post a list of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. Though I have not made my mind up yet, I am leaning towards placing singer Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls fame on top of the list. She just has a way of expressing herself which is perfectly suited for Twitter. The rest of us can only hope to achieve that occasionally- I'm afraid!

Silly Picture to Fill Space- "Banana Splits"

Wow! I'm now convinced this entry is cursed! This will be my fourth try at getting it up.

This image is in reference to the Sid and Marty Krofft tv series "The Banana Splits," which originally ran for 31 episodes from 1968-1970 and I believe (not verified) that reruns of the show air circa 3 a.m. eastern time on Boomerang.

The characters in the variety show were Fleegle (a dog), Bingo ( a gorilla), Drooper (a lion) and Snorky (an elephant). There was a serial cliffhanger within the show called "Danger Island."

And, there is also now a Banana Splitsville children's playground area at the Hard Rock Cafe in Myrtle Beach, SC.

SIDEBAR_ Check out my friend Moviezzz's blog (http://www.talkingmoviezzz.blogspot.com) for a touching tribute to French film director Eric Rohmer who died this week and an update on the Conan vs. Jay fiasco
at NBC. Personally, I think "The Jay Leno Show" idea was the worst decision (presumably) made by a stupid white man since the John McCain campaign chose Sarah Palin!