Best Ten Comic Strips Sunday Greensboro News and Record: Hoorary for the Unicorns

Greetings to our blog readers in Belgium, Cyprus, and Slovakia, all European Union countries. We just got a notice from our server that we are supposed to tell all EU nation citizens who might come to this blog about our cookies. We have no idea what that really means, but we will try to accommodate you in any way you can, or we'll just refer to Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).....we just love making fun of Republicans.

Foxx does not actually represent Greensboro, NC, in Congress, but we gather she represents Winston-Salem, NC, of course, here in the Land of the Free they change the lines often, which doesn't really seem democratic. I guess we should send our complaints to Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) but we don't live in Colorado!

Today we going with  comic strips from the"News and Record," the main daily newspaper for Greensboro.

We really like "Phoebe and Her Unicorn," which is carried by that newspaper, and this Sunday's strip with Phoebe talking to her pet unicorn about crying at the movies was quite touching. We also liked "WuMo" which dealt with archeologists finding remains of a human pyramid in Egypt.

"Judge Parker," a comic strip in soap opera format, featured a conversation in front of horses, unlike Mister Ed, they can't seem to talk. (Bottom image is of Secretariat).

Here is our top ten:

1. Phoebe and Her Unicorn

2. Foxtrot

3. WuMo

4. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

5. Pearls Before Swine

6. Doonesbury

7. Non-Sequitur

8. Jump Start

9. Judge Parker

10. Ziggy

http://www.visitgreesnboro.com

http://www.gocomics.com 

http://www.comicskingdom.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

Tweets from Sunday Night: Scientists Study Crabs

We were hoping to get a blog post in yesterday as July 20th is the date when the late American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon 45 years ago yesterday; conversely, also on July 20th, the late Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit decided to send Turkish troops to Cyprus to protect the Turkish Cypriot residents of the island 40 years ago yesterday. This started a short, but bloody war between Turkey and Greece over the island nation, which remains divided to this day.

Since we had a tweet from an actor pretending to be God, we wanted to use an image of George Burns, but when we couldn't find one that was suitable, we chose instead to go with the fringe minister Rev. Johnny Robertson in Martinsville, Va., who was once in a public feud with our friend and fellow blogger Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC.

Here are last night's tweets:

1. Ali Spignola (an electronics musician): I've never seen an owl that wasn't pissed off (top image).

2. WNYC (New York NPR station): A black woman (Mikki Kendell) disguised herself online to see what the Internet was like as a white man.

3) J. Freedom du Lac (features writer for The Washington Post): Can discarded sea containers help create more affordable housing, or is this mostly a gimmick?

4) Washington Post: Babies start mentally rehearsing speech long before they actually say their first words.

5) Tweet of God: I have absolutely no plan for your life (middle image, read second paragraph)

6) Charlotte Observer: :School starts Monday for 2,500 Charlotte students.

7) Baltimore Sun: Scientists tally crabs and see how reef building affects them.

Little Thinkers Quotes (15 of 16): Vincent Van Gogh

Greetings to our blog readers in Slovakia, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia.

Also, we want to say a special hello to our good friends Mitt Romney, Michael Moore and Dick Vitale; we are sure all three of them are looking at this blog instead of watching college basketball or men's speed skating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia!

Here is the quote from the great Dutch master:

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."

Image to Fill Space: A Pug

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador, Venezuela, Sweden, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaysia, Tajikistan and The Bahamas.

We'll have something more substantial in tomorrow's blog entry.

Soccer Week (8 of 8): Suppose They Gave a Soccer Game in Cyprus, and No One Cared (plus 11 European teams you've never heard of)

Hmm....we were going to post a photo of Trabzonspor's Turkish soccer player Yusuf Erdogan, but what we got were photos of Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is about as popular amongst Turks abroad as Porky Pig cartoons are in Dubai (forgive the political humor).

At any rate, this image is of Marco Streller, the Swiss international and captain of the Swiss team Basel, which is ranked 51st in UEFA club standings. He kicked the winning goal for Basel in the Champions League. Basel went into London on Tuesday and shocked the global soccer community with a 2-1 win over Chelsea.

Our lead though is in reference to today's soccer game in Limassol, Cyprus, between traditional Turkish soccer power Trabzonspor and Appolon Limassol, the team that surprised Europe last year by reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Even though Cyprus is just across the sea from Turkey, Trabzonspor traveled quite a ways for the game as Trabzon is located in northwestern Turkey.

For those who feel asleep in your history class at Cornell University (next time we'll pick on Princeton), Turkey and Greece had a short, but ugly war over Cyprus in 1974. Even though I was four years old at the time, I remember the Cyprus War quite well, or at least as well as the Vietnam War, for my late father Mehmet Gokbudak hailed from Turkey.

Thankfully, no one on either side of my family died in Famagusta or Hanoi.

Before we get to the ten European soccer teams you've never heard of, let's look at some scores that will help you the blog-reader get through this entry:

UEFA Champions League:

Sociedad (Spain) 0 Shkhar Donesk (Ukraine) 2

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Benfica (Portugal) 2 Anderlecht (Belgium) 0

UEFA Europa League:

Apollon 1 Trabzonspor 2

Dynamo Zagreb (Croatia) 1 Odessa (Ukraine) 2

PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) 0 Ludogorets (Bulgaria) 2

Standard Liege (Belgium) 1 Esberg (Denmark)  2

Freiburg (Germany) 2 Liberec (Czech) 2...........tie game

Rubin Kazan (Russia) 5 Maribor (Slovenia) 2

Now here on the 11 teams you've never heard of:

1. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine): This was considered the second biggest upset in the Champions League. Brazilian international Alex Teixeira scored both goals for the Ukrainian club in their 2-0 win in Spain).

2. Basel (Switzerland)

3. Benfica (Portugal): They are seemingly a team which always sneaks up on other teams in European play.

4. Anderlecht (Belgium)

5. Apollon Limassol (Cyprus): "The Daily Hurriyet," an English-langauge newspaper in Turkey said Trabzonspor won in 'Greek Cyprus,' but we don't like to get into politics here. Well, at least, not when we are writing about soccer. Gaston Sangoy (Argentina) scored for the Cypriot team in the team's close loss to Trabzonspor.

6. Trabzonspor (Turkey): This squad is one of only two teams outside of Istanbul that has won a Turkish domestics championship; Bursasapr from Bursa is the other team.

7.Dyanmo Zagreb (Croatia)

8. Ludogorets (Bulgaria): Amazingly enough Virgil Misidja a Dutch international player for this Bulgarian team kicked in the second goal in his native country today to help Ludo upset PSV Eindhoven 2-0.

9. Esberg (Denmark): Not to be confused with Swedish team Elfsborg, which is also in the Europa League, this Danish squad celebrated a road win in Belgium thanks to the game-winning goal from Musaga Bakenga, a Norwegian player of Congolese heritage.

10. Rubin Kazan: This team which plays in the Tartar region  of Russia boasts Gokdeniz Karadeniz, one of Turkey's better exports. Today, he scored a goal today in their win over Maribor of Slovenia.

11. Maribor (Slovenia): Today's lop-sided loss to Rubin Kazan was apparently closer than the score sheet indicates. Maribor is a competitive team from the former Yugoslavia and today the team saw a goal from Slovenian national Martin Milec.



http://www.turkeyfootball.blogspot.com

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.trabzonspor.org.tr (in Turkish)

http://www.russianfootballnews.com

http://www.apollo.com.cy

http://www.uefa.com

Soccer Week (2 of 8): Americans Abroad

We are going to present you with a list of 11 American soccer players, which is the same number of soccer players on a team. All of the players except Orozco Fiscal who plays for Puebla in the Mexican Premiere League play for European teams.

The player pictured is Aron Johannsson who plays for traditional Dutch power AZ Alkmaar.

Here is the list:

1) Jozy Altidore (Sunderland, English Premiere League)*

2) Tim Howard (goalkeeper, Everton, EPL)

3) Geoff Cameron (Stokes City, EPL)

4) Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna, Austria)

5) Michael Bradley (AS Roma, Italy)

6) Steve Clark (goalkeeper, Honefoss, Norway)

7) Orozco Fiscal (Puebla, Mexico)

8) Aron Johansson (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)

9) Jermaine Jones (Shalke '04, Germany)

10) Sacha Kljesten (Anderlecht, Belgium)

11) Tony Taylor (Omonia Nicosai, Cyprus)

http://www.goal.com

http://www.yanks-abroad.com

http://www.politcscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Sister blog)

*-His name is (yikes!) not spelled correctly on our links....

Eid Mubarak/Happy Ramadan from Nasreddin Hoca

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, France and New Zealand.

We also want to send a special Ramadan greeting to our friends in Turkey, Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Now, that Ramadan is complete, we can all go out for halal hot dogs and an Efes Pilsen Beer*......:)

The image above is of the famed Nasreddin Hoca, a comical Persian philosopher who reportedly rode his donkey backwards; Nasreddin lived in what is now central Turkey in the provinces of Konya and Nevsehir.

*-Efes Pilsen is a Turkish beer made from the pilsener formula developed in the town of Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

Image 2 Fill Space- Woman in Black Bikini

We imagine this will make our readers in Dubai wish they were in Cyprus or the Cayman Islands.

Well as Porky Pig would say: "That's All Folks."

Ok, I got to go help mom wash the dishes; it is Mother's Day after all.

Catholicism By the Numbers

Many people in America and Europe may not realize it, but there are a fair number of Catholics in Turkey, my late father's country, in addition to a sizable Jewish community, particularly in the largest city of Istanbul.

Though I'm not a Catholic myself, I thought that with the crowning of a new papal head in Pope Francis I of Argentina and the fact that tomorrow is Easter Sunday, I thought I would post an entry to look at how many Catholics live in countries where they are in the minority.

The image above is of a Catholic church in Buyukada, an island in the inland Marmara Sea that is considered to be part of Istanbul; this is also where one sees many horse carriages as seen below.

In addition to Catholic churches in Istanbul, there are congregations in Izmir and Mersin.

And, as one might expect, Wikipedia states that there are very few Catholics in Afghanistan; here is a look at some of the numbers we found:

1. Afghanistan 200

2. Armenia 110,000

3. Cyprus 10,000

4. Jordan 170,000

5. Kuwait 140,000

6. Serbia 411,000

7. Turkey 35,000

http://www.catholic.org

http://www.adalarturizm.org

Greek Premiere League Soccer Scores

Yes, perhaps, there are not many things as shocking as a Turkish-American blogging about Greek soccer results over the weekend. But, in spite of the Greek-Turkish Cold War which unofficially from 1974 following a war over Cyprus until 1999 when both countries provided mutual relief support to devastating earthquakes within both countries which occurred just a few months apart, relations between the two neighboring countries are apparently at relative ease at the moment.

In fact, Deniz Baykara, a Turkish national, plays for the Greek first division team Panthrakikos, and Theofanis Gekas, a Greek soccer player, is a member of the Turkish first division team Akhisar.

Ironically, it was not a good weekend for either of those clubs as Panthrakikos lost lost to Atromitos 1-0 and conversely Akhisar also lost in their match again Elazigspor by the same score of 1-0.

The above image we are featuring for this entry is of Senegalese national Pape Sow, who kicked a goal for his Panathinikos in the 73rd minute in a 2-0 win over their Athens rival AEK. Sow's teammate Spaniard Vitolo kicked an earlier goal at the 55-minute mark in the win. There are now, in recent years, many Spanish soccer players in Greece, so much so that they were the subject of many international soccer stories last season. 

Greek soccer player Nikolaos Kaltsas had a good day on the field as well as he scored two goals in his team Veria's 3-1 win over Aris.

Hungarian national Laszlo Lencse also had two goals to lead his team Asteras Tripolis to a 2-1 win over Giannia.

And, the Thessaolinki powerhouse team PAOK left the field with a 4-2 win over Panionios with crucial goals coming from Albanian player Ergys Kace and Greek player Dimitris Salpingis.

Here is a look at the scoreboard:


Veria 3 Aris 1

Panathinaikos 2 AEK Athens 1

Asteras Tripolis 2 Giannia 1

PAOK 4 Panionios 2

Atromitos 1 Panthrakikos 0

Skoda Xanthi 4 Levadiakos 1

Olymiakos Pireaus 4 OFI Crete 0


http://www.greeksoccer.com

Bonus Quote of the Week- Dominique Dawes

Like students at my alma mater of Central High School in Woodstock, Va*, we are getting for spring break. So, we are planning not to post an entry until Sunday.

But, we will leave our loyal fans in Cyprus, Russia and Slovenia (I have no idea why, but we get an unusual amount of hits from those three countries!) with a quote from the great Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes, 35, who is a native of Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dawes, who also acted on Broadway in a revival of the musical "Grease," was the first African-American women's gymnast to win a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Dawes was part of the 'magnificent seven,' the nickname given to that gymnastics team, which also included Shannon Miller, Amanda Borden and Dominique Moceanu.

Dawes also won bronze medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

In 2010, Dawes was appointed as co-chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.

We used this quote for our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" back on Feb. 1, 2001, and it proved to be quite popular:

"I found through research that between 50 and 70 percent of young girls who describe themselves as overweight are actually normal weight."

*- Central High School in Woodstock, Va., is a real place, but the school whose nickname is the Falcons is not my alma mater; it is like Javier the Intern, one of the running gags on our blogs.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Polish Goalie Ruled in Russian Soccer

We first asked Google what was the most popular soccer team in Moscow, and we realized there were two popular teams in the Russian capital: Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow. And, we have been confused ever since.

But, we decided to focus on Spartak Moscow, a team that plays a road game against PFK Kryliya Sovetov in Samara, Russia, tomorrow.

We then asked Google who was the best player in the team's history, and we are not entirely sure this is the right answer, but we got "Wojciech Kowaleski." I was thinking: "Hey, this guy is Polish. Russians and Poles hate each other's guts, don't they?"

Kowaleski, 34, know plays for the Greek Cypriot soccer team Anorthosis Famagusta, which actually plays in Larnaca since Famagusta is in Turkish Cyprus (I went there in 1991). If you want to know why the island is split, you will need to ask Google about what exactly happened in 1974, but we aren't getting into that here (especially since I'm half-Turkish).

The Polish goalie played for Spartak Moscow from 2003-07, and he has been the goalie of the Polish national team.

As for the team, Spartak Moscow won 12 Soviet Championships, second only to the Ukrainian team Dyanmo Kiev, which now plays in the Ukrainian Premiere League. Spartak Moscow last won the Russian Cup in 2003. And, the team reached to the 1990 UEFA semi-finals before losing to Marseille (France) 2-1.

We were surprised to see that Aiden McGeady, an Irish soccer star, plays for Spartak Moscow. Conversely, Luke Wilshire, from New Zealand, plays for Dynamo Moscow.

Beers from Around the World (#47)- KEO from Cyprus

Yes, I am a Turkish-American which of course makes it a bit ironic that the feature beer today is from the Republic of Cyprus (a country Turkish people refer to as Greek Cyprus), but we love irony. Cyprus was incidentally the only EU member nation I couldn't name in a quiz from mentalfloss.com, and of course I realized why that was.

The island-nation has a long, unique history and it is virtually impossible to talk about Cyprus without discussing the shish kebab political spats between Turkey and Greece that have gone on since the days when David threw a rock at Goliath.

But, we will somehow try to avoid that here. However, in full disclosure, I did visit the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1991 when I was 21. The TRNC is only recognized by Turkey. Greece and Turkey went to war over Cyprus in 1974. The TRNC formed in 1983. Rauf Dentas became the country's first president, and he did not finally step down until 1983, which is pretty typical of Turkish and Greek politicians (forgive the ethnic humor).

As for KEO Beer, it has its own unique story. It is the only domestic brand served in Greek Cyprus. The brew, which is made in the port city of Limassol, has a colored lager appearance with a pilsner taste according to Wikipedia (yes, we're not sure what means either).

A controversy with KEO, which is ironically 20 percent owned by the Greek Orthodox Church (?!), occured when the beer was featured in a 2010 American adult film set in a Greek taverna in New York.

According to "Cyprus Mail," a KEO rep said: "We are always searching for ways to promote our products and Cyprus throughout the world, but this is certainly not a path we would have chosen."

"The Cyprus News-Mail" said that the scene in question happens when a woman pours a KEO into the mouth of her boyfriend as they are.....

We imagine that for political reasons it would be very difficult to find KEA at the Fez, a pub in the Northern Cypriot city of Kyrenia (Girne) or anywhere else above the green line which divides the island-nation.

The president for the Republic of Cyprus is the progressive politician Dimitris Christofias; his counterpart is Dervis Eroglu, who was elected president of the TRNC last year.

We imagine if the two ever have a 'beer summit' they may have to settle for a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

DC Diary- Michelle Obama's Inauguration Gown

When we posted an entry with a quote from former president George H.W. Bush, aka Papa Smurf, we mentioned that there was an exhibit of first ladies gowns at his presidential library in College Station, Tex.

Thus, I was quite surprised when we stumbled a similar exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum during our family trip to Washington, DC, in the first phase of our excursion.

There were two gowns which stood out. One was surprisingly the purple inauguration gown worn by Laura Bush, Papa Smurf's daughter-in-law.

The other was the amazing white gown by our current First Lady Michelle Obama, which neither a Romanian gymnast nor a contestant on "The Biggest Loser" could possibly fit into. The dress illustrated just how tall Michelle Obama is as well as how tight her figure is. I am certainly no fashion expert, and as a heterosexual man my interest in such things is fairly limited. But, this gown, complete with the white Jimmy Choo high heel shoes, left quite an impression.

Later in the trip, we went to the Smithsonian National Science Museum where we saw an exhibit with ancient artifacts from the politically divided island nation of Cyprus, located between Greece, Turkey and Lebanon.

My sister and I were really intrigued by the digs especially since we had been to the Turkish/northern part of Cyprus back in 1993. We even saw a photo of a cathedral that had been converted into a mosque that we visited in the port city of Famagusta, where I almost got hit by a car since the Cypriots (Turks and Greeks alike) drive 'The British Way,' which is quite challenging for pedestrians!

A funny moment happened when I was looking at a female nude statue and a guard yelled. I thought it was Orwellian mind-reading at its best, but the culprit he was after turned out to be a Japanese tourist who was sneakingly taking a photograph of a bronze statue behind me.

This concludes my special series on our adventures and misadventures during our week in Washington, DC, which took place between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

There are more entries about the trip on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Just for the record, my brother-in-law and my sister are not named Sven and Eva Thomasson, nor do they reside in Goteborg, Sweden. This was meant to be a bit of an in-joke between my sister and I, but when my mother heard about my little prank, she pretty much threatened to sell the family cat on Craig's List (that is a joke too!).

Things We Learned on Twitter Very Early This A.M.

For those who have been keeping track of our entry over the years, you may recall that we have periodically blogged about the beloved late sixties children's tv show "H.R. Puff N Stuff" (pictured here) which through some research on our part has revealed to be a show that was allegedly about the wonder of smoking pot!

This leads to our story of the story which stems from the seaside village of Paphos, Cyprus, in the southwestern Greek portion of the island nation which has been politically divided since war broke out between Turkey and Greece over the conflicting ethnic groups' residential status in 1974.

(It should be pointed out perhaps for the 105th time that I am a Turkish-American, but if you read below, you'll see this entry has nothing to do with ethnic politics------we promise!)

According to an early morning tweet stating: 'Teenage boy arrested for cannibis in Cyprus' from "The Cyprus Mail," which I saw at 4:30 a.m., American east coast time as I was battling insomnia, an 18-year-old male from Paphos was arrested by Cypriot police and charged with possesion and use of drugs with intent to pass the proverbial bong (not the way they actually worded it!) to a third person.

If convicted, the youth, who was not identified by name, could face a LIFE sentence?! And, I thought my father's country wasn't exactly progressive when it came to marijuana!

On a more serious note, I was very saddened to hear about the Israeli commando raid of the Turkish ship The Marmara which was carrying relief supplies to Palestinians. I will keep my political perspective out of this matter on this blog, but all of us in the Turkish-American are thinking about the nine people on the vessel, including four Turkish nationals, who needlessly lost their lives on Monday.

And, on a less serious note, The Seven's Turkish Grill located on 72nd Street in New York has just posted lessons on Youtube on how to fix the fabled Iskender Kebab dish that is the pride of Bursa, Turkey. Oh, we should mention that you can follow them on Twitter---http://twitter.com/7Turkishgrill for more details.

Lastly, this morning was not a good one for the Louisville Bats, a minor league baseball team from Louisville, Ky.

According to their Twitter site http://twitter.com/LouisvilleBats, the team fell to the Columbus Clippers by a 10-7 margine in a road game. All of this proves that baseball games (this particular game started at 10:35 a.m.) should simply never be played before noon!