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

Today We Mark Our 8th Year of Blogging

It was a very dark and stormy night (apologies to the late Charles Schultz, the creator of "Peanuts"), on that fateful day on Sept. 21, 2005.

Hmmm.....this reminds me.........one of my favorite comic strips is "Sherman's Lagoon" which has underwater creatures, such as sharks, sea turtles and crabs as its main characters; I'm not sure if I've seen an octopus yet (?!)

When we began blogging, there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, no Miley Cyrus, no Sarah Palin, no "Breaking Bad," no "Mad Men" and no "Parks and Recreation." The oxy-moronic good Samaritan serial killer series "Dexter," which concludes tomorrow night, was on the air but it was a very new show at the time. 

One of our earliest entries on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which is our sister (please visit it, we need the hits!) was a mere shopping list!

I'm sure like all shopping lists I've ever written it included bananas.


Here's to the next eight years............

(We used an octopus for our image because it has eight tentacles; one can see live octopuses at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, or the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta).

http://www.peanuts.com

http://www.aqua.org

georgiaaquarium.org

Quote of the Day/Week-Gerald Ford

Today, we continue quoting the last eight American presidents with a quip from Gerald Ford (1913-2006) who was the 38th president and the one who lived in the longest. At the present time, the oldest living American president is George H.W. Bush with a Jimmy Carter (both born in 1924), who defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election, being a close second.

There has been quite a political shift in the South since Carter, who was from Plains, Georgia, won over Ford, who was from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his presidential library is located. In 1976, Carter won ever southern state except Virginia. All southern states had voted for George W. Bush in his two narrow elections, but in 2008, both Virginia and North Carolina voted for President Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain.

In pop culture, Ford was frequently parodied by "Saturday Night Live" actor Chevy Chase, who ironically became addicted to pain killers because of the prat falls he made while impersonating Ford.

Here is Ford's quote:

"I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio." http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.org

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention last week that the answer to our April 17th edition of "The Rabbit Ear Quiz" was A) Robert Vaughn; he hosted the initial pilot episode of "In Search of...." which was hosted by Leonard Nimoy for the rest of the documentary tv show's run.

NCAA Gymnastics Preview_ Vanessa Zamarripa (UCLA)

Since the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships are set to get underway on Friday in Gwinnett, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, we are going to profile four gymnasts from four teams which are expected to contend for a national championship.

We start with Vanessa Zamarripa, a junior from O'Fallon, Ill., who has been named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week, UCLA Athlete of the Week and PAC-12 Specialist of the Week during the 2012 season.

Zamarripa was named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week and UCLA Athlete of the Week for week of Feb. 20-26, thanks to her outstanding 39.625 all-around title in a win over Arizona State. Zamarripa won a second UCLA Athlete of the Week title later in the season after garnering a 39.575 to help UCLA win a PAC-12 title during the conference championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, edging out the home team Utah.

At two intervals in 2012, Zamarripa was named PAC-12 Specialist of the Week. She scored a perfect 10 on vault in win over Cal-Berkeley early in the season which paved the way for her first specialist honor. Zamarripa won the same honors in February for strong performances on vault and bars in win over Stanford.

Other Bruins' gymnasts that will be counted on at the championship meet will be a trio of Canadian gymnasts, including Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, a senior from Toronto who was the first Canadian gymnast to medal at a world championships. The other two Canadian gymnasts are Aisha Gerber and Ti Liu.

Another UCLA gymnast Samantha Peszek, a junior from Indianapolis, has also been named PAC-12 Gymnast of the Week this season.

The Bruins also won their regional meet in Fayetville, Ark., two weeks ago. Along with Georgia, Alabama and Utah, UCLA is one of just four schools to have won a collegiate women's gymnastics title.

It is interesting that UCLA has arguably the hardest women's gymnast name in the NCAA as we have frequently double-checked Vanessa Zamarripa's last name, and one of the easiest names to spell in Ti Liu as well.

Quote of the Day/Week- Bob Dole

Since today is Super Tuesday, which means that Republicans in Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio and seven other states will choose their candidate to represent the party in the general election against President Barack Obama, we thought we would quote a famous Republican.

This month, we will be quoting men who got their party nod, but failed to win the general election. Here, we will quote Bob Dole, 88, and on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," we will quip George McGovern, 89, who lost the 1972 election to Richard Nixon.

Dole represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1969-1996. Though he is most known for losing to Bill Clinton in the general election of 1996, Dole was also Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976. He is thus the rare individual who was on the ticket with an incumbent president who was not that president's vice president (Ford's veep was Nelson Rockefeller) and also one of the few people who was on two losing tickets. This is made more ironic because Dole is a Republican, and they have a 5-3 advantage over Democrats in terms of the presidency since 1968.

Dole was born in Russell, Kan. He went to the same high school as his Republican U.S. Senate colleague Arlen Specter, who stunned The Hill by becoming a Democrat as the GOP was moving more to the right.

Dole's wife Elizabeth Dole was also a U.S. Senator, as she represented north Carolina for one term. Bob Dole has also said publicly that he hopes Newt Gingrich will not become president of the United States.

Here is the quote of the day/week from Bob Dole, which helps confirm my view that the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and the U.S. Congress may have more in common than one might think:

"If you're hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate, you'll get that same kind of feeling there and you won't have to pay."

Quote of the Day- Henrik Ibsen

Today's Quote of the Day, not to be confused with our Quote of the Week (yes, they are basically the same thing) comes from the great Norwegian playwright of yesterday Henrik Ibsen; a production of one of his most-famous plays "A Doll's House" will be produced by Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, in October:

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."

On our other blog, we used this Ibsen quote last month, which seems appropriate given that the state of Georgia may very well execute Troy Davis, a man who may well be not guilty of murder by week's end, especially for those of us who are ardent, vocal opponents of the death penalty:

"A minority may be right, and a majority is always wrong."

It's Time to Go Home and Chill

Yes, it's only Monday and it's still one hour and forty minutes away from 5:00 p.m. here at the office in Smyrna, Georgia (not actually where I am at, but the same time zone), but I am very beat.

So, we leave you with this image of Ally Sheedy from the 1985 film "The Breakfast Club." Those of you wondering what has happened to her should check out the independent film "Life During Wartime" from the always brilliant dark comedy director Todd Solodnz. The film came out last year. It is great!

Alas, it didn't exactly beat out "Avatar" at the box office.

Quote from The Composers- Richard Wagner

Ah, yes. Those of us who live between Smyrna, Ga., and Floyd, Va., were snowed in over the last two days due to a fluke snowstom which really hammered Spartanburg, SC, of all places, as well as the Atlanta and Charlotte metro areas.

This gave me a chance to catch up on reading as I somehow read the late Swedish author Steig Larsson's "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (the second book in the series) in its entirety, and it is a 750-page novel! I also watched all 13 episodes of the third and last season of "Arrested Development" which was on the air from 2003-05 (loved the part where they went to Mexico!).

So, this brings us to our quote of the day from a late, great composer. And, we are going with the ever-controversial Richard Wagner (1818-1883) who was admired by none other than Adolf Hitler because der fuhrer felt that Wagner's music embodied his imperial view of Germany. Thus, there have been misgivings about conducting Wagner's music live in Israel.

Wagner is also known for "The Ring Cycle," a series of four operas based on Germanic mythology. "Gotterdammerung/Twilight of the Gods" is the final opera in the series, and Wagner also composed the famous opera "Parsifal" in 1882.

Here is his quip:

"Achievements, seldom credited to their source, are the result of unspeakable drudgery and worries."

Classical music fans in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem area might be interested to know that violinst Yura Lee will be giving two performances in the Gate City with The Greensboro Symphony on Jan. 20 and Jan. 22.

One can go to the sympphony's web site greensborosymphony.org for more information.

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Brady Bunch Lunchbox

Up until Christmas Day, we will be posting images from the items that were on my Christmas Wish List (satirical edition) that we posted last week.

We start with a Brady Bunch lunchbox. The sitcom series was popular circa 1974, and it has been in rerun heaven ever since.

For those of you who still prefer to buy gifts online (like your's truly), you might be able to find this or other novelty lunch boxes at Antiques and Beyond in Atlanta. If not, you can always buy your mom a quality lamp shade to make her happy!

Quote of the Week- Jimmy Carter

He is undoubtedly Rush Limbaugh's 'favorite president' (which is reason to love the guy) and tomorrow night former president Jimmy Carter will sign copies of his latest book at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC.

An interview with Carter will also air this weekend on C-Span 2 (Book TV), and an exhibit called "The Working White House" is currently on display at the Carter Museum and Library in Atlanta where Rosalynn Carter will hold her own book-signing in December.

Here is our quote from the president, one of only four living ex-presidents, who came in between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan:

"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America."

Another ex-president Bill Clinton speaks at the Greensboro Coliseum tomorrow night as part of Guilford College's Bryan Series. Clinton will reportedly head to Switzerland on Wednesday to start lobbying for an American bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

SIDEBAR: Speaking of Carter's home state of Georgia, we learned that there is a happening vegeteranian restaurant in the college town of Athens, Ga., called The Grit, which serves brunch from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Sea Turtles Go Free!

Since we had a hard-as-heck time downloading an image of an actual sea turtle, we had to settle for this stuffed toy instead. And, oh yes, for those of you wondering why I am posting this on Tueday instead of Wednesday, which is our designated Twitter day, it is because life is getting busy and hectic lately. Did I just say that?!

We did learn on Twitter today that the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is releasing several sea turtles into the waters of Georgia as they tweeted earlier this afternoon:

"We're all on site preparing to attach the satellite tags for our sea turtles so they're ready for our release in Jekyll Island tomorrow!"

The Georgia Shakespeare Company, also in Atlanta, tweeted that they were performing "King Lear" this week. That's the one with the unhappy ending, right? (Forgive the English lit humour).

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Zoo will have a concert with Joan Baez tomorrow night. (No, she's not the one who sang "Sweet Child of Mine" silly---she's a '60s folk singer).

Alas, some news today through Twitterville as many people, including Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct) who probably roots for both the New York Yankees and the Boston RedSox, expressed their condolences for the passing of Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner who is perhaps best known for his feuds with the late Billy Martin.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office tweeted that all flags at the City Plaza will be lowered for him, and the Bronx Zoo had this great message of sympathy:

"From one Bronx Zoo to another RIP George Steinbrenner. Our condolences to his friends, family, and fans."

PS_ Believe it or not, this is our 600th entry!

Cinema of the Week- Cine in Athens, Georgia

This week's cinema of the week is the trendy Cine in Athens, GA.

The art house is currently showing "Synedoche, New York," "Azur and Asmar" and "Ashes of Time Redux."

On New Year's Eve, there will be a dance party at the cinema with Krush Girl.

I had a chance to see the documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" at Cine earlier this year. If you are in Athens, I highly recommend taking in a film there.

http://www.athenscine.com

Political Confusion Quiz (Entry 3 of 21)

This scientific quiz is designed to help independent and politically confused people decide whether they are more of a Republican or a Democrat.

If you answered Dennis Kucinich and Zippy the Pinhead in our first two entries you are more likely to be a Democrat, but if you answered Virgil Goode and Mallard Filmore you might be a redneck.....I mean a Republican.

Here is question number three:

Today's question is: "Would you rather go deer or duck hunting in Georgia or take in a performance by folk dancers from the Republic of Georgia?"

Though we try not to be overly political here at The Daily Vampire_ ok, so I did endorse Jim Martin over Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) in my other blog_ I must profess to only trying the later!

Well, there was this one time I went deer hunting in Franklin County, Va., as a teenager in 1987. I only shot trees.