The Last 10 CDs We've Listened To: The Cars to Cold War Kids

Before we get this entry underway, we want to express our condolences to the families of Alison Parker of Martinsville, Va., and Adam Ward of Salem, Va. The reporter-video photographer team was murdered while on assignment for WDBJ-7 (CBS, Roanoke, Va.) in the Smith Mountain Lake town of Moneta, Va. Parker was 24; Ward was 27.

Roanoke is our hometown, and the area is still in mourning five days after the shooting incident which occurred at 6:45 a.m. The assailant lead state police on a wild chase which ended with his suicide en route from Front Royal, Va., to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, on I-66, some four hours north of the scene of the homicides.

Kimberly McBroom, the morning anchor when the shooting occurred,  stayed on-air to report breaking news updates throughout the day. Nadia Singh anchored the weekend morning show which Parker had anchored. And, former "Roanoke Times" journalist and book author Beth Macy wrote a heratfelt piece in "The New York Times" about the community's devastation.

Now, here is our top ten Last Ten CDs We've Listened To list, which includes some hip bands from this decade, such as Cold War Kids (we are using the center image of Misha the Bear in their honor), who will perform in Houston, Tex., Sept. 12th, and Fitz and the Tantrums who will perform Sept. 4th and 5th in Aspen, Colo.

The list also includes some older bands including INXS (pict. top), Talking Heads, and The Cars (we use the Jaguar car, pict. bottom, for them) as well as New Order!

Here is the list:

1. Fitz and The Tantrums, Pickin' Up the Pieces, 2010

2. INXS, Kick, 1987

3. Cold War Kids, Loyalty to Loyalty, 2008

4. Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues, 1983

5. The Cars, Candy O, 1979

6. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, 1974

7. Josh Ritter, The Animal Years, 2006

8. Weezer, Make Believe, 2005

9. Peter, Bjorn and John, Gimme Some, 2011

10. New Order, Republic, 1993

http://www.wdbj7.com

http://www.fitzandthetantrums.com

http://www.coldwarkids.com 

Ten Songs We Heard in One Hour on Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.): When in Rome.........

Before we list ten songs in a row that we heard on Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va.) from 11:00-midnihgt on Friday night, we thought we'd share with you that one of the performers listed Bon Jovi will be holding concerts in Singapore which is celebrating its 50th anniversary today on Sept. 20th. The band will also perform in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 3rd.

Here are the ten songs we heard during that hour:

1) "The Promise," When in Rome. 1987. (top image

2) Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You), Kelly Clarkson. 2012 (the image of the deep-fried Oreos is in homage to the song's title)

3) Refugee, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 1980 (3rd image, of refugees fleeing Afghanistan)

4) Brickhouse, The Commodores, 1977.

5) Push, Matchbox Twenty. 1997.

6) Wanted Dead or Alive, Bon Jovi. 1987.

7) West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys. 1984

8) Love Me Like You Do (from "50 Shades of Gray"), Ellie Goulding. 2015

9) Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel. 1986.

10) The Long Run, The Eagles. 1979

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.kellyclarkson.com

http://www.bonjovi.com

Ten Songs Heard on Steve-FM; Roanoke, Va: Today's Tom Sawyer

Here are ten songs we heard in consecutive order from the 7:00-8:00 p.m. hour on Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke,Va.); most of the songs were from the 1980s, including "Tom Sawyer" from Rush, which was NOT a top 40 hit and became popular mainly through MTV (back in the day), "If You Leave..." a hip new wave ballad from OMD for the Molly Ringwald film "Pretty in Pink," and "Need You Tonight" from INXS.

Also from the '80s, we heard Talking Heads' "And She Was," which was a cool pleasant surprise.

The image of the yesteryear boxing bout is in reference to Christina Aguilera's "Fighter," a 2003 hit that we were completely oblivious to when it came out!

Here is the list:

1. "Tom Sawyer," Rush. 1981.

2. "If You Leave....," OMD, 1989

3. "Long Run," The Eagles, 1979

4. "Need You Tonight," INXS, 1987

5. "Fighter," Christina Aguilera, 2003.

6. "And She Was," Talking Heads, 1985.

7. "The Joker," Steve Miller Band, 1973.

8. "Honey, I'm Good," Andy Grammer, 2014.

9. "Funky Cold Medina," Tone Loc, 1989.

10. "When I Come Around," Green Day. 1995.

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.rush.com

http://www.inxsonline.com

http://www.greenday.com

Things To Do List Satire: Calling the Baltimore Sun

It's a Sunday night here in Roanoke, Va., and that only means one thing: Listening to music from the '30s and '40s on our local NPR radio station (to the folks at WVTF, just kidding, we love what you do for us and I am actually listening to '30s and '40s music........even though Steely Dan and Supertramp are really my speed)......

Oh, about our last entry, yeah, that was an April Fool's Joke, but we did watch the Final 4 games on tv. And, we didn't tape them, so there was no avoiding the annoying Southwest Airlines ads.

So, since there is not too much going on tonight until "Mad Men" comes on, we thought we would do a satirical things to do list for this coming week:

1. Get the current issue of "Writer's Digest"

2. Actually write something, even a haiku.

3. Drive to Winchester, Va., to find the late country singer Patsy Cline's grave (pict. center)

4. Call "The Baltimore Sun" and ask them to send today's Sunday edition of their newspaper to my address even though I live six hours away from them (the Baltimore Orioles start their season tomorrow....we think)....

5. Mapquest directions to Portland, Maine, so you can see a Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team, even though Maine is pretty freaking far from Virginia.

6. Play Ms. Pac-Mac for 6.5 hours

7. Watch the entire first two seasons of the '70s BBC comedy series "Are You Being Served?" (pictured bottom......I think my friend Chris Knight is the only person my age who actually watches this show regularly....)

8. Laundry

9. Carwash

10. Dishes

http://wvtf.org/

http://www.writersdigest.com/

http://www.visitwinchesterva.com/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/

https://www.facebook.com/portlandseadogs

http://www.aybscentral.com/

http://www.theknightshift.com/

Last Ten Songs We Listened to on Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.): Thank You for NOT playing Aerosmith

Greetings to our readers in Canada, Malaysia and Azerbaijan.......


Here are the last ten songs we heard on Steve-FM (!06.1FM-Roanoke, Va.) from the hour of 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., local time, on Monday afternoon (Feb. 16th, 2015). Interestingly enough, the mixed genre radio station which plays a mixture of yesteryear songs along with new hits from the likes of Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars, only played one song from the 1990s, which was "Black or White" by the late Michael Jackson, which was released in 1991. Thankfully, none of these songs are from Aerosmith, a band we really love to hate:


1) Everybody Wants You. Billy Squier (pict. top) 1982.

2) Cruise. Florida Georgia Line. 2012

3) All I Need is a Miracle. Mike and the Mechanics. 1986/96

4) Don't Bring Me Down. ELO (pict. center) 1979.

5) Centerfold. The J. Geils Band (pict. bottom) 1981

6) Black or White. Michael Jackson. 1991

7) What I Like About You. The Romantics. 1980.

8) Sister Golden Hair. America. 1975

9) Cum on Feel the Noize. Quiet Riot. 1983.

10) Happy. Pharrell Williams. 2013.

http://www.1061stevefm.com/main.html

http://www.visitroanokeva.com/

http://www.billysquier.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

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.

Sunday Comics Grand Slam (2 of 4): Superman's Vacation

Superman taking a vacation. The new era of over-protective parenting. A beach trip with a family dog. Optimism in the workplace. A 36-year old family cat coming to terms with aging. A mother and young daughter waltzing past punk rockers on a sunny afternoon. A little league baseball manager using "The Bad News Bears" as inspiration for a pep talk.

These were among the Sunday comic strips from the June 15th issue of "The Roanoke Times," which serves Roanoke, Va, and southwest Virginia communities, including the college town of Blacksburg, the rural hamlet of Rocky Mount and the high school football is everything 'round here town of Buena Vista.

One of the stunners this week was that "Pearls Before Swine," almost always one of our favorites, surprisingly tanked, while "For Better or For Worse" and "Sally Forth," two comic strips which have never made our top ten were surprisingly good.

We are using the image of Turkish Superman (the late actor Tayfun Demir) for "Speed Bump," the strip about the Man of Steel taking a getaway, the image of "Happy Days" for the "Doonesbury" strip on over-parenting and a lavish Jimmy Choo handbag for "For Better or For Worse," the strip where a stroll downtown leads to an encounter with tweenagers who look like The Ramones.

Here are our top ten comic strips from "The Roanoke Times," for our list of top ten comic strips from "The Washington Post" (same date), go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

1. "Speed Bump"

2. "Doonesbury"

3. "Funky Winkerbean" (which dealt with the beach trip with the family dog)

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Get Fuzzy"

6. "Garfield"

7. "For Better or For Worse"

8. "Sally Forth"

9. "Zits"

10. "Agnes"

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Top 10 Sunday Comics from The Roanoke Times: Funky Winkerbean Delivers

Yesterday's touching "Funky Winkerbean" comic strip which featured a father having a dream about his son in the military who is in Afghanistan in the form of a vintage comic book cover with a young soldier on it, is our top Sunday comic strip of the week from "The Roanoke Times," a newspaper in Roanoke, Va.

Second place went to the very hip one panel comic strip "Speed Bump" where a couple visiting a bed and breakfast like the one in Vermont that was on Bob Newhart's sitcom "Newhart" in the 1980s who are being approached by bed bugs!!!

And, "Agnes" came in third as the title character goes to church with her grandmother and has a funny take on the service which does not share with her grandmother.

Here is our top ten, which includes a return of Mister Butts to "Doonesbury:"

1) Funky Winkerbean

2) Speed Bump

3) Agnes

4) Doonesbury

5) Zits

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Pearls Before Swine

8) Dilbert

9) Jump Start

10) Non Sequitir

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.dilbert.com

The Olympic Lists (5 of 10): Athletes from the European Union Nations

Yes, we are buried in snow here in Virginia as our folks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington DC, New York City..............in fact, we may get at least 24 inches........maybe even up to 32 inches by day's end! The Weather Channel is reporting 14 inches in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., at this hour.

But, for those of you not watching the live figure skating from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics with commentators Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski, we have a list of Olympic athletes from 10 of the 28 European Union countries:

1) Tina Maze (pictured) 30. Women's Slovenia. Women's Alpine Skiing. Has won gold and bronze.

2) Viktor Roanenkov. 20. Estonia. Men's Figure Skating.

3) Lelde Priedulena. 20. Latvia. Women's Skeleton.

4) Matthias Mayer. 23. Austria. Men's Alpine Skiing. Won gold.

5) Coline Mattel. 18. France. Women's Ski-jumping. Won bronze.

6) Zoltan Kelemen. 27. Romania. Men's Figure Skating.

7) Ireen Wust. 27. Netherlands. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. (She is the lesbian athlete who got a surprising hug from Russian premiere Vladamir Putin).

8) Felix Loch. 24. Germany. Men's Luge. Won gold.

9) Andrea Kesler. 24. Hungary. Women's Short-track Speed-skating.

10) Marcus Kruger. 23. Sweden. Men's Hockey. Plays for Chicago Blackhawks. His team bat the Czech Republic 

http://www.weather.com/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

The Olympics List (4 of 10): The Canadians

While those of us on the east coast of the United States are in the midst of yet another major snowstorm mess which will probably provide fodder for Bill O'Reilly to say Al Gore is wrong, there is no global warming, ya da ya da ya da..........we have noticed that there is seemingly no snow in Sochi!

With that in mind, here is our list of ten Canadian athletes who are assuredly more used to snow than students at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, one of the zip codes affected by today's storm:

1) Alex Bilodeau. Age 26. Home province: Quebec. Men's Free-style Skiing. Has won gold.

2) Dara Howell. Age 19. Home province: Ontario. Women's Free-style Skiing.  Has won gold.

3) Jesse Lumsden. Age 31. Home province: Alberta. Men's Bobsledding.

4) Heather Moyse. Age 35. Home province: Prince Edward Island. Women's Bobsledding.

5) Ryan Fry. Age 35. Home province: Ontario. Men's Curling. The team beat Russia 7-4  today.

6) Jennifer Jones. Age 39. Home province: Manitoba. Women's Curling. The team beat Great Britain 9-6 today.

7) Shea Weber. Age 28. Home province: British Columbia. Men's Hockey. Plays for Nashville Predators (pictured).

8) Laura Fortino. Age 23. Home province: Ontario. Women's Hockey. Plays for Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. The team beat the United States 3-2 today.

9) Charles Hamelin. Age 29. Home province: Quebec. Men's Short-track Speed-skating. Won gold.

10) Rosalind Groenewood. Age 24. Home province: Alberta. Free-style Skiing.

For our list of athletes from Scandinavian countries, go to our sister blog http://www.polticscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

SIDEBAR: NBC News is reporting that my beloved hometown of Roanoke, Va., will get 10-15 inches of snow during the major storm which will hit virtually the entire east coast. This is virtually the same amount of snow they are expecting in Rutland, Vermont! Major metro areas which have been affected include Atlanta, Columbia (SC), Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh (NC), Richmond (Va), Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

http://olympic.ca/

http://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/

http://olympics.cbc.ca/

http://www.nbcolympics.com/

http://www.winthrop.edu

"The Roanoke Times" Comic Strips Survey (....and, how you can win a free trip to Rome)

We are actually shoplifting the idea of a 'Free Trip to Rome' from WUNC-FM, an NPR station that is legitimately offering a free trip to Italy. Of course, we just used that in the header to grab your attention!

Here are our ten favorite comic strips from The Sunday, Feb. 2 edition of "The Roanoke Times," which included: 1) Two faculty members walking through a massive snowstorm in "Funky Winkerbean;" 2) A unique look at how to use email and social media in "Pearls Before Swine," which Dale Carnegie would perhaps not have recommended; 3) the staff deciding how to divide a pizza for the office in "Dilbert:"

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Funky Winkerbean

3. Doonesbury

4. Get Fuzzy

5. Dilbert

6. Zits

7. Garfield

8. Speed Bump

9. Agnes

10. Jump Start

http://www.wunc.org

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Polar Vortex Tweets: Homeless in DC; Pipes Burst in Atlanta

An NHL hockey game in Buffalo, NY, against the Carolina Hurricanes from Raleigh, NC, scheduled for tonight was postponed due to blizzard conditions. But, things were not much better south of the large city near the Canadian city. NPR reported that homeless were seeking shelter in Nashville, Tenn., as was the case in Washington, D.C.

Pipes burst in Atlanta, record-low or near record-laws were reported in Charlotte, NC, and Roanoke, Va., with the Charlotte record dating back to 1884!

Here is a look at ten tweets which tell the story:

1) Roanoke County (Va) Schools: Roanoke County Public Schools will open two (2) hours late tomorrow (Jan. 8th) due to continued cold conditions.

2) Mike Mac (a Weather Channel correspondent): You know it's bad when they cancel a Buffalo Sabres game and the police are called on snowmobiles.

3) Politics and Prose (indy bookstore in Washington, DC): DC readers if you see a person in need call 1-800-535-7252 for shelter hotline.

4) WSOC Weather (CBS tv station in Charlotte, NC): Today's low of 6 degrees breaks record set in 1884.

5) ABC_11_WTVD (tv station in Raleigh, NC): Duke Energy is asking customers to reduce their usage for the next 24 hours due to high demand for electricity because of the cold weather.

6) Capital Weather Gang (Washington, DC): Anchorage, AK, currently 19 degrees. Dulles is 10 degrees. Anchorage high is headed to the 30s.

7) Mother Jones: Temperatures ranked worst to best_ 5) Blistering heat; 4) Freezing cold; 3) A bit chilly; 4) a little warm; 5) just right.

8) Jonathan Chait (columnist for "New York" magazine): How many polar vortexes have we had before we decided to label it a 'polar vortex?' This can't be the first one.

9) National Weather Service (Blacksburg, Va, bureau): "Readings this morning were so cold, all climate sites set new record low temperatures!"

10) CBS Atlanta: "Marietta_ watch out for ice due to water main burst at Powder Springs Rd."

http://www.wunderground.com/

http://www.weather.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/

http://www.motherjones.com

Colder than Siberia: A Look at Temps Around America (plus some around the globe)

Martin Short is shown here as Jack Frost, one of the few good things about the Tim Allen Santa Claus movie sequel that this antagonist appeared in.

Today, the whole east coast of America from Buffalo to Jacksonville, Fla., felt like Jack Frost was nipping at their collective noses.

Here is a look at some of these temps; additional ones will be on our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


All temps are Fahrenheit:

1) Warsaw, Poland: 42

2) Tromso, Norway (near the Arctic Circle): 30

3) Huntsville, Alabama: 25

4) Anchorage, Alaska 25

5) Greensboro, NC: 24

6) Atlanta: 24

7) Danville, Va. 24

8) Asheville, NC: 20

9) Roanoke, Va. 19

10) Lynchburg, Va. 19

11) Washington, DC 18

12) Knoxville, Tenn. 17

13) Baltimore, Maryland 14

14) New York 10

15) Wytheville, Va. 10

16) Chicago 6

17) Buffalo, NY 5

18) Novosibirski, Russia (Siberia) 5

19) Fort Wayne, Ind. 1

20) Winnipeg, Canada -11

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/

http://www.weather.com

http://www.wunderground.com/

Arctic Cold Comic Strip Spectacular (1 of 3): Best Comics NOT in Our Local Newspapers

Even with the imported "Washington Post," there are lots of comic strips which are not in the Sunday editions of the two main newspapers which are commercially available here in Roanoke,Va., where "The Roanoke Times" is the local paper.

In fact, we looked at 42 additional comic strips ranging from the cutting edge "F-Minus," which is available in daily editions of the "News and Observer" in Raleigh, NC, (at last check), to the right wing comic strip "Mallard Fillmore," which ironically started at "The Daily Progress," which serves Charlottesville, Va., the most liberal city in our state.

Neither of those strips made the cut this week, but we will give both of them another look in February. 

Since we have artic weather, which makes one think it might be warmer in Bergen, Norway, today than it is here in southwest Virginia, we had the time to look at all these strips, and we placed a ranking system to put them in their right place in a remotely objective manner.

We have the odd numbered strips on this blog, and the even numbered ones on our sister blog (see link below).

The top  strips in this Top 10 list dealt with an evil computer in "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" (which is the reason why we have HAL from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey"), an ice storm in "Edge City" (see top image) and a great satire of the beloved American board game Monopoly in "Brevity"  (see bottom image).

The comic strip "Beeker" dealt with an ill-fated backyard hockey game, which probably helped win over Ottawa Senators fans in Canada (we could use some fans in Canada ourselves).

Here is the list:


1. "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" 8.4

2. "Bleeker" 8.0

3. Edge City 7.7

4. Brevity 7.6

5. Deflocked 7.5

6. Close to Home 7.4

7. The Duplex 7.3

8. Heart of the City 7.2

9. Zippy the Pinhead 7.2

10. Fort Knox 7.1

http://edisonleecomic.com/

http://bleekercomics.com/

http://edgecitycomics.com/

http://deflocked.com/

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

Top Ten Favorite Comic Strips from Sunday, Nov. 10th "Roanoke Times"_ Brutus Buckeye Wins the Day

Greeting to our friends in Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Dubai. For those of you live in places like Turku, Finland, or Perth, South Africa, you may be unaware that Sunday is the day when large color comi strips roll out across America.

While smaller newspapers like "The Roanoke Times" or "The Akron Beacon" (in Akron, Ohio) may not have as many comic strips as "The Denver Post" or "The Baltimore Sun," one never knows what gems might be found in any Sunday comic strips section.

This week, "Pearls Before Swine" had a hilarious take on Brutus Buckeye (pictured top) who is the mascot for Ohio State University, "Funky Winkerbean" featured a hilarious fake comic book character named Starbuck Jones (yeah, that's the reason for the image in the middle) and "Doonesbury" tarred and feathered the tea party, a fringe right-wing political movement in America which wants to turn America into what it once was: An Artic region covered with ice (we borrowed that from Steve Martin).

Here is our list of the top 10 comic strips from this week's Sunday "Roanoke Times":

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Funky Winkerbean

3) Doonesbury

4) Zits

5) Speed Bump

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Agnes

8) Dilbert

9) Hi and Lois

10) Blondie

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/#

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com