20-Word Fiction: The Last Song on the Radio

Greetings to our blog readers in Argentina, Belgium and Canada.....

We actually listened to the song "Walk of Life," a hit single from Dire Straits from their album "Brothers in Arms" (1985) on Q-99.1-FM in Roanoke, Va., right before writing this piece. Our apologies to Mark Knopfler, the lead singer and guitarist of Dire Straits, though since we aren't using any lyrics from the song, we presume he can't sue us!:

"Nelson was listening to Dire Straits' song 'Walk of Life' when the train hit his car. His obit will run tomorrow."

Actually, this is 21 words, but this isn't "The New Yorker"!!!!

http://www.newyorker.com

Ten Songs on Steve (106.1-Roanoke,Va): In Prime Time

We took notes last night from during the 8:00-9:00 p.m. hour last night and we jotted down the first ten songs played by Steve-FM (106.1-Roanoke, Va.) which is a variety mix radio station, which means you can hear a song from Peter Gabriel and then Taylor Swift?!!!

Our images above are in reference to 1) Song #9, which is Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" featured Christie Brinkley (pict. top), Joel's love interest at the time, in the music video; 2) Judy Garland and "The Wizard of Oz" film still is in homage to Song #1; and 3) the Kangaroos are, of course, in reference to Song #2:

1. Home Sweet Home. Motley Crue. 1985.

2. Down Under. Men at Work. 1981.

3. Animals. Maroon 5. 2014

4. Rag Doll. Aerosmith. 1987

5. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?. Rod Stewart. 1978.

6. Hole Hearted. Extreme. 1990.

7. Talking in Your Sleep. The Romantics. 1984.

8. Who Are You?. The Who. 1978.

9. Uptown Girl. Billy Joel. 1983.

10. Dark Horse. Katy Perry. 2014.

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

To see which ten songs we heard on Simon-FM (98.7-Greensboro, NC, another multi-mix format station), go to http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

This marks our 1,750th blog entry!

Sunday Comics Survey from Feb. 8th Roanoke Times: Pastis Goes for the Punt

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

And, our deepest condolences to the friends and families of the three Syrian Muslim college students who killed in their Chapel Hill, NC, apartment yesterday.

On a lighter note, here are our ten favorite comic strips from the most recent edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper of Roanoke, Va.

For starters, "Pearls Before Swine," a Stephan Pastis comic strip, makes fun of Norwegian lemmings one of whom goes for a pass thrown by another lemming and well, you can guess the rest. One of the surviving lemming says (SPOILER ALERT) that he will not be going to Disneyland. Our top image of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who won his fourth Super Bowl, is used for the strip, though he is not mentioned in 'Pearls.'

Third place goes to the single-panel gem "Speed Bump" which has a male angel being presumably nagged by his wife about reading a novel instead of going to bed. For this, we chose the late Daniel Foster Wallace novel "Infinite Jest," (pict. center) which is over 1,000 pages long! Perhaps, an inmate at Red Onion Prison in southwest Virginia is reading the novel. If so, they may actually finish it. A literary major at Brown University in Rhode Island, conversely, may not get to the end!

And, fifth place goes to "Agnes" who is questioning her teacher about the overload of homework (bottom image: an algebra calculator).

Here is our survey:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Doonesbury

3) Speed Bump

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Agnes

6) Garfield

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Zits

10) For Better or For Worse

For last week's "Roanoke Times" comics survey, go to our sister blog http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Last Ten Songs We Heard on Steve-FM in Roanoke, Va. (on Jan.9th from 2:00-3:00 p.m.)

Here are the last ten songs we heard on 1061. Steve-FM (Roanoke, Va.) on Friday, Jan. 9th from 2:00-3:00 p.m.

The images are of 1) Billy Idol 2) an Australian kangaroo (for "Down Under") and Jack Nicholson from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (for "Let's Go Crazy)..........

1. Bang, Bang by Jessie J. 2014

2. Eyes without a Face. Billy Idol. 1984/1999*

3. Breakdown. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 1976,

4. Down Under. Men at Work. 1981.

5. What a Girl Wants. Christina Aguilera. 1999.

6. If You Leave. OMD. 1986.

7. Rockin' Me. Steve Miller Band. 1976.

8. You Make My Dreams. Hall and Oates. 1981.

9. Home. Daughtry. 2007.

10. Let's Go Crazy. Prince and the Revolution. 1984

*-Digitally remastered in that year

http://www.1061stevefm.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.billyidol.net

Weather in the Mid-Atlantic: Snow, Ice and Rain

With this snowy image of the Humpback Covered Bridge in Covington, Va., a town that is one hour northwest of Roanoke, which is seeing inclement weather tonight, we present a look at the weather in this region. We are looking at areas from southern Pennsylvania to northern South Carolina.
The city of Frederick, Maryland, reportedly had three inches of snow today:

1. Covington, Va. 21 Light Snow

2. Frederick, Md. 25 Ice Pellets

3. Winston-Salem, NC 33 Overcast

4. Fort Mill, SC 31 Overcast

5. Shippenburg, Pa. 26. Light Rain

6. Martinsburg, W.Va 25 Overcast

7. Dover, Delaware, 32, Light Freezing Rain

8. Charlottesville, Va. 29 Overcast

9. High Point, NC 33 Light Drizzle

10. Marion, Va 30 Overcast

11. Arlington, Va. 29 Light Freezing Rain

12. Asheville, NC 35 Light Rain

http://www.weather.com

http://www.covington.va.us/

http://www.wdbj7.com/weather (Roanoke)

http://www.wxii12.com/weather (Winston-Salem)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/ (Washington, DC metro area)

DC Week (2 of 8): Tweets About the Nation's Capital and the Government Shutdown

With images of 1) Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah); 2) Mabry Mill, near Roanoke, Va., which has been closed due to the federal government shutdown; and 3) Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), we begin our first of two entries in this eight-entry series geared towards Washington, D.C.

"The Roanoke Times" reported that Mabry Mill, which is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, could be reopen. Today, President Barack Obama said that states could re-open national parks with state funds. As a result, The Statue of Liberty, The Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore are likely to re-open.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) is considered to be the most conservative Democrat in the House, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is considered to be the most progressive Republican in the Senate. Both are reportedly working diligently to find the proverbial common ground to restart the federal government, which is now in Day 10 of a shutdown.

Here are the tweets:

1) Cong. Jim Matheson: "Glad Utah National Parks are open. Too bad we can't vote on a clean CR (Continuing Resolution) to operate rest of the government."

2) National Review (a conservative magazine): "Barack Obama can close our parks, but he's never block American enterprise."

3) The Hill: "Chris Christie (New Jersey's Republican governor): If I was in the Senate right now, I'd kill myself."

4) Embassy of Greece: "The Embassy and Consulate will be closed on Monday. Happy #ColumbusDay weekend."

5) Politico: "New York is donating $369,300 to have park service employees reopen the Statue of Liberty."

6) Bruce Bartlett (a Republican political aide): "David Frum: Will the Republican Moderates Please Stand Up."

http://matheson.house.gov/

http://www.roanoke.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Coming Soon to This Blog Near You (No Promises): What You Might Expect in August

Greetings to our blog readers in Estonia, Ghana and Italy or wherever you might be today. It's now mid-noon in New York and Atlanta, 5:30 p.m. in London and 7:30 p.m. in Ankara, Turkey. If we are wrong about any of this, we will blame Javier the Intern and Zappa the Family Cat.

Today's image is of the early year American comic actor W.C. Fields (1880-1946), who once professed that anyone who hates children and puppies couldn't be all bad. Of course, he said this a full seven decades before Dick Cheney became vice president (forgive the political humuor-we prefer the Brit spelling).

Fields is buried in Glendale, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb, which is home to a very large Armenian-American population. Ironically, we know this because the person blogging this info is a Turkish-American.

If you need to explain the irony, I suggest you go to the Facebook pages for the Turkish and Armenian embassies respectively.

Here are three items we hope to post within the next few days, months or perhaps years:

1) Ten More Things To Do in Roanoke, Va: Perhaps we may even discuss some of the more unique attractions in the southwest Virginia area, including a pet cemetery in nearby Cloverdale and Mini-Graceland as well as some of the nifty places to hang out, such as Alejandro's Mexican Grill in downtown Roanoke.

2)  Ten Things to Do in Greensboro, NC: Though I am no longer a resident of North Carolina, the state holds a dear place in my heart for me. The Green Bean Coffee Shop in downtown Greensboro and the a/perture Cinema in nearby Winston-Salem, which is showing the indy dramedy "The Way, Way Back" along with two other films, would be among the places we would plan to profile.

3) Virtual Postcards: We are hoping to resume the series, which was fairly popular, in some way, shape or form.


Stay tuned.....

DULY NOTED: The links below will actually be for the Armenian Consulate in Glendale, Calif., rather than the embassy in Washington, D.C. Conversely, turkey.org is a web site for information on Turkey, and is not the web site for the Turkish embassy either (see links below).

For those wondering who the ambassadors are (thanks to Google), we can say that it Tatoul Markarian who is Armenia's ambassador to America. His counterpart is Namik Tan for Turkey.

Somehow, we don't expect either of them to be having lunch at Ray's Hell Burgers in Arlington, Va. (a D.C. suburb) any time soon!

http://www.aperturecinema.com

http://www.alejandrosmexicangrill.com

http://www.wcfields.com

http://www.turkey.org

http://www.armenianconsulate.org

Random Ten List of Places to Go in Roanoke, Virginia:

Our good friend Jason, well we have many friends named Jason as well as a cousin named Jason (perhaps there are even people in Pakistan named Jason), but I am referring to Jason Turner who has an outstanding web site called 'Roanoke Doesn't Suck.'

It is designed to help local folks and tourists know what is going on in Roanoke. While his blog is more specific to Roanoke, I am going to stray over some city and county lines, and include things which are in relative proximity to Roanoke, such as the Statue of Liberty (ok, New York is an eleven-hour Greyhound bus drive).

But, we will include places in Blacksburg, Floyd and Salem.

Of course, this means we will have to inadvertently snub some places we like in Roanoke itself, including Kirk Avenue Music Hall, the Village Grill and Happy's Flea Market as well as Showtimers Theatre, which is now staging the musical-comedy "Once Upon a Mattress."

However, we think this list will help anyone looking for the proverbial thing to do rather than sit at Starbucks and read "Infinite Jest" (the late Daniel Foster Wallace's novel is some 1,100 pages long):

1) A Little Bit Hippy: An always unique place inside Towers Shopping Mall which offers cool tye-dye t-shirts and organic soap..........yes, they are the reason why we have '60 activist Wavy Gravy pictured.

2) The Bazaar:  This shop across from Towers offers records (we can't promise that you will find David Bowie's 'Let's Dance' there, but you just might), vintage clothing and live music.

3) The Taubman Art Museum

4) Mill Moutain Zoo

5) CUPs: This Grandin village coffee shop features a very large collection of bobble-head dolls. They also have Trivia Night on Tuesdays (yes, they are the reason for the image of coffee beans which we found via Turkish Wikipedia).

6) The Lyric Theatre (Blacksburg): A great place to see movies in Blacksburg; the critically-acclaimed film "Before Midnight" starts there on Friday.

7) Fork in the Alley: A great place to eat outdoors in the Crystal Springs neighborhood.

8) Third Street Coffeehouse: This little gem-of-a-palce is only open on Friday nights and we had a hard time finding it (use Mapquest or ask a friend), but there is some great local music there.

9) Star-Lite Drive-In (Christiansburg): Along with Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, this is the last remaining drive-in within driving distance from Roanoke.

10) The Salem Museum


http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.showtimers.org

http://www.alittlebithippy.com

http://www.taubmanmuseum.org

http://www.cupscoffeeandtea.com

http://www.forkinthealley.com

http://www.salemmuseum.org

There's more on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," regarding Things To Do in Roanoke: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Friday Night Tweets: Terror Suspect and Major Storms

With so much chaos going on in Boston and the fact that a major rain storm struck our mid-Atlantic part of the country from Greensboro, NC, to Philadelphia, which got particularly nasty in Washington, DC, Baltimore and Annapolis (Maryland), we were more or less stuck inside.

We should point that image one, a recreational boat in Smith Mountain Lake, Va., (near Roanoke) was used because the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a son of Chechnyan immigrants, was hiding inside one such boat. The second image is because it is raining in Baltimore, where major league baseball's Baltimore Orioles play. And, the third image is for the four victims of the bombing and police shoot-out. Boston University student Lingzi Lu (her name has also been spelled Lu Lingzi) was among the three killed in Monday's blast.

So, here is a look at some of the more interesting tweets we saw tonight as a real-life episode of "The Fugitive" unfolded before our very eyes. Some tweets have been reworded to avoid confusion:

1) Boston Globe News @GlobeMetro: BREAKING NEWS: Police have taken the cover off the boat; the man believed to be the Marathon bombing suspect is inside.

2) Capital Weather Gang @capitalweather: "Wow, a gust of 70 mph clocked near Charles Co., MD, as storms roared thru.

3) Will Wheaton @Wilw: New York Post reporting, CNN confirming: D.B. Cooper is in the boat (not to point out the obvious, but this is a joke)

4) Boston College @BostonCollege: "Also thanks to all students and parents who tweeted appreciation. It did not go unnoticed."

5) Politico @politico: "Injured man (Jeff Bauman) who helped ID Boston suspects is uninsured."

6) Jake Updegraff @OnAirJake: "Poor Dzhokar Tsarnaev, apparently he never watched Disney movies or any movies at all. The bad guy always loses."

7) The Boston Globe @BostonGlobe: "BREAKING NEWS: Police appear to be preparing a robot with a camera to approach the boat."

8) Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof: "And our awareness of geography is such that Czech Republic has to explain that it's not Chechnya." (Chechnya is a part of Russia)

9) Lucas McNelly @lmnelly: "This is generally the part of the story where I start wondering if I could have gotten away."

10) The Fix @TheFix ("Washington Post" political reporter Chris Cillizza): "Serious Q: More reporters or more cops on the scene in Watertown?"

Comic Strip Dialogue_ In the Mending Pile

 

Wow! What-a-nightmare we've had trying to get this blog entry up; it was initially supposed to be posted by midnight, New York Time, which was 16.5 hours ago.

 

At any rate, here are some samples of actual dialogue from various comic strips, most of them are Sunday strips and about of them are from yesterday's edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. As much as we love doing this series, we will only be doing it until the end of the year. As it is time-consuming and there is the chance that Hank Ketcham of "Dennis the Menace" fame will see this blog entry and not be amused (this is actually a joke, Ketcham has been dead for a full decade, but the comic strip was still in his name up until just a few years ago.)

 

#- Strips which are not carried by "The Roanoke Times."

 

%- Strip dialogue that was used from a daily strip

 

*- Strips we have never quoted before

 

 

 

 

 

1) "She usually just leaves stuff there till we've grown out of them!!!" (from "For Better or For Worse," yes, it is the reason why we have a children's Smurfs t-shirt. This is also the strip which lead to us calling this entry "The Mending Pile," since this retro term was used in that same strip)

 

 

2) "Your homework better be finished" (from "Zits")

 

3)  "Can we take a rain check? I've got some thinking to do." (from "Funky Winkerbean," our personal favorie line of the day).

 

4) "Go back to your cubicle and don't leave until five o'clock."

 

5) "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"? What's that?" (from "Sally Forth")

 

6) "I must've missed that?" (from "Blondie," said by Santa Claus)

 

7) "Come to think of it, you're kind of a copy cat" (from "Hi and Lois")

 

8) "Who robbed my coffee shop?" (from "Jump Start")

 

9) "See that girl across he room? She just whispered she wants me..." (from "Rhymes with Orange#%)

 

10) "Think now's a good time to have some friends over?" (from "The Pajama Dairies" *#)

 

11) "Well, you know I've always wanted to party like a rock star." (from "Mother Goose and Grimm.") #

 

12) "Well I think we have a good start and a lot to think about." (from "Prickly City") #%

 

13) "I did it! A Thousand! Somebody take my picture! Unbelievable!" (from "Animal Crackers") *#

 

14) "But it don't make no sense" (from "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith") *#

 

15) "Wait a minute....was so and so elected" (from "Zippy the Pinhead.") *#

 

http://www.dilbert.com

 

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com

 

http://www.pajamadiaries.com

 

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

 

 

http://www.roanoke.com

 

Virtual Postcard from Ohio_ Jungle Jim's

Today, we are contiuning with our series of the eight states that we have been to with a Virtual Postcard from Ohio from Roanoke, Va., to Denver, Colo., with an image of Ohio even though we actually just missed going through there.

This photo is of Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, Ohio, near Cincinati.

The place is a theme park of food that was established in 1971; according to Wikipedia this place has the largest collection of wine in the United States! http://www.roadsideamerica.com

http://www.junglejims.com

Virtual Postcard from Kentucky-Mammoth Cave

We are featuring a Virtual Postcard from Kentucky (we featured another VP from the Bluegrass State last November) with an image of the world-famous Mammoth Cave National Park,which is 87 miles away from its nearest airport in Owensboro, Ky.

Kentucky is one of the eight states we are featuring in regards to our rather lengthy Thanksgiving road trip (which concluded yesterday, but we go back on Tues.) was from Roanoke, Virginia, to Denver, Colorado.

Among the highlights of the day was a discussion about food dishes which are actually made from the super-sweet Captain Crunch cereal which all of us who grew up in the '70s are well-acquainted with; these dishes include Captain Crunch fried chicken and Captain Crunch french toast. Somehow, I suspect that Dr. Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz), a fellow Turkish-American who has reached celebrity status as a good health advocate, would not recommend either of those platters.

It was also fun to watch the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade from New York on tv this morning, among the highlights were seeing Kermit the Frog, Sonic the Hedgehog and McKayla Maroney, the American Olympic gymnast who has now become a meme for her famous disappointed facial squint.

And, we are happy to report that our good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, deep-fried a turkey for the tenth year in a row without doing bodily harm to himself. That is indeed something to be thankful for!http://www.kentuckytourism.com

http://www.theknightshift.blogspot.com

http://www.mckaylamaroney.com

Virtual Postcard from West Virginia_ The State Capitol

We took a monumental Thanksgiving week drive from Roanoke, Va., to Denver, Colo., which took us through eight states. We will be posting various images of each state throughout 'the work week."

Today, we start off with West Virginia. On Sunday, the first day of the trip, we had the following unique expericences:

1) In Roanoke, Va., less than one mile into the trip we were pulled for going 38 MPH in a 25 MPH zone; the police officer was kind enough to let us off with a warning..

2) In Pembroke, Va., a hamlet in Giles County we ate a foot-long vegeterian sub at Subway, which marked the first meal of the trip.

3) Near Princeton, W.Va., we believe we saw the first road kill of the trip, which came in the form of a dead deer.

4) In Beckley, W.Va, we noticed several far right, pro-coal industry billboards which accused President Barack Obama of being a 'jobs killer;" this seems like a waste of fnds as West Virginia was not a swing state.

5) In Charleston, W.Va., we drove by the state capitol shown above.

Well, that is all for today; we're still a bit fatigued, but we can send you a link to today's "Blondie" comic srip: http://www.blondie.com

http://www.wvtourism.com
http://www.visitwv.com

Sunday Comics Dialogue- Augh; Turkey Day Is Coming

Greetings. It's 9:00 p.m. in Hartford, Conn., Bethesda, Md., and in Winston-Salem, NC, where a city council meeting is making place at city hall (where else?); it's 8:00 p.m. in Chicago and St.Louis, 7:00 p.m. in Boulder, Colo., and 6:00 p.m. in Los Angeles.........whereever you are, you're with the BBC........hmm, it sounds so much cooler when they say that on the BBC.

Today, we are taking comic strip dialogue from the Sunday, Nov. 18th edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va., which alas does not feature hip comic strips like "Rhymes with Orange" or "The Knight Life" (shout out to Keith Knight!) but it does still have "Funky Winkerbean."

Let's roll:

1) "Do you want the pig, the kitten, or the panda" (from "Baby Blues")

2) "How come you wanted to come to the bookstore, goat?" (from "Pearls Before Swine")

3) "Are you sure this a cool look?" (from "Agnes")

4) "I wanna open the door myself, mom." (from "For Better or For Worse")

5) "I know, my mom tends to hover during midterms" (from "Zits")

6) "Anyway, that's why I called because I knew you'd be interested and I just wanted to tell you about these things...." (from "Peanuts")

7) "But, if we're having Thanksgiving dinner at your mom's, why are you doing all the cooking" (from "Sally Forth")

8) "My wife is out of town visiting her sister" (from "Dilbert")

9) "This month, he's talking and like he's black" (from "Jump Start")

10) "So, if you can't shout fire in a crowded theater...." (from "Funky Winkerbean")

11) "And no more tv until spelling improves" (from "Family Circus")

12) "But, daddy, I'm on Facebook," (from "Blondie")
http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.blondie.com

Election Day by the #s (3 of 4)_ How Obama Won in Virginia

The image above is of Natural Bridge, which is located near Lexington, Va. Though his opponent Mitt Romney fared better in the Shenandoah Valley, with the exception of college towns like Harrisonburg, Obama dominated in the Washington, DC-suburbs, and Richmond. Obama also won in the cities of Roanoke, Danville and Norfolk.


Here is a look at the numbers for my home state:

22,179_ Votes that Obama got in the City of Roanoke, my hometown

14,116- Votes for Romney in Roanoke

19,753- Votes for Romney in Lynchburg, Va., home of Liberty University

15,905- Votes for Obama in Lynchburg, a jurisdiction he won in 2008

60.6-Percentage for Obama in Danville

38.6-Percentage for Romney in Danville

52.2- Percentage for Romney in Halifax County (South Boston)

46.6- Percentage for Obama in Halifax County

260,835- Votes Obama got in Fairfax County

173, 286- Votes Romney got in Fairfax County

81.2-Percentage Cong. Bobby Scott (D-Va) got in his reelection bid

58. 8-Percentage Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) got in his reelection bid

907- Number of votes Romney got in Rich County, Utah

83- Number of votes Obama got in Rich County, Utah

Mom is Having a Major Downsizing Sale

For those of living in the Roanoke, Va-area or close enough to it, my mom is having a downsizing sale in Salem, Va., this weekend. Perhaps, one might find the very item that he or she saw on " The Antiques Roadshow" which airs on Blue Ridge Public Television in the Roanoke-area.

The dates for the sale are as follows: Fri., Nov. 2 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sat., Nov. 3 from 8:00 until 5:00 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 4th from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. These are the correct times. There are ads for this same sale in the Friday edition of "The Roanoke Times" which are not correct. We are also promoting the sale on Craigslist with the corrections still pending.

The address of the estate sale is 2265 Mt. Regis Drive Salem, Va. 24153 http://www.mapquest.com

The sale will feature the following items:

Guns, gun cabinet, Christmas outdoor displays, two wicker chairs, sofa marble top table, Elizabeth Arden pottery (North Carolina), chicken on nest collection, Barbie dolls, crystal glassware, clock and lamps.

There will be lots of selections available at a reasonable price.

The entry numbers for the Friday indoor sale will begin at 6:30 a.m. in the back of the house.

For further details, one may call my cell phone at (540) 293-9284 or email me at tango74@aol.com

http://www.antiquesofvirginia.com

http://www.visitsalemva.com

http://www.yardsalesearch.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.antiquesclockpriceguide.com

http://www.antiqueguns.com

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/

http://www.blueridgepbs.org

Tweets of the Day_ Politcs, Weather and Halloween Stuff

Earlier today, I overheard the following at a pancake house in the Roanoke, Va., metro area: "I got these great Swedish candies for Halloween, there are called Toberlone." Uhmm...just one problem, that's a Swiss candy! Those, I must profess, I didn't know how to spell the name of the Swiss chocolate candy until I googled it just now.

And, Happy Anniversary to us! This blog was launched four years ago today on Oct. 31st, 2008.

With that, let's look at the afternoon tweets:

1) (@occupywallst) Occupy Wall Street: "#OWS (Occupy Wall Street) rapid response to #Sandy shows importance of building network for mutual support. When government falls short, people stand tall."

2) @WSJ (Wall Street Journal): "Halloween is on hold for many kids in #Sandy's path as municipalities cancel  trick-or-treating."

3) @SheHasWorth (She Has Worth, a women's publication in California): "Happy Halloween! And remember you can still dress up cute without giving away your 'treats.'" (hmmm....yeah, we think there is a double-meaning there too).

4) @LOLGOP (LOL GOP, a liberal satirist): "You notice that for Halloween, I'm dressed up as a sluty elephant."

5) @TeaPartyCat (Top Conservative Cat, another liberal satirist): "The real victims of Hurricane Sandy are the pundits desperate for polling which has been postponed."

6) @Keswick_theatre (Keswick Theatre is a venue in Philadelphia): "Happy Halloween! What are you dressing up as this year? Anything music related?"

7) @RockyMtnMike (Rocky Mountain Mike, a radio personality in Vail, Colo.): "Happy Halloween! Mitt Romney Vampire Hunter."

8) @nprnews (NPR News): "If Dick Cheney's dogs can dress up for Halloween, so can you."

Break from Politics-Top 10 Things Under My Kitchen Sink

There seem to few things as annoying as product commercials, but campaign ads seem to take the cake and if you are in a swing state and have to watch WSOC-TV (Channel 9, Charlotte, NC), WDBJ-TV
(Channel 7 Roanoke, Va.) or WHOV-TV (Channel 13, Des Moines, Iowa), you will stuck with them for the next 11 days, so we thought we'd offer a break with a random top ten list of things in under my kitchen sink.

Here they are:

1) Draino toliet cleaner

2) Garfield cat bowls

3) Comet Bathroom Cleaner

4) recyclable shopping bags

5) old silverware

6) Mop N Glo

7) plates

8) Armor All car cleaner

9) tissue boxes

10) garbage bags

http://www.whotv.com

http://www.wsoctv.com

http://www.wdbj7.com

http://www.garfieldminusgarfield.net

Chuck vs. Cuneyt (4 of 6)_ The Octagon

Today, we continue our quiz series with trivia questions regarding American action movie star of yesteryear Chuck Norris, 72 and his Turkish counterpart matinee idol Cuneyt Arkin, 75. For obvious reasons, neither men are kicking butt on screen these days.

For this week's question, we ask which actor won the Best Oscar in 1980 when the Norris vehicle "The Octagon," which I remember was being shown at the Towers Theatre in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., which is alas a shoe store today.

Was the winner?"

A) Robert Deniro

B) Dustin Hoffman

C) John Hurt

D) Jack Nicholson

E) Donald Sutherland


The answer to last week's question was C) George C. Scott

And, good morning to those of you in Dubai where we believe it's now 10:00 a.m., Monday morning.

SIDEBAR: Here are the correct answers to our "Dexter" series:

1) D

2) A

3) C

4) B

http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

Today is Our 7th Anniversary of Blogging

Today, we celebrate the 7th anniversary of our blogging venture, which began as something like weekly lists of what we were buying at the grocery store, to what is now, more or less the exact same thing.

For this special anniversary blog entry, we thought we'd use an entire entry with dialogue from the Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, comic book section of "The Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va.  Let's begin:

 1) "I'm ugly, that's all"

2) "School is a microcosm of society ..... a puzzle of where everyone is a piece trying to see where they fit in."

3) "Some things just dare to be tried, dad."

4) "Who can answer how much is nine minus seven?"

5) "I've decided that I'm a people person."

6) "Did you poke me on Facebook?"

7) "Where is he? What's going on?"

8) "Has anyone seen a small brown purse:

9) "Why do I always leave it to Sunday night to start panicking about when I should do my homework?"

10) "Your nose piercings look ridicilous."

11) "I'll get right on it, boss."

12) "The weekend is almost over."

(From "For Better or Worse, Agnes, Zits, Mutts, Baby Blues, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Dilbert, Sally Forth and Speed Bump, Blondie and "Hi and Lois;" the image are of Linda Cardellini from the 1999 tv show "Freaks and Geeks, four cards with sevens, and a water cooler, since one was featured in the "Blondie" strip).

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com