Sunday Best: Honest Abe Makes for Great Gag

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

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

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Zits

4) Doonesbury

5) Dilbert

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Garfield

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Agnes

10) Blondie

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

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.zevia.com

http://www.dartmouth.edu 

College Volleyball Notebook: It Was a Good Home Weekend for UNC and Virginia Tech

It was a busy weekend for the ACC in women's college volleyball play this weekend. Three teams from the conference, Duke, UNC and Florida State are nationally ranked while Virginia Tech has been a team on the rise.

UNC won two home games over Clemson and then Georgia Tech over the weekend. In Friday's win over Clemson, UNC had two outstanding performances from the Tarheels' two international players as Ece Taner, from Izmir, Turkey, had a career high 28 digs while her teammate Jovana Bjelica from Belgrade, Serbia, had 14 kills and 14 digs in the team's four-set win over the Tigers.

On Sunday, Paige Neuenfeldt (pictured top) posted 11 kills and four blocks in the three-set sweep over the Yellow Jackets.

This Saturday, UNC hosts Virginia Tech (pictured bottom), a team which also had a superb weekend which included a major upset over nationally-ranked Florida State.

On Friday, Lindsey Owens knocked down 15 kills in a four-set win over Miami (Fla). Then, on Saturday night, Victoria Hamsher and Samantha Gosling combined for 35 kills in the four-set win over the Seminoles. For her efforts, which included 13 kills versus the Hurricanes, Hamsher was also named ACC Player of the Week.

Here are weekend scores from the ACC:

Friday:

Duke 3 Maryland 0

Virginia Tech 3 Miami (Fla) 1

UNC 3 Clemson 1

Florida State 3 UVA 1

Pitt 3 Wake Forest 2

Saturday:

Virginia Tech 3 Florida State 1

Notre Dame 3 Boston College 2

UVA 3 Miami (Fla) 1

NC State 3 Georgia Tech 2

Sunday:

Maryland 3 Wake Forest 0

UNC 3 Georgia Tech 0

Syracuse 3 Boston College 2

Duke 3 Pitt 1

Bonus Road Trip (7 of 10) Clemson, SC, to the Orange Bowl

On Jan. 4, 2012, the Clemson Tigers, who for some reason had the Virginia Tech Hokies' number this season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (the Tigers were the only team to beat the Hokies; they did it twice) will go down to Miami, Fla., for the Orange Bowl.

The opposing team will be the West Virginia Mountaineers, a former rival of the Hokies, representing the Big East Conference.

The trip from the West Virginia University campus to Miami is an extensive 17 hours, 45 minute-drive, but the commute is slightly less painful from Clemson, SC.

To see the mileage between the two destinations, we chose the Friends Cafe, a hookah gathering place, in Clemson, and the Rice House of Kabob, a Middle Eastern eatery in Miami.

So, how long is the drive between Clemson, SC, and Miami, Fla?; is the answer:

A) 10 hours

B) 11 hours

C) 12 hours

D) 13 hours

E) 14 hours

SIDEBAR ONE: The NPR radio show "Way with Words" recently had a segment on very, very long titles, and we saw that this book was recently promoted on Book TV (
C-SPAN 2): "Throw Them All Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to Prison" by Peter Schweizer.

SIDEBAR TWO: Stephen King fans who have either read "Tommyknockers" or seen the TV moive version where a man gets killed by flying Coke cans from a vending machine will be happy to know that according to "Wired" magazine, the actual odds of dying from a vending machine accident are about 1 in 112 million.

Sports Desk- ACC Volleyball Action

It was a very busy weekend for the ACC, but while most people were paying to the football games in the conference, many women's volleyball games were played as well as all 12 current ACC members were in action.

I had the chance to see two of the games, including UNC's win over Wake Forest on the road (28-30, 29-27, 27-25, 25-22) and Virginia Tech's home win in a highly competitive five-match game over Clemson (25-22, 13-25, 14-25, 25-19, 15-11).

ACC volleyball got my attention late in the season last year when I noticed there was a Turkish player at Florida State. As a Turkish-American, I was aware that volleyball was a popular sport among female athletes in Turkey, but I didn't realize just how many volleyball players from Turkey were playing in the NCAA.

In the ACC, on current rosters, there are eight such players, including Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim (Florida State), Serenat Yaz and Cansu Ozdemir (Clemson, team image is above), Ece Taner of UNC and Cagla Sen of Boston College.

And, as it turns out Liz Trinchere of Virginia Tech went to my high school in the Roanoke, Va., area.

In weekend action, the UNC Tarheels won a road game over Wake Forest 3-1 (28-30, 29-27, 27-25, 25-22) on Friday as each of the four sets in the match were nail-biters. The 'Heels are now 17-5 (9-2 in ACC play).

And, in Blacksburg, Va., on Sunday, the home-court Virginia Tech Hokies a highly competitive full five-set match over the Clemson Tigers by a score of 3-2 (25-22, 13-25, 14-25, 25-19, 15-11); the Hokies go to 13-9 (6-5 in the ACC) and Clemson now has a record of 14-8 (6-5 in the ACC).

During Friday's game in Winston-Salem, NC, Kaylie Gibson of the 'Heels scored 24 digs and her teammate Emily McGee, a former ACC Player of the Week, had her seventh double-double of the season.

For the home Demon Deacons, Dani Thompson scored 14 digs and Andrea Beck added 14 kills. The game included a breast cancer fund-raiser which raised over $5,600.

During Sunday's game at Virginia Tech, the Hokies won a third straight five-set victory. Three Hokies scored double-doubles, including Cara Baarendse (with 13 kills), Justine Record and Jordan Fish.

For the Tigers, the aforementioned Serenat Yaz was one of three players with double-doubles along with Mo Simmons and Hannah Brenner.

Here is a complete list of ACC scores from Friday to Sunday:

Friday:

Clemson 3 UVA 1
Florida State 3 Maryland 1
Va. Tech 3 Ga. Tech 2
UNC 3 Wake Forest 1
Duke 3 NC St. 0
Miami (Fl) 3 Boston College 1

Saturday:

Ga. Tech 3 UVa 1

Sunday:

Va. Tech 3 Clemson 2
Florida State 3 Boston College 0
Miami (Fl) 3 Maryland 1

Sidebar: On a more serious note, the Turkish-American Washington DC-based group ATAA has set up a relief fund for victims of the earthquake in the eastern city of Van:

Turkish Philantropy Funds
Re: Van Earthquake Relief Fund
216 E. 45th Street, 7th Floor
NY, NY 10017

I expect there will be a segment about the devastation on the NPR talk show "The World," which examines evolving stories from around the globe.

Sports Desk- North Carolina High School Game Goes Bonkers

While we were watching WFMY-2 (CBS-Greensboro,NC) the other night, my eyeballs literally popped out of my sockets as if I were a Tex Avery cartoon character as Mount Tabor High School from Winston-Salem, NC, defeated Carver High School by an 87-52 score in high school football. Yes, initially, I thought it had a be abasketball score too. To put in perspective, that means the two schools combined for 19 touchdowns and three field goals!

Two of our other favorite schools in the Greensboro region won easily as Ragsdale High School (Jamestown, NC) beat Parkland 56-7. Conversely, Rockingham County School (Wentworth,NC) trumped McMichaal 44-6 in a home game.

Here are some other scores from the Greensboro/Winston-Salem region:

Western Alamance 48 Morehead 13
Chapel Hill 17 Cedar Ridge 0
Dudley 30 Ben L. Smith 23
Reynolds 18 Northern Forsyth 15
Page 28 Western Guilford 0
High Point-Andrews 25 Southwestern Guilford 0
Eastern Forsyth 21 High Point Central 20
Western Stokes 17 Mount Airy 0
Reidsville 22 Barton Yancey 0

SIDEBAR: Since there are five women's volleyball players from Turkey, my late father's country, in the ACC this year, we plan on keeping tabs on the sport.

Those young women include Cagla Sen from Boston College, Serenat Yaz and Cansu Ozdemir of Clemson, and Duygu Duzceler and Fatma Yildirim for Florida State.

It was a very succesful weekend for both the Clemson Tigers and the Florida State Seminoles.

The Tigers swept two matches from Georgia Tech, while the FSU Seminoles won a straight-set victory over Miami (Fla) which puts them back in the top 25 at number
23.

Here in North Carolina, Wake Forest pulled off a home upset over visiting Duke 3 sets to 1. For Wake Forest, Kadja Fornah and Carlin Salmon hit 23 kills while Amanda Robertson of Duke, a senior from Roxboro, NC, scored a season-high 17 kills.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Celeb Couples

None of us like to publicly profess it, but let's face it_ we all love celebrity couples. They seem to have it all don't they? Good looks. Good fashion. Great talent. Good lawyers.

Today, we focus on celeb couple numero uno Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Yes, we wonder how they can stand each other even though of a lot of people (not us, of course!) can't stand them.

Tom is best known for blockbuster films from "Risky Business" to "A Few Good Men." While, Katie is an alum of "Dawson's Creek" who has made some cute films here and there, but none of us here at the office in Bridgeport, Conn. (not where we really are) can't remember a single title of any of them!

SIDEBAR: This week's semi-official High School of the Week is Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Del., a state which is seeing a surprisingly interesting U.S. Senate race between Christine "I'm Not a Witch" O'Donnell, who seems to be the Katie Holmes of the Tea Party movement, and Chris Coons. According to "The Christian Science Monitor," Coons is substantially ahead (editorial comment: YAY!).

As for Brandywine HS, the school's famous alum includes none other than rocker George Thorogood who is best known for the song "Bad to the Bone," which seems to be our pet cat's theme song these days.

My own alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., lost a home game to Giles County High School by a 20-17 score last week. But, the UNC Tarheels beat Clemson so I get to jeer my cousin Mike, a rabid Clemson fan, even though I only root for the Tarheels when they are winning!

SIDEBAR TWO: We have now passed 150,000 hits...hooray!

ACC Tourney Underway in Greensboro

The ACC Men's Basketball Tournament is going on here in Greensboro, NC. I should have cancelled my class to watch the games, but alas we will be meeting in (yikes!) 13 minutes.

UVA beat Boston College earlier today, and I am expecting Duke to win the tourney in a close title game against likely opponent Maryland.

Here are my choices for the six best mascots in the ACC:

1. Maryland Terps
2. Virginia Tech Hokies (pictured)
3. UNC Tarheels (pictured)
4. NC St Wolfpack
5. Duke BlueDevils
6. Wake Forest Demon Deacs....


for the worst, go to my other blog, Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time