We're Back from Very Long Break..........Roanoke Times Comics Quotes

We are indeed back from a very, very long break!

Greetings to those of you in Wales, Sweden, and Croatia...

Our celebrity of the day is..........we'll go with Marc Maron....!

Here are some comic strips quotes mostly from the Roanoke Times (July 17th, 2017 edition) with exceptions including "The Knight Life" from our good pal Keith Knight, which will start us off.....

1) You kids these days have it so good! (Knight Life)

2) Hi Jeremy. Are you hungry? (Zits)

3) Sara, can we get pizza delivered? (Blondie)

4) Nelson, what are you doing? (Pickles)

5) I'd like to return this bird (Wizard of Id)

6) That's all anyone needs to know (Judge Parker)

7) Good man! (Jump Start)

8) Don't be afraid! The lightning won't strike as long as mommy's out here (Family Circus)

9) Ooooo, what's that? (Get Fuzzy)

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

The Olympic Lists (8 of 10) Balkan and Black Sea Regions Combined

There are six countries in the Black Sea: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Russia. As all of you know, the Olympic games are being held in Sochi, Russia, which is right across the sea from Trabzon, Turkey, one of the largest cities on the Black Sea.

Balkan nations consist of the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey among other.

We are combining the two regions for this list:

1) Alisa Agafonova. 23. Turkey. Ice Dancing. She is pictured here with partner Alper Ucar. Agafonova is a Ukrainian who gained Turkish citizenship to compete with Ucar.

2) Alexandr Smyshylyaev. 25. Russia. Men's Free-Style Skiing.

3) Alxandra Jekova. 26. Bulgaria. Women's Snowboarding.

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

5) Panagiosta Tsakiri. 23. Greece. Women's Cross-country skiing. She was the flag bearer for Greece.

6) Dmytro Pidruchnyi. 22. Ukraine. Men's Biathlon.

7) Tina Maze. 30. Slovenia. Women's Alpine. She has won two gold medals.

8) Iason Abrahamshvili. 25. Georgia. Men's Alpine.

9) Andrea Komsic. 17. Croatia. Women's Alpine Skiing.

10) Vuk Radenovic. 30. Serbia. Men's Bobsledding.

http://www.bulgariaski.com/

http://www.goturkey.com/

http://www.visitgreece.gr/

http://www.visitrussia.com/

Little Thinkers (16 of 16): Louis Pasteurized Milk

Greetings to our blog readers in Croatia, Norway and New Zealand. And, to those of you who have the misfortune of being on death row in Huntsville, Texas, perhaps for a murder you didn't commit. Oh....our best regards to Gov. Rick Perry (editorial comment: Thank God, he's not our president).

From what I've been told, we 've had many celebrities visit this blog recently, including Bill Bragg, Toby Keith and Neil Diamond.

Here is today's quote from Louis Pasteur, the last in our series of Little Thinkers quotes:

"It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes."

Little Thinkers (8 of 16): Mahatma Gandhi

Greetings to our blog readers in Turkey, Croatia and Mexico.

Today, we quote the great Mahatma Gandhi, who was the subject of "Gandhi" (1982), which won the Best Picture Oscar as well as a Best Actor Oscar for Ben Kingsley, who played the Indian leader.

Here is the quote, which people as vastly different as conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Sister Helen Prejean, America's leading anti-death penalty advocate, can perhaps agree on:

"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth's the truth."

SIDEBAR: We are shocked and saddened to hear of the death of BBC journalist Komla Dumor (1972-2014), who was only 41 years old. A source in Ghana, his native country, reported that Dumor died of a heart attack at his home in London, but that was not verified by the BBC. Dumor joined the BBC in 2007. He leaves behind a wife and three children as well as a tremendous journalism legacy.

http://www.incredibleindia.com

http://www.sisterhelen.org

Futbol Notebook: Europa, Europa

It may seem hard to believe for people in Antwerp, Belgium, or Zagreb, Croatia, but soccer is gradually becoming more popular here in the United States. In fact, futbol has entered our pop culture as the late Naser Hejazi, the goalie for the 1978 Iranian World Cup team which played in Argentina, was mentioned in the last episode of "Homeland."

Since 24 games were played in the Europa League yesterday, we don't have much time for detail or analysis. But, we caught the tail-end of the Swansea-Kuban game. The English Premiere League team Swansea was winning 1-0 until the team's German goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel (pictured here) collided with a player for the Russian team Kuban in the (ouch!) 92nd minute of play. As a result, French national Djibril Cisse kicked in the penalty and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Here are some partial scores from Europe League play:

Lyon (France) 1 Rijeka (Croatia) 0

Swansea (England) 1 Kuban (Russia) 1 (tie)

Anzhi (Russia) 1 Tromso (Norway) 0

Waregem (Belgium) 1 Maribor (Slovenia) 3

Shanktar Karagandy (Kazakhstan) 2 AZ Alkmaar (Neth.) 1 (tie)

Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) 0 Lazio (Italy) 0 (tie)

For more results, check out our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time":

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Image to Fill Space: A Vintage VW Bug

It is hard to believe, but when I was a child circa 1977, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak, actually drove us from Frankfurt, West Germany, to Istanbul, Turkey. To my recollection, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were among the countries we drove.

And, of course, we drove through the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia), where we encountered some very hilly roads.
http://www.vwclub.org/

High Schools of the Week_ From Northside HS to Northwestern HS

Since we last blogged about our high school films, we thought we'd dedicate at least one entry to 'our favorite high schools' in America. I decided not to use my own alma mater of Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., to avoid a conflict of interest. But, we are featuring Huntington High School from Huntington, W.Va., which has the same school nickname: The Highlanders.

And, greeting our blog readers in Croatia (kudos on getting into the European Union), Sweden and Azerbaijan.

We do wonder if any of the high school biology teachers in this respective school is showing the episode of the PBS series "Nature," which illustrated why the Black Mamba snake, found heavily in Swaziland, is among the deadliest reptiles on the planet.

Here are our high schools:

1) Northside High School (pictured top). Nickname: The Vikings. Location: Roanoke, Va. Principal: Frank Dent. The school had 988 students in 2007-08.

2) Clarke Central High School. Nickname: The Gladiators. Location: Athens, Ga. Principal: Dr. Robbie Hooker. Notable alumni: Kim Basinger (class of 1972).

3) Huntington High School. Nickname: The Highlanders. Location: Huntington, W.Va. Principal: Greg Webb. Enrollment: 1,600. Notable alumni: O.J. Mayo of the Dallas Mavericks.

4) Western Alamance High School (pictured center). Nickname: The Warriors. Location: Elon, NC.
Newspaper: "West Side Story." Head football coach: Jeff Snuffer.

5) Walt Whitman High School. Nickname: The Vikings. Location: Bethesda, Md. Principal: Dr. Alan Goodwin. Enrollment: 1,928. Newspaper: "The Black and the White." Notable alumni: Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mark Halperin (news reporter/analyst) and Spike Jonze (film director).

6) Northwestern High School (pictured bottom). Nickname: The Trojans. Location: Rock Hill, SC.
Principal: James Blake. Enrollment: 1,800 Notable alumni: Former NFL and Notre Dame star Jeff Burris. Then-candidate Barack Obama spoke at the school on Oct. 6, 2007.


SIDEBAR: Kudos to Caroline Brailsford of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Va. The volleyball player was named the Girls Athlete of the Year by "The Roanoke Times."

https://www.alumniclass.com/clarkecentral


https://www.alumniclass.com/northsideva

http://www.waltwhitmanhighalumni.com/

https://www.alumniclass.com/northwesternhighschoolsc

http://www.roanoke.com

Parade of Nations (two of four)- Canada to Jamaica

With continue with the parade of nations and their respective flag-bearers, starting with our neighbors to the north Canada, and then continuing in alphabetical order; there are additional entries on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" as well:

Canada: Simon Whitfield (pictured above, triathlon)

Armenia: Arma Yeremyan (men's taekwondo)

Brazil: Rodrigo Pessoa (men's equestrian)

Croatia: Venio Losert (pictured below, men's handball)

El Salvador: Evelyn Garcia (women's cycling)

Iceland: Asdis Hjalmsdottir (women's track and field/javelin)

Iraq: Dana Hussain (pictured middle, women's track and field)

Jamaica: Usain Bolt (men's track and field)

http://www.london2012.com

http://www.nbcolympics.com

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day- Josip Broz Tito

Today, we conclude our quotes from 16 people associated with the 16 countries in Euro Cup 2012 (eight on each blog, the other eight can be found on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

And, we finish things off with the founder of Yugoslavia Marsal Josip Broz Tito, known simply as Tito, who was Croatian by birth. Croatia faces Spain next week in the last game of the first round. Tito (1892-1980) was born in the village of Kumrover, a Croatian village in the north which borders Slovenia.

Many have compared Tito to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). Both formed their respective countries in the ashes of changing geopolitics, and both were the proverbial strong man in their respective nations. The major difference was that Ataturk was a capitalist and Tito was a socialist. And, Turkey has had its borders in tact since the foundation of the Republic in 1923 whereas Yugoslavia, a coalition of six republics, is now seven separate countries.

Though he was despised by many ethnic Serbs and Croats in America and western Europe for his politics, Tito was respected by the West for giving Yugoslavia autonomy from the Soviet Union, more so than the other Iron Curtain countries in eastern Europe.

But, ironically, it was Yugoslavia which suffered the most from the Soviet Union's sudden collapse in 1990, and Serbia went to war with Croatia and Slovenia shortly thereafter. The war went on to grasp Bosnia-Herzegovina and turn its capital city of Sarajevo, the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics, into a war zone.

Tito visited both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon during their respective presidencies in Washington, D.C.

Here is his now seemingly haunting quote:

"We have split an ocean of blood for the brotherhood and unity of our peoples and we shall not allow anyone to destroy it within."

Quote of the Day/Week- Salvador Dali

Today, we continue to quote famous people from the 16 countries represented in the 2012 Euro Cup championships in Poland and Ukraine, which got underway on Friday. Originally, we were going to quote just eight people from eight of the teams, but we figured those of you visiting us from Croatia and Portugal, two national teams in Euro 2012, might feel snubbed.

We thus turn our attention to the great Spanish surreal painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989) who is perhaps best-known for "The Persistence of Memory" (1931), which is the painting with melting clocks. Dali is also one of the people who has his very own plush toy from the Unemployed Philosophers Guild, which retails for circa $17.95. This month, we are also quoting individuals who have plush toys made in their image as was the case with Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter who was the subject of our last quote entry.

A museum dedicated to Dali's works is located in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Over the weekend, Spain tied Italy 1-1 in the team's first Euro 2012 game.

Here is Dali's quote:

"I don't do drugs. I am drugs."

http://www.thedali.com

http://www.virtualdali.com


http://www.philosophersguild.com

Things We Learned on Google Today- Lyon Has Won 7 French Titles

In our 13th profile of 15 world soccer teams, we turn our attention to the French soccer power Olympique Lyonnais, which is known simply as Lyon, the same name as the city they play for.

Lyon did not win its first domestic title until the 2001-02 season, but they made up for it by winning a staggering seven French premiere league titles in a row.

During the 2009-10 season, Lyon also reached the semi-finals of the coveted UEFA Cup, before bowing out to German power Bayern Munich.

Lyon is playing for the current UEFA Cup as well, but their hopes of advancing to the next round seem given their home loss Spanish power Real Madrid 2-0, both goals in the match were scored by Portuguese superstar Christiano Ronaldo, earlier this month.

Thus, Lyon is in third place behind the Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam (the last team we profiled), in Group D. Lyon visits Amsterdam on Nov. 22 when Real Madrid will face the Crotian team Dynamo Zagreb, which is in last place.

In domestic play, Lyon last played arch rival St. Etienne and the team prevailed
2-0. Lyon is reportedly in second place in the French league behind Paris St. Germain which tied Bordeaux 1-1.

The captain for Lyon is Brazilian player Cris (Cristiano Gomes), 34, and the team's goalie is French player Hugo Lloris, 24, (pictured), who is vying to become the French national goal keeper.

On Friday, the French national team beat the United States 1-0 in a friendly. Since I carry an American passport, I could gripe about this, but hey the French gave us Asterix the Gaul. Having said that, I hope we beat the living daylights out of them next time (that is a joke; I'm not a Republican).

SIDEBAR: Closer to home, Martinsburg High School (Martinsburg, West Virginia) decked Woodrow Wilson High School from Beckley, West Virginia, in a home game played on Friday by a score of 49-13.

PS-The answer to our Rabbitt Ears quiz was C) Boulder, Colorado, which is where "Mork and Mindy" took place.

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Summer Jobs (Lifeguards)

We heard a great piece on NPR's "All Things Considered" yesterday, which included a brief interview with Vice President Joe Biden (of all people!).

It got me to thinking about my own summer job experiences when I was essentially a human billboard for a Domino's Pizza store in Roanoke, Va. That was not fun!

But, one would probably enjoy being a lifeguard in North Myrtle Beach, SC, a lot. According to the web site nmblifeguards.com (the official site for the North Myrtle Beach Lifeguards), a lifeguard can possibly make between $10-12.50 per hour.

The city of North Myrtle Beach, SC, which is the hometown of "Wheel of Fortune" co-host Vanna White, is also hosting a salute to military veterans and a Music on the Main festival on June 3.

We understand the show's host Pat Sajak is a major financial contributor to the Ronald Reagan Library in California (guess he makes more loot than we realize), but that's another matter.

In nearby Myrtle Beach, SC, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans host the Winston-Salem Dash from Winston-Salem, NC, the home of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, from June 7-9.

As for the lifeguard pictured here, we don't think she is actually working in North Myrtle Beach. In fact, for all we know, she could be in Zagreb, Croatia. What's with her belly-button ring?!

Facebook Friend of the Week_ Dario Pticek

Dario Pticek of Croatia has the honor of being my 1,000th friend on Facebook.

Of course, I don't actually know him.

This sneaker was apparently influenced by the Croatian flag. I believe the last time I was in Dario's country was when we passed through the Zagreb airport when I was a kid.

Pticek's birthday is July 1, 1976. He has (yikes!) 2,809 Facebook friends and we have 34 'friends' in common.

He is a vampire (!) and a member of Mob Wars and Mafia Wars.

Pticek also enjoys rafting and he is a fan of Chuck Norris and Bob Marley.

Hmmm..........now there's an interesting combination.