The Funny Pages Dialogue_ Let's Go Shopping

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A few weeks ago, we thought about writing up a strange conversation involving nothing but dialogue from Sunday comic strips. Of course, this is, in part, because we envy people like cartoonist Stephen Pastis of "Pearls Before Swin." We still love his comic strip even though he created a character called Ataturk the Spitting Llama. In case this is your first time visiting our blog, it is edited by a 'prominent' Turkish-American named Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be, well, me. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

And, we have nothing against Pastis, who is a Greek-American, although we may ask Jim Toomey who draws "Sherman's Lagoon" to create a character called Karamanlis the Octopus, after former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.

So, with that, here is some dialogue from comic strips featured in the Oct.14, 2012 edition of "The Roanoke Times."

"Shopping? Ok. I've got $126.13....How much do you need? (from "For Better or Worse")

"White Castle Rules!" (from "Agnes")

"What Happened?" (from "Baby Blues"

"Well, I'll be. She's sound asleep!" (from "Classic Peanuts, a line said by Charlie Brown)

"So, what's going on here?" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

"Take a look at this resume" (from "Dilbert")

"What's wrong, Red? You look frustrated." (from "Sally Forth")

"Tomorrow is another day." (from "Garfield")

"We need a little bull session after the game." (from "Hi and Lois")

SIDEBAR: We are diligently waiting for the score from today's Wake Forest-University of North Carolina women's field hockey (well, we believer, men's field hockey which is very popular in Pakistan, is not an NCAA sport) in the second round of the ACC tournament. The Tar Heels are hosting the Demon Deacons in Chapel Hill, NC, and the game is in session as we speak.

But, the reason for this mention is because we noticed in yesterday's edition of "The Daily Tar Heel" that UNC midfielder Kelsey Kolojechick has a very long name! UNC beat my alma mater Radford Univeristy* at home in their final regular season game 6-1 but we won't hold it against them.

For Wake Forest, Jess Newark, a freshman, scored a goal and two assists in the team's 3-1 first round win over Boston College.

And, we will salute Alayna Versage, a junior for RU, on being named all-conference in her sport (the Highlanders do not compete in the ACC).

Of course, field hockey has become a bit more popular since the gold-medal winning Dutch field hockey team got lots of coverage at the London 2012 Olympics.

*Radford University is located in Radford, Virginia.

THIS JUST IN: Though we are not in Chapel Hill, we can report a final as UNC wins over Wake Forest 4-0 to advance to the ACC final, which UNC will also host. Kelsey Kolojechick had an assist in the victory.


http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.hiandlois.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.wakeforestsports.com

The Finish Line_ Track, Water Polo and Field Hockey

1) The United States won its first gold in women's water polo with an 8-5 win over Spain in the gold medal match; the two teams met earlier in the preliminaries and the game finished in a 9-9 tie. Earlier, Team America had won a highly competitive 11-9 game over Australia in the semi-finals.

The team was lead in scoring by Maggie Steffens, 19, (we believe that is her pictured top) who will go on to play for Stanford, scored five goals in the final. She scored 21 goals overall. Her older sister Jessica Steffens was among her teammates as well as a holdover from the 2008 team that won silver in Beijing.

2) The Dutch women's field hockey team was a social media sensation because of the team members' good looks and their flashy orange uniforms, ironically, a quarter of the team, including captain Maartje Pausen (profiled in Aug. 9th entry) is lesbian. The Netherlands/Holland won gold in the event, also in large part because of Ellen Hoog who scored the game-winning shoot-out goal over New Zealand in the semi-finals. In the final, the Dutch beat Argentina 2-0 with one goal coming from Pausen.

3) Turkey's Olympic team was being skewered back home due to a low medal tally. But, that radically changed when Asli Cakir Alptekin, 26, who won gold (pictured) and her teammate Gamze Bulut, 23,  (silver) came through in the 1,500-meters. Along with weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu aka "The Pocket Hercules" setting a world record at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the moment is now considered to be one of the greatest in Turkish Olympic history. Alptekin edged out Bulut by a time of 4:10:23 to 4:10:40.

In the same event, Maryam Yusuf Jamal, 28, won bronze for Bahrain; it was the tiny gulf Arab nation's first-ever medal. She finished with a 4:10:74. Other countries that won first time medals in London, include Botzwana, Cyprus, Grenada, Guatemala and Montenegro.

UPDATE: In an earlier version of this post, we wrongfully reported that Afghanistan had won its first ever medal in London, but actually Rohullah Nikpai, who won bronze in men's taekwondo, had actually won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well.


Links:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (Our sister blog with a sister entry)

http://www.usawaterpolo.org

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.rnw.nl/

Our Favorite Olympic Athletes_ Vollyeball Anyone?

Here is a look st six of our favorite Summer Olympics athletes and brief rundown of their accomplishements so far:

1) Sarah Attar, 19, Saudi Arabia, track and field (pictured above)_ Attar broken a gender barrier by competing as one of two female athletes for Saudi Arabia. The conservative kingdom which governs in accordance with strict Islamic law has never allowed women to compete before. Attar finished last in 800-meters with a time of over 2 hours and 44 minutes, but she is one of the most inspirational stories in London so far.

2) Nesilhan Darnel, 28, volleyball, Turkey (pictured center)_ Darnel was the flag-bearer for Turkey and she came through with an outstanding tournament. But, Turkey was a tough group and they lost to Brazil, China and The United as a result though they defeated a very talented South Korean team which advanced to the semi-finals. On a personal note, we were surprised to learn that Darnel got her start at the Yesilyurt Sports Club in Istanbul, which I frequented when I visited Turkey as a child and teenager.

3) Anna Esper, 19, water polo, Spain_ The United States won the gold medal match for water polo today over Spain, but it was outstanding tournament for many Spanish players, including Esper who score four goals in the team's semi-final win over Hungary.

4) Maartje Paumen, 26, field hockey, Netherlands (pictured bottom)_ The openly lesbian captain of the popular Dutch field hockey team will play Argentina in the gold medal game this weekend; they beat New Zealand in a shoot-out to get there.

5) Marketa Slukova, 24, beach volleyball, Czech Republic_ Along with teammate Krstyna Kolocva, Slukova helped upset the Brazilian upset the Brazilian duo of Antonelli and Artune on Saturday; the Czechs lost their next game in the quarter-finals to the American duo of April Ross and Jennifer Kessey, which won silver.

6) Kim Yeon-Koung, 24, volleyball, South Korea_ The ever gorgeous and extremely good volleyball who plays volleyball professionally in Turkey helped propel her team to the semi-finals, which surprised many volleyball insiders. South Korea now plays Japan in the bronze medal game.