Comic Strips Survey from Father's Day Roanoke Times: We Like This Week's Doonesbury

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Bulgaria, and Indonesia.......

A lot has happened since we last tweeted one week ago today: 1) There was a mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of nine African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, here in America, sparking a national debate between guns and racism. 2) President Barack Obama surprised the world by sitting down for an interview with edgy comic podcast host Marc Maron in Los Angeles. 3) And, Muslims around the world started celebrating Ramadan, which according to the Turkish English-language newspaper "The Daily Sabah" is quite challenging in Iceland where there is 18-22 hours of daylight per day. There are about 770 Muslims residing in Iceland, and adjustments have been suggested for the holiday period's fasting period.

Our images for the week are of: 1) The Jetsons family as "Doonesbury" tackles how fathers are adjusting to modern parenting; 2) Since "Dilbert" features a character who looks just like Turkish shadow puppet Karagoz (center image, the dude with the long beard and a drum; Hacivat is his frenemy; 3) Doctor Who for "Pearls Before Swine" which features a British alien (not in the E.T. sense)

Here are our ten favorite comic strips from Sunday's "Roanoke Times":

1) Doonesbury

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Dilbert

4) Pearls Before Swine

5) Zits

6) Jump Start

7) Non Sequitur

8) Agnes

9) Mutts

10) Speed Bump (this comic strip was number one for four weeks in a row!, but not this week).....

http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

Our Favorite Comics from Sunday Jan. 18th Washington Post: Maybe Michelle and the Kids Like Foxtrot Too

Greetings to our blog readers in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.....

In the Outlook section of the Sunday, Jan. 18th edition of "The Washington Post," journalist Michael Booth made the bold proclamation that Scandinavia was over-rated. This made me rethink my foreign country travel bucket list in which Iceland and Norway are ranked second and third respectively after Liberia..........(perhaps, stand-up comic Gilbert Gottfried applauds us for making fun of Ebla, he might be the only one!).............

The images above are of: 1) Charlie Brown, but "Peanuts" is not our top-ranked comic strip, in fact, since the strip is in permanent rerun status, we disqualify the strip from our surveys, but Charlie Brown was the butt of a great gag in "The Argyle Sweater;" 2) A snowball fight in reference to "Foxtrot," which perhaps First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters found amusing; and 3) the old Flash Gordon serials with the late Buster Crabbe which is actually being used for "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (there is also a "Flash Gordon" weekly comic strip still in circulation)....

Here is our top ten, which also includes "WUMO," a Danish import that this week illustrated what it would be life if children said inappropriate things about fat people who eat too much fast food (Gottfried probably loves "WUMO" too):

1) The Argyle Sweater

2) Foxtrot

3) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

4) WUMO

5) Lio

6) Speed Bump

7) Sherman's Lagoon

8) Knight Life

9) Prickly City

10) Pearls Before Swine

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Our New and Improved Countries We Want to Vist Bucket List

Greetings to our blog readers in Cambodia, Spain and Portugal, which are three countries which missed our cut.

Since we have recently arrived back from Costa Rica, a country that always made it onto my top 10 countries to visit list, we thought we'd provide an update, which once again has Iceland (see top image) at the top.

Morocco is second (middle image, strawberry vendor in Tangier) and Norway is third (bottom image of Bergen), and with some research as to suggestions by both Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide, countries like Georgia and Macedonia made it on to the list, as did one of the world's tiniest nations.

We were delighted to see Turkey, my late father's country, ranked high in the Rough Guide, but since we have been there 15 times, we thought we'd focus on countries we've never visited.

Here is the bucket list:

1) Iceland

2) Morocco

3) Norway

4) Georgia

5) Chile

6) Panama

7) Scotland

8) Malaysia

9) Macedonia

10) San Marino (the tiny country we were referring to)

http://www.lonelyplanet.com

http://www.roughguides.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://www.visitmorocco.com

http://www.visitnorway.com

This Weekend at the Cinema: "The Congress" is NOT About Washington, DC

Greetings to our blog readers in Iceland, Japan and planet Mars!

Girl Power! Today, we feature three films starring women, which are either opening or are still showing at various theatres, cinemas and drive-ins in our mid-Atlantic portion of the United States.

We start off with the lovely Star Lite Drive-In in Christiansburg, Va (near Blacksburg) where they are screening "Lucy" at 8:45 pm and 10:30 pm this weekend; Scarlett Johansson once again delivers.

In Washington, DC, an indy film called "The Congress" is opening at the West End Cinema, but the film about an aging actress who decides to maintain her beauty by capturing herself digitally has nothing to with the U.S. Congress. Robin Wright who is in the Netflix series "House of Cards," which is actually about the U.S. Congress, stars in the film.

At the same venue, "Life of Crime" based on the Elmore Leonard novel "Switch" begins its run; the film features Jennifer Anniston and Tim Robbins. Curiously enough, it is also showing at the Tower Theatre out west in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The historic Byrd Theatre in downtown Richmond, Va., which usually shows second-run features is showing "Maleficent" with Angelina Jolie (is she the one married to Brad Pitt? Just kidding!). The cinema is also showing "Tammy" and "How to Train Your Dragon 2."

The Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., is showing "Life After Beth" which just one screening at 9:15 p.m. throughout the week; the same venue is opening "Calvary," an Irish film about a Catholic priest, this weekend, a film that is also showing at many arthouses, including the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC, and a/perture in Winston-Salem, Va., which is also screening "Alive Inside," a documentary explaining how music can dwelve into our souls and transmit healing powers. We suspect that the new age group of yesteryear Tangerine Dream is better able to perform this task than the speed metal band of yesteryear Anthrax???!!!!

http://www.starlitedrive.info

http://www.byrdtheatre.com

http://www.aperture.com

http://www.westendcinema.com

http://www.grandintheatre.com

Quotes from Off the Beat Path (6 of 6): Alice Cooper

Greetings to our blog-readers in Iceland, The Netherlands, Austria, Ukraine, Israel and Turkey.

We hate snakes (well the poisonous ones and pythons), but that's the case with the American '70s glam rock/heavy metal star Alice Cooper, who will be playing at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, on Oct. 22.

Here is his quote from the singer best known for "School's Out" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy":

"The most joyous times of the year are Christmas mornings and the end of school."


http://www.alicecooper.com

http://www.greesnborocoliseum.com

Soccer Week (7 of 8): Dutch Soccer Game Has Three Cards

During domestic weekend action in the Eredivise (Dutch Premier League), one game between Heerenveen and Gromgen featured six goals and three red cards, one of which went to Dutch nationl Tjaronn Chery (pictured).

The game's other two red cards went to Mitchell Dijks of Heerenveen  and Jim Letschert of Gronngen.

Other highlights from Holland/The Netherlands included a two-goal performance form Belgian Steve de Ridder of Utrecht and two goals from Chery's teammate from Iceland, Alfred Finnbogason, who should have made our soccer players with long names list, who kicked in two goals for Heerenveen.

One lowlight which was shown on soccer highlights shows around the globe was Dutch player Maikel van der Werff's unfortunate own goal which helped his team Zwolle lose to traditional Dutch power Ajax Amsterdam 2-1.

Here are the scores:

Utrecht 2 Waalwijk 1

AZ Alkmaar 3 Go Ahead Eagles 0

Heerevveen 4 Gromgen 2

Roda 1 Breda 5

Njmegen 3 Feyrenoord 3 (tie)

Twente 2 PSV Einhoven 2 (tie)

Cambour 2 Heracles 0

Ajax Amsterdam 2 Zwolle 1

http://www.dutchnews.nl

http://www.rnw.nl

http://www.holland.com


SIDENOTE: This marks our 1,500th entry on "The Daily Vampire"...........yes, we are surprised by how long we've stuck with this blog as well.

Highlights from The Bucket List: Going to Seattle Anyone?

Yes, even though I'm only 43 years old, I actually made a bucket list of 100 things to do before I die. Some things are a bit more idealistic; some things are a bit more practical.

With that, I want to send special greetings to our blog-readers in Russia, China and Japan as well as those of you in smaller countries like Malta and El Salvador.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Take a Greyhound bus trip from Burlington, NC, to Seattle.

2. Go to Iceland, and take some photos of the volcanoes while you are there.

3. Watch "Breaking Bad" on dvd in its entirety (I have yet to see a single show of the series which concludes this weekend).

4. Write an article for "Mental Floss."

5. Wake up at 6 a.m. for six days in a row?! (I'm a night person)

6. Take a Varan bus trip (Varan is a Turkish bus line) from Istanbul to Van

7. Date a woman 20 years younger than you

8. Date a woman 20 years older than you

9. Visit the National Zoo in Washington, DC, take lots of photos of the pandas

10. Volunteer at a homeless shelter

http://www.greyhound.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://www.turkey.org

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.washington.org

http://www.homelessshetlerdirectory.org

Our First Entry in Turkish.........

Izlanda, Macaristan ve Azerbaycan'daki dostalrimiz'a hos geldiniz demek istedim. Ayrica Turkiye'de Eskisehir, Malatya ve Trabzon'daki arkadaslarimiza merhabalar gonderiyoruz.

Simdi ben Inglizce yerine Turkce yazdigim icin, butun Inglizce konusanlar 'paranoid' olacaktir. Malisef, ben 'paranoid' sozun Tukcesini bilmiyorum. Bir dakika, Google'a soralim bari. Haa, 'paranoyak' paranoid'in Turkce'si.

Bizim aile'misin kedi'si biraz paranoyak oluyor. Komsular'in portakal-renki kedi'yi hic sevmiyor. Onlar Karagoz ve Hacivat gibi tartisiyorlar.

Turkiye'de su an saat 08:00 olduguna rahmen, hepinize gunaydim diliyorum.

Ok, here is the English translation (abridged version):

"Hello to our friends in Iceland, Hungary and Azerbaijan, three countries where Turkish is widely spoken (actually not so much in Iceland and Hungary). What is the word for paranoid in Turkish? Oh, I see it is 'paranoyak.' I think our family cat may suffer from 'paranoyak.'

Since it is now 8:00 a.m. in Turkey, I guess I better end by saying "Gunaydin," which is 'good morning' in Turkish."

Highlights from the 100 Things To Do List: Working Out, Get in Shape

Here are some highlights from a 100 Things To Do List, which I am still working (up to number 71 so far):

1. Work Out, Get Into Shape

2. Get Duracell batteries (or Energizers)

3. Return Books to the Rockford, Illinois,* public library

4. Watch movies from Netflix

5. Get a back massage (it really hurts)

6. Look into going to Iceland by 2015

7. Write a short story

8. Write a short play

9. Write anything

10. Call the local cable company here in Scranton, Penn.**

*-Not where I live

**-Not where I live either

Top Ten Things To Do List- Take Down the Garbage

We had a much grander idea, but we have time constraints. Here is our Top Ten Things To Do List for this particular week:


1. Recycle

2. Work-out on a bicylce

3. Take down the garbage

4. call dentist

5. Look at Sunday "Washington Post" (they have a series called Date Lab, which is why we have a photo of a cute annoying young couple)

6. Look at computers

7. Read "The Chosen"

8. Look into going to Asheville, NC

9. Look into going to Iceland

10. Possibly watch the Chelsea-Tottenham Hotspurs English soccer game today

Soccer Night-Turkey: Ah Those Altintop Twins

Merhabalar to everyone/ Herkese hello demek istedim..... Hmmm....Turkglish is perhaps not a language which is spoken much in the blogosphere, but, well we try to be original.

We made a big (insert English or Turkish obscenity here) goof last week when we said Fenerbahce was playing Swiss team FC Basel in the UEFA Europa League while English powerhouse Chelsea was playing Benefica of Portugal.

In actuality, Chelsea was playing Basel, whom they defeated, and Fenerbahce alas fell to the Portuguese side in Lisbon 3-1, which eradicated the Yellow Canaries' 1-0 win a week prior in Istanbul. Of course, since this blog is based in America (our executive editor Tilly Gokbudak, who is me, is a Turkish-American), we aren't quite sure how the aggregate system works in soccer, and we think there should be a best 2 out of 3 system instead.

Of course, Turkish futbol blogger Ahmet Bob Turgut, one of our favorite people to follow on Twitter, would have never made this mistake.

Before we go into our dated scores from last week, let's explain a few thing, starting with the twins: Hamid Altintop of GalataSaray (formerly with Read Madrid; pictured top) is the twin brother of Halil Altintop of Trabzonspor (pictured bottom). They are both 30. If for some reason, we got the two mixed up, hopefully, Ahmet Bob Turgut will correct us.

And, we have two new scores from today (Saturday): First, Kayseri upset Trabzonspor 2-1, so we image Halil is not in not in a happy mood right now, but hopefully he'll have a great olive and feta cheese Turkish kahvalti/breakfast (it's 7:30 a.m. and Sunday in Turkey as we are writing this).

We found out that Kayseri, a central Turkish team, has Icelandic national Gretar Steninsson, we presume he is one of the few Icelanders in the TPL.

But, our beloved BursaSpor doubled up on struggling OrduSpor 4-2 with two goals from Slovakian Stanislav Sestak.

The logo in the middle is of Sivasspor which beat bottom-dwelling Istanbul BB last week, but tomorrow, they have the daunting task of facing Burak Yilmaz, Didier Drogba and league-leading GalataSaray.


In leagues standings, these are the top four teams:

1. GalataSaray 65

2. FenerBahce 58

3. Besiktash 52

4. Bursaspor 50

And, here are the results from LAST weekend:

1. BursaSpor 1 Akhisar 1, tie

2.  Trabzonspor 2 Ankara GB 0

3. Elazig 1 Karabukspor 0

4. Sivasspor 4 Istanbul BB 1

5. Mersin 1 Antalyaspor 1, tie

6. Besiktash 2 OrduSpor 0

7. Fenerbahce 2 Kayseri 1

8. GalataSaray 1 GaziantepSpor 0

9. Eskisehir 2 Kasimpasha 1

We are also going to arbitrarily mention Turkish Airlines in the hopes that they will give us a free plane ticket from JFK (New York) to Istanbul.

http://www.turkish-football.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

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

For Our International Audience_Let's Get the Times Right

Since the local times have changed in America as standard time replaced daylights saving time, we thought we would let our followers, especially those of you in other countries, know what time it is in New York or Washington, DC, both of which are here on the east coast, compared to your part of the world.

We did not go into eastern Asia (Japan, China) and Australia because of time and space considerations.

Here we go; it is now midnight here in the east coast of America, so here we go:

12:00 a.m.

New York

Baltimore

Atlanta

2:00 a.m.

Buenos Aires

3:00 a.m.

Rio de Janeiro

5:00 a.m.

Akureyri (Iceland)

London (pictured)

6:00 a.m.

Paris

Amsterdam

7:00 a.m.

Athens

Istanbul (pictured above, that is actually Burgaz Island near Istanbul)

Cairo

Tel Aviv

8:00 a.m.

Dubai (Fly Emirates plane pictured center)

Baghdad

Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)


http://www.baltimore.org

http://www.visitlondon.com

http://www.visitistanbul.org

http://www.emirates.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

Top 10 Countries to Run To If GOP Whacko Becomes Prez

Yes, we did essentially the same sort of list when it looked like Sarah Palin might somehow become an American president, which would probably assure the impending apocalypse that many fervent evangelists who would support her are calling for.

Since there are essentially three players left in the Republican nomination race: Mitt Romney (pictured), Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, we thought we'd mention that IFC is running two hours worth of Three Stooges shorts on Saturday starting at 10:45 a.m. The first of these films will be "The Mummy's Dummies" (1948), which was made when Gingrich was five and Romney (born 1947) was still in diapers.

Here are some possible escapes we might consider:

1) Costa Rica (pictured)

2) Russia (this blog is popular there, so why not?!)

3) Iceland (the country that was number one on the Palin escape list)

4) Brazil

5) New Zealand

6) Slovenia_ this former Yugoslavia is now a top destination

7) Finland

8) Cuba (yeah, we partly did this for shock value, but many American travel magazines have written about traveling to Cuba lately)

9) Turkey (my late father's country, and I also speak the language)

10) Sweden

SIDEBAR: The BBC is now airing a radio segment about The World Ice Fishing Championship in Kazakhstan, otherwise known as the land of Borat. As one might imagine, it is freezing in the former Soviet Republic!

Casualties of Modern Technology_ Polaroid 600s (4 of 12)

Amazingly enough, we actually learn things while researhing entries that we were completely unaware of. We had presumed that Polaroid cameras were completely off the shelves, as we say here in America, but there are actually at least two new Polaroid cameras: the Polaroid 300, which is more economical, and the Polaroid Z340, which is more cool.

But, it still seems like a safe assumption that the Polaroid 600s, the ones that most of are familiar with (pictured) have gone the way of the dinosaurs (well, except for Barney).

According to Wikipedia, the first Polaroid instant cameras (the model 103s), which were quite bulky, were developed by American scientist Edwin Land (1909-1991).

Polaroid, a camera that both Andy Warhol and David Byrne* used in their art, actually discontinued making instant cameras altogether in 2008, but in October 2009, they were reintroduced in their current forms.

The Polaroid Z360 goes for circa $300, while Polaroid 300s go for about $70. Used Polaroid 300s can still be found on e-bay or amazon.com; prices vary.

*- The lead singer of Talking Heads, a band which has broken up, is also known for his art work and photography; he even directed a film!_ ("True Stories").

SIDEBAR ONE: While we intend for this blog to be an escape and refuge from everyday insanity, we did want to send our thoughts and condolences to the family of Deriek Crouse, the Virginia Tech campus police officer who was killed yesterday in Blacksburg, Va. So far, no motives for the homicide have been determined or reported to the media. The likely assailant was also killed or found dead on campus.

"The Collegiate Times," the student-run newspaper for Virginia Tech, has an article about the exam delays. Exams that were originally scheduled for today will now be made up on Saturday, and Monday exams will go on as scheduled. This has caused major inconveiences for some students. The source quoted a student from Iceland who said she had plane reservations to fly back home on Saturday, and she was working with her instructor to take the exam before her flight.

SIDEBAR TWO: Last week, we asked: "What do William Shakespeare, Che Guevara and Jesus Christ have in common?" Our answer at the time was they each had bobblehead dolls in their image. That is actually correct, but there is another thing these three seemingly radically different individuals have in common.

Yes, they all have active Twitter accounts?! For some reason, pretending to be a person who is no longer alive is trendy both on Facebook and on Twitter.

The man pretending to be Che Guevara (well, there are actually several others on Twitter) is a man in Turkey, which now means we can all jokingly say: "Che Guevara Turkce konustugunu hic bilmiyordum," which translates to 'I didn't know Che spoke Turkish,' which sounds much funnier in Turkish.

All three have considerably more followers on Twitter than the average person or entity. Of course, as one might expect, Jesus leads the pack with an astonishing 379,976 followers, that is as of yesterday. William Shakespeare has 7,582, and the Turkish Che Guevara has 2,236 people digging his tweets.

People with Long Names List, Part 2

It took an act of Congress to get this image above, and it is not because the Anglo-French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (b. 1971), who I have a huge crush though she is married with children, is smoking. There are various versions of this photograph on the web, and most of them were too big for our purposes.

On the first list of People with Long Names we featured men with difficult surnames, including Finnish ski-jumper Matti Hautmaki. This time we are posting women with long names here, and featuring a new men's with long names list on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here is the list (apologies in advance to anyone whose name we don't spell correctly!!!)which features women from all over the world:

1. Charlotte Gainsbourg_ The actress who starred in everything from French romcoms like "My Wife is an Actress" to shocking art films like "Antichrist" is also quite a good singer. Her late father Sergei Gainsbourg was one of the most admired singers in France during the '60s and '70s.

2. Nil Karaibrahimgil_ This Turkish singer who is somewhere near 30 years old is heard quite often on radio stations in Istanbul, and she prefers to simply call herself 'Nil.' We understand why.

3. Johana Sigurdordottir- This Icelandic prime minister is among the few world leaders who has publicly acknowledged that they are gay or lesbian. Charlotte Gainsbourg may have problems if she chose to reside in Iceland since the country is reportedly in the process of passing a de facto ban on smoking!

4. Simona Peycheva- Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast; we always try to include at least one eastern European on these lists.

5. Dominika Cibulkova- Yes, there are other tennis players from the Czech Republic or Slovakia with long, difficult names who are more famous (such as the one named Martina), but since this young Slovak tennis star reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals a few weeks ago, we thought we'd put her on the list so we could look hip.

6. Kalliopi Sarasopoulou- She is a Greek pop singer; we also try to include a person with a Greek name on these lists as they can tend to even longer than Turkish names!

7. Lilia Podkopayeva- This Ukrainian Olympian was quite impressive during her years as an impressive international gymnast, especially on the floor exercise. At 32, she would be still young enough to compete for just about any sport besides gymnastics.

8. Severa Nazarkhan- She is a singer from Uzbekistan who wowed the world with her 2003 record "Yol Bolsin," which was released through the English record lable Real World.

9. Tricia Olszewski- This film critic for "City Paper" in Washington, DC, really hated the Rutger Hauer film "Hobo with a Shotgun," but I saw it any way. It was 'ineteresting.'

10. Deepa Ranganathan- She is a leading researcher in sleep/wake patterns...need I say more!

Special Quote from Harold Pinter

Well, it looks like Harold Camping's prediction that the world as we know it would come to an abrupt on Saturday did not occur though there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland, and I came down with a nasty spring cold that morning.

Since the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, where we just visited last week is currently performing Harold Pinter's 1971 play "Old Times," we though we's quip the great English playwright.

Pinter (1930-2008) was known for writing biting dialogue and this play is no exception as it has lines like: "You have a wonderful casserole....I mean wife" and "I remember you dead."

Veteran DC-area actress Holly Twyford joins a cast that includes Steven Culp (tv's "Desperate Housewives") and Tracy Lynn. The play is directed by Michael Kahn, and it runs for 90 minutes. The production closes curtain on July 3rd.

Here is the quip from Pinter, who was also known for being a liberal political activist, an actor and a screenwriter:

"A short piece of work means as much to me as a long piece of work."

SIDEBAR: A reggae singer from Bermuda? Yes, Jamaica might well be the country that comes to mind with this genre of music, but Mishka, a male reggae singer from Bermuda perhaps best-known for the song "Give You All That Love" will be performing at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, NC, on Friday night.

Coming Attractions- Amadeus in Bethesda

Well, the world did not come to an abrupt end today as the radical evangelical radio station tycoon Harold Camping, who has gone missing, reported but there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Perhaps, God is punishing them for Bjork (that is a joke to everyone in Reykjavik!).

And, though we were hoping to start our blog series "Amadeus in Bethesda" about yet another hectic, but very fun-filled trip to Washington, DC, we are going to post it hepfully at some juncture next week instead.

The play "Amadeus," which was the basis for the 1985 Oscar-winning film of the same name that undoubtedly inspired Quentin Tarantino to become a filmmaker (hmmm.....yes, I know my off-beat sense of humor may make as much sense as a "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strip....?! By the way, we love Bill Griffith's work) is now being staged at the Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda, Md., which is the reason why we are calling the series "Amadeus in Bethesda."

We did not get to see the play, which opened May 11 and runs through June 5, but I have read the play in addition to seeing the film, and if I lived in the Maryland 'burbs, I would like to think I'd go to the play instead of seeing "Bridesmaids" at the multi-plex. Also, by sheer coincidence, we stayed in Vienna, Va., which is named the capital of Austria, Mozart's native land.

Here is a quote from Mozart (1756-1791) who died young, though he did outlive Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison:

"As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence."

Top 10 Countries to Visit in Next 10 Years...

I have a feeling some folks are going to scratch their heads over this list, which I initially made on New Year's Eve.

Egypt was actually on the original list at number ten, but do to riots, looting and political unrest, we have replaced Egypt with Burundi, even though that is where one can find the man-eating crocodile Gustave, who has had some 300 people for breakfast!

The images above are from Costa Rica, Honduras and Bolivia respectively. And, as it will seem quite obvious to most folks, I really, really want to go to a Scandanavian country.

Here is the list:

1. Bolivia

2. Honduras (yes, we know they had a coup in 2009)

3. Costa Rica

4. Finland

5. Sweden

6. Norway

7. Iceland

8. Denmark

9. Uzbekistan

10. Burundi

Top 10 Countries to Defect To...if Sarah Becomes Prez

Yes, much like Dubai oil, free time is becoming a rare commodity these days, but we had to blog about where we would go if the nightmare scenario of Sarah Palin becoming president were to happen. Much like actor Matt Damon, I have to agree that it would be 'like a bad Disney movie.'

I was actually planning to post this BEFORE the travel alert to Europe, but I would love to travel to these countries, six of which I've never been too (four of the countries are not actually in Europe, and one can dispute if Turkey is in Europe or not!):


1. Iceland (pictured...24 hours of daylight six months of the year!)
2. Norway
3. Costa Rica
4. Finland
5. Canada
6. France
7. Argentina
8. Turkey (well, I speak the language)
9. Greece (the recession there should make living there much cheaper!)*
10. Cuba (yes- we just put this up here to irk the right-wingers!)

*- Besides, I've always wanted to go to the island of Chios!