Top Ten Things We Should Blog About More in 2015 (our tenth anniversary year!)........: Soccer and Politics

Greetings to our blog readers in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Vietnam, three places where we are surprisingly more popular than we could have ever expected! Perhaps, you guys will catch up with Slovenia (for my fellow Americans who flunked geography that's a former Yugoslav republic, yeah, that probably doesn't assist you any.......)

For the 109th time this year, we once again make fun of Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va; pict. top) who is apparently fighting for companies like Amazon who don't have to pay taxes. Assuredly, this means he will have to take Jeff Bezos out for pizza the next time he's in Washington, D.C., where one may also run into Vice President Joe Biden (pictured bottom, hopefully, those of you going to Princeton University know he's the second man in charge at The White House.).

The man in the middle is Chelsea star Didier Drogba, a star player from the Ivory Coast, who also had a stint with the Istanbul soccer powerhouse Galatasaray, our favorite team. And, since the men in red and yellow tied Ankara GB 1-1 on Thursday, we presume, he is greatly missed.

Here are the top ten things we SHOULD blog more about in 2015, a year in which we will mark our tenth year of blogging!:

1. European soccer

2. Fox News nonsense

3. Israel/Palestinian nonsense

4. Cong. Bob Goodlatte

5. The Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va. (our favorite crazy Baptist minister)

6. Joe Biden

7. Taylor Swift

8. "Family Circus"

9. Global Warming

10. The death penalty/doing my laundry (tie)

Sunday Washington Post Comics Survey: Tell Jeff Bezos We Love "Dustin"

Yes, we have had distractions this week, but we are back with our weekly survey of our favorite comic strips in Sunday newspapers. It should be pointed out that we also love several comic strips not published in either "The Washington Post" nor "The Roanoke Times," the two newspapers' comic pages we survey; these include "Bleeker," about a robotic dog, "Pros and Cons," about the legal profession, and "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," about a slightly overeager science whiz kid.

Jeff Bezos who made his fortune in Amazon, we are referring to the e-purchase site not the river in Brazil, took over "The Washington Post" recently and on Sunday, there were noticeable changes to the paper as a whole, but thankfully, no changes, for the better or worse, were made to the comic strips pages. Nevertheless, we hope Bezos understands that we really enjoy "Dustin."

The comic strip about a single twenty-something bears a bit of a resemblance to Dustin Hoffman's title character in "The Graduate," as both are seeking out how to establish themselves in the world. One of the key differences is that there is no Mrs. Robinson in "Dustin" (the comic strip). In this week's strip, Dustin takes a selfie at the DMV, only to be told that is not allowed.

In "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," a strange looking alien literally robs the title character of everything he owns. While in Keith Knight's "Knight Life," there is a funny tension between the title character, an African-American male modeled after Knight himself, and his German wife, over the subject of interracial marriage.

Here is the rest of our survey:

1) "Dustin" (see top image of Dustin Hoffman)

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (see middle image of Gil Gerard and the cult '80s NBC sci-fi series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," Gerard is still alive at age 71).

3) "Pearls Before Swine"

4) "Knight Life" (see bottom image of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner poster)

5) "Lio"

6) "Speed Bump"

7) "Reply All"

8) "Candorville"

9) "The Argyle Sweater"

10) "Foxtrot"

"Sherman's Lagoon" just barely missed out, but we're sure it will crack the top ten again soon! That was also the case with "WUMO."

"Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" is also available in the Sunday print edition of the "News and Record" (Greensboro, NC).

http://dustincomics.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/

http://www.gocomics.com/knightlife

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.news-record.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: The Argyle Seater Takes Gold in the Luge

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Azerbaijan and Thailand.

Welcome to another edition of where we rank comic strips from the Sunday newspapers.

Many newspapers had winter themes this year, including brilliant, cutting edge strips like "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," and legacy strips, such as "Hi and Lois" (neither of these strips runs in the Sunday "Washington Post"). And, though we haven't seen today's "Tundra," we imagine that Chad Carpenter's strip, which always takes place in his native Alaska, has snow in it as well.

But, our top strip of the week "The Argyle Sweater" imagines a birthday party with folks from the Marvel Universe, including "The Silver Surfer" (pictured top). We imagine the strip's artist Scott Hillburn found a way to get around cumbersome copyright laws.

But, our second-ranked strip of the week "Brewstir Rockit" a science fiction themed strip, took a huge leap out of its creative box resulting in a hilarious strip with the Frosty the Snowman's (pictured middle) wife.

And, our bronze medal goes to "Lio," a silent strip with no dialogue (Buster Keaton would be pleased) featuring Yeti, or the Bigfoot of Nepal.

Fourth place goes to "Sherman's Lagoon," where Sherman the shark, the strip's title character goes into a funk. As always, Jim Toomey's strip is a far cry from the sharks we grew up with on "Jaws."

While researching this entry, last week, we found out that "WUMO," a strip that features Pac Man today was actually an import from Denmark! "WUMO," last week's champion, comes in seventh this week as there were many great strips.

Here is the list from the Sunday "Washington Post:"

1) The Argyle Sweater

2) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

3) Lio

4) Sherman's Lagoon

5) Dustin

6) Pearls Before Swine

7) WUMO

8) Reply All

9) Knight Life

10) Judge Parker (love that snake in the final panel, this strip is also in "The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, WVa, which has 'a slightly lower' circulation than "The Washington Post," but perhaps Amazon kingpin Jeff Bezos can buy them too!).


http://www.hearld-dispatch.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.theargylesweater.com

http://www.edisonlee.com

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://www.shermanslagoon.com