Top Ten Comics from The Roanoke Times (Sunday Edition): Trudeau Jabs Trump, Read All About It

Greetings to our blog readers in Costa Rica, Hungary, Kenya, as well as those of you who may be checking in from Sacramento, Calif., where the Monday 9:00 a.m. work day is just getting started.

Today, we look at our favorite comic strips from yesterday's "Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper for Roanoke, Va. Our chart-topper this week is Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury," where the cartoonist lampoons Donald Trump (pict. top) and his bad hair. This is followed by a clever edition of "Zits," which features a hand grenade gag (of all things), and "Jump Start" in which two kids ask each other what they think of aliens (pict. bottom, "Alf").

For those of you who might be herding sheep in Mongolia, Trump is one of 15 (or is it 16 or 17) Republicans running for president. We just learned that the conservative magazine "The National Review" has Carly Fiorina on its cover. Like Trump, she has zero political experience as well. (Her name is not spelled right on our tags, but we've learned from the Donald to not apologize).

Here is our top ten:

1. Doonesbury

2. Zits

3. Jump Start

4. Garfield

5. Pearls Before Swine

6. Speed Bump

7. Get Fuzzy

8. Dilbert

9. Family Circus

10. Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.doonesbury.com

Little Thinkers Quotes (14 of 16): Frank Lloyd Wright

Greetings to our blog-readers in Greece, Kenya and Japan.

Tonight, we are trying to make a mad dash through our Little Thinkers series, so we can start blogging about the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, even though we are nine hours away here in Hartford, Conn. (not really where we are at).....

So, we turn our attention to great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the folks at the National Building Museum, which I almost got kicked out of for using a cellphone (only half-true) can assist you (of course, we are not suggesting you actually pester them).

Here is the quote from a man who was also mentioned in a Simon and Garfunkel song:

"Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world."

http://www.nbm.org/ (Link to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C, it's a great place)

8 Things You Need to Know: DC Turkish Fetival, UNC Volleyball and Sen. Ted Cruz

1. The 11th Annual Washington D.C. Turkish Festival will be happening on Sunday. It will take place between 12th and 14th Street, two blocks from the White House. The event will feature folk dancing, musical performances, coffee fortune reading and (of course) very authentic ethnic cuisine (pictured top).

2. The University of North Carolina Tarheels' women's volleyball team will face ACC rival North Carolina on their home gym floor in Chapel Hill, NC, at Carmichael Arena, but the game, which starts at 8:00 p.m. tonight (eastern time) will also be televised on ESPN-U. Victoria McPherson (Number Seven, pictured center) was named ACC Player of the Week. The Tarheels are undefeated so far.

3) Though the game will not be nationally televised, the Yale Bulldogs will be facing their first Ivy League opponent when the Brown U Bears come to New Haven, Conn., on Sat. @ 5:00 p.m. Jesse Ebner of Yale was named co-Ivy League Player of the week.

4) In tragic news, Elif Yavuz, 33, a Dutch citizen of Turkish heritage was gunned down along with her Aussie boyfriend Ross Langdon, 33, at the Westgate Shopping Center in a violence rampage in Nairobi, Kenya, that has claimed at least 62 lives. The massacre/hostage situation started on Saturday. Yavuz was eight and a half months pregnant. She had performed work on behalf on the Clinton Foundation. Former president Bill Clinton praised Yavuz, who was also a Harvard alum.

5) The Salem Red Sox, the single-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, won its first Carolina League title since 2001, and the first since the team joined the Red Sox family. The defeated the Potomac Nationals to win the title. Mugsy (pictured bottom) is the team mascot.

6) One of the most fun bands in the word the Red Elvises are on tour. On Thursday night, the band performs at Moe's (yes that is the actual name of the venue, we were thinking about "The Simpsons" too) in Englewood, Colo., on Thursday night. The venue's phone number is 303.781.0414

7) Along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx) stands out among the Tea Party crazies who are gradually hijacking the Republican Party. Just a few hours ago, Cruz wrapped on his 21-hour speech, which included a reading of the Dr. Seuss classic "Green Eggs and Ham" (?!). He now gives new meaning to the term Ted Talks (TED Talks is a series of talks given about technology and socially relevant issues, such as education).

8) Teasers: In the coming days, we hope to have tweets about tweets relating to all things Washington, DC, which includes not just Congress, but the National Zoo. In addition, we are hoping to post some entries related to both Book Week and Banned Week (we believe both are going on this week). Stay tuned..............

http://www.turkishfestival.org

https://www.facebook.com/washingtondcturkishfestival

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/

http://www.redelvises.com/

http://www.ted.com/talks

http://www.goheels.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&SPID=12977&SPSID=668175

http://www.yalebulldogs.com/sports/w-volley/index

For Canada Day_ A Quote from William Shatner

Greetings to our blog readers in Kenya, Panama and Norway.

Today, our friends to the north are celebrating Canada Day. The American magazine "Mental Floss" has a list of "19 Things You Might Not Know Were Invented in Canada." We won't give the whole list away, but instant replay was #11. Additionally, there is a quiz which asks you "Are They Canadian?," these celebrities include everyone from Helen Hunt to Pamela Sue Anderson.

And, "The Montreal Gazette" has a "Know Canada" quiz, which seems about as challenging as a Bulgarian literature category would be on "Jeopardy," a show which is hosted by Canadian Alex Trebek.

But, our special quote for the day comes from Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, 82, who was born in Montreal:

"Babies have big heads and big eyes, and tiny little bodies with tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens at Rosewell. I rest my case."

SIDEBAR: We are saddened to hear about the death of French acrobat Sarah Guyard-Guillot, 31, a mother of two, who was among the performers in Cirque de Soleil's "Ka" in Las Vegas. She fell some 50 feet to her death over the weekend during a production of the show. Cirque de Soleil is a Canadian troupe, and this was the company's first death in its 30 year history.


http://www.williamshatner.com

http://www.startrek.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.montrealgazette.com

Times Around the World: From Boston to Baku

 

We were going to look at what our favorite people were saying on Twitter; we are especially curious what comic actor Marc Maron and fellow liberal Turkish-American Cenk Uygur are tweeting, but as it is, Javier the Intern told us to keep it simple tonight.

So, we are looking at times around the world, but rather than going with Grenwich Mean Time, we are going to look at times compares to New York City when it is midnight in the Big Apple.

Here we go:

USA

Boston 12:00 a.m.
Denver 10:00 p.m. (map of Colorado is pictured)
San Diego 9:00 p.m.

South America

Rio de Janeiro 1:00 a.m.
Buenos Aires 1:00 a.m.
Quito, Ecuador 11:00 p.m.

Africa

Nairobi, Kenya 7:00 a.m. (Mount Kenya pictured top)
Cape Town 6:00 a.m.
Casablanca 5:00 a.m.

Former USSR

Moscow 8:00 a.m. (Misha the Bear pictured top)
Yerevan, Armenia 8:00 a.m.
Baku, Azerbaijan 9:00 a.m.

Happy 76th Birthday, Daffy Duck

We want to wish Daffy Duck a Happy 76th birthday. The beloved Looney Tunes cartoon character, who is arguably among the fussiest and most negative of cartoon characters, first appeared in the cartoon "Porky Goes Duck Huntin" on April 17, 1937.

Daffy Duck was the subject of a brilliant Jeff Greenberg column which said that political candidates who were more like Bugs Bunny, such as Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, were more likely to win elections than ones who were more like Daffy Duck, such as Walter Mondale and John McCain, who is coincidentally talking about guns in America in the U.S. Senate today.

One famous quote from Daffy Duck is from the cartoon "Duck Amuck" (1953): "Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin"

We are going to wish Daffy Duck a happy birthday in six different languages:

1. Grattis pa fodelsedagen (Swedish, ironically Donald Duck is very popular in Sweden)

2. Dogum gunun kutlu olsun (Turkish)

3. feliz compleanos (Spanish

4. joyeaux anniversaire (French)

5. Alles Gute zum Ceburtstag (German)

6. furaha ya kuzaliwa (Swahili: a language spoken in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)

It's Election Day in America

As a resident of North Carolina who is from neighboring Virginia, today's election, in spite of the constant tv ads, radio spots, mailings and robo calls, is of great interest: North Carolina carries 15 electoral college votes whereas Virginia has 13. But, Ohio with 18 electoral college votes is considered the most important battleground swing state.

In the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post," Chris Cillizza who is an excellent non-partisan political analyst with his 'Post" blog 'The Fix,' predicts that President Barack Obama will get 277 electoral college votes while his challenger Mitt Romney will have 261; Reid Wilson of the non-partisan "National Journal" forecasts that Obama will get slightly more votes 294 for Obama and 244 for Romney.

Hopefully, everyone will get a chance to vote. I am fortunate to live in a swing state and I realized that people in Fort Mill, South Carolina, which neighbors the Tarheel State, and Bluefield, West Virginia, which neighbors Virginia, have to be agonized over the fact that their state is not in play.

Similarly, people in far away places like Baku, Azerbaijan, and Nairobi, Kenya, are watching this election very closely, perhaps in some cases just as much as Americans.

Lastly, in order to be 'remotely' objective, we should point out that the top image is of a Greek donkey (it may actually be from Macedonia); I am a Turkish-American:)

http://www.nationaljournal.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix

http://www.theonion.com (a satirical publication)

Rainy Days and Sundays and Weather Around the World

 

We got pretty much rained out of our beach vacation and Tropical Storm Isaac is heading for Cuba and the Florida coast with the possibility of threatening the Republican convention in Tampa. Out of respect to our 'Republican friends' we will hold off on the Paul Ryan jokes until...well, tomorrow.

 

Here is a look at weather conditions around the world (we are using Fahreinheit, apologies for those of you who use Celsius):

 

Ankara 61 cloudy

 

Amsterdam 61 rain

 

Baku, Azerbaijan 73 cloudy

 

Buenos Aires 48 clear

 

Dubai 90 sunny

 

Frankfurt 61 partly cloudy

 

London 61 cloudy

 

Moscow 55 rain

 

Nairobi, Kenya 59 cloudy

 

Nassau, The Bahamas 84 cloudy

 

Singapore 84 sunny

 

Sydney 64 sunny

 

Tokyo 88 partly cloudy

 

Toronto 75 clear

 

http://www.weather.com

 

Virtual Postcard from Colorado-The Boulder Theatre

Well, we are no longer in the great western state of Colorado, but we were there last week. This image is of The Boulder Theatre in downtown Boulder, Colo., the venue no longer shows films on a regular basis, but it does host traveling bands. On Thursday, the hip folk band Trampled by Turtles plays there, and on June 1st, the '80s band The BoDeans, one of the best bands out of Wisconsin, comes to the 80302 zip code.

While we were visiting Boulder, we learned that Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the capital of a remote former Soviet republic- of all places, was one of Boulder's main sister cities. For the residents of Boulder, Dushanbe's mayor Maksud Ikramov commissioned local Tajiki artists to build a teahouse which was disassembled and shipped to Boulder.

Boulder, which is home to the Colorado University Buffaloes, also has an excellent bookstore called The Boulder Book Store, where one can find both the liberal magazine "The Nation" and the conservative journal "The National Review," which is fitting that Colorado is a swing state in this year's election. Like most college towns, except Lynchburg, Va., and Provo, Utah, Boulder is a fairly liberal place and that is evident by its many marijuana dispensaries. Local news sources said several such businesses were closing due to their close proximity to schools (1,000 feet is apparently where authorities draw the line).

Colorado is also home to Colorado Springs, an evangelical Mecca (is that an oxy moron, or what) which home to Focus on the Family and several other right-wing groups.

The Boulder Book Store is hosting author Geraldine Brooks for a book signing of "Caleb's Crossing" on May 19th.

Boulder is also sister cities with Lhasa, Tibet, Yateras, Cuba, and Kisumu, Kenya.

Our special 'virtual postcard' greetings go out to blog readers from Chile, Lebanon and New Zealand, who visited our blog today!

http://www.bouldermmdispensary.comhttp://www.boulderteahouse.comhttp://www.bouldertown.com

Congrats to the Alabama Crimson Tide

Even though we were sort of rooting for Utah or UCLA, we want to congrdaulate the University of Alabama's women's gymnastics team on their fifth NCAA title. The NCAA championships were held over the weekend in Cleveland. Alabama won the title with a 197.65 score over UCLA (197.375) and the University of Oklahoma (197.25).

Nebraska, Utah and Michigan rounded out the Super Six. Surprisingly, the University of Florida which had been ranked number one at times this year did not make the Super 6 Finals. Shockingly, another strong gymnastics contender Stanford did not even get past regionals!

Crimson Tide coach Sarah Patterson said she was proud of her team for coming together as a team in Cleveland.

We will post all-around and individual results on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." Geralen Stack-Eaton (pictured here) from Alabama was one of the event winners.

SIDEBAR: Kudos also to Caroline Kilel of Kenya who won the Boston Marathon earlier today. She beat out second-place finisher American Desiree Davila and her fellow Kenyan and third-place finisher Sharon Cherop.

Winter Athlete Profile (9 of 25) Philip Boit/Cross Country Skier/Kenya

I first heard about Philip Boit on the NPR news program "The World" a few weeks ago when he wasn't entirely sure if he would be able to compete as a cross-country skier at the olympics.

The good news is that Boit, 38, will be competing in his fourth consecutive Olympics dating back to the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan.

Along with fellow Kenya distance runner Henry Bitok, Boit was part of a Nike program to have Kenyan runners train in Finland to become cross country skiers.

Boit became the first Winter Olympic athlete to ever compete for Kenya. During his first Olympics, Boit finished 92nd but Norwegian cross country skier Bjorn Daehle who won gold in the event delayed the award ceremony so that Boit could finish his run. For that noble gesture, Boit named on his sons Daehle Boit.

The Kenyan athlete finished 64th at the '02 Salt Lake City Olympics and 92nd at the last winter games in Turin, Italy.

According to the web site goafrica.com, one of the challenges for African winter athletes is actually having the funds to travel to the Olympic host cities.