Top 10 Comics from the Mother's Day Sunday 'Washington Post:' It's Not Easy Being Green

Greetings to our blog readers in Malaysia, Malta and Mexico....maybe, we should go with Greece instead of Malta; it's a larger country.....oh, ooops, sorry for thinking out loud!

Today, our ten favorite comic strips from "The Washington Post" included "WuMo" bringing in Hulk, a Gremlin, and Yoda, to the office, to show off that they are now being green. Get it? Well, it's funny if you see it: http://www.gocomics.com/wumo ......our assumption is that Kermit the Frog feels a bit snubbed.

In second place, "Lio" continues a great tribute to filmmaker Ridley Scott with a comic strip homage to "Blade Runner" http://www.gocmics.com/lio  featuring all the characters for the film which will be midnight screened at the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 12th to the 14th. Here is the link: http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org

Dave Coverly's single-panel strip "Speed Bump" features a kangaroo who carries a puppy in her pouch: http://www.gocomics/speedbump

We also really liked "Mark Trail," an educational science comic strip which informs us about those dreaded doodlebugs (pict. center): https://comicskingdom.com/mark-trail

Here is our top ten: http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

1. WuMo

2. Lio

3. Speed Bump

4. Foxtrot

5. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

6. Reply All http://www.gocomics.com/replyall

7. Rhymes with Orange

8. The Argyle Sweater http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater

9. Dustin http://comicskingdom.com/dustin/2015-05-10

10. Mark Trail

For our look at our ten favorite strips from "The Roanoke Times," go to our sister blog (not my sister's blog) at http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Virtual Postcard from Kentucky-Mammoth Cave

We are featuring a Virtual Postcard from Kentucky (we featured another VP from the Bluegrass State last November) with an image of the world-famous Mammoth Cave National Park,which is 87 miles away from its nearest airport in Owensboro, Ky.

Kentucky is one of the eight states we are featuring in regards to our rather lengthy Thanksgiving road trip (which concluded yesterday, but we go back on Tues.) was from Roanoke, Virginia, to Denver, Colorado.

Among the highlights of the day was a discussion about food dishes which are actually made from the super-sweet Captain Crunch cereal which all of us who grew up in the '70s are well-acquainted with; these dishes include Captain Crunch fried chicken and Captain Crunch french toast. Somehow, I suspect that Dr. Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz), a fellow Turkish-American who has reached celebrity status as a good health advocate, would not recommend either of those platters.

It was also fun to watch the Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade from New York on tv this morning, among the highlights were seeing Kermit the Frog, Sonic the Hedgehog and McKayla Maroney, the American Olympic gymnast who has now become a meme for her famous disappointed facial squint.

And, we are happy to report that our good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, deep-fried a turkey for the tenth year in a row without doing bodily harm to himself. That is indeed something to be thankful for!http://www.kentuckytourism.com

http://www.theknightshift.blogspot.com

http://www.mckaylamaroney.com

The Last 10 Films I've Seen on the Big Screen

When we faced complications getting a decent image of Albert Brooks, the comedic actor, who gives a stunning, chilling performance as a ruthless gangster in "Drive," we figured we'd go with a book cover for the Stieg Larsson novel "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which is now in its second cinematic incarnation.

We are still amused that a Fox News commentator called "The Muppets" communist propaganda hence we developed the tag Kermit the Kommunist (for Kermit the Frog), which is seemingly very popular.

Here are the last ten films we've seen on the big screen:

1. "Drive" (dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) with Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Albert Brooks.

2. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (dir. David Fincher) with Daniel Craig

3. "My Week with Marilyn" (dir. Simon Curtis) with Michelle Williams

4. "Young Adult" (dir. Jason Reitman) with Charlize Theron

5. "The Descendants" (dir. Alexander Payne) with George Clooney

6. "The Adventures of Tintin" (dir. Steven Spielberg)

7. "The Skin I Live In" (Spain, dir. Pedro Almodovar) with Antonio Banderas

8. "Hugo" (dir. Martin Scorsese)

9. "Melancholia" (Denmark/Sweden, dir. Lars von Trier) with Kristen Dunst

10. "The Muppets" (dir. James Bobin)

Happy Holidays from Kermit the Frog

One of our favorite 'right wing media' moments this years was when Fox News host Eric Boiling actually proclaimed that the new children's musical/fantasy film "Muppets" was 'communist' liberal propaganda because it showed an oil tycoon in a negative light. His co-host Andrea Tantaras added that: "I just wish liberals would leave the kids alone."

So, we thought it would be nifty to wish everyone a Happy Holidays/Happy Hannukah/Merry Christmas from Kermit the Kommunist* Frog.

Aside from any Bolshevik leanings, Kermit is also known for being the only Muppet to appear on both "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show**." We learned while researching this that Kermit actually no longer appears on "Sesame Street" as of 2001, though he made an appearance in September 2009 to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

As everyone in the world, including Uzbekistan probably knows, Kermit was the central character in "The Muppet Show," which aired in the 1970s; his romantic interest was Miss Piggy.

Kermit, who is known as 'kurbagacik'/little frog in Turkey, was voiced by his creator Jim Henson up until Henson's untimely death in 1990.

I suppose since there are lots of bears in Russia, Fozzie the Bear would probably be the most subversive member of the Muppet family, if we were right-wing kooks that is. Interestingly enough, the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist on Dec. 25th, 1991, exactly 20 years ago.

*-kommunist is the Turkish word for communist; it seems to go better with Kermit

**- Alas, we spelled "The Muppet Show" incorrectly on our tags.

PSA-Stop Racism

For today's PSA entry, we go with a slogan repeated throughout the recent World Cup in South Africa: Stop Racism.

There is a brilliant column in the current issue of the progressive American magazine "The Nation," (not to be confused with the right-wing Pakistani publication of the same name) which states that one of the reasons why the American right, particularly the likes of Glenn Beck, can't stand soccer is that is the one true world game.

There also appears to be an international Stop Racism Day on March 21 of each year.

As for this image, we are using it because Kermit the Frog's children's song "It's Not Easy Being Green" dealt with racism. We found out while researching this piece that the world's most famous Muppet reptile made his debut way back in 1955 (?!) for a children's tv show in San Francisco.

SIDEBAR: Some of the interesting things we learned on Twitter today include the following: 1) There is actually a Twitter group telling Muslim residents of Bursa, Turkey, when prayer time is, 2) Domestically, The Goat Show gets underway at the Reno County Fair in South Hutchinson, Kan., tonight. The regular Kansas State Fair will be from Sept. 10-19, 3) A very, very depressed man apparently jumped 20 stories out of an office window to his death in Hartford, Conn., this week. And, I thought I had a rough week!