We're Back from Hibernation.....Roanoke Times Comic Strips Dialogue (2 of 4)

This is our first entry since September of last year, and the only reason we have come back is that there is a loyal blog reader in Riga, Latvia, who kept pestering me about when I would blog again. Ok, so actually Instagram is to blame....all those amazing photos of Lake Van in Turkey are hard to ignore!!! It's hard to believe that in that amount of time we have watched Vladimir Putin became the 45th president of our beloved America (Sorry, but we can't stand Donald Trump, if there was definitely a God, then Hillary Clinton would have won the election...excuse the editorial)

Here are eight lines of dialogue we are stealing from the "Roanoke Times" Sunday comics section which ran on March 5, 2016. The reason we are using an image of starting Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby (pictured) is because a hockey goalie is referenced in "For Better or For Worse."

1) That stupid goalie! He just never looks! He misses everything! (For Better or For Worse)

2) "I think I need a hug anyway," (Zits)

3) What do you mean? (Hi and Lois)

4) I know red flowers make me sneeze. (Pickles)

5) At long last...............The Baby Aisle! (Jump Start)

6) I was just leaving for the day (Dilbert)

7) You're going to be late! (Baby Blues)

8) Chef Salad! Lasagna! Fried Chicken! (Blondie)

Now we can finally devote more time to those Mental Floss pop culture quizzes!

http://www.nhl.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

New and Improved Top Ten American Cities We'd Like to Visit: From Miami to Vancouver

Since we returned back from Costa Rica on Black Friday, we've been thinking about where else would like to travel during our time here on earth, and if we die a premature death like Austrian pop star Falco, we hope we can come back to life as the Buddhistst suggest, so we can visit Detroit (actually a city which just missed making this life).

For this list, we are focusing on North American cities, and our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com we look at cities we would like to visit in Europe.

It should be pointed that cities we adore, like Denver, New York and Baltimore are not on this list because we wanted to focus on cities we've never visited.

And, without any further interruptions, here is the list:

1) Miami, Florida ("Miami Vice" is pictured top)

2) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (The logo for the Vancouver Canucks is pictured center)

2) Seattle, Washington (pictured bottom)

4) San Francisco, California

5) Portland, Oregon (but, we have been to Portland, Maine, this Portland is the one where "Portlandia" takes place)

6) Guadalajara, Mexico

7) Los Angeles, California

8) Minneapolis, Minnesota

9) Dallas, Texas

10, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/

http://www.tourismvancouver.com/

http://www.visitseattle.org/Home.aspx

Things We Learned on Bing Today- Sports Edition

Today was an interesting day in English soccer as Arsenal got the coveted fourth place finish thanks to a 1-0 win over Newcastle; their crosstown rival Tottenham also won their match with Sunderland by the same 1-0 score but Arsenal had the advantage going into league play today.

So, this got Javier the Intern* thinking about a good post idea for today, and that is: "What sports can we learn on Bing today?"

Here is what we found out:

1) Thomas Vermaelen, 27, of Belgium, (pictured) is the current captain for Arsenal, though the English club's star player is arguably English national Theo Walcott. Thomas wears #5 and he previously played for Dutch powerhouse Ajax Amsterdam.

2) Siem de Jong, 24, of the Netherlands/Holland is the current captain of Ajax Amsterdam, a team that just won its 32nd domestic league title. Siem wears #10.

3) Ken Dryden, 65, of Canada, is the NHL goalie who has won the most Stanley Cup titles. Dryden achieved his with the great Montreal Canadiens teams of the 1970's as he won cups in 1971, 1973, 1976-79. Dryden was also a member of the Liberal Part in the Canadian Parliament.

4) Grant Hill, 40, an alumnus of Duke University who plays for the Phoenix Suns is the oldest active current player in the NBA though his team did not qualify for the quarterfinals.

5) Mallory Hagan, 24, is the current Miss America. She represented New York state. Yeah, we know beauty pageants may not qualify as a sport, but hey we need the hits!


http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.nhl.com

http://www.nba.com

http:/www.rnw.nl

http://www.missamerica.org

http://www.bing.com

Friday Night Tweets: Balance Beams and Ski Slopes

It was our hope to have at least one sports every week on this blog. Hmmmmm. In reality, there are perhaps too many distractions for that. But, since this is one of these "Applebees Fridays," you know one in which you had plans and for one reason or another none of them came to be (for those of you in Nepal: Applebees is an American chain restaurant. There are probably eight in Scranton, Pa.), we thought we'd post various tweets, many of which deal with collegiate or pro athletics.

One thing we found out, but not through Twitter, was that the host University of North Carolina Tar Heels women's gymnastics team edged out the North Carolina Wolfpack by a 195.050-194.875 score. For the visiting 'Pack,' junior Diahanna Ham posted a 9.9 on bars. We didn't see results on the Tar Heels gymnastics site, but we did learn that senior Elizabeth Durkac, from Yorktown, Va.,(pictured center) was named EAGL Conference Gymnast of the Week.

Here are the Friday Night Tweets; we have added some things for clarity:

1) Seattle Weekly @seatlleweekly: "Study: Young adults carry less debt, but it might not be a good thing."

2) Pittsburgh Penguins @penguins: "Things are getting chippy @ConsolEnergyCtr. Tomas Kopecky of the Panthers is in the box for slashing. #Pens now on the PowerPlay. (Spoiler Alert: The Penguins won their home game over the Florida Panthers 3-1; Kopecky is from Slovakia).

3) Auburn Gymnastics @Augymnastics: "Abbey Habitcht of Auburn up next with a small check on her leap series, an awesome series, and a small hop on her dismount." (Auburn was facing LSU in a home meet tonight; no report on which team won the meet).

4) Visit Colorado @Colorado:" Have you ever been lucky enough to ski in a tee shirt? Come to Colorado and you can!" (This is the reason we have an image of Jamaican aerial skier Errol Kerr, top image, even though he is not from Colorado).

5) WBTV-News @WBTV-News (WBTV is the CBS-affiliate in Charlotte, NC): "Tractor trailer crash shuts down North Bound I-77 for several hours."

6) University of Washington Gymnastics @UWGymnastics: "Loud roar in here during starting lineups for Arizona natives and UW freshmen Keirsten Graber and Sheridan Metcalf. And, we mean LOUD!" (UW was facing Arizona State in a road meet).

7) The Baltimore Sun @baltimoresun: "Oscar trivia: Nearly half of this year's acting nominees are previous Oscar winners."

8) BYU Lacrosse @BYULacrosse: "1 more hour until the big game! We want to hear some score predictions." (Brigham Young is facing Chapman, a school in Las Vegas, as we are posting this).

9) WSOC Weather @WSOCWeather (WSOC is the Charlotte, NC, affiliate for ABC): "Ever wonder what it is like to live in London or Seattle, step outside."

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.gopack.com

http://www.colorado.com

http://www.jamaicaskiteam.com

GOP Pre-Convention Tweets: If We Had a Real Media

The 2012 Republican National Convention gets underway in Tampa, Fla., tomorrow, and we have decided to be both objective (in the Charlie Rose sense) and subjective as can be (in the Cenk Uygur sense). So, I guess for the next five days, we will essentially be like Fox News in reverse.

On Twitter tonight, east coast USA time, one of the main trending topic was #IfWeHadARealMedia; though most tweets were right-leaning, some liberals chimed in as well.

Before we post tweets ranging from right wing comic, talk-show host Dennis Miller, who will perform in Durham, NC, on Sept. 8, ironically the most liberal zip code in the Tarheel State, to Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist who was part of Bill Clinton's War Room, let's go over the images:

1) Travis Tritt: The country singer has let his conservative views be well-known, but to our knowledge he has not resonated the same hate speech rhetoric as Hank Williams Jr. Tritt will be the feature performer at the Shenandoah County in Woodstock, Va. on Aug. 31st.

2) Big Splash. At $1.5 million, this Tibetan mastiff is the most expensive dog in the world, which means Mitt and Ann Romney could afford to have the dog as a pet. Today (Sunday) is incidentally National Dog Day.

3) Vincent Lecavalier. We don't know the political views of the Tampa Lightning captain, which is just as well, as he is a Canadian, and presumably can't vote in the American presidential election.

Here are the tweets:

1) @DennisDMZ (Dennis Miller): "Biden told Obama that's not how you spell Phio. You've got the O's switched around."

2) @LisainDallas (Lisa in Dallas): "#IfweHadARealMedia: They would report on the wars the same way they did under Bush."

3) @word_34 (Spread the Word): "If.......: You would know that Bush kept 1.2 trillion off the books for two unfunded wars."

4) @noiwillnotbe (I Will NOT Be Quiet): "#If......the republican war on women would be covered."

5) @exrepublicans (Ex-Repubs for Obama): "#If......: Bill O, Hannity, Hush, and Beck wouldn't exist."

6) @Reagan-Girl (Marjorie Haun): "#If......: Keith Olbermann would be behind glass in a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" museum."

7) @PaulBegala (Paul Begala): "Sure, Romney's humor is lame & offensive. Could it be strategic_ to distract from new docs on Caymans tax dodge?"

http://www.shencofair.com

http://www.travistritt.com

http://www.dennismillerradio.com

http://www.visittampabay.com

http://www.current.com

http://www.gopconvention2012.com

http://www.nationaldogday.com

http://www.twitter.com

http://www.vinny4.com

And, for more tweets from tonight about the GOP Convention, and see an image of a Tampa Bay Bucaneers cheerleader, visit our sister blog at:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

The Other Sweet 16- the NCAA Hockey Tournament

We had problems finding suitable images for college hockey teams, so we just went with Peter Puck, the cartoon character who was featured on NBC broadcasts of NHL games when I was a kid in 1970s. Amazingly enough, the games were broadcast in Roanoke, Va., in those days, but they were preempted in many Southern markets. Ironically, today there are several NHL teams south of the Mason-Dixon line, including the Carolina Hurricanes, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.

But, our focus today is on NCAA college hockey, a sport I have just started to try and follow in recent years. One thing that is confusing about college hockey is the conference alignment, the major conferences include the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), which includes several Big 10 teams, including Michigan and Michigan State, two teams which also made the NCAA field of 16, and the Hockey East Conference, which includes the number-one team in the country, Boston College.

In total, five CCHA schools made the field, including Ferris State (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan, which actually upset Michigan for the conference tournament title. There are four schools from the Hockey East Conference; the other three that are in the field are Boston University, Maine and Mass-Lowell.

On Saturday, in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN-U, the Boston College Eagles will face another team with a bird nickname as they face the Air Force Falcons, a team that is ranked 16th in the country.

That game will take place in Boston College's home state as the two teams are in the Worcester, Mass.-region. The other game in that region pits the defending national championship Minnesota-Duluth against Maine.

The winner of the Worcester-regional will then face the winner of the St. Paul, Minn.-region for the Frozen Four, which takes place in (of all places) Tampa, Fla., starting on April 5th.

In the St. Paul-region, Minnesota will face Boston University, and Western Michigan will face North Dakota.

Though I am not an expert on college hockey, by any stretch, I am going to 'predict' that the Frozen Four will be between Boston College and Minnesota, and the other game will be between Miami (Ohio) and Denver University.

We will have more coverage of the other regionals on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times."

Boston College won its third straight Hockey East Conference title in the conference tournament in Boston when they beat Maine 4-1; the two games could meet in the quarter-finals if the Black Bears upset Minn-Duluth. For BC, the team got two goals from freshman Johnny Gaudreau (Carneys Point, NJ) and goal-tender Parker Milner, a junior (Pittsburgh, Pa.) made 41 saves.

The Falcons won its fifth Atlantic Hockey Association Conference title in six years thanks to senior Paul Weisgarber (Fargo, N. Dak.) and sophomore goal-tender Jason Torf (Hermosa Beach, Calif.).

Boston College has won two hockey titles in recent years (2008 and 2010).

It should be an amazing journey to the Frozen Four, irregardless of which team wins.

Quote of the Day- Wayne Gretzky

We continue to quote famous Canadians today with a quip from Wayne Gretzky, who is considered to be the great hockey player of all time. Gretzky, 50, is an Ontario native who won four Stanley Cups for the Edmonton Oilers.

Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988 in what became the most controversial trade in North American sports history. Gretzky later played for the St. Louis Blues and the New York Rangers. He retired while playing for the Rangers in 1999. The Oilers won an additional Stanley Cup after Gretzky's trade.

Here is his quote:

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey plays where the puck is going to be."

Things We Learned on Twitter This Week- Chicago Sports Fans Are Loyal

Whether it is a liberal Hollywood actor like Jon Cusack or a right-wing political commentator with no sense of humor like George F. Will, Chicagoans seem to love their sports team irregardless if they are winning or not.

And, that was Reason #28 why "Chicago Magazine" said Windy City residents should love Chicago, according to a tweet posted by them on Wednesday.

The exact wording of the post was: "Reason #28 to love Chicago: Sports fans who stick with their teams (sometimes the devotion pays off).

They then linked to a photograph with several college-age Chicago Blackhawks fans painted in red (as if they were draped in blood) including Wes Zielinski and Nixon Flores.

The Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup after many, many years last season.

Well, I would write more put I've got to play the piano at Chic's Antiques in Floyd, Va., this afternoon to entertain Black Friday customers (that is a joke actually as I don't play the piano, and if I did I would certainly not be as great as Liberache!).

Besides, last night while putting the finishing touching on an entry for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," the computer crashed which almost made me curse like "Rolling Stone" writer Matt Taibbi who has been known to say some mean things about George F. Will, which we won't repeat here as most Republicans in the South tend to carry glocks with them to the Piggly Wiggly!

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Blue Shark Found in a River!

Zut alors! Wow! We are actually ahead in our blog entries as generally don't post this entry until Wednesday, which of course means we are neglecting vital aspects of our professional, social and personal lives, but we shall catch up even if it means hanging out at the Waffle House in Burlington, NC, (not where I actually am at the moment) until hmm.......4:35 a.m.!

Today, we learned from a tweet from "The Montreal Gazette" that a blue shark, a species which can grow up to 13-feet long, was captured in the St. Lawrence River in the Quebec province of Canada.

Fisherman who were trolling the river in the Gaspe region of Quebec found the blue shark sometime during daylight hours on Sunday.

The shark has been sent to the Exploramer Museum for further study.

Canadian blue sharks are more commonly found off the Atlantic Ocean of Nova Scotia.

Perhaps, the next time the San Jose Sharks of the NHL come to play the Montreal Canadiens, they can ask if the fish can become their mascot....?!

SIDEBAR: The Internationalist Book Store in Chapel Hill, NC, has a unique project which continues on Aug. 25 as they invite area residents and customers to gather in the store from 6:30-8:00 p.m. to send books to prisoners who are serving time in Alabama and Mississippi. Perhaps, "The Count of Monte Crisco" will be one of the titles! The establishment is also featuring the book "Resisting Reagan" by UNC sociology professor Christian Smith. The book details how some 100,000 Americans marched in the streets to protest Ronald Reagan's involvement in the wars which afflicted El Salvador and Nicaragua during his time in office.

PSA- Save PBS (So, We Don't Have Watch John Denver Specials!)

Actually, contrary to the title of this entry, there are many songs from the late folk singer John Denver (1943-1997) that I enjoy, but let's face it a PBS special with a live performance of his song during Pledge Week is about as painful was well a Lawerence Welk PBS special (irregardless if it airs during Pledge Week or not!).

Earlier in the week, my local PBS station UNC-TV, which broadcasts all over North Carolina even though it is based in Raleigh, aired one such John Denver special. We believe it was "A Song's Best Friend," but we can not verify that as we honestly changed to channel to a rerun of "Ghost Whispherer."

Amazingly enough, I saw a copy of the John Denver record "Poems, Prayers and Promises," (pictured here) which features one of his signature songs "Country Roads" for ten dollars (?!) at Duke's Antiques Mall in Lexington, Va., a few months ago.

We do happen to love PBS and UNC-TV, which aired an interesting segment about the Charlie Poole Bluegrass Festival which is taking place in Eden, NC, this weekend. The festival featured the Durham, NC-based band Carolina Chocolate Drops a few years ago right before they made it 'big' nationally.

Tonight, WUNC-TV is airing another Pledge Week special "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" with Dr. John Amen at 9:30 p.m. This guy is apparently very popular with PBS stations because we found out that another one of his specials "Magnificent Mind at Any Age" is airing tonight at 11:00 p.m. on MPT (Maryland Public Television). So, perhaps a person living in Kannapolis, NC, can phone their sister living in Hagerstown, Md., and compare notes.

But, Amen's shows are not airing on every PBS station in America tonight as KBDI in Denver, Colo., is not going to air any of his specials tonight. However, the same station is going to air "Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart" at 7:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (Mountain Time, of course). So, you may want to ask your brother in Aspen to tivo it for you!

SIDEBAR: Kudos to the Chicago Blackhawks for winning their first Stanley Cup since 1961 thanks to an overtime goal from Patrick Kane in overtime last night during Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers in the City of Brotherly Love. My cousin Erroll Gokbudak, who grew up in the Chicago 'burb of Skokie, Ill., is assuredly most pleased. He can now go back to watching "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS like the rest of us!

Olympic Athletes Profile (4 of 25) Alex Ovechkin/Men's Hockey/Russia

Most of the Winter Olympic athletes we profile here are struggling to make ends meet as they train for their respective sports. That can not be said for Russian star hockey player and Washington Capitals' captian Alex Ovechkin, who is making $9.5 million a year, but he is also scoring more goals than anyone else in the NHL.

Ovechkin was born on Spet. 17, 1985, and he is the son of former pro Russian soccer player Mikhail Ovechkin and Tatyana Ovechkin who competed for the Soviet women's basketball team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1980 Moscow Olympics (Misha the Bear, those games' mascot is pictured here).

It is amazing for those of us who grew up during the Cold War (I turn 40 in 15 days) that two Russian hockey players playing for their national team in Vancouver, Ovechkin and Alexander Semin also play with the Washington Capitals, the NHL pro team in the American capital!

Apparently after he was dealing with questions about jabs at the Barck Obama administration from the ever-restless Dick Cheney, Vice President Joe Biden was asked on "Meet the Press" if it was ok to be an Ovechkin fan and still be patriotic. As A Caps fan himself, Biden said that of course it was.

Ovechkin started playing hockey in Moscow at the age of 8. According to Wikipedia, he was encouraged by his older Sergei who died in a car accident when Alex was just 10.

Ovechkin actually began his pro hockey career at age 16 with Dynamo Moscow in 2001. He won the Russian Superleague's MVP in his third season. His first game with the Caps was on Oct. 5, 2005, when he scored two goals against the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 3-2 win.

The Caps star would lead rookies in goals, points, power-plays and shots. Ovechkin was named NHL Rookie of the Year. He would appear in his first all-star game, which was held in Dallas, in 2001.

He became the first player to score more than 60 goals in a season (in 2008) since former Pittsburgh Penguins teammates Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr achieved that milestone during the 1995-96 season.

Ovechkin broke the Caps' team goals in a season title in 2008 as well. He ended up socring 65 goals in a season which lead him past former Caps' record holder Dannis Morok who scored 61 in a season during his playing days.

The Russian star captured both the Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies in 2008.

He scored his 200th career goals against the L.A. Kings on Feb. 5, 2009, and he won the Rocket Richard Trophy again last season. The Caps' season ended sooner than the team would have liked though as they fell to the Penguins in seven games.

This NHL season, Ovechkin reached the 500-point milestone during a Feb. 5 game against the New York Rangers, a month after he became the Caps' captain on Jan.5.

Internationally, Ovechkin has played in the 2006 Olympics, which were disappointing to the Russian team because they failed to medal.. But, the Caps' star scored five goals including a game winner against New Jersey Devils' goal-tender Martin Brodeur, who was playing for Team Canada.

Ovechkin lead Russia to team gold in the 2008 World Championships.

He has been given the Key to the City from Washington, DC, mayor Adrian Fentry.

Ovechkin has also been named as Russia's ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

A fan web site (ovechkinfans.com) quotes him as saying: "My weapon isn't my shot. It's me."

SIDEBAR: Ovechkin has been relatively silent on his Twitter page lately, but the same can not be said for his Capitals and Team Russia teammate Alex Semin. He took a dig at American hockey players Andrew Orpik and Sidney Crosby who also play for the Pittsburgh Penguins:

"At my hotel room in Vancouver, and I hear crying through the wall. I had no idea Crosby and Orpik were sharing the room next to me.

And, he also talked about how 'he was fine-tuning' his hockey skills in the time for the team's first game:

"My first 2 goals were products of my God-given talent, but my 3rd was all hard work. I finally figured out the Wii Motion on my stick."