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

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

Survey of the Best Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (Oct. 19th edition)

Greetings to those of you reading this blog in Germany, Ukraine and Cyprus, and special greetings to those of you have just joined us after watching the Florida gubernatorial race debate between incumbent Rick Scott (R) and his challenger Charlie Crist (D) or for those of you who are already bored with the World Series, which is starting tonight.

This week, we really liked the "Pearls Before Swine" take on the old Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First," but it was a week full of great comic strips in the Sunday Washington Post. The Danish import WuMo had Yoda, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh meeting in the children's section of a public library, perhaps they were in Hartford, Conn. (we have a gag about how we are posting from the Hartford Public Library even though we've never been in that building). "WuMo" got second place in our survey.

The bronze medal went to Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, no, we just said that to keep you from daydreaming; it actually went to "Rhymes with Orange" which features selfies from the whole family. We're sure our friends at the Urban Dictionary who have coined terms like 'shoefie' and 'brofie' got a hoot out of the Hilary B. Price strip (http://www.urbandictionary.com) The selfie gag is the reason why Kim Kardashian is in our top image slot.

We also enjoyed the educational comic strip "Mark Trail" which focused on various spiders like tarantulas (pictured center) and scorpions; the strip revealed that some spiders actually dine on fish?! Perhaps, they would like Red Lobster.

The cutting edge comic strip "Candorville" had a take on man seeing a shrink, and for that we are featuring an image of Lucy from "Peanuts," a nice comic strip that will probably be in newspapers until the year 2073, when Lucy will be 116 years old.

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. WuMo

3. Rhymes with Orange

4. Speed Bump

5. Sherman's Lagoon

6, Dustin

7. Lio

8. Big Nate

9. Mark Trail

10. Candorville

http://www.hplct.org/ (The actual web site of the Hartford Public Library)

http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/ (The actual web site of the Salt Lake City Library in Utah; they have 12,711 followers on Twitter)

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://marktrail.com/

http://rhymeswithorange.com/

http://www.candorville.com

Top 10 Comics of the Sunday Roanoke Times: Doonsebury is Flying High

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, Canada and Canada..........and, Kazakhstan!

It may actually be warmer in Toronto or Alma-Ata right now, as it freezing across the state of Virginia today. But, that gave a chance to read an unholy number of comic strips, including ones in our local paper "The Roanoke Times."

Ironically, we are using the image of Lucy from "Peanuts" for "Speed Bump." the single panel comic strip by Dave Coverly which features a skunk talking to a psychiatrist or psychologist, which is a common gag in many comic strips, including "Candorville" by Darrin Bell, which is not in "The Roanoke Times."

The middle image of a pilates exercise is in reference to today's Stephan Pastis strip "Pearls Before Swine," in which rat finds out there is a hidden fee for the work-out room. Of course, this gives us a chance to plug our sponsors Fusion Pilates in Asheville, NC (just kidding, we don't know any pilates instructors in Asheville).

But, the cream of the crop (ok, pun intended), is a marijuana-themed episode of "Doonesbury," in which Garry Trudeau lampoons the legalization of marijuana in Colorado (which is the reason for the top image of the '70s kids tv show "H.R. Pufnstuf," which many have concluded to be a covert reference to reefer madness).

Ironically, Trudeau mentions "The Denver Post" in today's strip. That newspaper is perhaps one of the very few major city newspapers which does not carry "Doonesbury."

Here is our top ten from "The Roanoke Times"

1. "Doonesbury"

2. "Pearls Before Swine"

3. "Speed Bump"

4. "Garfield"

5. "Get Fuzzy"

6. "Dilbert"

7. "Jump Start"

8. "Agnes"

9. "Funky Winkerbean"

10. "Blondie"

http://doonesbury.slate.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine#.Usnz_zYo6Uk

http://www.dilbert.com/


http://www.fusionpilatesasheville.com

http://www.tehfarmco.com (Marijuana outlet in Boulder, Colo.)

Today We Mark Our 8th Year of Blogging

It was a very dark and stormy night (apologies to the late Charles Schultz, the creator of "Peanuts"), on that fateful day on Sept. 21, 2005.

Hmmm.....this reminds me.........one of my favorite comic strips is "Sherman's Lagoon" which has underwater creatures, such as sharks, sea turtles and crabs as its main characters; I'm not sure if I've seen an octopus yet (?!)

When we began blogging, there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, no Miley Cyrus, no Sarah Palin, no "Breaking Bad," no "Mad Men" and no "Parks and Recreation." The oxy-moronic good Samaritan serial killer series "Dexter," which concludes tomorrow night, was on the air but it was a very new show at the time. 

One of our earliest entries on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," which is our sister (please visit it, we need the hits!) was a mere shopping list!

I'm sure like all shopping lists I've ever written it included bananas.


Here's to the next eight years............

(We used an octopus for our image because it has eight tentacles; one can see live octopuses at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, or the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta).

http://www.peanuts.com

http://www.aqua.org

georgiaaquarium.org

Sunday Comics Dialogue- Augh; Turkey Day Is Coming

Greetings. It's 9:00 p.m. in Hartford, Conn., Bethesda, Md., and in Winston-Salem, NC, where a city council meeting is making place at city hall (where else?); it's 8:00 p.m. in Chicago and St.Louis, 7:00 p.m. in Boulder, Colo., and 6:00 p.m. in Los Angeles.........whereever you are, you're with the BBC........hmm, it sounds so much cooler when they say that on the BBC.

Today, we are taking comic strip dialogue from the Sunday, Nov. 18th edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va., which alas does not feature hip comic strips like "Rhymes with Orange" or "The Knight Life" (shout out to Keith Knight!) but it does still have "Funky Winkerbean."

Let's roll:

1) "Do you want the pig, the kitten, or the panda" (from "Baby Blues")

2) "How come you wanted to come to the bookstore, goat?" (from "Pearls Before Swine")

3) "Are you sure this a cool look?" (from "Agnes")

4) "I wanna open the door myself, mom." (from "For Better or For Worse")

5) "I know, my mom tends to hover during midterms" (from "Zits")

6) "Anyway, that's why I called because I knew you'd be interested and I just wanted to tell you about these things...." (from "Peanuts")

7) "But, if we're having Thanksgiving dinner at your mom's, why are you doing all the cooking" (from "Sally Forth")

8) "My wife is out of town visiting her sister" (from "Dilbert")

9) "This month, he's talking and like he's black" (from "Jump Start")

10) "So, if you can't shout fire in a crowded theater...." (from "Funky Winkerbean")

11) "And no more tv until spelling improves" (from "Family Circus")

12) "But, daddy, I'm on Facebook," (from "Blondie")
http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.blondie.com

Comic Strip Dialogue- Be Aware of Scorpions and Hermit Crabs

We started blog entries with comic strip dialogues on a whim several weeks back, and we've discovered that they've become hits with the blog-viewing public, perhaps even in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovakia (for those of you in Slovenia, this a joke, I was actually good at geography in high school; geometry_ not so much)!

We are not going to quip any lines from "Doonesbury, " because we suspect that if we got a cease and desist order it would come from Garry Trudeau, even though we love the politics of his comic strip.

Of course, I am asking myself is this cool....like an Andy Warhol soup can kinda thing, or is this sort of illegal, like something Banksy, who ironically did a take on Charlie Brown in one of his most famous pieces of art/vandalism. We won't be quoting Charlie Brown here, but we will be quipping Linus.


These comic strip all appeared in yesterday's Sunday edition of "The Washington Post:"

1) "Nelson, I told you to pick up your Lego blocks." (from "Pickles")

2) "That was Liz, she had to cancel our date" (from "Garfield")

3) "Yes....Is there a problem?" (from "Knight Life," my favorite comic strip......shout out to Keith Knight, please don't sue me)

4) "Help! Help! Help!" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

5) "I've been trying to find out why I didn't vote" (from "Candorville," my favorite comic strip....shout out to Darrin Bell....please don't sue me)

6) "Soooooooooooo, what are you getting mom for Christmas?" (from "Sally Forth")

7) "Pay attention to expiration dates" (from "Reply All")

8) "Ed, will you please hold my purse?" (from "Dustin")

9) "Well, that's offensive" (from "Speed Bump")

10) "You're Touched All Right! What's Going on Here?" (from "Judge Parker")

11) "Relax, Honey! Just my inner child running wild" (from "Dennis the Menace")

12) "Well, my dear, I wouldn't want to deprive you of so great a pleasure" (from "The Amazing Spiderman")

13) "Sometimes, I don't think you're committed to this relationship" (from "Sherman's Lagoon," said by a hermit crab, top image)

14) "You come back here and turn on this tv! If anyone is someone, I am!!!" (from "Peanuts," said by Linus)

15) "Quick! What can kill giant scorpions?"  (from "Brewster Rockit")

16) "I hate this procedure. It's cruel and absurd." (This is actually from "Post" columnist Gene Weingarten from his weekly column 'Below the Beltway,' he also cow-writes the comic strip "Barney and Clyde").


http://www.shermanslagoon.com

http://www.candorville.com

http://www.knightlifecomic.com

http://www.replayallcomic.com

The Funny Pages Dialogue_ Let's Go Shopping

a

A few weeks ago, we thought about writing up a strange conversation involving nothing but dialogue from Sunday comic strips. Of course, this is, in part, because we envy people like cartoonist Stephen Pastis of "Pearls Before Swin." We still love his comic strip even though he created a character called Ataturk the Spitting Llama. In case this is your first time visiting our blog, it is edited by a 'prominent' Turkish-American named Tilly Gokbudak, who happens to be, well, me. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

And, we have nothing against Pastis, who is a Greek-American, although we may ask Jim Toomey who draws "Sherman's Lagoon" to create a character called Karamanlis the Octopus, after former Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.

So, with that, here is some dialogue from comic strips featured in the Oct.14, 2012 edition of "The Roanoke Times."

"Shopping? Ok. I've got $126.13....How much do you need? (from "For Better or Worse")

"White Castle Rules!" (from "Agnes")

"What Happened?" (from "Baby Blues"

"Well, I'll be. She's sound asleep!" (from "Classic Peanuts, a line said by Charlie Brown)

"So, what's going on here?" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

"Take a look at this resume" (from "Dilbert")

"What's wrong, Red? You look frustrated." (from "Sally Forth")

"Tomorrow is another day." (from "Garfield")

"We need a little bull session after the game." (from "Hi and Lois")

SIDEBAR: We are diligently waiting for the score from today's Wake Forest-University of North Carolina women's field hockey (well, we believer, men's field hockey which is very popular in Pakistan, is not an NCAA sport) in the second round of the ACC tournament. The Tar Heels are hosting the Demon Deacons in Chapel Hill, NC, and the game is in session as we speak.

But, the reason for this mention is because we noticed in yesterday's edition of "The Daily Tar Heel" that UNC midfielder Kelsey Kolojechick has a very long name! UNC beat my alma mater Radford Univeristy* at home in their final regular season game 6-1 but we won't hold it against them.

For Wake Forest, Jess Newark, a freshman, scored a goal and two assists in the team's 3-1 first round win over Boston College.

And, we will salute Alayna Versage, a junior for RU, on being named all-conference in her sport (the Highlanders do not compete in the ACC).

Of course, field hockey has become a bit more popular since the gold-medal winning Dutch field hockey team got lots of coverage at the London 2012 Olympics.

*Radford University is located in Radford, Virginia.

THIS JUST IN: Though we are not in Chapel Hill, we can report a final as UNC wins over Wake Forest 4-0 to advance to the ACC final, which UNC will also host. Kelsey Kolojechick had an assist in the victory.


http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.hiandlois.com

http://www.goheels.com

http://www.ruhighlanders.com

http://www.wakeforestsports.com

Things We Learned on the Internet Today-Banksy Got Banksied

This happened back in 2011, which was like 11 years ago in cyber-time, but the mystic, unknown street artist/vandal/cult icon Banksy's famous/infamous painting "Charlie Brown Arsonist" was stolen from its Hollywood Boulevard location in Los Angeles, and rumors have it that it got sold on e-bay. We are fairly certain that the Charles Schultz estate got none of the proceeds.

Incidentally, we learned from the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine that Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip debuted back when Harry S. Truman was president!

Also, the following are trending on Bing: Natalie Wood, Anderson Silva, Afghan woman executed, Denise Rich, Adrien Peterson and Tom Cruise Divorce. Apparently, Katie Holmes didn't make the cut, but she will apparently reap lots of loot from the divorce and never have to go a Scientology gathering again.

The case of how the actress Natalie Wood ("Splendor in the Grass," "Rebel without a Cause") mysteriously died at age 43 in 1981 from an apparent drowning incident has been reopened as a file case.

Denise Rich is apparently a rich socialite who made millions producing records. Apparently, she was renounced her American citizenship to avoid paying taxes. Now, we see why this made headlines on Fox News (we saw it at a gas station; yes, it's normally a network we don't watch).

And, alas, a woman was apparently executed for adultery in Afghanistan. What is murky to us is whether this was an official execution carried out by the state, or if it was carried out by a civilian on his own accord. Either way, it is a travesty.

Quote of the Day/Week- Marcel Duchamp

Today, for the very first time, we quote the great French surreal artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) who is best-known for his....hmmm, there is no nice way to say this, his urinal piece.....

Duchamp was also apparently an avid chess player, a sport which according to the NPR show "The World," the former Soviet Republic of Armenia is apparently very good at; here is his quote:

"Chess can be described as the movement of pieces eating one another."

We gather there is even a "Peanuts" version of chess where (you guessed it) Charlie Brown is the king and Lucy van Pelt is the queen.

SIDEBAR: Oh, I almost to mention that I am on way to the Golden Corral in Rock Hill, SC, where Fred Thompson once stumped* to formally endorse the one Republican candidate who I see fit to hold office; his name is Zippy the Pinhead**.

*-true story

**-underground comic book character that is the creation of Bill Griffith

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

First of all greetings to our blog visitors from Norway and Indonesia, we are glad you have found nothing better to do than check out our blog today; forgive the mean-spirited "South Park" sense of humor which has become the norm here in America today.

We looked all over the Internet for both lavish and kitschy Christmas trees, and we chose to go with a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree instead.

There is a place called the Rifton Farm and Nursery in Floyd County, Virginia, which supposedly has the real thing, for those of you who live in the Roanoke Valley or Southwest Virginia, or for those of you who want drive thousands of miles looking for the perfect Christmas tree.

As for the "Charlie Brown Christmas Special," the show originally aired on CBS on Dec. 9, 1965, and a snowball fight scene was editted from the show. But, dvd editions of the show now show the snowball fight in its entirety, well from what we gather!

Happy Thanksgiving from Charlie Brown

As is our tradition whenever there is a holiday, we like to wish it from a cartoon character, kitschy celebrity (such as Barry Manilow) or whacko politician (ie. Michele Bachmann). And, today we go with the legendary comic strip character Charlie Brown, the brainchild of Charles Schultz (1922-2000).

When I was tutoring a student taking an English class, I actually compared Charlie Brown to Willy Loman, the character at the center of Arthur Miller's stage play "Death of a Salesman," in order to get the student to grasp the play's themes and simplify them.

Charlie Brown made his debut in "Peanuts" on Oct. 2, 1950. Snoopy came into the picture two days later. The beloved pooch also made its Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade debut as a float in 1968, a full 16 years before a float for Garfield, the comic strip cat created by Jim Davis that debuted in 1978, made his way down lower Manhattan in 1986.

Today's parade also feature a reincarnation of a float for the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog and a float created by filmmaker Tim Buron, called Character B.

Charlie Brown is noted for his rivalry with Lucy van Pelt, who pulls the football away from him as she did in the very last original "Peanuts" strip on Feb. 13, 2000.

The Little Red Head Girl is the figure of Charlie Brown's infactuation, but since he represents futility across the board, he never gets to meet her_ not even for a date at Starbucks (yes, we are aware there were no Starbucks around in 1950; it was a joke). She never actually physically appears in any of the comic strips, but her face has been shown on tv specials for "Peanuts." The character usually appears in strips that were written by Schultz around Valentine's Day.

Charlie Brown is also associated with the holidays because of both the Thanksgiving special, which first aired on Nov. 20, 1973, and the Christmas special, which premiered on Dec. 9, 1965, before folks in the United States started celebrating Christmas in September!

SIDE DISH: As we reported yesterday, my alma mater Radford University played the Univeristy of Kentucky, the #2-ranked men's basketball team, in Lexington, Ky., last night. And, like Charlie Brown trying to kick the dreaded football, the Highlanders came up very short in an 88-40 loss to the Wildcats. Terrence Jones scored 17 points for the home team; Jonathan Edwards scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds for RU.

SIDE DISH TWO: Yes, folks started lining some time ago for the Black Friday Sale at Target which gets underway at midnight here on the East. According to a tweet from "The Charlotte Observer," some 15 customers had started lining up at the main Charlotte, NC, Target store circa 8:00 p.m., a full hours before the madness begins.