We're Back from Very Long Break..........Roanoke Times Comics Quotes

We are indeed back from a very, very long break!

Greetings to those of you in Wales, Sweden, and Croatia...

Our celebrity of the day is..........we'll go with Marc Maron....!

Here are some comic strips quotes mostly from the Roanoke Times (July 17th, 2017 edition) with exceptions including "The Knight Life" from our good pal Keith Knight, which will start us off.....

1) You kids these days have it so good! (Knight Life)

2) Hi Jeremy. Are you hungry? (Zits)

3) Sara, can we get pizza delivered? (Blondie)

4) Nelson, what are you doing? (Pickles)

5) I'd like to return this bird (Wizard of Id)

6) That's all anyone needs to know (Judge Parker)

7) Good man! (Jump Start)

8) Don't be afraid! The lightning won't strike as long as mommy's out here (Family Circus)

9) Ooooo, what's that? (Get Fuzzy)

Top Ten Sunday May 31st Roanoke Times Comics: Hi and Lois is Actually Hilarious........how did that happen?

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, Russia and New Zealand.............

Here is a look at our ten favorite comic strips from the latest Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper serving Roanoke, Va., and surrounding areas, including the hamlet of Boones Mill, Va., which is reportedly one of the most notorious speed traps in the country.

Our top comic strip is "Speed Bump" by Dave Coverly which this week features a regular Joe green lizard meeting a hipster green lizard; we imagine he is waaay past The Decembrists or Arcade Fire.

For our second place comic strip, which is "Pearls Before Swine," we go with an image of Lily Tomlin from her "Laugh In" days when she played Ernestine the annoying phone operator, who would be unemployed today. In the strip, Rat is writing a letter to a major company after being forced to hold on the line for an unfathomable amount of time .....(we've all been there, right?!).........

Lastly, our image of the '80s home video game classic Pitfall, for an unexpected gem from "Hi and Lois" as the dad realizes he has a vast collection of casualties of modern technology. It's almost enough to make one wish they had held on to that 8-track tape player or that vinyl copy of "Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits."

Here is our top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Hi and Lois

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Dilbert

6) Doonesbury

7) Zits

8) Garfield

9) Agnes

10) Jump Start

http://www.roanoke.com/comics

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.lilytomlin.com

Sunday Comics Survey from Feb. 8th Roanoke Times: Pastis Goes for the Punt

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Croatia and France.......

And, our deepest condolences to the friends and families of the three Syrian Muslim college students who killed in their Chapel Hill, NC, apartment yesterday.

On a lighter note, here are our ten favorite comic strips from the most recent edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper of Roanoke, Va.

For starters, "Pearls Before Swine," a Stephan Pastis comic strip, makes fun of Norwegian lemmings one of whom goes for a pass thrown by another lemming and well, you can guess the rest. One of the surviving lemming says (SPOILER ALERT) that he will not be going to Disneyland. Our top image of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who won his fourth Super Bowl, is used for the strip, though he is not mentioned in 'Pearls.'

Third place goes to the single-panel gem "Speed Bump" which has a male angel being presumably nagged by his wife about reading a novel instead of going to bed. For this, we chose the late Daniel Foster Wallace novel "Infinite Jest," (pict. center) which is over 1,000 pages long! Perhaps, an inmate at Red Onion Prison in southwest Virginia is reading the novel. If so, they may actually finish it. A literary major at Brown University in Rhode Island, conversely, may not get to the end!

And, fifth place goes to "Agnes" who is questioning her teacher about the overload of homework (bottom image: an algebra calculator).

Here is our survey:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Doonesbury

3) Speed Bump

4) Get Fuzzy

5) Agnes

6) Garfield

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Zits

10) For Better or For Worse

For last week's "Roanoke Times" comics survey, go to our sister blog http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Our Favorte Comic Strips from Sunday, Dec. 14th Roanoke Times: Drones Away

Greetings to our blog readers in Cuba, Estonia and New Zealand.....

Today, we turn our attention to our 10 favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Dec. 14th edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. (yes, we are a bit behind schedule).

Our top choice is "Pearls Before Swine," in which Rat, one of the three title characters along with Goat and Pig, promises that if he is elected president that he will get one drone to spy on every person on earth at all times; hey, I'd still vote for him over Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney! (forgive the political humor).

"Speed Bump" has a hilarious take on what modern tech would have been like in medieval times, and these means trouble for Sir Textalot as he faces an opponent in a horseback joust in Dave Coverly's single-panel comic strip. Hence, the reason for our image of a "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" poster.

Lastly, "Family Circus" makes a rare appearance in our top ten with a strip that depicts every parent in a grade school auditorium taking photos and videos with mobile devices, we thought it would be humorous to go with an image of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" (middle) as this would assuredly be a difficult play for youngsters to perform.

Here is our top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Garfield

5) Dilbert

6) Zits

7) Get Fuzzy

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Family Circus

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Roanoke Times Comics Survey: Get Fuzzy Edges Out Pearls Before Swine

Greetings to our beloved blog readers in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Tajikistan.......

Today, we look at our top ten favorite Sunday comic strips that were in the Nov. 30th edition of "The Roanoke Times." Traditionally, we survey both "The Roanoke Times" comic strips and "The Washington Post" comic strips, though we have had some big distractions lately. For our "Washington Post" comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

This week, "Get Fuzzy" snugs the top slot just barely ahead of "Pearls Before Swine," both comic strips featured 12 panels this week, which is a bit risky and unusual.

"Get Fuzzy" which revolves around the spat between a Siamese cat named Bucky (top panel) and a clueless dog named Satchel. This week, the dog asks the cat how many cats it takes to screw in a light bulb and fireworks ensue.

In "Pearls Before Swine," the title character Rat (middle image) is stuck in calling center hell as he is trying to get a lower airline fare by pretending he needs to go to the funerals.........for several 'recently deceased' relatives.

In third place, "Zits" has parents arguing as to whether they should keep their son Jeremy's grade school art projects, which reminds me that a clay dinosaur (bottom image) I made in 1975 at an elementary school has been missing like an FBI fugitive for perhaps a full decade now!

Here is our top ten:

1) Get Fuzzy

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Zits

4) Speed Bump

5) Garfield

6) Doonesbury

7) Jump Start

8) Dilbert

9) Agnes

10) Pickles

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

Top Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times

Greetings to our blog readers in Italy, Belgium and France........

Here is our latest installment of the funniest comic strips in today's "Roanoke Times," which features comic strips for children (the usually boring "Family Circus"), hip Gen Xers such as myself ("Pearls Before" and........hmmmm..........ok, "Get Fuzzy" and lastly comic strips for old people at a nursing home in Troutville, Va. ("Pickles," "Hi and Lois," "Blondie," et al.....)....

Our top comic strip of the week is "Speed Bump" which shows what a prehistoric meteor drill may have been like, followed by "Get Fuzzy," this week the Siamese cat argued with the dog over a tennis ball, and "Dilbert" which asks the question what would you do if you were named Worst Employee of the Month (that strip is the reason for the image of a yellow and blue necktie, which are also the colors of the Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce; we personally root for their rivals Galatasaray).

Here is our list:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Dilbert

4) Pearls Before Swine

5) Agnes

6) Doonesbury

7) Funky Winkerbean

8) Zits

9) Non-Sequitur

10) Garfield

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy

http://www.dilbert.com

The Sunday Roanoke Times Comics Survey: The March of the Penguins

Greetings to our blog readers in Israel, Egypt and Poland.

The comic strip "Arctic Circle" would have been our top comic strip of the week, but we saw it on the Internet. But, we certainly hope the comic strip which on Sunday took a hilarious dig towards global warming deniers gets more newspapers.

In the mean time, we are focusing on the circa 21 comic strips that run in the Sunday edition of "The Roanoke Times," the daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va. This week, our three favorite comic strips focused on a penguin wearing Jimmy Choo high heels ("Speed Bump"), an over-the-top unicorn gag ("Pearls Before Swine") and an office place spat over how to be successful ("Dilbert").

The third place finish for "Dilbert" is our highest ranking ever for Scott Adams' comic strip; the Sticky Notes are one of our features in its honor.

Here is the top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Dilbert

4) Doonesbury

5) Non-Sequitur

6) Agnes

7) Zits

8) Get Fuzzy

9) Garfield

10) Funky Winkerbean

http://www.gocmics.com/speedbump

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.gocmics.com/nonsequitur

Top 10 Roanoke Times Comics...........yeah, we are just not getting around to posting this.....

Greetings to those of you in the Netherlands, Australia, and Israel.......even though we aren't fans of Benjamin Netanyahu here........domestically, we want to send greetings to those of you in Hartford, Baltimore and Dallas.

What do The Three Bears, King Midas and the late Rodney Dangerfield (all pictured above) have in common you might ask? Well, our favorite Sunday "Roanoke Times" comic strips (the newspaper serves Roanoke, Va., and surrounding areas) touched upon the three bears (Non-Sequitur), royalty (Speed Bump) and stand-up comedians (Doonesbury)............here is the list:

1) Non-Sequitur (a first time number one)

2) Speed Bump

3) Doonesbury

4) Funky Winkerbean

5) Pearls Before Swine

6) Zits

7) Garfield

8) Agnes

9) Dilbert

10) Get Fuzzy

http://www.roanoke.com

Sunday Comics Grand Slam (2 of 4): Superman's Vacation

Superman taking a vacation. The new era of over-protective parenting. A beach trip with a family dog. Optimism in the workplace. A 36-year old family cat coming to terms with aging. A mother and young daughter waltzing past punk rockers on a sunny afternoon. A little league baseball manager using "The Bad News Bears" as inspiration for a pep talk.

These were among the Sunday comic strips from the June 15th issue of "The Roanoke Times," which serves Roanoke, Va, and southwest Virginia communities, including the college town of Blacksburg, the rural hamlet of Rocky Mount and the high school football is everything 'round here town of Buena Vista.

One of the stunners this week was that "Pearls Before Swine," almost always one of our favorites, surprisingly tanked, while "For Better or For Worse" and "Sally Forth," two comic strips which have never made our top ten were surprisingly good.

We are using the image of Turkish Superman (the late actor Tayfun Demir) for "Speed Bump," the strip about the Man of Steel taking a getaway, the image of "Happy Days" for the "Doonesbury" strip on over-parenting and a lavish Jimmy Choo handbag for "For Better or For Worse," the strip where a stroll downtown leads to an encounter with tweenagers who look like The Ramones.

Here are our top ten comic strips from "The Roanoke Times," for our list of top ten comic strips from "The Washington Post" (same date), go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

1. "Speed Bump"

2. "Doonesbury"

3. "Funky Winkerbean" (which dealt with the beach trip with the family dog)

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Get Fuzzy"

6. "Garfield"

7. "For Better or For Worse"

8. "Sally Forth"

9. "Zits"

10. "Agnes"

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Top Ten from the Sunday "Roanoke Times"............White Rabbit Jokes Never Get Old

AAAAUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

We can't seem to find the time to blog any more, so perhaps we will soon take up ice-fishing in North Dakota.

Here are our top ten comic strips from the Sunday "Roanoke Times."

"Pearls Before Swine" wins with a funny take on the Easter Bunny as he is met up with some angry little chicks, almost as if he were Bill Maher stumbling upon a tea party rally in Eden, NC, which is just outside the Roanoke newspaper's jurisdiction.

Second place goes to "Zits," as Jeremy prepares to hurriedly scramble out the door when his i-Phone shows it's 7:59 a.m., along the way he eats Pop Tarts, perhaps the most popular American breakfast product for those in a hurry.

And, "Non-Sequitur" has a revamped update on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which concludes with the fairy tale protagonist meeting up with Little Red Riding Hood for some 'girl talk.'

Note: We didn't get around to posting our favorite "Roanoke Times" strips from last week, but we have that survey at the end of this one.


1. "Pearls Before Swine"

2. "Zits"

3. "Non-Sequitur"

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Doonesbury"

6. "Get Fuzzy"

7. "Speed Bump"

8. "Agnes"

9. "Funky Winkerbean"

10. "Garfield"

Results from April 13th:

1. "Garfield"

2. "Doonesbury"

3. "Pearls Before Swine"

4. "Agnes"

5. "Non-Sequitir"

6. "Get Fuzzy"

7. "Dilbert"

8. "Speed Bump"

9. "Funky Winkerbean"

10. "Baby Blues"

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

Top Ten Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times: We Like the Censored Pearls Before Swine

Today, comic strip artist Stephan Pastis said the latest edition of his strip "Pearls Before Swine," which made fun of extreme political correctness (the example he gave was when stewardesses starting being referred to as flight attendant), was not shown in "The Washington Post" yesterday.

But, the strip, which is hardly as political as "Mallard Fillmore" on the right or "Doonesbury" on the left, was our top pick before we knew that the strip was removed. While we noticed two different strips for "Pearls Before Swine," we suspected that it was something Pastis had deliberately done himself.

At any rate, here are the top ten strips from this past week. They include not just 'Pearls,' but also Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump," which asked what it would be like if inmates at places like the Dan River Correctional Facility in Yanceyville, NC, had yearbooks, a "Doonesbury" swipe at the right-wing dogma haunting the GOP and a satire of workplace politics in "Dilbert," where the big boss man proclaims: "The key to success is ignoring the people who say it can't be done." The boss is immediately questioned.

Here is our top ten:

1. "Pearls Before Swine" (the reason for the vintage for the Turkish Airlines flight attendants photo at the top)

2. "Speed Bump" (the reason why we have a scene with Clint Eastwood from "Escape from Alcatraz.")

3. "Doonesbury" (the reason for the Republican boxer shorts)

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Funky Winkerbean"

6. "Jump Start"

7. "Get Fuzzy"

8. "Agnes"

9. "Zits"

10. "The Mutts"


http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

http://www.roanoke.com

Top Ten Comics from Today's Sunday Roanoke Times: Speed Bump Stands Out

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador and Brazil.

Today, we once again take a look at the Sunday funnies in "The Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va.

We also survey the comic strips in the Washington Post: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Our personal favorite comic strip of the day that was in neither newspaper is "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee:" http://edisonleecomic.com/ ..........

Other strips that we saw today online that we really enjoy include "Retail," "Pros and Cons" and "Bleeker." We actually also contemplated stating what our least favorite strip of the day was, but we gather we aren't the only ones who quit laughing at "The Family Circus" and "For Better or for Worse" a long time.

Our favorite "Roanoke Times" comic strip "Speed Bump" had a hilarious gag with two octopi/octopuses, while "Pearls Before Swine" showed bambis getting revenge on hunters and "Get Fuzzy" focused on a play on words as Bucky the whacky Siamese cat argues with his owner Rob Wilco on the differences between the words 'coop' and 'coup.

Here is our top ten:

1. Speed Bump

2. Pearls Before Swine

3. Get Fuzzy

4. Agnes

5. Doonesbury

6. Zits

7. Funky Winkerbean

8. Dilbert

9. Garfield

10. Jump Start

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump#.UtxncTYo6Uk

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

Best Comic Strips in Sunday Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va): Rats, Ants and Batman

We are just going with one image this week. It is of an army of ants, which are the centerpiece of Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump," a one-panel strip, which bears the off-beat humor of the great 1980s comic strip Gary Larson's "The Far Side." "Speed Bump" ranks number two on our list.

The winner of this week's survey is the always hilarious "Pearls Before Swine." Interestingly enough, "Pearls" bore some similarity to this week's "Family Circus," which is essentially "The Waltons" or "Little House on the Prarie" of the comics section in that it has traditional themes. Both comic strip focus on a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day. But, Stephan Pastis, the cartoonist behind "Pearls" shows a family of rats actually being upfront and honest with each other while "Family Circus" has the orthodox view of the American holiday.

Tony Cochran's "Agnes" featured the title character making a pop culture reference to "Batman," which makes on wonder if Adam West read this week's Sunday strip (he played Batman on American television in the '60s).

Here is our top ten:

1. Pearls Before Swine

2. Speed Bump

3. Agnes

4. Get Fuzzy

5. Funky Winkerbean

6. Blondie

7. Garfield

8. Dilbert

9. Doonesbury

10. Zits

http://www.speedbump.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Top Ten Favorite Comic Strips from Sunday, Nov. 10th "Roanoke Times"_ Brutus Buckeye Wins the Day

Greeting to our friends in Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Dubai. For those of you live in places like Turku, Finland, or Perth, South Africa, you may be unaware that Sunday is the day when large color comi strips roll out across America.

While smaller newspapers like "The Roanoke Times" or "The Akron Beacon" (in Akron, Ohio) may not have as many comic strips as "The Denver Post" or "The Baltimore Sun," one never knows what gems might be found in any Sunday comic strips section.

This week, "Pearls Before Swine" had a hilarious take on Brutus Buckeye (pictured top) who is the mascot for Ohio State University, "Funky Winkerbean" featured a hilarious fake comic book character named Starbuck Jones (yeah, that's the reason for the image in the middle) and "Doonesbury" tarred and feathered the tea party, a fringe right-wing political movement in America which wants to turn America into what it once was: An Artic region covered with ice (we borrowed that from Steve Martin).

Here is our list of the top 10 comic strips from this week's Sunday "Roanoke Times":

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Funky Winkerbean

3) Doonesbury

4) Zits

5) Speed Bump

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Agnes

8) Dilbert

9) Hi and Lois

10) Blondie

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/#

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com

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

Today is Our 7th Anniversary of Blogging

Today, we celebrate the 7th anniversary of our blogging venture, which began as something like weekly lists of what we were buying at the grocery store, to what is now, more or less the exact same thing.

For this special anniversary blog entry, we thought we'd use an entire entry with dialogue from the Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, comic book section of "The Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va.  Let's begin:

 1) "I'm ugly, that's all"

2) "School is a microcosm of society ..... a puzzle of where everyone is a piece trying to see where they fit in."

3) "Some things just dare to be tried, dad."

4) "Who can answer how much is nine minus seven?"

5) "I've decided that I'm a people person."

6) "Did you poke me on Facebook?"

7) "Where is he? What's going on?"

8) "Has anyone seen a small brown purse:

9) "Why do I always leave it to Sunday night to start panicking about when I should do my homework?"

10) "Your nose piercings look ridicilous."

11) "I'll get right on it, boss."

12) "The weekend is almost over."

(From "For Better or Worse, Agnes, Zits, Mutts, Baby Blues, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Dilbert, Sally Forth and Speed Bump, Blondie and "Hi and Lois;" the image are of Linda Cardellini from the 1999 tv show "Freaks and Geeks, four cards with sevens, and a water cooler, since one was featured in the "Blondie" strip).

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Yanni

There was a letter in today's "Roanoke Times," a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Va., complaining that the media outlet had not properly covered the new age instrumentalist Yanni who gave a concert in Roanoke (my hometown) on June 4th.

I must profess that today's quote was initially to be from the great Greek composer Mikis Theodakris, who turns 87 in July, and is known for the scores to "Z" and "Zorba the Greek."

But, we couldn't find quotes from Theodakris, who was born on the island of Chios, just across the Aegean Sea from the resort town Cesme, Turkey. Cesme is a sister city to Wise,Va., a small Appalachian town in far southwestern Virginia, which also known for being the birthplace of the late actor George C. Scott.

This month, we are quoting famous people associated with the 16 countries in the Euro 2012 Cup, which is being played in Poland and Ukraine. The Greek soccer team must defeat Poland on the country's home grass in order to advance in the tournament. Greece lost 2-1 to the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Russia is the other team in Group A.

As for Yanni, he came to international prominence following his 1992 concert at the Acropolis in Athens. Yanni was born in Kalmata, a city in the southern Greek mainland.

Here is his quote, which country singer Dolly Parton can probably identify with:

"I don't think we're put on this planet to experience it from nine to five."

SIDEBAR: We want to congratulate the race horse Union Rags on the horse's Belmont Stakes victory. The horse edged out Paynter in the final leg of the race in New York state. John Velasquez was the jockey for Union Rags, who was born on March 3, 2009.

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.yanni.com

http://www.famous-greeks.com

http://www.belmontstakes.com

Quote of the Week/Day- Che Guevara

For the record: "No, I'm not a socialist, but I would be one if I lived in Provo, Utah."

Nevertheless, the Argentinian radical revolutionary figure Che Guevara (1928-1967) who was executed in Bolivia at age 38, has been good for massive hit totals on our two blogs. And, personally, I'd love to have this puppet for Christmas, if not to see the shocked look on a conservative friend's face.

By the way, we are dedicating to one Paul Doss of Roanoke, Va., who wrote in a letter-to-editor to "The Roanoke Times" in which he defended folks like Donald Trump and Uncle Scrooge. He added that 'anyone who wants socialism should move to Europe.' Of course, my response to that is that if Newt Gingrich becomes president, many of us may actually opt for Cuba.

And, while researching this piece, we found that many actors have played Che Guevara on film, including Antonio Banderas (in "Evita," 1996), Benicio Del Toro, Gael Garcia Bernali and most astonishingly Omar Sharif (?!). Yes, the Egyptian actor who is still alive played the title role in "Che!" (the dubious 1969 version, not the one which got a Criterion Edition release). Of course, in this same version of Che, the late Jack Palance (1919-2006) played Fidel Castro.

So, irregradless if your political legions are with Ron Paul or Noam Chomsky, here is the quote from Che:

"In a revolution one wins or dies, if it is a real one."

This our first in a month-long series of quotes from famous Latin Americans.

SIDEBAR ONE: The road trip between the two Charleston takes C) 8 hours, 30 minutes (see Saturday's entry).

SIDEBAR TWO: Didier Drogba, the Ivory Coast national, who is the main star for English soccer power Chelsea, scored two goals in UEFA Champions play for a 3-0 victory over Spanish team Valencia. This helped Chelsea win Group E.

Here is a partial rundown of the eight games played today in Europe; the stars indicate the teams that advance:

Shankhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) 2 *APOEL (Cyprus) 0

Porto (Portugal) 0 *Zenit (Russia) 0, tie

*Barcelona 4 BATE (Bulgaria) 0

*AC Milan 2, Plzen (Czech Rep.) 2, tie

SIDEBAR THREE: Last night, my fellow Turkish-American progressive Cenk Uygur made an impressive debut with Current TV on his show "The Young Turks" as he took great digs at Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann. But, my favorite segment was when he uncovered footage from Fox News of some right-wing nut pundit saying that the new Muppets movie "The Muppets" is encouraging children to become communists. And, the reason for this is because the film suggests big oil companies don't have our best interests at heart; uh huh! Tonight, Uygur welcomes Al Gore as his guest.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Maine Coon Cat

This past weekend, I had an opportunity to go to a cat show in Roanoke, Va. Part of the attraction was admittedly the cat people themselves. One person from Richmond, Va., who regularly participates in such affairs told me that she had 14 cats?! Among them was a gorgeous seven-month old Maine Coon kitten who looked huge. Her cat didn't quite win Best in Show, but the kitten made the top ten.

As it turns out, the Maine Coon cat (pictured here) can weigh up to 25 pounds, and they have a HUGE tail.

It would be hard for me to gage what it takes to win a cat show since my tuxedo cat Gizmo is a regular house cat who would never go for such things even if his breed was among those featured (Other cat show breeds include Siamese, angora, and Burmese) in such shows. But, one cat show contestant from Christiansburg, Va., told "The Roanoke Times" that it doesn't help 'if the cat bites the judge!'

Participants came from as far away as Huntington, WVa., and Charlotte, NC, for the show.

The Pulaski County Animal Shelter in Dublin, Va., had a special section for cats who are available for adoption. On the organization's web site, I saw a listing for a Siamese cat named Chunky Munky, a a tabby cat named Junebug and a tuxedo cat named Hazel. The Pulaski County Animal Shelter can be reached at 540-674-8359.

Other animal shelters in the Roanoke area include The Franklin County Animal Shelter in Rocky Mount, Va. Phone: 540-483-7440, and the Salem Animal Shelter in Salem, Va. Phone: 540-375-3038.

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Star Wars

Well, 2009 is almost winding down and this looks to be our last Silly Photo to Fill Space for the year. I had contemplated making this an all quote blog, but I'm not sure that would work.

I must profess that I got the idea to find silly Star Wars photos from "The Roanoke Times," in Roanoke, Va., which featured an amazing photograph of a man dressed like a Storm Trooper going through a hotel during a science-fiction convention. Alas, we couldn't find that photo, but it's probably just as well as I have friends who work there who could track me down for hotlinking. And since The Roanoke Gun Show is coming this weekend (not an endorsement or advertisement), they could perhaps purchase a firearm and shoot me.

One guy who might like this photo though is my friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, who is an unabashed Star Wars fanatic. A few years ago, he ran for Rockingham County School Board and he made an ad with a Star Wars theme that was quite over-the-top. Knight did not win a seat on the board, but his ad became a Youtube sensation and it recently appeared on "The Jay Leno Show."

I would write more but I need find out what Paris Hilton is up to on Twitter. The last time I checked on her she was enjoying a weekend in Aspen, Col. There are a fair share of celebrities like Angelina Jolie who believe in humanitarian causes, but I don't see Ms. Hilton adopting a baby from an orphanage in Kandahar, Afghanistan, any time soon, but if she does, I'm sure she will tweet about it. And, we will post that info right here on this blog!