Sunday Washington Post Comic Strips Survey: We Really, Really Like the Argyle Sweater

This Sunday's "Washington Post" comic strips offered a satire of "Sesame Street" ("The Argyle Sweater") which may NOT go over well with Big Bird fans (or Cookie Monster fans), an awkward mother and son moment ("Knight Life"by Keith Knight), "Big Nate" struggling with loads on homework and "Lio" working on some finger-painting, much to his father's shock and horror.

We are also featuring comics from "The Roanoke Times" (Roanoke, Va.) and "The News & Record" (Greensboro, NC) this week. We will denote strips in the Roanoke newspaper with a (^) and those appearing in the Greensboro newspaper with an (*).

Here are the top ten comics of the week:

1) The Argyle Sweater (Oscar the Grouch, featured in the strip, pictured top)

2) Knight Life

 3) Speed Bump ^

4) Big Nate (image two)

5) Sherman's Lagoon

6) Lio (image three)

7) Pearls Before Swine ^*

8) WUMO *

9) Dustin

10) Brewster Rockit:Space Guy ^

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/

http://www.gocomics.com/

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/comics-a-z/

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for our survey of Sunday comics from "The Roanoke Times")

Presdiential Quote (16 of 16): Grover Cleveland (again..........)

Well, we couldn't resist............


Due to time constraints and our hopes to post another entry later in the day/evening/night, we are cutting to the chase with a quote from Grover Cleveland, the only president to hold two terms non-consecutively:

"Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."

Tweets of the Night_ Politics, Sports and Religion

AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! This just in: The Washington Nationals have lost in the deciding Game 5 to the St. Louis Cardinals by a 9-7 score.

In case you are wondering, the third image is of an Armenian Orthodox priest. Since I am a Turkish-American, I thought of no greater irony, my favorite word in the English language, than to use an image of him for this entry. Above him is the American vice president Joe Biden and a kid playing little league baseball.

Here are 12 tweets from about 2.5 hours ago:

1) @MLBJesus (Major League Baseball Jesus): Thou shall pitch Strasburg in Game 5.

2) @JournalNow (Winston-Salem Journal): High Point University poll shows post-deabte bump for Romney among North Carolina voters.

3) @cnni (CNN International): Report says Turkey to avoid Syrian airspace.

4) @_faris (Faris): Saturday morning, the life version of "The Walking Dead."

5) @timesland (Roanoke Times Sports): Halifax County comes back from 20-0 and defeats Franklin county 37-36 in double over-time.

6) @seattletimes (Seattle Times): "Arrest in Seattle Tour de Banks robberies."

7) @katrinanation (Katrina vanden Heuvel, managing editor of the liberal journal "The Nation"): "Joe Biden may have bracing set of old teeth but Paul Ryan lying through his young teeth."

8) @sesameworkshop (Sesame Workshop): "We are a non-partisan, non-profit organization. We do not comment on campaigns, but we're happy we can agree that everyone likes Big Bird!"

9) @thekinghtshift (Chris Knight, blogger from Reidsville, NC): "Big Bird is a monument to all your sins #obama #romney."

10) @mtaibbi (Matt Taibbi, liberal reporter for "Rolling Stone"): "Apparently, Obama needs to rush the passer more."

11) @BigBird (a liberal blogger who is not related to "Sesame Street"): "GOPer sent me an email why Obama's out of touch with times, using an AOL account"

12) @BaltSunSports ("Baltimore Sun" sports, alas the Baltimore Orioles also lost tonight): "Memorable season will have #Orioles aiming even higher in 2013."

10 People Who will Decide Election (9 of 10) _Iowa

Today, we are continuing our series of how a given person in each swing state could potentially play a pivotal role in the American presidential election, which will be watched from Dover, Delaware, to Dubai.

The image above is a campaign button for George McGovern (D) who is the oldest living man who has run for the president. The former South Dakota senator who is now 90 lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.

Here is a look at our fictional voter of the day:

Name: David Harrison

Occupation: Community College Teacher

Residency: Davenport, Iowa

Age: 35

Political Leanings: Democrat, will vote for President Barack Obama


It is no secret that like Big Bird on "Sesame Street" whom Republican presidential candidate turned into a social sensation when he said he would cut federal spending for PBS during the debate last week that teachers generally vote Democratic because the party has traditionally been more supportive of education and teachers' needs as well as school funding.

The Big Bird comment was the topic of a recent "Washington Post" column by Glenn Kessler which asked: "Does Mitt Romney want to kill Big Bird?;" the same newspaper also published a stunning column by college professor Frank Portnoy who argues that America's long marathon presidential race is good for the country. One can assume that both Democrats and Republicans may actually unite in opposition to Portnoy's theory, even intellectually it was fairly well laid out.

Among the stories in the most current issue of "The Quad City Times," which serves Davenport, Iowa, and surrounding areas, the local police department is seeking a three-year contract and a three-percent pay raise.

In the comments section, a reader who attended a Paul Ryan rally in Clinton, Iowa, said that the Obama campaign had taken her comments in which she asked the vice presidential candidate about his plan to fix the economy out of context.

According to "Politico," Obama has a 48-6 to 45.5 percent lead over Romney.http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.politco.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.qctimes.com

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!

PSA- Watch More PBS!

Alas, we are bit pressed for time today as I have to go to a talk about how to use the computer for workplace activities---hmm, I don't think this counts.

Anyway, our Public Service Announcement for today is a simple one: Watch more PBS! (that's American public tv for those of you in Bergen, Norway).

While kids can watch Oscar the Grouch (pictured) on "Sesame Street," us adults can watch "The Charlie Rose Show" tonight. Alas, the show's web site did not indicate who the guest was for tonight's show (which airs at 11:30 p.m. in most markets), but they did have Willie Nelson on last night!

Actual Church Sign I Saw Today....

PRAY FOR BIG BIRD

I spotted it on Route 220 between Greensboro, NC, and Roanoke, Va., in the hamlet of Ridgeway, Va., which is near the speedway town of Martinsville.

We're not sure what it means. But, if you know, by all means leave a comment here!

Special Quote of the Day- Bela Lugosi

Halloween maybe behind us, but we are quoting Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi, best known for his starring role in "Dracula" (1931), because (according to Wikipedia) he was inspiration for the "Sesame Street" character Count von Count.

The PBS children's series is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but The Count first appeared in 1972. He is still voiced by Jerry Nelson, who first provided the voice for Count von Count.

He is perhaps my favorite "Sesame Street" character.

Last year, the minor league baseball team The St. Paul Saints in St. Paul, Minn., offered Count von Recount dolls with Al Franken and Norm Coleman's heads on them as the state was determining who would hold its senate seat.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), the winner of that much-contested race, was profiled in our "Know Your Congressman and Senators" series earlier this summer.

It should be pointed out that the subject of our previous entry, Klaus Kinski also played a vampire in Werner Herzog's 1978 remake of "Nosferatu."

Here is the quote from Lugosi, which we initially forgot to post here!:

"Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman."