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

Image to Fill Space: A Pug

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador, Venezuela, Sweden, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaysia, Tajikistan and The Bahamas.

We'll have something more substantial in tomorrow's blog entry.

Virtual Postcard from Colorado-The Boulder Theatre

Well, we are no longer in the great western state of Colorado, but we were there last week. This image is of The Boulder Theatre in downtown Boulder, Colo., the venue no longer shows films on a regular basis, but it does host traveling bands. On Thursday, the hip folk band Trampled by Turtles plays there, and on June 1st, the '80s band The BoDeans, one of the best bands out of Wisconsin, comes to the 80302 zip code.

While we were visiting Boulder, we learned that Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the capital of a remote former Soviet republic- of all places, was one of Boulder's main sister cities. For the residents of Boulder, Dushanbe's mayor Maksud Ikramov commissioned local Tajiki artists to build a teahouse which was disassembled and shipped to Boulder.

Boulder, which is home to the Colorado University Buffaloes, also has an excellent bookstore called The Boulder Book Store, where one can find both the liberal magazine "The Nation" and the conservative journal "The National Review," which is fitting that Colorado is a swing state in this year's election. Like most college towns, except Lynchburg, Va., and Provo, Utah, Boulder is a fairly liberal place and that is evident by its many marijuana dispensaries. Local news sources said several such businesses were closing due to their close proximity to schools (1,000 feet is apparently where authorities draw the line).

Colorado is also home to Colorado Springs, an evangelical Mecca (is that an oxy moron, or what) which home to Focus on the Family and several other right-wing groups.

The Boulder Book Store is hosting author Geraldine Brooks for a book signing of "Caleb's Crossing" on May 19th.

Boulder is also sister cities with Lhasa, Tibet, Yateras, Cuba, and Kisumu, Kenya.

Our special 'virtual postcard' greetings go out to blog readers from Chile, Lebanon and New Zealand, who visited our blog today!

http://www.bouldermmdispensary.comhttp://www.boulderteahouse.comhttp://www.bouldertown.com