Sunday Comic Strip Survey Feb.8th from the (Greensboro, NC) Sunday News and Record: Brewster Rockit Wins Our Hearts

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Sweden and Lebanon.....

Four our usual Sunday comic strip surveys we are entering a new newspaper as we were able to visit North Carolina this weekend where we picked a print copy (??!!!) of the Sunday "News and Record" from a gas station near the town of Mayodan, NC (????!!!!!!!!).

I know this is soooo 1979 of us.

Our favorite Sunday strip of the week was "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" in which one alien gave another a box of planets in which the planets looked like chocolates (top image, well actually that is of a chocolate fountain, we don't recommend that for people with diabetes) for Valentine's Day.

Second place went to the Danish import "WuMo" where piranha fish (pict. center) are being chased by a knife and fork, Salvador Dali would have loved such surrealism!

Third place went to "Ziggy," an old standard, in which this week, the title character is greeted by Twiki from the cult tv sci-fi tv series of the '70s that is "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (pict. bottom), well, actually Ziggy is just being visted (and transfixed) by aliens who are not sure what their exact mission is. Perhaps, they should go to that gas station we visited in Mayodan, NC, and ask for directions!

Here is our top ten:

1) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

2) WuMo

3) Ziggy

4) Foxtrot

5) Pearls Before Swine

6) Doonesbury

7) Garfield

8) Jump Start

9) Dilbert

10) Judge Parker

For the memory of Deah Barakat, Yusar Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salah, the three Syrian college students studying at UNC and North Carolina State University on Tuesday. Deah was a fan of Stephen Curry, the NBA star who plays for the Golden State Warriors.

Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)- Portland, Maine to Altoona, Pa.

You know you've been blogging way too long when you google a term like 'lobster van' on Google Images, and you get a link to your own blog! Such is the case with this image, which is from Myrtle Beach, SC. We have also previously used the Shell Gas Station in Winston-Salem, NC, first built in 1930 which no longer in operation, but has thankfully been preserved as a tourist attraction.

But, today we are actually asking you the devoted blog-reader who has assuredly been with me ever day since we start in September of 2005 how far apart the city of Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa. Of course, since most of our fans are in Uzbekistan and Norway (well, we like to believe that though we were actually linked to an Uzbeki web site--not sure if it still exists!), they are probably confused!

Of course, everyone knows, well everyone outside of Tashkent and Oslo, knows that Maine is known for their lobsters and that is why we chose that image. But, even folks in les etats unis, may not know that Altoona, Pa., is the headquarters of Sheetz, which has like 3.4 million gas stations on the east coast. I have pumped gas at their stations in Ridgeway, Va., Greensboro, NC, Akron, Ohio, and well_Altoona, Pa., among many other places.

Both Portland, Maine, and Altoona, Pa., also have double-A minor league baseball teams in the Eastern League. Friday night, the Portland Sea Dogs lost 9-7 to the New Britain Rock Cats in Connecticut. They host the Binghamton Mets from New York state at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. We were curious to see what a sea dog looked like, and we saw this great image from jellyfishday.blogspot.com, but this blog's managing editor Dennis Alexander* thought the lobster was more suitable.

As for the Altoona Curve, they lost to the Richmond Flying Squirrels (I guess they got permission from the Jay Ward estate as well as the copyright holders of "Rocky and Bullwinkle") in Virginia 3-2 on Saturday.

For this project, we looked at the distance between Longfellow Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Maine, and Robert's Service Station in Altoona, Pa., which may be one of the three not-Sheetz gas stations in town.

Uh huh, it looks like our Honduran intern Javier**, who is on Spring Break from George Mason University, actually forgot to Mapquest this. Sorry, dear readers. We will have a talk with Javier.

But, we have the answer now; is it:

A) 9 hours

B) 10 hours

C) 11 hours

D) 12 hours

Speaking of indy bookstores, we just saw Sarah Vowell promote her new book "Unfamiliar Fishes" about the American colonization of Hawai'i on C-Span 2 (Book TV). Vowell's talk was recorded at Book People, an indy bookstore in Austin, Tex.

Catherynne M. Valente will talk at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, about her new book "Deatless" on Apr. 28 at 7:00 p.m. The book is apparently about the conflict between magical history and actual history.

The answer to last week's Weekend Road Trip Quiz was C) 41 hours, 57 minutes_ that's how far apart Las Vegas and Pawtucket, RI, are. See you back here soon....I hope!

*- Dennis Alexander is my psedonymn and in-joke; it is rarely used

**-Yeah, as you expected, there is no Javier the intern!