Highlights from Our Top 50 Things To Do List: Don't Forget to Call Bob

1. Call Bob (that's the reason we have an image of Bob Hope; yes, we know Bob Hope is dead)

2. Research for Novel (It takes place in South Carolina)

3. Work-out (but, I'm not sure we'll do pilates)

4. Go to local art museum (Our residence is Hartford, Conn., well, not really)

5. Put comics and records in antique shop

6. Read "Interview with a Vampire" by Anne Rice

7. Make a social events calendar

8. Wash car

9. Laundry

10. Recycle (lots of Zevia cola cans!)

NOTE: It's odd how American copyright laws work. One may assume the folks at Zevia in Culver City, Calif., would happy with us for promoting their product with an image of one of their sodas, but they are perhaps more likely to say we have violated their copyright and ask us to remove the image. Ya' just can't win! 

http://www.zevia.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.)

Things To Do List: All That Jazz

Here is our latest installment of the semi-weekly Things To Do List, which seems popular, or at least in Latvia and Slovakia (yes, for some reason we are popular in these places), and frankly is a lot easier to do than what we are planning which hope to get to between now and doomsday whenever that may be (perhaps our 'good friend' the fringe pastor the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., can give us a clue!)

1. Eat a gyro

2. Write a letter to "The Daily Tar Heel"

3. Listen to jazz on NPR

4. Recycle

5. Laundry

6. Get the Sunday "Washington Post"

7. Take a pilates class

8. Watch English soccer game you taped today

9. Write a poem

10. Watch "The Antiques Roadshow" on PBS

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.thedailytarheel.com

http://www.bennygoodman.com

http://www.antiquegrandfatherclocks.com

Comic Strip Dialogue_ Work Out More in 2013

Happy New Year to those of you in Istanbul, Turkey, where it will be midnight in ten minutes. We imagine there are a few pilates studios there though one well assume they would be fewer in number than Starbucks places!

Here is comic strip dialogue from the Sunday Dec. 2, 2012,, edition of "The Washington Post":

1) "Good thing I was born with no apparent purpose in life" (from "Sherman's Lagoon").

2) "Clean your room" (from "Zits")

3) "What?" (from "Doonesbury")

4) "Nope that's prograstination" (from "Knight Life").

5) "By the way, when is dad going to call me?" (from "Judge Parker")

6) "The casin's paying him big money" (from "The Amazing Spiderman")

7) "Walk it in and rise up as you release the breath of a new start" (from "Reply All")