Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: It's Shark Week

What does a shark, a goat and a deer have in common? Well, all three were featured in our 10 favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Oct. 27th edition of "The Washington Post."

Some of our favorite strips like "The Argyle Sweater" and "Reply All" missed the cut, while some that we don't normally enjoy as much, including the education-oriented strip "Mark Trail" made our top ten.

Here we go:

1, Sherman's Lagoon (Image One, the strip revolves around a shark named Sherman)

2. Foxtrot

3. Lio

4. Doonesbury

5. Dustin

6. Pearls Before Swine (Image Two, a goat is one of the main characters)

7. Knight Life

8. Brewster Rockit

9. Judge Parker

10. Mark Trail (Image 3, the strip from Oct. 27 revolved around how to avoid hit bambis)

Virtual Postcard of Turkey (in honor of Republic's Day): Burgaz Island, Istanbul

Since we were not online on Oct. 29th, we wanted to share this image of Burgaz Island, near Istanbul, it is one of the secret gems of the city. Oct. 29th was Republic's Day in Turkey. The Republic of Turkey was established on Oct. 29, 1923, by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Futbol Notebook: Two Red Cards for Standard Liege

It is very unusual for three cards to be issued in one game, but yesterday, in Europa League play, M.Carcela-Gonzales and his Standard Liege (a Belgian team) teammate Kanu, a Brazilian national, both got sent off. The winning team Salzburg (Austria) also got a red card; Salzburg won the game 2-1.

By pure chance, another team from Belgium (Genk) played another team from Austria (Rapid Vienna), that game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Here are some of the Europa scores from yesterday (a whopping 24 games were played in total):

Betis (Spain) 1 Guimares (Portugal) 0

Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine) 3 Thun (Swiss) 0

Salzburg (Austria) 2 Standard Liege (Belgium) 1

Freiburg (Germany) 1 Estoril (Portugal) 1 (tie)

Genk (Belgium) 1 Rapid Vienna (Austria) 1 (tie)

PAOK (Greece) 3 M. Haifa (Israel) 2

For more scores, go to our sister blog:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Futbol Notebook: Europa, Europa

It may seem hard to believe for people in Antwerp, Belgium, or Zagreb, Croatia, but soccer is gradually becoming more popular here in the United States. In fact, futbol has entered our pop culture as the late Naser Hejazi, the goalie for the 1978 Iranian World Cup team which played in Argentina, was mentioned in the last episode of "Homeland."

Since 24 games were played in the Europa League yesterday, we don't have much time for detail or analysis. But, we caught the tail-end of the Swansea-Kuban game. The English Premiere League team Swansea was winning 1-0 until the team's German goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel (pictured here) collided with a player for the Russian team Kuban in the (ouch!) 92nd minute of play. As a result, French national Djibril Cisse kicked in the penalty and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Here are some partial scores from Europe League play:

Lyon (France) 1 Rijeka (Croatia) 0

Swansea (England) 1 Kuban (Russia) 1 (tie)

Anzhi (Russia) 1 Tromso (Norway) 0

Waregem (Belgium) 1 Maribor (Slovenia) 3

Shanktar Karagandy (Kazakhstan) 2 AZ Alkmaar (Neth.) 1 (tie)

Apollon Limassol (Cyprus) 0 Lazio (Italy) 0 (tie)

For more results, check out our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time":

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day- Carlton Fisk

Since the baseball pennant races are in full swing (no pun intended) here in America, we thought we'd quip some famous baseball all-stars of yesterday.

Carlton Fisk, 65,a catcher,  played his entire long career for just two teams, a rarity today, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox.

He is perhaps best known for hitting a 12th inning grand slam home-run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series which the Red Sox ultimately lost to the Cincinnati Reds, a team which also boasted an all-star catcher in Johnny Bench.

Here is Fisk's quote:

"It's not what you achieve, it's what you overcome. That's what defines your career."

http://www.carltonfisk.com

http://www.redsox.mlb.com

Hooray..........the Shutdown is Over

Park rangers, Washington DC-area taxi drivers and museum guards can rejoice, the federal government shutdown is over.

WRAL-TV out of Raleigh, NC, listed all the House members who voted for and against the House bill that ended the shutdown. Every Democrat in the House supported the measure, but a fair number of Republicans decided enough is enough as well.

In the Tarheel State, the three Republican congressional members who voted to cease the shutdown were Congs. Howard Coble, Robert Pettinger and Patrick McHenry.

The Republicans who towed the arch conservative party line were: Renee Ellmers, Virginia Foxx, Walter Jones, Richard Hudson, Mark Meadows and George Holding.

The Democratic members from North Carolina are: David Price, Mike McIntyre, Mel Watt and G.K. Butterfield.

Both the Great Smoky National Park and the Wright Brothers National Memorial will now be in full operation once again.

http://www.ncdp.org

http://www.ncgop.org

http://www.thehill.com

For a look at how Virginia Congressional members go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

DC Week (8 of 8): Afternoon Tweets__The Shutdown May End By Sunrise????

From what we gather, and we don't have PBS talk show hosts Gwen Ifill and Charlie Rose to verify this, the federal government shutdown may end by late tonight. We put a strong emphasis on the word MAY.

So, we decided to post tweets about this crucial issue du jour instead of posting an entry about the new play "Love in Afghanistan" being produced by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. or the fact that Ford's Theatre can now perform its play "The Laramie Project" at the Ford's Theatre instead of an alternate venue.

But, we are hoping to find some time for those entries by the weekend, in the mean time, here are the links:

http://www.arenastage.org/

http://www.fordstheatre.org/



We also learned today that the term 'tea bag' is a dirty slang word, we won't say what it means, but you can find out what it means in the Urban Dictionary:.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Here are the tweets which mention New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (pictured top) and right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh (pictured bottom):

1. David Wolman (with "Wired): I guess bipartisan agreement is now what House Republicans say they've kneeled before Zod." (this is an apparent reference to the antagonist in "Superman II.")

2. The Fix: RT Omar Villa France_ "I'm curious to know who gets the Worst Week in Washington crown this week. And it's only Wednesday."

3. The Onion: "Blood-soaked Mayor Michael Bloomberg Announces Homelessness No Longer a Problem in New York City." ("The Onion" is a faux news publication)

4. Slate: "Ted Cruz is now basically the Sarah Palin of the Senate."

5. Mark Harris ("Entertainment Weekly"): "I assume the next step for the Tea Party is to start referring to the shutdown on 'The Noble Cause' and staging cosplay repleacements." (Cosplay is a type of Halloween costume).

6. Cong. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.): "Should have happened weeks ago. Sen. Reid announces deal to debt limit; reopen government."

7. Cong. Steve Pearce (R-Pa.): "Former White House official calls Obamacare roll-out 'excruciatingly embarrassing.'"

8. Politico: "Rush Limbaugh says GOP created 'one of the greatest political disasters I've seen in my life."

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.politico.com