Top Ten from the Sunday "Roanoke Times"............White Rabbit Jokes Never Get Old

AAAAUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

We can't seem to find the time to blog any more, so perhaps we will soon take up ice-fishing in North Dakota.

Here are our top ten comic strips from the Sunday "Roanoke Times."

"Pearls Before Swine" wins with a funny take on the Easter Bunny as he is met up with some angry little chicks, almost as if he were Bill Maher stumbling upon a tea party rally in Eden, NC, which is just outside the Roanoke newspaper's jurisdiction.

Second place goes to "Zits," as Jeremy prepares to hurriedly scramble out the door when his i-Phone shows it's 7:59 a.m., along the way he eats Pop Tarts, perhaps the most popular American breakfast product for those in a hurry.

And, "Non-Sequitur" has a revamped update on Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which concludes with the fairy tale protagonist meeting up with Little Red Riding Hood for some 'girl talk.'

Note: We didn't get around to posting our favorite "Roanoke Times" strips from last week, but we have that survey at the end of this one.


1. "Pearls Before Swine"

2. "Zits"

3. "Non-Sequitur"

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Doonesbury"

6. "Get Fuzzy"

7. "Speed Bump"

8. "Agnes"

9. "Funky Winkerbean"

10. "Garfield"

Results from April 13th:

1. "Garfield"

2. "Doonesbury"

3. "Pearls Before Swine"

4. "Agnes"

5. "Non-Sequitir"

6. "Get Fuzzy"

7. "Dilbert"

8. "Speed Bump"

9. "Funky Winkerbean"

10. "Baby Blues"

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

The Next Ten Films We Hope 2 Watch: We Just Love Goldie Hawn and Charlton Heston Flicks

1) "The Story of Louis Pasteur" (1936. dir-William Dieterle) 7.4 (IMDB rating)

2) "Enter Laughing" (1967. dir-Carl Reiner) (see top image) 6.5

3) *"Breathless" (France. 1960. dir-Jean-Luc Godard) 8.0

4)* "L'Enfant" (Belgium. 2005. dir-Jean-Pierr and Luc Dardenne) 7.4

5) "No" (Chile. 2012. dir-Pablo Larrain.) 7.5

6)* "Climates" (center image)  (Turkey. 2006. dir-Nuri Bilge Ceylan) 7.3

7) "West of Memphis" (doc. dir-Amy Berg) 7.9

8) "Butterflies Are Free" (bottom image) w/Goldie Hawn (1972. dir-Milton Katselus) 7.2

9) * "Soylent Green" w/Charlton Heston (1973. dir-Richard Fleischer) 7.1

10) * "My Dinner with Andre" (1981. dir-Louis Malle) 7.7

*-Films we've previously watched

http://www.imdb.com

Retro Opening Day Tweets: Let's Go Mets, Orioles, Nationals and Reds...

Yes, these tweets from a week ago were meant to be posted by April 2nd, oh well!

1) Anthony Orisses: "Happy Opening Day! A day for hope and optimism and a changing in the season. Let's Go Mets!" (Image at the top is of Mr. and Mrs. Met)

2) Baltimore City Paper: "Two hours to game time...get psyched for some Orioles Magic! O-R-I-O-L-E-S.......!"

3) Joe Sheehan: "Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball! Baseball! Baseball!! Baseball!!!"

4) CMich Crushes: "If you're reappin' the Detroit Tigers then you're my crush."

5) Brian Murphy: "I like America. And, by that, I mean I like hamburgers, Bruce Springsteen and baseball. Happy Opening Day, everyone...!)

6) Cincinnati Reds: "There's no party like a Reds Opening Day Party!" (the bottom image is of Reds' great Dave Concepcion, now age 65)

7) New York Mets: "HOME RUN! Andrew Brown crushes a 3-run HR! 3-0 Mets!" (the Mets were playing the Washington Nationals. The middle image Capitol Hill is located in Philadelphia.....just seeing if you were paying attention! Of course, it's in Washington, DC!)

8) Washington Nationals: "Andrew Brown sends a 2-2 pitch from Stephen Strasburg into the left field center seats and the Mets take a 3-0 lead.

9) Keith Olbermann: Man down. Bryce Harper kicked in the head. (Harpers plays for the Nats).

http://www.baseballamerica.com/

http://espn.go.com/mlb/

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb

http://cincinnatizoo.org/

http://citypaper.com/

http://thehill.com/

Sunday Washington Post Comics Survey: Tell Jeff Bezos We Love "Dustin"

Yes, we have had distractions this week, but we are back with our weekly survey of our favorite comic strips in Sunday newspapers. It should be pointed out that we also love several comic strips not published in either "The Washington Post" nor "The Roanoke Times," the two newspapers' comic pages we survey; these include "Bleeker," about a robotic dog, "Pros and Cons," about the legal profession, and "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," about a slightly overeager science whiz kid.

Jeff Bezos who made his fortune in Amazon, we are referring to the e-purchase site not the river in Brazil, took over "The Washington Post" recently and on Sunday, there were noticeable changes to the paper as a whole, but thankfully, no changes, for the better or worse, were made to the comic strips pages. Nevertheless, we hope Bezos understands that we really enjoy "Dustin."

The comic strip about a single twenty-something bears a bit of a resemblance to Dustin Hoffman's title character in "The Graduate," as both are seeking out how to establish themselves in the world. One of the key differences is that there is no Mrs. Robinson in "Dustin" (the comic strip). In this week's strip, Dustin takes a selfie at the DMV, only to be told that is not allowed.

In "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," a strange looking alien literally robs the title character of everything he owns. While in Keith Knight's "Knight Life," there is a funny tension between the title character, an African-American male modeled after Knight himself, and his German wife, over the subject of interracial marriage.

Here is the rest of our survey:

1) "Dustin" (see top image of Dustin Hoffman)

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (see middle image of Gil Gerard and the cult '80s NBC sci-fi series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," Gerard is still alive at age 71).

3) "Pearls Before Swine"

4) "Knight Life" (see bottom image of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner poster)

5) "Lio"

6) "Speed Bump"

7) "Reply All"

8) "Candorville"

9) "The Argyle Sweater"

10) "Foxtrot"

"Sherman's Lagoon" just barely missed out, but we're sure it will crack the top ten again soon! That was also the case with "WUMO."

"Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" is also available in the Sunday print edition of the "News and Record" (Greensboro, NC).

http://dustincomics.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/

http://www.gocomics.com/knightlife

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.news-record.com

Top Ten Comics from the Sunday Roanoke Times: We Like the Censored Pearls Before Swine

Today, comic strip artist Stephan Pastis said the latest edition of his strip "Pearls Before Swine," which made fun of extreme political correctness (the example he gave was when stewardesses starting being referred to as flight attendant), was not shown in "The Washington Post" yesterday.

But, the strip, which is hardly as political as "Mallard Fillmore" on the right or "Doonesbury" on the left, was our top pick before we knew that the strip was removed. While we noticed two different strips for "Pearls Before Swine," we suspected that it was something Pastis had deliberately done himself.

At any rate, here are the top ten strips from this past week. They include not just 'Pearls,' but also Dave Coverly's "Speed Bump," which asked what it would be like if inmates at places like the Dan River Correctional Facility in Yanceyville, NC, had yearbooks, a "Doonesbury" swipe at the right-wing dogma haunting the GOP and a satire of workplace politics in "Dilbert," where the big boss man proclaims: "The key to success is ignoring the people who say it can't be done." The boss is immediately questioned.

Here is our top ten:

1. "Pearls Before Swine" (the reason for the vintage for the Turkish Airlines flight attendants photo at the top)

2. "Speed Bump" (the reason why we have a scene with Clint Eastwood from "Escape from Alcatraz.")

3. "Doonesbury" (the reason for the Republican boxer shorts)

4. "Dilbert"

5. "Funky Winkerbean"

6. "Jump Start"

7. "Get Fuzzy"

8. "Agnes"

9. "Zits"

10. "The Mutts"


http://www.gocomics.com

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

http://www.roanoke.com

Top Ten Comics from The Sunday Washington Post: A Slinky, A Slinky.........

Slinkies, soccer games and sharks were some of the items brought forth by the Sunday comic strips section of "The Washington Post."

"Lio" gets our gold medal as artist Mark Tattulli imagines a ten-year-old boy (his title character) is chased down by a giant Slinkey (see top image) as the first day of spring arrives. Of course, if Lio lived in Washington, DC, or Baltimore, he might notice that it was snowing on the first day of spring.

"Knight Life" takes the silver medal as Keith Knight returns to his popular 'Life's Little Victories' segment, which includes turning on a soccer game just in time to catch a 0-0 tie-breaking score, which is why we have former Turkish soccer star Hakan Sukur (pictured center) here; he played for Istanbul powerhouse Galatasaray. Alas, since I've made fun of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this blog may well be blocked in my late father's country.

"Speed Bump," which depicts what would happen in dogs drank too much caffeine, gets our bronze medal. "Sherman's Lagoon," comes in fourth, as it depicts a hilarious fishing trip between Sherman the Shark and his hermit crab buddy in which Sherman asks which bait is best for 'catching humans.' Hopefully, Sherman is not hanging out in Myrtle Beach, SC.

"WUMO," the Danish import which we ranked seventh, features an alien running into a woman and her young son at a neighborhood gas station.

Other comic strips which narrowly missed the top ten include "Prickly City," "Reply All" and "Judge Parker."

Here is our top ten:

1) Lio

2) Knight Life

3) Speed Bump

4) Sherman's Lagoon

5) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

6) Pearls Before Swine

7) WUMO

8) Foxtrot

9) Frazz

10) Rhymes with Orange

http://poof-slinky.com/ (Link to Slinky)

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

http://shermanslagoon.com/

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

http://www.visitmyrtlebeach.com/

March Madness Finale: NCAA Tourney Teams with Women's Gymnastics Programs

We conclude our five entries dedicated to the NCAA Tournament, also known as March Madness, with a look at ten schools who made the Big Dance that also happen to have women's gymnastics programs. In total, 30 schools of the men's basketball field have women's gymnastics team. Of the ten teams listed here, only three are still in the tournament:

1) Florida Gators * (pictured top: Florida gymnast Kytra Hunter. Amazingly enough, the Gators are ranked number one in both sports)

2) Nebraska Cornhuskers (The team's mascot Lil' Red is pictured center)

3) Western Michigan Broncos ^ (We couldn't find an image we could use of the basketball team, so we went with an image of the Broncos' hockey goalie Lukas Hafner instead).

4) Ohio State Buckeyes. ^

5) Arizona State Sun Devils

6) UNC Tar Heels

7) Michigan State Spartans *^

8) Michigan Wolverines *^

9) Oklahoma Sooners (The Sooners have a solid chance of winning the NCAAs in gymnastics)

10) North Carolina State Wolfpack.

*-Teams still in the NCAA Tournament

^- Teams that also have men's hockey programs

http://www.collegegymfans.com

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/