Sunday Best: Honest Abe Makes for Great Gag

Here is our weekly Sunday comic strip survey, and this weekend we turn our attention to the comics section of the May 18th edition of "The Roanoke Times," in which "Pearls Before Swine" made fun of Abraham Lincoln (he is tweeting about going to a play at Ford's Theatre), "Speed Bump" made fun of angels in heaven, "Zits" made fun of lazy teenage boys and "Doonesbury" made fun of Jeb Bush.

As we sip on Zevia zero calorie ginger ale, here are is our weekly top ten:

1) Pearls Before Swine

2) Speed Bump

3) Zits

4) Doonesbury

5) Dilbert

6) Get Fuzzy

7) Garfield

8) Funky Winkerbean

9) Agnes

10) Blondie

PS: Earlier this week, we had an entry for graduation commencement speakers across the United States, today we add three more: 1) Col. Michael S. Hopkins, a NASA astronaut, University of Illinois; 2) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Clemson University and 3) Conan O'Brien, Dartmouth.

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.zevia.com

http://www.dartmouth.edu 

Happy Graduation, Grads! Here is a List of Commencement Speakers

Here is a list of commencement speakers who gave commencement addresses at various public and private colleges and universities across the United States over the course of the last three weekends.

After CEOs, both active and former politicians were the most sought after speakers. Most schools went with governors from their own state, but Liberty University, the arch-conservative Christian college founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, once again sought a Republican speaker as Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) arrived in Lynchburg, Va., fairly far from his home base of Baton Rouge, La.

Here are the speakers:

1) Gov. Terry MacAuliffe (D-Va., pictured top). Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, Va.

2) Susan Wojiciccki, CEO of Youtube. Johns Hopkins U. Baltimore, Md.

3) Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos. UVA. Charlottesville, Va.

4) Dr. Atul Dawenda, UNC. Chapel Hill, NC.

5) Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Md, pict. center). Univ. of Maryland. College Park, Md.

6) Katie Couric. American University. Washington, DC.

7) Vice President Joe Biden. Univ. of South Carolina. Columbia, SC.

8) Gen. Martin Dempsey. Duke University. Durham, NC

9) Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La., pict. bottom). Liberty University. Lynchburg, Va.

10) Gov. Mike Beebe (D-Ark). Univ. of Arkansas. Fayetville, Ark.

11) David Ferriero. Archivist. NC State. Raleigh, NC.

12) Anne Holton. Sen. Tim Kaine's wife. Radford Univeristy. Radford, Va.

13) Jill Abrahamson, former executive editor of "New York Times." Wake Forest. Winston-Salem, NC.

14) Mary Barrra. CEO of General Motors. Univ. of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Mich.

15) Thomas H. Kean, former governor of New Jersey. Rutgers U. (He was a replacement for Condi Rice)

'

Sunday Washington Post Comics Survey: Brewster Rockit Conquers the Galaxy!

What do Darth Vader's storm troopers, Audrey Hepburn's little black dress, and (is he a traitor or a hero?) Edward Snowden have in common? Well, they were all reflected in our three favorite Sunday comic strips from "The Washington Post," Mother's Day edition.

In "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," an attack scene reminiscent of "Return of the Jedi" occurs and one of the tank warriors is a student driver. In "Reply All," the title character, a woman in her twenties thanks her mom over an i-Phone for all her fashion tips. And, in "Candorville," an NSA agent spoils a day at the beach.

Other strips from the top ten include Catwoman and Superman meeting for a date in "Rhymes with Orange,"  (there is actually a "Date Lab" column in the Sunday Post as well),"Lio" has an homage to Icarus, the boy who wanted to fly, and  in "Big Nate," the title character finds a way to play inadvertent mischief on the physical education teacher.

 Here is our top ten:

1) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

2) "Reply All"

3) "Candorville"

4) "Lio"

5) "Doonesbury"

6) "Foxtrot"

7) "Dustin"

8) "Knight Life"

9) "Rhymes with Orange"

10) "Big Nate"

http://www.gocomic.com/brewsterrockit

http://www.candorville.com

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com

Traditional Mother's Day Quote from Joan Crawford

Every year on Mother's Day, we like to quote Joan Crawford. For many years, the Criterion Cinema in New Haven, Conn., screened "Mommie Dearest," a 1981 film about Crawford starring Faye Dunaway on Mother's Day. Yesterday, the Denver Film Society screened the picture with Rutanya Alda, the then-child actress who played Crawford's daughter. Today (Sunday), the family film "The Parent Trap" with Hayley Mills was shown at the Film Forum in New York (Crawford was not in that film).

Here is her quote:

"I, Joan Crawford, believe in the dollar. Everything I earn, I spend."

http://www.filmforum.org

http://www.denverfilmsociety.org

http://www.joancrawfordbest.com

http://www.legendaryjoancrawford.com

We're Back: The Last 10 Films We've Seen

We are back from our ice-fishing trip to Colorado (ok, we are kidding a bit), but we were away for a long time. Hopefully those of you in Atlanta, Ottawa, London, Praque, Istanbul and Dubai were able to find other ways to inform/educate yourselves. And, with that in mind, here are the last ten films we've seen. Many of these were from Netflix streaming, which we are getting more hip towards.


The image of stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman is meant to be ironic, as she was one of the Jewish stand-up comedians who was NOT interviewed for the documentary film "When Jews Were Funny," which we heard about when the film was being screened at the River Run Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC.

Here we go:

1) "When Jews Were Funny" doc. 2013. dir: Alan Zweg (top image)

2) "Like Crazy" 2011. dir: Drake Doremus

3) "Days of Being Wild" Hong Kong. 1990. dir: Wong Kar Wai.

4) "Blue is the Warmest Color" France. 2013. dir: Adellatif Kechine (center image)

5) "Into the Abyss" doc. 2011. dir: Werner Herzog (bottom image: the film is about an execution in Texas, the American state with the highest number of executions)

6) "Barbara" Germany.  2012. dir: Christian Petzold

7) "West of Memphis" doc. 2012. dir: Amy Berg

8) "No" Chile. 2012. dir: Pablo Larain

9) "Soylent Green" 1973. dir: Richard Fleischer (it's a science-fiction film with Charlton Heston)

10) "Climates" Turkey. 2006. dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan



http://www.whenjewswerefunny.com


http://www.sarahsilvermanonline.com


http://www.tcadp.org


http://www.wernerherzog.com

http://www.filmcomment.com

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