Virtual Postcard from Virginia- The Big Pencil

Today, we send you a virtual postcard from my home state of Virginia with this image of The Big Pencil in Wytheville, a southwestern Virginia town that is one hour west of Roanoke. Wytheville is also known as the place where highways I-77 and 1-81 intersect, and the town is reportedly exactly half-way between New York and Miami.

The Big Pencil was once featured in a "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strip, that is the brainchild of Bill Griffith. The town is in the congressional district of Cong. Morgan Griffith (R), a Republican from my hometown of Salem, Va., whom I know personally. But......well, I am not a Republican, but of course one should not say negative things about a friend in spite of political differences. It would be great if I could challenge him to a game of chess, bowling or mini-golf, but we doubt the freshman congressman has time for that. We should also point out that the cartoonist and the congressman are not related.

SIDEBAR: Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you probably can not spell the words Gladiolous and Crustaceaology, those are two words that were once used as Spelling Bee championship words in 1925 and 1955 respectively. Gladiolous, hope we spelled that right, is a type of flower; the other term was once used for the study of all things crustacean.

SIDEBAR: We are 'taking off' until Tuesday....We hope....!

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

Beers of the World (#46)- Zywiec Beer from Poland

Today, we feature Zywiec Beer from Poland, a country I actually lived in as a six-year-old kid in 1976. The beer is made by the Zywiec Brewery, which is the oldest one in Poland. It was founded in 1852. Zywiec Beer became nationalized by 1950.

This lead to a court case between the Polish government and the Habsburg family who originally owned the brewery, and it was settled in 2005.

There are 70 breweries and 27 microbreweries in Poland.

We actually learned about this beer through a Beer Geography Quiz on mentalfloss.com, which are basically as addictive as Twinkies and heroin.

If you are wondering where entry #45 is, that can be found on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire." That brew happens to be Chang Beer from Thailand.

SIDEBAR: There is a very moving story today on the WUNC-FM (91.5-Chapel Hill) show "The State of Things" about Chapel Hill sports writer Tim Crothers who traveled to Africa to meet Phiona Mutesi, a 14-year-old girl from Uganda who lives in dires. She has nevertheless amazingly become one of the best young chess players in the real and she competed at a global tournament in a Siberian city in Russia. Mutesi said she had no idea what the weather was like in Siberia, so she asked: "Is it cold there?" The article by Crothers was in a January issue of "ESPN Magazine."