In memory of Don Knotts, this week’s edition of the Sunday Seven has you ranking your friends from Mayberry.
But first, congratulations go to Carly, of “Ellipsis…Suddenly Carly,” who was first to play for the second week in a row last week!
On to the challenge!
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
List in order your seven favorite Mayberry characters from “The Andy Griffith Show.” If you have trouble remembering the players, you can follow this link for a cast list.
Either answer the question in a comment or answer it in your journal and include …

I attended a recent service that focused on the Transfiguration, the moment when Jesus revealed himself to three of his followers on a mountain.
The text can be found in Mark 9:2-9. Put yourself in the place of one of his followers. Imagine what it must have been like:
2Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and john, and led them up to a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on …

More sad news: Hollywood has lost one of classic television’s most beloved stars. Don Knotts, whose bumbling Deputy Barney Fife has entertained generations, died Friday night. He was 81.
Knotts’ entertainment career began shortly after graduating high school. Despite some early failures, he made it to the stage in “No Time for Sergeants,” where he met a fellow actor with whom he would build a lifelong friendship: Andy Griffith. Years later, when he learned that Griffith was preparing for a pilot for a situation comedy in which …

More than 300 mourners gathered at noon today to say their tearful goodbye to two black bears who delighted visitors to Maymont Park for a decade. The bears were euthanized this week after one of them bit a child. The child and a parent had breached a wooden fence to enter a restricted area in an apparent attempt to feed the bears an apple.
The event was organized by a local woman who loved the bears and Maymont Park, and who wanted to do something to honor the bears’ …

The 98th edition is posted a little later than I would have liked, but I attended a special event that I’ll write about over at my primary blog later tonight.
And you’ll be happy to know that I gave these questions an extra look to make sure I didn’t repeat any of last week’s! (And thanks to Wil for being the first to email me about the repeat question. You can’t put anything over on Wil!
Dac of “Planetary Verbosity” was first to play last week main edition. Also, …

A quick blog jog on entries referencing the Maymont Bears that were euthanized after one of them bit a four-year-old boy who had breached a safety gate reveals that most people seem to be siding with the bears over the child.
Should the bears have been euthanized so that rabies tests should have been performed? The problem with isolating the bears in quarrantine, which is likely what would have happened if a stray dog had bitten the child, is that dogs would show symptoms in a shorter time. (I …

Maymont Park has a collection of animals, including foxes, cows and a variety of fowl. I spotted a pair of ducks who were ready to nap in the sun following a brief swim.

The iridescent green and blue in the Mallard’s feathers are two of what I consider to be nature’s most beautiful colors. Those colors are probably the reason I also like watching dragonflies, which are much harder to capture on film. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Here’s a question for the parents in the audience:
Let’s suppose that you’re visiting a zoo with your four-year-old child. He’s excited to see all of the wild and exotic animals, and you’re watching him closely. He stops when he reaches a pair of bears and wants a closer look. The bears are enclosed within an eight foot fence, and outside of this fence is a seperate wooden “people fence” designed to keep visitors from getting too close to the cage. Your child wants to get …

The title of this post came from the title of the most recent post over at On the Wrong Side of the Alligator.
The simple answer to the question is “Yes. Absolutely.” The publishers who put an author in the black section solely because of the race of the author do it every day; if they didn’t feel they could justify it, they wouldn’t bother separating the titles based on skin color to begin with. They point to their own sales figures which show them, apparently, that the …

I stopped at a convenience store to get overcharged for gasoline and I went inside to pick up a Diet Coke. While standing at the counter, I glanced at one of those signs that remind the customers (and the clerk) of the most recent year in which a customer must have been born to be able to buy tobacco.
Apparently, I haven’t looked at one of these signs in a while, which isn’t surprising since I don’t smoke, anyway.
But I noticed that people born on or before this date in …

On the most recent edition of the “Saturday Six,” I inadvertently reran the previous week’s question in slot number four.
To those who had already answered that question, I offer this one as a replacement:
4. Take this quiz (if you haven’t already): What literature classic are you?

Normal “first-to-play” rules apply for this make-good question. I’ll give the appropriate blogger their props on the next edition of the Saturday Six.
My answer:

Oscar Wilde: The Portrait of Dorian Gray. You are a

horror novel from the world of dandies, rich

pretty boys, art and …

I’m more brand-loyal than your average consumer. When I find a product that I like, I stick with that specific product. For soap, it’s Ivory. For toothpaste, it’s Crest. For soup, it’s Campbell’s. That’s not to say that other brands aren’t better or even as good, but I found the brands I like before I discovered “better” alternatives, and so I stick with what I like.
Working in television can cause a problem for us brand-loyal types, particularly if you relocate to a station that’s an …