CSotD: On Beyond Aaron
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It is occasionally brought to my attention that, while the feature is called “Comic Strip of the Day,” it often features editorial cartoons. I’ll also confess that I always feature more than one comic strip, which wasn’t the case back in 2010 when I started doing this, either.
Anyhow, one way to make me feature funny stuff instead of politics is to make all the editorial cartoons about either Aaron Rodgers or Big Bird, to which I would add that, tomorrow, you will see how I handle a day in which all the comics, both funny and political, feature little children saluting tombstones.
But that will have to wait. Here’s today’s show:
So, of course, we’ll start right out with a political cartoon from Jeff Stahler (AMS), which he might have posted as his humorous panel, Moderately Confused, but did not, perhaps because he takes rules and categories about as seriously as I do.
It brought a chuckle mostly because it’s light, compared to those who are seriously still unable to figure out the labor shortage, including some who persist in thinking that you can qualify for unemployment without having had a job.
My own part of the Great Resignation was that I retired in May of last year because I was old enough, my boss retired, I was burning out anyway and it was going to be even less fun without her.
I’m hardly alone: Aside from the hundreds of thousands of workers who are now dead, there are a lot of us who simply took advantage of the shutdown to finally pull the rip cord.
That’s before you get to the younger group who don’t have to flip burgers for minimum wage because the labor shortage has made some employers quit whining and become competitive.
The labor shortage is real. But if you can’t get people to work for you, it’s not because there are a lot of people out there who don’t want to work.
That’s not politics. It’s common sense.
Edison Lee (KFS) notes that our economy is largely driven by rampant consumerism, and it’s a wonderful time of year for that, because people are just starting to buy stupid knick-knacks as gifts.
If you’re not dumb enough to think you need a Pocket Fisherman, you may have some relative who believes it will delight you anyway, and, by the way, I would also note that very little of this useless crap is locally made.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Meanwhile, as Rabbits Against Magic (AMS) points out, people who have no idea how gas prices work are complaining about gas prices, but are also not driving hybrids or, certainly, electric cars or even something that might get conceivably get 34 mpg.
Speaking, as we were, of rampant consumerism and people buying things without much thought.
A decade or so ago, when gas prices were spiking, I interviewed rural truck dealers who told me they were still selling full-sized pickups because the loggers and construction workers needed heavy trucks not only to haul tools and materials but to withstand some pretty rough backcountry roads.
Now I’m seeing an awful lot of bulbous, oversized, ridiculous trucks being driven in town by people who I suspect don’t know which end of the nail to pound.
Again, not politics. Common sense.
Today’s Tank McNamara (AMS) is somewhat political, but mostly in the way powerful people insist on making sex a political thing.
I’ve already noted that Washington’s NFL franchise brought a lot of pressure on itself by turning its corporate HQ into an open sewer, and it’s appropriate that Tank’s next door neighbors are commenting here, because it’s not about sports or politics.
It’s about common decency.
And Twitter has just lit up with guffaws over Senate candidate Sean Parnell, who has piled aboard Josh Hawley’s move to celebrate masculinity by showing how little he knows about it.
“It used to be, you know, women were attracted to your strength because you could defend them from dinosaurs.”
Yes, Sean, it’s about your masculinity. We’ll ignore those abuse allegations.
First thing you learn as a young man is that guys who talk about sex aren’t having any.
Second thing is that guys who obsess over masculinity come up pretty short in that category as well, and you can make of that phraseology anything you like.
Meanwhile, the best way to protect women from dinosaurs is to offer them an alternative.
On the topic of young men and bachelorhood, Between Friends (KFS) has Kim obsessing over Danny bringing his Significant Other home for Christmas.
Dividing up holidays is merely a temporary issue: We made Christmas Eve the big deal at our house and Christmas Morning the big deal at my in-laws, and I’m sure these folks will work things out.
But don’t go to sleep yet, Derek, because I’m not sure Danny and Tamara’s previous visits were long enough to settle the question of sleeping arrangements.
Juxtaposition of Itsownself
(Wallace the Brave, AMS, 11/08)
(Wallace the Brave, AMS, 11/10)
Several strips have tried to create a Brainiac girl to leaven the mix, but Rose is the most realistic honor student of them all: She’s whip-smart and teachers like her, but she’s only moderately a goody-goody and she’s popular with her fellow kids as well.
In my school, the prissy tattletales were mostly B students. The kids at the top of the honor roll were like Rose: Real people who happened to be good at homework.
Maybe it’s a small-school phenomenon. I used to visit one extremely rural school with classes of four to seven, and that was too small. As the lit teacher there said, they already knew each other so well that it was hard to spark any back-and-forth over a short story.
But another school had grade levels of a dozen-and-a-half, and that was perfect. I loved presenting to them because they were used to working in a mix of talents and abilities, and wherever one was weak, another would provide a cooperative boost.
As for my school, I was one of 97. We had our Spuds, our Wallaces, our Amelias and our Roses.
And one bodacious graduation party.
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