CSotD: Chilly Scenes of Winter

Frazz (AMS) brings back one of the more delightful memories of college this time of year: The first wisps of snow that brought out the freshmen from Florida and California decked in every stitch of winter parkas, hats and mittens they had brought to Indiana.

At which those of us who had, perhaps, put on a sweater under our fall jackets would laugh and, like Caulfield, wonder how they were going to handle winter when it actually did arrive.

My favorite was the California girl with plastic bags over her new boots so they wouldn’t be ruined by the snow.

This annual moment of amusement was one of the few advantages of going to a nationally known college. I sure didn’t encounter that type when I was living near UMaine Farmington, where the Southerners, such as there were, came from places like Ogunquit and Biddeford.

 

As a consequence of which they not only acknowledge winter on their website, but show students taking it all rather casually.

 

Jen Sorensen focuses on a different level of silly overreaction, that of the nitwits who buy a four-wheel drive megamonster but remain terrified of going over 25 mph on snow, ice, rain, dirt or even on asphalt with different colored patches. I guess that’s why they buy what they buy, but it obviously doesn’t assuage their fears.

The issue of gigantic, Seussian bulbous pickup trucks is somewhat different, since the people who buy pickup trucks have little choice anymore, though only a minority of them actually work in jobs where they have to haul stuff.

The proof of this is that the trucks now come with crew cabs which require manufacturers to shorten the beds to lengths with which you might be able to haul a loveseat but not a sofa, much less a working load of actual full-length macho lumber or pipes.

Meanwhile, those of us in realistic, non-Freudian automobiles can’t see past these bloated behemoths to back out of parking spaces or to make turns at stop signs, and I suppose we should be glad there aren’t many drive-in theaters anymore, because I’m sure being asked to park in the back would engender fistfights over liberty and freedom and such.

Sorensen’s wide cars might be one form of revenge, but I’d suggest something less confrontational:

Periscopes.

(Come to think of it, if they can add rear-facing cameras, why not?)

 

Today’s Candorville (WPWG) brought a laugh from another section of self-indulgence, since, even after a lifetime of starving artist deprivation, being retired and subsisting on Social Security tends to sharpen one’s focus on wretched excess.

Lemont offers a bit of awareness here that surprised me, which is, of course, a tribute to Darrin Bell’s writing, since surprise should be part of every punchline, but which carries a little extra this time.

It’s not that I envy the success some people have, but I’d prefer they own up to it, as Lemont does here and which Darrin Bell does by implication, given that Lemont is his acknowledged doppelganger.

In fact, I like when I see good cartoonists succeed. But here’s what I don’t like:

Don’t post requests for us to back  your Patreon so you can make comics, and then post a photo of the meal you just had in Paris.

Unless it’s Paris, Texas or Paris, Kentucky, and involves grits-and-gravy rather than exotic cuisine.

 

I had more to say on the subject of crowd-funding, but find that I said it all back in 2013, when this Non Sequitur was commenting on a relatively new thing.

To which I will add the memory of a panhandler in Boulder back in the ’70s who would approach people with dogs to ask them for spare change so he could buy kibble for his own pup.

And a worker in a leather shop on the Hill who laughed and told me the guy had just ordered a pair of calf-skin trousers and a matching vest.

Don’t be that guy.

 

Instead, be this gal. Francis (AMS) notes the potential disconnect between Dorothy Day’s radical take on Christianity and the current movement in the Vatican to make her a saint.

As noted in this article in National Catholic Register, Day herself was skeptical of sainthood, a topic Patrick Marrin raises in his cartoon and that is covered more completely in this piece from another non-canonical Catholic publication, America.

An excerpt from the latter, which should help explain the cartoon:

Day said we are all called upon to be saints, and argued, therefore, against being put on a pedestal. Certainly, it wouldn’t be the first time canonization was used to smooth the rough edges off a troublesome personality.

Meanwhile, the Church is also considering sainthood for Pope John Paul I, who wore the Shoes of the Fisherman for only a  month, engendering more conspiracy theories than miracles. It hardly strengthens the argument for canonizing Day.

As she says in the cartoon, what the Church really needs is not more saints, but bigger brooms and more sweepers.

 

While, over at First Dog in the Moon, Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin recommends that you make your mark this Christmas by giving up on the adults and focusing on the children.

The results of her experiment raise such a combination of unexpected insight, raucous laughter and hope for the future that I won’t spoil it here but will send you, instead, to read the whole thing for yourself and to contemplate the argument for canonizing Brenda or the kids or somebody.

My vote is for the kids. This old Aussie band only has a point if the kids find those bigger brooms and embrace their roles as sweepers: