CSotD: Weekend Roundup

Stephen Collins reminds us that this is Whinging, Mewling and Complaining About Clocks Weekend, because we’ll be coming off Daylight Saving Time, which is nearly as horrific a moment as going back on Daylight Saving Time.

One solution is to fly to Australia, where — as reported here a month ago — they’ve already been through it and have, one would hope, gotten all the whinging, mewling and complaining out of their systems for now.

There is the factor that, once we go back on Standard Time, our kids will be heading off to school in the dark and coming home in the dark, which isn’t quite true, since, at the darkest part of the year, they’re really still heading out a little after dawn and coming home somewhat before dusk unless they live 45 minutes from school. And I had classmates who did.

The benefit of the time change is that it gives us two chances a year to whinge, mewl and complain about something truly inconsequential in the grand scheme, and don’t we love it? Yes, we do!

We should change the clocks a half hour with every seasonal change, so we could have four days of whinging, mewling and complaining every year.

Though it was a lot more fun before clocks became so easy to reset, and particularly before most of them began resetting themselves.

 

Arlo & Janis (AMS) took me back to the start of ATMs, when we had a large automatic banking thingie at the grocery store. It was connected to the bank downtown but — it being in the late 70s or early 80s — none of us were connected to anything else, and the ATM itself, such as it was, didn’t offer a lot of interactive functions.

So when I asked it for $20 one day and it gave me $200 instead, I didn’t know if I had accidentally hit an extra zero or if the machine had accidentally shelled out an extra $180 and, assuming the latter, whether the bank downtown realized it.

Arlo’s just messing with Janis, but this was a genuine moral dilemma. IIRC, I had to go downtown to the real bank so I could see if our purported balances matched up — this being when you only got a bank statement once a month on paper — and I think I ended up giving them back their money. Or my money. Somebody’s money.

Life was a lot more confusing back in them thar days.

 

Juxtaposition of Virtual Sex

(Speed Bump — AMS)

(Half Full — AMS)

Speaking of how interactivity has changed things, I don’t remember having to have “The Talk” with either of my boys, beyond a few clarifications here and there.

I do remember my father’s moment of explanation, because I was a precocious little fellow and we were all watching some science show about genetics, and, in a roomful of family, I piped up to say, “I understand about dominant and recessive genes, but how do the father’s genes get in there in the first place?”

Dad and I decamped to the kitchen for a caucus, but even at a young age in more innocent times, it was more a matter of his confirming the rumors than breaking any new ground, and I didn’t have to do even that much when the topic came up with my kids.

Though I do remember a conversation with a high-school aged son in which I informed him that, if I had been careless at his age, I would only just now being making my final support payment and contemplating how to afford my share of the unexpected kid’s college.

Different conversation.

As for dating apps, my misadventures there were never as clear-cut as in Half Full, specifically because, if the person you thought was a bird turned out to be a cat, you wouldn’t find out until the meet-up. Ain’t nobody posts realistic headshots, much less the actually terrifying ones.

Why spoil the surprise?

I do know a couple who met on-line and are still married some 30 years later. This is the equivalent of knowing someone who was struck by a meteorite.

 

Tank McNamara (AMS)‘s buddy Buck was trying to get him to invest in a Professional Pickleball League, and I knew there was such a thing but got a bigger laugh three days ago at the absurd, outdated notion of making money with NFT’s.

The next day, Warner Brothers Discovery announced that they’re marketing Game of Thrones NFT’s, because, as their Head of Commercial Development explained, “Our goal, as always, with the fans, is to create new ways for them to interact with the stories and characters they love.”

Warner Brothers Discovery shares just fell 6% after they failed to meet their third-quarter projections, but this will surely patch the gaping hole in their revenue stream.

 

Why, look! There’s a Head of Commercial Street-Vending Development now in today’s Non Sequitur (AMS).

I’ll bet he could hook me up with an NFT of Daenerys clutching a Beanie Baby in one hand and a bitcoin in the other, with a blue checkmark to verify her authenticity.

 

Booth Review

There’s been a lot about George Booth, the legendary cartoonist who died this week at 96 and, besides being incredibly gifted and funny, is remembered as a kind and generous mentor for a lot of up-and-coming gag cartoonists over the years.

 

I was covering a dog sled race in Oquossoc, Maine, back in 2007 when I spotted this framed Booth cartoon at Koob’s Garage. They told me only their mother knew the story behind it and, despite going back a few times, I never found her there, but I gather he used to rent a cottage in the area each summer.

About a decade later, the AAEC held their conference in NYC and included a dinner and presentation with Ed Sorel at the Society of Illustrators downtown, and that link is worth a click. (It even gives Maria Scrivan a second plug for the day!)

Those who needed the bathroom got a special bonus, however, since the hallway leading to it was lined with Booth originals.

Here are some close-ups of a cover rough, the final product and an angle shot showing the layers, including a layer of white paint.

 

He was one of a kind.