CSotD: Sunday Funnies

When Dan Piraro handed over the Mon-Sat Bizarros to Wayno, it was so he could concentrate on Sundays, and this one shows the value of that.

You can, if you wish, start with the detail on the parrot and the pigeons, but I’d direct your attention to the variation in coloring on the sky, on the leaves and even on the blue house at the right.

And then there is both the facial expressions and the body language of those birds. This is called “Selling the gag,” because a regular Sunday comic of a parrot saying that to a bunch of pigeons would be so-what if they didn’t look so puzzled and slightly threatened by this large, strange bird who is trying to communicate in the English he learned as a captive.

Someone said of John Houseman that he could read the phone book and it would be entertaining, and I think something similar could be said of Piraro.

 

And on a related topic …

DD Degg beat me to the punch on this, and I usually concede the scoop in those cases, but not this one:  Gahan Wilson is one of the most influential cartoonists of our time and yet somehow the GoFundMe for his care has stalled.

How can that be? I guess I wouldn’t mind so much if far less compelling fundraisers didn’t regularly become massively oversubscribed.

 

Meanwhile, over at Reply All, Lizzie contemplates growing (visibly) older and this happens to coincide with a flurry of activity on social media, passing on a report that men who marry intelligent women may live longer.

Mind you, when I googled for that link, I found others that said a lot of smart women don’t marry at all, and even the one I chose conceded “However, intelligence is not the only criteria for a happy relationship. Compatibility is another key factor.”

Which is so self-evident that, if you had to be told that, you don’t really have a place in this conversation.

In any case, I consider letting your hair go gray a sign of intelligence, which is not necessarily to be confused with the “wisdom of age” so much as the plain intelligence of being comfortable with who you are.

Of my ex’s, the two with whom I had the longest relationships have both gone gray and both of them look absolutely terrific.

Though their gray hair may not be as much a sign of their intelligence as is the fact that they’re both content to remain my ex’s.

 

And speaking of liking who you are, Friend-of-the-Blog Sean Martin is saluting Pride Week with some “Here I Stand” features at Doc and Raider.

It’s a shame it still has to be said, but it’s good that someone is standing up to say it, and say it so well. Doc and Raider has always featured an interesting mix of being unapologetic, intelligent and naughty, and that is particularly valuable for this.

 

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Speed Bump)

(Pajama Diaries)

Dave Coverly managed some great timing, to suggest a silly phenomenon just as an equally silly phenomenon was being seriously floated. Yes, we’re all growing horns on the back of our skulls, just as, when surfing was the craze, we were warned about “surfer’s knob,” and, when tennis was a big deal, we were warned about “tennis elbow.”

Meanwhile, Terri Libenson reminds us of the critical need to get over ourselves.

I do fret a bit, remembering how we used to sing walking home at night, or how much time I spent lost in thought when I was walking alone, and I certainly worry about people who can’t buy a goddam can of tomato sauce without calling home for instructions.

 

And then I turn to the Duplex and remind myself that the world has always been full of idiots. They’re just getting a little easier to spot.

I worked at one place where there was so much foolishness and drama that my girlfriend suggested I start taking notes for a comic novel.

“Of course,” she added, “you’d have to tone it down to make it credible.”

As for this particular example, I’ve commented on the food at county fairs and said that, if you eat it every day for a week, it’ll kill you.

Well, it has escaped the midway and not become any more healthful in so doing.

I note that Metamucil has recently become an NPR underwriter. That’s because NPR listeners don’t make Blooming Onions a part of their regular diet.

 

And I’m going to disagree with Tank McNamara here, because back in the days of the Denver Bears AAA baseball team, I used to take my boys to their games, and as long as the competition is even, minor league ball is every bit as entertaining as the majors.

Okay, maybe not the best example. I remember taking my father-in-law to a game and he went to the concession stand with Jerry Manuel up to bat.

When he came back, Manuel was still at the plate. Well, not “still” at the plate.

“Again”

And we used to get seats near first base just to watch Tim Raines steal second.

Again.

So, yeah, the games weren’t all that competitive.

However, I also spent four years going to Notre Dame football games before finding that watching Colorado College play Colorado School of Mines could be equally fun, and you were closer to the action.

 

Wallace the Brave is a little late, given that school is out everywhere, as far as I know, but I still got a chuckle.

“Class in the Grass” is apparently a delightful alternative for people with a reasonable ability to focus, but for those of us with ADD, it’s pretty much like canceling class entirely.

Or like holding class at a rock concert during a fireworks display.

 

Anyway, as Ed Hall notes, summer is no time for school, unless taxpayers agree to step up and make it semi-bearable.