For those who are time-shifting the Women’s Cup, I’ll simply offer Zapiro’s celebratory cartoon from this past week without further commentary, since Bafana Bafana’s entry into the elimination round has already been played.
I’m waiting until I file this to find out how the Americans did against Sweden, which is likely wrapping up now, but whoever wins gets to play Japan and I’m not sure that’s much of a prize.
But the Cup has been great fun and true fans likely shift favorites as the tournament goes on. It’s been a bit like the Olympics used to be, back when there was certainly no shame in “only” coming home with a bronze medal, and the addition of “debutantes,” as they are calling the first-time qualifiers, has added a great deal of joy and interest.
The other fun of comparing it to the Olympics is that we’ve long since picked out the stars of the Olympics before the Games even began, but that hasn’t worked so well here: I think they’d have done better to offer Hinata Miyazawa a few commercials, because she’s certainly leapt to the forefront.
Or maybe they could just relax and enjoy the tourney with the rest of us.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Two examples here of the difference between a classic and a cliche.
Bagley’s reference to the Charles Addams’ classic is an homage, in part because, while Addams has been copied in the past, it’s rare to see the concept so specifically applied.
And he didn’t slavishly copy it: In Addam’s New Yorker original, the puzzled man is simply looking on in unbelieving awe, while Bagley’s elephant was poised and ready to get the snapshot. In both cases, the element of surprise is present, but Addams’ man is simply a hapless sexist — it’s a “woman driver” gag as much as anything else — while Bagley’s onlooker is genuinely flummoxed at what he was sure would happen, but didn’t.
Meanwhile, Jonesy offers an all-too-familiar sight gag, but he manages to freshen it and juice it up by being specific in the downward steps towards inhumanity: The Lost Cause denier, the militarist enforcer and the gormless leader.
Cartoonists should never be afraid to play upon familiar concepts. They should just be afraid of doing it badly.
Which ought to scare them on a daily basis anyway.
And a comic timing award to Bill Whitehead for this Free Range (Creators), which appeared in my comics the morning after NBC Nightly News aired a report on the growing hatred of pock-pock-pock.
The joke here is that nobody wanted to live next to a pickleball complex. First you move in, then they add the courts. NBC interviewed a fellow who sold his house to get away from the noise, but even the pickleball aficionados they spoke with offered a small amount of sympathy.
On the other hand, the reporter showed a type of racquet that dulls the sharp sound, without mentioning if any cities were dictating it, nor did he say anything about fences or other sound-cancelling moves to restore peace in the effected neighborhoods.
I note that Skecher is offering pickleball shoes without explaining how they differ from regular tennis shoes. Perhaps they’re the kind you can step into without having to bend over.
In any case, this is part of the Graying of America and I doubt it’s going away soon.
Frazz (AMS) also gets credit for timing, but a different kind of invasive species. Caufield may just be jerking Mrs. Olson’s chain, but the issue of invasive species isn’t so far from what he describes.
I suppose we should differentiate between intentional and unintentional disasters: The Pilgrims planted dandelions because the greens were hardy and nutritional, but they didn’t expect them to get so out of control, while bringing in housemice and rats was completely unintentional.
And how lovely our world had they linked the terms “barncat” and “neuter” together four hundred years ago, but I will defer to readers in Australia and New Zealand for further examples of truly foolish, destructive innovations, because they’ve got a raftload of them. (Mrs. Caneteaude is a lovely name!)
The timing part here is more local, coming in the form of a sudden horrified gardening reversal from our regional news aggregator, who ran this item Thursday:
So we’ve got folks like my landlords lining the driveway with milkweed to provide food and nesting places for the monarchs, and another set of folks importing butterfly bushes to kill them.
What a world. What a world.
But bald eagles are back, and, his hopes not withstanding, the father in today’s The Other Coast (Creators) was far too fast in planning that pool table. Cleaning up the Connecticut has brought bald eagles back to the park where we walk our dogs and they’re common enough that someone will say “Eagle!” and we’ll all look but not be particularly surprised.
What seems surprising is that the kids stick around for about five years, and, while we don’t seem to have a family active at the moment, a few years back we’d look up to determine if it were one of the folks or their kid, who had distinctive immature plumage.
One more timing award, this to Edison Lee (KFS), since yesterday I got a text message from a polling company and ignored it. I used to feel obligated to participate in polls, though I often got kicked off for being a journalist, but, now that I’m retired and can get past the demographic part, I’ve learned how very few polls honestly want my opinion and how many are pushing for the answers they came to find.
I’m thinking of trying to get pollsters classified as an invasive species, one of the kind that seemed like a good idea at the time but has gotten out of hand.
In any case, by the time they reach anyone gullible enough to play along, it doesn’t surprise me that they find that 38% of those polled are in favor of more giraffes in Congress.
Though perhaps the fact that giraffes can’t vocalize is a factor in this.
Now I’m going to go watch the USA/Sweden replay so I can find out whose backsides this sweet little girl will be kicking next.
We had a pair of bald eagles nesting a few miles south of us, until one of them got hit by a car.
I’ve also noticed that there’s been more butterflies these past few summers, and not the just the common yellow and white ones either. I was afraid they had all gone away.
I’ve seen the Addams skier cartoon numerous times – with and without commentary- and never was it called “sexist.” What’s the giveaway that it is a “woman driver” joke ?
It would be very different if it were a guy. He’d be clever. Much of the humor is that she doesn’t realize it’s impossible.
I had to embiggen the cartoon to see that Addams had, indeed, drawn a woman skier.
It’s official…GORMLESS is now one of my Top 5 favorite words. Right up there with “doily” and “ointment”.