Tommy Siegel offers an explanation of what happened this week, and, while foolish arrogance doesn’t explain it all, I feel free to skip politics today and just offer some laughs and general social reflection.
I think the political cartoonists need some time to reflect and refocus. There have been some good responses, as seen here and here and here, but there’ve also been some knee-jerk reactions, which may be valid but don’t break much new ground.
It was a turn of events so stunning that it illustrates the expression “taken aback,” a nautical term for having the wind, through happenstance or poor helmsmanship, suddenly come from in front of the ship instead of behind, so that the sails are pushed against the masts and the ship stops and, even if undamaged, becomes difficult to get back on course.
Cartoonists were hardly the only people taken aback this week and, while I’ve seen several Lucy-and-the-Football cartoons, I’ve read a lot of columns that similarly drew on the same-old-same-old with little new insight.
Rather than add to it, let’s just wander through the funnies while we all regroup.
It doesn’t have to be profound. Rhymes With Orange (KFS) brought back a memory of when I had a fish tank and a girlfriend who persuaded me to add an eel, who became known as “Snake Guy,” such that, as I was taking the kids out the door to school, the younger said, “Look! Look at Snake Guy!”
Who was, at the moment, treating a cichlid like a Chiclet. After about a week and a half, he’d eaten everything in the tank except the guppies who managed to reproduce faster than Snake Guy could gobble them down.
Which is not a strategy I would recommend, but it was better than anything the cichlids had come up with.
We’d better move on before I become profound.
Today’s Frazz (AMS) came along at an appropriate time, too, since I just trashed another keyboard.
She asks an interesting question because you can crank out biodegradable paper cups a lot cheaper than reusable tumblers but the differences invite comparison.
It reminds me of when we had babies in the house just as disposable diapers came on the scene and there were articles explaining how filling the landfills with Pampers was better for the Earth than washing cloth diapers with detergents and bleach.
And guess who furnished the expert sources?
What I know is that we got a washing machine because handwashing cloth diapers was not fun, which purchase put more stress on the planet than buying another keyboard.
I also know, however, that cloth diapers became dustrags and I threw the last one out when the kid I’d bought it for was in junior high. How much does that offset?
Today, working at home means I’m not burning gas to commute plus I never buy coffee in a cardboard cup.
I spill on my keyboards strictly from porcelain, like God intended.
Juxtaposition of the Day
If you think we got disposable diapers forced on us, what do you think about AI? It seems every company you deal with is enamored with artificial intelligence and not only uses it but wants you to applaud them for doing so.
I’m not a Luddite. AI can simplify some routines and I’m no more opposed to that than I am to companies using adding machines and word processors.
What I object to is that it’s very artificial, yes, but it’s not all that intelligent. Both the prose it extrudes and the art it produces are absolute crap.
It isn’t excellent. It isn’t even mediocre. It’s downright dismal. And it’s freaking everywhere.
I have to remind myself that I can’t just pop open a fresh window and type in a search term because the browser won’t revert to Google and give me a meaningful answer.
No, it will use AI and produce some inane, unusable chatter that sounds like it came from a hungover sophomore who hasn’t done the reading.
At the same time, social media is filling up with garbage illustrations that the instigators — you can’t call them “creators” — think are clever and that the people who pass them on think are bee-you-tee-full.
Well, yes, that, too, Brewster Rockit (Tribune). Progress is our most important weapon.
I just wish kids were truly that insightful. And some are.
Crabgrass (AMS) just finished a long story arc about Special Ed, in which one of the main characters was diagnosed with a learning disability and “sentenced” to Special Ed only to find that not only did it help him but it was a pretty cool place.
Which sounds like an Afterschool Special, but I’m a fan of Special Ed, and Tahuid Bondia made it work. I don’t know what their next story will be, but it’ll be worth following.
Meanwhile, Australia’s government is proposing a ban on access to social media for anyone under 16, which brings us to
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Wilcox is right: Social Media exists, just as water exists, and you can’t keep kids out of water, which is why they should learn to swim.
As for social media, I began smoking and drinking at 13, despite the law, and we knew whose dad had a stash of Playboys and where he kept them. The idea that you’re going to pass a law to keep kids off social media is farcical.
First Dog accurately notes that kids have always taken risks, that the government has no idea how the world works and that it’s all well and good to pass laws that make it look like you care but that’s no substitution for actually giving a damn.
The bottom line is that kids are going to get on social media no matter what sort of laws you pass, just as they’re going to end up in the water whether you’ve taught them to swim or simply forbidden them to get wet.
It’s as foolish as thinking that, instead of teaching them about contraception, you can prevent teen pregnancies by promoting abstinence, which is the kind of backward, asinine approach only used in backward, asinine places but we’ve already decided not to address American politics today.
Frazz proves arguing over paper cups vs. reusable plastic truly is a silly discussion if you aren’t even disciplined enough to not ruin keyboards and then throw them out. (they are not really recyclable) We are still using a 1988 Epson Equity keyboard on a 1999 Dell 500 for our accounting department.
Ve haff vayz off kipping you from eting und drinking at chore desks!
I’m currently trying to edit math content produced by AI. It’s absurdly bad, bad math, bad common sense.
Consider a “Mighty Mug” to save your keyboard. I am a happy user.