I was surprised to hear yesterday’s news about the dip in NAEP reading and math scores over the past year, not because of the dip itself but because it was being discussed as if there were something surprising about it. Anyone who thought you could achieve the same results with 30 kids on Zoom that […]
Perils of working too far in advance: Prickly City (AMS) doesn’t seem aware that watching gas prices has become nearly a joyous practice. Around here, they’ve gone down 30 cents since my last fill-up, which means that, instead of thinking I’d better top off before they go any higher, I’m wringing out every mile in […]
Matt Davies illustrates the plight of Floridians canceled by the self-proclaimed opponents of Cancel Culture. Someone — though not Mark Twain — said that America is on a tilt and all the loose nuts slide into Southern California, but it’s getting hard to believe they’re not actually falling straight down. And, however absurd and […]
Next Tuesday, it will all be over but the shouting. And the recounting. Expect both. Clay Jones (Ind) expresses the weariness I think most people are feeling at this point, perhaps because Dear Leader began running for re-election about five minutes after taking the oath of office. As Ann Telnaes (Washington Post) notes, everything […]
Peter Brookes leads us off today with a commentary on the bizarre mashup of celebration and disaster surrounding the Republican National Convention, which, as several people have noted, is unusual because an incumbent president is basing his appeal on the horrific condition of the nation he has been leading. We sure aren’t hearing Republicans ask, […]
There’s a fair amount of repurposed classic art going around paying tribute to the lockdown, some better than others. Many people have been riffing on Hopper’s Nighthawks, for instance, but it’s already a portrait of emptiness to begin with. You can only make his point more obvious. But while American Gothic has also had plenty […]
When I was a lad of 16, I trained to earn the Red Cross’s Junior Life Saver designation. It required passing a variety of swim tests, with the finale being a simulated rescue of a drowning swimmer. My “victim” was a camp counselor who, during the school year, played lacrosse at Cornell and, while lacrosse […]
Given that it’s Sunday, we’ll start with a Sunday cartoon. Betty is something of an oddity, because Betty and her husband are Salt of the Earth types, which, in both Comics Land and TV Land, usually doesn’t involve terribly thoughtful humor. However, the strip sustains a level of humor that is reflective, despite a strongly […]
There have been a couple of okay cartoons about the Notre Dame fire and then a raft of weeping gargoyles. I’m going to hold back for a day or so to let more cartoonists weigh in. There’s plenty more out there to comment on, starting with … I was glad to see Darrin Bell recognized […]