Random Short Takes for the Morning After

I'm kind of stumbling downstairs into the detritus from last night's party and trying to recollect what happened and put off cleaning up the mess.

There've been a lot of cartoons about fireworks lately, but I like today's Frazz best, though I'm applying it to dogs rather than to people.

For some reason, this was the Year of Concern for Dogs, with a whole lot of cartoons about scared dogs and fireworks and the thoughtless cruelty of it all.

Like Caulfield, I'm trying to figure out the analogy, starting with the fallacy that of course we hear from people whose dogs are terrified by fireworks and not from those whose dogs ignore them.

Of the dozen or so dogs I've lived with, I think two really objected to fireworks and thunderstorms. The rest either ignored them or passed the responsibility on to me.

However, I've stuck to hounds for the past 30 years based largely on their general imperturbability, so it's not a fair sample.

On his first Fourth of July, when he was 9 months old, my current ridgeback buddy looked up at the first set of bangs and asked, "Do we care about this?" and I said "no" and that was about it.

He's seven now and when the town's display began last night, I glanced back and he was alert but not to the extent of getting off his comfy spot on the bed in the next room. 

I have a feeling, however, that "Dogs are Terrified of Fireworks" is going to become yet another overused entry in the Catalog of E-Z Cartooning, along with "Opposable Thumbs," "Everyone Hates Fruitcake," and tin-can telephones that work when the string is slack.

So maybe it's like oregano, Caulfield: It's not that it doesn't add flavor, and it's not like it isn't an important herb.

But a lot of people just randomly add it to everything, even when it's not called for.

 

Notable Short-Takes

Scott Stantis has introduced a new character at Prickly City, the daughter of Hunny Bunny and Kevin, and, while I hope he doesn't overplay her, I'm getting a laff out of this arc. 

And here we thought only little boys were capable of being born on third base and thinking they hit a triple.

Caroline Kennedy has done a nice job of carrying on family tradition without overstepping: She's a bright woman with a good education, a solid background in public service and a willingness to speak up when it's appropriate, but also with the brains and class to recognize that she has contacts she would not have if she were just Caroline Smith. 

Other first daughters -- not just "Manchester" but one of the current ones (no names, please) -- would do well to emulate her grasp of perspective, or, if they can't, at least stick to providing the harmless amusement Alice Roosevelt gave us.

 

And Alex has sorta kinda added a new character, in an arc so funny that I'm including the first iteration as well as today's.

One of the major current fails of cartoonists -- and this is a whole lot more serious than assuming all dogs fear fireworks -- is gags about things "identifying" as other things. Not that you can't kid about it, but it's a live grenade rarely handled cautiously enough.

Point being that it's not a fucking "choice."

We used to have a woman who brought her kindergarten-age son to the dog park, and he was always acting up and, much as you wanted to, you just couldn't like the kid.

Then one night while he was taking his bath, he said, "Mom, I think I was born wrong," and, three or four years later, her daughter is comfortable with who she is, and one of the nicest kids I know. 

But it takes some adjusting for others, and the playable joke Alex exploits is about the knotheads who can't handle it.

That last panel knocked me out of my chair. Well played!

 

Arlo and Janis provides a flashback -- It has been many years since I've lived in a house with one of those nooks.

I wouldn't mind going back to that cute little 1930s bungalow, assuming some steamcleaning, painting and exorcism to eliminate the traditional college rental aura of incense and cat piss.

 

And I'm hip enough to laff at Jeremy Nell's cartoon but not hip enough to quite believe in bitcoins. That is, hip enough to know about them but old enough to be skeptical.

I can understand people who want currencies to be pegged to gold rather than the more amorphous way in which the Fed and its international equivalents read the tea leaves and ponder the zeitgeist to set values.

I don't necessarily agree with the gold-standard enthusiasts, but if they managed to take over the economy, we'd probably all get by.

But both the gold standard and the current system have actual rules.

Bitcoins seem more like the stock market, overly dominated by moods and fads and the hunches of insiders.

It feels to me like bitcoins are more like a currency whose value is pegged to Beanie Babies, baseball cards and classic comic books.

 

On a more substantive note:

If today seemed too fluffy, go read this brilliant interview with Dan "Tom Tomorrow" Perkins at the Irish Times.

I say "brilliant" because Perkins puts into words things I've been pondering aloud here for months, but does it from the point of view of someone who has to create, not just critique, this stuff. Sample:

Is the gaudy, cognitively-impaired oligarch not a boon for weekly news satirists like Perkins? He sighs. “[It’s] like waking up and saying ‘I’d like a glass of water’ and then having someone spray you in the face with a fire hose. One of the biggest challenges of the Trump presidency has been coming up with something satirical that’s crazier than the things that are actually going on.”

Go read that.

I'll try to be more substantive tomorrow.

Comments

[Mark Jackson]

I really liked Jon Rosenberg's take on alt-currencies:

http://amultiverse.com/comic/2013/12/27/the-price-of-a-cup-of-coffee/

[Bookworm]

I liked this quote from the Dan Perkins interview: "Someone said that he’s like a ‘direct denial of service’ attack on democracy. He’s definitely a DDoS attack on satire.” I, too, am getting weary.

[Craig "Wendell" Wittler]

I've always considered Honey Bunny as a direct parody of Hillary Clinton, which would make Manchester totally Chelsea... at least he waited 25 years to ridicule her, unlike most right-wing 'humorists'.