Saturday Short Takes

Sally Forth is hardly the only comic strip riffing on middle-aged people trying to stay up for New Year's, but it may be the only one riffing on the pointlessness of even bothering. 

The last time I made midnight I was in my 50s and it was only by happenstance: I'd been working on something and noticed it was 11:30 or so and decided I might as well greet the New Year.

So I turned on the TV and flipped around to find Dick Clark or a reasonable facsimile thereof -- I wonder how many people my age even know he's dead? -- and stumbled on the Rolling Stones, playing for a hooting crowd of celebrants none of whom had been born when the Stones mattered.

And I wonder how many of them even know Brian Jones lived?

Anyway, they were playing "Satisfaction" and I thought, "This would be really cool if it were the first time they'd been back together in, like, 30 years or something. But, as it is, it's really kind of ... pathetic."

At which point I realized that it's less a matter of being too old to stay up but, as Sally suggests, one of having outgrown it all.

Anyway, Ces has now been writing the strip for 20 years and has written a piece about the transformations he brought to it.

 

Artisinal Trailer Trash 

Betty's slacker co-worker has now bought his tiny house and has just discovered the main glitch behind (or, specifically, under) tiny houses: They pretty much cost the same as regular houses, once you put them on a lot and hook up the utilities.

And rent a storage locker somewhere for your stuff.

For anyone with dreams of a tiny house in the country, you'd better talk to someone who has built out there, because the cost of running electricity and cable to an isolated house can be gob-smacking. And you'll have to dig a well. And you'll have to install septic.

I guess if you find a lot in the city that has already been developed so you can simply tear down the house that's on it and drop your tiny house onto the spot, then it might be cheaper than building a new house with insulation, storage and a more private bathroom.

Or fixing up the place you just tore down.

But the price of a tiny house is not the cost of a tiny house, and here's the soul-crushing truth, my friends:

A tiny house is simply a mobile home made of wood.

The big difference being that the folks who make mobile homes have been at it a long time and have figured out all the design issues.

As have the folks at Airstream.

Not that I'm against the concept. I have often thought about buying a good camper and taking off with the dog, a cell phone and whatever mobile wi-fi I can find.

Though the dream got a few dents when I found out Steinbeck's inspiring odyssey was bogus.

That's not about being old and cynical. It's about having been around long enough to think things through.

I'm pretty sure. Give me another decade to ponder.

 

 Luxembourg Ain't Your Kind of Town 

Speaking of getting away from it all, the folks at Prickly City are looking for alternatives, and their quandry reminds me that, even before I was old, I was pretty cautious.

Back at the dawn of time, which is to say, early 1969, I had a Canadian girlfriend whose father was a prominent provincial official, and we had a conversation about what would happen if I got drafted.

There was, as she noted, no doubt that I'd find a home in Canada with her and with landed immigrant status soon to be converted to citizenship.

However, I told her it would have to wait until after jail, because I would still want to return to the States from time to time. We disagreed over whether or not this was stupid.

Well, we broke up, I never got drafted and Jimmy Carter pardoned the exiles, so I guess it all worked out, except maybe that first part.

And I guess it's related to that issue of whether you tear down the house and build new, or invest in rehabbing what you've got.

It's a whole lot easier to be wise about tiny houses than about this. 

 

Thunder Among the Magnolias
But speaking of things that probably have to be torn down, I'm glad Jeff Koterba offered this cartoon about the Rachel Jackson Magnolia Tree, because, aside from his suggestion of how destructive that giant Tweetbird is, the response to the tree's trimming is depressing.

A spate of Melania-bashing emerged with the announcement that the tree, planted by Andrew Jackson to honor his late wife, would have to come down, which it didn't.

But this decision was totally ex-officio. Also, well-reasoned. Not all trees are sequoias, and a 200-year-old tree can be past its life expectancy.

Bashing Melania -- who has kept a very low profile as FLOTUS -- for the decision feels to me like the line from Wilde: "Do not speak ill of society, Algie. Only people who can't get in do that."

And, besides, there's this, from that linked article, about the last time they messed with the magnolias:

On March 31, 1962, a workman with a shovel accidentally severed the connection between the president’s office and the Strategic Air Command, which would have allowed Kennedy to launch a nuclear attack.

Even if the thing were completely healthy, I'd approve the project.

 

More Best Ofs:

This came in after yesterday's blog posting went out. Actually, three others did, too, but one was too lo-res to read, another was covered over in pop-ups and auto-play ads and the third had cutlines but no images.

So I guess the backshop takes this week off, too. But this one works:

 

Kevin Siers

 

Magnolia Blossoms Fill The Air

 

Comments

[WVFran]

"'On March 31, 1962, a workman with a shovel accidentally severed the connection between the president’s office and the Strategic Air Command, which would have allowed Kennedy to launch a nuclear attack.

'Even if the thing were completely healthy, I'd approve the project.'"

Love.

[Mary McNeil]

Any word on the destruction of "Judge Parker"?

[Mike Peterson]

I think digging Judge Parker out of the hole it was in -- and not just the one that gobbled up the shirt factory -- is a long-term project. I'm wondering if the whole April-the-Killer subplot is about to fade off into neverland.

I do worry about the squirrel in the camper, however. Hope he's okay.