Quibbles

It's not unusual for me to come across a cartoon that I basically like but with which I have a quibble. I generally pass them by because it's too much effort to add qualifications when there are other cartoons that don't require it.

However, I ran into several such pieces today and it seemed like the Muses were demanding I adopt "Quibbles" as a theme.

Today's Pardon My Planet made me laugh outright, but I might not have, if I weren't familiar with the character. It's hard to insert context into a single-panel piece.

If you read PMP regularly, however, you come to know Vic Lee's nameless troupe, and this woman is consistently conflicted in her approach to dating.

Often, she reveals her muddled thinking in front of "The Happy Couple," a pair of regulars who know her and take it with a sort of "here we go again" attitude.

She's not simply a gold-digger. There is one in the troupe, but she's depicted wearing a tiara and hanging on the arm of a very old, very rich man.

This is different: The Gold Digger knows what she wants. This poor creature does not.

And I like the expression on her date's face, because there's an implication of "What have I gotten myself into?" and they're still on their ice water. This is early in an evening that is headed nowhere.

But I think -- particularly if you don't know the character -- that this is a sort of Rorschach cartoon.

I'd love to pass it around in a random group of people and see how they take it.

My experience being that a lot of folks really hate being challenged by cartoons that don't hammer home a distinct message, and would prefer there to be two more panels explaining how we should feel about what she just said.

And then there are people like me who enjoy having someone just toss it in and run, which Vic Lee does on a consistent basis.

 

I do not believe Alex Hallat was trying to start an argument with today's Arctic Circle, but one never knows. She is a dedicated conservationist, but she's also happy to offer a laff.

It is funny to have a smoke-belching generator powering a charger. But, then again, it raises the question of where the power for electric cars comes from?

Which in turn sparks that element of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" that consistently lurks around ecological issues, sometimes because of intentional industry propaganda, sometimes through ideological purity.

So the power for your electric car doesn't come from a single, diesel powered, smoke-belching generator.

Is it coming from a power plant that uses natural gas from a supplier that fracks?

An atomic plant that threatens nuclear waste spills?

A hydro plant that dams rivers and changes their ecosystem?

A solar array of units that take energy to produce and that contain rare earth metals obtained by exploiting Third World countries?

And if we ditch our cars entirely and go back to the horse-and-buggy, well, horses fart methane.

I'm old enough to remember when we still had small, privately owned grocery stores in every neighborhood, so that you didn't need a car to buy food.

And you only saw various fruits and vegetables when they were in season.

Those days are long gone.

We tried living self-sufficiently, in domes, a half century ago and most folks talked about it and never did it, but even those who did it mostly only did it for a year or two.

And I suspect that, between self-serving industry shills and self-righteous true believers, we're never gonna know what method of generation is most environmentally friendly.

Which dilemma we can use to paralyze ourselves into doing nothing, if that's what we want.

 

David G. Brown's cartoon falls under the category of who has the standing to comment. Brown is an African-American cartoonist who draws for the LA Sentinel, a black paper, and so I'm already on thin ice.

But I wish he'd focused on the restaurant that called in the police, because, once they told the police they needed those people removed, well, nobody got tased or gassed or beaten.

It shouldn't have happened, but if you want the cops to start making on-the-spot decisions about when to follow procedure and when to ignore it, you're opening a huge can of worms.

And I'd rather Starbucks called in the cops than tried to throw people out themselves.

And I wish they'd learn to say, "Never mind. We misjudged the situation."

So I'd have pinned this one entirely on Starbucks, but, then, I haven't had a lifetime of being followed around stores or stopped on the street or pulled over for no reason or seeing people beaten and even killed for looking like me.

So I'll quibble, but I won't object.

Meanwhile, I can't boycott Starbucks because I already refuse to pay five bucks for a cup of coffee.

However, speaking of corporate casuistry, I read something the other day which I can't find now about how boycotts don't work because you can't have the economic impact to damage a big company.

Which is, (A) bullshit, plus (B) I make choices based on not planning to go to Hell when I die or being reincarnated as a cockroach or simply being remembered as a self-centered asshole.

I won't quibble over your goals.

 

I love that Wallace the Brave looked up a different Hernando Cortes and it completely cracked me up. 

But, yo, Teach: Sixteenth. Not Fifteenth. 

However, shut up, Wallace, even if you catch the error. 

When I was your age, I pointed out to my teacher that GON-dol-a is a boat in Venice, but that, contrary to her usage, the coal car is pronounced gon-DOL-a.

It didn't go well.

 

And now for something completely different:

Kal has chosen his 10 favorite cartoons after 40 years with the Economist.

Here: Arm yourself to quibble with his selections!

Comments

[Mary McNeil]

Not to worry, Wallace : Edison Lee & Caulfield will BOTH be happy to correct the teacher.

[Sean Martin]

There are so many people to blame in that whole Starbucks mess: the staff, the police, even the two men themselves... but instead of rummaging through that, folks are just jumping on corporate and pounding it like this is some kind of well-hidden and rarely-discussed company policy. Accepting the more obvious fact that everyone here screwed up is, I guess, a lot more difficult. And doesnt fit Current Outrage Agendae.