CSotD: Dubious Wisdom and Some Updates

Rod Emmerson offers tips for the lockdown and it all looks good to me, mostly because he accurately mirrors what I’ve seen in social media.

Mostly what I’ve seen is my cartooning compadres saying “I’ve been training for this my whole life!” because those of us who make a living with a computer at home aren’t seeing much change.

For instance, we’ve already learned that you need to keep a routine, not so much for your own mental health as to make sure you consistently hit your deadlines. It’s like giving yourself an excuse not to run in the morning: If you do it once, you’ll do it again and eventually it all falls apart.

And then there’s the fellow in the sixth panel who washes his hands but not his body.

I’ve seen plenty of people posting about being unshaven and unshowered, and let me point out that neither Trump nor the CDC has said you can only wash your hands.

I know that Ari Melber and a few other video youngsters are promoting the old Don Johnson look from the 80s, but the looking-scuzzy fad didn’t last then and I doubt it will last now. It reminds me of that period in country music where all the female singers looked like they were off to the prom while the guys looked like they’d just come in off a very long, dusty, nasty trail ride.

Except that I lived in Colorado then and I knew that, before they went into town, real cowboys washed up, changed their clothes and put on their new, clean hats and that those beat-up looking ones were the kind of wannabes who hung out at those Urban Cowboy bars with the mechanical bulls.

Clean yourself up, ferchrissake. What are you, 11?

 

Speaking of self-respect and public image, there aren’t a lot of good toilet paper jokes left, but Joy of Tech uses one as a worthy punchline to a joke about all the Skyping and Zooming and Facetiming and whathaveyou.

Watching TV news channels you suspect that these folks either have domestic help to keep their homes tidy, well-decorated and interesting or are curating limited background areas to look as if they did.

Note that the actual news channels must soldier on 24/7, which makes for a lot of curated backgrounds but also a lot of pretty dodgy Internet connections, not all of which can be fixed from Command Central.

By contrast, the NFL Channel has cut their nightly signature program, “Total Access,” from an hour-long extravaganza to a half-hour of updates with three trusted reporters on good connections, and then filled the rest of their schedule with game replays and canned features.

And when they do Skype with a player, he has bathed and groomed himself for the occasion.

 

Tim Campbell offers this combination cartoon and public service announcement, which I endorse.

I used to be a regular blood and platelet donor, before the vicissitudes of age made my body juices a little too unique for sharing. Now it’s time for younger folks to step up.

So let’s stick with the NFL a little longer, because they’re encouraging many kinds of public service.

It’s encouraging to see the number of players who have made six-figure donations within their communities, except for New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who dropped $5 million on his city’s coronavirus response.

This Houston radio host stepped up to anticipate the Grinch response:

Back in the early 90s, basketball star Charles Barkley made a Nike commercial saying that he was not a role model, that kids should look to their parents and other adults in their lives, but fellow roundballer Karl Malone responded that pro athletes are role models whether they want to be or not, and that they have to accept the responsibility that comes with the applause and the material success.

The NFL hasn’t yet figured out what to do about Colin Kaepernick and the kneeling-for-the-anthem thing, but they’re actively promoting players who are involved with their communities, including working with police to prevent shootings of young, unarmed black men and to overturn restrictions on voting rights.

And they’ve just released this reminder that men and manliness have come a long way since Rosie Grier had to assure us that it’s alright to cry.

It’s alright to give a damn, and it will make you feel better.

 

COUNTERPOINT UPDATE

The other day, in writing about how the once-free Counterpoint will be going to a paid-subscription service, I said I was seeing the cartoons for free well before the collection landed in my mailbox.

I did some tracking and I’ll withdraw the “well before.” Turns out I was seeing some of the cartoons in the morning, which around here is 4 a.m., while the email was arriving sometime after noon.

A lot happens in my world between those times, but it is the same day.

I’m told the cartoonists are, contractually, not supposed to release their work until the following morning, and perhaps some hands need slapping but I’ll grant it’s not so bad for people with sane, normal schedules.

That said, I stand by my recommendation that they move that discount offer back farther than this Thursday, because I need some time to think this over, and they need to promote it more widely.

Mostly, while I might pop for $49 to get a twice-weekly dose of cartoons, their full-price of $70 is simply too much for my budget.

And even with the discount, I’m still at “might.”

Counterpoint not only allows but specifically encourages cartoonists to push the limits of partisanship, which avoids lukewarm mush, but means that, in each issue, I find a couple of cartoons I like and a couple I hate.

Why not split right and left wings?

Send out the commie-pinko stuff on Tuesday and the crypto-fascist stuff on Thursday, then charge $49 for your choice or $70 for both.

But shift that subscription deadline while we think it over.

(Now scroll back up and watch that NFL video.
Wash your hands and play with your kids.)