CSotD: Where to Get Smarter
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Pajama Diaries is one of the strips that I probably feature too often: Either you've figured out that you should be reading it on your own or you never will, and if you've decided you don't like it, you're likely sick of seeing it here. However, Terri Libenson approaches topics that other cartoonists have also addressed with a sort of nuts-and-bolts specificity they don't.
Case in point: This isn't about how much Main-Character Jill is going to miss her kid next year, or how far from home she'll be, but where Amy herself will actually go and how much it matters to her.
It's about Amy, not Jill, and not every cartoonist can step away from her main character like that, or get inside the character enough to have it be about empathy and not her personal response.
And I don't know why she didn't say "Harvard" and "Yale" because it's not like they'd sue her, but I suppose there's no sense in using real schools for the ones you don't go to and then inventing the one you do.
But I really liked that last panel, because, with crushes or with colleges, you have to focus on the fit, not the ego fulfillment.
And I'm not sure going to the most challenging school you can possibly get into is a very good strategy. For one thing, once you're there, nobody will be impressed you got in, because they will have all gotten in.
The other is that, if you squeeze through rather than waltzing in, you're gonna have to work your ass off just to keep up, and that's no fun.
One of my "alums" showed up at the workshop for young reporters I had in Denver a few weeks ago; his little sister is a current writer. He is on the verge of college applications and was talking about how he didn't think he could get into MIT, and we talked a little about Cal Tech and Carnegie Mellon, and then one of the dads said, "Mines."
And I said "of course" because the major difference between those other schools and the Colorado School of Mines is that everybody knows the former, but the people in the industry — who will one day look at your resume — know the latter.
It's surely no "safety school" and it's easy to flunk out, but, since it's an insider school, you might have a better shot at getting in, since every Brainiac with a technical bent won't be lined up at the door.
Plus, their football stadium is built into the side of a bowl with a fabulous view of the mountains, and not only is the Coors plant just down the street with free tours that include sampling, but Golden is suddenly beginning to host all sorts of little craft breweries. And he'd be an insulated four hours from home but only about an hour and a half drive from fabulous skiing.
Like I said, it's not impossible to flunk out of the place, but you'd have a lot more fun doing it. When my dad was at MIT, he joined a fraternity to get out of the dorms and have a quiet place to study. Eeesh.
And trust me when I tell you that, ten minutes after you're hired, nobody gives a damn where you went to school.
(Granted, it's different if you major in philosophy or political science. Then nobody hires you no matter where you went.)
BTW, Amy's already been accepted at her safety schools, so that's out of the way, though I'm all in favor of kids taking a gap year if they're not sure what they want from college.
We didn't have "gap years" in my day. If you didn't want to go to college after high school, you could take a "Giáp year."
In either case, there's always the chance you won't come back.
Now that student days are over
You can still become smarter by going to college and it doesn't need to take four years: Drake University in Des Moines has a display of Ding Darling cartoons, ephemera and events, through the end of May.
Here's a write up from the Des Moines Register that includes audio of him explaining one of his most famous cartoons, the obituary piece above for his fellow conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt. Which, by the way, is evidence that obituary cartoons don't have to suck if you reserve them for people you genuinely cared about.
Here's more about him. It's frustrating to me, since I used to drive through Des Moines fairly often, so, if you can get there, please do.
I am set to be at the University of Minnesota for this, April 20 and 21, and strongly recommend it, even if you can't work in a visit to nearby grandchildren which I'd promised them anyway.
It's a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Hustler/Falwell decision, which is particularly critical when we have a buffoon whose repressive views on press freedom carry more weight than the Rev. Falwell's.
The guest list is full of people whose work you've seen here — Ann Telnaes, Steve Sack, Pat Bagley, Chip Bok, Mike Peters, Ben Sargent, Steve Breen, Signe Wilkinson, Cullum Rogers, Joel Pett, Jack Ohman, Matt Wuerker — plus a lot of people who can't draw but who can think and talk real good.
Which is the pleasant way to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are.
(It's free, but you have to register by April 9)
And weekend after next, I'm going to go down to MOCCA, which is taking place April 7 and 8 at the center of the universe and the guest list for which is here. And here. And the exhibitor list for which is here.
I don't expect to see anyone there dressed as Spider Man or a Klingon, which is another reason to attend, and, if I'm wrong about that, the Hudson River is only a nudge or a shove away.
You can pass many a class, whether you're dumb or wise …
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