Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Don’t try this at home. Or away.

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Mike Peterson Published: February 5, 2014 1 minute 3 comments

Let's start, for a change, with the Juxtaposition of the Day:

(Between Friends)

(Watch Your Head)

I warned Maeve not to go to Europe with her ex. Well, actually, I warned her not to call him in the middle of the night.

Which she did.

Before she went to Europe with him, which I would note she did unbeknownst to her friends, which kind of indicates what an incredibly bad idea she already knew everybody would tell her it was.

I had no idea, however, that Sandra Bell Lundy was going to take her to this deep a place, and I have a feeling that we are beginning some kind of major shift in the character.

I'm fascinated and I trust Sandra, but I'm not backing off from my original sentiment: Horizontal Reunions Are A Very, Very Bad Idea.

And Cory? You dodged a bullet. Don't ever press your luck like that again.

Thank God indeed, man. Specifically you should thank Aphrodite, who appears to have pinch-hit for the goddess who normally oversees these events.

And, Dawn, Omigod, no. No, it's not. It's not necessarily the worst, but it's certainly in the running.

There aren't enough really scary comic strips these days, but these two are terrifying me.

Now here's Derf with what used to be the sports:

Derf — excuse me, I should say "Award-winning Derf Backderf" — echoes my disdain for the snoozefest of glurge that is the modern Olympics.

The Olympics:Sports::American Idol:Music

One of the reasons I depise the Olympics is that I used to like them so much, back when they were about sports, before they became a series of bathos-driven soap opera vignettes interlaced with snippets and summaries of sports interlaced with dorky new events that look like the fun-but-silly games we made up in the backyard as kids.

I was at a party in 1988 that featured an odd reversal of stereotype: The guys were standing around talking while the women had gathered at the TV watching the Olympics. As best I recall, it was a competition between an athlete whose sister had cancer and one whose father had died the week before the event, which was won in a thrilling upset by the older sibling of a paraplegic blind kid who needed a kidney transplant.

I think NBC is bringing in Sarah MacLachlan to anchor their coverage this time around.

Sarcasm aside, I really lost interest in the Olympics when, instead of a critical and competitive hockey game, we got to watch Nancy Kerrigan practice. Practice. They showed snippets of the game later, after everyone knew the outcome.

And, no, this isn't the testosterone speaking. Many of my Olympic thrills were women's events and I still take notice when New Hampshire Public Radio announces its sponsorship by Penny Pitou Travel.

That's some long-term hero worship right there, pal.

I also remember huddling around a ski lodge TV watching the 1968 Men's Downhill at Grenoble, which involved an actual sports-related soap opera at the time but featured a figure in the kind of non-sports-related soap opera that would one day overtake athletics as a focus for the Games.

Meanwhile, the other reason I hate the Olympics is that my local news is on an NBC affiliate which is currently awash with Olympic infomercials touting their own upcoming coverage.

Which means I'm sick of the Olympics before they've even lit the damn torch, much less brought out the hordes of dancing, singing children.

Speaking of award-winners

Ed Koren is about to be named Cartoonist Laureate of the State of Vermont.

Perhaps because they didn't see this one.

Vermont Public Radio runs a lot of those turgid, metaphor-laden, writers-workshopped personal essays by people who have found truth in nature, which is why I hear about Penny Pitou Travel's sponsorship of programming on New Hampshire Public Radio every day.

Come to think of it, the state is also full of people like this.

I don't know what the hell they were thinking.

But if this blog were just a little bit older (It turns four tomorrow, by the way — don't miss the celebration), you'd have read this account of an appearance at Dartmouth that I had to put on my personal blog instead.

Yes, you certainly do wish you had been there. I'd like them to come back and do it again.

But I'm glad Ed Koren didn't sit behind me in school, because I managed to get in enough trouble as it was.

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.