CSotD: Educational Humor
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First, this update: Infantino has withdrawn his cunning plan to sell off part of FIFA to a consortium. Seems the universal hatred of the idea got through to him.
That’s why people should speak up. On a related note, the public comment period for the FCC’s attack on the ABC network’s owned-and-operated stations has ended. According to CNN’s Reliable Sources, the comments “exceeded 150,000, with more than 95% supporting the stations.”
We’ll see if the administration is as perceptive as Infantino.
I wasn’t aware that the rules of halal do not prohibit mixing meat and dairy. I got the bacon part. But I looked it up and it turns out that, while a cheeseburger can’t be kosher, it can be halal.
When I was in San Francisco for the AAEC conference two years ago, one of my Uber drivers was a young Afghan saving money to start a halal slaughterhouse with a Muslim friend who knew the business. It’s an expanding opportunity, assuming the fascisti don’t deport, jail or kill all our former allies.
Shoulda been a moose. Deer are light brown and their eyes are reflective, so if you’re driving at a reasonable speed, you’ll usually see them in time. And if you don’t, they only weigh about 125, so if one damages your car, ask, and the Trooper can either tag it for your use or arrange to donate the meat to a local food bank.
Moose, however, are black and their eyes don’t reflect. They’re also somewhere about 850 pounds and tall enough that, instead of bouncing off your bumper, they’re apt to fall over the top of your car and crush it. And possibly you.
And while deer tend to run across the road, moose will stand there and watch you approach.
Drive carefully.
Bears, on the other hand, are considerably less dangerous than their reputation suggests, and if you avoid them, they’ll return the favor. They will dump your garbage cans and trash your bird feeders, and if they get inside your car, they’ll strip it to the metal, but they’re mostly destructive rather than ferocious.
The blackies, that is. If you’re out where the brown bears and white bears dwell, you’re on your own.
If the only outhouses you’ve encountered were in public places with heavy traffic, it might surprise you to know that, at a cabin or private home where there aren’t so many people using them, they’re not so bad. Shovel in a little dirt from time to time, sprinkle in some lime and then dig a new pit and move it every couple of years.
A friend of mine said that, when their farmhouse got plumbing, his grandfather continued to use the privy. He understood how it all worked, but he’d been raised that “You don’t sh*t in the house.”
Hard to argue with that.
When the boys were little, I used to make up silly things all the time to amuse them and myself, but, as seen here, there is an element of trust that will override the most ridiculous nonsense.
The big one, the continuing foolishness, was that I told them I had saved the life of the King of the Squirrels and that, as a reward, he’d given me the power to understand them. Then, when we were walking around, I’d see a squirrel and say, “Hi, Steve.” Like Wallace, they knew it was nonsense, but, then again, well, I was Dad and so there was that element of trust involved.
They did figure out that I couldn’t make red lights turn green with a command, that I was watching the facing light to see when it turned yellow. I took that as a sign they were growing up.
There’s a difference between lying and storytelling. I wanted them to at least laugh, even if they kept looking in the mailbox, just in case.
It’s your obligation as a parent to teach your kids to be curious. Curiosity is the hub around which everything else is built.
Betty is appalled that her son spends so much time staring at his phone and seems to know so little about the real world, the starting point of the strip’s current story arc.
Junior isn’t a slacker like so many other comic strip kids. The sequence seems to be more about Betty feeling guilty for not having done enough to widen his horizons. Fair enough.
When Jan Eliot retired, she asked me if there was an original of Stone Soup I’d like. Took me no time at all: July 11, 2012 now hangs over my desk.
I understand the need to work and I don’t come down hard on people for having latchkey children. What bothers me is what I call “Mowgli children,” who are ignored and left to be raised by wolves.
Val’s late husband didn’t take Alix fishing as an educational project. He did it because he loved her and wanted to do things with her. The types of fish they caught are not the only thing she remembers.
My best move as a Dad was to read to my boys every night. They’d pick a book, then I’d pick a book. We read both Alices and all of Narnia and Little House, Indian in the Cupboard, the Rats of NIMH, George MacDonald …
When eldest was in junior high, the Odyssey was in their curriculum, and, despite having drifted off a few times during that classic, he had a flash of “Wait a minute — I know this one!”
It’s not what you read. It’s that you read.
This takes me back to junior year in college: I had an apartment with a chair and a sofa in the living room. When I’d bring a date back there, if she sat in the chair, we had a conversation. If she chose the sofa, well, we’d see. I’m also aware of the number of times someone said, “No, I’d better head home. I’ve got a lot of reading for tomorrow.”
No harm, no foul. Clarity is the best policy.
And not dating idiots. That’s an excellent policy.
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.
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