CSotD: Those crazy youngsters!

I've been meaning to point out the current Sherman's Lagoon arc, which stands out not simply for being funny but for suggesting that Jim Toomey actually has some idea what "The Hunger Games" is about.

(The arc starts here, and then you can use the "next cartoon" buttons to follow it forward. Yes, I know he only has the black-and-white version posted there. A DailyInk subscription would solve that problem.)

This fits in with my periodic rants about serving the next generation, which isn't so "next" anymore. References to "Leave it to Beaver" and Alfred Hitchcock are fine to get chuckles from those of us about to start collecting Social Security, but, if you want to promote the idea that cartoons have a future, you need to live in the present.

I got turned on to "The Hunger Games" somewhat early, because I work with kids and they were raving about it.

I had also heard about "Twilight," but only got about 80 pages into it before feeling that I'd had enough. As Bo Diddley said to the Animals, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish I ever heard in my life…"

(And I say that realizing that the kids have no idea who Bo Diddley or the Animals are.)

(Were.)

But "The Hunger Games" was attracting positive commentary from kids whose literary judgment I respected, so I bought a copy and was promptly blown away. I mean, it's not going to knock Turgenev or Tolstoy farther down my list of favorites, but, while I felt that the early Harry Potters were well-crafted children's stories, this was simply a good read regardless of the age, and I promptly passed it on to some people who agreed with me.

I shouldn't expect other people in my age bracket to have that kind of access to what young people care about. And I'm not hip, either. I just happen to work with kids.

But when the movie came out and was a smash, cartoonists took up the fad without finding out more than "it's about kids killing other kids" and treating it accordingly, which is like assuming that "Animal Farm" is about talking pigs, and "Fahrenheit 451" is about a fireman whose wife likes to watch television.

Now, it's been quite awhile since the movie came out, and, in fact, it's even out on DVD, so Toomey has had a chance to see it and understand it.

However, back when the movie was launched, even before anyone had had a chance to preview it, there were reviews of the novel all over the place. A half hour on Google would have provided plenty of context.

If you're going to build a cartoon around something, do your damn homework.

Or don't complain that the old folks are the only ones who read the comics anymore.

Speaking of behavior patterns I've noticed amongst the young folks:

No, I don't count Rex and June Morgan as young folks, but the current story arc, in which they are off on a working vacation of sorts, has been teasing for several days with the notion that June is buying a new swimsuit. 

So I guess there will either be a serious dose of fan service coming up, or a bit of bathos in which Rex discovers that she went to the hip boutique but bought a granny suit.

Anyway, back to young people:

There's a boat launch down at the park where I take the dog each afternoon, and kids, mostly in the 12-14 age range, come down there to swim in the river. 

The boys wear long, baggy shorts or bathing suits of the same cut. Sometimes they even keep their T-shirts on when they go in.

Yes, I know, but the Connecticut River is pretty cold and so that potentially embarrassing problem would resolve itself. And, in any case, why should they be so modest when the girls feel no such compunction about their bodies?

While the boys are covered up like male nuns, their female classmates wear postage stamp skimpies of a style that once would have given parents of much older daughters coronaries and would have gotten these youngsters grounded for life, but which are apparently unremarkable today.

It puzzles me.

But then, what do I know? I'm an old guy. It embarrasses me to walk through the lingerie section at Wal-Mart because the bras they make today look like they've already got somebody in them.

And she's really stacked.