CSotD: Relationships, stereotypes and all the right moves
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Here are yesterday and today's episodes of "Gil."
When this strip first started, I had some serious reservations about the character of Gil's father. As a divorced dad myself, I don't take kindly to "deadbeat dad" portrayals, in part because it's a stereotype and in part because it's accurate enough to be an embarrassment to the majority of us who aren't jerks.
But I think Norm Feuti has done a pretty good job of treading that middle ground: Gil's dad is a jerk, but he's not a villain. And, god knows, he's not a made-up concept.
And, for those of us who have been in the club long enough to pay attention, the differences between "Gil" and "Shirley & Son," the brilliant divorce strip cut short when Jerry Bittle died, is that Shirley & Son really was more about Shirley, with son Louis a kind of naive innocent whom she and her well-intentioned-but-clueless ex, Roger, tried to shelter from the collateral damage.
Gil-the-strip has more teeth than that, and Gil-the-kid rockets back and forth between the innocence of his particular stage in life and the gritty reality that all children of divorce, of any age, learn to deal with.
I might wish my own kids had gone through the process with Louis's wide-eyed innocence but I know they learned the same feral skills that Gil employs in this week's arc, and, after all, there have to be some compensations for what we adults put them through.
That's what's nice about having two Christmases: It's scaled to circumstance.
If you're in a fairly healthy divorce, you get a couple of double-dip Christmases and then your folks settle down and wise up. If, however, they remain in toxic competition longer, well, there's quite a psychological price to pay overall, but those fat holiday bonuses just keep on coming and it's a bit of compensation for your troubles.
I don't know where Norm is going to go with this arc, but I just want to say that it's only fair a kid gets to play the game a bit and see a movie he probably shouldn't have.
Life is not fair, Gil. Grab yourself a few perks here and there.
Speaking of avoiding toxic stereotypes:
If you haven't seen Matt Bors brilliant take-down of millennial bashers, have a look. Here's the first snippet, but you really, really have to go read the whole thing.
(Yes, it's funny that so many of the comments that follow consist of Millennials doing the same knee-jerk, dumbass bashing he decries, but of Boomer stereotypes. Did you think this would be the one time comments were sensible and constructive? See yesterday's discussion of click-bait and lists.)
And another generation heard from:
GoComics is now running Nick Galifianakis' "Nick and Zuzu," cartoons that originated to go along with Carolyn Hax's advice column but which, while reflecting the problem-du-jour there, have always stood alone very well.
I'm not sure whether Nick and Carolyn are Gen-X or Gen-Y, but they used to be married and then they weren't and yet they have collaborated for nigh-on to 16 years, 13 of them post-divorce.
Which is just the sort of civilized behavior that makes you wonder what either one of them knows about relationships?
Oh, what a knight!
Mark Anderson gets one past the blue-nose editors.
Talk about knights and white satin — If you're going to wake up with a horse's head in your bed, ladies, this is definitely the way to do it.
If you keep waking up with the other end of the horse in your bed, start at the beginning of the column and read it over again.
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