CSotD: Teach Your Children Well
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Nothing, alas, ever turns out to be quite as cool as you thought it was going to be, Keefe.
Except Yellowstone, but nothing in daily life.
However, what is cool is that cartoonists like Keith Knight have introduced being a dad as a normal, interesting, challenging but, again, normal part of life. Your kids may occasionally be frustrating, but they are kids and it's to be expected.
Not that the Katzenjammer Kids weren't funny, but that was a century or so ago and the daily grind of comics in which kids are presented as a constant annoyance is not funny. It's just tired, as tired as the wife with messed-up hair and a detached steering wheel in her hand.
And double credit for inviting the Lizard Lady to your kids' party instead of a clown. Maybe triple credit.
You may not get them to Yellowstone for awhile, but you can bring some wonder and mental stimulation into their lives and maybe that's even better, since it teaches them that thinking is normal and fun. Plus, when you do get to take them to Yellowstone, they'll be pumped for it.
And I like today's strip because it reminds me of when I used to take my very young boys to their Ranger Rick Club meetings at the local nature center. Not only was it interesting to watch the presentations, but while they were coloring pictures of nature or whatever, I could wander around and look at the various animals and exhibits myself.
Or talk to the naturalists, one of whom told me a story about being in a classroom with a corn snake draped around her neck while her partner was in the back of the room.
Something startled the snake, who reacted as constrictors do, which made it very difficult for her to call out to her partner who was distracted by something at the moment but did look up and notice her eyes popping out of her head in time to come to the front of the room and help deconstrict the constrictor.
I really like snakes, but Lizard Ladies should probably travel in pairs.
And, speaking of raising smart kids, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal reminds us that not only should we all know some of these little brain-teaser/folk tales to pass along, but we should also teach our kids to listen and think before responding to offers.
Juxtaposition of the Day
(F-Minus)
One way to freshen up tired marital tropes is to project them onto other settings.
I feel pretty good about my relationship with the dog, because the few times he's escaped for a self-guided tour of the neighborhood, it's just been (A) to play with the kids next door, (B) to raid the cat food in the bowl on the stoop next door or (C) to sit on the landlord's porch at the front of the house and watch the world go by.
Well, unless you count the times he's scented something while we were at the park and gone to check it out. Hounds, in particular, have a mercury switch in their heads, such that, when the nose tilts down, the ears and brain shut off and shouting at them to come back is pointless.
One time he disappeared into the neighboring trees and apparently tracked a scent to the loading dock of the nearby caterer, which I surmised from the fact that he came trotting back with a bagel in his mouth.
At least it wasn't a tray of shrimp.
As for the cat at the bar, I really like turning the universally-accepted good thing of having nine lives into a curse; it's the kind of flip that not only cracked me up this morning but will now lodge in my brain whenever I hear about cats and their nine lives.
Along with the ending of "Notes To You," of course.
Tolerant as I try to be, I'm among the many who would condemn the young lovers in today's Off the Mark.
Including this guy, who is a role model and so should be listened to and I'd point out that he's only 28, so you can't just say that traditional toppings are for old farts.
However, pizza has truly fallen victim to the dread issue of Kidz in the Kitchen, which is to say that, to get a good pizza, you have to go to a hole-in-the-wall place in an Italian neighborhood where the pizzamaker is an old guy from Naples.
If you go to a chain where all the cooks are high school and college students, you are doomed to get a bad pie. I'd rather have a few cigar ashes fall on it from the old guy than some of the frat house inspirations that are not only served up by the Kidz but purchased by their same-age customers.
Though not JJ. And he's undeniably cool.
I'm not being a snob. You can put pineapple and ham on a crust, but that isn't pizza. Pizza is very diverse, and there are variations all up and down the Boot, but one thing it ain't is Hawaiian.
At least when people make a sandwich with a flour tortilla instead of Wonder Bread, they have the integrity to call it a "wrap" and not a "burrito."
Though apparently, judging from the phenomenon of "breakfast burritos," this integrity kicks in around 10:30 am.
I don't dislike breakfast burritos, but they aren't burritos. They're breakfast wraps.
You should eat whatever you like, of course, and, while you shouldn't culturally appropriate the names of ethnic foods, you can create whatever combinations you prefer.
For instance, when I go to an Indian restaurant, I'll ask for a mini-baguette, rather than traditional Indian bread, and there's nothing wrong with that.
After all, half a loaf is better than naan.
Now here's the only cooking video you'll ever need:
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Plus the required Canadian content:
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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