CSotD: But better never late
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I'm going to start off with the trivial, personal stuff, and, as I've said before, I could run all of Terri Libenson's "College Search" cartoons from Pajama Diaries, because either she and I have some unique mojo or she's simply nailing this one for everyone. I suspect the latter but would believe the former.
I will say, relative to today's episode, that she's got less reason for surprise than I do. She and her husband are just a few years older than my kids, and I still recall walking into the "restaurant atrium" at Boston University 25 years ago and thinking it was nicer than the food court at our mall back home, never mind how it compared to my college dininghall, which was like something out of Sad Sack.
A lot of my freshman experience was like something out of Sad Sack, because we were still back in the days of in loco parentis, under which, as Phil Ochs wrote, "You'd like to be my mother, you'd like to be my dad, and give me kisses when I'm good and spank me when I'm bad."
They had, just the year before, done away with mandatory chapel and lights out, but we still had to sign in every day to prove we hadn't left, and we were forbidden to have refrigerators or toaster ovens in our rooms, microwaves having not been developed. Coffee pots and stereos were okay, if you could fit them into an 8×12 room that already contained two desks, two lockers, a sink and a bunkbed.
At which point I should add a grumpy old man "And we liked it!" only we didn't like it.
However, if we moved off campus, we had to live in an approved house with a landlady on the premises and no private entrance, and if we left entirely, well, colleges didn't have to try hard when their competition was the University of Southeast Asia.
I don't know anyone who went to college specifically for the draft deferment, but I knew plenty of people who stayed for that reason, and I think the explosion of colleges in that era was at least in part spurred by a much higher retention rate among young men.
I also knew professors who were willing to award a dubious passing grade if they felt a F might drop some kid into a rice paddy.
In any case, colleges later became a lot more competitive and they knocked a hole in the wall of my old dorm room to make it part of a suite, still only for two students and now with carpeting and drapes.
My kids had it better in their college years and, while I did think "You lucky little bastards," I did so in a spirit of "Good for you" and not "Consarn it."
Well, with maybe a little "how much does this cost?" but that's a rant for another day.
And speaking of how times have changed, today's Dustin reminds me that I wish there were an Office Depot in town here so I could refuse to shop at it.
I've never liked Staples Back-to-School "It's the most wonderful time of the year" because I don't hate my children and I was always sorry when our summers ended. But I recognize that as the kind of knee-jerk humor we all accept along with nagging mothers-in-law and lying fisherman.
I liked my mother-in-law, my friends had enough real fish stories that they didn't have to invent any and my kids enjoyed summer but were usually ready to get back to school and see their friends.
But we accept certain cultural things as given.
However, we reject toxic ones, and, as a one-time single dad and an all-time involved father, I think Office Depot should shove their assumption that back-to-school shopping is exclusively Mom's job where the sun don't shine, using a long, very sharp #2 pencil.
Even when I had a wife, she was a partner, not a go-fer.
And I've run this one before …
And it's not just Lithuanian basketball players.
Meanwhile, back at the crisis
There are now a bunch of Charlottesville cartoons appearing, but the rule is that, if you come to the party late, you'd better bring something worth waiting for, and — speaking of showing up late — I like Steve Benson's take.
We've had presidents who kept an eye out to see whether the wind was blowing for, or against, them.
LBJ was reportedly deeply wounded by the chants of "Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?" on the elipse outside his office, and Nixon famously snuck out of the White House one night to go talk with anti-war demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial.
That's a lot different than being dragged kicking and screaming before the cameras to read off a statement.
When Nixon and Johnson showed human decency, it was despite the advice they were getting, not because of it.
Which brings us to our
Juxtaposition of the Day
Sorensen, who often uses a more indirect observational style, does not sugarcoat her message today: You did this, you said this, and what happened was a direct and predictable result.
Toles spreads the blame, but he uses an elephant, not the Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam, as the flummoxed icon. Racism may be systemic and inescapable, but it has been the GOP who has deliberately benefited from it. Trump's "many sides" was not the only lame "they all do it" being thrown around in this tragedy.
And, BTW, when SJW cry, "You all do it," they're being just as self-centered and self-righteous.
Pilate needs to bring a bigger basin so we can all wash up and feel justified.
Enough.
I was going to lead with Kevin Siers' cartoon, but it would have left me with nothing to say.
Is there such a thing as a "pen drop"?
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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