CSotD: Sunday Roundup
Skip to comments
It's been a while since Rex Morgan did his MD thing, and I'm hoping he comes up with something odd and interesting to explain why his babysitter's friend can't swallow without choking.
He did have a patient with Alzheimers not all that long ago, but it was tangled up in a welter of personal relationships such that the medical side was somewhat secondary. This is less so — Kelly has a boyfriend and the patient is a new character brought in specifically for this storyline, so we'll see.
The strip has a history of bringing medical information to the public, but it's always been basically a soap opera strip, so you have to expect a little of what then-wife and I called "Rookies Syndrome," after the cop show that we'd end up watching because it was on Monday night and, in the mountain time zone, popped up one side or the other of Monday Night Football.
"Rookies Syndrome" actually had two facets, the main one being that any personal friend of any of the cops in the show who appeared in the first five minutes of an episode would either be dead or in jail by the credits. The other was that Jill was the World's Most Psychic Float Nurse, because whether that aforementioned friend wound up pregnant, shot or suffering from cancer, Jill would be working that floor.
However, I'm willing to cut Rex some slack, as I did Marcus Welby, because a family practitioner probably does get a lot of personal referrals.
I don't think cops are allowed to structure their work that way.
The Rookies, by the way, was notable for having a pretty good cast forced to perform some really awful scripts. Which I guess prepared Kate Jackson for "Charlie's Angels."
Which is a digression except for a tie-in with the premise that good art can't save bad writing but good writing can save bad art.
Speaking of which:
Politics is sneaking into the funny pages, and Pearls Before Swine notes one of the most confounding elements of our current crisis. As noted here before, LBJ was disheartened by the protesters outside the White House and Nixon actually snuck out one night to meet some of them personally, but Dear Leader's combination of narcissism and a fearful staff does indeed keep him blissfully unaware.
And funny sometimes sneaks onto the editorial pages, even at the worst of times: Clay Bennett depicts one of those formerly-fearful staff members getting his release.
Most of the humor in editorial cartoons is more sardonic than laughable and this is unusual, even for Bennett, whose characters often display a sort of deadpan sense of indecision or despair that, given his style, can provoke a smile. And more than that could undercut serious commentary; political cartoonists who play for laughs often fall short on the whole making-a-coherent-point element.
But Bennett saw his chance and took it and, yes, I laft.
By contrast, Clay Jones is piiiiiiiiissed off, even more than usual, and the rant that goes with this cartoon is entertaining and not to be missed.
Mind you, unfair terminations are a topic that could touch off almost any editorial cartoonist these days. And I heard an expert on NPR last night saying that the things McCabe was fired for were, indeed, firing offenses, but even in a strait-laced operation like the FBI, rushing to cut someone off 24 hours before their pension is vested is petty, mean-spirited bullshit.
It also makes me wonder how many other people could be charged with, and fired for, similar things, if they happened to cross the wrong miserable son of a bitch? Was McCabe's firing just perhaps maybe a little selective prosecution?
Anyway, it's a good rant. I wish Dear Leader could read it. But, of course, he doesn't read, and Clay Jones isn't on Fox and Friends.
Still, it would be cool if one of his staff, angling for early release, would read it to him.
Write what you know
I check in at the Nib on a daily basis but generally find that it's not aimed at my demographic, except too often in the sense of a slingshot, blaming "Boomers" for one thing or another or (usually) both. There's nothing wrong with the cartoons there, but much of the conversation is about being in your twenties or at least geared towards seeing the world from that perspective.
However, the reason I keep it on my daily list of websites is for things like this excellent piece by Sarah Mirk and Isabella Rotman on the evolution of Lara Croft. It's a case of "write what you know," because they're covering something that genuinely matters and that is squarely in their wheelhouse.
I was already 36 when Lara Croft came out, so I was aware of her but she wasn't of any particular interest. However, I subsequently became a grandfather to five girls, which gives me a fighting interest in the topic of how women are portrayed and treated.
And I'm aware that there is a loud but I'd like to think small cadre of adolescent losers — some of them well past physical adolescence — who are upset about the size of Alicia Vikander's breasts, which reminds me of the old joke about what Playboy and National Geographic have in common: Well-written articles, good production values and exquisite pictures of places you'll never visit in person.
And now National Geographic is re-examining its own past performance, including the exploitation of exotic boobs.
The world is changing and it's good to see Mirk and Rotman use Lara Croft as a stepping-off point for an intelligent and necessary discussion of women seeking heroes in their own image.
Juxtaposition of the Day
(Bizarro)
(I have no idea how this happened or what it portends, but fortunately I do have an appropriate
Moment of Zen
Of course, you can't take advice from a mother who doesn't talk to you.
Comments
Comments are closed.