CSotD: March comes in bold and bright

I’m with Lola (AMS), though, since it seems like being nice doesn’t reach across the chasm either, it’s hard to resist the temptation to least amuse ourselves.

And there’s no lack of ammunition. I’ve got a pile of political cartoons ready to unleash, and thank goodness DD Degg handled and linked to the mass of Dilbert cartoons, because, as I said, there were some good ones, but I’m done with that.

However, those other ongoing crises and horrors will just have to wait. Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight.

Plus Welsh stuff and some astronomy. We’ll get to that.

First a bit of seasonal humor from Pat Byrnes. The real joke is that nobody’s got any New Year’s resolutions left by Ash Wednesday, though, if they did, they likely blew them all the day before at Mardi Gras.

Though I guess if you can’t remember, it doesn’t count.

As a recovering Catholic, there’s not much I miss about being in the game, but I’ve always felt things like meatless Fridays and giving up things for Lent were good spiritual discipline, and it was sad to see them go by the wayside, particularly since their elimination is about all that remains of Vatican II.

But no politics today.

Pooch Cafe (AMS) continues its Wizard of Oz parody, and, by happenstance, wins the Serendipitous Timing award with a Coors beer plug just as Coors was slapped down for making fun of Bud Light.

NAD determined that, since you can tell the difference between the taste of mild, crappy beer and actual water, this was an unfair claim.

The ruling carries no legal weight, but if Coors ignores it, they won’t get to sit at the cool kids’ table anymore.

For my part, I think the NAD should have had to line up unmarked glasses of Miller Lite, Bud Lite, Coors Lite and water from Poland Springs, Flint, East Palestine and their own tap, and then grade them from one to six on flavor.

Frank Cotham explains why Coors probably won’t fight the ruling. Nobody wants to create a scene like this.

Still on the topic of ads, Pardon My Planet (KFS) touches on a new promise, which is that the new phone cameras can eliminate parts of the picture you didn’t want, which might make sense when it’s a photobomber in the background, but the ads specifically include removing ex-lovers.

How could you look at your photos of Maui without remembering who you went with?

I realize the term “self-centered” enters at some point, but so do the monks at the river. If you’re running around Photoshopping ex-lovers out of your photo collection, you’re still obsessing.

Mind you, PMP often pokes at vanity and superficial egotism. That’s why I keep it on my comics rotation!

Have a Happy, Dark St David’s Day

Macanudo (KFS) envisions a world in which you can only see one star, and, unfortunately, while the strip often lives in a fantasy world, this one reflects stark reality.

F Minus (AMS) goes for a grim laugh, kidding on the square.

As this article by a pair of concerned astronomers points out, we’re on the verge of making the vision in Macanudo real:

What’s this got to do with St. David? Today is his day, and it’s a big deal in Wales, of which he is the patron saint.

And Wales is on top of this thing, having just hosted Welsh Dark Sky Week, and having had Ynys Enlli (Bardsley Island) named the first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in Europe.

There are only 16 such places in the world, and it’s an issue Scott Stantis raised in 2017, for which he was named a Dark Sky Defender.

Meanwhile, I continue to be flummoxed and depressed by the idea that most people have never seen the Milky Way, a sad fact that I learned from Brian Fies and Sherwood Harrington in 2006 when they were my consultants on a kids’ series I wrote, illustrated by the wonderful Dylan Meconis.

Here is the story that touched off that sad revelation (It’s half of the actual piece, which also included how to find the major stars and data about them.) :

The Magpie Bridge

Once there was a boy named Niulang who herded cows for a living. He had a magical ox for a friend, but he was still just a poor boy.

One day, he came across seven beautiful fairies who had come to earth to enjoy a swim. Niulang fell in love with the youngest sister, Zhinu, and she fell in love with him.

They married and had two children and were very happy.

But Zhinu was supposed to be up in the heavens weaving cloth to make clothes for the gods. When the Jade Emperor realized she was missing, he sent his wife, the Lady Queen Mother, to bring her back.

The couple was very sad, but the ox told Niulang, “I am going to die, and you must make shoes from my hide.”

Niulang did as he was told, and with the magic shoes, he was able to go to the heavens and be with Zhinu again.

But the Lady Queen Mother became furious and, with a pin from her hair, she drew a line in the heavens and a great river was formed, the river we call The Milky Way.

Now Niulang and Zhinu were separated again, and they were very sad.

But the magpies of the earth felt sorry for them. So they flew up into the heavens and formed a bridge across the river.

Niulang ran onto the bridge with their son and daughter in baskets on his shoulders. Zhinu stopped her weaving and ran onto the bridge, too, and the family was once more together.

The Lady Queen Mother was angry that her wishes were being disobeyed and that Zhinu had once more stopped doing her work. But when she saw how happy they were, her heart melted.

She decided that, once a year, the magpies could return to the heavens and form a bridge, and the couple could be together. Now, every year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the couple is united once more.

In China today, that day is a festival much like Valentine’s Day in the West. Qixi is a day when young couples enjoy being in love, and young people who are not yet in love ask Zhinu, the weaving girl, to help them find someone.

And if it rains on Qixi, they say it means that Zhinu is crying because she knows she and Niulang must be separated once more.

Mary Hopkin, whose “Those Were the Days” I used the other day, grew up in a Welsh-speaking community as a child and has recorded several Welsh-language songs.

Happy St. David’s Day, and may your skies be always dark!