CSotD: Sunday Mostly Apolitical Funnies
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I used mostly funnies yesterday, but in a political context, and I still contend that nothing is funny unless it’s based on reality with a twist, which pretty well describes current politics.
It’s not, however, always political. This Frazz, for instance, is philosophical. Instead of downright laughter, Frazz often provides wisdom with a smile. Both thinking and smiling are worthwhile activities.
This Lio might have been funny except for the unfortunate timing, which Tatulli couldn’t have foreseen.
Terence Stamp was part of the British New Wave or “Angry Young Men” period in which some remarkable films and remarkable actors emerged, though, yeah, he’ll be mostly remembered for Superman II.
So it goes.
Speaking of turning off the TV, my initial take on today’s Daddy’s Home was negative, since my kids often played outside in summer. But my kids are straddling 50 today and lived in a pre-digital world until they were in junior high.
They did have Walkmen before they were 10, and I had a rule against using them on road trips because I wanted them to be present in the moment and to join in multi-generational conversation. Parents today are facing a much larger challenge, given all the ways there are to remain on a desert island.
And it’s not just the electronics. We were concerned about “latch-key children” in dual-income homes, the Mowgli kids who raised themselves because their parents were barely around. Now it’s the default, and parents have to make a deliberate effort to remain engaged in their kids’ lives.
Some do, some don’t. That hasn’t changed.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Football is getting both easier to watch and harder to watch: Easier because they’ve expanded beyond just Sunday afternoon, and harder as we become aware of the damage done to the brains of players.
We don’t really care about brain damage, however. Boxing is back and we’ll mark the 250th anniversary of our nation with an MMA Match on the White House lawn. Apparently it’s too small for chariot races, so Nero had to settle for gladiators.
I’ll still watch a little football, but, like the kids glued to their phones, there’s a real danger of placing yourself on a desert island if you take sports as a drug instead of using it as entertainment.
One more about sports: I chuckled over today’s Big Nate because elder son had a classmate who pitched for their high-school’s softball team and who used to practice alone against the batter’s cage at our neighborhood park.
They had to replace the back of the cage because of her fastballs. She had great control, but I still wouldn’t have wanted to bat against her.
I interviewed a pair of German exchange students back when I was a reporter, and they said what surprised them most about American schools was how everybody jumped and ran to bells.
In their schools, they said, they had an ample break between classes, during which you could talk to a teacher about an academic issue or just go hang out with your friends and have a soft drink. They even had a long enough lunch break to go home if they wanted.
It’s often said that American schools are run like 19th century factories.
It’s often said, but there’s rarely anything done about it.
A federal district judge has ruled that Texas can’t require each public school classroom to display the 10 Commandments. A couple of years ago, that wouldn’t be a surprise, but, then, a couple of years ago, no state government would expect to get away with cramming religion down children’s throats.
Good luck to Greg Abbot on any appeal, since SCOTUS consists of six Catholics, two Protestants and a Jew, and Texas wants to display the Protestant, not Catholic, version of the Decalogue.
Though given that our current Supreme Court allowed dubious testimony and evidence to steer them into approving group prayer on public school football fields, it’s no gimme.
Switching to the other end of the age continuum, the UK will be requiring eye tests every three years for drivers over 70. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I’m less concerned about eyesight than I am about reaction time.
Given that I can renew my license over the Internet, we’re not addressing either issue here.
My solution would be a device you look into, as we did back when they screened for color blindness, and a button like the ones in Family Feud. You’d look into the device and, when a red light flashed, you’d slap the button.
Get it in time, we’re good. Take too long and you’d have to take a road test to renew your license.
This would not only screen out old folks with fading reactions, but would catch people who couldn’t stay sober long enough to renew their license. Seems like a win-win.
I’m doing some downsizing that is about to result in some Little Free Libraries getting a collection of cook books, since I don’t use them anymore.
I remember watching cooking shows on television, though there was a difference between the Galloping Gourmet and Julia Child.
Graham Kerr had a practical, devil-may-care approach that seemed as much about ideas and philosophy as actual recipes, while Julia Child’s complex French dishes remind me of an old gag about why Playboy magazine is like National Geographic: They both feature beautiful photographs of wonderful places you’ll never visit in person.
In any case, as seen in the strip, recipes today are on-line. Unlike Janis, I don’t watch the little videos, because I already know how to cook. I’m mostly looking for oven temp and time, plus some suggested spices.
BTW, I’ve noticed a remarkable similarity in those “Why I so love this dish!” stories that are there to keep you on the page longer. You can’t copyright a recipe, but you can copyright the sentimental dreck that precedes it.
I suspect they’re all written by an AI generator that also produces Harlequin novels.
Julia Child’s kitchen counters never looked like this.
Fortunately for her, they didn’t really look like this, either:
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