CSotD: Mothers and other relationships
Skip to comments
I got a particular laugh out of this RWO, because I worked at a paper where they had mugshots of the staff on a bulletin board in the break room. It was handy, because you could learn the names of people in other departments who you ran into in only a superficial way.
But it became a source of humor when the layoffs began, because it was maintained by the publisher’s secretary, whose efficiency and insider knowledge meant that people occasionally disappeared from the bulletin board before they disappeared from the building.
The joke became that, when you came to work, you should stop in the break room and see if you were still employed.
This has taken on some political significance. It seems Attorney General Pam Bondi demoted the person who failed to take down photos of Biden and Harris in a timely manner, and the report from DOJ insiders is that they were very careful to be more prompt when she was fired, and her portrait was not only immediately tossed in the trash but photographed there for the amusement of the not-so-bereaved Justice family.
To cite an old saying, “Be nice to the people you meet on your way up, because you’re likely to meet them again on your way down.”
Another mix of work and family, this one for Kevin. The best part is that Tauhid Bondia lit this fuse at the end of an extended babysitter sequence, giving readers something to ponder while he featured a few one-off gags.
Just after my divorce, I dated the ex-wife of my son’s school’s headmaster, who was also the mother of one of his close friends and of a girl I had tossed out of class when I was subbing there.
Thank god it was only a brief rebound relationship, but I can’t wait to see how Kevin and his mom are going to handle this.
Juxtaposition of the Day
It’s easy enough to say that people shouldn’t get dogs unless they plan to spend time — real time, that is — with them. You can leave cats alone for hours at a time and, while it’s not kind, they’ll likely adapt, perhaps by crapping in your slippers. But dogs are more social and need contact and attention.
And so do kids, but it’s much harder to lecture parents on this topic than it is to lecture dog owners on it, particularly if the parent who “decided to stay at work” is genuinely uninvolved, or thinks — like the dog owner in The Other Coast — that physical presence is the same thing as real involvement.
It would sure be nice, too, if the negligence were as clear cut in real life as it is in Baldwin’s cartoon, but sometimes it’s not. I’m reminded of my favorite Joan Rivers joke, in which she bragged of being named “Beverly Hills Mother of the Year,” which was the result of a contest where they lined up the kids and you had to pick out the one that was yours.
She got it on the second try.
The original of this 2012 Stone Soup hangs over my desk. Val is a widow, but, as half of a divorced family, it’s important to know that things I did had an impact, even though I couldn’t be around every minute.
It’s also important not to be too judgmental about other people’s arrangements. It’s hard enough to know how well you’re doing yourself, never mind how somebody else is faring.
Still, every teacher and every camp counselor has encountered kids who are desperate to find a connection, even with an ersatz parent.
Anyway, happy Mother’s Day, both to mothers and to those who are similarly connected with kids.
We’ll start the Mother’s Day cartoons with A&J, in part because Jimmy Johnson’s poems scan, which is way too rare in comics, but mostly because he touches on several of the cliches associated with the day and brushes them aside, while at the same time avoiding mawkish sentimentality in favor of expressing straight affection.
Trudeau doesn’t mention the holiday, but dwells instead on the gap between helicopter parents and free-range parenting.
He’s a year older than I am and also grew up in the Adirondacks. As most comic aficionados know, he retains a connection with Saranac Lake and designs a pin for their winter carnival each year.
I would expect a rural childhood to put him, as it did me, on the free-range side of parenting, but another thing we share is growing up country but raising kids in the city, which forces you to make constant choices on the topic. I was more comfortable with bears than with some of the risks of city life.
However, I’m far more concerned today with threats that target women but are part of a growing danger we’re all facing.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
I was one of six kids in an observant Roman Catholic family, but, even so, I find it hard to swallow this new conservative niche concept that we have to repopulate the world, and not just because its adherents seem to have a particular color scheme in mind.
My pro-life, prolific parents often cited Mario Cuomo’s landmark speech at Notre Dame in which he explained why his religious beliefs belonged on the church side of the state/church divide.
I protect my right to be a Catholic by preserving your right to believe as a Jew, a Protestant or non-believer, or as anything else you choose. We know that the price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that they might some day force theirs on us.
That was 42 years ago, but we’re now back in an old-fashioned, intolerant world in which specific religious beliefs are being crammed down our throats. The absurd, anti-freedom ban on mailing mifepristone that Telnaes refers to is the latest assault, not only on “women’s rights” but on all of our rights to maintain personal autonomy.
We have become the people Mario Cuomo warned us about.
Today, of all days, we should recognize how much greater this burden of intrusive repression is on women, and celebrate those who refuse to abandon the struggle.
Comments 1