CSotD: Age is just a number. A deeply meaningful number.
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New Yorker covers are fascinating enough that an article called "20 Iconic New Yorker Covers from the last 93 Years" can be at once disappointing and well worth your time.
"Disappointing" in that only a half dozen are from more than 20 years ago, and it's hard to believe that a little more digging in those 73 years wouldn't have turned up a few more.
"Well worth your time" in that the use of newer covers allows more artists — and current NYer art director Francoise Mouly — to comment on them.
Art Spiegelman's commentary on this one in particular — it's one of the "old" covers — amused me because of the element of how some people find offense no matter how well you handle everything.
As said, I wish she'd dug a little deeper, but I'm certainly glad Guy Bado pointed out the article.
Juxtaposition of the Day
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(Two of my favorite strips are experiencing the beginning of wisdom.
Kim might be having coffee with Maeve and Susan in that first strip except she's spent the week in an arc about her back seizing up at the computer desk and is probably home with either an ice pack or a heating pad, neither of which (I've heard) really solves the problem of aging protoplasm.
But if the warranty on joints and backs expires at 40, there's a great deal of compensation in — whether you call it Stoicism or the Prayer of St. Francis — having "the wisdom to tell the difference" finally kick in.
You do have to watch out for defeatism, which is something quite different than acceptance, of your age or of a particular problem's insolubility.
Still, there comes a welcome time when you recognize that people are fallible and that you're a person and so is everyone else and you add that to your world view.
The wisdom element comes in when you learn how to apply this knowledge, which is what both Epictetus and the anonymous author of that prayer had in mind. Only rage against the dying of the light to the extent that you remain engaged in life, but don't be afraid to roll up your trouser legs and walk along the beach.
And, if the mermaids no longer sing to you, relax and enjoy listening to them singing each to each, and preserve your memories; they're all that's left you.
And if you can unpack all those references, you're probably ahead of the bar-hopping cougar Dustin encountered.
The punchline set me to doing a little math myself, because I figure Dustin to be 22 or so, which would make his cougar 37, and 15 years is a chasm at those ages.
I had a serious and rewarding relationship with a woman 10 years my junior, but I was in my mid-40s and she was in her mid-30s, by which time the gap had narrowed considerably and, two decades later, we're basically the same age.
Of course, men are traditionally supposed to be older, and there can be something flattering to the reptilian male ego when people misjudge the gap, as long as he's the elder.
Theoretically.
We were picking up something she'd ordered, but she was a few dollars short in cash, so I said, "I'll get it" and took out a credit card.
To which the woman at the counter smiled and said, "That's what fathers are for!"
I cracked up, GF was not amused. But I doubt either of us would have laughed if things were reversed and she were mistaken for my mother.
Not endorsing the attitude, simply observing it.
Anyway, there's no stigma for 35 and 45.
I'd kind of like to keep one in place for 22 and 37.
Agnes continues her efforts to surprise her grandmother, and today's episode reminded me that I know you have to drain a toilet to paint it, but had forgotten that part of my Great Art Installation, which you can read about by going here and scrolling down to the Dustin cartoon.
I remembered that draping a toilet stall in plastic and then spray-painting it from the inside has several drawbacks. I had forgotten that spray-painting the toilet itself without draining it ends up with a two-tone effect.
Obviously, my partner and I had not been to the Community Center's career-choices kiosk.
The Case of the Missing Mongoose
There are still plenty of cartoons about the Parkland shootings, some of them good, some of them repetitious, some of them contemptible. I particularly like Christopher Weyant's salute to those brave kids who no longer wait for someone to step in and help them.
One of the contemptible things being said is that the kids couldn't possibly have organized so quickly without adult help, which is, of course, unresearched and undocumented and therefore not just an insult to the kids but an ignorant, hateful lie.
Though, of course, those whose instinctive response is always to fellate the powerful are entitled to their opinion.
And I suspect their hostility will keep the kids motivated. It certainly did half a century ago.
I've also heard that they can't succeed because they're too young to vote. We were too young to vote, but we drove a president from office, ended a war and put through an amendment to lower the voting age.
Which the kids are taking advantage of.
As long as Weyant is referencing the Bible, let's also note that the Florida House has passed a bill that will surely protect their children from future gunmen: Assuming the State Senate and then the Governor are foolish enough to concur, all schools would be required to post "In God We Trust" in a visible location.
This brilliant plan from people who are infuriated by a sheriff's deputy who froze up and watched children die without intervening.
God would never stand by and watch children die, not in a school that acknowledged Him.
Hard but necessary lesson. The sooner learned, the better:
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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