Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for February 27, 2012

A very long time, Alice.

Miss Bliss looks like she’s been hitting Starbucks a lot!!

Wonder if Dill’s brother sends them via trebuchet …

Who drew today’s strip? It doesn’t look like Michael Jantze’s work.

I don’t see a signature on the strip.

Today’s artist is Corey Pandolph of “The Elderberries.”

http://www.gocomics.com/theelderberries

His signature is in the margin between the 1st and 2nd panels.

I had a teacher in first grade with high top biutten shoes. Ikid you not.

Good to know Corey has found work, even if only for a week.

Hopefully Miss Bliss isn’t too good a penmanship teacher, or else there will be a few less doctors in the world in the future.

Thank you. I can’t believe everybody else that commented here didn’t get to the heart of the matter in today’s strip. I am just old enough to remember people that were once taught the Palmer Method of cursive writing. What elegant handwriting that was. It looked like calligraphy compared to the cursive we learned in school.

They don’t teach cursive writing in preschool. Heck, the kids here barely know the alphabet.

Yes cursive writing is a lost art! And they call this all progress!Corey never did send me those other 2 books I paid him for in Dec. ’09, but, and I HATE to say it, he did a nice job on this one.

Not only will the youth of today be unable to read or write cursive, but they will be incapable of signing their name to a document! My youngest son, who graduated from college last year, was stymied when they asked him to sign his full name, and he didn’t know how to make a capital letter D in cursive!

Yes, cursive is all but extinct. My kids printed handwriting is TERRIBLE, let alone,..(gulp) cursive writing.

I still take pride in my handwriting and lament the loss of cursive writing in the schools. I think we began cursive in 2nd grade and were expected to do it well in 3rd. My printing is not bad, but I first did drafting before we had computers (and still learned AutoCAD- and programming up through V9)

I don’t know what method my teacher was using, but when I attended Hillsboro Elementary (now defunct) in Pittsburgh in the early 1940’s, in second grade we went to different rooms for different classes, and a whole period was devoted to learning cursive writing.

Cursive? Please. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any younger people who can simply print legibly, or know that writing and language r srs biznis.

Kids today don’t even know how to hold a pen or pencil properly – just stick it in the middle of a fist!

I know Pandolph. He’s the comic strip creator of Barkeater Lake. I still love that strip.

CBP in puffy letters, which looked to me like code at first, between first and second panels

Poor Miss Bliss! Alice is right to question when she has last had a good nap! I was raised in Palmer Method penmanship—we practiced ovals and slanting zigzag lines (I guess to develop motor control) endlessly, then learned to form our letters by their varied heights. Today I still get an occasional compliment on my handwriting, though back in the day I was not much better than average. Yet another Lost Art!

I know Corey best for TOBY, which I think is much underrated. But now that he’s moving into standup and other pursuits, I’m happy to se him as one of the subs here during Richard’s treatment. His style fits well!

why are they doing this?

I think penmanship is even more important now that people use computers for everything. Practice is what makes writing legible. People think I’m crazy because I still do rough drafts of everything by hand (I can’t help it, I think better when I have a pen in my hand) but those same people frequently gush on how nice my handwriting is. My writing is nice because I use it. Simple as that.

This is one of the things that I love about SCA. I’m too old to like camping, but these are the most creative people I’ve known since art classes as a kid. We have many doing all style of calligraphy and illumination but also- all the olden arts are encouraged and passed from one to many. I learned to make leather shoes that are hand sewn before turning inside out. I love to wear the ones I made everywhere.

Ramona was right: The cursive Q is an abomination.

not funny. is this an inside joke?