Frazz by Jef Mallett follows the adventures of an unexpected role model: an elementary-school janitor who's also a Renaissance man. While he's sweeping the hall, he's whistling Beethoven. Or Lyle Lovett. He paints the woodwork in the classrooms; he paints a Da Vinci on the cafeteria wall. He's a trusted authority figure who is every kid's buddy. He took the janitor's job while he was a struggling songwriter, and when he finally sold a hit song, he decided to stay on at school. Frazz appears in 200 newspapers worldwide, including the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune and Detroit News. "A few years back, I wrote and illustrated a children's book," says Mallett. "When I was traveling around reading it at school assemblies, I noticed that often, the most respected, best-liked grown-up in the building was the janitor. And I thought, 'Hmm, there's a comic strip in that.'" Often praised for its intelligent wit, gentle spirit and effortless diversity, Frazz won a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council in 2003 and 2005 for excellence in communicating values and ethics.
© Jef Mallett - All Rights Reserved.
Frank & Ernest by Thaves
Fred Basset by Alex Graham
Comments (26) (Please sign in to comment)
Varnes said, 6 months ago
So what did they do for the rest of the hour?
runar
said, 6 months ago
One of my grade school teachers was a nun in her 70s who used to fall asleep in class. We let her, then someone would “accidentally” drop a book and wake her up in time for the bell.
Ronald Davis said, 6 months ago
… because of the strange asymmetry of time by which we can remember the past but not the future. We know when we see the first robin that it is the first, but not when we see the last robin. There is no full explanation of that asymmetry, but I think it’s because the Big Bang imposes a boundary condition on the Schrödinger equation of the Universe. An analogy is that we perceive an asymmetry between up and down, but that is only because we live on the surface of a body, and not an inherent feature of space.
jessegooddoggy said, 6 months ago
I am very happy when I see the first white crowned sparrows in the fall (they have a lovely song and sing all winter!), and sad when I am down to the last one or two in the spring.
pumaman said, 6 months ago
And coincidentally, the last robin was in the last place I looked.
zoidknight said, 6 months ago
@Varnes
Something alot more productive than the lesson plan.
olddog1 said, 6 months ago
@Ronald Davis
Or it could just be that changing seasons aren’t necessarily a reason to be sad.
Strod said, 6 months ago
@Ronald Davis
Actually, down is the direction of the net force of gravity, and up is the opposite direction. Those directions depend on the location of you and all the other objects in space, but they are still quite real.
Doctor Toon said, 6 months ago
I may not even notice the first Robin of Spring
The bird that signals Spring to me is when I hear the first song of the Meadowlark of the season
wwh85cp said, 6 months ago
“forgot about her lesson plan?”
Hmmm. Perhaps she saw a teachable moment there, as in, “I just learned this kid drives me NUTS!”
Bandit said, 6 months ago
@Ronald Davis
The first is unchanged by seeing more robins later in the spring, but the robin in fall “may be” the last unless we see another one and then that one become the possible last robin. It is only later that we can look back and determine when we saw the last robin. Therein lies the asymmetry.
starlady1
said, 6 months ago
Towards is the direction of the net force of gravity. There is no down or up.
ncalifgirl58 said, 6 months ago
@jessegooddoggy
Same here jesse! Love my white crowned sparrows. And the Robins stay all winter too here in N. Calif.
doctorwho29 said, 6 months ago
It’s a miracle. One of his questions worked!
Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago
@Ronald Davis
For those of us who live in climes where there is change of seasons, and where robins are known to frequent it must be due more to factor of latent inconsistency in weather patterns. A certain amount of chaos in a system can make it difficult to time the last of something versus the first.
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Even so the “first robin of Spring” isn’t a certainty just a perceived first. We have no way of knowing which one is first and will it be over all or regional or by state or by town or city? Just a mean quantity with no regard for reality.