Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for May 24, 2010

Alice, trust me, this will be a minor setback in life.

You much too young to be so jaded, Alice.

Alice has bigger fish to fry than to listen to Kevin on the piano.

yeah, but at my age four and a half minutes is well, I forget.

Dill’s right, Alice. Kevin’s posture was worthy of appreciation.

You won’t even remember those four and a half minutes, Alice. Trust me!

Wait until you grow up and have to attend hour-long staff meetings!

Good going, Kevin….the rest is easy.

It’s surly week for Alice?

randayn, hour long staff meetings? I’d love that! I am regularly caught in three-hour marathons…

Alice will not suffer traffic lights well …

Eenie Miniee, Chiliee Beeniee, I foresee a DMV line.

Wait until she has to go to the doctor’s office. Talk about wasted time in the waiting room.

Kevin’s a prodigy! Not only has he mastered John Cage’s 4’33”, he knocked 3 seconds off the record!

Three more seconds and he would have been playing John Cage…

Arrgh! Fritzoid and Doug Dean beat me to it! Very nice and subtle reference to John Cage today!

THAT’s why I never quite got Cage’s work - I was missing the visual element! When you “hear” the work in context with the pianist expressing good posture, well, it all comes together!

It’s all about nuance.

But thanks a LOT, Richard. Now I’m going to have 4’33” running through my head all day. That piece has been unlistenable to me since 2002, when I was playing the “Golden CAGE: All the Smash Hits” compilation and the CD started skipping in the middle of 4’33”. It took me two days to realize anything was wrong…

One thing about this composition, though. The covers are as good as the original (except the Grateful Dead’s version; the instrumention is innovative, but they stretch it out to 6’51”, and the extra 2’18” just seems like self-indulgence).

I agree with cdward. Where I used to work we really thought that Dilbert’s writers must have been based on our boss. We had meetings just to plan meetings - and then wondered about low productivity. They brought in “experts” and “time conservation” people who spent lots of time interviewing every one of us, and then had a lengthly summary meeting (and each of those was in a different year), if the boss was scheduled for a meeting with us and/or a client, he was invariably late AND unprepared… I could go on. In my exit interview I frankly admitted that we had the best of equipment and staff and that the only reason I was leaving was the boss (heck, his former partner “retired” and then took a position in staff for someone who formerly worked under him - that was shortly before I found another place, and he’s still there. That difficult company is now completely gone

how long did it take kevin to learn that posture?

bring calvin and hobbes back and get rid of cul de sac sorry my opinion.

Rachel7, sadly the cartoonist has retired Calvin and Hobbs. You need to buy the books that are the collection of his strips. They aren’t coming back!

“Posture”. Isn’t that by Mozart?

@ readdawg I know that already, and i do have some of the books, my opinion is that I don’t like Cul de sac

Then why are you reading it? There are lots of strips I don’t read because I don’t like them.

Everybody’s entitled to their likes and dislikes, of course (”De gustibus non disputandum”), but in what way would the disappearance of Cul de Sac benefit you? Or rather, in what way does the continued appearance of Cul de Sac harm you? Are you offended or insulted when others like something which you dislike?

Yeah, and while we’re at it, let’s bring back gaucho pants, Twiggy, and Bertola’s 99 cent double.

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely arms to you, woo woo woo.”

@ Rachel7,

If you don’t like the comic, don’t read it. I find that I actually like this one better than Calvin and Hobbes.

Why don’t you read what Bill Watterson said about it? And what real comics fan doesn’t know that Calvin & Hobbes is long retired?

How daft must someone be to think that there are space limits on the internet?

And why I am not surprised that someone who has a photo of an actress from “High School Musical” as their avatar cannot fathom the genius of Cul De Sac?

Stay in school, Rachel.

Cul De Sac is the height of the daily comic profession right now.

You Mr. R.T. are one of the wit. Your use of of the strip panels and the timing is better than anyone ever in comic strips. You are the snicker doodle Supreme Commander of comic strips .

Hey Rachel! Sorry you don’t like CdS too much, but give it time, it might improve.

Calvin is always good company. You might enjoy a book called “Looking for Calvin and Hobbes”- it’s pretty dang interesting- http://tinyurl.com/2usthka

I let a lot of comics slide when I’m on a trip, but I ALWAYS catch up on Cul de Sac when I get back home - I refuse to miss a single day of it! It is the main reason I spent the money for the “Genius” tag…

(That there “De gustibus non disputandum” sounds like foreigner talk to me - what’s wrong with talkin’ ‘merican?)

Rachel7, who peed in your cheerios this morning? What exactly was your point by posting all this vitriol anyway?

Yes, Calvin and Hobbes was (and is) a very good and charming comic strip, but as many others and yourself have noted, it is not being drawn anymore (by the artist’s choice). So, why did you make it sound as though it were a choice between “Cul de Sac” continuing and “Calvin and Hobbes” returning?

Why does it matter at all to you that Cul de Sac exists, anyway? If you don’t like it, just ignore it. It would be just as effective and intelligent for me to be vocally offended that the “High School Musical” franchise exists (to chose a target that you appear to appreciate).

Your diatribe just shows you to be an immature and close-minded brat. It sure seems as though you are just trying to stir up trouble and have a rotten attitude as well.

Okay, okay,I take back what I said. But I’m still going to like High School Musical, first of all becasue it’s a free country. But anyways when did this comic strip start? Can anyone tell me what it’s about? thanks. I’m sorry, I would really like to learn more about it.

go to http://www.culdesacart.com/ and listen to the audio interview. Thats a good place to start!