FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for January 17, 2022

Even my father has a subscription to his college alumnus magazine. Don’t think he has ever come across articles about former classmates leading better lives than him. There are pages of graduates’ death notices though.

Pencil pushers are the foundation of our civilization.

Roger should take heart – at least he is doing better than those classmates that have passed on…

And how many still have their hair? But he struck gold with his wife, the most important.

Hey wait! I’m a pencil pusher.

I am giddy right now. My favorite arc in all of Foxtrot starts with this strip.

No matter where I moved, my high school magazine found me. They must have some former FBI agents working there

Wow, I haven’t heard the phrase “pencil pusher” in decades. Perhaps we should replace it with “keyboard clickers.”

Roger gets especially distraught when he sees the pictures of his classmates who still have all their hair.

It is entirely possible that my entire high school and college classes are doing better than I am. I’m not in touch with any of them.

The way this works, when your company promotes you, they issue a press release and a copy goes to your university alumni association. If you don’t appear in the alumni magazine, the company does not issue press releases on mid-level promotions.

A lot of my friends died young.

Best HS friend wrapped a new Corvette (18th birthday gift) around a tree at high speed, killing himself and a girl we both dated.

Two Freshman roommates flunked out, got drafted and died in Viet Nam.

Third roommate had a heart attack and died at 32

Yes there is, more gone to computer neater.

I don’t think my parents ever subscribed, but we do get the occasional USD Alum magazine. And even then they don’t look at them so I have no idea if they know the ones featured.

Not familiar with those magazines at all. I can’t imagine what they could possibly fill them with besides death notices, reunion dates and advertisements.

A company I worked for had a monthly, then quarterly magazine. Aside from the usual self promotion articles and standout employee profiles, it had an obituary section in the back. I found my hero there – he worked for 20 yrs, from age 21 to 41, then retired with full pension and went camping, fishing, and traveling for the next 40 years.

Oh yeah, this arc is a fun one. I recall it’s a three-weeker.

Well you can’t believe everything you read, people tend to embellish just a bit. Like, the alumnus who “has 500 people under him” actually works at a cemetery – he cuts the grass each week.

We don’t subscribe to our university newsletter, but we keep in contact with some of our friends from college. One did extremely well career wise while maintaining a good gamily life with their college sweetheart. Others, not so much.

The ones who are the saddest are those whose family life fell apart and I really feel for them. Having a good family is “doing better” than having a great job and hell at home.

I don’t “follow” any of my old classmates, though I do occasionally look up one or another, out of curiosity. They mostly seem to lead (or have led) “more successful” lives, but mine has been much more varied and (IMO) more interesting.