Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 31, 2015

Good old dark roast normal coffee for me…Not a fan of caffeine syrup….

Drink enough and you’ll run faster to get to the bathroom.

And if you don’t have access to espresso, a small bottle of Indian ink tastes about the same. ;)

It’s not real coffee if you can’t chew it!

I heard that if you drink a (small) cup of coffee, it will help you to continue to burn calories after you stopped working out.

Boy he’d fail the smug test.

In the immortal words of Mel Gibson: You can take my life, but you will never take my coffee!!. I’m more of a dark roast kind of guy too, although at times I do like a mocha, or with coconut or hazelnut flavoring.

I’ve been reading this strip since its debut, and I gotta admit that while it’s usually still worth a read, I liked it a lot better when it was actually about a school janitor who seemed to have succeeded in becoming an adult without forgetting how to be child-like, and his interactions with kids and grown-up teachers and administrators. Now it seems to be mostly about a guy who’s fitness-obsessed to the point of minor neurosis, and while the banter is still very clever and the art remains superb, the strip seems to be missing something. The character of Frazz seems to be getting one-dimensional, when he used to have much greater depth. I don’t dislike the fitness-oriented strips, but as fitness seems to have expanded from an interesting part of Frazz’s character to its defining aspect, I miss what’s increasingly been pushed into the background.

Vocally disliking what is perceived as smugness and a holier-than-thou attitude is not the same thing as being intolerant. I disagree with bigpuma and sometimes say so. I hardly find him to be intolerant, merely a bit unaccepting others self-opinion.And I don’t have to look up “bias”. It can be applied across that whole spectrum, from innocuous to intolerable. Everyone has biases, few have the ability to view them from the point of perspective of the other. I would remind you of a story about a splinter and a beam and self-awareness.

Bigotry is a very harsh word, especially when used in social contexts, like this comics comment section. It has connotations that have been flavored by Naziism and slavery; Jim Crow era discrimination and post-Jim Crow social and economic repression; I would be very slow to use it without good reason. Especially towards someone who merely objects to what is, arguably, the intellectual smugness of a cartoon character.

“… but, beyond the common use…”So, you had to find an inferior usage to justify your charge of bigotry and you don’t see just how churlish that is?

He’s obviously not a real runner, as real runners eat ice cream. Including the great Zola Budd.

“In addition, I’ve never made that charge. I only questioned your statement to the contrary.”

bigot (bĭg′ət)n.One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

So, you want to imply that you support the accusation without actually saying so? If you don’t have a dog in the fight, perhaps you shouldn’t be waving meat around, eh?

Like I say, I don’t agree with him either, and have said so in the past. I just (strongly) object to the pejorative of “bigot” being unfairly applied to him.

Here’s a tip: if you’ve done a lot of exercise in the morning, a bottle of chocolate milk is heavenly (ice cream shops won’t be open yet).

It’s amazing to me to see the most ludicrously obnoxious behavior being defended like someone’s life were in the balance.

As I said, I don’t disagree, I am just trying to talk you out of using that word. It is something that should be reserved for those who transgress against society and humanity. It isn’t deserved in this case, not be the longest stretch of the imagination. bigpuma believes that a cartoon character is stuck on himself, and it isn’t that hard to imagine how one might see Frazz in that way, rather than as someone who holds himself to a higher standard and is unselfconscious about it. Even if it weren’t such a seemingly ambiguous distinction, bigpuma’s opinion does no harm to society or persons, and does not detract from his character one whit. A bigot does harm, and his opinions dishonor him. And undeservedly calling someone a bigot besmirches his honor. But I have said my whole argument; a word to the wise and all that. Peace.