Please, folks, go read a book about Chaos Theory. Specifically, read “Chaos,” by James Gleick. If you knew and understood the Butterfly Effect, this comic would be hilarious to you. In a nutshell, the Butterfly Effect hypothesizes that if two exactly identical systems (let’s say two earths with exact same weather systems) were to play out over time, the weather would be identical on both. They are the same. But if a butterfly flapped its wings in ONE of those systems (one of the earths), in time the results would diverge and become radically different. The tiny difference in starting circumstances (the Butterfly wings), after weeks of development time, would lead to greater and greater effects, and after much time the weather would be totally different on the two planets, just because a butterfly flapped its wings on ONE of them. The total energy would still be about the same, but the location and types of storms would be completely different, thus the statement “a butterfly flaps its wings in Peking, and you get rain in Central Park.” It doesn’t mean immediately, but after many iterations of weather cycles. To understand why is to understand about Chaos Theory.
Dill’s brothers remind me of my wife’s family. 8 kids, 6 boys 2 girls. No trebuchets, but they did build a 30 foot tall party raft for their lake. Makes me feel right at home every time Dill mentions his brothers. They could easily be my in-laws.
I didn’t know Richard Thompson had died. After a stunned silence, I took out my collections of Cul de Sac and read through some choice strips. Richard’s afterword in book 2 was reassuring, as if he were reaching back from cartoonist’s heaven to reassure us that things weren’t going to be all that bad. But we have no more Pogo. No more Calvin & Hobbes. No more Cul de Sac. And Doonesbury is in semi-retirement. No more Opus and Bloom County. (well, that one is anyone’s guess) Zippy the Pinhead still delivers on occasion, and there are a few genuine cartoonists left, but we’re talking the cream of the cream here. There is a huge sucking vacuum in the newspaper comics medium right now, and it would be nice if someone would give birth to a fully grown comic genius who can start on Monday. Please.
In the meantime, my heart is filled with gratitude for the people like Richard, Walt Kelly, Al Capp, Garry Trudeau, Berkeley Breathed, Bill Griffith, Bill Watterson, and surely the many I’ve overlooked, for taking the road less traveled and sharing it with us, which has made all the difference. And especially a heartfelt thanks to Richard Thompson. A talent like yours will not be seen here again for a long, long time.
Now, it’s hard for a grown man to cry; the valves and levers just don’t work; maybe the tank is empty. But I’m going to go try to get the waterworks running again. RT deserves no less. Maybe the answers are in his comics.
I could have pretty much any car I want, but I love the Prius. In fact, I have three of them. It’s the first car I’ve ever really loved to drive, and I’ve driven them all. Mustang, BMW, Lexus, Caddy, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche… though I have to admit that I’ve never driven a Rolls. The Prius is just a great car, though I think my next one will be a Tesla. Sedgie will never be able to catch a Tesla, either!
It’s a comic strip, folks. Besides, don’t shoot before you even can see what you’re shooting at. Frankly, I’m disappointed in those who are getting all offended before you know what this is all about. I’d very much like to find something uplifting to think about on 9/11 each year. The ongoing tradition of revisiting one of the darkest days in US history with replays of each terror, while not even remotely considering any story but the “official” one as to what really happened that day, makes me want to gag, not for the terrible thing that happened that day, nor for the sadness or heroics displayed that day, but for our nation’s inability to resume thinking and feeling anything ELSE but the bizarre untruths we are supposed to believe, unquestioningly, about that day. It’s unlikely we’ll ever know the full story, so I’d very much like to move on and learn to approach that day with the same hope and glory we allot the other 364 days of the year. This comic’s story line may well be a new way of putting behind us that particular dark blight on our nation’s past.
Please, folks, go read a book about Chaos Theory. Specifically, read “Chaos,” by James Gleick. If you knew and understood the Butterfly Effect, this comic would be hilarious to you. In a nutshell, the Butterfly Effect hypothesizes that if two exactly identical systems (let’s say two earths with exact same weather systems) were to play out over time, the weather would be identical on both. They are the same. But if a butterfly flapped its wings in ONE of those systems (one of the earths), in time the results would diverge and become radically different. The tiny difference in starting circumstances (the Butterfly wings), after weeks of development time, would lead to greater and greater effects, and after much time the weather would be totally different on the two planets, just because a butterfly flapped its wings on ONE of them. The total energy would still be about the same, but the location and types of storms would be completely different, thus the statement “a butterfly flaps its wings in Peking, and you get rain in Central Park.” It doesn’t mean immediately, but after many iterations of weather cycles. To understand why is to understand about Chaos Theory.
You’re welcome.