Recent Comments

1. over 2 years ago on Doonesbury

   I’m guessing the house being built is Bill Gates first mansion on Lake Washington outside Seattle. The house was built in 1996, one of the first “smart” houses. A visitor needed to wear a badge that allowed the the house automation system to know where the visitor was in the house and allowed communication between the house automation system and the visitor. The house was mocked in some of Dilbert cartoons

2. almost 3 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Try a poster of Wales Pig, it resembles the ears, snout and jowls of a pig.

3. about 3 years ago on Doonesbury

   Being a former university professor, I was grouped by those on the right (Charlie Sykes, for example, a former faculty member at my university) as a leftist faculty member who shouldn’t be allowed to brainwash students. My field was architecture, my expertise was discovering ways solar energy could by used to heat, light and power buildings. I did try to convince students to understand how the sun might interact in a positive way with their building designs. If you think solar energy is liberal and fossil fuels are conservative, all I can say is no, you are not really thinking. When the 2016 election approached I did speak of politics to my captive student audience: “I am neither a Democan nor a Republicrat, I am a libertarian-socialist. I want my government, whom I elect, to own and manage the road in front of my house, the public water supply and the electric grid, i.e. the infrastructure of my town, county, state and country. Government has no business in my bedroom or listening to my phone conversations. It is my duty as a citizen to vote for those who I believe best represent my interests in government, whether they win or lose. To not vote is to not be a citizen. Even if you vote for the candidate for president who I think would be a disaster, I respect you more than those who choose not to vote because they believe their vote doesn’t matter, or that the two main parties are not really different.” After the election, in which only 53% of eligible voters voted, I asked them to think of what might have happened if the 47% non-voters chose instead to vote for Libertarians, Socialists or Greens. Frankly, today’s cartoon was simplistic. Trudeau has done much better this year. Consider his Valentine’s Day cartoon on Sunday, February 14th.

4. about 3 years ago on Non Sequitur

   Little umbrella and straw. Straws come in non-alcoholic drinks.

5. about 3 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   @distortion “the fool on the hill sees the earth spinning ’round”

6. about 3 years ago on Pearls Before Swine

   1977 was a great year for new British rock bands. In addition to the Police, the debut Clash album appeared in 1977 and Dire Straits formed in 1977, releasing their first album in 1978. I was a bigger fan of the Clash and Dire Straits. I had most of the early albums of both groups. Dire Straits brought the Brothers in Arms tour to Milwaukee and I was lucky enough to get 3rd row center seats. Finally got the 2007 double cd of Police songs. I have enjoyed those songs well after the early releases of the group. I consider three groups musically similar. Sting, Joe Strummer and Mark Knoffler all went on to record on their own. But I found Joe Strummer’s foray into film most interesting. He appears in Jim Jarmusch’s movie Mystery Train, along with musicians Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Rufus Thomas and Tom Waits (voice of the radio DJ). Thanks to Stephan Pastis for the use of Puns to keep us thinking.

7. about 3 years ago on Doonesbury

   I have read Doonesbury for years, and am still delighted by the daily reruns and the new strips on Sunday. To get a feeling of what Garry Trudeau views as his 10 most significant cartoons, check out this Washington Post interview with Trudeau’s take on why each strip he lists is significant to him: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/11/27/doonesbury-garry-trudeau-anniversary/The 10 include the strip from BD being injured in Iraq. The last frame drawn from above shows BD on a stretcher without his leg and his helmet (for the first time). I agree that BD has matured and gained greater depth over the years as a character in the strip.One of the ten was repeated on Sunday. January 24, after Biden was inaugurated (Hint, think Nixon resigning).

8. over 3 years ago on Non Sequitur

   In the late spring of 1977 I visited friends in Aurora, Illinois. We happened to watched 60 minutes. That night Dan Rather was interviewing the Prime Minister of India. The entire interview was about Prime Minister Desai’s Hindu practice of drinking his own urine. After the interview Dan Rather stood in front of the camera alone and said “did he come to the United States for weapons of war? no, he came for the peaceful atom to generate electricity.” I was livid and flew into a rage against Dan Rather and 60 minutes. A year later my Aurora friend came and visited us. He said he remembered the Indian Prime minister that drank his urine and that I got enraged, but he couldn’t remember why. “He covered up our role in nuclear proliferation”. Was all I could say. Some time in the mid 1980s India had a nuclear bomb test. An AP report implicated enriched uranium sold to India by the US as the source material. Don’t be hypnotized by the eye-brow hair!

9. over 3 years ago on Tom Toles

   Tom Toles, your editorial cartoons represent the best of what the editorial cartoon should be. I have been a fan for over 20 years. I was delighted to see some of your climate change cartoons displayed in the California Academy of Science museum in Golden Gate Park. I will miss getting my daily dose of your observations. Enjoy playing in your retirement!

10. over 3 years ago on Non Sequitur

    “Collapse – How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” is an excellent book recommendation! Not all of the civilizations collapsed. Two that were headed that way through deforestation were Japan and the highland tribes of New Guinea. For Japan it was top down decisions from the Tokugawa era that preserved forests in Japan leaving valleys for people and agriculture and the sea for protein (fish and shellfish). For highland New Guinea it was bottom up decision making from the villagers. They realized they were consuming all their wood (used for structures, tools and fuel). They began transplanting saplings of Casuarina oligodon from the river banks to their village gardens, treating wood as a crop. The highland valleys of New Guinea have been farmed sustainably for over 7,000 years.