Butterflies are tacky
Apartment 3-G, 1/18/05
Jiminy Cricket, that is one ugly paperweight. The image quality isn’t very good, so you may not be able to see that the little tag hanging awkwardly off the side of it reads “Butterflies are free.” It’s sad, but probably accurate, that the sort of people who would be nice enough to send a holiday gift to a pretty young middle-class white stranger who was briefly forced to work in a sweatshop are also the sort of people who would be charmed by this kind of heinous kitschy crap.
Ironically, the paperweight itself was almost certainly made in a sweatshop somewhere in Southeast Asia.
In the aftermath of her release from captivity, Margo had threatened to start thinking of others before herself and worrying about important issues in the world at large. In other words, she was on the verge of becoming as dull as LuAnn, though admittedly smarter. Fortunately for Apartment 3-G lovers everywhere, the outpouring of sympathy and devotion she’s receiving here will no doubt soon inflate her ego back up to its appropriate level.
Dave Lartigue
January 18th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
When you press a button on the paperweight, a recording says “MORE ZIPPERS, MULE!”
Jim
January 19th, 2005 at 8:27 am
My favorite part of that strip is the generic “NEWSPAPER” in panel 3.
Hubris
January 19th, 2005 at 9:52 am
Well, if the professor doesn’t have a student who needs the extra money for writing thank-you notes, I’m sure a 12-year-old Thai would suffice.
Zipper the mule
January 19th, 2005 at 10:16 am
Butterflies ARE free. Until some wacko with a net comes along and then nails them to a board. Nothing gives me the willies like seeing a butterfly stuck on those long creepy pins. I bet Mark Trail would have something to say about that practice.
Hubris
January 19th, 2005 at 10:37 am
Zipper,
The base of the butterfly display probably has a secret compartment full of “stuff.”
Billy Bunny
January 19th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
I’m a little intrigued by the last panel. “Did anyone send you a scrapbook?” As in, “did anyone collect news and images of your time being held as a slave, arrange them in a book with stamps and borders and fancy paper, and send it to you?”
What a weird thing to do.
Hippolyta
January 19th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
Here is a cryptic blurb on the strip posted at King’s whooseywhatsy:
“Apartment 3-G was created in 1961 by psychiatrist Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis. Already the originator of two successful soap-opera comic strips, “Rex Morgan, M.D.” and “Judge Parker,” Dr. Dallis wanted to turn his attention to a phenomenon that was sweeping the nation: working women.
To do this, Dallis realized that he could not rely upon tried-and-trite stereotypes. With his keen insight into human nature, he created three women with whom his readers could identify because of their humanity, their strength and the truth of their portrayals. Sharing a New York apartment has enabled these three unmarried career women to come together in a place of strength, to meet head-on the challenges they face every day, and to become more than friends and closer than sisters.
Apartment 3-G is one of the few strips that has not fallen behind the times; rather, the world has sped to catch up with it. More contemporary than ever, the strip speaks directly to the new generation of women who try to juggle careers, men and friendship. Today Apartment 3-G is written by Lisa Trusiani and drawn by Frank Bolle.
Whenever readers feel they need a friend, they know they can always find one in Apartment 3-G.”
I don’t know which is the more dubious claim – that the world has strived to catch up with Apartment 3-G (c’mon dude, everyone’s saying ‘more zippers, mule.’) or that whenever I need a friend, Margo or Luann or the creepy Wolf Blitzer surrogate will be there for me. Especially if I send them free butterflies or scrapbooks or whatever.
Incidentally, what a splendid site.
Dave Lartigue
January 20th, 2005 at 7:51 am
Hippolyta, the strip has moved so fast it’s even passed up one of the main characters. Every now and then Tommie catches up just long enough to say a line or pay Margo’s cab fare, but in minutes the strip is off an running again, leaving her behind.
Engelbert Humperdinck
January 20th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
“Apartment 3-G is one of the few strips that has not fallen behind the times; rather, the world has sped to catch up with it.”
Huh? That’s like trying to convince everyone that the five-pound cell phone I bought in 1988 isn’t “behind the times” — technology has just caught up to me!
I think it’s painfully obvious that the world has caught up with Apartment 3-G — and easily passed it somewhere around 1976. Or whenever “Laverne and Shirley” debuted.