U-S-A! U-S-…A?
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Dennis the Menace, 7/4/25
Kind of wild that Mrs. Wilson is waking her husband up by telling him not what time it is, but what day it is, implying that he’s been in bed and slipping in and out of consciousness for weeks. Only the prospect of celebrating America’s independence can lure him back to the world of wakefulness — but it’s just a cruel trick to get him to spend more time with his nemesis Dennis. Look at his horrified face in the second panel! His life is hell!
Family Circus, 7/4/25
Big Daddy Keane, meanwhile, is trying to feign sleep to avoid interacting with his kids on America’s birthday. I guess the real lesson of today’s panels is that children are annoying? America’s old and middle-aged people just want to sleep! Who told these kids about freedom of expression or whatever?
122 replies to “U-S-A! U-S-…A?”
Mary Worth Mashups: Which of these Missing Final Panels is the most satisfying?
Arlo and Janis: I hope Arlo has Tide OXI Ultra – Stain-blasting Laundry Power! in the laundry room to remove the grass stains on Janis’ shirt’s. Because lawn boinking be ensuing!
Mr. Wilson (and, quite possibly Daddy Keane) thinks: “The hell with Fourth — get me a fifth!”
FC-Part of their annual ritual to ensure that the Sun comes up for another year.
RMMD-You would have a fresh set of organs to harvest if the time ever came up.
MW-“Ha. Ha. It feels so good to be stuck in a rut.”
FC:
Gosh, July 4 hasn’t been a good day for “George”s, has it. First the King, back in 1776 — and now, Mr. Wilson.
DtM: Why can’t you just say no, George? What’s her hold on you? Can you not survive without the fresh-baked cookies? What is it that holds you in thrall?
DtM: I’d say there’s about a 90% chance that George is shitting the bed in the second panel.
“I met coffee for Phil!” Luann says. “And he assed me in the fuck!”
DtM: For all we joke, it’s clear that Mrs. Wilson still loves her husband. Otherwise, she would have allowed Dennis to sound his horns and bells while he was still asleep, a shock that surely would have killed him.
RMMD:
“These disembodied musical notes have inspired me to new lyrics, darlin’ — about the importance of your and my votin’ on bannin’ pushpins from the house before disallowin’ ’em.”
“Does your song have a working title, Truck?”
” ‘No Tacks-ation Without Representation’ !”
@Baja Gaijin: DEATH and EXPLOSION are both excellent. I think EXPLOSION captures the spirit of the holiday better, perhaps, but DEATH offers more suspense, so give me DEATH.
FC:
While Dolly and Jeffy distract Big Daddy Keane with their caterwauling, resourceful Billy is already in the backyard playing with M80s to celebrate the holiday.
DtM: Not sure how Dennis spending the day tormenting Mr Wilson ties in with the Fourth unless this is some sort of cosmic punishment for avoiding the draft during the war.
MW: Knowing Mary will choose her go-to salmon from the menu, Jeff resigns himself to the inevitable and waits for her baited breath.
MW – Hamburger gravy over rice with glazed carrots on the side!
The Keane kids wave the flag, the Flagstons head to the barricades, but Mr Wilson knows today is for hating your neighbor.
Family Circus : “Why couldn’t we have ‘Stars & Stripes Forever’ as the anthem instead? There’s no mention of it being early morning in that one!” thinks Bil, forgetting that the melonheads have done the exact same thing to him on Christmas morning with ‘Silent Night’ before.
MW:
“Jeff, can’t we dine someplace other than the Bum Boat for a change?”
“What alternatives did you have in mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the Posterior Pizzeria. Or the Rump Restaurant. Or the Derriere Deli. Perhaps the Backside Bistro. Or possibly the Tuchus Taqueria.”
It’s actually the 4th of who lie.
DtM: “Martha, having Dennis here violates my Third Amendment rights!”
Pluggers taking a page from Family Circus and running a panel from what appears to be 1958. Standing up when it’s on TV is damnably performative.
H&L, GT are not pretending these are normal times.
FC: This video is fascinating. Apologies if it’s common knowledge in these parts.
MW: “Pie a la mode”? Is that what the erstwhile sheiks and shebas calling it these days?
BG&SS: I’m going to chalk up half of the display to exploding moonshine stills.
DtM/FC: Walking around with a cute little party hat and toy trumpet = Not menacing.
Deliberately standing right up next to the bedside of your sleeping father and unleashing a hellish cacophony = Menacing!
@Bob Tice: Billy, as a perspicacious fan of baseball history, is ready to choose his new nickname from “Three Finger”, “Lefty”, and “Stumpy”.
DtM Funny how Dennis’s parents are nowhere to be seen on this scenario. For them ‘independence day’ means a 24 hour respite from the nattering of their idiot child.
FC Speaking of small idiots, normally in this kind of gag these two would be malapropping the hell out of those lyrics, but not that song, and not today. They may be annoying little melonheads, but they love their country, dammit!
Yes, George Wilson’s life is hell. So is Dennis’, consigned to an eternal cycle of rejection next door and punishment at home. Henry & Alice? Their lives are empty, with the monotony only broken by the embarrassments inflicted by Dennis. Does anyone get joy in Dennis the Menace?
Martha. She’s the Wanda of Westview. They’ll never break her power.
JP: So these pretentious snobs show up in rural Norway, have full English conversations with everyone they meet, and then place their one-word food order in Norwegian.
MW: I know I’m not the first person to make this observation, but I Photoshopped it so here it is.
CS: Yeah, Lillian, that’s what’s going to push your book promo’s YouTube view count into the billions: a voiceover from a small-town TV news anchor. A small-town TV news anchor who apparently takes unpaid work. That was sarcasm!
Frazz: I agree with those people. The less Frazz and Caulfield do, the better.
RMMD: “I’m not sure what being a father to Cody would mean at this point.” NOTHING! BECAUSE HE’S OVER 18! Would somebody please tell Truck this, and end this interminable conversation about nothing?
Luann: I didn’t have ‘Luann experiments with cocaine’ on my bingo card
9CL: More of the same every day. What’s the point?
Is there any newspaper out there that prints Pluggers adjacent to Gil Thorp, I wonder? And if so, did the comics page self-combust today?
@Banana Jr. 6000: “I’m not sure what being a father to Cody would mean at this point.”
Wouldn’t having a biological child mean something when it comes to Truck’s estat—
Y’know, you’re right. This is a conversation about nothing.
@Banana Jr. 6000: re: RMMD – meaningful connections? future involvement at holidays, etc? I sort of understand because I have a cousin whose ex lied that she’d miscarried and much later his adult daughter found him and they’ve tried to relate to each other.
But the comics going over and over this before there’s even DNA results is quite boring – skip forward or leave it for another plot for a bit, please.
This is what happens when you teach children to celebrate being traitors to their rightful king. You didn’t see this kind of nonsense three days ago in Canada where the British monarch is still our head of state for some reason.
@ValdVin: There’s royalties. Between the motel owner and his other fans, Truck must get an annual check in the high two figures.
@Downpuppy:
Cody is just looking for a guitar gig while he’s between failed bands.
…Which, son or not, is also convenient for Truck, what with him developping hand paralysis that messed up his guitar-playing? Or did Rex perform surgery that made that completely go away?
@CanuckDownSouth:
That got me curious so today was the first day I’ve ever read either of them outside of this blog, and oh my, the Go Comics commenters are in a tizzy over Thorp.
On Crankshaft : so Lillian has decided to drop the “Oh no, this is too much for me, I’m just a little old lady working out of her garage’s attic!” act and gone right into “YEAH GIRLS, THAT’S RIGHT. The local TV newscaster stands in line TO ME because he knows *I* am a bigger celebrity than him, because *I* am an AWARD-WINNING, BESTSELLING AUTHOR!”
…Not sure that’s an improvement, though…Oh happy day – amirite….
@Hibbleton: DtM: Not sure how Dennis spending the day tormenting Mr Wilson ties in with the Fourth unless this is some sort of cosmic punishment for avoiding the draft during the war.
Giving sliding comics time the war would be Vietnam
@CanuckDownSouth: I’m betting he turns out not to be the guy’s father. Wasting everyone’s time with a six-week shaggy dog story would be very on-brand for this strip.
@pugfuggly:
Speaking of small idiots, normally in this kind of gag these two would be malapropping the hell out of those lyrics…
Right.
I’d expect: “Jose can you see, by Dawn’s oily light…”
Big Daddy Keane is sleeping on the Fourth of July because the country has not been independent since the foundation of the Federal Reserve and the only sovereignty that matters is his personal one
@CanuckDownSouth: @Tabby Lavalamp:
Pluggers would probably be calling their newspapers to demand they cancel Gil Thorpe if any newspapers actually still ran Gil Thorpe.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Really, I thought Sophie was just ordering her waffle in her best Colonel Klink impersonation!
DM and FC: Fortunately, the adults can rest easy knowing that this is a temporary situation; before too long, this kind of thing will get these kids sent to a gulag in El Salvador, after which nothing will be breaking the blissful silence.
@matt w: Hi and Lois getting political like Gil Thorp.
@Baja Gaijin: all are good but 2 especially amused me.
FC: Did Bil’s black eye mask slip down around his neck or did he wear a mickey mouse club beanie to bed. What exactly were Bil and Thel up to last night? “Time to find the cheese, big boy.”
@Tabby Lavalamp: Really? Given that it isn’t a departure from Thorp’s usual tenor, I regarded the H&L as being more on the nose.
@Anonymous: I don’t recall any surgery.
Rex has basically been Barney Google’d at this point. It’s now the Truck N’ Buck show (with special guest stars Dirt Denali Davis! Shorty and Beanpole! and that villain you love to hate, Rene!), just like Mary Worth is now The Wacky Wisadwentures of Wilbur Weston (with everyone’s favorite ditzy doormat, Dawnie!) and Judge Parker is now Two Insufferable Girls (with special guest star Ces’ Neuroses About the Military-Industrial Complex!)
@richardf8: Who knows, maybe she is. That would also be very fitting behavior for these cretins. To put it mildly, Norwegians do not find World War II to be a source of comedy.
FC:
“Daddy, we’re appropriating the tune to the British drinking song ‘To Anacreon in Heaven’ as we’re mouthing Francis Scott Key’s lyrics!”
DtM: it is becoming clear that George Wilson is in some form of private twilight zone hell: Dennis was him as a boy and now he’ll be tormented by his younger self for eternity.
MW: no need to change restaurants or food orders. Why waste all of those already drawn backgrounds and items. The miracle of digital illustration! Nothing is ever wasted.
JP: now the cinch the tax credit the creators need to show an image of this Norwegian order. Maybe the girls can play chess at the cafe and Magnus Carlsen will drop by.
DTM – When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for an old grouch to dissolve the political bands which have connected him with an annoying kid, a decent respect to the opinions of the Mitchells requires that he should declare the causes which impel him to the separation.
@Tabby Lavalamp: I’ll bet they’re freaking out. But as my gf said after reading the strip, Barajas’ plots may have ADD and Merrill’s art may be sub-simian, but they don’t pull their punches. As the dad of a trans kid, thank you Henry and Rachel for speaking your minds on July 4.
FC: Hey, look on the bright side: maybe this means the Keane Kompound is about to be obliterated in a rocket attack.
@Bingo Vix: Pluggers would probably be calling their newspapers to demand they cancel Gil Thorpe if
any newspapers actually still ran Gil Thorpethey read newspapers. Everyone knows that Pluggers get their news from NewsMax now that Fox has gone “woke,” or from their spelling-challenged relatives on Facebook.Unfortunately, the Family Circus darndest-thing-singing is in direct violation of the US Constitution, specifically the ban on patents of nobility. Bestowing an earldom on Dawn is right out.
Honestly, “America just wants to go to bed” is probably the most in-touch with the zeitgeist the funnies have been since like the Great Depression.
@Bob Tice: You forgot the Butt Buffet and the Gluteus Gourmet.
GT: You’re not very good at this, are you, Barajas?
JP: It’s an off-menu item, Reena, but you should really ask for a taste of his Nordsky sausage.
9CL: And they slowly* sank to a watery grave.
* a week.
Gil Thorpe: New low. Most gruesome 4th of July strip ever.
@jnoble: 9CL: More of the same every day. What’s the point?
Brooke’s mission statement.
@Banana Jr. 6000: “To put it mildly, Norwegians do not find World War II to be a source of comedy.”
Next, Sophie will joke about how Sweden really should just go ahead and take over the entire country. “I can’t imagine you Norwegians would put up much of a resistance.”
DtM: With the vast array of legal, semi-legal and contraband fireworks and noisemakers available to him at this time of year, Dennis is waking up Mr. Wilson with…a toy bugle and a D5 handbell. Menacing level: not even trying.
FC: Speaking of not trying, singing about the “dawn’s early light” at dawn barely qualifies as a darndest thing-ism. You need at least one humorous mispronunciation or malapropism in there.
@Lord Flatulence: Not to mention rhe Cheeks Cafe!
@Anonymous: I’ve long thought that “America the Beautiful” would be a much better national anthem, both musically and thematically. But since Katharine Lee Bates was one of those woke suffrage and labor rights types who took some swipes at robber barons in her original lyrics, that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.
@Baja Gaijin: Nice to see the Bum Boat isn’t immune to Bum Meteors.
@Anonymous: June gave him a splint for his trigger finger & it went away in a month.
Useful tale. My wife had her thumb lock up & fixed it the same way.
DtM: Mr. Wilson’s plan to take a bunch of sleeping pills and blissfully skip the entire day failed.
FC: Thel is in the hallway filming this and laughing and laughing.
DtM: That the Chinese don’t really get what American holidays are about is evidenced by the birthday hat the Dennis Martha ordered from Temu is wearing.
Martha, more than anyone else, you should know that George has problems rising, even in the morning
CS: Oh? Is there a star named for someone who famously screwed over her sister?
Luann: Maybe this would approach “cute” if Luann were still in junior high, but this is actually pretty sad. Also, does Luann not consume anything caffeinated at all? Is she Mormon?
9CL: Oh, wow, this still has more to go?!? I can’t wait. Actually, I can.
You were too afraid to tackle today’s “Hi and Lois” or “Gil Thorp”, huh?
Whether it’s unconscious or not, I just realized that Hank Ketchum probably named George and Martha Wilson after George and Martha Washington! Kind of a playful, patriotic insult hurled at our Founding Fathers’ feet.
Is there a word for that? How do we feel about Hatetriotism?
CURTIS: You can check out of this strip until Fall. Nothing to see here.
@brendancalling: I comment on GT over there sometimes
@Little Blue Bicycle: … but I’m probably done. That GT comment section has grown uglier and uglier, and I think the bad apples have finally chased me away. For all its many issues, I have no problem with the politics.
Curtis: This is genuinely so infuriating.
This is the third(?) summer in a row where Greg demands Curtis (who is 11 years btw) to get a summer job.
The first time, Greg just wrote a random address on a piece of paper, which Curtis lost, and so ended up at a humanitarian aquarium for endangered species. Curtis genuinely enjoyed his time there despite not making any money. But then it turned out Greg intended Curtis to work at a comic book store, which implies that
A. Greg somehow has insider knowledge about a comic book store, despite clearly hating comic books, and
B. Greg never once asked Curtis how his job was going.
The next year, we get the same storyline, though it was with a florist shop, and Curtis still enjoyed his time there. This time, though, Curtis actually made money, and supposedly gave his final massive paycheck to his parents.
…Basically what I’m saying is this strip sucks and is unfunny and I hope it gets canned. Also Barry is worse than cancer.
C’shaft: Poor Curt Cameron. He’s stuck in a dead end Midwest local news gig, he’s having to kiss Lilian’s bony white ass, people keep confusing him with an 80s television star who went off the evangelical deep end…
GT: Hey, you know what would be even better than interrupting your current arc to lecture the audience? If you actually showed these young characters dealing with things like transphobia, school lunch debt, and intellectual freedom, rather than having them tell us they exist! I mean sure, there was a time not very long ago when this strip threw so many “very special episodes” at us it was impossible to keep track, but at least then it was trying!
JP: Reena has been wanting to say that for a long, long time now.
MW: Damn, the employees at the Bum Boat don’t get the Fourth off? Harsh.
….Then again, maybe they do have the Fourth off, and Mary and Jeff have been sitting there for an hour wondering where their waitress is, and also why they had to jimmy the front door lock and seat themselves.
Phantom: “Unacceptable! I’m the only one who’s allowed to manipulate governments in these parts!”
Pluggers are easy to manipulate into blind jingoism.
JP: Does anyone remember the John Cleese comedy ‘documentary’ Norway, Home of Giants, with jokes including a line of people on skis boarding a bus? Or maybe it was Land of Giants, my memory runs a bit foul there.
MW: My guess of Duck a L’Orange was way off.
Dustin: Does an app alert all the women in the bar when Dustin and/or Fitch walk in? I guess it gives them time to prepare their quips.
LUANN: I cannot believe the creators make us spend all this time on Luann’s boring date and their boring discussion about summer jobs, but skip over the strip where Luann tried meth for the first time. (Nice try with the “coffee” bit, comic. But the way her eyes are dilating indicate that that girl is seriously tweaking! Also, people don’t show your heroine completely fine in the previous day’s panels if you wan’t to do a “hyper on coffee” routine.)
Only Jeffy and Dotty? I guess Bill found a complaisant doctor to exempt him from his patriotic duties
Dennis the Menace: Mr. Wilson = my dog Dennis = drunken yahoos with fireworks Martha = permissive parents Quite the social commentary, if you think about it.
@2+2=7: Like many of Luann’s biological and intellectual processes, her metabolism is extremely slow.
@JamesBont: Wow, that sounds bad. The aquarium/comic book store mixup shows that Barry knew someone well enough to conspire about a presumably labour-law-violating job for a kid, but not only didn’t ask Curtis one single thing about what he was doing, he *also* never contacted (or was contacted by) this person who would have noted the no-show.
@Astroboy: Creating a life-size meatpuppet with a bell and a horn to antagonize your sleeping husband: extremely menacing.
@Bob Tice: I’m going to wholesome this up, and just say that when I read Cheeks Cafe (before reading what you were replying to) my first thought was a cafe run by hamsters. So adorable!
Dennis the Menace & Family Circus – The USA used to be a young country, especially compared to the mother country United Kingdom. But as we approach out 250th birthday we are not only going through a midlife crisis (UFC fight at the White House next year), but we are less able to tolerate children and their behavior (analogy for rising independent nations).
The UK, long since declined, watches knowingly. It’s the fate of many nations: It happened to Europe, it’s happening to America, it will happen to the next power.
*definitely labour-law-violating. 14 is the minimum age in the USA for non-agricultural paid work (federally, and states can make it more, not less, restrictive). Comic book store is definitely not going to qualify to have an 11yo working.
Realizing that Dennis the Menace and The Family Circus are much funnier if you read them as being about a sociopathic wife terrorizing her husband and terrible parents, respectively. Or maybe I have that backwards?
@Banana Jr. 6000: Re: RMMD: Truck: Says you! It means he’s old enough to sponge off of sometimes. It’s like having a backup freeloading system!”
Family Circus: Papa Keane had introduced the idea of required daily anthems in an attempt to further indoctrinate the children of the Keane Kompound, but he didn’t consider that he’d be the one listening to the anthems.
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, to those who celebrate. (I’ve lost two good neighbor families)
GT: whoever though a sports comic would have the most patriotic message! The Constitution must be fought for every generation.
FBoFW: how beautiful (snerk), remember when one year of college meant you knew everything worth knowing?
CURTIS: Funny response considering he had fun at last two summer jobs– but for fact they never happened as he’s still eleven
DtM: If it’s July 4th, why was Dennis just at a New Year’s Eve party?
@CanuckDownSouth: And considering the kinds of work that would actually be available to an 11 year old kid in a rough neighbourhood, Greg’s lack of concern is pretty disturbing,
@The Rambling Otter: I forgot Gluteal Grill.
MW: Banality is the closest thing Jeff will ever get to “anal” when it comes to Mary.
@Ettorre: Billy remembers the shiner he got from Big Daddy last year so he’s bowing out.
DUSTIN: Boy, the “one-dimensional shrew” field must be another industry that’s suffering under the growing economic instability and can’t afford to search for or hire qualified applicants. These obviously temps are so woefully unprepared for their responsibilities that they don’t even wait for the heroes to say or do anything before offering up their “annoy strangers in bars” quip.
DUSTIN (2) Kelly: “Those young people sure are lazy and unmotivated!”
Parker: “Yeah, I tell you, man! Anyway, help me find that generic clip-art template of Dustin and Finch so I can photocopy them for the other panels. Thanks!”
@Victor Von: Ketchum got the idea for the names from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
@Rube: Heroin mule. He’ll make a fortune!
LOLA: we had some fireworks last night but I went to bed instead. Will likely do same tonight as I am now a Plugger.
MANDRAKE and FG: Narda and Dale show they’re not just sidekicks.
RMMD: in the second panel, Wanda gives her intended a black eye and frames him for it.
S4th: bet Sir Reginald will be shown pursuing a defacer . Bettina will not be surprised as she always knew he was a hero.
MW:
“Look at those frozen dome-shaped desserts exploding in the sky, Jeff!”
“What in the world are you talking about, Mary?*
“The bombes bursting in air!”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Laura, do you enjoy looking into each other’s eyes like this?”
“It’s so romantic, Don Abundio!”
“I could do this for hours”
“That’s great, but there’s one thing that worries me…”
“Your arms might get tired”
@brendancalling: I see we found Henry’s new screen name here
Oh, say can you speak truth to power (or at least to a dwindling comic strip audience, many who’d rather not hear it):
You tell ’em, GT.
Of all things, H&L making a statement.
Of all things, 6C speaking out, too.
For those who can’t handle it, there’s always Heathcliff.
Crankshaft – This has reached peak barf.
The news anchor is praising Loathsome Lil because he’s afraid she’ll send him to the cornfield if he doesn’t.
Frazz – Look on the bright side, Caulfield. You and Frazz get to be smug and superior over those tubs of lard who don’t live like you do.
Mother Goose & Grimm – He’s going to get tutored.
Pluggers – Nope. Not going to rant about this.
Anyone who has ever been to Fort McHenry in Baltimore knows that the original Star Spangled Banner is a bigass flag and would be impossible to miss. The actual original flag is in the Smithsonian – it’s in a dimly lit room and displayed horizontally because it’s in fragile condition. Even with a fair amount of it cut off and given away as souvenirs, it’s still a large flag.
When we were at Fort McHenry around 1990 on a trip with the Boy Scouts, we were sitting on our bus and witnessed what appeared to be a drug bust. Police were talking to a young guy at a parked car, and the next thing we knew, the police had the guy spread eagled on his car and were frisking him. More police showed up, and they opened his car trunk and were looking in it. Gave the Boy Scouts something to think about.
9CL – Same shit, different day.
@Baja Gaijin: Mashups – I can’t decide between Death and the last one. What’s on that plate in the explosion? Salmon squares?
@ValdVin: Re Pluggers – In an episode of Downton Abbey, the family gathered to listen to the king give a speech on the radio for the first time. When the king came on and started to speak, everyone jumped to their feet and stood while he spoke.
@TheDiva: I prefer America the Beautiful, too. Or This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie.
DtM: In all honesty I’d be pretty saucer eyed at this point too. Did Henry and Alice get raptured or something?
FC: Bil’s Fourth of July tradition is downing barbiturates before bedtime on July 3.
@196 I speak Jive: The plate shows the remainder of Mary’s Surf and Turf, specifically the “turf.”
on Pluggers: You’re implying Pluggers are as old post-Edwardian Brits? I won’t argue with that assessment.
@TH Steady: Henry is not a monolith.
9CL: “cont’d”? Man, the suspense is killing me!
BB: For a while the Army were glad to have aw-shucks killing machine Zero on their side but now they’ve decided he’s too dangerous to live, so an “accident” must be arranged.
C-Shaft: When your contract is put under review because you took a cell phone call on the air, you have to butter up whoever will still hire you.
Dustin: On the bright side, neither of the guys has said anything about being “a stay-at-home son.” On the not-so-bright side, the blonde now has an ominous rectangle nudging her elbow. Has the alien invasion finally started in its desultory way?
GT: In their attempt to counter the patriotic kitsch of Dick Tracy and Gasoline Alley the Milfordites have come up with something like SNL’s “Theatre Showcase” skits but worse.
JP: Assuming this is an actual business with actual customers there must be a dozen people behind them saying, “That goes for both of you.”
MW: Never has a conversation been less worthy of being punctuated by fireworks. Especially since in the second panel it’s still daylight.
RMMD: Truck states outright that he likes the idea of being a father as long as he doesn’t have to do any, you know, fathering. Which explains why Wanda’s jaw is about to hit the floor.
@Baja Gaijin: So actual dirt.
Re Pluggers – Not as old, but the same mentality.
@I speak Jive:
#105. Jive, (Frazzhaters should skip this comment). I’ve run several 10Ks around Ft McHenry, benefits for veterans, and my one marathon.
Each time, rain or shine, I got a lump in my throat in small part because of the historical events and in large part because a farm kid from Iowa actually had right to live on her own, support herself, and do work she believed in. Watta country! I wish everyone had same rights and opportunities. Oops, another lump in throat.
@Activist: Congratulations on completing a marathon!
@Activist: Congratulations on completing your runs, especially the marathon. You have my admiration and respect for doing it. My problem with Frazz is the smug superiority, which I do not see in you.
I agree about the historical significance and everything – I’ve been to a number of historical monuments and found them to be stirring. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you visit the Smithsonian and see the original Star Spangled Banner.
@I speak Jive: I remember that; it was a good scene and amusing for when radio–em, “wireless”, was new, and the unwritten rules of propriety weren’t established yet. And the populace there were nothing if respectful of propriety.
@I speak Jive: thanks!
@Bob Tice: I saw a TV show (“Turn: Washington’s Spies”) where a group of British Army officers were in a tavern, molesting the wenches, and drunkenly singing “To Anachreon”.
It took me a few moments to realize it and then I had a jolly laugh.
Good show.
Quite.
@TheDiva: See if you can find Robert Klein’s recorded bit on replacing the National Anthem.
9CL: Here’s the thing I don’t understand. Brooke, apparently, gets paid for this. And that is because gocomics makes money by syndicating it or by running ads on their website. Are they just making money from our hateclicks now? Am I guilty of perpetuating this nonsense?
GT: Barajas is taking Sherwood Anderson’s idea of “grotesques” too literally.
@Will: I think the business model is:
1. Force newspapers to buy a bloated package of content to get the few things they actually want, cable TV style.
2. Only include content with enough name recognition that subscribers will complain if it disappears, no matter how much it has declined in quality, shifted from its original purpose, or become outdated.
3. Count on newspaper subscribers to be half-senile Pluggers who have nothing else to do with their time but write letters to the editor demanding Marmaduke back.
4. Profit!
@110 Artist formerly known as Ben: on Mary Worth: I took advantage of that copy-and-paste discontinuity on the “Explosion” mashup. I didn’t have to change the sky in the two extra panels.