Milford and the local athletic conference play by modified rules of football, where 'getting your nose’ of your opponent is worth extra points. This is because sports is more valued than education, so a good percentage of players don't have object permanence.
Ziggy, 9/28/05
Actually, I … I … don’t know what you mean. Really, I don’t. Is the fact that the second “i” lowercase relevant to your mysterious purpose? ‘Cause otherwise, I got nothin’.
Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/27/05
Today’s Rex Morgan, M.D., is actually a quite lovely chiaroscuro composition; even the sweatshop coloring hacks knew to leave well enough alone, adding only a splash of red to Rex’s tie that’s quite striking in and of itself. The mood is appropriately somber for the subject matter, but the dialogue confirms my growing suspicion that there’s only one competent medical practitioner in the Morgan family, and it isn’t the one who goes around waving some fancy initials around after his name in an overly compensatory fashion. Maybe Rex is distracted by the recent departure of his sexy blond archaeologist buddy, but his comments here give the impression less of “trained doctor” and more of “Catch Me If You Can-style fraud.” First, he seems baffled by the idea that a wounded man coming back from a war zone might have a piece of metal embedded in his body; then he claims ignorance as to why discussing an injured individual might be relevant at a medical practice. I mean, forget med school; anyone who’s seen an episode of M*A*S*H could have faked his way through this conversation better than “Dr.” Morgan.
The war in Iraq is a potentially touchy subject for the comics pages, even for an ostensibly “issue”-oriented strip like Rex Morgan (though the “issues” raised by the Fence Post Frank/Buck plot would be best dealt with by a psychologist and a landscape architect). If this storyline takes a stand more controversial than “Wounded soldiers should have their wounds treated promptly by a skilled medical professional” (which, I can’t emphasize strongly enough to Jack, would in this case be June), Rex Morgan, M.D. might find itself exiled to the Opinions page with the Boondocks and Mallard Fillmore.
Of course, if the strip needs some help in talking about the war without actually, you know, talking about the war, it should take some lessons from the master:
Beetle Bailey, 9/27/05
Soldier, I know it seems like some of the tasks you’re ordered to undertake are small or irrelevant, but each one slowly but surely advances the cause of freedom. And by “cause of freedom,” I mean “some campaign contributor’s stock portfolio.” I’m not sure how the Army gets its martini glasses, but I’m betting it involves a no-bid contract and a Halliburton subsidiary.
I don’t know if the spammers are getting smarter of if the new version of WordPress is more vulnerable to spamming, but more and more comment spam is getting through my filters. I have thus been forced to take the irritating step of forcing you to enter a security code before you can post a comment. Not sure if this will cut down on spam or not; I’ll keep it in place if it does. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Update: OK, that didn’t really help matters, and I think I’ve found something else that does, so I turned it off. Go about your business.