Comics

I don't subscribe to a newspaper any more. I once wallowed in the daily self-destructive habit of reading the Modesto Bee, which is like watching paint dry on a train wreck - endless, boring, and horrible. The Bee is a family-oriented newspaper, which means they print a constant stream of letters by people who say brilliant things like Democrats cause abortions or that the US constitution is a Christian document. They also print a comics page that is entirely useless. Although they print Boondocks (which is often mordantly funny and generally somewhat offensive, both of which I like tremendously in a comic strip) and Doonesbury (which used to be funny and topical, but now Trudeau only seems capable of one at a time), they print them on a page buried inside the classifieds, so their brilliant subscribers don't accidentally run across them. This doesn't work, of course: they turn immediately to them, and then write letters complaining that Aaron MacGruder causes cancer and that Family Circus prevents terrorist attacks. (I wrote that to be funny, but now that I consider it more carefully, Family Circus sort of is a terrorist attack.)

Lately I've discovered and have taken to reading a blog called "The Comics Curmudgeon." Yesterday's entries included a nice bit about the aforementioned Family Circus. I'm pleased to find someone else who shares my repulsed loathing for Family Circus. I love Pope jokes, too.