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Little Orphan Annie's blunked-out eyeballs
Tonight I attended Augustine Christian Academy's middle-school production of Annie (Jr.). As is always the case at ACA, the production was characterized by excellence and a lot of heart. It hit me that no one involved in the production (except the director) would have any awareness of the comic strip...
Apollo 13: 45th anniversary
We often speak of scientific 'miracles' - forgetting that these are not miraculous happenings at all, but rather the product of hard work, long hours and disciplined intelligence. The men and Women of the Apollo XIII mission operations team performed such a miracle, transforming potential tragedy into one of the...
Blog roundup 2013/01/28
Notes hither and thither: If you're a fan of beautiful cartoon art, you should make at least a weekly visit to Whirled of Kelly, which features the art work of Walt Kelly, most famous for the comic strip Pogo. Blogger Thomas Haller Buchanan has been running a series of Sunday...
Churchy LaFemme's Friday the 13th
It was a running gag in Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo. Friday the 13th was a baleful day, particularly when it fell on a Friday: Via Blog d'Elisson Here's the Friday the 13th sequence from the summer of 1965, via Whirled of Kelly, a blog devoted to the art of...
Tulsa's yacht-guest subculture
Once in a while I come across a phrase that captures in 20 words what I've tried and failed to say in 2,000. It's an aphorism by cartoonist Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid @hughcards on Twitter), tweeted by former Louisiana Governor and dark-horse presidential candidate Buddy Roemer: "Real success comes not from...
Clueless SOTs and their enablers
It appears that the rich old SOTs, who seek to take Tulsa back from, well, Tulsans, are attempting to marshal the resources for gathering the necessary signatures to put their aristocratic propositions on the ballot. Word is that they aren't getting the kind of support and traction they may have...
Morris Udall's Congressional Reports
I was "chasing a rabbit," looking for info on how Oklahoma apportioned seats in the State Legislature among counties prior to a 1964 Federal court mandate (which to this day overrules the text of our State Constitution). What I found was a set of newsletters on the University of Arizona...
Friday the 13th come on a Friday this month
The image above, the August 9, 1965, Pogo is from the Cartoon Art Originals website, which has this strip and original Walt Kelly art for many other Pogo daily strips, Sunday strips, and paperbacks....
"Naturally, I disguised it a li'l"
I posted this cartoon excerpt, from Walt Kelly's Pogo Peek-A-Book, about a year ago. It's a favorite moment in a favorite tale, "The Man from Suffern on the Steppes or 1984 and All That: A Russian Tale of Madisonav," a simultaneous spoof of Soviet bureaucracy and American advertising. I've been...
Taking the Englishness out of the English language
There's no place for "plaice" in this dictionary. Words about Christianity (vicar, sin, parish), Christmas (carol, mistletoe), the monarchy (coronation, duke, monarch), seafood (lobster, mussel), pets (corgi, goldfish, hamster), fairy tales (elf, goblin), woodland flora (tulip, sycamore, pasture), and fauna (doe, starling, terrapin) are gone, too, from a popular children's...
Down with the gummint!
I very nearly turned my column this week into a sociological study of the denizens of Tulsa's Money Belt and how their behavior is shaped by peer pressure and fear of ostracism. In connection with the Great Plains Airlines bailout, I was thinking about a friend who asked me if...
Walt Kelly, A.D., B. P.*
As a fan of the comic strip Pogo, I've read many biographical sketches of cartoonist Walt Kelly, but I never remember having read that he wrote and illustrated a comic book series based on the Our Gang shorts. (You might know them better as "The Little Rascals" -- Spanky, Buckwheat,...
Classic Peanuts
Since Charles Schulz's death, United Feature Syndicate has been running Peanuts strips from many years ago. If I recall correctly, some of the first reruns were from the '70s. Right now, they're running strips from 1959, and if you hurry, you'll find, in the 30-day online archive: The last few...
Tiptoe through the YouTube
Tiny Tim sings his signature tune on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In in 1968, as Dick Martin looks on in awe, or something like it: By the way, that was Judy Carnes taking away Tiny Tim's cape at the beginning of the clip, and Goldie Hawn walking off with him at...
To someone who will not read this
but who had, I hope, a happy day none the less. Once you were two, dear birthday friend, In spite of purple weather. But now you are three and near the end As we grewsome together. How fourthful thou, forsooth for you, For soon you will be more. But 'fore...
Mu.Nu blew
No Ace of Spades fix today. All attempts to access Munuvian blogs get this message: Hi munu fans. The munu server has blowed up. The various problems we've been having with spam floods and denial-of-service attacks and getting Farked have been real, but the reason they were killing the server...
"As honest as the law allows"
Here's the last strip in the series. Albert's done with his taxes. Hope you are too. Pogo by Walt Kelly, April 14, 1956. Last in a series of 5. Click here for previous comic, click here to go back to the beginning....
"I knowed they was a catch"
The IRS never makes it easy.... Pogo by Walt Kelly, April 13, 1956. Y'all enjoying these? Let me hear from you. By the way, the distortion and greyness in the last frame is the result of scanning out of a book. I'm learning how to use the GIMP, and I...
Creative accounting
Another Pogo strip to help ease your tax preparation woes. I'm done, but Albert is still figgerin'. I needed tax advice this good. Pogo by Walt Kelly, April 12, 1956. Alas, most Pogo books are out of print, but you can find some new and used by searching for "Walt...
A li'l' innocent cheatin'
Pogo by Walt Kelly, April 11, 1956. Note the correct use of apostrophes in the word "LI'L'." This is comic 2 in a series of 5. Click for previous, next comic....
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