Spot the Frog (12/14/09)

Today’s Spot the Frog reminded me that, despite the patches of snow on the ground, it is still fall. Winter doesn’t officially start until December 21, although that’s usually too depressing of an idea to bear by the time early December rolls around. Like many people, I deem December 1 the unofficial start of winter, March 1 the beginning of spring, June 1 the beginning of summer, and September 1 the beginning of fall. And even though it was a bit balmy in Chicago today, I still wore my winter coat and hat, if only to soak up warmth for the freezing days to come.

One Big Happy (12/13/09)

Although I enjoyed the curious story of the bird lover in this strip, what really captured my attention was the nickname “the crazy pigeon man of Ashland Avenue.” Ashland happens to be a major street in Chicago and although it varies greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood, none of it is as suburban as the scenery in today’s One Big Happy. The Ashland Avenue in Chicago undoubtedly has its share of crazy pigeon men, but I doubt any of their stories are as lighthearted as the one in this strip.

Sherman’s Lagoon (12/12/09)

When I was in high school, a friend of mine took to collecting America Online CDs as they were shipped to his house. First the CDs offered 100 minutes of free internet access for 30 days, then 200 minutes, then 500 minutes, then more minutes than were actually in a month. After a while he started asking for CDs from everyone and amassed an ungodly collection of them. I’m not sure what became of those discs, but I hope he kept them and turned them into one incredible mural commemorating useless direct mail promotions.

One Big Happy (12/11/09)

I’m one of those people who takes medication only when I’m really sick, and even then I resist, preferring to nurse myself back to health with orange juice and bed rest. Of course, there are times when a pain reliever is needed, like when I have a particularly bad headache. My taste buds tend to be deadened by mucus at that point, but they’re not so numb that they can’t detect the taste of a pain pill. If you’ve ever bitten into one of these tiny white tablets, you know that it tastes bitter and chalky and not in the least like candy; at least not like any candy I’d ever want to eat.

Candorville (12/10/09)

I find it remarkable that this strip refers to the victims of Hurricane Katrina as “American refugees,” especially after the controversy that erupted in late 2005 over use of the term. Many people felt the word “refugee” was disrespectful to those who had been displaced by the storm and it was quickly shelved by major media outlets in favor of the more neutral “evacuee.” My problem with that particular euphemism was that it did not truly capture the plight of people whose homes, livelihoods, and family members were swept away when the levees broke. The word “evacuee” was not up to the task of describing the situation in New Orleans and I’m glad to see it fade into the background, at least on the comics page.

Edge City (12/9/09)

Part of planning a wedding (even a low-key one like mine) is choosing a playlist for the reception. My fiance and I have reserved the second floor of a restaurant for five hours and, seeing as how we don’t want to repeat songs, will need to choose approximately 100 tracks to fill the time. Naturally, our tastes overlap and we’ve chosen a lot of the same tunes. But this is a minor obstacle compared to the fact that most great love songs don’t have the happiest of lyrics and are therefore not appropriate for a wedding reception.

Arlo & Janis (12/8/09)

While sex is no longer a taboo subject for the comics, there are few strips that deal with it as boldly as Arlo & Janis. It’s not that the strip is particularly racy, but rather that it depicts the day-to-day life of a married, middle-aged couple with uncanny accuracy. And when that couple’s banter turns to matters amorous, it can’t help but feel true to life. The characters have been around each other long enough to feel completely comfortable talking about sex, and it seems to me that their matter-of-fact musings on the topic pack more of a punch than even the lewdest of imitators.