“Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be,” Yogi Berra said. Or maybe he didn’t. Berra is like Mark Twain -- the more outrageous the quote, the more likely it will be attributed to one of them.
Or to Pogo.
Pogo was the loveable possum invented by cartoonist Walt Kelly, in 1948. Pogo’s most famous quote is “We has seen the enemy, and he is us.” People quote it who have never read Kelly’s comic strip.
Forty-five years after Pogo last appeared in newspapers, some of his other quotations seem oddly prescient:
· “Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.”
· “If you can’t win, don’t join ‘em.”
· “Don’t take life so serious. It ain’t nohow permanent.”
· “We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.”
Personally, I favour his garbled versions of familiar songs, such as “Deck us all with Boston Charlie…” Or his ode to the northern lights: “Oh roar a roar for Norah, Norah Alice in the night/ For she has seen Aurora Borealis burning bright.”
Still, Kelly’s genius was not so much his insightful quips as his memorable characters: cynical PorkyPine, southern-gentleman hound Beauregard, turtle Churchy LaFemme…
The same holds for another comic strip genius, Al Capp. Capp created Li’l Abner, a handsome (of course) and likeable hillbilly. But around him were Mammy Yokum; the military disaster Jubilation T Cornpone; the shapeless and generous Schmoos; Joe Btfsplk, always under his personal storm cloud….
Abner’s girlfriend was Daisy Mae, a Barbie Doll before Barbie Dolls were invented, wearing mini-skirts before mini-skirts were invented.
Al Capp also bequeathed Dogpatch as a name for a run-down rural community, and Sadie Hawkins Day when girls could (gasp!) invite a boy on a date.
And in a spinoff from L’il Abner, we sometimes got a comic strip within a comic strip -- Fearless Fosdick, a satire on Dick Tracy. Fosdick’s victims sported bullet holes like swiss cheese.
Quotable zingers
My memory for nostalgia is excellent; it’s just your name I can’t remember.
I didn’t remember how the Peanuts strip got a black character, Franklin. Fortunately, Tom Watson told the story in his blog, The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony.
“On July 31, 1968, Franklin — Charlie Brown's African American friend — made his debut.
“Pushback came. United Features Syndicate didn't like scenes in which Franklin played with the other children. One editor even complained that Franklin shouldn't be seen sharing a desk with Peppermint Patty…
“After a long phone conversation, Schulz told Larry Rutman, president of United Features at the time, ‘Let's put it this way: Either you print it the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?’
“And that's the way that conversation ended. Franklin was a permanent member of the Peanuts gang.”
Schulz, Capp, and Kelly all poked fun – literally – at conventional social wisdom.
I’ve never understood why no cartoonist made a comic strip about Jesus. After all, Jesus delivered just as many quotable zingers as Pogo did.
Imagine him telling General Bullmoose to turn the other cheek. Urging Dick Tracy to love his enemies. Perhaps likening Daddy Warbucks to a camel trying to fit through the eye of a needle. Or calling Senator Jack S. Phogbound a whited sepulchre.
Well, maybe that’s too outrageous. Even for cartoonists.
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Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
Diana Cabott imagined me in the kitchen, and thought the picture was “priceless…you made me smile for sure...were your feet wet?”
JT: Yes. Soaked. I used my socks to sop up some of the overflow coffee.
I miss Fran Barton since she moved to Ontario. “LOL,” she wrote. “You give so much thought and analysis to forgetting one simple action.”
Frank Martens had a similar experience: “A week ago, I turned on the kitchen sink tap to warm it up for the late night ritual of washing the dishes in the dish washer. It didn’t seem to warm up so I went downstairs to check the hot water tank and the fuse. All looked well so I went upstairs and off to bed. Next morning I woke up to a flooded kitchen and a still running tap.”
Fran Ota suggested, “There’s a theory that women are better multitaskers than men. Not sure it’s true though I’m a better multitasker than my husband. Partly from child-rearing, and partly I believe from the number of times we have shifted as a family, generally across continents. Some things develop, we learn them as we go, and suddenly that accumulated experience is useful.”
“Your thesis is that single-mindedness is not always an asset,” Tom Watson commented. “I'm a multitasker but that's not always an asset either.”
Isabel Gibson applied her own analysis: “Your morning activities don't sound like a ‘one-at-a-time’ focus to me. They sound like what I think is called ‘time-slicing’: inter-leaving sub-tasks from different tasks. As one example, the actions of stripping the bed, putting the sheets in the washer, adding more clothes, and turning the washer on were all separated from each other by other unrelated activities.
“That's a recipe for losing track of a few steps, I'd say, rather than an indictment of over-focusing.
“Maybe we need some help identifying which things want single-minded focus (anything involving the movement of sharp implements, for example, or the traversing of steps and active roadways) and which want a broader view.”
And James Russell wrote, “Good column, but such a lie to end on! YOU a guy who ‘can’t see the broader picture’? YOU ‘can’t work with multiple crises at once’? HA!
“It’s the virus, you silly man.
“We are all getting overwhelmed by the contrast between the dreadful sameness of tomorrow creeping in each day its petty pace, and the horror that at each pace we see more clearly the engulfing grave. Trying to quell and cope with our loneliness and grief we sometimes slide over a step in the too-familiar daily routine. We are overwhelmed. And we miss the thousand daily reminders and nudges (and hands that take over when our own hands skip) that saved us from the consequences of those slips before. When we had friends every day to hand.”
I particularly liked James’s closing: “We can’t see our way out individually. None of us can. None of us ever could. It’s just much harder now to see each other and so to see that we’re not alone.”
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Psalm paraphrase
I’m going with the alternate psalm 26 for this coming Sunday, because it’s less ponderous than my versions of Psalm 105. Nothing, the psalmist feels, hurts like an unfair accusation.
1 Do not treat me harshly, God. I have been true to you.
I have trusted you; I have never doubted you for more than a moment.
2 If you don't believe me, test me.
Look into my heart and listen to my thoughts.
See for yourself that I have been faithful.
3 Can't you see that your love means everything to me?
Everything I do, I do for you.
4 I don't play around with pretence;
I don't flirt with false ideals.
5 I despise those who do wrong;
I avoid those who flaunt their faithlessness.
6 I wash my hands of them.
My hands are clean; I come to you with a clear conscience.
7 I constantly count my blessings;
I always speak well of you.
I bless the day you entered my life.
8 I glow when I am near you;
I bask in the sunshine of your smile.
9 Don't brush me off like dandruff;
don't dump me out with your garbage.
10 The trash can is full of people who cheat and swindle;
they deceive their friends; they play both ends against the middle.
11 But I am not like them.
12 I can hold my head high, among your people, Because I have been faithful to you.
You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalms available from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)
ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE
I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)