Here’s this month’s “Pen Avenue,” my cartoon for Print, Pittsburgh’s East End newspaper.
Print is not available online; you can only read it in (what else?) print. It’s available at Giant Eagle and other stores in Pittsburgh’s East End, or subscribe on the website.
For those of you not following the story: For more than 100 years, a split-rail fence on the Carnegie Mellon University campus has been used by students to share promotional messages. Fraternities and sororities paint it during rush week; student organizations promote events; individual students share opinions.
Because it’s CMU, an entire arcane and byzantine set of rules governs when and how the Fence may be painted.
Ahead of a visit by President Trump, students painted the fence to say “No Rapists on Our Campus” and “Shame on You.”
CMU’s president, Farnam Jahanian, ordered university employees to go out and paint over the message.
Continue reading “He’s painted himself into a corner”Sir Elton was right about sad songs. Why does it feel so good to hurt so bad?
I DJ’d on Tuesday night at the bowling alley and played one of my favorite Kinks songs, “Come Dancing.” It’s totally different from most of the Kinks’ library, and it was a polarizing record when it debuted in 1983:
It also made me realize that I love songs that have happy melodies but melancholy lyrics.
In fact, “Come Dancing” actually makes me sad, ever since I learned the back story. Do you know the back story?
If you don’t want to be sad, you may want to skip this next part.
Ready?
Continue reading “Why don’t you tune in and turn them on?”Quick lunchtime cartoon.
This just in:
Here’s this month’s “Pen Avenue,” my cartoon for Print, Pittsburgh’s East End newspaper.
There are about 70 Rite Aid stores in the Pittsburgh area, all of which are scheduled to close (or have already closed). At one point, the company had more than 5,000 stores, but after two bankruptcies, it’s been steadily shrinking, and the end is now apparently near for all of the remaining 1,200 stores.
(For months, the stores near my home have already looked like they were out of business, with empty shelves and no stock on basic items such as Band-Aids, cotton balls and other drug store staples.)
Supposedly, there has been a lot of discussion around the country among community development officers about what to do with to do with all of the vacant Rite Aid locations that will soon be blighting small-town and neighborhood business districts.
Print is not available online; you can only read it in (what else?) print. It’s available at Giant Eagle and other stores in Pittsburgh’s East End, or subscribe on the website.
At least we have calm, clear-headed people in charge on both sides
Apologies to Country Joe McDonald:
Yeah, c’mon on all you big strong men
Don the Con needs your help again
He’s makin’ threats without a plan
Against the mullahs in Teheran
So put down your phones
And launch some drones
We’re gonna go to war with Iran
Chorus:
And it’s 1, 2, 3
What’re we fighting for?
Bibi’s in the commode
So we’ll watch Iran explode
And it’s 5, 6, 7
Let’s make America great
Well, it ain’t no use to wait ‘n see
Ayatollah, it’s tollin’ for thee
Now, onward, Christians, let’s move fast
Our big chance has come at last
We gotta go out and bomb some sand
‘Cause eschatology is at hand
And y’all know Jesus will return
When the Holy Land starts to burn
(Chorus)
Chevron and Exxon, don’t move slow
‘Cause Armageddon is a-go-go-go
Just wait for the signal from Mr. Trump
Then raise the prices at the pump
And even if the worst don’t come to pass
It’ll still be a real gas
(Chorus)
Well, MAGA voters have dissatisfaction
Better get the military into action
The orders came down from Donald Trump
We gotta get him out of his ratings slump
And so we’ll do the best we can
To bomb the shit out of Iran
Elon Musk, like Daffy Duck, finally came up against his own limitations — including a possibly vestigial sense of shame
Over the weekend, my best friend was playing “Looney Tunes” clips for the amusement of his kids, and we started talking about the cartoon where Daffy Duck — frustrated by Bugs Bunny’s popularity — keeps trying to one-up him, until finally, Daffy swallows explosives and blows himself up.
The audience goes wild and even Bugs Bunny is impressed: “That’s terrific, Daffy! They want more!”
Daffy, who is now a ghost floating up to heaven, laments, “I know, but I can only do it once.”
(The cartoon, from 1957, is called “Show Biz Bugs.”)
I’ve been thinking about the cartoon in relation to you-know-who. I’ve developed a theory about you-know-who and the people around him.
Continue reading “Look who blinked”BREAKING: Right-wing backlash to Cole Escola’s outfit at the Tony Awards raises fears that the national tour of “Oh, Mary!” may skip its planned stop at the Yakov Smirnoff Theater in Branson, Mo.
More news any moment.
(H/T: Alert Listener Darya)
I have no problem with marijuana; I think they ought to legalize it everywhere and sell it in drug stores and anywhere alcohol is available. The fact that people — mostly young Black men — are still being jailed for selling pot is insane to me, and it amazes me that more people aren’t offended.
If I can buy a 1.5L of Scotch at the state liquor store, you ought to be able to buy a bag of primo indica there, too. And then go home and roll up a fatty as big as a telephone pole and blaze away and see if I care.
But man, the constant smell of it everywhere is starting to get to me.
On the bus, in the supermarket — today, I was waiting for my wife to finish with a doctor’s appointment at a large Pittsburgh hospital, and someone walked past me just reeking of skunkweed.
Two weeks ago, while my buddy and I were in Dayton for the radio convention, our hotel room was unusable one night for the smell of marijuana. Our strong suspicion was that the employees were smoking it; although the front desk told us it was coming from outside, we saw a large piece of PVC pipe sticking out of a window in the employees-only area, as well as tell-tale signs of masking tape around smoke detectors (as if they’d been covering them up).
I filed a complaint with the hotel chain’s corporate office; they told me “well, recreational marijuana is legal in Ohio now.” I said, yes, but your hotel is non-smoking, and it shouldn’t matter if it’s tobacco or pot. Firepits are legal in Ohio, too — could I bring one of those into my hotel room and start a camp fire?
It reminds me of when I was a kid and everyone smoked tobacco, and didn’t realize how badly they reeked of cigarette smoke. I don’t miss those days at all, when you’d open the door of a bar or restaurant and a cloud of smog would roll out.
I’m not sure if the dank stank is better or worse than stale cigarettes, but it’s just as pervasive as nicotine stains were 40 years ago.