Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for December 21, 2024

Too bad…

I was waiting for this one.

Shortly before Christmas, 1995:

I am taking a plane from Monterey, CA to LAX where I will fly to Newark, and then onto Bangor, Maine.

Our flight from Monterey has to wait and wait and wait … before we can get to a spot to disembark. The attendants know that my flight is leaving real soon, and have contacted the flight I must catch. Finally, we can disembark and I must do my OJ Simpson dash to the departure gate. I board the plane, and am directed to the rear. Being eyed by most of the passengers who are wondering why this doofus is so late…

I am directed to the last row, where 3 empty seats await me! Woo hoo! I will be able to lay down! This lasts for a short time after we have reached altitude. Then one of the flight attendants asks me if this gentleman (standing behind her) can sit here because someone has been harassing him. He looks innocuous but I am thinking, “What did he do that prompted this?” Well, I agree, and he takes the aisle seat.

I basically ignore him for the entire flight. I do however, see him looking over at me from time to time. More reason to ignore him.

Toward the end of the flight he is chatting a lot with the attendants, and it seems maybe they know him. I continue to ignore him.

After I reached my destination, being on West Coast time, I was flpping through TV stations when I suddenly saw the guy from the plane.

It was Geraldo Rivera. I had a good chuckle, realizing I now knew why someone was harassing him, and why he had been looking over at me, who was ignoring the TV star. I thought that, though accidental through ignorance, my ignoring him was better than verbally harassing him.

Not too far from the truth.

Same thing…

If you tried that with a palmetto bug, it would lift your feet and carry you off.

Don’t apologize, Geraldo deserves it!

I’m not sure he cares. I saw a profile of him several years ago. He as enough money and likes boats so he goes cruising on the inland waterway up and down the east coast.

So was this strip before or after Al Capone’s vault?

These days, it’s, " CROOKED JOE !!!"

Hey, Mr. Rivera, you got your name mentioned in the newspaper … in the comics section!! Have an nice day!!!

No you’re not. and he’s worse than a cockroach.

That wasn’t poor Milquetoast was it?