Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 25, 2010

Being first is nice; having a meaningful comment is quite a bit better. Righteous indignation from Zonker is to parenting advice as rational discourse from Mel Gibson is to marital bliss.

Nice analogy, Sheik…

Parents, if you pay more attention to your kids, you’d know there’s a pothead wielding scissors hanging out in their bedroom, talking to people who aren’t in the room.

Completely flipping illegible.

Yeah, the format issues and illegibility are very bad. I trust Trudeau to make noise about it (he has a record of being good about that). It may not matter, but I’m sure he’ll complain.

But as far as the cartoon, his proposal is a ridiculous failure. What the hell is a “family computer?” That was over with almost a generation ago. The iPhone orphans I know all have a computer each for their own use and their parents use individual laptops that are not accessible to the children. There’s nowhere for kids to post the clipping, no way to communicate the message, except perhaps to post it to a facebook page or something. But then, the parents would have to be interested enough in their children to notice that. Plenty of kids I know, no kidding, are not that lucky.

I’ve found it rather to be the other way ‘round. Kids more interested in devices than either their parents or their peers. And not just teenagers, either.

Throw away the devices, turn off the tv and computer and be a family again.

Sigh. There are still family computers, or at least computers in family public spaces. I confess to having a (work) laptop in my study, however.

The kids do NOT have computers in their rooms, nor do they have iPhones or other smart phones. We do not have TV, either. And yet, they manage to keep up with what’s going on. We also eat dinner together and just spent the entire day yesterday together in the woods.

Families are still families. But Trudeau’s point may be made - the adults who created the devices often don’t like the results when they show up in their kids.

As Fairport said much earlier, the format is definitely wonky. The electronic version of the “newspaper” that I read published this strip with the first two throwaway panels, which are usually included here.

Hold down the CTRL button and press the + key. Makes it easier to read.

You guys are so full of shi… Wait a minute, my BB just went off.

“”Teach your parents” definitely has come. GT may be blaming the computer but the same old monster still exists in the living room, or every room depending on your addiction. The TV is more responsible for the family breakdown than all other electronic gizmos. If you don’t have family time, unplug the cable first. Nothing more Norman Rockwell than a family reading around the fire.

GT Loved the strip.

If you have Firefox ( I don”t know about Explorer), just LEFT click the cartoon. go ahead, try it. I have time,. I can wait. There, see how nice and big it got. I wish this worked on… my check receipts. REALLY JUST LEFT CLICK IT. I’VE TOLD YOU BEFORE!!!!

Boy, is that guy irate.

Lew: you’re quoting form a socialist hippie song group. What are you thinking???? David Crosby sends his regards for the plug. Might need a new liver again at any time.

With all due respect to those superior individuals who don’t have TVs, I found it easier just not to have children.

Can’t cut out the panel until Apple invents iPaper.

Zonker has been a pretty good Au Pair and he does have child minding skills. As usual he has some fairly weird takes on the teck addiction issue. It does seem a little backward. Maybe that’s what GT intends.

The version on http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/ is displayed at 600/293 pixel resolution which makes it look smaller.

Here they have slightly stretched it. All this does is blur it a little. Left clicking stretches it more with more blurring. Not very helpful.

What’s going on here? I hope this is a one day phenomenon.

Kudos to Zonker. Too bad that many who need this message will never get it.

“Go away kids, Go watch TV or something.”

I sharp kiddo can make a screen shot of the panel and convert the family computer’s screen saver to the clip.

However that won’t be much more readable due to the low res of the comic today. Dreadful. Funny, same thing was happening in newspapers a few decades ago and making all the cartoonists very mad (not to mention the readers).

I guess the cartoon sites are trying to save money by cutting back on pixels.

Recently it seems like, Zonker has become concerned with ethical issues (unlike his uncle). Suddenly, Zonk becomes more and more like an “Old Fogey”, none of that in between stuff. Straight from Peter Pan to Fogey.

He talks to his plants too, Coyoty, and they talk back. Signs of; flashback/senility.

I don’t have a TV OR kids!

And the new format stinks. If you enlarge it, it becomes LARGE and unreadable. What’s the point of that? Post a decent resolution picture of the strip please!

This new “improved” format is site wide. 600 px wide max. It also looks as if the archives have been reduced to 600px too. The “tall” strips are hardly affected. They actually are plenty big and require more storage. It’s cheaper to send smaller images to gocomic’s clients. Image storage can’t be the issue. Too many folks signed up. Maybe they need to eliminate the free access so they can afford to transfer the extra data. I know this sounds unfair, but somehow we need to get back to the original resolutions. Twenty bucks a year is not a lot of $!

Love it…as a teacher and as a person…turn off the gd cells once in a while and just be somewhere…no wonder kids are so hyper…J

Yukoneric! Thanks for the infor….very useful.

“But the Children are glued to their Game Boxes.”

Tigger, did you see today’s Foxtrot?

http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2010/07/25/

Well not ALL parents are distracted by the electronic devices. Lots are distracted by … well by Doonesbury in the newspaper…

So am I the only subscriber who, when I left-click the image it gets smaller??!

I need all the “retro” help I can get – the Grandkids ‘n crew are lifesavers .. I got away from computers in early 80’s -pre-PC’s! except for business data input /retrieval… (started with IBM Hand Punched cards and vacuum tubes.) While learning curves are good, they tend to CHANGE stuff as soon as I get proficient at maneuvering sites. now working with Apple iBookG4 antique.

heeyuk :

Walmart sells nice printer – plugs into MY Apple –$29.00 bucks – works good.

^JP; You may have already magnified it in your browser (with the Ctrl-+ trick). Mine will do that too when it’s enlarged, and the ads on the right are off the screen.

FREEHOLDER Though I MAY appear a LITTLE right of center, as a youth my hair almost hit my word I try to avoid.. Was I a confused youth who hadn’t quite found his way.? I carried signs in marches, first decrying the draft and a year later supporting Nixon. I grew up. I raised my right hand not knowing if the war was right, but knowing Uncle Sam needed me. No, I didn’t go to Woodstock but watched my father smash the record when he heard The Fish Cheer.

Vote Open Meadow Party

Spot on, Pbarnrob! Thanks for the explanation.

stebon is hallucinating unrelated content again.