Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 03, 2009

Actually the word is “baksheesh.”

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-baksheesh.htm

gimmickgenius said: Nobody seems to be commenting on the running subtext of the last few strips… . [Sam is] coming to believe that she’s stupid and ignorant and that her position is hopeless and she’ll never amount to anything.

Yeah, I was concerned about that too. The grownups seem oblivious to what she’s taking from their remarks. It’s so easy to mess up a kid.

Is Duke really an uncle to Alex? I think I have missed that through the years.

The common thread which binds the Doonesbury characters is the barely accredited Walden College, where most of the main characters were students way back when. The exact family lines are somewhat murky, but Duke seems to be related to Zonker and Zipper. To the others, Duke appears to be just an acquaintance, if that.

I thought “baksheesh” meant “gratuity” or “tip.”

Duke is Zonker’s uncle and Zonker is Zipper’s uncle. The historical taxonomy is this: Zonker appeared as a Walden student, then Duke was introduced. Years later, Zipper appeared at Walden and Duke’s son Earl (whose mother was a never-seen Vegas stripper) appeared in Duke’s DC office, complete with attitude and sunglasses.

There’s hardly ever been interaction between the Duke stories and the Zonker stories, except that Duke disappeared and was declared dead. Uncle Stupid (Alex’s stepfather, whose name I forget) was a caretaker at his house and steals stuff from the estate.

Thanks, diggitt!

And, Duke is based, not very loosely on…

Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

I believe Alex’s stepfather is Uncle Stupidhead.

“Uncle Stupidhead“‘s real name is Zeke Brenner.

Tcee, I thought it was the other way around. LOL

And Zeke married J.J. Caucus (Joanie’s daughter and Alex’s mother) after she and Mike were divorced, and Mike married Kim, who is now Alex’s step-mother (Joanie is still married to Rick Redfern, of course, but Lacey is dead). Got it?

Z’s almost right, baksheesh (derived from Persian–same word in Urdu and Hindi) is very much a part-of-life in Muddle East

In Washington we call it lobbying.