Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 29, 2011

BD, move to Saudi Arabia. They won’t let her drive there.

Hormones anyone? From last strip to this one: BD goes from misty-eyed to hard-nosed. He’s gonna bring this kid up right if it kills him. Which raises the question: How’s Boopsie gonna relate?

Boopsie, whether she wants to or not, will be the voice of reason between the rebellious adolescent and hard nosed BD.

On second thought: Will BD’s conservatism trip him up? (He still gets his news from the newspaper while everyone else gets it from flat screens.) Sam has a strong sense of fairness and is strong-willed. Straight ahead: the clash of the titans? Stay tooned.

She has lost the innocent, wide eyes that set her apart from most of the rest of the characters. I hope she doesn’t become skeptical and gloomy.

By the time she’s old enough to drive there won’t be any gas left.

I just noticed the eyes of Roland Hedley (in the ad for Trudeau’s book immediately to the right): compared to the eyes of BD, for instance, they look positively evil. Think? And yet they’re booth supposed to be über conservative. D’ya suppose there could be both good conservatives and . . . uh, um . . . bad ones? Both? Together? In the same universe? Nah.

“Feeling the keys is the gateway drug to driving.” See what I mean? Conservative Petey is already backing up what conservative BD so obviously believes as well.

“My comments were not made from any conservative slant. They were just comments.” Heh heh heh.

" … almost all hardcore crackheads got started on mother’s milk." “Evil insight, Prince Richard! Wicked irony! Let thy shame drive thee into a life of cleansing self-flagellation.” —Pseudo-Shakespeare, King Failsafe IV, Act I, Scene I. Alright, fuzzy bears, pull your camp chairs close around the campfire at the edge of Hell’s Canyon (OR-ID border) and, with eyes wide open, ears uncorked, bellies full of Copper River broiled salmon-in-season, and hearts atwitter, let us cling to each other as his timeless tale of yore unscrolls in full moonlight.

“… check out my daily comic strip (Petey & The Pack) on the Sherpa site. I’m an aspiring cartoonist.” Dishearten not, noble clansman! Let no “aspiring cartoonist” depart Sherwood sans honor. [Bows from waist.] Visit indeed, shall I thy servant make. And may Toon Star Trudeau in the constellation Doonesbury inspire all thy productions.

And we mustn’t forget that supremely addictive, corrosive poison, Oxygen. Once experienced, withdrawal is invariably fatal, and one hit is enough for complete addiction for life…

No way does today’s Sam even remotely resemble the Palin-doll-tossing Sam of two days ago, much less the Sam who traveled to England for the wedding a few months ago. Oh, I think she’s gonna be a headache for the next several years. I remember when our 13-year-old borrowed the keys “to get something I left in the car.” Next thing we knew she was driving kids up and down the driveway. I may have to stop reading this strip for a few years until Sam grows up, just for my health.

How does GT do it at his age? How does he remember and depict so well the non-logic (to be polite) of teenage youth: Getting a feel for keys? If she ‘s not serious about getting a feel for keys but she thinks her dad is going to buy that line, she has cotton for brains. If she IS serious about getting a feel for keys, she has cotton for brains. But, then, her frontal lobes aren’t going to be fully connected for another ten years or so, I guess. Oh, I don’t think I want to relive this. Alex is hard enough to take!

Is this today’s modern maturity?

I told my daughter that she would need to work part-timeto help pay for insurance, gas, etc. She’s in college,onthe dean’s list and still working part-time.

Looks like the time line for the characters of taken a little jump.

“Just ‘popping’ in!” Number Six is a 5D ( = 4 of space + if time) creature popping into our 4D ( = 3 of space + 1 time) universe. If you don’t understand this lingo or this concept, read E.A.Abbot’s FLATLAND (© 1884) and a good, recent introduction to Einstein’s two theories of relativity [special relativity (which doesn’t include gravity) and general relativity (which includes gravity)]. Footnote. Footnote: There are four known “forces” in nature: • electromagnetic, • gravity, • the strong nuclear force (holds the nuclei of iron and all the other “chemical chart elements” together plus electrons orbiting round), and the weak nuclear force (causes radioactive decay, such as the carbon-14 to carbon-12 transition that drives traditionalist-fundamentalist “creationist daters” nuts) and gravity. The first three (all except gravity) have been mathematically combined in what is called the Standard Model, which includes quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD). But gravity has never been included in this elite little club. Not that it cares. But the lack of “unification” of the four forces is the biggest unsolved problem in physics today. Einstein spent the remainder of his life (after his discovery of relativity and its consequent proof) trying to “unify” the force of gravitation with the other three forces.

Going back and forth between the original characters like BD and his family and whomever is in the news like Trump makes for a nice balanced strip. I dig it a lot.

Gato – I had the same first take on the exchange – it’s all about sex.

And isn’t that the Zap/Crumb cat?

Somebody lighten up. EVERYBODY’s a conservative with/about their OWN daughter…(“And no dates until you’re 36…”)

Well…I don’t know EVERYBODY. I guess I’m conservative, I exaggerate a lot. And I LIKE my unreasonableness. Yeah, conservative.

One teen driver in my house, and a new teenager (as of today, actually). As a dad, boy, this one seems spot on!

I also hasten to add that it’s WAY terrifying!

Poor BD. His little princess is growing up. I have heard tales of real fathers cleaning their hunting rifles when their daughter’s date has arrived.

“There sure are a lot of comments for such a lightweight story line.”

“Lightweight”? Eh. It’s about the characters rather than politics this week, but people have an investment there too. Particularly since this week is dealing with a significant change in one of the characters (although Sam hasn’t been a “core” figure so far, she seems to have banked a lot of good will).

That’s what older boy friends are for!

“… wonder what [the comix my mom threw out would] be worth today …”.

Three point one four one five nine two gaziggaboodle?

“Sam may end up as hot as Drew.” Hotter. Try Becca. Then shoot for Sioux City Sue! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l882705M2jk

“… Sniff! She’s all grown up!!!!!” Whatcha sniffin’, Fred? Pheromones?

A couple of others have already acknowledged this: Trudeau has been letting characters age in real time since his 1983-1984 hiatus. Apparently, that’s not strictly so: Sam was officially born in the April 23, 1992 strip: http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1992/04/23; she would now be 19, pushing 20.I guess they’re his characters and Trudeau can do what he wants with them, but Jeff and Alex grew up on schedule; how come Sam has to lose seven years?