Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 30, 2014
Transcript:
Zonker: My god, Mike! You don't think Proposition 13 means they'll close down the tanning clinics, do you? Mike: Well, I think it's a possibility, Z. I would imagine that community tanning needs would be pretty low priority. Zonker: Low priority? Mike, I don't think you quite understand! In California, if you take away a man's tan, he's nothing! You strip him of all his dignity! You might as well take away his Mercedes! Mike: Times are tough, Zonk... Zonker: Not that tough! We're talking 350 cloudless days a year, Mike!
BE THIS GUY about 10 years ago
In New York, a city run tanning clinic is the Great Lawn on a warm sunny day.
karanne about 10 years ago
I’ve always wondered why Zonker doesn’t go ‘au natural’ …
shelly about 10 years ago
He still looks pink to me…
trollope'sreader about 10 years ago
In college in the fifties, a tan by the end of April was required attire on campus. Last month I had my eleventh skin cancer removed.
kaffekup about 10 years ago
So, Zonk has to have community-funded tanning clinics for 15 days a year? Since the 350 cloudless days should all be free.
BE THIS GUY about 10 years ago
I was born with a tan and avoid the sun — doing my running at night. “Only mad dogs and Englishmen…”
StCleve72 about 10 years ago
Later in the strip Zonker does a series of anti-tanning Public Service announcements to atone for his, well, his tone, or is that to atan for his tan?
felinefan55 Premium Member about 10 years ago
When I was a teen some kids were teasing me about being so pale. I lifted up my shirt and placed my arm against my stomach. They couldn’t believe just how dark my arms were compared to areas that never saw the sun. My sister is a brunette who tans easily. I have never been able to do it. (We have different dads, so heredity may be partially to blame).
felinefan55 Premium Member about 10 years ago
I read all of the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In one of the books the mother commented that Laura needed to keep her bonnet on otherwise her skin would turn dark. Back then apparently the fairer your skin the better the breeding.
fontenelle about 10 years ago
Meanwhile, Californians are still living with the malignant after affects of 1978’s Prop 13: bad public schools and other public institutions & infrastructure that are shadows of what they were 40 years ago. Worse yet, my property taxes are high. (The original intent of Prop 13 was to protect people as old as I am now.)
amaryllis2 Premium Member about 10 years ago
@Fontanelle: what Prop 13 did gradually over time was to shift nearly all the property tax burden off businesses and onto residences. It badly needs to be overhauled. Meantime, I once got a sunburn so bad (I was never going to tan, no matter how in it was to) that if you touched my skin, it bled. Which is why I ended up with an inch and a half circle carved out of the center top of my scalp and the permanent hair loss to go with it—and I’m a woman with long hair. But at least the cancer’s gone.
David Huie Green LoveJoyAndPeace about 10 years ago
Sure they do.They know.
trixie neuhaus Premium Member about 10 years ago
@fontanelle, I was a kid in CO when Prop 13 happened and so this strip meant nothing to me, but now that I’ve been in CA for twenty-mumble years and have two school-age kids, this strip is very painful, and not just because of sunburn memories!
Liverlips McCracken Premium Member about 10 years ago
In what universe?
BE THIS GUY about 10 years ago
@Liverlips McCrackenThere is a 10% excise tax for indoor tanning. that was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Hunter7 about 10 years ago
For the last couple of decades, my goal has always been to be the same colour in late September as I was in early May. Never been successful. Always ended up with some ‘colour’, but never could call it a real tan.