Recent Comments

1. over 11 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   Well said! But I wonder if it’s really true… I always like to tell myself that the stuff I went through as a kid made me a stronger and ultimately nicer person. Maybe it did. But maybe it would have been nice to not have a gang of young thugs try to push my face into the playground cement every day either. I’d like to think I would have been nice without that experience – and I rather doubt that I would have been particularly tempted to do that to someone else, given the same opportunity to do so. It’s just not me – not even when I was a kid. I doubt you would have been a bully if you hadn’t been bullied either.

2. over 11 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   Man – this hits home! So very much like something I would do, including the bit where it was glued back together…

   In an oddball way, keeping mementos of our past helps ground us – helps to remind us where we have been, who we once were and how far we’ve gone since then. It reminds us that we are still that person – but not that same person at the same time, because we’ve grown so much since the time when this artifact was really relevant in our lives.

   It’s why things like school year books are kept – even those where the signatures, like this cast, only remind us of socially awkward days of our youth when making friends was difficult.

   On the other hand – there’s a balance between keeping a few mementos – and hoarding stuff. I’ve shed many things that I thought I never would let go of that fall into that category. On the other hand, I’ll always keep my very first scientific calculator – the one I engraved with my initials and used it in my first Chemistry class. The liquid crystal display is intact still, even if the solar panel cracked a long time ago. It doesn’t “work” as a calculator anymore – but it “works” on another level – a reminder of how much I always enjoyed science, all the memories of the times I’ve used it and the joys of learning… even as a reminder of what scientific calculators were like way back when.

3. about 12 years ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Gosh! The number of people critical of Andy for not liking this lame vacation… (1) it’s just a cartoon – these people aren’t real folks! (2) to those who claim she knew what he was like before she married him – people often change and change A LOT during the course of a marriage. There’s a reason for the saying, “The honeymoon is over”. If the person you’re dating has ADHD or any other sort of issues of the like – the change can be dramatic – from someone sweeping you off your feet in a whirlwind of romanticism to completely ignoring you. (3) Having kids often changes a marriage dramatically. (4) People change over time – sometimes into completely different people. The difference between a marriage that is successful and one that isn’t – is whether the people involved change in such a way that they can grow together, rather than growing apart. I can relate to the person who was saying that she hadn’t been on a real vacation in forever and a day though… for us, the last “real” vacation was in 2006.

4. over 12 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   Is Bob from England by any chance? It seems that when many Brits are done with their conventional acting career – they wind up doing Shakespeare…oftentimes claiming that’s what they wanted to do all along.

5. over 12 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   So where can I buy a box of raisins – that contains just the daily news with no tasteless stuff?

   Better yet, I wish I could just get weekly updates that told me what the heck is going on without all the repetition and fluff that normally comprises about 80% of any standard news program in the US.

   Journalism has really gone downhill ever since it was expected to turn a profit – ever since it stopped being a useful resource for an informed citizenry and started becoming entertainment. I’d rather just have the information – just give me the raisins!

6. over 12 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   I need a toothpaste like that!

7. almost 13 years ago on Rose is Rose

   I like the mouse dangling over the side of the bed…

8. almost 13 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   Well personally, I don’t have a problem with anyone calling me a geek or a geeky ____, I take it as a compliment really – and it is! Becoming enough of an expert in one’s field such that anyone feels compelled to call you a geek, is an honor, not an insult. Besides… haven’t you heard? Geek is cool and trendy now (shudder – "Hey kids! I was a geek LONG before Napoleon Dynamite and before the term “chic geek” – so get off my robomower… er… arduino… er… lawn!")

   http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=401

9. almost 13 years ago on Bob the Squirrel

   I’d very much miss this comic strip – it’s my favorite! I can understand getting tired of doing the same stuff, but since the comic strip evolves as you do – then it’s not the same stuff, by definition, eh? It’s an art form and one you’ve become very good at – and it’s very funny too!

   Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes were two other favorites of mine that I now can only enjoy in “re-runs”. Bob the Squirrel is very different from those other strips – but it’s still imaginative, creative, has excellent art work and I’ve grown rather fond of Bob – as the alter-ego that probably most of us have!

10. over 14 years ago on Lio

    I think I felt that way about Anderson, Indiana… or pretty much most other so-called “cities” in the Midwestern corn-growing states, while growing up.