You're Messing with the Comics?!!

We’re at war on two fronts, the economy in shambles and the T-U is messing with the comics. Can it get worse? While not the best comic page in the land, it is ours and it’s serviceable. I’ve been enjoying comics for many years and from several different papers. I consider myself an aficionado of the subject. I have a tiny bit of empathy for the T-U’s situation and the economic decisions they must make. But you would be better served to mess with the Business section than the comics. Are the stock market numbers really useful in this internet age?

Regardless, if you are going to slice and dice the comics page, I think you need to allow a bit of campaigning before you count the ballots. Here are my assessments of the comic strips. I rate them on a scale from Hot (don’t you dare touch them) to Icy (why do you waste the newsprint).

Hot

Dagwood – this is the longest running strip on the page, and they somehow keep it current.

Grand Avenue – smartly humorous; deserves credit for taking on a family situation you seldom see in the comics.

Non-Sequitur – conservatives and liberals alike hate this strip but it amuses the less rigid among us, and it’s funny.

The Middletons – this is probably the least pretentious but socially conscience strip around.

Zits – funny even if you don’t have a teenager, hilarious if you do.

Born Loser – might wear out its welcome on a daily basis but a once-a-week dose is just right.

Pearls Before Swine – almost put this in the “warm” list because it’s so twisted, but kept it here for that very reason; twisted is good, and funny.

Hi and Lois – the Walker family’s best strip; pertinent family humor.

Baby Blues – funny along the same line as Zits, just the kids are younger.

Pickles – has to be the funniest strip going.

Lockhorns – a single person would probably rate this one as Not so Hot.

Sally Forth – pertinent and funny and occasionally twisted.

Not so Hot

Andy Capp – I find it funny but sometimes wonder if it doesn’t reward bad behavior.

Dilbert – this once insightful and hilarious strip is now somewhat long in the tooth.

Hagar the Horrible – has a problem with consistency, but it does provide occasional chuckles.

Brevity – hit or miss, but when it hits it’s hilarious.

Garfield – needs updating, but still good for an occasional laugh.

Dennis the Menace – it has gotten old and repetitive, but I give it a Not so Hot in hopes you will run the classic “Is this all?” panel each Christmas.

Beetle Bailey – didn’t survive the transition to an all-volunteer Army very well.

Snuffy Smith – some may think it unfairly derides hill people.

Cold

For Better or Worse – reruns of something that lost its humor long ago.

Cathy – at one time struck a chord with single, professional women but has become repetitive, derivative and not very funny.

Shylock Fox for Kids – I can never find all six differences in the panels or I would have given this one a better rating.

The Family Circus – conservative, middle class families with children may find this faintly entertaining but why waste your time when there are too many other really funny family strips out there.

Marmaduke – may be funny to some dog lovers, but I’m one that finds it repetitive and just barely amusing.

Get Fuzzy – some may find run-on word-plays and nonsense amusing, but I don’t.

Doonesbury – once the wry witted darling of liberals, Trudeau hasn’t produced a pertinent panel since the eighties.

ICY

Prince Valiant – fighting Pictic-speaking Neanderthals in the Sargasso Sea? When you shatter the limits of the imagination, there’s no story; why is this strip still around?

Watch Your Head – I have yet to figure this one out.

Comics not on the comics page – while it’s okay by me if you don’t, if you keep Doonesbury and Dilbert, put them on the comics page.

Pickles

This is so funny because all of us from the 60''s generation can see ourselves and laugh aloud and that is needed in this time in history

Robert Hazlehurst

Are You Weary?

It sounds so cliche to the inexperienced, but when you feel especially emotionally tired or worn, you can find great refreshment by seeking God’s Light in the privacy of your own heart. You need not tell anyone about your troubles; You simply find a quiet spot to seek his attention, and you will feel it, see it, know it. Search for His comfort and it comes. The love, the gentleness, the understanding without condemnation will fill your soul.

Even more than that, sincere searching of God’s understanding of your life will keep you right, sincere, a better person. You won’t have to worry about daily decisions, because you will surprisingly be guided by a still small voice about what you should do, and though many will not understand why you perform certain actions, you will be self-confident as to what you are doing. Quickened by the Spirit of God, your decisions will be correct, because they come from above. Awakened by the Spirit, you will be guided by Heavenly Counsel.

“Watch and Pray” is much more than a bumper sticker; It is instruction from God. The Heavenly Light brought to your heart by prayer will shine the darkness out of your life and refresh your broken spirit.

YOU are not your money!

Everyone seems to be having a difficult time financially right now. We are all aqraid about the stock market, gas prices, supermarket food prices, and you name it! What are we going to do? How do we keep from being depressed?

Well, the first thing you do is remember that although it seems so important, you are not your money. Read this carefully: You are not your job, or the car you drive, or the house you live in, no matter how big or small, or how far behind in payments. You are not your husband and/or wife and/or children. You are not the clothes you wear, or the sickness you may be fighting, or the injury that is keeping you bedridden.

SO WHAT ARE YOU? You are a spirit, a person, an eternal soul that can actually affect the world around you for the better. You have a purpose. There is a reason for you being alive. Stop wasting time thinking hows bad things are and find your purpose.

How you treat yourself and others will make a big difference on how the world is affected for the better or the worse.

Be kind to strangers. Love your neighbor. Give to the poor. Say kind things to everyone. Forgive. It will make a difference.