Kid, I don’t want to tell you how to run your love life, but Mamie is the real dud here. Drop that dime somewhere else.
Social studies
Hunger, homelessness, senior scams, animal abuse, police brutality – this cartoon tackles a lot in its five minute running time, but ultimately wraps things up with the Christian maxim “If I have two picnic baskets full of sausages and fried chicken and my neighbor has none, I am a thief.” I’m sure this animated short will be banned in Florida shortly.
Quinceañera
While it’s not as widely celebrated as Pi Day, and it’s not as momentous as national treasure Al Jaffee turning 102, today is a day that is kind of important to me – Fancy Notions is 15 years old today. If I could, I would buy this blog a beautiful poofy dress and throw a party with lots of boys and desserts and make the blog give a doll to someone.
What I’ll do instead is celebrate the day by resharing some of the more popular posts over the years. Many of the links are dead, some of the jokes don’t make any sense, but here we are.
2008: Etiquette & superstition: sailing
2009: Les Arachides #4: Snoopy’s crisis
2010: For all your Bauhaus flooring needs
2011: Important update
2012: Korean gingerbread
2013: Long after the getting has ceased to be good
2014: Christmas on Mars
2015: Etiquette & superstition: pots to piss in
2016: Ain’t it time we said goodbye?
2017: Please be carful
2018: Fly high and touch the sky
2019: Slayer cake
2020: Prêt-à-rester
2021: The people will survive in their environment
2022: Dios mío
Happy birthday, Fancy. I know it might seem like I’ve been neglecting you of late, but I do love you very much.
Mars and Engels
This fellow on YouTube has found and started restoring a bunch of anti-Soviet propaganda cartoons from Mexico in the ’50s, and boy, it’s kind of sad that they’re so entertaining because their arguments are quite curious and ham-handed. A basic theme in this one is the conformity that socialism requires, as if capitalist society in the ’50s was a non-conformist’s paradise just because we could buy pink cars with giant fins. There’s some sort of goofy pretense here that authoritarianism can’t run to both ends of the economic system spectrum.
As Neil Postman put it,
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.
from Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
If you don’t believe me, think about how many times you saw reference in the media recently to the “OMG they’re rewriting Charlie & The Chocolate Factory to make it WOKE” story (which in itself was probably not even an earnest but overreaching attempt at inclusivity by the publishers, but more of a three-pronged marketing scheme to launch the equivalent of New Coke and Classic Coke and get free publicity for it).
Now think about how many times you saw reference in the media recently to the fact that books are being removed from school bookshelves and libraries pending review by a partisan, racist, religious extremist group that can’t even use grammar correctly in their online calls to action. One story is sexy. The other is boring. They both suck, and it would serve us well to pay attention to dig beneath the surface on both of them instead of finding the latest outrage trend on TikTok.
Apologies; I may have gotten a little distracted and wound up here myself. You came here to see a cartoon.
Stairmaster
I’m posting a little late today because I had an appointment with my tax guy this morning. I’d probably get a bigger refund if my tax guy were a hardcore capitalist rather than a socialist, but I kind of love that he’s a socialist, and I like hanging out with him and I trust him and I do believe in the concept of paying taxes.
The whole process is still a bit depressing though. I mean, is some of my money going to Elon Musk? Maybe not, but some of it is without a doubt going to some other rich guy who’s managed to game the system rather than someone who actually needs it, and if I point that out the rich guy’s fans will loudly defend him and say it’s fine and he’s just smarter than me. I guess I don’t want to be that kind of smart. I wish other people didn’t admire this sort of playing around and shuffling things in order to make money instead of actually doing or providing something that is a general benefit to society.
But whatever. My taxes are done for now and that’s good, and I don’t have to start getting mad about the whole thing for another nine months or so.
Dharmagumby
I saw a horror movie last night and it only showed a human face once. It would have been better if it hadn’t shown a human face at all, in my opinion, but it was still pretty darn good.
I feel the same way about this stop motion short. It’s still pretty darn good. And I am also suddenly hungry for saltine cracker toffee, deviled eggs and spaghetti.
Neighborhood threat
My mom is going to move down here to be with the rest of the family, but since she’s still up north I’ve been trying to scout places for her to check out.
The options haven’t been great, to be honest. They’re either depressing,
too expensive, or depressing and too expensive. I have managed to find two possibilities that I would personally be happy to live at, but I worry about the neighborhoods a bit. Mom’s lived in one of the safest suburbs in the country for more than 60 years. How is she going to adjust to life here?
I was checking out a place in a historic but not too ritzy neighborhood in Pasadena, and it was sort of “oh, this isn’t great but also not terrible,” but then I noticed some neighbors checking me out.
Just nosy or looking for brains? Oh gosh, I’m probably being too judgy. They have that cute Valentine dog and everything. It’s just that I’m getting a bit of an unhealthy vibe here.
What about the place that Benny and I actually loved? The area seems really nice and quiet and
full of warthogs and oh shit what
Full of predators, I guess. Time to move on. Let’s look in an area that I know for a fact is sleepy. Oh, senior apartments right here in this sleepy area.
I’m going to say this is a little too sleepy for Mom. Call me Goldilocks, but I am still holding out hope I can find something just right.
It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it
Did you give someone flowers for Valentine’s Day and not receive the expected outcome? Maybe you should go to the tape and review your moves. It worked for this guy.
See you later (after a while)
These crocodile tears are real. They may elicit some human ones as well.
Fancy Notions 