One of my oldest, bestest of friends lives out in Sacramento (she mourns each year her inability to escape living in the state capital, but I suspect that she's just gotten too used to living there). I see her once a year when I go for work/vacation trips, and we usually spend a couple of days hanging out in the Bay Area, or going for drives around the coast. When we were both studying in Los Angeles in the early 90's, we'd take long road trips together; I remember one trip distinctly - she was employed at a truck manufacturer based out in the industrial part of the city, and we were heading north to Seattle to visit friends. We kept counting all the large haul trucks made by the company she worked for and counted over 500 of them before we got to our destination. Along the way, we visited many a theme town (garlic capital of the world, artichoke capital, prune capital, etc) for quirky Americana.
Each year, she sends me stuff she knows will tickle my fancy, new books, dvds, food from a new source that she wants to take me to when I come for a visit. But always in the treasure trove is my annual Far Side desk calendar, the one where I have to tear a leaf off each day. I've had the FS calendars since college, and have probably memorized them by now. After Gary Larson stopped drawing and writing his daily cartoons in the 90's, all of his published works are available in the collected books, calendars, and other printed items. I've had a few of the books, but enjoy the calendar more.
Today's cartoon is one I haven't seen before, a parachutist finds himself in a sticky situation as he pulls his emergency cord. "Murray didn't feel the first pangs of real panic until he pulled the emergency cord."
I always enjoyed the ones with the anthropological twist to them (the chickens/turkeys mounting an insurrection against the farmer in retribution for all those Thanksgiving dinners) or the morbid ones (plane flying through a cloud bank sees a mountain goat straight ahead). It appeals to my darker sensibilities, and geeky mindset. The FS was always a favorite for academics to post on their walls. I have always dreamt of wallpapering a bathroom with FS cartoons.
Pike Market Peonies
4 comments:
Lol, I can see the scenario unfolding! Yes, that would make me tell them off with a "why don't you cut out your own set of cartoons?" remark.
I think of the newer cartoons, Non sequitur comes close to Far side, but not all the time.
Huge Far Side geek here too! In fact, a Far Side calendar had become my annual Christmas gift to Rob (briliantdonkey, also a huge FS fan) every year. I remember ones being entirely amused by one of the clippings: a man at a piano with another human being (dont remember if it was a man/woman) beside the piano underneath a banana tree that had a bunch of bananas hanging from it singing " Peelings, nothing more than peelings". And underneath the caption read something like: Filipino folk song. :)
Oh God!
I'm so deprived! My mom didnt allow me to read anything with thought balloons, hahahahaha.
Please, please send me some Far Side Cartoons!
Sure thing dearie. Will bring you some on Sunday.
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