Showing posts with label Dilbert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dilbert. Show all posts

Friday, February 22, 2013

Friday's Odds and Ends

Kudos to the 89-year-old woman who has been broadcasting for blind listeners for seven years in North Texas. Adell Campbell has a general-interest program, The Eyes of North Texas, that has about 2,000  subscribers. The show,  which is broadcast twice a week, 9 a.m. on Monday and 11 a.m. on Saturday, is on North Texas Radio for the Blind, which is part of a local nonprofit Reading & Radio Resource.

The general programming at the station focuses on reading newspapers and magazines to the subscribers, but Adell likes to add some entertainment. She starts each show by reading a cartoon, usually one that pokes fun at politics. (I knew there was a reason I liked this lady.) Then she will often have a guest. 

She enjoys doing the shows and has no plans to stop any time soon, although she admits that her age is beginning to have an impact. In an interview with  Eden Stiffman in The Dallas Morning News she said, "Getting old is a very humbling process. And I'm not inclined to be humble." 

One of my favorite cartoon characters is Crankshaft from the strip written by Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers. He's a curmudgeon, like my husband and I, and we both can relate to his world view. In a recent strip he is looking out the window at the bird feeder in his front yard. "The bird feeder is full of squirrels again," he says. "Maybe I'm going about this all wrong. If I put up a squirrel feeder, I wonder if only birds will come?"


In another strip, Crankshaft is shoveling snow and his neighbor looks over the fence. "Hey there Crankshaft," he says. "Snowy enough for you?"

The last panel shows the neighbor ducking a snow shovel that is flying through the air.

Finally, this from Dilbert. He is walking along the sidewald with Dogbert and says, "Studies show it takes ten thousand hours of practice to be great at anything."

To which Dogbert replies, "I would think a willingness to practice the same thing fro ten thousand hours is a mental disorder."

Dilbert says, "That makes me feel better about my mediocrity."

"You're welcome."

Literary Lessons:  This one is from Thornton Wilder, "You see, imaginative story telling consists of telling a number of lies in order to convey a truth; it is a rearrangement of falsehoods which, if it is done honestly, results in verity."

Friday, January 11, 2013

Some Friday Fun

I'm still working on the history book and my deadline keeps getting closer and closer. Things keep interfering with my plan, like getting the flu a couple of weeks ago. Then my writing partner got sick last week and was still feeling poorly early this week. More delays. UGH! But you know what? The world will not end if the book is a few days late. Of course, my editor might not feel that way, so I hope she does not read this.

Anyway, I thought I would share some levity from the funny papers. Enjoy....

Last week's Blondie strip was amusing. Blondie and Dagwood are in bed and he has his iPad open. He says, "I'm posting that it's time for me to turn in."

Blondie says, "I think you're getting addicted to posting too many trivial things on your Facebook page."

In the next frame Dagwood says, "Honey, please. I can quit posting any time I want to."

To which she responds, "I don't know, it seems like you're getting carried away."

Dagwood's last Facebook post, "Get this - Blondie thinks I post way too much trivial stuff on my Facebook page."

Picture Courtesy of Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection

A good one from Dilbert. Dogbert is sharing news with Dilbert. "I got a job as a news manufacturer for an online media company. I quote people out of contect, add misleading headlines, and tie it all up with a snarky bow."

Dilbert says, "I thought the news occurred naturally."

Dogbert comes up with a snarky headline, "'Engineer thinks news is magic.'"

Picture Courtesy of the Competent Parent Blog
 Lessons From Literature:
Here's another one from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. "A hero is someone who does something for other people. He does something that other men don't and can't do. He is different from other men. He is above other men."

I'm pretty sure Mr. Gaines meant the designation for someone other that a sports figure.What do you think?