"That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown."

 

"Lights, Please."

You've Got A Half Hour. Watch It.

"That's What Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

"That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown."

Lights, Please?

National Cartoonists Day

It's to surprise to my readers that I like my comic strips. And while it's true that my tastes have evolved over the years, two things have remained constant: I've always liked Peanuts, and I've always disliked Alley Oop. Not that I didn't try awfully hard as a kid to like Alley Oop. It just never caught my fancy.

It's the same with Pearls Before Swine. Really trying to like it. I come close several times, but most of the time, no, it's just Alley Oop all over again. And I can't really put my finger to why I don't much care for either of those two strips, either, though Swine's awful puns and plays on words are a big turnoff for me. Never much liked puns as a kid. Except for those that appeared in Wiley's Dictionary. Something about that disembodied, authoritative voice just made the awfulness come to life for me.

Absurdity, like this, I do like:

[He tries in vain to find a comic to fit the absurdity bill here. No luck. Almost all of my comic books are in storage because there's not enough room on the shelves for them. Next house will have lots of bookshelves. And a garage.]

There are better ones than this. Just don't have the time to find one tonight.

Two things started my love affair with comic strips: First, the Forbidden Books -- BC and Wizard of Id collections -- my brother Jeff had hidden on his bookshelf, but not well enough that his younger brothers couldn't find them. Second, "Barnaby," which my sixth grade teacher Mr. Loertscher read to us using what I recognize now as the voice of W.C. Fields as Mr. O'Malley. (It doesn't matter what any of my other elementary school teachers did or any of the stuff they tried to make us learn. My most lasting memories of school will always be of "Barnaby.") My dream one of these days is to find some "Barnaby" comic books in a thrift store. I love to dream that dream. I know they've been reprinted. But to find an original . . .

So who are my favorites today?

Well, Cul de Sac, for one. And Dilbert, for another. And the Dogs of C Kennel I rather enjoy. Overboard. Baby Blues. Yes, I'm a traditional newspaper comic strip fan. None of this magna or DC Comics or anything like that. No. They all appeal to the desire I have to feed the absurdist within.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

Capturing the Essence of Childhood

Richard Thompson speaks the truth.

And his kids -- the kids in his Cul de Sac comic strip -- speak the truth as well. (There's a permanent link to his comic strip website to the left. Please visit. His comic strip is wonderful. Demand that your local paper run it. Ours does.

They are children who speak and act and perform and worry and fret and prattle like children. Behold today's installment:

I have to admit that I, too, when I got to visit a furniture store -- we rarely did that as kids; we were always at home when Dad came back with the truck loaded with new furniture -- I also thought it would be pretty neat if the whole outdoors was like that, with furniture stretching as far as the eye can see. I was also convinced that when angels had to go to the bathroom, they did so over the forests where we went to get firewood because if they did it over the city, that would be gross.

I'm a big fan of comic book kids, and those who can be true to the life of kids in general are my favorites. Cul de Sac, this week I realized, has tipped Peanuts out of that lofty position. It's because in Cul de Sac, the angst and worry and tension and pathos and fear and joy and happiness and excitement and disappointment is all borne from children, not from an adult pushing adult worries onto his kiddie creations, like Charles Schulz did, or pushing manufactured childhood fantasy through the eye of an adult onto a pseudokid, as in Calvin and Hobbes.

I still like Charlie Brown and the gang, mind you. When Charlie Brown's lying on that hillside looking at the clouds with Linus and Lucy and is getting more and more freaked out as Linus describes the elaborate fantasies he sees in the clouds when all he sees is a ducky, I'm there with Chuck, feeling inadequate. I'm also a pretty big fan of Charlie's unrequitted love with the Little Red-Haired Girl, as the few friends I had in elementary school at his age were the girls that liked me for some reason, I don't know why.

Then there's this: I know this angst is pretty real for a kid. I experienced it myself.

Truthiness is Taking Over

There are some things the Internet is worthless for -- and finding the truth is one of them.

Truthiness -- the word and concept popularized by Stephen Colbert -- is easy to find, of course. Truthiness defined:

Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word…

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?…

Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

This is why things like ClimateGate are critical for the news media to report on, and to report on honestly. Because for people like me, who want to know the truth -- is the Arctic icecap melting, is Antarctica melting, is this happening, or is that happening -- have nowhere to go now. To find climate change scientists saying they've used a "trick" to "hide the decline" leaves me to wonder where the truth can be found.
 
Unfortunately, what we're getting is more truthiness.
 
Newsbusters.org offers me truthiness from the side that believes climate change is a hoax. Some of what they say rings true, but the truthiness rings louders. Places like RealClimate.org, well, their truth is sounding a lot more like truthiness these days. I want to know what's going on in the world and what I can do to support the long-term livability of our planet, but when it comes to a neophyte like me trying to find truth in the era of truthiness. it comes down to trust. Whom can i trust? I don't trust the deniers. And I'm finding it hard to trust the folks who appear to be cooking the books, using data that suits their purposes, or whatever is going on out there.
 
See, I'm not a climatologist. At best, I'm a guy who understands a bit of science -- I'm gaining more insight into physics given my place of employment -- but to say I understand enough to filter truth from fiction or truth from truthiness on climate change, I do not. I thought the media was supposed to help. But if all they can do on ClimateGate is tell me it's a no nevermind when by own bullshit meter is going off, I can't trust an appeal to the media to help me out on this. Because I've been a member of the media and know that when it comes to science reporting, most of what's out there in the professional media is parroted from the people offering the information in the first place. They can strive for truth and balance but at best can provide only the truth and balance taht other experts offer them. There are few in the professional media -- or int he blogosphere or on the wider Internet -- who have the necessary education to filter the signal from the noise. So an appeal to the mainstream media is laughable at best.
 
Then you go to the experts, and your Weird Shit-o-Meter goes off, becausehow much spin are they giving you? How do you sort the truth from the fiction among those to whom climate science is either a religion with dogma not to be questioned or junk science not to be regarded at all? Looking at the source used to help -- climate change science coming from someone connected to the coal industry, for example, you have to wonder about it. It's a shame ClimateGate is now making me wonder about the science that's coming from the other side of the coin.
 
I don't want truthiness. I want the truth. Can anyone tell me where to find it? I know how Charlie Brown felt when he demanded, "Is there anyone who can tell me what Christmas is all about?" I need a Linus. I need someone to quote me the Bible, chapter and verse.
 

 
Come on, folks. Here's your chance. Save me from climate change truthiness. Point me towards the truth.