View From the Bushes

I was up until 2 am last night working on releasing a new web application at work. That's one of the downsides of IT -- that occasionally you have to make some big change which is going to impact a lot of people so you have to schedule it where it will have the least impact, like Sunday night between 8 pm and 2 am. And so this morning I was almost late for work, but not because I was up so late. Rather, I stumbled across an article and more importantly a slide show (link in article) about Calvin and Hobbes. Obviously, once I found it I had to finish it.

I consider myself quite lucky to have been around for what I consider the golden age of comic strips: the triumvirate of "Calvin and Hobbes," "Bloom County" and "The Far Side" ruled the funny pages like gods from ancient mythology, and it's rumored that even "Cathy" was occasionally funny (though until someone can actually produce an example I'm inclined to view such stories as apocryphal). Of course part of the reason why they were funny is that the cartoonists had no illusions that they could be funny forever, and as a result all of them eventually retired to a greater or lesser degree, one of the great tragedies of the last century.

You'll have to forgive me, I have a hard time talking about Calvin and Hobbes without crying, or maybe it's sleep deprivation, or maybe it's my empathy for my wife's pain (she twisted her ankle quite badly on Saturday and had to be taken to the emergency room). Yeah that's it, it's my enormous empathy that's making me tear up, or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.

Pining for a stuffed tiger
Ross