Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for October 05, 2024

On page 42.

Ask Gilgamesh …

“Talking Straight (1988 Bantam Books) is a book written by Lee Iacocca, then CEO of Chrysler Motors, with Sonny Kleinfeld. It was written partly in response to Akio Morita’s Made in Japan, a non-fiction book praising Japan’s post-war hard-working culture. Talking Straight praised the innovation and creativity of Americans.” (From Wikipedia)

I remember when this strip came out. I was an undergrad at FSU and was taking a psychology course as a social science requirement. The professor introduced us one evening to a philosophy grad student who gave us this comic strip and asked us to pretend we were Opus and asked us to write in what we would ask in the 4th panel. We took turns reading our answers to the class and then let the grad student collect them. The responses were quite diverse as you can imagine: one person asked if there is life after death, another asked if there is life beyond our planet, one guy wanted to know why the castaways did not kill Gilligan (he might have been a bit baked), a fellow chemistry major asked if there is silicon based life anywhere in the cosmos and one guy asked if Oswald really killed JFK and if not, who? My sister’s roomie was in the class and asked why does evil always seem to win over good (phrased like the way Twain stated it in the Mysterious Stranger)…. As I was having a lot of issues with my then current girlfriend, I simply asked why life is like the second law of thermodynamics with everything in life, including love, skewing toward disorder (I have to admit that I did have a pitcher of beer or 3 with 2 of my classmates before class). It was a fun evening. Nice break from studying biochem, differential equations and inorganic chem. Aced the class BTW.

You’ll notice that: Noah’s Ark was built; humanity destroyed, save for Noah and crew, and…look where we are. Still HERE, Bub!!

Where does Noah’s Ark fit into all of this? Why, right next to Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, of course!

Don’t know the question, but the answer is 42.

It doesn’t Opus, Noah’s Arc isn’t real.

Only in the Bible, I’m afraid.

Ah, yes, as Sheldon puts it “Noah and his amazing zoo boat…”

Obviously Oliver did not succeed in his quest…..else we would not have Sheldon Cooper doing the same research decades later.

I wonder how many of those ended up in the grad student’s thesis

The Ark fits in berween Eden and Moses…..with a lot of begeting in between.

Somewhere between quarks and dark energy.

The Universe shall unfold as it will….

I think it was Mammy Yokum that stated: “Good is better than evil, because it’s nicer.”