Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 15, 2010

Brown one! ::punch::

They probably wanted to replace all the furniture anyway.

Here’s the link:

Forty Years of Doonesbury

Bedbugs are no joke….a couple years back what I thought were fleas attacked me in a hotel….and when I complained, they wanted to give me a voucher to use the next time I stayed there. As if….. This was a major chain, and I ended up taking to the corporate office. Still didn’t make up for my blood on the sheets.

I guess bedbugs and cockroaches will fight it out for world supremacy after the collapse of human civilization.

Yeah, I’ll take a few weeks of bedbug jokes (sorry for your experience, Vadio) over more war and politics. We can all use the rest (assuming you can rest thinking about bedbugs).

I’m so glad I come here. I had no clue what this one was about.

Bedbugs? You’re sure?

nite nite, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite…..

Sigh. The school marm in me has to say, shouldn’t that be “sometimes its REALLY close to home?”

We wouldn’t have bedbugs if it weren’t for those damned liberals. The conservatives would have bombed them back to the stone age.

Come on, where are all of the political rants?

On a Monday morning, isn’t it just really good to have a laugh and not start arguing about politics? I hope for a whole week of lighter stuff.

another reason to love RV’s as a vacation option. sigh. I used to HATE RV’s.

Looks like this news is TOO close to home.

Schoolmarm Steve: The Amer. Herit. Dict. 4th Ed. lists “real” as an adverb in informal usage, as in “I’m real sorry about that”. Ain’t proper, but this is the comics, so waddaya expect?

(Off topic and only for you logophiles and schooolmarms: The AHD4 is a great dictionary, which reports actual usage plus Usage Notes based on a large panel of language professionals, balancing the IS and SHOULD of English. But the greatest feature is the two Appendixes cross-listing Indo-European and Semetic roots with the English words deriving from them. Why, just this morning I learned that GRIME, CREAM, and CHRIST all derive from an IE root meaning “to rub”. If you are the type that loves to learn things like that, the AHD4 is wonderful fun. Plus it comes on CD for use on your PC.)

According to NBC News, the reason for the bed bug increase is suspected to be “international travel, immigration and changes in pest control practices”. International travel is nothing new, but increases in inner-city immigration (legal and otherwise) as well as the banning of some pesticides may add up to a bed bug bonanza.

Who would be most likely to whine about tighter immigration enforcement and increasing the toxicity of pest control chemicals?

I read the news today, oh boy. The English Army ….

You can get an app for the iPhone that shows reported bedbug ‘sightings’ on a map. Helps avoid the wrong hotels. It’s called BedBugAlert.

These comments deprecating politics in Doonesbury are missing the strip’s satiric point of view. Most comic cartoonists try to make you laugh at obvious absurdity. GT’s absurdities are never so obvious that you can dismiss them with a laugh. That’s why GT’s satire is political: he always (except when he’s tiresomely partisan) induces the reader to relate to the society or polity being satirized.

Why should we care about Mike’s and Kim’s bedbugs? Because their experience is “too close to home.” In feeling this and communicating our response, we form a community—a momentarily self-conscious polity.

Of course, a comic strip polity doesn’t require political action by its readers. GT only helps us feel political, just the way he can make us feel patriotic, or comfortably sympathize with victims of injustice and violence. He’s a master of satiric smugness—of persuading us to accept things as they are. He does this by playing on our deeply conservative need to think well of ourselves even when we’re fawning or clowning.

jimpow said, about 3 hours ago

We wouldn’t have bedbugs if it weren’t for those damned liberals. The conservatives would have bombed them back to the stone age.

Come on, where are all of the political rants?

Well, as someone else hinted at, I’ve heard DDT was very effective against bed-bugs, and it was administered in aerosal “bombs,” so you kind of have a point.

If at first you don’t succeed, RTFM! (Read the manual!)

If at first you don’t succeed, RTFM! (Read the manual!)

If at first you accidentally double-click on “POST COMMENTS,” please delete the extras.

Inner-city immigration (legal and otherwise)? What part of the DDR are you from Nemesys (comrade)?

“Show me your papers Bro.”

FriscoLou said, about 1 hour ago

Inner-city immigration (legal and otherwise)? What part of the DDR are you from Nemesys (comrade)?

“Show me your papers Bro.”

So, we shouldn’t crack down on illegal immigration?

I heard and read that part of the reason for the spread of bedbugs also has something to do with using cold water vice hot and less detergent during laundering of bedding in order to be more “green”.

Inner-city immigration somehow jars. I could settle for just inner-city migration. Otherwise we need to know about the details of the matching emigration. In a large nation with controls there might need to be a department of intra-migration. Naturally it follows that some of the migrants are bed bugs.Should they have to have papers? Perhaps they need to have one overarching blanket cover authority being a department of integration.

@mroberts88

Nemesys specified “inner-city immigration”. Where outside of the iron curtain is that illegal?

I can see inter-country immigration, but saying inner-city immigration is other than legal, is Stalinesque.

Frisco, legal and otherwise was also said. On another note, didnt the Iron Curtain fall back in the late 80s early 90s?

By coincidence, today’s Baby Blues also hints at bed bugs.

Just replacing the furniture may not be enough. They hide in the walls.

Rad, is there any other way, or should they just burn the house down?

Lou, I said “Inner city immigration”, not “intra-city immigration”.

Ya big silly :-)

Nemesys, so, what, its illegal to move from the ghetto to the suburbs, without the proper ID?

I suppose not, mr roberts. It wasn’t illegal for me.

Nemesys, I was joking. It came from the use “legal and otherwise”, making it sound like there was illegal inter city immigration going on.

Nemesys I never made a reference to “intra-city” and now you’ve got roberts thinking you said “inter city”

Go back and look at what Nemesys wrote between Pschearer and Potrzebie.

“… but increases in inner-city immigration (legal and otherwise) …”

Nemesys still hasn’t clarified when he thinks “inner-city” immigration is other than legal.

Grad students ain’t what they used to be.

Schlafen Sie gut in Ihrem klapprigen alten Bett, comrade.