Frazz by Jef Mallett for May 15, 2022

Sign me up! I have been want to go to Ireland for a long time!

I was thinking “heaven” right up until the last panel. And then on third thought, maybe it IS.

Beer and bicycling is not the ideal pairing, but at least it’s better than the other mode of transportation.

The good thing about using bicycles as transport for drunks is the transport makes you less drunk as you go. The aerobic exercise burns alcohol about twice as fast as just sitting there.

Ah, Ireland. Where each Mayor says how many miles between towns. Yes, the elastic mile. You start out and the roadsign says 5 miles. You go the 5 miles and the roadsign says 5 miles….

Pretty much any country in Europe actually.

Beer is considered food in my home! Water, wheat, and yeast. Sounds like bread to me.

I thought Ireland when he said beer was considered food. Wish I could’ve gone with him.

Most drunken Irish are drunken Americans in green hats.

Ah…reminds me of “Green Shadows, White Whale” by Ray Brabury. IMHO a classic.

Charming…

I’d definitely choose Ireland most every time. And I’m not even Irish.

watched a show on the history of Scotch Whiskey where the explained that the Irish showed the Scots how to distill beer.

Éire go Brách

As an American…. and a bike rider…. it’s hard for me to believe there are places in the world where bikes are regarded as a viable transportation mode not to mention a great way to stay fit. The average American regards a biker as either: a moron, a homeless/destitute person or a drunk who lost his license. In whichever case, we are substandard and do not deserve the same right to use the public roadways as they do by virtue of driving a motor vehicle and they miss no opportunity to impress that mindset upon us. The irony is, most people own at least one bike but for some inexplicable reason, never ride them. Go figure.

Where everybody knows his name.

There is a two way protected bike lane one block from my house (Austin) and I would bet 90% of the bikers are not going anywhere. Should recreational riding be considered transportation, especially if the riders drive to use the lane? Is it right for the city to spend big $ maintaining a recreational bike lane in a prosperous WASP neighborhood while streets in poorer neighborhoods have potholes?

Yep. Sounds like Ireland, all right. Went there 30+ years ago as an ancestral pilgrimage of sorts. Magical. I’ll always think of riding a CIE bus from Dublin to Donegal while a kid in the back played Christy Moore on his boombox…it just FIT. I felt so at “home” (in a way, I was).

While I have been consigned by circumstances to Illinois almost all my life, my family, originally from Ireland are all New Yorkers or Mainers. I’ve had a yen for the Atlantic Ocean all my life that I can’t explain. When I was a kid my jaws practically chattered when I came within sight of it. I’m thinking maybe it has something to do with the crossings that got us all here.

As an Irishman – born and bred, not “claimed” – we do NOT consider beer food, and don’t enjoy the constant stereotype about us all being drinkers and drunkards. (But Jef looooooooves his stereotypes)

Up until the arguing bit i was picturing the Netherlands.

“The baseball stadium in Boston”- ??? We don’t have a baseball “stadium” in Boston. We have a ballpark: Fenway Park. And good night.