Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 11, 2023

Quick!!! recruit Mike Pence!!

40 years ago, I worked construction, and I called the guy on the radio “The Weather Guesser”. Where I was, there were four seasons: Rain (and a bit of snow), Dry (and a bit of rain) and Spring and Fall. During those last two, I always bet the opposite of what the Weather Guesser said, and it worked about 75% of the time.

But 40 years have passed. NOW, the data collection and weather software are FAR ahead of where they were then. NOW, I complain when they get the transitions wrong my more than 18 hours or so. And I don’t get to complain all that often.

I thought that Coach Hacker suffered from Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)?

Comic strip characters do dry runs?

I never knew that!

A clever breaking of the Fourth Wall.

As a youth camp leader, I would always predict rain. If I’m wrong, fine, then it didn’t rain. If I’m right, and the kiddies were not prepared, then it was on them.

What happened to Coach Hacker?

Up until the 1970s, weather forecasting was basically an educated guess. And then weather satellites and sophisticated computers came into use and there was a stunning increase in accuracy. I always assumed it was the weather satellites and not the computers that were primarily responsible.

WX forecasts have gotten much better in the last few years. Here in SoCal, spot on.

Breaking the 4th wall i see.

If the cartoonist decided of his own accord to drop a character, I don’t see that he has any right to complain about the character’s absence.

Anyhow, Mallett still makes Mrs. Olsen the butt of this sort of joke often enough.

Another wall broken. I think it was the back wall this time, between the stage and a rehearsal room. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Wonder why Mallett has begin including demeaning comments about other characters. And why he long ago stopped including large panels of groups of children playing and running and doing all the things that free spirits do during recess?

Those were part of the reason I signed on to the strip and I miss those spontaneous moments. They kinda made up for the fading memories from when my students acted the same way.

Not to say the strip isn’t still interesting. I look forward to it each day. I admire the style and technique, especially on Sunday, and I mostly admire the characters.

I used to live in Michigan, and the weather forecast usually WAS wrong!!

in most locations the 7 day forecast is bull. I have found that 3 to 5 days are pretty good.

It’s obvious you guys don’t live in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Western Washington…

We’ve lost a number of local weather forecasters to other parts of the country because … the weather didn’t agree with them…

https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE

What happened to Coach?

I love the clipboards for them to read the script from.