Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 09, 2024

Once I graduated from high school, I discovered that the classics were much more fun to read when you weren’t expected to submit a book report on them afterwards.

These are beginning to look suspiciously like a dream sequence with the dotted borders…………..

I’ve tried canned okra. Not bad, but I prefer the deep-fried version.

Superior complex?

Are those dotted lines to stay? Or do they signify something? Because I am not convinced that they work for me.

Caulfield’s concluding statement might have been right at one point in history. But Mrs. Olsen also has a point. There are lots of those out there.

Variety in your diet(s). A little exploring might expand your Palate. Even biting off more than you can chew is personal.

I once had someone tell me she saw me as being in my own little group, but she had no idea how large a group it was and how blessed we all were. Reminds me of when I was young, and the cry was “Do your own thing” — and they were all doing the same things.

Most people like to be told what to read and do and think.

Canned okra is an abomination: breaded and fried is the only acceptable cooking method. steamed? Goes down like an oyster.

And you can find those people at a rally for a man who paints his face orange.

Both candidates are poor choices. Now back to the comics.

In my younger years, I bought a complete set of “Great Books” (remember those?) – they sat in my living room for months in their fancy bookcase, taunting me every day, but I did FINALLY read every last page of every last book, and, you know what? The only thing that I came away with other than that Russian authors are singularly DEPRESSING (AND THIS WAS BEFORE the era of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, mind you) was that “great literature” and “interesting reading” are two entirely DIFFERENT things, so now, when I settle down with a “Cozy Mystery”, my favorite form of “literature”(and no, they’re NOT just for women – that’s blatant “sexism” by the way), I am secure in the knowledge that I’ve done my time in the “Halls of Learning” and the ONLY thing that stuck was the certain knowlede that it basically a waste of time to accept anyone’s opinion about what’s “good”, other than my own…

Clip and Save, it may come in handy!

I’m reminded of Richard Armour’s dedication for Twisted Tales From Shakespeare

“Dedicated to … all those who, having given or taken a required course in Shakespeare, know that it is more blessed to give.”

Unfortunately one of my friends is that type of person. I prefer to think for myself.

Caulfield’s real concern is not whether he’s being told to do it, but whether he can argue with Mrs Olsen about it.

Panel 2: Precisely the way I felt about a Masterpieces of Literature course in college. Passed by skimming, read the books as an “adult”, loved them.

I feel for you, Caulfield. I admit I didn’t read a single book we were assigned at school. I just asked my friends for a synopsis.

Why are the frames drawn with dashed lines now?

The people she’s talking about can be found in far darker places than that, and doing far darker things.

In the first few years of my academic career, they would give us a workbook titled “Think and Do”. You got a new one every year…

Maybe there is hope for tomorrow.

In ninth grade English the class was given the literary equivalent of Dick and Jane (See Dick; see Dick run, see Jane, watching poor Dick run). Reading then at an advanced collegiate level, I sneered and balked, so the teacher brought in the Lanny Budd 4 volume series dealing with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. I loved it, and raced to my English class to devour the four volumes-until I finished the hefty tomes, at which point the teacher laid upon my desk a single piece of paper containing ten questions, all beginning with the evil phrase ‘Explain the motivation of…’Dang, and yes, she was smirking.One of the few teachers for whom I held the greatest respect-even the smirk.