Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 05, 2011

LMAO, love you, Zonker!

So wrong …

Evidently Zonker’s conservative instincts (at least in his role as a peer) made him protest William and Kate’s public show of affection.Sam on the other hand still thinks making love is an innocent, public act. (She means “Sir John”; Americans tend to call knights by their surname.)

Palin — I don’t understand. “John” IS his surname, and Elton his given name. Or are you saying she should have gotten it wrong like most Americans?

Susan – Anyone with the name “Palin” shouldn’t be expected to have that basic understanding! Apologies to Michael Palin.

It’s not the Queen in charge of the Honours List these days, it’s the government. And Labour and the Conservatives both tend to hand them out like sweets, especially to party faithful. Which is how you get ridiculous situations like John “Two Jags” Pescott getting a life peerage, and the Cash for Honours scandal.And it’s Sir Elton, or more properly Sir Elton John, never Sir John. “Two Shags” Prescott would be Baron Prescott if you admitted his title.

Emily Post says public shows of affection should be reserved for teenagers and others with no class.

Good for Zonk. Never will understand the fasination with the blue blood types.

We don’t need a class of useless, parasitic, self aggrandizing, power seeking nobility. We have Congress.

Funneee!

Poor old Zonker.. who has NO idea where the phrase “Ugly American” came from, and is perpetuated.

Sam and Susan are right. I’m conservative—or historian—enough to recognize a “Sir Reginald,” but not a “Sir Elton.”

(Google finds the name “Elton” given to four artists, two mathematicians, a congressman, and a cricket player.)

The ugly american came from a book called, “The Ugly American”. Ever since it has been misused. The ugly american was a good guy. He was an engr who went to out-back places and invented solutions to problems that could be sustained without high-tech support.

I know a guy named Elton — African-American gentleman in his 70s, born long before Sir Reginald.

Zonker’s a British lord. He bought the title (His Lordship the Viscount St. Austell-in-the-Moor Biggleswade-Brixham) at some point. So it wasn’t an honor handed to him by the queen or the government.

(I vaguely remembered him becoming a lord long, long ago, so looked it up. Check out his Wikipedia page if you care: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zonker_Harris)