Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 14, 2013

Most astute ! Punditry at its finest ( and truest ) .

Yesterday’s flashback shows how far Jeff has fallen from the rampant idealism of his college-days or, rather, college-daze. Rick may still harbor some secret idealism. Joanie has it in abundance as we’ve seen in her support and hard work for now Mass. Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren.

Notice Jeff’s canned “fruit juice” is baaaack.

This is the first time I’ve noticed what an unTrudeau, ungeometric nose Rick has. And this is the friendliest and unexpectedly familial conversation Rick and Jeff have had.

Still, “fruit juice” seems to have become this website’s favored euphemism for beer.

“That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.” —Jimmy Buffett

“The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional does what he does even when he doesn’t feel like it.”

Gary doesn’t say it when he doesn’t have anything to say. He reruns it.

Since you asked . . . .

• Sunday’s strip was a flashback. Flashback ≠ repeat or rerun. Flashback = a new strip. Flashforward also = a new strip, as per today’s. (Ck. w/UR friendly awesome dictionary.)

• It depicted an earlier, flashbacked Jeff ‘n’ Zip.

• Today’s strip flashforwarded a decade or so to their present “here and now” to show us how they’ve changed (or remained unchanged) in the those intervening years (Jeff’s 30 now with shorter hair in keeping with his reichwing ideology, etc. — against lefty momster Joanie ‘n’ popster Rick.

• “[W]hat’s rampantly idealistic about deciding that, with the price of transport, homegrown manufacturing may have a revival, and planning one’s education around that” is that it is passive, after-the-fact idealism that would propel Jeff forward into 1%er prosperity because he idealistically FORESAW the coming manufacturing wave!

• The younger Zipper, on the other hand had — as the younger Jeff himself pointed out, “Okay, so that’s a slightly different model”

• And Zip’s “different model” was different in that Zip wasn’t going to WAIT around making ready for the wave that some others were going to generate. Zip was going to actively GENERATE THAT WAVE HIMSELF!

• He himself says, "In fact, as soon as I come up with an idea like Facebook or the iPhone, I’m SO outta here!

• In sum, you see that the younger Zip’s idealism is that HE ZIP IS THE ONE WHO comes up with the idea that generates the wave, whereas the younger Jeff’s idealism is that HE JEFF IS THE ONE WHO ONLY PREPARES HIMSELF to meet the (manufacturing) wave that other people generate.

• Two different forms of idealism the active-aggressive kind versus the passive-aggressive kind. The former acts, whereas the latter waits to be acted upon.

• Jeff presciently saw the difference with his observation quoted above — “Okay, so that’s a slightly different model.”

Different models, different idealisms. But idealisms just the same!

@DTπ – I just posted a reply, regarding copyright legalities, at yesterday’s strip.

When some people finally realize that Trudeau tossed off a flashback yesterday from which he had to flashforward today, then they’ll say they knew it all along.

And I will bless their prescience.

Flashback ≠ rerun or repeat. Flashback = new strip that only visits the past. Check your dictionary. Their different definitions make it plain that “flashback” and “repeat” are not synonyms.

Goodnight moon. Goodnight all. See ya when I see ya.

A writer without a pension must write no matter what. And stop blogging for free at huffpo.

Goodnight moon? I wish. It is cold here and early. Of course, I don’t get up so early as a lot of you guys…

Re-read yesterday’s strip. That is NOT Jeff, no matter how much spin you put on it. That is Zipper of today, speaking to generic student. Reaction of the student plus the fact he actually has a plan means it’s not Jeff. Jeff would have agreed with Zip and given his way of making $$$ without the hard work needed.

NOT Jeff! For heaven’s sake! Do you have prosopa

Ok, let’s try that again. It’s NOT Jeff. Do you have prosopagnosia?

OK—-I’ll try again. Regarding the “fruit juice”, the cans may be Energy Drinks. The age group that Jeff is in, seems to be addicted to them. Not all, but enough to be a billion dollar business.

I was gratified to see a glimmer of maturity arising in Jeff (if glimmers “arise”). I’ve read past comments about how much people hate Jeff, but I like him. Maybe he reminds me of my Aspie grandson. (For a career, he wants to design computer games.)

DTpi, while I admire your…tenacity, it’s time to give it up. That wasn’t Jeff yesterday. That wasn’t a flashback. We’ve seen Jeff from infancy. Apart from hair color, he’s never looked anything like the guy yesterday. When Jeff WAS a student at Walden, he looked like he does now (different haircut, but same nose, same sunglasses). And he was a doofus then, as he is a doofus now. Since the topic of yesterday’s strip was the discussion of future plans in light of contemporary economic conditions, check out the continuity from 12 years ago, when Zipper is having a similar conversation with the bona fide Jeff Redfern.

http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2001/01/10

Where’s Zonker?

Thanks, fritzoid, that’s a better explanation than they could ever give me.

Redbull is NOT like drinking coffee. I drink TONS of coffee. I drink two redbulls (no coffee) and it totally messes me up, and my heart starts beating funny. I KNOW it’s not the caffeine. And it’s probably not the sugar. But one redbull has been my limit since I first tried it several years ago.

I am going to call BS on this one. Rick worked for the Washington Post for more than 30 years. He has a pension.

There was an NPR feature story this morning about how the college kids are switching from soda to coffee for caffeine these days. More social opportunities by going to a coffee shop as opposed to a fast food joint perhaps. Energy drinks have had some bad press lately as being dangerous.

I say, I say.

And yet, still hanging out with Zipper….

Hello y’all. Enjoyed reading the new-to-me comments. Have to go now. Won’t be posting as much in future, though. Too much new stuff going on in my life.

Flashbacks forever! Reruns / repeats never!

∂†π

Oh, and incidentally . . . .

Just checked Wikipedia, and found this:

||Prosopagnosia (Greek: “prosopon” = “face”, “agnosia” = “not knowing”), also called face blindness, is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired ….||

Hoping for future flashbacks of the younger, kinder, gentler, more-baby-fat-faced, longer-haired, college-age Jeff ‘n’ his sidekick Zip Harris!

∂†π

@DTPi

Here’s hoping your new stuff is happy stuff….

A knoll? Perhaps you mean a troll? Ever looked in the mirror? That is, if they have them under bridges.