Recent Comments

1. 6 days ago on Pearls Before Swine

   They did forget to make sure its batteries don’t explode, that the electronics aren’t fried by going through a car wash (or a flooded road), and how to make it work well enough the the warranty doesn’t need to expire within the first 40 miles of driving it.

2. 8 days ago on Drabble

   Worked better too. Didn’t have batteries that blew up, electronics that were fried by going through a car wash, and a warranty that expired 39 miles after taking delivery. I can’t understand how anyone could be so stupid as to buy such a piece of junk.

3. 10 days ago on Pickles

   I just started following Pickles a year or two ago, so it’s all new to me. In fact, there are half a dozen other comics that I’m reading strips first posted in the 1990’s (was too busy to read them then, as I was working a double shift; but now that I’m retired…

4. 13 days ago on Non Sequitur

   Georges Guétary’s filmed version is probably the most famous, because it was in “An American In Paris”; but it was recorded several times immediately after it appeared in George White’s 1922 “Scandals”. The earliest major artist recording appears to be the incomparable Sarah Vaughn (1958), and though Pat Boone recorded it that same year his version can’t compare to Vaughn’s recording of George Gershwin songs (Ira wrote the lyrics). Also, though often shortened to “Stairway to Paradise”, the original title WAS “I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise.” At any rate, Carl DEFINITELY should take the stairs, if he wants to make it out of the building alive.

5. 16 days ago on Non Sequitur

   The leading cause of death is birth. You can’t have one without the other.

6. about 1 month ago on Herman

   Well, if he’s invisible, it would be easy to not notice him.

7. about 1 month ago on Pearls Before Swine

   All too true. I added a small office over my kitchen in 2004, with an estimate of 8 months extended to a year because the city required earthquake retrofitting for practically the entire house before approving the addition. Things went fine for a couple of months, then the fellow overseeing our job took sick and died. The master carpenter took his place, and did a good job when he bothered to show up (but only about 2 or 3 days a week, depending on how recently he’d had an argument with his girlfriend). In 2008, after 4 years of on-again off-again work I notified the head of the company that my mother, mother-in-law and both of my sisters were moving in with us in a month, and the plumbing HAD to be done ASAP. Three weeks later, still no plumbers in sight and painting also unfinished, so I called the head of the company again and said that if the plumbing wasn’t finished by the end of the week I wanted what I’d paid for the plumbing and painting returned, and to never see any of his workmen again. The next day I received a check for what I’d paid, contacted the plumbers they were going to use myself, and two days later THEY had re-plumbed the whole house (at half the contractor’s price), and not only didn’t I see any of the company’s other workers again, but they left all their stuff, including personal items, behind. I waited a week and when my relatives moved in, I had their movers take everything left behind to the dump. Would have liked to send the head of the company somewhere well down there too, but thanks to the housing collapse, his business went bankrupt, so at least I got to enjoy a little schadenfreude.

8. about 1 month ago on Non Sequitur

   That’s Kaiser’s go-to. Kills a lot of patients, but actually treating them would reduce the bosses’ bonuses.

9. about 2 months ago on Non Sequitur

   That’s partly why the Founding Fathers only let wealthy male landowners vote; and current billionaires’ efforts to return to that principle.

10. 2 months ago on Non Sequitur

    He doesn’t really have any political aspirations; he just wants to stay out of jail. So he’s trying to make sure that he’s President for life. That requires choosing people willing to fend off any efforts to remove him from office once his official 4 years are up. No other qualifications make any difference to him.