That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 14, 2025

/// Give it up for the practical Swedes,

who know just what a lawmaker needs.

Gunnar Wennerberg’s “flash,”

(check his walrus mustache),

doesn’t hint he’s a poet who reads.

/// Shown in old age he looks angry here.

One might think he was hard and severe.

But the man was admired

and his counsel desired

all throughout his long varied career.

Alex, doing his best imitation of an angry cartoon bull.

Hey, do you need a tissue?

When nature gives you lots of long nose hairs …

Much like a cat, Bernard relied on his whiskers to warn him when someone approached, unseen, as he read his book.

That was the umpteenth time Gunnar accidentally closed the book on his mustache and pulled on it.

Well, well, well. Someone sniffed Dr. Oliver’s Baldness cure a little too vigorously!

(See Bloom County today and a few previous days.)

handlebars or monkeybars?

I’ve checked this a dozen times and you still own a million Dolars tax which nervous breakdown is this?

All I’ve got is props for the moustache.

I bet he rides a chopper.

This is my teacher at registration everytime a kid was off sick and a smartass shouted, “Absent – minded!”

‘’Thigh ticklers’‘….that’s what my wife calls them. But I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about’’.

There was a headmaster called Crane,

Who’s methods were somewhat insane.

If one made a noise,

He’d hit all the boys,

And then he would reach for the cane!

Motorcycle handlebar moustache.

Don’t disturb him while he’s doing his “War and Peace” Concordance

“I’m the substitute teacher for Sister Agnes, who’s out sick today. And don’t expect to get away with any monkey business, if you know what’s good for your knuckles. I have her ruler, and I know how to use it.”

LOL – perfect one, Mr. Melcher!

To be fair, the man pictured here is Gunnar Wennerberg, a well-respected intellectual in his lifetime.

From Wikipedia:

“Wennerberg was remarkable in several ways, handsome in face and tall in figure, with a finely trained singing voice, and brilliant in wit and conversation. From the outset of his career he was accepted in the inner circle of men of light and leading for which the university was at that time famous.”

People were often surprised when they met the original author of ‘Mad’ magazine in person.

Whoever this idiot is/

my moustache is better than his:/

when he sneezes, his drips/

from its tips to his hips/

Thence from Stockholm clear down to Cadiz.

Tired of trimming his nose hair, Burt took fashion in an entirely new direction

I’ve been enjoying this strip for a few months now and I think this is my FAVORITE one so far!

I hates Rabbits!

Bernhard couldn’t resist putting weird mustaches on all the portraits he painted.

Useful when he gives children horseyback rides.

“I am not a number! I am a free man!”

“I know, I know. But my wife likes it enough that she insists I not shave it off.”

Otto was so frightened at what he read that his moustache hairs stood up on end.

“whatta you lookin at, punk!”

Nineteenth Century facial hair is always an interesting subject. Of ridicule.

There’s a statue of him as a younger man by Carl Johan Eldh, sans moustaches. Perhaps he grew hairier as he grew older? It can happen!

A tea cozy of sorts for his cup. More of a challenge if he sips from a saucer, but old-world habits die hard. And dry on the front of your shirt.

Portrait of the poet, composer and politician Gunnar Wennerberg: 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"Category:Bernhard Österman" Wikimedia 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Brave search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first Category: found, and once there find the text string SLM29050, and click its link for info and links that point to more info (perhaps best viewed by the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers, which can automatically translate most webpages if necessary) about this painting. 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3443 (January 14, 2025) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you crop what’s after .png from the URL). I’ve added a comment there pointing to the info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, first work by him used here. What’s somewhat odd about this artist is, instead of signing the painting with his last name, he signed it with just his first initial (not included above) and middle name. Like here, his Wikipedia name doesn’t include his first name (does have it in the text though). He had a twin brother who also was an artist. Similarly, his Wikipedia name doesn’t include his first name (again, it’s in the text).

“Here at Fisher Investments, we do better when you do better.”