There isn’t much to say that everybody else hasn’t said. But this was kind of amazing to me. Berkeley Breathed’s Facebook post today:
Bloomers: Many, but not all of you, know that in the way that creative life can often surprise, Harper Lee was one of you. One of us. You might be as surprised as I am that she played a large role in my recent return to the streets of Bloom County– streets inspired by those of Maycomb. When I retired Opus from the Sunday comics some years ago, Harper let me know her displeasure, with all the southern, gracious elegance we knew her for. See the letter below. I’ve waited until her passing to show it. We came to exchange many similar notes… including one in which she grudgingly forgives me for my retirement (irony alert). Imagine my 14 year-old self — freshly savoring the first reading of Mockingbird and sending Miss Lee a fan letter in 1970 — being told about another fan letter returning my way almost 40 years distant. Life is wonderful and strange and wistful and happy at the same time. And I’m happy to share this with all of you today.
In case you weren’t aware, he has a new comic running on Facebook, with a slight delay repeats on GoComics.com. Ā I guess he couldn’t pass up a good election season. Open thread…
Wag
The new Bloom County strips on FB have been AWESOME!!!! The characters have grown in some surprising ways, even Steve Dallas. I highly recommend checking it out.
Amir Khalid
Harper Lee managed to become a legendary author on the strength of just one book. She also had what I consider the ideal relationship between a popular writer and the media: whenever a journalist approached her for any reason, she’d just tell them to go away.
BGinCHI
BB/s kids books are amazing too.
My favorite (I mean Xavi’s favorite) is Pete & Pickles.
Check it out, even if you’re an old.
Gravenstone
He stated as much at the relaunch. The rise of Trump was his motivation to get the old gang back together.
JCJ
Regarding Bloom County – the other day at the end of a list of errands was to go to a store to buy a cake. My wife and I are in the car driving home and we both have completely forgotten about the cake. The old Sting song “Every Breath You Take” came on the radio. As always, whenever I hear that song I think of the Bloom County strip where Opus was singing that song and started improvising with the additional lines “Every dog you wake, Every cake you bake…” I suddenly remembered to go buy the cake.
schrodinger's cat
Modi and company are destroying India’s premier educational institutions. This is not going to end well.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: I have several great nieces & nephews – what would be a good age for that book for a kid?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
This is the greatest thing you’ll see today, and I’m not ready either, just as emphatically.
Elliott
Thanks for sharing this, delightful to know. RIP Harper Lee
slag
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: That little person is my spirit child. In fact, I used those very words to describe my primary ennui recently. All the tears were on the inside, though.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
Higher learning and religious fanaticism do not go well together. Religious fanatics will eventually want to destroy any system that teaches independent thought.
retiredeng
@Wag: My favorite (so far): “It’s not ‘Hind Lick’?”
Hal
What’s the matter with Kentucky?
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/uncucumbered/kentucky_senate_creates_separate_marriage_license_for_gay_couples
A Ghost To Most
Huge fan of Bloom County – in the 80’s, we had two Maine Coon Brothers (23 & 22 lbs) named Bill & Opus
RIP Harper. Your novel, and the movie, touched me and my generation. I hope it endures.
Peale
@Hal: Yep. And I’m guessing that the budget for the same sex forms will never be enough to actually print them.
Hal
@Peale: And it’s completely pointless. Marriage rights are same regardless of a form that says bride or groom vs 1st party and 2nd party. How amazingly petty and small minded can you be? More christian values at work.
Hungry Joe
@JCJ: My friends and I used to do the same thing with “Every Breath You Take.” I can remember “Every vampire you stake,” “Every thirst you slake” (that one was mine), and “Every orgasm you fake” (NOT mine).
daveNYC
@Peale: They wouldn’t just have them as a .doc and print them out on demand? All you need is a laser printer with duplex capability.
Still stupid as anything though.
Benw
@Peale: when it comes to the poor and sick, sorry guys, government must be run like a business, and we just can’t afford it. When we have to protect the delicate feelings of the homophobes, no expense is too great. Republicans are hypocrites, is what I’m saying.
ET
I suspect that TKAM meant a lot to him. There was a great Opus in 2007 where Opus gets an ebook and does what he can to use it to read TKAM until it fails and the biggest panel has him reading the print version in a comfy chair.
I should add this this is my favorites book. I named my first cat Milo (I wanted to name it Milquetoast ofter the cockroach but thought name a cat after a cockroach was not kosher) and I named by current white with grey Volvo Opus (yes my family names our cars)
Mike J
@ET: How does he fail in reading? Ereaders generally just work. They’re one of the greatest inventions of all times for book lovers. I never go anywhere with fewer than dozens of books.
A “book” is not dead trees glued together. A book is the ideas and the language in which they are expressed. Being obsessed with dead trees makes as much sense as a food lover being obsessed with Pez dispensers.
Roger Moore
@Hal:
It’s governed by Republicans. SATSQ.
Pogonip
@Hungry Joe: What about the John Cole version? “Every fall you take…every bone you break… every post you make…every dog you wake…”
If you weren’t a stickler about rhyming you could even include “every cat you shave.”
Pogonip
“…every reader you hate…”
Miss Bianca
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
“and so say (weep) all of us”. .
PJ
@Mike J: As I think some guy once said, the medium is the message. E-readers offer a very different experience from paper books, perhaps not as great as the one between audio books and paper books, but it’s real, and it affects people differently – I find it much easier to pay attention to a paper book, and like being able to quickly flip through one. But the great thing is no one is suppressing any of these forms, yet.
rikyrah
GOP tries to make up Supreme Court ātraditionā that doesnāt exist
02/19/16 12:48 PMāUPDATED 02/19/16 12:53 PM
By Steve Benen
Marco Rubio, like most Senate Republicans, intends to maintain a blockade against any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama, regardless of the personās qualifications. He even has a talking point heās eager to share.
Yesterday, CNNās Jake Tapper noted, for example, that Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed in President Reaganās final year in office, but Rubio replied that doesnāt count because the nomination was made a couple of months prior. The senator added:
āThis is a tradition that both parties have lived by for over 80 years where in the last year, if there was a vacancy in the last year of a lame duck president, you donāt move forward.ā
Rubio isnāt the only one using the word ātraditionā this way. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on social media yesterday that President Obama should āfollow a tradition embraced by both parties and allow his successor to select the next Supreme Court justice.ā
Iām not unsympathetic to the idea that traditions matter in the political process. In fact, I made just such a case earlier this week, exploring the consequences of congressional Republicans abandoning traditional norms that have helped make governing possible for generations.
But now seems like a good time to add some clarity to the matter. Honoring traditions is one thing; making up traditions that donāt actually exist is something else.
Look at that Rubio quote again: āThis is a tradition that both parties have lived by for over 80 years where in the last year, if there was a vacancy in the last year of a lame duck president, you donāt move forward.ā
Now, I have no idea if Rubio is confused, uninformed, or trying to deceive the public. I do know, however, that his talking point doesnāt make any sense.
There is no such ātradition.ā In order for something to become ātraditional,ā it has to happen routinely over the course of many years, and in this case, the number of instances in which both parties have agreed to leave a seat on the Supreme Court vacant for a year, waiting for an upcoming presidential election to come and go, is zero.
rikyrah
RIP Ms. Lee.
And, thank you.
John Revolta
I have no idea if Rubio is confused, uninformed, or trying to deceive the public.
Yes. Yes he is.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@efgoldman:
I know he comments pretty frequently at Gin & Tacos. And I feel as though I saw him at Booman not long ago.
cckids
@BGinCHI: I always loved “A Wish for Wings That Work”. Perfect Christmas story.
dedc79
A different kind of death. In the final hours of South Carolina, Jeb is Surrounded by Family. . .
LAO
What the hell is going on with the Catholic Church? Cutting ties with the Girl Scouts?
LAO
LAO
@efgoldman: @efgoldman: I’m trying. It’s at tpm
raven
@LAO: St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson has issued a letter calling on parishes to seek alternatives to Girl Scouts, arguing that the program and related organizations conflict with Catholic teaching.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis isn’t directly kicking Girl Scout troops and activities off of all church properties, but is suggesting they and their cookies may no longer be welcome in the fold.
LAO
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: Fighting in the last thread, upholding the teachings of St Bernard, chanting social democracy and Sweden.
NeenerNeener
@Mike J: TKAM wasn’t available in a digital version until July of 2014. So, in 2007 Opus would have had to read the dead tree version of TKAM.
LAO
@raven: thanks for posting. I’m have some serious technical difficulties here. ?
Benw
@LAO: you turned the ‘reply’ button into a link, that’s amazing!
Nothing says ‘good idea’ like an church with a declining and aging congregation telling young people and their families to get lost. Plus, no more Samoas and Thin Mints for you, Catholics!
LAO
@raven: the article at stl.today.com is more definitive. I would post a link but . . . I can’t
LAO
@Benw: there is nothing I can’t do but what I’m actually trying to do!
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: To be cuddly and drink brandy, or whatever it is that they carry around their necks.
raven
@efgoldman: It’s the chinese St. Paul omelet sammy’s
chopper
@efgoldman:
if samoas truly are the body of christ then i need to switch religions.
ET
@Mike J: the eReader fails mechanically (looks like the light/power doesn’t work) and Opus can’t fix it so he goes old school. Bad wording on my part
KithKanan
@efgoldman: Whether they’re called Samoas or not depends which of two bakers your region buys girl scout cookies from.
PurpleGirl
@efgoldman: I haven’t been over at The Mahablog in a few days, but Cund Gulag usually comments there; also I think he is “Victor” at No More Mister Nice Blog.
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: and Mahablog, I saw him there. C U is one of those commentators who you can’t help but have affection for, and to be pulling for him.
PurpleGirl
@Ohio Mom: Yes, he is a character and he can grow on you. He did have surgery several months ago; maybe he’s having trouble again. Or maybe his mother is; that would be causing him much tsuris. he has been very devoted to his parents.
ETA: Cund has two comments at the current posting at The Mahablog.
Ohio Mom
@LAO: My neighbors are Catholic and had their daughter quit the Brownies. My impression is the Girl Scouts are too “secular” (what you or I might better describe as “inclusive of all belief systems”) and also, in some parts of the country, Girl Scouts have partnered with those baby-killers at Planned Parenthood to provide age-appropriate Sex ed.
They don’t have any problem with their son continuing his membership in the homo phobic Boy Scouts. Other than that, they’re very nice people…sigh…
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@schrodinger’s cat:
No one has still mentioned immigration. At least I got a couple of them to mention the elephant in the room, so I win. Or lose.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Umberto Eco has died. Holy shit bad day for great authors.
schrodinger's cat
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: For many the only good immigrants are their own immigrant forefathers.
The Lodger
@dedc79: It’s not legal to mail someone enbalming fluid, is it?
laura
@efgoldman: my father in law was all about his e-reader until I pointed out that Noam Chomsky signed my copy of informed consent. That, and that alone, endeared me to him. One tough old nut to crack.
On the other hand, I walk a picket line on a frequent basis, and if it wasn’t for audible, I’d have to take a hostage. Right now, I’m savoring patty smith reading M Train.
mellowjohn
@rikyrah:
but won’t young Marco actually have to show up at work to do that?
Bill Murray
@Benw:
To close this thread in style
Milo Bloom says, “Man, those Samoas are a surly bunch”