Monday, March 05, 2007

The vanity of ambitions

I have mentioned before my once-upon-a-time weakness for the International Herald Tribune.... I had a particular fondness for the 'funny page'. One of the regular cartoons was 'The Wizard of Id', a strip by a couple of guys called Parker & Hart, set in medieval times. One of the stock characters was the court jester - who was a hopeless lush and spent his whole time in a bar.


One day the burly barman is chiding him, "You need to set goals and objectives to give your life meaning. What are yours?"

The jester looks up from his drink and says hopefully, "To be 'Customer of the Month'!"

4 comments:

georg said...

Johnny Hart is from my current corner of NY.... B.C. is his other comic, set in the stone age.

We used to have the B.C. Open around here, and his art is liberally sprinkled around the golf course. B.C. also meaning Broom County.

If it reminds you of Bloom County, I understand that similarity is also intentional, although the artist very different indeed, and more to my taste.

Froog said...

Thanks for that, Georg.

I am digging around on the Net to try to find some 'Id' to post. I really liked that strip. Have only seen BC a few times.

Are you saying you prefer Bloom County or the Hart strips?

What's Jazz up to these days? Does he not condescend to use the Internet himself??

georg said...

I prefer Bloom County, and I wish it was still being drawn.

Jazz is using the internet- but he's not actively blogging like he used to. He used to run: http://runningscared.org/ Then he switched to movies.. http://sendsardinesplease.com/
Now, he's more into http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/

I don't know if he still reads blogs, but I've mentioned your natterings. He was pleased I've kept track of you though, and said a few kind things. He's in a local dart league, but otherwise doesn't leave the house much. Neither do I, except for that medieval thang I do.

Froog said...

The other 'Wizard of Id' gag that had a particularly strong resonance for me was this - two old women talking at a graveside:

"He never had much success in life, did he?"

"No. He was a closet intellectual."