(no subject)

[spatch]

The AP is reporting that Jeanne Kirkpatrick, the first woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died at 80.

And my first reaction, swear to God, was "Bill The Cat must be crushed."

Sure, I've previously eulogized Caspar Weinberger with Opus' tender ode, but this kinda just hammers the point home to me. I can now face facts and admit that everything I know about US foreign policy in the 1980s I learned from Berke Breathed.

Comments

[lexinatrix.livejournal.com]

Amen and me too.

[cosinezero.livejournal.com]

DAMN. That's some oldschool humour there.

I've got all the bloom county books. And you're right, I may have shaped all my feelings about government from Breathed... and maybe a little Jello Biafra.

[tcb.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

don't forget Gary Trudeau, too.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Everything I *learned* about politics came from Trudeau. All I *knew* about Kirkpatrick was that she was Bill's love-slave.

[spatch]

I actually never read "current" Doonesbury strips as a kid (though I remember Trudeau's first hiatus quite well.) All the Doonesbury I read were the copious amounts of 1970s collections that both my father and my grandfather liked to collect. So my worldview of the 70s was even stranger than my worldview of the 80s.

I could never understand why Zonker had magical plants he could talk to, but it just seemed naturally funny cause he was a funny guy to begin with.

[ubiquity75.livejournal.com]

That's probably why I was so politically precocious, too. Let's face it.

[spatch]

Indeed. I once tried making a Phyllis Schlafly joke in 8th grade to some math teacher, I think, who wondered how in the hell I knew who she was.

[argentla.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Bloom County and Doonesbury courtesy the Madison Public Library System. And thus are we scarred for life.

[gilana]

I wondered why her name sounded familiar...

[archangelsk.livejournal.com]

Bill left Jeanne for Cornelia Guest ("Bill 'n Corny"), but I imagine he will attend the memorial service.

[giantfightbot.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same thought. POOR BILL.

Perhaps I will sing a song about "Dats What Is My Iacocca" to cheer myself up.

Ah, Bloom County. I used to live kitty-corner from the house in Iowa City that Breathed used as the model for the gang's boarding house. It was thankfully unscarred in the tornado earlier this year, but not all buildings on College Street were so lucky.

[spatch]

Didn't that 'model home' eventually become one of UIowa's real party houses? I know a few places were truly notorious and probably responsible for 75% the gossip on ISCA, and I dimly remember one of them being "the house that was the inspiration for the Bloom County house."

Then again, every college up and down the Northeast Corridor claimed one of its fraternities was the "real" inspiration for Animal House (Hint: It was the Dartmouth chapter of Alpha Delta Phi) so I can see how folklore could spread and encompass new stories and reputations.

[giantfightbot.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I don't remember it being all that much of a party house, but all the ones I knew were further out of town. It might have been--I didn't goof around in college as much as I should have and so I was out of the loop.

There's also a famous strip in Bushnell's Turtle where Breathed talked about Iowa City. It's a bit dated now (the store Things Things Things is no more, alas) but the water still tastes like Spic N' Span, or at least it did when I was last there.

[lno.livejournal.com]

Union busting, profit lusting, little pintos all combusting,
Apple pie and Diet Coke-a, DAT'S what is my IACOCCA!

[babs-the-nymph.livejournal.com]

Holy crap on a stick, that was my first thought too.

I'm now supplanting my knowledge of politics in the 80s with the book "A Generation of Swine" by Hunter S. Thompson. I think he thankfully killed himself before Reagan was hailed as a hero while he was buried with full honors, although I'm sure he came back from the grave just to shoot himself again.

You know how some people are fully disgusted with the Bush administration? That's mild compared how Thompson felt about Reagan's party of swilling pigs.

[spatch]

I'll have to grab that at some point. The best collection of political writings I've ever read was Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Most of '72 deals with the Democratic primary, including Ed Muskie's "Sunshine Special" whistle-stop tour and his on-camera meltdown, but there's a great deal to do with "the incumbent." Thompson may have hated Reagan (and honestly, the Reagan canonization had already begun before HST's suicide) but he outright loathed Nixon -- and was surprised when he found himself engaged in a friendly discussion with Nixon about football, of all things.

Amazing stuff.

[babs-the-nymph.livejournal.com]

Yup, read that. There's a funny bit in "Generation of Swine" where Thompson dons a t-shirt with a picture of Nixon that encourages a comeback.

The bit about him discussing football with Nixon really got me too. Can you imagine Bush having a chat with someone like Thompson? It wouldn't happen in a million years.

[redtheblue.livejournal.com]

Wow, me too. I know pretty much the entire run of Bloom County by heart. Bill and Jeane, they had some hard times, didn't they?

"Dear Bill,
These roses were red,
But now they're dead.
I hear you're dating Cornelia Guest.
I wish you worms in the head."

And then the NRA just makes matters worse. *sigh*

[lno.livejournal.com]

A box of chocolates in the shape of Nicaragua.

[morgaine723.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm not so surprised to see all the "me too" responses here. So count me in.