11 years ago, I quoted Bob Newhart to a 20-something who didn't know the name.

4 years ago, watching "Star Wars" at a get-together, I said "Luke's pants are bleached Levi's," and a teen asked, "Who's Levi?"

Last year, I explained "Calvin & Hobbes" to a coworker.

It never stops being surreal.

I lost track of Nickelodeon in the '90s, so in my mind, "Rugrats" was the also-ran to "Ren & Stimpy" and "Doug."

But sometime in 1996, I was at a Burger King with a TV that showed a "Rugrats" commercial. This one little kid got SO excited that I knew the show was, somehow, finally taking off.

I JUST GOT IT

George Lichty's "Grin and Bear It" from Sept. 14, 1964. We're inside a classroom labeled "Domestic Sciences Dept.," with a teacher showing a group of girls how to cook. Caption: "...And unless a girl learns something about cooking for a husband, she isn't going to have any real appreciation for 'eating out'!"

"Grin and Bear It" by George Lichty, September 14, 1964

Porky Pig (as the Eager, Young Space Cadet) reveals that Gossamer was nothing but hair and sneakers in 1980's "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century".

It's wild to see "Burns and Allen" reruns where the other cast members make fun of George Burns for being old, partly because he was "only" around 60 at the time, but mainly because most of those same castmates died about three decades before he did.

At THIS point, I hadn't yet reacted.

TONY: "That woman is in trouble! I can fly up behind her and save her!"

(makes two high-speed 90-degree turns, dies)

I need to track down a late 1990s book about the year 1000. The bit i remember from a synopsis:

THE SOUND: Stillness. The roar of the ocean was audible for miles!
THE SIGHT: Clear. The night sky was filled with stars!
THE SMELL: God-awful.

"Nancy" by Jerry Scott, Dec. 10, 1985. Panel 1: Nancy, in extreme close-up, is showing off her charm necklace to an off-panel Sluggo. "...and this is a little typewriter, and here is a tiny guitar" Panel 2: We pull back JUST far enough to see both Nancy and Sluggo. Sluggo, happily: "That's a great charm necklace, Nancy". Nancy beams with pride. Panel 3: Nancy: "Thanks...it's a lot of fun" Panel 4: We finally pull back far enough to see all of Nancy and Sluggo. Their happy expressions are gone as Nancy leaves with her charm necklace, which we now see is large enough to be carried in a wheelbarrow. Nancy: "A hassle...but a lot of fun"

"Nancy" by Jerry Scott from Dec. 11, 1985 -- the same date as the "Bloom County" I posted above, but a necessarily Sluggo-free installment. Panel 1: Nancy is in the shower. She's hidden except for a peek of her hair and her bow, but we see the shower curtain and the spraying faucet. Panel 2: Nancy exits the shower in a towel. Her hair is enormous and dripping wet. Panel 3: Nancy squeezes her hair like a sponge. Water goes flying everywhere. Panel 4: Nancy smiles and pats her regular-sized hair as she walks away from the big mess she made on the floor. (Aunt Fritzi rarely if ever showed up in the Jerry Scott strips, so Nancy didn't have to worry about the consequences of a wet floor.)

"Nancy" by Jerry Scott from Dec. 12, 1985. Panel 1: Sluggo and Nancy are playing checkers on the floor. Sluggo: "What's the weather like outside?" Panel 2: Nancy is happily walking away. "I'll check..." Panel 3: Nancy is at the open window. The bow in her hair is spinning like a fan with a loud "WHIRRRRR!" sound. Panel 4: Nancy returns to Sluggo with her bow askew. Nancy: "Windy"

"Nancy" by Jerry Scott from Dec. 14, 1985. Panel 1: Sluggo loudly yells, "READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" Panel 2: Sluggo happily finds Nancy crouched behind a door. Sluggo: "TAA-DAAH!" Nancy, perplexed: "How do you always find me so fast?" Panel 3: Sluggo has his eyes closed and he's gesturing to himself as if he were pontificating. Sluggo: "Scientifically...I ask myself where I would hide if I were you" Nancy, eagerly munching on a big cookie and dropping some on the floor: "Really?" Panel 4: Sluggo walks away, happily, with his hands in his pockets. Sluggo: "Yeah...and if that doesn't work, I just follow the cookie crumbs." Nancy, still chewing her cookie and leaving a mess on the floor, has no response.

I checked the local newspaper archives for "Nancy" strips that ran the same week as this "Bloom County" (mid-December 1985, when Jerry Scott was writing and illustrating) and, yeah, Sluggo was a good 4 1/2 decades away from being lit.

Berke Breathed's "Bloom County" from Dec. 11, 1985: Panel 1: Milo Bloom and Michael Binkley (just called "Milo and Binkley") are outside the Bloom Boarding House on a late fall day. Binkley has an envelope in his hands and is examining it on the front steps. Milo: "What's that, Binkley?" Binkley: "An envelope I found in Bill the Cat's room." Panel 2: Milo is stunned by the contents. Milo: "Compromising pictures of Jeane Kirkpatrick!" Binkley: "They're addressed to....THE SOVIET EMBASSY..." Panel 3: Both Milo and Binkley look directly at the reader. Milo: "Hmm..." Binkley: "Hmm..." Panel 4 is pure text: "Editor's note --- The preceding exchange was an example of 'foreshadowing,' or, a subtle hint of plot developments to come. A common literary device, it's often used in contrast to another, less-impressive literary device, that of 'making it up as you go'...which, by the way, is a literary device frequently seen in other features...such as, say, 'Nancy.' But never, NEVER here. Remember: 'Foreshadowing'...your clue to quality literature."

As for me, I learned it from "Bloom County."

A four-panel "Nancy" from Oct. 21, 1963: Panel 1: Nancy: "Can I put the money in the meter?" Aunt Fritzi, wearing gloves and a pillbox hat because they're in the big city in 1963: "Okay, dear" Panel 2: Nancy puts the money in the parking meter and turns the crank. Panel 3: Nancy is delighted that a strip of paper comes out. Panel 4: Nancy: "Look --- the city has started giving trading stamps" Aunt Fritzi's eyes are wide, and she's got those three surprise drops over her head, like she's just one unexpected development away from falling backwards.

ME IN GENERAL: "Ha ha! Kids today, they don't know about the now-obsolete technology of my youth, and that makes them worthy of contempt!"

ME LOOKING AT THIS "NANCY" PUBLISHED ALMOST A DECADE BEFORE I WAS BORN: "...I genuinely have no idea what's happening here."

Saturday Night Live's "Action 8 Newswatch" doesn't seem to be online, and the spacing on this transcript is messed up, but you'll get the gist. "Our top stories tonight: The president has been assassinated. But president of WHAT? We’ll tell you in the next half-hour."

“And now, America’s joke laureate, Groucho Marx.”

“Thank you, Mr. President, and as your newest adviser, I’m telling you we’ve got TWO things to fear: Fear itself, and elephants.”

(audience murmurs excitedly)

“You know, I once shot an elephant in my pajamas…”

(audience roars)

I didn't get to see much GI Joe growing up; I lived too far out in the country to pick up the UHF station that carried it. So I recently watched a few episodes on Tubi as a grown-ass man, and I genuinely started thinking "oh, these toys would be AMAZING."

A promotional photo for the first season of NBC's "ER" in 1994 features (from left) Noah Wyle, George Clooney, Julianna Margulies, Eriq LaSalle, Anthony Edwards and Sherry Stringfield. (Associated Press, NBC, Chris Haston)

this is what emergency room doctor actors looked like in 1994

But will he ever get hitched to his longtime gal, Sweet Maples?

This was a relief to see, because I live in the southern U.S. and I recently have been flummoxed by a Southern columnist’s “We confuse the world because Republicans are classical liberals and Democrats are socialists, but we don’t call them that”.

The first of only two things* to make me laugh about the destruction of part of the White House:

* the second being Troy Iwata's "Daily Show" bit on why Trump is a gay man: "He just tore down his wife's office to build a ballroom!"

And Sean Hannity led whole auditoriums in chants of "Flip! Flop!" during 2004's "Hannitization of America Tour". Truly, America was primed for the sheer idiocy of the Democrats' "George W. Bush: The 'W.' stands for 'Wrong'" and the Republicans' "The 'W' in 'Wrong' is silent; that's an 'R' sound."

It was a visual metaphor for the GOP’s big line of attack: Kerry, they said, would go whichever way the winds took him. My local paper’s endorsement of Bush in 2004 was “At least you know where he stands.”

And now the party’s ended up here.

Harriet (Emily Schulman), being the nosy neighbor in the pilot episode of "Small Wonder" from 1985.

Is that Emily Schulman, who played Harriet on "Small Wonder"?

Also: WHY DO I KNOW THAT AND NOT SOMETHING USEFUL

The biggest Trump supporter in my life explained it to me recently: Everyone, everywhere, knows Trump is a brave, savvy leader with a true servant's heart. The derangement, he says, comes when people understand that, then think "But I have to hate him anyway."

(He's losing a lot of friends.)

The first four DVDs I ever bought, in one fell swoop, were "Dark City," "Tron," "Run Lola Run" and "The Iron Giant."

I like to think that it's a respectable enough batch of films that it sort of balances out my later purchases, which included "Kull" and "She Spies: The Complete First Season".

It’s that part of the Saturday Night Live “What’s That Name?” sketch where the host (Bill Hader) reveals that the answer to “What would YOU say to the young girls watching?” is “I wouldn’t SAY anything. I would LISTEN.” …maybe a bit of a stretch but it’s the first thing I thought of for this post, dammit

Is that legal?

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo, and Buffalo buffaloes Buffalo buffalo.

A panel from Fantastic Four #275, art and words by John Byrne: She-Hulk: "Of a kind. At least, it's a LEAD. But I think I'll slip into something more...PROFESSIONAL before I follow it up. Then let's you and I take a little trip to Jersey...if you're interested?" Wyatt Wingfoot: "Always. Lead on."

(sighs) Fantastic Four #275. The first John Byrne comic I ever read, and I read it as a 12-year-old boy, so I *remember*.

"Peanuts" from March 3, 1982. Snoopy is "the World Famous Hired Hand," helping Lucy spade her garden. In short order: 1. Snoopy tries in vain to dig into the dirt. 2. The shovel handle snaps back and flings Snoopy into the air. 3. Snoopy kicks the shovel. 4. Snoopy has hurt his foot from kicking the shovel.

On a lighter note, since we're talking about how much fun Snoopy is, I wanted to share this strip, which I love to bits. (2/2)

"Peanuts" from April 8, 1995. Rerun Van Pelt and a little girl have both lost their toy marbles to scammer "Joe Agate," and Charlie Brown is out to take Joe down: Joe: "You sure you wanna play me, kid? I'm 'Joe Agate'! I never lose!" Charlie Brown: "You never lose because you only play beginners, and you tell them you're playing for fun until you win, and then you say, 'Keeps!' and you take all their marbles!!" Joe: "You trash talkin' me, kid?" Charlie Brown: "'Knuckle down,' Joe! This is for 'Keeps'!"

Two observations:

This storyline was my favorite thing in the final years of Peanuts, and I was SO excited when it became a TV special...but turning it from "Charlie Brown steps up" into "Snoopy becomes Charlie Brown's coach" was a travesty that didn't understand this story OR Snoopy. (1/2)