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1994-12-01
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Editorial - Endings and Beginnings
by Dave Bealer
December is most associated with the holidays. In America it begins
just after Thanksgiving, with everyone already looking forward to the
Winter Solstice, after which the days will begin to get longer again,
promising a new spring, new crops, and continued life. No matter
what ceremonies and myths have been spun around this time of year, at
some very basic level the Solstice is what's really being celebrated.
In modern society the end of December signals the end of the calendar
year. In America everyone gets falling down drunk. We claim to be
celebrating the new year, but actually we're depressed because we
received a present from the Internal Revenue Service. In other
words, our Federal Income Tax forms have just arrived.
In Western society December 31st is a traditional day to end
contracts. It is also a common day on which to retire, although this
probably has as much to do with taxes as anything else. In any
event, with all the retirement parties and holiday celebrations of
all types, people are pretty well pickled, which helps them to deal
with important people retiring. Important people like Gary Larson.
On January 1, 1980 a cartoon called "The Far Side" debuted in the
_San Francisco Chronicle_, and several months later Chronicle
Features began syndicating it to other newspapers. Thus began the
international career of Gary Larson, one of the most talented, and
strange, comic strip artists to come along in a long time. Except
for a one year sabbatical in the late 1980s, a new "The Far Side"
panel has appeared every day since then.
All this comes to an end on December 31, 1994. Gary Larson is
retiring from drawing "The Far Side." The calendars, t-shirts, and
other souvenir items will still be available, made from the more than
4500 cartoon panels Larson drew for the daily newspapers all these
years. "The Far Side" is also moving to television, with the first
half hour special shown this past Halloween. The program was billed
as a Halloween special, but it was really plain old everyday Gary
Larson.
Hank Ketcham, the creator of the comic strip "Dennis The Menace," is
also retiring at the end of the year. This tragedy is not of the
same magnitude, especially to entomologists and herpetologists, as
the retirement of Gary Larson. At least Dennis will continue to
terrorize Mr. Wilson, drawn by a new team of cartoonists. No one
else could draw "The Far Side."
There will be other endings this month, at least one of which may be
of interest to readers of this editorial. You are reading one of the
last issues of Random Access Humor. For some time now I have felt
that RAH has gone as far as it can being done by one person. Finding
a partner who shared my rather odd vision of humor proved impossible,
at least for me. The merger of Random Access Humor and another e-mag
proved to be the most logical solution. Read the official announce-
ment in this issue for details of the merger. {RAH}
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Sound Byte:
I can remember a time when having sex was safe
and jumping off of towers wasn't.