Tag: Mason Jarr

Jarrnalism

I don’t know how to break this to you, but in today’s strip, nobody smirks. Les, however, spills the beans, lets the cat out of the bag, and otherwise squeals like a stoolpigeon, revealing his ethical depths in a single panel. BanTom’s star journalist loses her composure, because Mason Jarr ZOMG!!!!! Her only question is “WHAT!!?” I’ll try to help Cindy out with this:

A refresher on the W questions for Cindy.
A refresher on the W questions for Cindy.

Because you’d think a former national news anchor, who presumably has interviewed stars, presidents, prime ministers, and kings, wouldn’t be overawed by the mere mention of a B-grade movie actor. “Wimmen, amirite?” thinks BanTom, as he imagines himself rounding the bases of a tiny baseball diamond.

Woo hoo! Les’s hair is on fire! Oh, wait.

Today’s strip, at first glance, seems to show Les, head aflame in the purifying fire of just desserts. But no, they’re just burning their Yuletide tree out in the field. That practice makes my Californian instincts turn to rage, and calls to mind Johnny Cash’s infamous “buzzards” incident.[1] Then I remembered that Ohio used to burn its rivers (for decades), and it all seemed to make more sense.[2]

The picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire that ended up in Time Magazine a month later – a truly arresting image showing flames leaping up from the water, completely engulfing a ship – was actually from a much more serious fire in November 1952. No picture of the ’69 river fire is known to exist.—Cleveland Historical

My live-in expert on all things Ohio tells me that residents of Buckeye Lake toss their trees into the water’s edge. This encourages the growth of algae, which attracts fish, which makes for easy fishing in the springtime. By the next winter, the tree will have completely decomposed. That seems awfully green for the midwest, but it’s a damn sight greener than just lighting it on fire and smirking at it.

Given how Cayla usually reacts to news from Les, I’ve corrected the dialog in panel 3.

Cayla asks, 'How much can we make Mason pay?'

  1. To be fair to Mr. Cash’s memory, the part about roasting 49 California condors appears to be apocryphal.  ↩
  2. Speaking of uniquely Cleveland things, thanks to @Nathan Obral (yesterthread) for pointing out that the Lost reference had extra meaning for those in the Cleveland TV market.  ↩

Jarrlost

In today’s yawner, Bantom awkwardly works in a cultural reference that is astoundingly timely by his standards. I’ve never seen Lost, but its last first-run episode aired on May 23, 2010. At the time Bantom put this strip to bed, that reference was only 3½ years old. That qualifies as “ripped from the headlines” for this creaky old oeuvre.

Still, gotta love the talking house in panel 2.