The Comic Strips

When I was a kid, my folks would buy a Sunday copy of the Chicago Herald Examiner if they had some spare change. The funnies were great in those days. The thing that caught my eye printed near the heading was a quotation that read "What Fools These Mortals Be".

Shakespeare, who coined the phrase was no fool, though.

I don't know if he would have approved or disapproved of the comic strips of those days before and right after WW2.

I was forced to read some of Shakespeare's plays in high school, and I don't remember much of what I read, but I still remember some. For instance:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

Who struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing.

Wow, how depressing is that?

So it was a very good idea to read the comics everyday to keep your spirits up. "lil Abner might

have been a fool, but Daisy Mae loved him. When the citizens of Dogpatch felt depressed, they

dragged out a jug of Kickapoo Joy Juice and had a good time.

And then there was this character that had a little black cloud lingering over his head all the time, and where ever he went, something bad happened. That was the comic strip fellow who

inspired Dr. Norman Vincent Peale to write "The Power of Positive Thinking" as an antidote to

negative thinking. And many writers have jumped on that band wagon through the years.

But old William gave us an uplifting idea when he wrote "......sleep that knits up the raveled

sleeve of care, the death of each day's life."

So goodnight, Gracie.