(Cartoonist’s note: the following has nothing to do with the “Peggy Sue” series, but it appeared 10 years ago during the first rerun of this series from 1986. I thought I’d include it here, too. For free!)
I’ve been on a bread-baking kick lately. There are those of us who fervently believe (know, really) that a true French baguette can be had only in France. You can have “a” baguette elsewhere. You can buy “French bread” at the Piggly Wiggly. Even cookbooks and flour companies promise results “as close to the true French baguette as you can get.” However, there’s only one genuine article.
We all know the French baguette looks something like a Louisville Slugger and, given 24 hours, is almost as hard. Even fresh, it will get you a Texas League single. It has a delightful brown crust that shatters when bitten, rewarding the lips and gums with razor-like shards than can draw blood. It can be purchased everywhere in France, alongside loaves of country breads that actually taste much better and aren’t painful to eat, their only drawback being, they’re not French baguettes. Obviously, the French baguette has a mystique.
I don’t think it’s all that mysterious. When I think of experiencing le McCoy réel, I think of sitting under an umbrella on an improbably beautiful medieval square, far from my own problems, eating a lunch of perfectly prepared something, with an aproned waiter dropping by every 10 minutes to ask, “Voulez-vous quelque plus de vin, le touriste de cochon ?” No wonder everybody remembers French baguettes so fondly!
44 responses to “Bread Lines”
Thank you, Curmudge, all is well, I feel that I’m just spinning my wheels lately.
AHHHH but Charlotte, you figured it to be Michael and I did not. Now I see it. 🙂
Llee and Charlotte, you are right. I did a double take before recognizing him. And I didn’t see Ms. Johnston’s signature on it. The two people doing the Dick Tracy strip now seem to be inviting a lot of other artists to guest, and they are bringing in characters from old, defunct strips too. It’s interesting, because you never know who you will see next.
And for the bonus round, do you know the Tracy villain associated with the cover photo on the book?
Junior Tracy gives it away in the Crimestoppers Textbook!
Kit Walker and his dog Devil showed up at the airport once. Alas, they were drawn by Tracy’s artist, and were almost unrecognizable.
Sideburns, I know that some of the guest artists they have had do the minute mysteries in the strip have been terrible. But I think the current regular artist is better than his predecessor.
Some decades back, this would have been squelched. Also, expect this strip elicits questions from youngsters to parents.* Maybe that’s why the Strib dropped 9CL some decades back.
*One mother I know would simply have told her young teens “She’s having an organism.”
https://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2018/06/25
Peace,
Does anyone who ever reads Nancy with their kids like the new artist’s work? Does she do her own coloring? Or in any way supervise it?
emb: “Having an organism” brought to mind a friend’s solution to an issue many years ago. In the early 80s, Huey Lewis and the News had a big hit called “I want a new drug” – catchy tune and lyrics (“one that makes me feel like I feel when I’m with you”), frequently played on the radio. Problem arose when her small son started singing along. Drugs not being what we would now call age-appropriate, she convinced him that the line was “I want a new truck”. What little boy doesn’t want a truck!
Ruth Anne: Lovely! Peace,
Speaking of the Louisville Slugger, check out Pete Browning in a search engine.
I prefer Duck-Duck-Go over Google, myself.
My favorite malapropism was my best friend opening her husbands gift, an expensive soup terrine and exclaiming “Just what I wanted, a latrine!”
Was that supposed to be another spellung? Turreen? Chemo brain and long nails.
Tureen.
For us low brows,
a soup server bowl?
Back in 1960s when this took place my friends were just married and not affluent. Husband was quite a bit older than wife or us.
He’d paid several hundred he couldn’t afford for the latrine.
By the way I have cooked a terrine but didn’t serve it in a tureen!
Spellcheck knows neither word.
Have been running a mini Chinese laundry last couple days. All I did was put away some towels and linens and fold two weeks personal things for Ghost and I. We now send linens, towels and Ghosts shirts to laundry, some things to dry cleaners.
Simple things are no longer simple, the mastectomy left me with lymphodema and the chemo with neuropathic damage in both arms and hands. My big goals for tomorrow are clean sheets, clean kitchen and get my collection of beads off kitchen table!
Poor Ghost puts up with me and I don’t know how?
Jackquline, It must be love!