Dec. 14, 2006 - 20:27 MST

SILLY POINT

In the news we have the grim peepers, and those who glory in tales of the grim reaper, and those who tell us costs will be for us much steeper. Rather depressing at times for me.

But I have the antidote - - - - - - Comic Strips. Many of them my favorites for many years as they reflect much of my character. Others because they reflect the foibles and idiosyncracies of all humanity.

I myself am a combination of "Hagar The Horrible," "Crankshaft," "Plugger," and "Pickles." Then there are the classics like "For Better Or For Worse, which gives a pretty good slant on life as it really is, along with humor also." "Baby Blues" came into being when our youngest daughter began to have her motherhood duty. I began to cut them out as they weren't in their paper, we all enjoyed them. And I still do because of the brood of great-grandchildren popping up in our family.

The comics are the last things I read in the morning news, which helps flush away the depressing stuff, or at least bring it to a status of being able to look at it sanely.

And I take it where I can get it, the panels on the editorial page often bring chuckles to me and other places in the paper as well, have a strip or a panel of golden humor.

My step-grandad once told me, "You have to be able to laugh at yourself from time to time, when you realize just how ridiculous you have been about something. There are times when things are so bad that perhaps a giggle or snort at yourself for the predicament you are in will help ease things, as well."

For me that has been all too true.

In the midst of the business section there usually a panel that tears me up. "The Dilbert Zone" by Scott Adams. I swear that man has been around business and corporate life and understood just how hilarious the upper echelon can be, and also takes pokes now and then at the rest of us peons.

His strip today is one of his priceless ones, in the first panel Dogbert is holding forth on "Management Training" he says, "There are two essential rules of management," and in the next panel is shown the captive audience while Dogbert says, "One, the customer is always right." In the last panel Dogbert clinches it, he says, "Two, they must be punished for their arrogance !" Much of that type of corporate philosophy has been foisted off on us peons over the years. It is nice to sit back and chortle a bit about how funny it actually is.

So now and then through life I have taken a "Funny Break" and laughed a lot, even though at the moment, there was not much to laugh about (which in itself indicated we were all taking ourselves too seriously, I think.)

So, today The Dilbert Zone succeeded in bringing me to my giggling SILLY POINT . . . . . . . . . .

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