Comic for Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

Posted: 7:35 am, Wednesday, November 22nd

Hot damn, tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I can't wait. The AV Club's got some Thanksgiving TV highlights throughout the years, capturing nicely the feelings I was rambling on about yesterday in describing Thanksgiving-ish. ABC ran the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving the other night, which I missed. I did, however, catch the second half-hour, the absolutely bizarre He's a Bully, Charlie Brown. I kind of like that ABC is running through the back catalog of bizarre Peanuts specials (which we went over once - there are some damn strange ones out there). In case you missed this one, basically, Charlie Brown went to camp, and for some reason Rerun was there, and Rerun lost all of his marbles to a marbles hustler. So then Snoopy, as Joe Cool, trained Charlie Brown at marbles until Charlie Brown could win all the marbles back. Somehow, it was even weirder than this description, and not terribly good. But I enjoyed it, because, hey, it's me.

And if you're in the market for further Thanksgiving viewing, X-Entertainment has the 1984, 1985 and 86, 1987, and 1989 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades online. Good freaking nostalgia right there. Actually, I just ruined a cherished childhood memory by watching the He-Man float from 1985 again. Although it was pretty cool to see Hordak bitch-slap Moss Man. 2.0's always amazed when I tell her about Moss Man and Stinkor. And, really, I guess I can't blame her. (By the way, I absolutely loved the comic books that He-Man figures came with - I have no idea what happened to all the ones I had as a kid, and I am to this day distraught over it.)(Although, yeesh, "in a blur of bronze movement"? Between these books and my absolute lack of athletic ability as a kid, Dad must've been psyched.)

By the way, sorry for the loopy scroll action some of you may have to work for today's strip - in order for Mara's hammer to be visible, I had to make this wider than normal.

One of the most famous USC bloggers out there is this fellow called Boi From Troi. He's a gay Republican USC blogger. Which never made any sense to me, neither the gay Republican part, or the gay football fan part (although that makes slightly more sense to me). Well, Boi From Troi found someone who mystifies me even more - he found a gay Republican Cal-Berkeley blogger. Now we've got a gay Republican, a gay football fan, and a Republican from Cal-Berkeley. I know it's not the 60s anymore, but that still makes my head asplode.

Which, I guess, gets me into the YouTube clip of the Irish for the week. I'll say my happy Thanksgivings here for the readers who are normal human beings and have been able to carry on normal human interactions this week without thoughts of the ND-USC game in the back of their thoughts, kind of imposing itself on everything you do like mild tinnitus. I hope you all get wherever you're going safely and are spending the day with some loved ones. Or at least liked ones. Or, if you're really lucky, some turducken.

Anyway, there's a lot of great clips to pick from Irish-Trojan lore, but this Reggie Brooks clip from '92 is pretty awesome. I love that he just outruns the last three defenders, all of whom you'd think are in perfect position to get him.

Oh, and, hell, here's Tony Rice with a determined run from the '89 game.

And, finally, here's the highlights from the single greatest game in this great rivalry: Notre Dame's 51-0 win in 1966.

For glory, boys! For glory, Robot Genius!

Go Irish! Beat Trojans!

bullfrog

I also saw some of "You're a Bully, Charlie Brown" the other night. I had never even heard of it. It made me smile and laugh, as anything Peanuts-related does. But I think I'm going to stick with the holiday specials and avoid these random ones.

Happy Thanksgiving from a very empty Cubeland on Thanksgiving Eve.

The Daily News has some little quotes from people reacting to Jeet not being gifted the MVP. My favorite is from this guy:

"He's a class act. I wouldn't expect him to win unless they won the World Series."

Steven, who works at the Hennepin County Medical Center.

That sign-off should be, "Steven, who doesn't understand the MVP voting process."

Here's some reading material for the day before Thanksgiving, when I'm assuming no one is really doing anything other than clock-watching. It's Pajiba's TV Whore's round-up of the Nielsen Top 20. I had no idea Lindsay and Kim from Freaks and Geeks were *both* in ER these days! I may have to tune in. But probably not.

http://www.pajiba.com/what-youre-watching.htm

Also, if I may say - God, the top 20 TV shows look thoroughly dreadful. And I want Luke to beat the snot out of Christopher.

Great video. It's crazy how different the Irish Offense is now. It was always that on any play they could break a big run. Now it's on any play they may hit the deep ball and score.

Saw the Charlie Brown Bully special too. Good to see Rerun Van Pelt get some airtime. I've won many a wager on knowing that he existed.

I'm calling it ND 28 - SC 27. Brady hits Walker in the flat for a 15 yard TD in the last minute. Poodle calls his last time out to try and "ice" Gioia before the PAT, and it ends up costing him as time expires on the Condoms last ditch effort to get into field goal range.

GO IRISH!!!!

My favorite obscure Peanuts character is Eudora. She liked chocolate sandwiches, which were a chocolate bar in between two slices of pumpernickel bread. She often wondered what it would taste like with gravy on it.

I'm sad that I don't know who Eudora is. When Grafe and I played Trivial Pursuit a few weeks ago, he got the question "Who are the 3 VanPelt children?" and I had to explain all the characters to him. And now I find out I don't know as much as I thought I did! (I'm also ashamed of him for thinking Linus and Sally were sister and brother)

I bow down to the master. I never could have pulled that name, but I do remember the character.

By the way, I think I read that they will already be showing Charlie Brown's Christmas this coming Sunday.

Okay, enough Peanuts talk...

GO IRISH!

Pretty sweet retrospective of the ND-USC rivalry up on und.com - it's long, but worth it. It wholly focuses on games out in the Coliseum, and towards the end, features Frank Stams from the '88 title team in full-on 1980s glory. His shirt is not to be believed.

http://und.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112106aaa.html

And the very finale of the clip is Digger going absolutely nuts at a pep rally back in, I believe, '77. Good times.

With all of this talk about a Michigan-OSU rematch, I thought it was interesting to hear the rather good speculation that should things fall right, there might be a Notre Dame - Michigan rematch at the Rose Bowl, of all places. The more likely scenario would be Michigan - Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl and ND playing perhaps Arkansas or Florida at the Sugar. But it's not out of the question that might be at least one if not two "rematch" games as bowl games this year.

Tinker Bell is getting her own Disney direct to DVD movie. It doesn't even look like it's animated well. Not as nightmarish as The Polar Express, though.

I had Moss Man. He actually got to smell pretty weird too, what with that strange moss-ish covering.

Just a thought before the ND - USC game: if you're Jonesing for a bet on this game, go with the underdog. Only twice since Pete Caroll has been coach has the game winner won more than seven points, which the last time accomplished by Bob Davies (yes, the ESPN analysis). It's going to be a tight affair.

Fuck, I hate Southern Cal.

Bullfrog, you really should hating Notre Dame's play calling in the second half. Not to mention that special teams touchdown USC had. Look on the bright side, Notre Dame is going to a Bowl Championship Game. Some say Rose Bowl, others Fiesta. Maybe even a rematch against Michigan.

And could you tell Notre Dame that they spend some of the $14 million guaranteed payoff on a new wardrobe for Weis? He seems more like "Little Bill" than "Little Tuna." Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to scrub away all of the memories of the Show Me the Money promos I saw during tonight's game. Shattner just looks like some degenereate old man. Scary.

I'ma stick with hating Southern Cal for the moment.