Comic for Thursday, September 11, 2008

Posted: 6:30 am, Thursday, September 11th

Check out that shit, yo. May be seeing more of that from time to time, since it takes me about a tenth of the time of a full-fledged strip. Don't miss the static lines, especially visible in panels two and four, from my crappy camera. Man, electronics are not functioning well for me these days.

This piece got all grim yesterday, I see, finally getting to check the comments as I prep the page for tomorrow at ten at night. Shit, people, do you understand how big a proportion of McCain's remaining lifespan two months is? Anything could happen before 11/4. (Oh, hush.)

11/4, of course, is not the reason for a Thursday post today, 9/11 is. What's there to say that hasn't been already? I actually was coming up with a total blank for this until Bleed American (the song, which was not retitled) came up on my Shuffle on the way home from school yesterday, and I remembered the whole "let's not ever mention terrorism ever!!1!" clusterfuck of self-censoring that went down right after 9/11. I've also been re-reading some of my books of newspapers articles (Work and Other Sins, Subwayland, stuff like that), looking for short stories to give to my freshmen classes, and all of those have some pieces that deal with the Worst Day Ever, since they're all set in New York. And the New Yorker has an article on a dead worker, which got me thinking.

First off, the fact that there's still a fucking giant hole down in southern Manhattan. That's just a disgrace. You know what's weird, though? What's really weird is that it pisses me off less that it's been seven years since 9/11 that there's nothing there, than the fact that it's been two years since the fifth anniversary really brought a lot of attention to the fact that there's nothing down there. I mean, it's already been two years since I posted this page? Really? God.

The other thing I think of is the one 9/11 worker I ever wound up meeting. It wasn't pretty. The rest of the story is really actually quite funny, but the worker... It was late August of '02, and Reggie Ho and I were watching the HUGE seasoning-opening matchup between Colorado State and UVA at my old favorite dive, and this dude staggers over to us. I don't even know why he was talking to us - it's been six years, and there were pitchers involved - but he didn't like something I said and grumbled, "I oughtta slug you," even though I honestly wasn't being a wise-ass. We didn't know what his deal was 'til after he stumbled back to the bar (after falling halfway over our table), and Reggie overheard the bartender say something about "the pit." That's when we figured it out. A year of working in the pit, and the dude was just drinking himself ridiculous night-in and night-out. And that's the least of his worries. I wonder where he is now, six years later, having breathed in that stuff?

But, hey, at least our nation rose as one, thought about our behavior and our place in the world, quickly and efficiently brought those responsible to justice, and changed our mission statement from being a military juggernaut to a peaceful emissary of culture and understanding. So some good did come out of that dreadful day.

Sorry, I just thought I'd type it to see how pretty that all looked. So pretty.

Back tomorrow, gang. Be well.

bullfrog

Bullfrog -- Thursday, September 11 2008, 06:22 am

Finally! A massive department of interior scandal! Shitwit's finally completely turned into Warren G. Harding!

Link would help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html

A question you might be hearing from one of your students today: "Who's Warren G. Harding?"

Did anyone hear about this documentary tonight on the History Channel? It's called "102 Minutes that Changed America". It's a "two-hour, commercial-free documentary that chronicles the time between when the first plane hit the World Trade Center until the second tower collapsed". At 9:00 PM ET. Here's more info for anyone interested:

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/tv_documentary/2008_Sep_11_102_minutes

For the New Yorkers in the room: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day?nav=TOPNAV