Recent Comments

1. about 19 hours ago on Luann

   The reference to a “Mrs. degree” originated in a sarcastic joke more than 70 years ago. It did not actually reflect male chauvinism, but rather an all-too-common social phenomenon of the era.

2. about 20 hours ago on Luann

   The university I attended had the right idea with its 5-year cooperative education program. One graduated with a baccalaureate diploma and a few years of practical experience in one’s field — not to neglect a little experience interviewing with prospective employers who appreciated and cooperated with the program. Of course, I chose that university because I was already career-oriented.

3. about 20 hours ago on Luann

   You’re quite right that my listing wax not sufficiently comprehensive. I neglected a few skills that might be included in other fields that I did list. Child development might be a sub-topic within education.

4. 2 days ago on Luann

   Does anyone else but me perceive here a terrible insult to the notion of higher education? These two girls seem to invoke an old joke about going to college to obtain an “Mrs.” degree. Higher educational institutions are not finishing schools for debutantes. They are not a place for romantic entertainment. Perhaps education and training should revert to discrete specialized training institutions for technical skills in product assembly, construction, agriculture, or teaching, or professional skills in engineering, law, medicine, psychiatry/psychology, sciences, educational curricular development, or similarly intensive skills. I should not neglect the specialized training for careers in arts, history, political analysis, writing, entertainment performance and content development, and the like. Nor, for that matter, religious community support. One should not enter such institutions except to pursue a practical professional career, after having determined aptitude, qualifications and motivation to do so. Much more emphasis ought to be given to testing before offering guidance to individuals about initial pursuit of a career or a later change of career. In any case, neither pottery nor poetry represent career skills. They have a different function in the complex intellectual environment of an advanced civilization.

5. 3 days ago on Luann

   Once upon a time, students of psychiatry were required to be psychoanalyzed themselves as part of their training. I don’t know if any similar requirement was applied to non-medical psychoanalysts. But if modern analyst training includes any such requirement, Bernice may finally be called to account for her attitudes toward her friends and herself and her potential future patients/clients. She may fail the requirement for compassionate objectivity and find it necessary to reevaluate her career goals to choose some other path entirely. She might then pursue a legal career in which she could be as judgmental as she seems prone to be.

6. 3 days ago on Luann

   I don’t believe she has even completed her undergraduate degree yet.

7. 4 days ago on Luann

   I did a bit of sampling among earlier episodes and found changes to some characters in the first decade of the 2000s. By the end of the second decade, it appeared to me that all of them had been updated. Bernice seemed to be the last of them to receive the treatment. Some of them, Luann in particular, seemed to go through a couple of stages until they reached their current appearance. Nonetheless, I was surprised to see that it was a gradual progression rather than a discrete decision to make a stylistic change.

8. 4 days ago on Luann

   Does anyone here remember when the artistic change occurred that transformed the “Young Greg” characters into the current ones? Perhaps it might give us a clue about how long in real time will be required for Luanniverse time to progress beyond the current college years and career angst. It could be rewarding to see these characters grow up and marry, form families, pursue careers, and produce new characters as children. Even Shannon may reach her college years. Of course, we may find that these characters are still plodding through variations of the same adolescent conflicts, but that’s another stage of development for “old Greg” to address before he officially retires and passes the strip on to Karen and a subsequent generation wherein Luann becomes a “Mrs. Horner” type of advisor and inspiration.

9. 9 days ago on Luann

   Since this tradition of watching a ball of lights descend in Times Square NYC dates back to 1907, clearly more than one host to announce the new year has been required. I just read a report that the NY sanitation department is standing by to remove an expected one ton of confetti after the crowds disperse.

10. 11 days ago on Luann

    Sorry, I can’t guess where you live. In my neighborhood it’s rockets and missiles and frequent siren alerts that we’d like to eliminate, along with explosive drones of various kinds. We’d also like the return of kidnapped hostages alive.