What took them so long?

Posted on June 9, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

The comic strip Tank McNamara has finally weighed in on the Dale Petroskey/Robbins and Sarandon/Hall of Fame flap.

The strip is usually more responsive to topical stuff like this, so I’m rather surprised that this is the first mention of that little kerfuffle. I’m prepared to overlook that if they spend the week beating up on Petroskey, however.

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10 Responses to What took them so long?

  1. Amy says:
    June 9, 2003 at 7:45 am

    I seem to remember a similar delay with September 11th related strips. One of the strips had a caption with it mentioning that, on their production schedule, a strip would make it to the papers 1 month after the process began. Maybe Tank has the same thing going on.

  2. Patrick says:
    June 9, 2003 at 8:12 am

    For readers of For Better or Worse, Lynn Johnson got tons of angry mail from readers who thought it was insensitive of her to kill off the family dog, Farley, on the same day as the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. It didn’t matter that she had been building the story up for a while, having old Farley struggle to rescue April from a flooded stream or that she had turned the strips into the distributor 3 weeks before.

    That said, Tank did seem to take a long time getting to this story and did last week do a week that seemed to be in response to Tampa Bay picking up Julio Lugo after the Astros cut him for allegedly smacking his wife around. And that happened after the HOF dust-up.

  3. Charles Kuffner says:
    June 9, 2003 at 8:39 am

    Patrick nailed what I’m talking about. I know that most strips are written and submitted weeks ahead of time, but “Tank McNamara” has always been topical, and so it’s always had a shorter turnaround. Given that, I’m surprised by how long it’s taken.

  4. elizabeth says:
    June 9, 2003 at 8:47 am

    I just had to say…

    kerfuffle?

    😉

  5. Rob says:
    June 9, 2003 at 8:48 am

    Given that April and May tend to be dead sports time, especially after opening day and during the first few weeks of NBA playoffs, they may have wnet on vacation and so had more strips prepared than normal.

  6. William Hughes says:
    June 9, 2003 at 10:58 am

    I must be bored out of my mind, since I actually went and looked up the word “kerfuffle” on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary web site.

    Main Entry: ker·fuf·fle
    Pronunciation: k&r-‘f&-f&l
    Function: noun
    Etymology: alteration of carfuffle, from Scots car- (probably from Scottish Gaelic cearr wrong, awkward) + fuffle to become disheveled
    Date: 1946
    chiefly British : DISTURBANCE, FUSS

    Do I need a life or what?

  7. Amy says:
    June 9, 2003 at 12:26 pm

    Heh. I use the word “kerfuffle” all the time, and Carlos mocks me for it. I never bothered to look it up before, because I liked the word enough to not care if it was real. But now if he mocks me again, I’ve got a definition AND etymology to give him. Go, William!

  8. Amy says:
    June 9, 2003 at 12:27 pm

    Heh. I use the word “kerfuffle” all the time, and Carlos mocks me for it. I never bothered to look it up before, because I liked the word enough to not care if it was real. But now if he mocks me again, I’ve got a definition AND etymology to give him. Go, William!

  9. William Hughes says:
    June 9, 2003 at 1:09 pm

    Speaking of words, I also looked up “snarky” (as in the topic General Snarkiness). the definition is below:

    One entry found for snarky.

    Main Entry: snarky
    Pronunciation: ‘snär-kE
    Function: adjective
    Etymology: dialect snark to annoy, perhaps alteration of nark to irritate
    Date: 1906
    : CROTCHETY, SNAPPISH

    This is just more proof of how sad my life really is.

  10. Michael says:
    June 9, 2003 at 2:53 pm

    I always thought “Crotchety” got a bad rap. It sounds like it should be a word for something good. “I can’t believe the crotchety Santorum I got behind the soundboard at the last Burns’ Night dinner.”

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