The End of an Era, Fox-style

FoxTrot to Cease Dailies
Kansas City, MO (12/05/2006) Bill Amend’s popular FoxTrot comic strip will go to a Sunday-only publication schedule as of Dec. 31, 2006, announced Universal Press Syndicate today. The last daily will be Saturday, Dec. 30. Reruns of dailies will be available for Web usage.
“After spending close to half of my life writing and drawing FoxTrot cartoons, I think it’s time I got out of the house and tried some new things,” said Amend. “I love cartooning and I absolutely want to continue doing the strip, just not at the current all-consuming pace. I’ve been blessed over the years with a terrific syndicate, patient newspaper clients, and more support from readers than I probably deserve, and I want to assure them all that while I’ll be now a less-frequent participant on the comics pages, I’ll continue to treat my visits as the special privilege they are.”
Amend, who started the strip in April, 1988, and who has more than 1,000 client newspapers, is taking time to pursue other creative outlets. “In addition to Sunday newspapers, we may see FoxTrot entertaining us in other kinds of media platforms,” says Lee Salem, president and editor of Universal Press Syndicate.
Amend has more than 30 published FoxTrot comic collections and has licensed his characters for calendars and wallpapers for cell phones. He was nominated in 2006 as a finalist for cartoonist of the year by the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award.
Creator(s): Bill Amend

I put that first in today's entry, mainly because I'm somewhat shocked, but mostly saddened at this news. Now, before we all get so emotional that we lose bladder control, FoxTrot is not going away, it's just moving to Sunday's only.

If you're anything like me, which thank God most people aren't, you've loved FoxTrot for years. I've got most of his books, from the very beginning. And yes, like most strips, you can see where the joke recycling began. It's obviously very difficult to maintain constant humor throughout the years, and Bill Amend has done a great job of just that.

Lately, new strips have risen and are gaining popularity. My personal favorite is Get Fuzzy, which I think everyone should read everyday. FoxTrot hasn't lost anything in terms of talent, it's merely been thrown into a much more crowded pool.

Amend claims a desire to pursue other aspects in life, and I wish him the best. You brought us a great comic strip, Mr. Amend, and I look forward to Sundays. Now, sir, have a great life.

ylgu eht, dab eht, doog eht

It's been a hectic week in the life of Blake. The Right Wing has suffered from a lack of posts, due in part to Blake's constant hockey game attendance and his apparent disregard for all things blogging. As such, I'm stepping in to take over as lead blogger here at The Right Wing. That's right, Sanjay is taking the lead. Now, I know most of you already think of me as lead blogger, but the fact of the matter is......

*series of loud crashes, whimpers, crying*

Thank you, Sanjay, for warming up the crowd. I'll let you out of that broom closet when you're ready to apologize for your attempted mutiny.

The last week has been hectic, Sanjay got that right. There was the explosion last post. I liken it to a scene in Scrubs, where Carla has told Turk that she and JD kissed. The shoiw goes to commercial and when it comes back the entire cafeteria is trashed. JD has a tomoato slice stuck to his forehead and Turk says "Okay, admittedly I lost my cool here." That's what happened, I swear. Then the series of consecutive hockey games, during which the team I pull for went 1-3. Now, to explain the title of this entry... well, no, I'm not going to explain it, you figure it out.

ylgu ehT:
Gwinnett won the last game I went to, last Friday. That was good. But the Atlanta Thrashers have lost four in a row, and three that I attended. Thankfully attendance at the games is not suffering because of it. Last night Atlanta looked like a junior league team. They wouldn't go to the puck. Of course, the refs had a hand in some of it. Everytime the goalie touched the puck they blew the whistle. Even if the goalie was going to play it out, the refs stopped play. I hope they had a black unmarked car waiting to carry them from the arena quickly.

dab ehT:
So many losses. That's all I can say.

doog ehT:
Wednesday night I went to the Thrashers game with Davis, and Robert, and Grubbs. Even though we lost, it was the most fun I've had in a long time. Robert's hooked on the greatest game now. Grubbs and I already were hooked, and Davis is just Davis. If you ever get a chance to talk to Davis, take it, you'll feel better afterwards, he's that kind of guy.

The fun was in rehashing our old stories. Grubbs and Rennie are grads now, which means I'll actually get work done next semester. Davis had never heard any of our stories, so it was a new experience for him. Remember, Rennie, "Colors. Horrible, horrible colors."

And.... grades are in for the last semester. I survived with four Bs and two As. I'll take it.

Let's Try to Get a Grip, Alright?

I'm a little dour as I sit here to type this entry. Yes, I'm glad the smester has ended, but tonight was not fun. I'll clue you in on some things: I'm single. I've been single for quite a while. It really doesn't bother me until I get the crazy relationship people asking "Why aren't you dating anyone? Where's your girlfriend?"
I'm cool every other time. Yes, I get depressed about being single, what guy doesn't? But I also realize that, as a single man, I don't have to buy things for a girlfriend, so I have more money. I've got some alone time, which after this last semester is a welcome break.

Tonight, the crap hit the fan in fun and exciting new ways. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive about it. My circle of friends at home isn't huge, there are about ten people in it. Tonight eight of us were together, just hanging out. I'm single and so is my friend. The other six are in relationships. It being Christmas time, we began to plan for the yearly party. Well, the couples began planning solely for themselves and left the two single people out of it. They probably didn't even recognize that they did, I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I became frustrated. There was no cause for me to be angry, but neither was there cause for the planning to become solely couples-oriented. This carried on for about an hour until I had had all I could stand. I stood up, grabbed my stuff, said goodbye, and left. I walked out the door on people who have been my friends for years. But this night wasn't my night, and I went over the edge.

So I stand here to say to my friends, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let it bother me. But seriously, you guys to get a grip, okay. I'm happy your in a relationship, but you don't have to rub it in my face that I'm not. I was okay being single, you've successfully made me feel like it's bad that I am.

Get over yourselves.

Signed,
An Angry, but repentent, Blogger

Remember Me?

Hi there. I'm Blake, your friendly resident blogger here at the Right Wing. As you can tell from some of the recent posts here, life has been rather hectic for the last few weeks. Well, I've muscled my way past the lack of sleep and the hours of writing that went in to completing Fall 2006 as a semester, and I've moved on.

Now, the college student enters a period of total fear known as the "grades are gonna be posted when?" phase. Every student sits on the edge of the seat,or in my case, flat on his back in bed, waiting for the collective professorship of North Georgia College and state University to post final grades. Thankfully I already know one of them. I dropped by to wish one of my professors a merry Christmas (that's right, ACLU, I still say Christmas and so does my calendar), and he proceeded to tell me that grades were in. After a few nail-biting seconds he says, "Let's see, you squeaked by on the final with a 94 and you finished with an 88 in the class." I was, to say the least, thrilled. I called everyone I knew and bragged for a minute. Before you say anything, you make a 94 on a Middle Eastern History exam, then we'll talk.

So now come the long, cold, bleak hours before the webpage is updated to include final grades. I'm hoping that I did well. I see no reason to panic, as every final went off without a hitch. The only thing I have to fear is the African-American literature final. I'm convinced that I could write the equivalent of "Lord of the Rings" and this woman would give me a C. Anyway, her final was Saturday, that's right, kids, a Saturday final, so I lost an entire day of work because of it. But, I knocked it out of the park.

So, here we are again. We wait. And wait and wait and wait. This is the time of year when professors torment students by continually holding out. Thankfully, this crazy ride ends soon. The train is pulling up to the platform, all that's left is for george carlin to punch our tickets so we can leave.

RELATED NOTES:
Saturday night I went to the Thrashers-Penguins game. My uncle was given three tickets and a parking pass, so he took me and my dad. We parked in the owners/players lot, two spaces down from Don Waddell. Our seats were a mere hundred or so feet from the car (for those of you nt in the know, that's close, very close). I meet Jeff Odgers near our suite, and watched a sloppy game featuring some of the best young talent in the league. Atlanta has Ilya Kovalchuk, Kari Lehtonen, and Marian Hossa. Pittsburgh has Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, and Evgeni Malkin. If you are ever blessed with the opportunity to watch Malkin, take it. The kid is a beast. By the way, the Pens won 4-3 in overtime. Rennie, Grubbs, Davis and I will be hitting the ATL Wednesday night to watch the Thrash take on Anaheim in what is sure to be a great game.

PREDICTION TIME
Everyone knows I'm fairly good at predictions. I said that Troy Smith would win the Heisman (okay, that's a no-brainer), so we'll go back a bit. Last summer I said that the final score to the final game of the NBA finals would be Miami 97-92 over Dallas. The final score was 95-92 Miami. I don't even watch basketball.

So here are the BCS bowl games, final score predictions:
Orange Bowl:
Louisville 35, Wake Forest 14
Sugar Bowl:
LSU 28, Notre Dame 10
Fiesta Bowl:
Oklahoma 31, Boise State 28
Rose Bowl:
Michigan 38, USC 31
BCS National Championship Game:
Ohio State 24, Florida 18
(I said at the end of the Rose Bowl last year that Ohio State would be national champs this season and I'm sticking with it.)

Well, there you go kids, enjoy. I'll be back a bit more regularly now that the semester has ended. And glory to God I'l be back to normal instead of manic depressive. G'night, Gracie.

The Jaded Senior Reformed

Lately the posts here at the Right Wing have been light-hearted. But now we must discuss something serious. Robert called it the perfect storm, the precise moment when three jaded seniors simultaneously snapped and spat fire and brimstone on each other while people fled in terror.

Grubbs has his excuse: he hasn't slept enough, he's single, and he stressed. The same excuse applies to Robert and to me. We're all tired. Not one of us has had the proper amount of sleep since midterms. I just learned that, instead of graduating in May, I'm stuck there until at least December 2007.

But you know what, guys? What do we really have to stress over? Tests? At least our tests are written exams.

For some reason, the thought came to me today: we're not parents at St. Jude watching a newborn struggle for life. We're not a child whose parent is on their deathbed. We're not homeless and fear-stricken because of this cold weather that's coming. We're not soldiers putting our lives on the line for peple we've likely never met, nor never will meet. We're not waiting on the doctor to call us with results that could mean life or death.

We're students. That's all. We're all striving for the same goal. Sure, this semester has been rough.

I'm going to attempt to describe this in a whimsical manner. If you're ever watched the TV show Futurama, you may be familiar with an episode in which everyone on earth is given a $300 tax rebate to spend however they want. Fry, the main character, decides to purchase 100 cups of coffee. By the end of the episode, Fry has inhaled 99 cups and is jittery and spastic. The room he is in catches on fire. Fry single-mindedly grabs his hundreth cup of coffee. At that precise moment the world slows down. Fry watch a hummingbird flap its wings. He saves everyone from the fire and the show ends happily. That's what happened to me driving home tonight. I had a moment where the stress was nearly pushing me over the edge. I began frantically tuning through radio stations. Then I hit 104.7. They've been playing Christmas music. My moment of zen occurred then. EVerything seemed to stop and I was able to catch my breath. Am I still kinda stressed? You bet, but it doesn't bother me so much now.

I personally have never been through a semester like this. I'm only a few inches from going over the edge, but I'm still standing, and now I'm on firmer footing. I'm going to walk away from this semester. I'm not going to let things take me down.

I'm not going to watch one teacher destroy my semester because she doesn't understand the basic premise of collegiate students having their own ideas. This semester will not beat me.

Therefore, I am now a jaded senior reformed. I know what to expect, and I'm going to meet it head-on.

So, in the spirit of political incorrectness: Merry Christmas, and God Bless.

The Insanity Continues

Sanjay here, keeping real until Blake's mental capacities return to normal.

Here's the deal. The semester is almost over. As a result of this, Blake has gone head-first into the left field deep end crazies. Honestly, I think he needs a room with padded walls.

He sent me these pictures and a letter saying that my Christmas bonus was being spent on tickets. Apparently, he and Grubbs, and that Rennie fellow over at Skewed are going to a hockey game at some point in December, a game to which I did not merit an invite. Fred, did you get one? Akbar? Burro? Samuel L. Jackson? No. Crap. Now that Rennie and Grubbs are graduating, well, Blake's a little worse for wear.

Of course, in Blake's defense, he's had a rough semester. Troubles with his internship, a teacher that he's reported twice to the department head, too many papers, leanring he's got another semester before graduation, his grandmother was sick and he has even more papers to write. It's been a long time since I've seen so much stuff hit one person at one time.

But things are settling down. Maybe Blake will be back soon. I heard he taught Rennie how to do math, but that may be a vicious rumor. He's also kinda stumped about this whole Wikipedia article that appeared.