The Tin Lizard

Beetle Bailey: Out Of The Army, Into The Museum Please

I've wondered for many years about the comic strip "Beetle Bailey."  It has persisted in newspapers around the country, yet it seems impossibly out of date.  The army life it depicts seems to be the one that existed, say, in the 1940s.  Even in the late 1960s it had almost nothing in common with my own army service at about the same time, perhaps because it always showed garrison life, rather than war - and it still does!  And finally, its huge dependence on the constant repetition of the same old gags (the brutal-but-sometimes-lovable "Sarge," for example) makes it quite a bore.

Well, we have put up with all that for many years.  But I was prompted to write this post when I saw the strip last Sunday, February 16.   It has the characters imagining their life after the army based on the experience they gained in service:  scrubbing floors, hauling garbage, and the like.   Good lord, how out-of-touch is that?  Today's soldier is a high-tech miracle, trained in all kinds of advanced fields.  The Beetle Bailey caricature is not only totally wrong, but an insult to today's servicemen.

The problem seems to be that this strip is one of the longest-running, perhaps THE longest-running, comic and is still produced by its original creator (though now apparently joined by one or more of his sons as collaborators). 

Beetle joined the army in 1950.  It's way past time he retired. 

 

Olympic Musing

The reports of conditions in Sochi for the opening of the Winter Olympics -- such as unpaved streets, hotels with brown and black running water, lack of electricity and the like -- take me back to my own first and last visit to the Soviet Union in 1963 as a student of Russian language.   There were similar problems to deal with then.  It seems not much has changed.

I've increasingly come to believe that the constant addition of new ostensible "sports" makes a travesty of the original concept of the Olympic Games, which emphasized individual fitness, skill, and achievement.  Team sports (except possibly those involving a team competing as individuals, like a relay race) don't belong.  Sports that are more about form than function, like ice dancing, don't belong.  Games whose winners cannot be determined except by points awarded by a panel of "judges" on a subjective basis, don't belong. 

In fact the modern games have become an industry; their activities have more to do with jingoism and national pride than with athletics.  The business of "hosting" the games has become very competitive. The winner gets to showcase a nation and a city perhaps, and to reap the windfall that comes from having a huge and very expensive conference come to town.   That other competition (between athletes) has become less important over time, even while it has also become more commercial, and competitors radiate brand names and winners go home to reap big testimonial contracts.

The spectacle of selecting a different city every four years to host the Games seems hugely wasteful, as each host spends millions of dollars for facilities and infrastructure that are quickly outmoded and may have no other purpose.  Double that because the world then goes through the same process to create the Winter Games in a different place every four years. 

Why not establish a permanent home for the regular "summer" games?  Greece might be a nice choice.  As for the winter games, they may have a raison d'etre (on a smaller scale than now), but I did enjoy the tongue-halfway-in-cheek look at the legitimacy of the Winter Olympics published yesterday by Alexandra Petri. 

Teacher's Pets

A Washington-DC area school has found itself under fire for its plan to hold a dance -- a dance where A students would also get pizza; B and C students would join the dance late, after the pizza; and others ... well, forget about them.

What surprises me here is that school officials, PTSA leaders, and other supposedly responsible adults see nothing wrong in this plan.  Further, that it's being said that this event is not very different from similar efforts being made at other schools in the area.

I'm all in favor of recognition for achievement; and I have criticized the trend (opposite to the dance-throwers above) by which every student, regardless of achievement, has to receive a prize, a trophy, a certificate, or whatever.  Maybe this dance is a cry in the wilderness from teachers, administrators, and parents who see this "rewards all around" policy for the sappy sham it is.

But schools DO provide recognition for students who make good grades.  By giving GRADES, for one thing; and with honor rolls (much overpadded thought they may be these days), and by choosing them for honors, allowing them into advanced placement classes, and the like. 

Is there a problem with adding a little party to that?  Maybe.  The reporter in this account fails to say who's paying for the event, so we assume it's the school.  Should school funds be used to stage an event that treats different students differently?  I don't think so.  It seems even dumber when education specialists have demonstrated time and again that rewards for grades generally does not incentivize students.

Well, perhaps if the dance goes forward as planned, there may be some poetic justice.  Have the planners considered that if this school is anything like schools I attended a few short decades ago, the kids with the A's are likely to be the ones who don't dance, or that those not invited might choose to start a rumble with those who are?