The only thing harder to find than a way out of jail is American blue jeans.
211. We continue with the Midnight Express satire. Some jokes don’t need explanations, even 34 years later. In this Observer, an article explains how even the Athletic Department is using computers to handle ticket distribution and compiling sports statistics. Mind you this is probably the campus main frame programmed with punch cards.
212. Maybe this one doesn’t need an explanation either, except it was harder for Europeans to get authentic American blue jeans back then. They were a form of currency in certain countries. This being football season, over 25% of the classified ads in this issue of The Observer are about football tickets.
213. Get it? “Subtle and quiet.” “Sneak out.” But the explosion was really big and noisy. Oh well, maybe some jokes don’t deserve to be explained. The Observer cover story notes that Fr. Hesburgh had been appointed the chair of a commission on immigration and refugee policy by President Carter.
214. Yes, Chuck “goes commando,” but that was not pun I intended at the time. Research indicates that this term did not appear in print until 1985, six years after the cartoon. On the cover of The Observer the headline read “Pope (John Paul II) reaffirms traditional women’s roles”
215. Since I drew this cartoon, I have seen plaid sweatpants, so I wonder if that destroys this gag. At this time, The Observer listed some movies appearing at local theaters: Life of Brian, Apocalypse Now, Rocky II, the Deer Hunter and The Muppet Movie.
See the first five classic strips. Check back monthly for more classic Molarity strips. Molarity Redux, the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends, also is posted monthly. For those new strips, check out the cartoon archives.