Flying squirrels and bunny shadows: That’s gotta mean six more weeks of something.
525. This was a week of one-offs — cartoon ideas I could not expand or link in a series. The Observer reported on the trial of Atlanta serial killer Wayne B. Williams. Meanwhile, in Lafayette, Indiana, a pot-grower was being tried for murder after rigging a shotgun to fire when anyone tried to break into his mobile home.
526. Sony announced a follow-up to its wildly successful Walkman — a similarly “wallet-sized” black-and-white television dubbed “Flat TV.” It did not catch on. Today “flat TV” means something different.
527. This cartoon features “Big John” Whitmer, the head trainer, who also made a cameo in Rudy. Sal D’Allura ’82, now a doctor, was the saber captain on the fencing team. Neither man appreciated having been depicted in my annual shout-out to the fencing team. I earned two monograms as a varsity saber having never touched a weapon before coming to Notre Dame — a tribute to Coach Mike DeCicco’s program, which offered the opportunity to schlubs like me.
528. Pictures from the annual Keenan Review included featured Keenan’s rector, Father Conyers, in a tuxedo. The show featured the cross-dressing Dancing Irish Republican Army and a walk-on by Gerry Faust.
529. This cartoon became another instant classic and is often the one people remember in detail. A friend told me he read it at lunch and didn’t get it. He went to his afternoon classes, had dinner, studied at the library and returned to his dorm. While he watched the news, weatherman Dick Addis announced it was Groundhog Day. He slapped his forehead and said, “That was it!” Getting a worm in someone’s brain like that is one of the rewards of doing a strip.
See the first five classic strips. Buy the book with all 581 original cartoons: MOLARITY: The Compleat Molarity is available at the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore and Amazon.com. 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.