For all the Notre Dame nostalgia alumni experience, certainly no one misses class registration.
170. Billy Joel had a concert on campus the night of this cartoon. This might have been a cheap trick to get mentioned in the concert. If so, it didn’t work. In The Observer the cover announced an Angela Davis speaking engagement in two days. Bookstore Basketball was underway and varsity players like Bruce Flowers and Bill Laimbeer were allowed to participate.
171. The next four cartoons take you through the archaic system of getting classes on your schedule. It involved obtaining computer punch cards from each department after your advisor signed a proposed schedule. This process involved running from building to building in an academic scavenger hunt racing against other students who wanted the popular classes.
172. In The Observer, Fr. Bill Toohey, Campus Minister, in his regular column addressed the issues of sex outside the context of marriage and homosexual relationships. At the core of his thesis, while upholding traditional Catholic teachings, was the need for all people to have friendships (for those under 35 that would mean “friends WITHOUT benefits”) with people of both sexes for healthy maturation.
173. Bookstore Basketball team names in The Observer included some parts that could not be published. (They are bold): Pope John Paul I and the Pope of the Month Club; Stevie Wonder and the Dead-Eyes; SMC Prix; and John Wayne Gacy’s Home for Wayward Boys. Strappamasqon and His Combat Wombats was published in full either because they did not know that wombats was a technique to take hits off a bong while hanging upside down or did not care. (Thank you Mary Beth Sterling ’81 who literally wrote the book on Bookstore Basketball.)
174. Personals in the Observer included: “Revenge! Your chance to strike back at the bemoaned author of Molarity. Pie in the booth of SMC Dining Hall 4:50-5:10 today!” Yes, I was a celebrity face for the AnTostal event. Personals were a popular feature in the paper because of ones like these: “Hey Grace! Do you still like to shave you pom-poms?” or “LAP, I hope by the time you read this it will be all over between us! CAP.”
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.