Things are getting a little crazy here in March/April 1981. Send lawyers, guns and money.
416. In the last millennium, before we worried about live shooters, the Mass Assassin Game was popular through American college campuses. It was a single elimination survival game wherein you had to hit your target with a suction dart before your assassin hit you. Once engaged, a victim could shoot back. Aside from no hits during class or Mass, there were almost no other rules. My favorite story comes from triple Domer Christina Smith ’83, ’87J.D., ’87MBA, who made one of her hits in a men’s hall that she entered during a dorm formal in her full-length evening gown. Very Bond girl.
417. In a case of poor timing, two hours after The Observer carrying the previous cartoon arrived at the dining halls, President Reagan and three other men were shot outside the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. This edition of the paper also marked the 50th anniversary of Rockne’s plane crash.
418. This cartoon is one of my favorite gags ever. Meanwhile the back-page sports headline noted that 30 members of the rugby team were suspended for “elephant walking,” which made national news.
419. Father Griffin and I became good friends my last couple of years at Notre Dame. Yet only his beloved Darby appeared in the original cartoons. The ghosts of Griff and Darby have appeared in Molarity Redux.
420. Just a few days after the assassination attempt on Reagan The Observer was again atwitter with speculation over whether he was coming to graduation — and if he should.
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.