The not-so-funny pages

Oh, how I love letters to the editor.

Today, the Winona (Minn.) Daily News carries a letter decrying the violence -- or, at least, threats of violence -- in the comic strips Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine.

Yes, really.

"As examples, look at the Tuesday comics," writes Winona resident John Kosidowski. "In the first panel of Get Fuzzy the text reads, 'He says he is here to kill Bucky,' and the last panel of Pearls Before Swine text reads 'He dies at dawn.' It used to be a daily event when parents would read the comics to their children and all would enjoy the antics of the characters in Peanuts, Baby Blues, Buckles, Family Circus, Dennis the Menace and others. I don’t think it would be possible to read Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine to them and try to get any humor out of the violence described."

I think Mr. Kosidowski would better appreciate Pearls Before Swine if he understood that it's a sea anemone making the threat. You see, anemones have no skeletons, so they can't ... oh, never mind.

Seriously, though, nobody enjoys the antics of Family Circus or Dennis the Menace.