television: Browse The Strips
Sunday, January 21, 1990
Sunday, February 18, 1990
Foreign-Language Versions:
If there's a non-English version of this strip available, it'll show up below. Or, you can browse our entire collection on this page.
French Strip:
Friday, December 18, 1992
Sunday, January 24, 1993
Foreign-Language Versions:
If there's a non-English version of this strip available, it'll show up below. Or, you can browse our entire collection on this page.
Afrikaans Strip:
Thursday, October 21, 1993
Thursday, February 24, 1994
Friday, May 30, 1997
Sunday, June 28, 1998
Foreign-Language Versions:
If there's a non-English version of this strip available, it'll show up below. Or, you can browse our entire collection on this page.
Spanish Strip:
Sunday, October 17, 1999
Foreign-Language Versions:
If there's a non-English version of this strip available, it'll show up below. Or, you can browse our entire collection on this page.
Spanish Strip:
Wednesday, October 31, 2001
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Foreign-Language Versions:
If there's a non-English version of this strip available, it'll show up below. Or, you can browse our entire collection on this page.
Spanish Strip:
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 9, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Lynn's Comments: Feeling soft and out of shape, a few of us decided to create an exercise group. We found a capable leader who, for a modest sum, agreed to make us sweat a couple of afternoons a week. She turned out to be a drill sergeant. After a few serious workouts, we were all stiff and sore. I remember lying on the couch in pain, feeling muscles I didn't know existed. I thought that running after, picking up, and carrying kids would have put us all ahead of the game.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Lynn's Comments: This was me. I remember tying knots in the curtains, jumping on the couch, melting crayons on the radiator, peeling the wallpaper, and dropping toys into the biff. I don't think I was doing these things to be destructive as much as I needed stuff to do. We didn't have a TV, mom worked all the time doing laundry, canning, cleaning, and making meals. And when she wasn't doing housework, she sewed for us and did repairs and alterations for the dry cleaners down the street. She tried all kinds of things to keep us occupied. It's just that we needed constant attention and she wasn't superhuman. She did the best she could. Rainy weather often kept us indoors even in summertime, so it would be interesting for me to poll some of my fellow North Vancouverites to see if they too were as full of mischief as we were.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Lynn's Comments: My taste in comics was much more tame than Michael's. I loved Little Lulu. She was a real girl with ordinary looks, cool friends, and a great imagination. I also loved the Disney books--Donald and the kids and Scrooge McDuck topped the list. I wondered what Scrooge did with a house-sized bin full of money. If it was mine, I'd have given it all away. I never imagined that I'd get to know two of the Disney writers who wrote those very books...but, that's another story!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I recently watched a series on HBO that showed not only the most graphic violence, but some of the most explicit sexual scenes I have ever witnessed! Naturally, I wouldn't want young children to see stuff like this. I thought it was over the top and unfit to show as family entertainment. I watched the entire series, glued to the set, and was sorry when it was over.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I remember waking up on the morning of January first hoping to see something new--anything that would tell me that a new year had begun. This is when I became interested in calendars. My first calendar was courtesy of the BC dairy farmers who sent one to all their customers. It had a cow on the top, and stapled to the base were the twelve months of the year--ready to be written on and torn away. I must have been around six because I could write well and I remember making notes on each month--like a grown up.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Lynn's Comments: My grandfather had the only car in the family, so if we went anywhere the bus didn't go, we went with him. He always exacted a price. In order to make a trip profitable for him, we had to stop off at one of his clients' homes first. Gramps was a stamp dealer, so en route to a family picnic, we had the horrible task of having to sit in some old fart's dreary home and behave ourselves until he had ended his talking, his tea, and our patience. As Alan and I sat fidgeting and contemplated his demise, I looked to the future. I thought about having my own home and I vowed that I would always have toys for kids to play with, even if I had no kids myself. One of the first things I bought when I had my first apartment was a teddy bear. Toys have always been essential in my life... to the extent that I still buy them, still find joy in the innovation of new ideas, and still play with them whenever I have a child around to encourage me. My grandfather was a grouchy old miser... but thanks to him, the kids who visit my house enjoy their time!
Friday, May 24, 2013
Lynn's Comments: I forget exactly how much they made, but the image of Tom, the family accountant, tallying up the take will stay forever. He meticulously stacked and sorted every coin, smoothed and organized every bill, and is the only person I have seen (other than the senior vendors in Vancouver's China Town) use an abacus!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Lynn's Comments: Living in a cold climate means having the kids indoors. I swore that television would not be my babysitter, that my offspring would have wholesome, educational, and creative pastimes. I encouraged them to read, draw, build things out of wood, clay, and paper. I bought board games--we played Scrabble, Monopoly, and Crazy Eights. I let them take apart the vacuum cleaner and roll marbles down the hose. I did everything I could think of to keep them entertained, and they, in turn, participated--as long as I played with them. The plan disintegrated if I decided to leave them and do something else, which is when they begged for television. So, I caved. I gave in. I set them up with food and water and turned on cartoons. I was able to work, clean, do laundry, and get stuff done, while my children bathed in the glow of the tube. I felt guilty, but at the same time --anything that saves a mom's sanity deserves a place in the home.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Lynn's Comments: Our small wartime house on Fifth Street had a wood and coal furnace. Warm air was forced through grates in the floor, and these grates were used for everything from drying socks to warming up Plasticine. Plasticine was (and still is) a superb modelling material with which we played endlessly. Heating the house was costly, so our home was often quite cold. We would play on the floor near one of the floor grates, and the smell of warming Plasticine is something I can still recall. I also remember scraping the melted stuff off the floors and the grates when we'd forgotten to remove it.
In our elementary school, we had those large water-filled metal heaters, shaped like a row of packaged hot dogs. Having used the heating system at home for melting stuff, I was intrigued by the possibilities presented by these heaters! At one end, there was an L-shaped valve, which had a small indentation on the top. This tiny valve was very hot, and interestingly, a wax crayon fit into the indentation perfectly. Within a few days, the classroom heaters had a rainbow of melted wax on one end, and an APB was put out for the guilty party. Due to my already colourful reputation, I was detained posthaste and sent to the principal's office. Another memory I have is of scraping melted crayon off the heaters at school, a punishment to fit the crime!
In our elementary school, we had those large water-filled metal heaters, shaped like a row of packaged hot dogs. Having used the heating system at home for melting stuff, I was intrigued by the possibilities presented by these heaters! At one end, there was an L-shaped valve, which had a small indentation on the top. This tiny valve was very hot, and interestingly, a wax crayon fit into the indentation perfectly. Within a few days, the classroom heaters had a rainbow of melted wax on one end, and an APB was put out for the guilty party. Due to my already colourful reputation, I was detained posthaste and sent to the principal's office. Another memory I have is of scraping melted crayon off the heaters at school, a punishment to fit the crime!
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
Lynn's Comments: One of the most effective advertising gimmicks ever was the "jingle." My chums and I memorized all of them, and today, I can still sing the bluesy torch song that extolled the goodness of Du Maurier cigarettes. I'm trying to think of a modern equivalent--anyone heard a really good jingle lately?
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Lynn's Comments: This scenario was actually from a childhood memory. My brother and I did make a television out of a cardboard box, and we did try to put on a show for our friends. What happened was, our dad, who was a born entertainer, took over the box and put on the show for us. He should have been in vaudeville--but, was born a few years too late.
