March Times On

Following up on my post from two Saturdays ago, here's a retrospective of some of my favorite cartoons from the first March of previous decades. I won't limit myself to Wisconsin issues this time, but in order to continue where I left off two weeks ago, I'll start with 2011 and work backward.

This first cartoon referenced a "Letter to Wisconsin Republicans From a Conservative Prison Guard," whose response to Governor Scott Walker and state legislators' attacks on state employees such as himself was to declare eternal opposition to the Republican Party.

I'm curious whether the guy has remained committed to defeating the politicians who had betrayed him. Did he become a Bernie Bro? A Lincoln Projector? A MAGAlomaniac?

Sadly, his letter has vanished from the internet, and I think it may have been published anonymously to begin with, so there is probably no way to know whatever happened to him.

for Q Syndicate, March 2011

Later that month, I drew this cartoon critical of Democratic legislators in Maryland. (See, folks, we liberals do not walk in lockstep the way Republicans do.) I bring this cartoon up partly to show how far we have come in ten years on the issue of marriage equality, but also to discuss colorization. At the time, I was still sending cartoons to Q Syndicate only in grayscale.

In this case, however, I was depicting both rainbow colors on one character and Maryland's flag on the other, neither of which translate well into shades of gray. I made a colorized version back then for this blog, and I might have added it to the files I sent my editors. I didn't have a graphics program capable of saving files in better-for-print CMYK format until the next year, however.

in Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, March 16, 2001

Scott McCallum was elevated to the Wisconsin governorship when Tommy Thompson left to join the George W. Bush cabinet in January, 2001. Thanks to a state constitutional amendment passed after the 1977-79 "Acting Governorship" of Martin Schreiber, McCallum was the first governor to nominate his Lieutenant Governor for State Senate confirmation; he tapped Sen. Margaret Farrow (R-Elm Grove), to be the state's first female Lieutenant Governor.

The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee took issue with the leisurely pace Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala announced for Farrow's confirmation process. Her nomination was announced in March; she ended up taking office in May.

Speaking of things that took from March until May...

for Q Syndicate, March, 2001

I don't have much to say about this cartoon except that it was one of my favorites from that year. I don't often like the non-topical cartoons that get drawn to be held in reserve for when I can't send in a cartoon; it's nearly impossible for a cartoon to be at once topical yet timeless. "The Break-up" was eventually released, probably that May when my better half and I were on vacation in Germany.

Jumping back ten more years in the Wayback Machine...

in Journal Times, Racine WI, March 7, 1991

You sure do, kid. In 30 years, your children will get to experience remote learning via Zoom.

Mommy and Daddy in this cartoon were Baby Boomers my age; junior high schools (grades 7 to 9) in my hometown were conducted in split shifts from 1974 to 1978 because there weren't enough schoolrooms to accommodate all of us at the same time.

The Racine Unified School District did not institute year-round schooling for everyone, but did begin offering it in the 1990's as an elective option at selected schools.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha WI, March 14, 1991

Sometime during the Reagan administration, congressional Republicans began wearing flag lapel pins conspicuously and uniformly during televised joint sessions of Congress — in particular for presidential addresses. Democrats soon followed suit. When our troops went to fight Gulf War I, both sides added yellow ribbons (popularized from the Tony Orlando and Dawn hit from the 1970's). Republicans then started wearing buttons with an agreed-upon slogan on them and, with that war now won, chanting "USA! USA!" at high points during President Bush's speeches. 

By the way, that's supposed to be Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) up in the fifth row between Senators Paul Simon (D-IL) and Al Gore (D-TN).

Stepping back ten more years one last time, I find our old pal President Warren Gamaliel Harding staring out of a picture frame.

in St. Olaf College Manitou Messenger, Northfield MN, March 5, 1981

President Jimmy Carter had named Sidney Rand, the president of the college where I matriculated, as Ambassador to Norway in 1980. Soon after taking office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan notified Rand that he had two weeks to vacate the embassy. That is normal for any change in administration, but Senator David Durenburger (R-MN) called it "a lousy way to do business" nevertheless. "Norway has had four ambassadors in four years," Durenburger told the Minneapolis Tribune, "and to kick him out like that I thought was just another slap in the face to a very important country."

It took almost ten months before Rand's successor, Mark E. Austad, moved into our embassy in Oslo — so you've got no right to complain, Lt. Gov. Farrow! — by which time I had been graduated from St. Olaf and had lost interest in U.S.-Norwegian affairs. Happily, relations between our two countries survived that tumultuous period, and Minnesotans are still allowed to name their football team after their Scandinavian cousins.