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Molarity Redux: Home for summer

2012-05-21T05:00:00-04:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 31st strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends. Sometimes communication between the generations needs a translator.

Molarity Redux, the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends, is posted monthly. For those new strips, check out the cartoon archives. View the first five classic strips and check back monthly for more classic Molarity strips, also available in the cartoon archives.

Molarity Classic 130-134

2012-05-07T06:00:00-04:00

Strips 130-134 of the popular comic Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, take on printer problems, porn and gambling. Just another week in the Molarity universe.

130. After the printer ran a number of cartoons in the wrong order, I drew this one. FYI: I always drew the cartoon on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of letter paper, vertically. Early on The Observer decided to run them as a strip. So The Observer staff or the printer offsite would shoot the cartoon, and cut and place it on the boards. I guess sometimes they got careless.

131. With this cartoon I tried to rub in the whole cartoon panels out-of-order thing. The heading on page 92 of the ND directory (back when they printed phone books) was some obscene combination that I cannot recall today.

132. The cover of this Observer had Phil Donahue appearing at Washington Hall. The corner heading was a dull “…sports trivia — page 8.” You have to recall that when my cartoon appeared, pornography was not available on computers and smart phones everywhere. You had to walk five miles in the snow, uphill both ways, to get smut.

133. The cover of this Observer had Father Hesburgh appearing on the Phil Donahue show. In previous cartoons I explained the laundry service they used to provide to men’s dorms. Someone asked me if I was saying Jim was a cross-dresser. I was not.

134. In this Observer , page 14 appeared on page 3, so printer problems continued and the first two panels of my cartoon on the misplaced page 14 were reversed. Mardi Gras at Notre Dame was a weeklong casino in Stepan Center. This was before Indian or riverboat casinos were common and before the local bishop decided gambling was not a great way for a Catholic university to prepare for Lent. The Mardi Gras booth in the third panel was the Grace-Lewis booth. Our theme was Dante’s Inferno, so I designed the booth to look like hell.

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.

Molarity Redux: Question of the Day

2012-04-23T06:00:00-04:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 30th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends. The newspaper’s “question of the day” might be a little slanted…

Molarity Classic 125-129

2012-04-09T06:00:00-04:00

Strips 125-129 of the popular comic Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, take on reality shows, beer from China and even parietals.

125. These cartoons were designed for people in their 20s whose eyes could read the fine print. The TV is featuring dialogue from Charlie’s Angels. Headline in The Observer was about Patti Hearst being granted executive clemency by President Carter.

126. This Observer headline was “Carroll Hall abolishes parietals; plan protest,” which was an unsanctioned action on their part. It was essentially meaningless. This cartoon was inspired by a conversation with classmate Rich Role, now deceased, who is hailed in the last panel. I probably should have used the tag “1/3 the calories for 1/3 the people” but at the time is made more sense this way. Not sure why.

127. It has been so long since I needed shampoo. Do they still make Breck? The TV is featuring dialogue from Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.

128. Here’s another innocuous cartoon, meanwhile the headline is that Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran. The sports headlined Moose Krause (then athletic director) celebrating his 66th birthday. That seemed so old back then.

129. This cartoon was quickly drawn so respond to the timely news. I frequently made cartoon series for four days only, so I could throw in an impromptu cartoon at the beginning or end of the week. Back then I would try to work a week in advance in case school work or the fencing team interfered with my cartooning. BUT the printer ran the cartoon panels in the wrong order!!!!!!

Easter Bunny's Amazing Day

2012-04-04T10:15:00-04:00

Easter Bunny’s Amazing Day was written by Cathy Gilmore and Carol Benoist and illustrated by Jonathan Sundy, Notre Dame class of ’05.

From IHS Publishing, the children’s book tells the story of a small bunny who is afraid of nearly everything until he has an encounter with Jesus.

One reader said on Amazon: “This narrative is a wonderful way to communicate the religious meaning of Easter through our cultural idea of the Easter bunny.”

Find on amazon.com

New South Bend mayor addresses old problems

2012-03-30T14:00:00-04:00

Being asked to speak about innovation in city government after only three months as America’s youngest small-city executive might feel a little like winning the Nobel Peace Prize just after winning the White House, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg joked as he began his presentation March 30 at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. (Interpretation: You hope your greatest achievements still lie ahead of you.)

Later, when a student asked about his long-term political aspirations, the congenial and self-effacing Buttigieg, who took office January 1 — 18 days before his 30th birthday — noted that his future opportunities will depend on the quality of the job he does now in trying to solve some tough old problems. “Really, all anybody cares about is if I’m any good or not,” he said.

He’s set high expectations for himself. Buttigieg, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated Rhodes scholar whose short consulting career took him around the world advising senior business and government leaders and who campaigned as an innovative, home-grown outsider to city government, noted that “innovation” is an oft-bandied term too blandly associated with “fresh thinking” and technological change.

But the youthful mayor who takes pains to listen to the young also sees power in old ideas. And change, he points out, can be for good or ill. Innovations have to be beneficial and an idea, whether familiar or new, becomes interesting and meaningful when it “addresses a problem that already exists.”

Citing the example of Facebook, Buttigieg also emphasized the importance of human relationships to innovation. The social networking website, which reportedly boasts more than 800 million active users, didn’t invent social networks, he said. Instead, it organized and mapped them and gave them a new space where they could grow. But it wouldn’t have worked if those relationships — and people’s desire to maintain them across the boundaries of time and space — didn’t already exist.

Relationships stand at the heart of innovations that Buttigieg sees transforming the city he now leads. He cited several with strong Notre Dame connections, such as smart sewer technology that’s keeping wastewater out of the St. Joseph River and city funds from going to Washington, D.C., in the form of stiff fines for environmental violations. He’ll be looking to Notre Dame as a resource as he tackles some of the city’s deeply entrenched problems with crime, economic development and abandoned housing.

Education, another complex local issue, is probably “the most important thing I don’t control,” Buttigieg said in answer to a student’s question about education reform — a hot topic on campus this year. What he can do is develop a strong working relationship with teachers, parents, school board members and superintendent Carole Schmidt, who is almost as new to the job as he is, in ways that reflect how much the city and the school system depend on each other. And he can challenge Notre Dame students to volunteer as mentors, which he called the best way for them to have an impact on the South Bend community.
Notre Dame Magazine approached Hizzoner with a few questions after his lecture in Mendoza’s Ten Years Hence series at the Jordan Auditorium.

NDM: You talked about looking to other communities for examples of things they’ve tried to solve similar problems. With regard to the relationship you have to Notre Dame as a major employer and as a huge resource of ideas, are there other models of the relationship between universities and their communities that interest you?

Mayor Buttigieg: There are a whole bunch. Duke and Durham is really interesting. They came together. They created a big alliance and that really is part of what led, as I understand it, to the Research Triangle being set up. So that’s one that’s intriguing to me. I know that when the mayor of Evanston was elected, she actually baked cookies and brought them over to the president of Northwestern as a way to show that it was time to move past some of the town-gown issues they’d been seeing there.

NDM: Father John did not bake you cookies?

MB: No (laughs), not yet, but I do really value the relationship, because you know for a long time Notre Dame was really focused on the world — and still is — but Notre Dame was less concerned with the city and more concerned with its place as a world university. Now I think Notre Dame as an institution understands that its success is tied up in South Bend’s success. And I have felt that I have a great partnership right now at Notre Dame. I’m very excited to see what grows from it.

NDM: Are there particular areas where you might look to the University for input?

MB: You know, there’s a whole bunch, it’s everything from those little innovations I showed you, so just engaging the intellectual talent at the university, to working with the university to make sure we have the right kind of land use and that the neighborhoods unfold in a good way, to inviting different classes of students to take South Bend as a case study and see what they can help us see about ourselves. Lastly, just economically, everybody here’s a stakeholder, and so making sure we’re paying attention to the concerns of employees and the staff and the students are all things that we can always work to get better at. But I’m delighted that we’re getting off on the right foot with the University, and I’m excited to see what will come of it.”

John Nagy is an associate editor of Notre Dame Magazine.

ND professor’s book reaches top of best-seller list

2012-03-27T12:30:00-04:00

Thanks to St. Patrick’s Day promotions, Jay P. Dolan’s The Irish Americans: A History climbed to No.1 on The New York Times April 1 nonfiction ebook bestseller list. Both Amazon and BN.com featured the book as their daily Daily Deal and Daily Find respectively.

In the book, the Notre Dame emeritus professor of history offers a vivid narrative of the Irish in America from the 18th century to the present, interweaving issues of religion, politics, labor and nationalism.

For more information or to purchase the book, which is available as a hardcover or an ebook, see amazon.com or bn.com.

Molarity Redux: Dinner date

2012-03-26T06:00:00-04:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 28th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends. Professor Mole treats his date to the whine of the day.

The Irish Raconteur

2012-03-12T11:00:00-04:00

Sunburn comes to mind when I remember my father.

Way before I was born and when he was in the U.S. Army stationed in Panama, he used up a day pass for an outing at the beach. So far so good, but he had underestimated the strength of the equatorial sun under an overcast sky. He suffered a burn so bad that at reveille the next day his body resembled raw meat, his arms and legs stiff and on fire.

This so angered his superior officer that he threatened Corporal Charles McGrath with court-martial. But he softened when my father apologized and expressed regret for his “unfortunately fair complexion,” while promising that the first-degree burn would not interfere in the least with the execution of his official duties.

I am reminded of the incident this week because sensitive skin and keeping silent about pain are both widely considered to be characteristics of the Irish. And for me and my siblings, St. Patrick’s Day, the national holiday of Ireland, is less an occasion for parades and leprechauns than for commemorating the man who represents where we come from.

Charlie was never one to go on about his heritage. A splashy green tie accessorizing his salesman’s suit on St. Paddy’s and his loyalty to the pope and to President John F. Kennedy, comprised the limit of his ethnic flourish.

Granted, he did fit a few of the stereotypes:

Catholic? Check.

Large family? Check, he fathered eight children.

Crazy about corned beef and cabbage? Yes. To be fair, he was crazy about all varieties of cuisine, to unhealthful excess.

An affinity for song and dance? He thought “Mack the Knife” was written especially for him, which he sang in his perfectly pitched baritone. And there was that Jackie Gleason grace he displayed on the dance floor at all eight of our weddings.

Yet either through strength of will or the natural attrition from his being three generations removed from the motherland, he escaped the Irish male stereotype of pub-dwelling philanderer. Admittedly, we reprise a running joke at family gatherings that involves the mysterious Aunt Lynn. Mysterious not only because we never met her but also because she was not even a relative but my father’s co-worker who sent gift-wrapped boxes of candy to our home at Easter, Christmas and on Valentine’s Day.

My brother James mused that Aunt Lynn might have been my father’s mistress and the holiday gifts a form of penance for his cheating behavior.

All of which my 92-year-old mother, Gertrude, still finds amusing, secure in the knowledge that her late husband had never fooled around and that the kindly Aunt Lynn, whom she had met, would be the last female to inspire such an inclination.

But the legend persists because, well, he was Irish, and according to legend, Irish husbands, when they were home, beat their wives; and when they were not, cheated on them.

In the final analysis of my father’s proclivities, a statistician would conclude that, absent a DNA sample, it’s impossible to certify that Charles R. McGrath was a member of the tribe. Except for the one detail, going back to the sunburn.

You see, the first time I heard that story, I was 10 and in bed for the night, when my parents were hosting a party. My bedroom door was shut tight, and I dozed off and on to the murmur of a dozen indecipherable conversations downstairs. In one of them I recognized my father’s tones, and slowly I made out individual words and then whole sentences, as the party noise abated and peripheral conversations faded out.

As everyone else went silent, I became spellbound, transported to the coastal tropics of Panama. But something in that baritone — a vulnerable sincerity and a sense of his own surprise as he saw himself and his characters unfold anew in the eyes of his listeners — rendered every other adult in our house mute, so that the story he wove floated upstairs, its scenes still visible in my mind’s eye 40 years later.

The tradition of Shaw, Beckett, Fitzgerald and Cormac McCarthy notwithstanding, anthropologists might disagree on whether an affinity for story-telling is less nature than nurture, less Irish attribute than coincidence of brain orientation.

But we remember my father as the Irish raconteur. And the stories he told to customers, friends and grandchildren, from the Army chronicles to miles of misadventures in the family station wagon, we re-tell today, perpetuating his memory and defining who we are.

Which is why March 17th will remain Charlie McGrath Day for us, with all due respect to St. Pat.

David McGrath is emeritus English professor, College of DuPage and author of The Territory, a collection of stories. Email him at profmcgrath2004@yahoo.com.

Molarity Classic 120-124

2012-03-12T06:00:00-04:00

Strips 120-124 of the popular comic Molarity, which previewed in the Observer in 1977, contains one of the most memorable strips Molinelli did at Notre Dame.

120. This cartoon series was inspired by Woody Hayes, the coach of Ohio State, punching Clemson nose-guard Charlie Bauman after an interception in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Woody was fired the next day, ending his 28-year career. The headline of the Observer included Iran’s military government trying to keep Moslem religious leaders from taking over now that the Shah left.

121. Stories in the Observer show that heaters in the bookstore had warped the vinyl records for sale. And a sports feature heralded sophomore basketball phenomenon Kelly Tripucka.

122. The punch line for this gag was sort of a homage to a Monty Python bit about the gangsters Doug and Dinsdale Piranha. Homage when pronounced without the “h” means you ripped someone and hid behind false obeisance. Well, not false in this case.

123. For decades students have remembered and reminded me about this one. One male Domer constantly used the phrase “Come Lay With Me, You Feisty Wench” as an overture to romance with his Saint Mary’s wife. They had many children. So here it is, the most talked-about cartoon I ever did. It appears my cartooning career peaked on Friday, January 26, 1979. The last 33 years have been just dénouement.

124. Oh, yes, a clever cartoon about censorship, but let’s talk about cartoon #123 again. Look, if was really smart I would have parleyed the previous cartoon into an industry of “Come Lay With Me, You Feisty Wench” T-shirts, bumper stickers, calendars and a nationally syndicated cartoon strip in which every punch line is “Come Lay With Me, You Feisty Wench.”

Molarity Redux: Gaming

2012-03-09T07:00:00-05:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 28th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends. Who’s gaming who?

Networthy ND 23

2012-02-20T06:00:00-05:00

This edition of Networthy offers a roundup of commentary on the contraception controversy regarding the U.S. Health and Human Services rule that requires almost all employers to offer contraception in their medical insurance plans.

Early last fall, when it became apparent that the Affordable Coverage Act would require Catholic universities to pay for contraception in their medical insurance plans, Notre Dame President Father John I. Jenkins, CSC, wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging an exemption for Catholic institutions.

Following the announcement of the Obama Administration’s compromise, which shifts the burden of payment for contraception from the institution to the insurance company, Father Jenkins released this statement.

Notre Dame law professor Richard Garnett found fault with the proposed compromise and took the Obama Administration to task in an opinion essay in USA Today.

Also in response to the HHS compromise offer, ND law Professor O. Carter Snead drafted an open letter titled “Unacceptable,” which has been posted at the Becket Fund website and signed by more than 300 scholars and others, including 60 from Notre Dame.

At the CNN website, former non-Catholic Notre Dame faculty member Jennifer Glass offers her perspective in a blog post.

Finally, in his New York Times Opinionator blog, philosophy Professor Gary Gutting reflects on the fact that church teaching on contraception has been overwhelmingly rejected by the laity and what this says about the bishops’ authority on the matter. Is it correct that “what the church teaches is what the bishops (and, ultimately, the pope, as head of the bishops) say it does”?

Molarity Classic 116-119

2012-02-13T06:00:00-05:00

Strips 116-119 of the popular comic strip Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, continue to follow the protest over the housing lottery. The double strip takes a look at the excitement of a close football bowl game.

116. Regular readers will know that anytime Emil is mentioned it is Emil T. Hoffman, the chemistry professor. Here a student receives word of her miraculous achievement. Meanwhile the headline of this, the last Observer before the Christmas break, is Edmund Price announcing the procedure for the housing lottery, which will put some juniors off campus for their senior year.

117. This cartoon, the first after the Christmas break, is an illustration of fan emotions as we watched the 1979 Cotton Bowl, now referred to as the “chicken soup” game. The first panel is how we felt with 7:37 seconds remaining in the game. Then Joe Montana came back after sitting out much of the second half with hypothermia — treated with blankets and chicken bouillon. In the second panel Tony Belden blocks a punt and Steve Cichy runs it in for the touchdown. Montana connects with Vagas Ferguson for a two-point conversion. In the third panel, after a 61-yard drive, Montana runs into the end zone for another touchdown and follows with another two-point conversion. In the fourth panel Montana completes a pass to Kris Haines for a touchdown as time runs out. In the fifth panel Joe Unis kicks the extra point, but there’s a penalty flag against Notre Dame. In the sixth panel Unis is rekicking the extra point. By panel seven the second attempt is good.

118. The ambiguity of the characters of this cartoon was purposeful, as I thought this was a general administration policy and not meant as a slander against anyone in particular. Given the priestly blacks, the person on the right could be Father Hesburgh, Father Joyce or Father Burtchaell. Given the plaid jacket on the left, the character could be Edmund Price, Richard Roemer or Father Burtchaell.

119. Wow, young Michael going for political humor. Very dangerous for a comic strip! Meanwhile, on the sports page of The Observer was a cartoon showing a USC player claiming the No. 1 position while on his shoulder is perched a referee holding a rope that has lassoed Notre Dame and Michigan.

Networthy ND 22

2012-02-06T06:00:00-05:00

Pirates and the Protestant Reformation, anti-matter and crying babies. Those are some of the topics covered in this edition of Networthy. One thing is certain: No one can ever accuse Notre Dame people of having narrow interests.

If the short film Fishing Without Nets, co-written and produced by John Hibey ’05 is even a tenth as exciting and intense as the movie’s trailer (and it must be since the fictional film about Somali pirates told from their perspective won the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize in short film making) then hang onto your seat. The film short, directed and co-written by Hibey’s longtime friend, Cutter Hodierne, who made a name for himself with his 2010 concert film U2:360 Degrees at the Rose Bowl, drew so much buzz at Sundance, that a feature-length version is now in the works. Hibey and Hodierne hope to begin filming the feature this summer, possibly in South Africa.

Notre Dame historian Brad Gregory, along with the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty, were guests on the WGN radio interview show Extension 720 in January, discussing Gregory’s newly published book, The Unintended Reformation, about the long term and sometimes surprising effects that the Protestant Reformation has had on the modern world. Listen to a podcast of their discussion.

Ever since John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 talk to Southern Baptist ministers in Houston, the question of a presidential candidate’s religion was thought to be a non-issue. However, apparently not. It has resurfaced this year with some Christians being uncomfortable with Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. In his New York Times Opinionator blog ND philosophy professor Garry Gutting examines whether a presidential candidate’s religion ought to be an issue.

Light sabers and time travel aren’t real — at least not yet — but another science fiction plot convention, anti-matter, truly does exist. Notre Dame adjunct professor of physics and Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln tells all about it in an entertaining brief video.

Writing in the British newspaper The Guardian, ND Law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell argues against . the “targeted killing” policy of the Obama Administration which has employed drone aircraft to kill targeted civilians — including an American citizen— in Pakistan and Somalia

Once upon a time (namely the latter half of the 20th century), all the psychological experts advised parents to let their child “cry it out.” The advice then was if you want a healthy, independent child, don’t respond to an infant’s sign of distress. Today, we know that is the worst thing a parent can do, ND child psychologist Darcia Narvaez says in her Psychology Today blog.

Molarity Redux: Lassie Goes to Hollywood

2012-01-30T06:00:00-05:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 27th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends.

Molarity Classic 111-115

2012-01-16T06:00:00-05:00

Strips 111-115 of the popular comic strip Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, follow the protest over the housing lottery, a little publication called by some “the dog book,” and the agony of finals.

111. The headline on The Observer was about 150 students pitching sheet tents to protest the housing lottery. The shortage of dorms meant that juniors might not get guaranteed housing in dorms on campus the following year. Father Hesburgh came out of the Main Building to talk with the students.

112. Edmund Price was the director of housing and the face of the administration when it came to the threatened lottery. The deal was that if not enough students opted to go off campus then the juniors would be entered into a lottery to see who got to stay on campus. At the time Grace and Flanner Halls were the newest dorms on campus and the only women’s dorms were Farley, Breen Phillips, Walsh, Lyons and Lewis. They had not even announced the construction of the Pasquerillas yet.

113. The professor in this cartoon was based on architecture Professor Steve Hurtt, who would literally say in class “blah, blah, blah” when he was skimming through the material. Strangely, with all the faculty and staff caricatures I did, I never got a complaint letter or any letter from any one of them. I was told the faculty read the cartoon as much as the students. About this cartoon however, I did receive a letter from a history professor who said the very thing happened to him but he got through the syllabus by “cutting out everything between Fort Sumter and Appomattox Courthouse.”

114. Back before social media there was a printed bound book called the Freshman Register in which our pictures appeared. It was nicknamed by insensitive people (not me) the “dog book.” BTW, in the last panel you can see in Mitch’s hair the name DEB. I guess I had not broken up with my home-town-honey girlfriend yet. For just about all the cartoons in my freshman and sophomore year you will find DEB hidden someplace. It was my Hirschfeld-Nina tribute.

115. This probably actually happened in the Memorial Library during finals, but I thought I made this up. The cover of The Observer has a photo of the world’s third tallest magician, Mark Davis ’82 (now Father Mark Davis), performing at a children’s party in LaFortune. I mention that only because we remained friends during the years. We met during a screw-your-roomate party at Breen Philllips, and we had more fun talking to each other than with our dates. Sorry.

Magazine job opening

2012-01-15T09:00:00-05:00

John Monczunski, an associate editor at Notre Dame Magazine, is retiring at the end of March, and the magazine now has an opening in its editorial department. See the job posting for details.

Molarity Redux: The Flirt

2012-01-06T07:00:00-05:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 26th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends.

Molarity Classic 106-110

2011-12-22T09:15:00-05:00

Strips 106-110 of the popular comic strip Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977, follow the ever-present changes to the ND alcohol policy and the heartbreak of football losses.

106. This cartoon did not launch well, as people could not get past the first statement. The University was justifying their alcohol policy because Notre Dame’s instances of alcohol abuse were above national averages. So I figure if our instances of sexual activity were below the national average, the administration would work to bring up the average. The headline in The Observer on November 17, 1978, was about the Jim Jones Camp’s mass suicide in Guyana.

107. This was the last cartoon headed into the break. Notre Dame was ranked #8 with an 8-2 record and headed to California to play #3 Southern Cal with a 9-1 record.

108. This was the first cartoon after the break and the USC game. At halftime USC led 17 to 3. But in the fourth quarter, Montana and the Irish came back with three touchdowns. The Irish were leading 25 – 24 with 56 seconds left in the game. A quarterback sack forced a USC fumble but the ref’s called it an incomplete pass. Instead of the Irish recovering the ball, USC stayed alive and got a field goal with 2 seconds left to win 27-25. In the cartoon, the games the doctor prescribed are the original green jersey game at home (USC 16 – ND 49) and the national championship victory (ND 38 – Texas 10).

109. A cover story in The Observer reported on the San Francisco shooting by Dan White of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk. The sports page had an extensive article on Joe Montana, the “comeback kid.”

110. With mass suicide in Guyana, a series of major earthquakes hitting Mexico and the Harvey Milk shooting in San Francisco, the editorial in this Observer is complaining that the University Administration would not permit a student-operated “record” store on campus. By way of explanation, “records” were used to play our music on our car-sized “stereos.” We would go to a store and “download” them from bins and pay for them using “cash” we handed to a “cashier.”

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.

Molarity Redux: Uniforms

2011-12-12T13:00:00-05:00

Welcome to Molarity Redux, the 25th strip in the updated, continuing adventures of Jim Mole and friends. It’s time to go bowling.