Nancy

« It’s harder to not read “Nancy” than to read it. » — Wallace ‘Wally’ Wood

We’ve featured Nancy in a previous Hallowe’en Countdown, but it doesn’t quite count, as that was the mind-bending John Stanley mutation of Nancy — not that I adore one any less than the other. This time, we’ve gone with the real deal… which is still plenty odd, thank you.

And, skipping nearly a decade ahead… July 15, 1953 daily.

Those seeking further Bushmiller enlightenment could do worse than to check out Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden‘s How To Read Nancy (2011) and Bill Griffith‘s Three Rocks — The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: the Man Who Created Nancy (2023).

Speaking of owls: the other night, we were surprised (to put it mildly) to discover that one of our cats had brought home a feathered guest.

This is a Northern saw-whet owl, one of the smallest species of owls. Seeing she likely had a broken wing, we quickly called the local animal shelter, and the injured bird was picked up by the local wildlife authorities in the morning. She’ll be in good, caring hands.

-RG

This time of the year is special (and harried) for would-be gardeners – plants carefully nurtured from seed are carefully hardened off (or being plonked into the outdoors soil, for those in the warmer regions), which involves a lot of running back and forth clutching pots and bags of soil, and brandishing favourite raking and digging implements.

I was spoiled for choice when it comes to strips featuring gardening front and centre, so this theme shall be broken up into several installments. Part I: Nancy! We’ve mentioned Nancy a few times… sort of — see here, except that this John Stanley’s Nancy, and here, a post about an unexpected gem co-admin RG dug up from Nancy creator Ernie Bushmiller. Speaking of co-admins, thanks to the aforementioned RG for locating and scanning these strips. Frankly, my arms are elbow-deep in soil and I’m (w)ra(c)king my brain trying to remember what I planted and where, so mental capacity is sorely depleted.

In case the term is new to you, victory gardens were encouraged by the government during wartime — to supplement rations, but mostly boost civilian morale. While the intention was a bit manipulative, surely most would agree that growing one’s own food is immensely rewarding, which reminds me of this meme: