Kansas became the 34th state in the United States 162 years ago today. This post card, I don't know the year, features a poem called
The Call of Kansas. It was written by Esther M. Clark in 1907. Clark was born and raised in Kansas and wrote this poem when living in Long Beach, California as a sort of love letter to her home state.
Sweeter to me than the salt sea spray
the fragrance of summer rains;
Nearer my heart than the mighty hills
are the wind-swept Kansas plains;
Dearer the sight of a sky wild rose by
the roadside dusty way
Than all the splendor of poppy-fields
ablaze in the sun of May.
Gay as the bold poinsettia is, and the
burden of pepper trees,
The sunflower tawny and gold and brown,
is richer to than these;
And rising ever above the song of the
hoarse insistent sea,
The voice of the prairie calling,
Calling me.
 |
| December 30, 1984 |
I enjoy the clever little "I'll give you $50...no, $10..." gag in the first panel. And I gotta hand it to Veeblefester for not just calling the cops on Wastrel as he traipses through his gated community. I don't know. Maybe Veeblefester lives in Shaker Heights.
If you remove the first two panels (the logo and first panel), like many newspapers do to save space, then we start out with Brutus lightly suggesting his uncle dope himself up. We don't know that Uncle Ted is having trouble sleeping, maybe Brutus just wants his chair and TV back or, if he's at Uncle Ted's, to leave.
My wife and I fall asleep with the TV on these days. How old is Uncle Ted's TV that it doesn't have a sleep timer?
