Life in the Funnies

Back when I was running Northwestern's WNUR-FM, I was reading the Chicago Reader one week and noticed that cartoonist Lynda Barry had put a message in her nationally syndicated Ernie Pook's Comeek: "Listen to 89.3 WNUR, Evanston-Chicago!"

We were astounded. Lynda Barry knew of our little radio station? And felt fit to tell the world? I contacted the Reader, and found out she had recently moved to Evanston. We invited her down to the station, and she agreed to design a new T-shirt for us -- for free, no less.

More recently, Maria and I got a kick out of one of Carol Lay's comics, which runs locally in the LA Weekly. It was an ode to her Los Feliz neighborhood... which happened to also be our Los Feliz neighborhood. She sketched Franklin Avenue's Shakespeare Bridge, among other landmarks.

Now, of all things, I was taken aback by yesterday's "Sally Forth" comic. Sally's husband was wearing a sweatshirt with the name of Radford High -- my Honolulu alma mater -- on it. How odd:

My dad noticed it too, via Check6Honolulu. Sure enough, Check6's Burl Burlingame reports that "Sally Forth" artist Craig MacIntosh is a Radford grad, and sometimes works the school into the comic. Guess Bette Midler isn't the only Radford grad to do all right for themselves.