Mike's eyes changed overnight! What did he and J.J. "talk" about all night to make this happen?

I've always been fascinated that the original printing of today's strip had J.J. telling Mike she'd initially thought he was a "nurd." This was changed to "nerd" later on. Is "nurd" actually incorrect, or just a less common spelling?  Was GBT under pressure from the powerful Nerd Lobby? Did Pharrell Williams' N.E.R.D. spell it out in too emphatic a fashion? This remains the biggest question facing Doonesbury historians since the disappearance of Mike's sister. Oh yes, Mike, the authorities know about you...

I see that today's version of the strip featuring conversation between J.J. and Mike, which originally ran on 9-19-80, updated (corrected) the spelling of "nurd" to "nerd." Good work.

I really loved your January 4th strip. The last thing I said prior to leaving for Vietnam was: "I don't think my country and its leaders would send me to a place it didn't want me to go, to do something it didn't want done." And they did. And now I see these vets and I say "Thank you for your service." And I don't say, "I wish the country had never sent you there in the first place because you were nothing more than a pawn in a fool's game and your sacrifice was literally for nothing. You were a patriot in the most profound sense of the word, and the people who sent you were liars and manipulators and purely evil monsters who deserve to burn in hell for all eternity. They destroyed my faith in them and in the country by betraying me and my fellow soldiers, and then again by doing the same thing to you and your brothers (and sisters)."

Sadly, I can't tell them that, because to do so would either enrage them or destroy their faith and make them "uncomfortable, and anxious, and depressed," although many of them are that way already, because they already realize it at a subconscious level. And now, "welcome to my world." It's a tough place, where waking up puts you into a nightmare, where the only viable alternative is to observe what happens and marvel at it, and comment on it as you do. Keep up the good work. You help me stay sane...and alive.

I really like Doonesbury but have been watching Alpha House lately via my daughter and BitTorrent. It is a really good show. I particularly like the bit where the drones get blown to bits. If Mr. Trudeau has to take time off to make this show it is fine by me. There is so little decent TV around at the moment (or movies) Alpha House really stands out.

Everyone's picking on J.J., but in these 1980 strips I'm struck by how little Mike has changed from his social awkwardness in those first Yale-freshman days.

Seeing J.J. and Mike meet for the first time is a bit like watching your very favourite disaster movie. You know what's going to happen, but there is the faintest hope they might not make the same mistake twice.

I love J.J. She does not deserve the trials you went on to inflict on her.

Oh, look...I never noticed before. Mike had the innocent eyes back then.

"Live in them. This is just borrowed." Mike's original sin.

So! Mike "lives" in leathers!  It's plain that he is not immune to J.J.'s charms -- and is willing to lie through his teeth to impress her.

I just wanted to send you a note of thanks for all your years of Doonesbury. I have followed it almost since the very beginning, and it is my favorite comic strip of all time. Of course, I wish for you to live the life you want, but selfishly I hope you never retire from drawing at least the Sunday strip. In any case, I think that you have contributed greatly to the national discussion of our culture, and I thank you for that. Plus, your graphics keep getting better and more adventuresome in the Sunday strip. Cool.

Okay, so Mike and J.J. didn't work out in the end, but the result was still Alex!

J.J. meets Mike? Run away! Run away!

GBT really nailed stoner mentality with his characterization of Zeke -- a kind of blank numbness of denial, not unlike The Big Lebowski. Since he wrote today's strip, this quality has gradually seeped throughout the breadth of the culture.

I'm not usually known for my fashion comments, but my sisters had those fringed woven bags like the one that J.J. is rocking as she phones home.

"My guess is that it was a marijuana joint [that started the fire]." If it weren't for Zeke confessing to having had "a small accident" that guess would not be a good one. Left unattended, cigars and "marijuana joints" stop burning. Cigarettes are treated to keep burning (try it sometime). Butts are routinely tossed. Roaches are saved.

It's Duke Day on the Flashbacks page! Six of eight strips feature the irrepressible Doctor/Father/Ambassador/Captain/Mailbagger/Maximum Proconsul!

I served in the Navy for six years. I did it for the GI Bill, which was taken from me as soon as I mustered out. Yes, we sued and eventually got a tiny piece back, but it was too little and far too late for me. I don't need or want thanks, I just want a fair deal, and America cheats veterans wholesale.

As the daughter of a vet, niece of a vet, cousin of a vet, and sister of a Reservist I am disgusted by the way this country treats its service members both current and retired. If you really want to thank a Vet for their service, demand that our government compensate on a sliding scale according to service length and rank every single veteran for the rest of their lives, from the lowliest PFC to the highest ranked General. Provide housing and medical care for them and their immediate family for free -- the vet and spouse for life, the children until adulthood or college graduation. Provide any and all education vets want for the rest of their lives for free. And don't ever ask them to pay taxes again. Anyone who volunteers to take a bullet for our country deserves nothing less, and perhaps if we made that kind of commitment to take care of our service members we would not be so eager to send them off to senseless wars.