Talking to plants... Nice to see Zonker getting back to his roots! (Rim shot!)

Zonker needs a copy of The Wise Old Gnome Speaks: How to Really, Really, Really Care About Your Garden. Gnome is more of a plant empath, but whispering is good, as plants like the CO2!

I'm very disappointed the Zees' crop is hydroponic. I hope they will quickly see the error of their ways and raise their next with pure natural sunshine (I know Colorado may not always be the warmest climate, but...).

What a sweet surprise to see Z talking to his plants again…..i guess i should have seen that coming!

Is Zonker going to turn into a nice version of Walter White? Like White, Zonker has been full of potential his entire life and now fate is conspiring to make him the person he was always supposed to be.

"Rocky Mountain High" was written up at Williams Lake near Old Snowmass. John and his friend Tom were up there on an October afternoon swimming in the lake and doing some mushrooms. There is a big boulder in the middle of the lake that was heated by the sunshine all day. In the evening, John and Tom crawled up on the warm boulder and lay there looking up at the meteor shower in the sky.

We wore CALM t-shirts in '77 at CSU and followed Zonker in the Collegian. It was just something 19 year old soph's did to be edgy. Now this, in Colorado. I'm conflicted. Am I just too old now?

Oh, wow. The mountains are rippling!

Zonker has been waiting for this moment all his adult life. I am glad to see that marijuana legalization is happening in our lifetime. Come on California, our turn is next.

I wonder if John Denver ever thought that "Rocky Mountain High" might one day refer to pot farms in Colorado. It's even more ironic that (in the strip) Denver lived next door to a future one.

Re ZZ Bud on Amazon! Let's see... Beauty, Health, and Grocery -- check. Natural & Organic -- check. Tea? Maybe not. But Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know is #51 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Cultural Policy.

GT has always impressed me with his ability to say so much with so little. In Sunday's strip, I think I detect a resigned tolerance in Zonker's facial expression for Zip's hopeless cluelessness. It may be that Zipper goes to his grave without ever achieving the more worldly eyes of the strip's mature characters. On a related note, I can't help but wonder what eyes Duke and Earl hide beneath their sunglasses.

I just want to let GBT know how much I've been enjoying Alpha House. The characters, for all their diversity, flaws and foibles, are quite likeable and, from the perspective of this moderate independent, make the GOP look good. I'd vote for them! It's a refreshing reminder of what the party was capable of being before it allowed itself to be hijacked by extremists. John Goodman's Gil John Biggs is a masterpiece. I'm going to be rooting for him!

As a long-time South African fan (I've read the entire archive), I have to say I appreciated the Nelson Mandela reference. I don't know if the strip was created before his death or not, but to me it was a gentle acknowledgement of someone once jailed and demonised as a "terrorist" (and considered as such by a number of international politicians who were, hypocritically, first in line to sing his eulogies), but who became the revered father of a new nation, claimed by all races, through patience, a spirit of reconciliation, and being on the right side of history. I hardly think it's offensive to make a similar point about marijuana legislation and/or Zipper's skewed priorities (the gag is actually about what lessons Zipper has taken from history, if you must analyse it). One thing Mandela was famous for was his sense of humour -- I doubt he would have found this strip insulting.

To be fair, Zipper would be just as likely to make the comparison even as he watched Nelson Mandela's funeral on television, since Zipper possesses neither good sense nor good taste. And Zonker has a habit of responding to his more off-the-wall remarks in the kind of warm non-responsiveness often adopted by the mothers of three-year-olds in the supermarket.

I found the Nelson Mandela reference quite funny -- so telling of Zipper's innocent cluelessness -- and Zonker's response, "Yes, but not a perfect analogy" was the icing on the cake.

I have to disagree with well-meaning folks protesting the Nelson Mandela reference. It was there to show how vacuous the Zipper and Zonker characters are, and was nothing about the great man himself. We as a species won't get beyond tribalist, magical thinking and become truly civilized until we stop creating saints and icons for ourselves. We can respect and honor those among us who have earned it without canonizing them.

Flash! The Mandela metaphor was a brilliant, hilarious flash in the murky Zip mindscape; Zipper's designed to offend. Don't blame GT.

Although I can understand the view that today's Nelson Mandela reference was out of line, I think that the comment was a prescient satire of the predictable recent comments of one R. Santorum, who likened himself and the Republicans to Pres. Mandala in their fight against the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Santorum's remark was truly offensive.

Today's Nelson Mandela reference was quite acceptable. Mandela was famous for having a sense of humour. I even believe that he would have found the Obama, Thorning-Schmidt and Cameron 'selfie' photo to be amusing.