Re MET OFFICE: No-one takes the science pages of the Daily Mail seriously. The Guardian does a better job. In particular they did a good job demolishing that Daily Mail article.

The November 21 strip notes, "global warming is man-made." I'm certain women have made their fair-share contribution. "Human-made" would have been more inclusive and more correct. Please use language that acknowledges women as part of humanity.

These victory lap strips have the same feel as Mike's annual summer daydream. I'm glad to know they're for real this time.

i am loving the parade for math and science -- damn that's refreshing -- and it summons up the memory of a "winning the Cold War" parade. I think there was something about the "Merrill Lynch prancing bulls." Can you help a fella out ?

It's hard to even type in "legitimate rape" to congratulate you on your reality-based-community week. Surrounded by limitless madness we need to keep our/your sense of humour.

Usually I enjoy Doonesbury and turn to it every morning. However, I don't find the punch line in today's strip ("pregnant legitimate rape victims") very funny.

Re "pregnant legitmate rape victims" -- GBT has the guts to face the real issues. Thanks!

I thought this week's "Victory Lap" series was okay, but using the word 'rape' in a punchline made me shudder. Bad one.

I wonder if anyone from the UK Met Office is marching in the math and science victory lap. They just released a report indicating that global warming stopped 16 years ago.

Today's strip refers to the 99% of climatologists who agree that global warming is man-made, to which I have to say "Good." Because that means we can also cool it, if necessary, the power to create being equal to and as great as the power to destroy.

Loving the strip. But since Mike and Kim are living here in the Pacific Northwest (aka Seattle), it's not fair that their weather should be sunny and cloudless all the time.

This "reality based community" seems rather lightly populated. Sure would like to increase its numbers. Thanks for reminding us it's there, though.

I have reached an age where I have difficulty remembering lots of things, but I do remember Studs Terkel's piece on the art of the supermarket cashier, in his fine book Working.

...and Doonesbury comes out swinging, standing tall for reason, intelligence, and common sense. Thanks, Garry!

Just when I thought Doonesbury couldn't possibly get any better following the wonderful strip with B.D. and Toggle last week, you go and give us the "math and science victory lap"! Hoping for many more victories for the math and science team.

Re MENTION: I think Mark Spitz was Zonker's bete noir because Spitz showed what self-discipline and ambition can do -- and that is the part of reality Zonker does not want to even acknowledge, much less admit. (Sorry, Z. We do love you!)

Today's is possibly the best strip I have ever read. I still remember the day, 21 years ago, when I became just too old for a store employee to look at me "that way." Ah, nostalgia...

Today's "checkout" strip was right on the money and gave me a chuckle. Fortunately, even at the big local chain market where I shop, the cashiers are friendly, but at other kinds of chain stores, not so much. I occasionally stop talking until the cashier, usually a young woman like this one, makes eye contact. They may behave like robots, but I'm not gonna. They might also not "see" anybody over 50, but we're bold! We're old! Get used to it.

Today's strip brings to mind the time a local chain grocery store installed an edict that all cashiers would conduct each check-out strictly by script. There was a cashier who'd been working there 20 years, and handled each customer conversationally like it was an art form; any kind of person walked away from this woman's register feeling better than when they walked in. The cashier wouldn't do the script that she knew most of her customers would regard as insulting (not to mention how she was supposed to explain the awkward transition without sounding like she was ripping her employer), so the store put her on notice for insubordination. Whether she was actually suspended, I don't recall. What was memorable was the customers starting a petition in the neighborhood, complaining to the store about the policy and their treatment of what should have been a prized employee.

How appropriate that today's Flashback strip shows Mike and Bernie buying what looks like a loaf of Wonder Bread! That bread is also now apparently no longer "visible" in the stores.