Readers of the comic Doonesbury will be seeing a classic from the strip's past this Sunday in the Standard-Examiner.
That's because we took the Universal syndicate up on its offer to provide a substitute strip because of possible concerns about language used in the original.
In that strip, cartoonist Gerry Trudeau goes after Donald Trump and his now-dead presidential candidacy, using liberal radio host Mark Slackmeyer as his vehicle to do so.
Trump is never pictured in the strip. In fact, Slackmeyer is the only character shown.
The problem comes in Slackmeyer's on-air comments about Trump. He uses a seven-letter vulgarity to refer to Trump. In fact, he uses the same word four times.
Trudeau doesn't spell out the word, instead using the first letter followed by dashes, but the reference is clear.
The syndicate sent editors an advisory last month, warning of the upcoming strip and offering the substitute in its place.
After looking at the original strip, we decided it was too far over the edge to justify using. The daily Doonesbury strip appears on the editorial page; however, this strip is part of the Sunday comics, which we feel would have exposed the contents to more children than see the daily strip.
In addition to the vulgarity, the whole Trump story line struck editors as being already outdated.
But we know that readers are nothing, if not curious, so we are presenting the original strip online. The strip is posted to the left of this column.
And if you look, here's your chance to play editor. Let me know whether you would have run it in the weekly print comics if you were the editor.
I'll write about responses and comments in a future column.
But remember, if you look and you're offended, you had fair warning.
UM, GOOD JOB: Charlie Trentelman was the guest speaker last weekend for the District 15 Toastmasters Convention.
He also received the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Award "For Outstanding Service to His Community, State and Industry Through Communication and Leadership."
Charlie, who writes the Wasatch Rambler column, assured us he didn't make too big a fool of himself. Apparently, in his telling anyway, the most stressful part was speaking before a group of public speakers who keep count of every time a speaker utters the word "um."
Being an inquisitive editor, I asked him how many times he used the word. Here's his response:
"I did not count, but asking if someone was counting made a good laugh line at a spot where I was going um ... uh ... uh ... while my alleged brain tried to figure out what I had wanted to say next."
In the end, though, Charlie did estimate that he probably used the offending word at least a dozen times.
That apparently didn't affect the Toastmasters' decision, though, because they still gave him the award.
It's always nice when outside groups recognize Standard-Examiner employees for their work, both in the paper and in the community.
Nice going, Charlie.
Dave Greiling is managing editor of the Standard-Examiner. He may be reached at 801-625-4224 or via email at dgreiling@standard.net.
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