Bring Back the Bumsteads!

Following is the text of a letter I sent this morning to the editors of my home-town newspaper, the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Dear Editors:

Congratulations on the successful redesign of The Press-Enterprise. As a long-time Jurupa Valley subscriber, I am pleased to see more local news with no apparent sacrifice in your national and international coverage.

While I was sorry to see that the Food section has been reduced to one page, at least you kept it, which was not the case with your unfortunate previous redesign (the one that put the comics in four different sections of the paper, depending on the day of the week). And if something had to be sacrificed, I think you were wise to spare us the superficial slacker ramblings of "The Daily Dude."

But no "Blondie"? What were you thinking?

Were you thinking that it's too "old" a comic strip, and that you could attract younger readers with something else? In just the last three weeks, "Blondie" has addressed topics like Texas Hold 'Em poker, baggy jeans on teenagers, identity theft, office politics, food contamination in restaurants, carpooling, and cell-phone etiquette. The strip may have been around for 75 years, but that's why it's been around -- it has always remained current. Oh, and funny, too.

No "Blondie"?

I hope when public outcry forces you to restore the Bumsteads to your pages, you'll run all the strips we missed during its absence.

Sincerely, etc., etc.

I could go on and on about the greatness of "Blondie." In addition to referencing fresh topics, it deals as it always has with universal themes like the generation gap, the battle of the sexes, lazy husbands, clever wives, infuriating bosses and all of the foibles of middle-class American life. (If you're not a regular "Blondie"reader, click on the title of this blog entry and you can sample current and past strips to your heart's content.) But the Press-Enterprise has a 200-word letters-to-the-editor max, so for once I kept it short.

I'll let you know if my one-man campaign brings back Dagwood, Blondie, Cookie, Alexander, Herb and Tootsie Woodley, Elmo, Julius and Cora Dithers, the mailman, the carpoolers, the lunch-counter guy and Daisy (the blue dog).