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Pluggers
''Pluggers'' is a comic panel created by Jeff MacNelly (creator of ''Shoe'') in 1993 that relies on reader submissions (referred to as "Pluggerisms") for the premise of each day's panel. In the context of this strip, "pluggers" are generally defined as rural, blue-collar workers who live a typical working-class American lifestyle, accompanied by a mentality characteristic of the G.I. and Baby Boomer generations. In the comic, pluggers are portrayed in the form of anthropomorphic animals, most often a plump bear, dog, chicken, or rhinoceros, sometimes a kangaroo or a cat. Publication history Editorial cartoonist Gary Brookins took over in 1997, three years prior to creator Jeff MacNelly's death from lymphoma in 2000. Brookins retired in 2020, and his assistant Rick McKee took over, still maintaining a similar style to MacNelly's originals. ''Pluggers'' is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency in 60 newspapers, mostly in the Southern, Midwestern, Plains, and Rocky Mountain st ...
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Jeff MacNelly
Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly (September 17, 1947 – June 8, 2000) was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Shoe (comic strip), Shoe''. After ''Shoe'' had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip ''Pluggers''. ''The Wall Street Journal'' wrote: "MacNelly's superb draftsmanship as well as his heightened sense of the ridiculous is in the vanguard of a new generation of American cartoonists." Early life MacNelly was born in New York City in 1947 and grew up on Long Island. MacNelly's mother was a retired journalist. His father, C.L. MacNelly, ran an advertising firm, and was the publisher of the ''Saturday Evening Post'' from 1964 to 1968. MacNelly was educated in his teens at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, where he was a class clown and decided to be an illustrator. He graduated in 1965 and went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the literary society St. Anthony Hall and worked as a sports jou ...
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Tribune Content Agency
Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Services. TCA is headquartered in Chicago, and had offices in various American cities (Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Queensbury, New York; Arlington, Texas; Santa Monica, California), the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Hong Kong. History Chicago Tribune Syndicate (1918–2000) Sidney Smith's early comic strip '' The Gumps'' had a key role in the rise of syndication when Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, who had both been publishing the ''Chicago Tribune'' since 1914, planned to launch a tabloid in New York, as comics historian Coulton Waugh explained: Patterson founded the Chicago Tribune Syndicate in 1918, managed by Arthur Crawford.Watson, Elmo Scott"The Era of Consolidation, 1890-1920" (Chapter VII) in ''A History O ...
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Shoe (comic Strip)
''Shoe'' is an American comic strip about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds. It was written and drawn by its creator, cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, from September 13, 1977, until his death in 2000. MacNelly's last strip was dated July 9, 2000; it has since been continued by Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins, Ben Lansing, and Susie MacNelly (Jeff's widow). ''Shoe'' had its own monthly comic book in Norway for a six issues in 1987 under the name "Sjur", which consisted of reprints from newspapers. In 1989, ''Shoe'' was published again in Norway, under the name "Krax", appearing as an extra-feature in the ''Calvin and Hobbes'' magazine. The strip won MacNelly the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for the year 1979. Characters and setting Shoe deals with the day-to-day foibles of a group of newspaper employees and their families, all of whom are portrayed as anthropomorphized birds, in the fictional locale of Treetops, East Virginia. During hunting season, "hunt ...
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Comics Curmudgeon
The Comics Curmudgeon is an American blog devoted to humorous and critical analysis of newspaper comics. Its author, Josh Fruhlinger, is a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles. Content For each blog post, author Josh Fruhlinger selects two to eight comic strips for comment, usually focused on topics such as poor artwork, inappropriate coloring, nonsensical plots, and sexual subtext or innuendo. Long-running soap opera-style comic strips such as ''Apartment 3-G'', ''Mark Trail'', and ''Mary Worth'' bear the brunt of Fruhlinger's humor, an emphasis that he attributes to their being " heperfect targets for the sort of metatextual detached irony that is our generation's terrible contribution to Western civilization." Fruhlinger's blog also features commentary on long-running legacy cartoons like '' Family Circus'' and '' B.C.'' Weekly "metaposts" update readers on notable events in Fruhlinger's life, such as his July 22, 2008, appearance on the game show ''Jeopardy!'', ...
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1993 Comics Debuts
The General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to the Eastern Hemisphere side of the International Date Line, skipping August 21, 1993. Events January * January 1 ** Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separate in the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia. ** The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market. ** International Radio and Television Organization ceases. * January 3 – In Moscow, Presidents George H. W. Bush (United States) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the START II, second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. * January 5 ** US$7.4 million is stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, in the fifth largest robbery in U.S. history. ** , a Liberian-registered oil tanker, runs aground ...
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Comic Strips Syndicated By Tribune Content Agency
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. There is no consensus among theorists and historians on a definition of comics; some emphasize the combination of images and text, some sequentiality or other image relations, and others historical aspects such as mass reproduction or the use of recurring characters. Cartooning and other forms of illustration are the most common means of image-making in comics. Photo comics is a form that uses photographic images. Common forms include comic strips, editorial and gag cartoons, and comic books. Since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels, and comic albums, have become increasingly common, along with webcomics as well as scientific/medical comics. The history of ...
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Jingoism
Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, jingoism is excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism (''cf''. chauvinism and ultranationalism). Etymology The chorus of a song by the songwriter G. W. Hunt, popularized by the singer G. H. MacDermott – which was commonly sung in British pubs and music halls around the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 – gave birth to the term. The lyrics included this chorus: The capture of Constantinople was a long-standing Russian strategic aim, since it would have given the Russian Navy, based in the Black Sea, unfettered access to the Mediterranean Sea through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (known as the " Turkish Straits"); conver ...
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Salon
Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, and Day spa#Medical spa, medical spas. Beauty treatme ..., a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Paris), a prestigious annual juried art exhibition in Paris begun under Louis XIV * ''The Salon'' (TV series), a British reality television show * ''The Salon'' (film), a 2005 American dramatic comedy movie * ''The Salon'' (comics), a graphic novel written and illustrated by Nick Bertozzi Places * Salon, Aube, France, a commune * Salon, Dordogne, France, a commune * Salon, India, a town and nagar panchayat * Salon (Assembly constituency), India, a constituency for the Uttar Prades ...
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Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. His 2000 memoir, '' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'', became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal '' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the literacy project '' 826 Valencia'', and the human rights non-profit organisation '' Voice of Witness''. Additionally, he founded '' ScholarMatch'', a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in publications including ''The New Yorker'', ''Esquire'', and '' The New York Times Magazine''. Early life Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in a family with three siblings. His father, John K. Eggers (1936–1991), was an attorney, and his mother, Heidi McSweeney Eggers (1940–1992), was a schoolteacher. The family moved to Lake ...
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Agitprop
Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literature, plays, pamphlets, films, and other art forms, with an explicitly political message in favor of communism. The term originated in the Soviet Union as a shortened name for the Department for Agitation and Propaganda (, '), which was part of the central and regional committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Within the party apparatus, both agitation (work among people who were not Communists) and propaganda (political work among party members) were the responsibility of the ''agitpropotdel'', or APPO. Its head was a member of the MK secretariat, although they ranked second to the head of the ''orgraspredotdel''. Typically Russian agitprop explained the ideology and policies of the Communist Party and attempted to persuade th ...
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Populism
Populism is a essentially contested concept, contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the "common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties, and movements since that time, often assuming a pejorative tone. Within political science and other social sciences, several different definitions of populism have been employed, with some scholars proposing that the term be rejected altogether. Etymology and terminology The term "populism" has long been subject to mistranslation and used to describe a broad and often contradictory array of movements and beliefs. Its usage has spanned continents and contexts, leading many scholars to characterize it as a vague or overstretched concept, widely invoked in political discourse, yet i ...
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Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box warehouse club retail stores. As of 2021, Costco is the third-largest retailer in the world, and as of August 2024, Costco is the world's largest retailer of beef, poultry, organic produce, and wine, with just under a third of American consumers regularly shopping at Costco warehouses. This article states that FedMart "became" Costco, which is incorrect. Sol Price founded Price Club after leaving FedMart. Costco is ranked #11 on the ''Fortune'' 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Costco originally began with a wholesale business model aimed at enrolling businesses as members, then also began to enroll individual consumers and sell products intended for them, including its own private label brand. Costco's worldwide headquarters are in Issaquah, Washington, an eastern suburb of Seattle, although its Kirkland Signat ...
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