...and you'd get to the end of a chapter and there would suggestions for further reading/extra credit/brownnosing? Here are a few modest proposals:

1. E-mail the creators at kansas@salon.com. Let them know exactly how you feel about KOF. Be as creative as possible. Be sure to use more care and attention to making your point than they did in creating the strip. Ask them why they haven't posted any defense of their work on Salon or anywhere else that can be found online.

2. Post comments in Joan Walsh's blog to make sure that she is aware of the near-unanimous consensus about KOF. For example: "I don't give a rat's ass what you think about Rudy Giuliani-- what are you going to do about KOF????"

3. Post to the Letters section "Scenes We'd Like to See" (in the spirit of Mad Magazine) involving the KOF characters. Five points will be deducted for sexual situations that include Alerto.

...to... obvious... anonymous... troll...

I guess I'm just not sophisticated enough. Suppose you explain it to me: tell me at least one thing in the strip that's funny, and why you think it's funny. I'm sure the rest of us are anxious to be educated; we've been waiting for three weeks now for *somebody* to explain it to us.

Anyone who actually *reads* Salon on anything like a regular basis would be unlikely to lump Paglia in with the rest of the names you dropped.

...for FarleyNY (or anybody else, for that matter) to cite even one instance of KOF being funny.

Until then-- chuck you, Farley.

Gee, Farley-- who knew you were so sensitive? After that snarky remark about flyover states, I thought that surely you could take it as well as dish it out. Instead of actually responding to my simple request-- to indicate what it is about KOF that's funny, or provide at least one example-- you throw up the straw man about how your intelligence is being attacked. By whom? Saying what? You made the assertion that the strip is funny, and all I'm doing is asking you to illustrate your point; the next thing I know, you're bringing up Joe McCarthy-- why not ask why Salon readers hate freedom, while you're at it?

It only took six panels to sum up Rudy's entire campaign-- both his 'platform' as Mr. 9/11 Man, and the reasons for my gag reflex every time he's in the media.

...just inane exposition. The font is better, though.

...my helmut must have slipped.

...are (I think) some kind of topiary. See:

http://www.makebe-leaves.com/top_image/ball_boxwood_topiary3_lg.jpg

So tracking down the author's vain attempts at hip-ness by name-dropping is entertaining?

I've had entertainment before-- this isn't it.

Steve is sitting on the toilet because it is a convenient place to sit while Opus takes his bath. The pee pee and doo doo you mentioned is (literally) all in your mind.

Me, I'm happy Garry Owen is here; if nothing else, he provides me with great set-up lines.

As for knowing that you won't like something but showing up anyway, see the forums for the execrable Kansas O'Flaherty strip running on Tuesdays in Salon. Virtually everybody who posts there despises the strip (except for the occasional transparently obvious friends of the creators), but we all have a wonderful time describing the defects in detail (while trying to guess why Salon continues to run it without explaining why they have chosen to do so).

...no penguin this week.

...the more they remain the same-- this strip still sucks.

...I was one of the people throwing the tomatoes. (But I would prefer to throw them at the creators of this abomination.)

...about KOF, The Comics Journal has a message board entitled "Carol Lay Bumped for This Crap?" which can be viewed by either cutting and pasting the URL below or clicking on my signature (hopefully one of these will work). Included in the board is a wicked GIF file showing Kansas' virtually fixed expression. See:

http://tcj.com/messboard/viewtopic.php?p=44315&sid=74eb0b58d0e57b92c149ff42994b3c65

...in a jealous rage, Beni kills Kansas for sleeping with Shlomo, then commits suicide. Alerto chews on the remains. The End.

Can we have a new strip now, please?

...animated Doonesbury TV special made about 20 years ago, where an announcer reads "...and the part of the baby Jesus will be played by a 40-watt light bulb."

...should be used by the creators (perpetrators?) of that awful "Kansas O'Flaherty" strip running in Salon as a guide to making a readable, enjoyable comic.

...can we expect to see the last of "Kansas O'Flaherty"? Salon and the so-called creators have been notably silent on the subject.

...but, frankly, I'm losing interest. It's been six weeks since KOF first plodded onto the scene, and while it appears that somebody is listening to our complaints (to the extent of changing fonts, using less cut-and-paste, fewer references to obscure people/places/things, better proofreading), waiting for each week's installment to see if the creators will do more than touch up the lipstick on this pig is getting me down.

Week after week, the overwhelming majority of comments on the strip have been negative, yet there has been a surprising amount of cogent, constructive criticism and useful suggestions-- little of which has been taken to heart by either the creators or Salon.

I'm not sure that this strip is fixable-- at least not as long as it is limited to four panels per installment.

I've had my say, I've enjoyed saying it, and now I'm thinking about leaving KOF to die with dignity.

--it even looks like him! Congrats to both of you!

...that Steve Dallas had a child.

...the headline spells Bhutto's first name as Benizar instead of Benazir.

...for correcting the headline.