The cake in the userpic is particularly apropos today

...because today's birthday girl is one of the finest filk mamas I know (in more senses of the term than one): jslove's better half, persis! Many happy returns and best wishes for a delightful day. (Please hug Spence and Not-So-Wee-Anymore Talis for me.)

Termina Magnum Opus

Many of you will have heard this by now already, particularly if you read my friends-list page. For those who have not, today is the final appearance in newsprint of America's favorite penguin, Opus, in the Sunday-only comic strip that bears his name. He was created in December of 1980 by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, originally for the sole purpose of serving what was intended as a one-time gag in Breathed's original and now-classic strip Bloom County, and ended up surviving through the entire run not only of that strip, but of two successor strips as well.

The final installment, which appears here as well as in newspapers worldwide today, lets him go out on a high note, supporting the American Humane Society by putting its final panel on that organization's website here. Breathed has also linked it to a final farewell statement on his own website, but that appears to be inoperative at the moment. He has said he is ceasing strip production because he prefers now to concentrate on art for children's books. (Get 'em while they're young...!)

For nearly three decades, from the Reagan era to today, this plucky little specimen of Pygoscelis papua has embodied wit, soul, intelligence and some of the finest social/political commentary ever committed to paper (or at least since the debut of Doonesbury, which Breathed credits as an influence). Farewell and lots of juicy herring in your retirement, little guy. You will be sorely missed.