Every silver lining has a dark cloud

There's gotta be someone who sucks the fun out of any given situation. And that's one of Tina's defining characteristics.

With honors

Mindy was able to graduate as well.

Pomp and circumstance

It's graduation season, so I thought we should take a look at how it was for the girls of 121 when they made the Big Walk. First up is Kerri Jo.

Monday Sketchbook: Something for everyone

We always used to pack up our flowers and food and store them in bags that we put in the trunk before heading down to the cemetery and family barbecue. It would have been very easy for something like this to happen.

Memorial Day memories

When I was a kid, my dad would take me around the cemetery on Memorial Day and tell me all the stories of our ancestors who were buried there. Some of the stories were quite exciting, some seemed mundane. But I thought it was pretty cool how everyone had a story.

After my dad passed on, my uncle took on the task of sharing the stories from family history, and now he's gone, too. It makes me wish that I had paid more attention or recorded the stories somehow.

I've run this as a sketch on Memorial Day in the past. This time around, I thought it was deserving of color.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

What's cooking?

There are times when I think the Memorial Day barbecue is the male equivalent of Thanksgiving in terms of stress and pressure. The big difference is that wives usually help their husbands with the barbecue.

Who's on fourth?

See, 'cause Cinderella always had to clean up after her sisters, and the person who bats fourth is called cleanup, and, well, never mind.

Under construction

May is Transportation Safety Awareness Month, so I figured we ought to at least have one mention of work zone safety.

Music in the cloud

For the past while I've been pondering the idea of moving the girls of 121 into their future, sort of a "where are they now?" deal. I've imagined where they might be -- what sort of jobs they may have, what their family situations might be.

Part of the challenge is aging the characters so that they're still recognizable, but don't look like the kids who hung around the old apartment. I take it from this drawing that the aging process involved growing noses and eyeballs...

This seemed the perfect situation to try it out. So here we take a look at Kerri Jo, waxing philosophical about the news of the day.

Sign of the times

With the end of the school year, I'm reminded of this old 121 strip. Poor Kerri Jo was the last one left in the apartment and was left to hang the vacancy sign. This was also the last strip to run in the Daily Universe.

Monday Sketchbook: V-Day (Fête de la Reine)

If you live in the United States, you've probably looked at your calendar and wondered about that silly Canadian holiday that's celebrated today, the week before Memorial Day. Victoria Day. What's that all about?

Now you know. Go put on your summer tuque. Wikipedia can tell you more.

• This post was sponsored by our neighbors in the Great White North. Thank you.

I hope by then I will be ready

I remember taking a missionary prep class when I was in college. We focused on learning key scriptures, teaching techniques and spiritual development. Those were all good things, but I wish we would have also learned about cooking, laundry and housekeeping skills as well. Actually, I wish some of my missionary companions had learned about those things!

Reach out and touch someone

Those old phones were pretty cool.

A note in passing

A dear sister from our ward passed away a couple of days ago; she would have been 92 yesterday. She was the sweetest, dearest lady one could ask for. She was always willing to serve. Every time she met with the bishop, she would ask him if there was anything she could do to help the ward. I seriously have no doubt that had she been asked, she would have coached the Young Men's basketball team as well.

Thanks for your example, Marjorie. We'll miss you!

Season's greatings

We're 15 (hundred)!

This marks, more or less, the 1,500th post to Beckstrom Buzz! As per tradition, we celebrate the milestone with a rerun of my first published cartoon -- and I'm glad that it still makes me laugh!

I've been doing this blog for more than four years. I didn't think I had that much material! Thank you for your support, your comments and feedback. Mostly, thanks for visiting and making this possible!

Visitors

Once again I'm running a sneak preview of next Sunday's Good Heavens. It just seemed timely.

RIP, Mr. Sendak!

Monday Sketchbook: Dress for success

Maybe if they wore the loincloth things like saggy pants. That might do the trick.

Special Mother's Day doubleheader!

These are sort of variations on a theme. The top one is an adaptation of one that originally appeared in Zarahemla Times. The particular version also is in this week's Meridian Magazine.

I heard from the missionaries in our ward that they can Skype home on Mother's Day. That got me to thinking what they might have done back in Helaman's time...

It probably would have worked just as well (if not better) without the header.

Either way, get off the computer and go tell your mom that you love her! Happy Mother's Day!

Luck of the pin

It's no secret that, for some men, figuring out a good Mother's Day present is really, really hard!

Two by two

By Jupiter!

Here's another side of my geekiness: I get excited around the 10th of May because it's the anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, completing the transcontinental railroad. W00T!

So, yeah, this one's all about me.

Girls like guys with skills

One of the elders in my mission used to work in the BYU barbershop. He was really popular on P-days.

One by one

You know those eternal investigators, those folks who keep meeting with the missionaries, keep coming to church, but just never get baptized? They always say of those people "have gone through a lot of missionaries." The missionaries pass that information along in the Area Book, but how do the investigators keep track of all the missionaries they've been through?

Monday Sketchbook: Spiritual Leader

I liked the idea behind this sketch, but I could never get the words to work quite the way I wanted them to. "Missionary gurus" doesn't quite cut it, but having, say, a general authority sitting on a mountain top like that just seemed wrong.

Either way, the advice is good. Read your scriptures; it's good for you.

Called to scribble

Some professions seem to fit well with certain callings; others, not so much.

Detention

Wouldn't you just hate to be one of those guys who got called on the carpet in the Doctrine and Covenants and have it recorded for everyone to read forever?

I'll show you my values

I went to a stake conference with my brother one time, and they had a youth speaker who talked about the importance of keeping high standards in dating. Her talk was based a lot on personal experiences...some of them were, perhaps, a little too personal.

At least it's not interactive...

To some people it's confessing, to other people it's bragging.

Stir up their hearts

There's a reason the scriptures say that contention is of the devil...

Cloud reading

Over on my other other blog, Zarahemla Times, I've gone into reruns for a little while. I did a little illustration to announce that. It turned out better than I thought it would, so I thought I'd share it here as well.