Comments on: Sorry, Charlie

By: kodijack

kodijack — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:19:14 +0000

I only recently was recommended Kate Beaton’s web site and I can say that I have had fun looking up stuff in order to understand some of her comics.

By: Neddo

Neddo — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:27:42 +0000

Powers, you are excellent.

By: DPWally

DPWally — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:07:17 +0000

Eric: Not really.

Before the creation of the civil service system, a new administration would basically fire the whole government and replace it with friends and supporters.

Now the government is civil servants, who are hard to dismiss, and political appointees, who expect to be replaced by a new administration.

By: Powers

Powers — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:27:39 +0000

Apparently excellence is in the eye of the beholder.

By: Neddo

Neddo — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:57:02 +0000

Just wanted to point out that this comic is by Kate Beaton, an excellent Canadian cartoonist.

By: Eric Goebelbecker

Eric Goebelbecker — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:52:00 +0000

“…was a sucky system?”

Seems like that system was reinstated about 7years ago.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:22:02 +0000

Charles Guiteau was a crazy bastard; he thought he was doing God’s will by shooting Garfield, and was also angry that he didn’t get the job he expected to get from Garfield; after Garfield died, they reformed the job-getting system, so that people were hired based on their skills rather than appointed personally by the President and rewarded for their party loyalty, which was a sucky system.

By: Count Shrimpula

Count Shrimpula — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:27:40 +0000

For more information on the assassination of Garfield by Charles Guiteau (as well as the assassinations of Lincoln and McKinley), I highly recommend Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:08:56 +0000

The two people on the floor are both Garfields. The man, specifically, is President Garfield, who was assassinated by Charles Guiteau.

Thanks, Wikipedia!