Maybe not Yogi in particular, but based an the idea that Yogi popularized, that bears like to steal pickinick baskets.
That is a very poorly drawn beat. And that is taking into account how poorly drawn everything is. It looks like a rat.
That is a very poorly spelled bear. :-)
But you must concede, that it is the exception and the spelling is, overall, very lifelike. :)
I particularly like the way Woozy “yogified” the spelling of “picnic”.
I don’t think making the Beat Bear wear* glasses (which I assume is what that L-shape on his head is) helps in making it look like a bear. Even given the clothes.
*I toyed with spelling it wear weat for fun and japes but chickened out. Apart from in this footnore.
Just curious – do company picnics (or pickinicks) still exist? Did they ever, or were they just useful as comic tropes? Has anyone here ever been to one?
Yes, company events exist, including picnics. I have been to picnics, Christmas parties, holiday parties, team lunches, and the best of all, flown to London to get together with colleagues and do a lot of eating and drinking on the company dime. I have also worked for super stingy SOBs who wouldn’t do anything for the staff.
“Beat Bear”
Thanks for that link . . . a friend/former English teacher (with a name like Ron A Story, how could he NOT be an English teacher) taught a ‘BEAT GENERATION’ class for years and, ironically, I now live near old haunts of Jack Keruoac (by haunts, I mean where he supposedly lived and drank, altho he did die in St. Pete). Neal Cassady, Alan Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were some of the others he taught about.
Approval for class trips to San Francisco were inevitably denied by whatever principal was in office at the time.
I’ve worked for a company that had a picnic, but that was back in the 1990s. My current employer has events, but so far none outdoors (aside from things like Habitat for Humanity volunteering organized by the company).
He should have said “pic-a-nic.”
The U of Minnesota Libraries had company “picnics” of a sort, though it was just “all gather in this open space behind the Law School and we’ll give you Sloppy Joe sandwiches and stuff,” rather than “bring your own stuff in baskets, and watch out for thieving bears.”
O God, yes, companies at least used to have semi-mandatory family picnics, where you’d stand around uncomfortably drinking warm beer and eating badly cooked burgers and hotdogs and wishing you were anywhere else. Think of the company Christmas party, only outside, 100F, bugs, and crappier food.
Yes, I’m a bit curmudgeonly about these things in general. There are plenty of cow-orkers I like to spend time with; there are plenty I do not. Let ME choose when, where, and who.
Though the worst was a regime with mandatory “manager meetings” of an evening, at Morton’s, in a back room. So I’d get to go home, change into a suit, miss dinner with my family, eat overpriced, surprisingly mediocre steak, and then watch the bigwigs backslap and smoke cigars. I’d get home, strip in the garage (since my wife is deadly allergic to smoke), shower, and spend $20 on dry cleaning.
First time I got home from one, my wife asked, “How was it?” and I replied, “Fine, if you like sitting in a room full of assholes with penis-substitutes in their mouths.”
Hint: I do not miss those evenings.
@narmitaj Every thing in the animal kingdom with eyes wears glasses in “Cornered” nowadays (didn’t start that way), except for cave men, who have a thick pointy unibrow. (There may be other exceptions I haven’t seen.)
Andréa:My company has an annual picnic, to which the whole family is invited.
He should have drawn the bear wearing only a collar, necktie and porkpie hat. He could have still used the world-weary slump.
The school district I worked in for 30+ years had a *mandatory* secretaries’ luncheon picnic, arranged and paid for by . . . the secretaries. Since, as a Library Assistant (one of nine or 10), we were in the secretary’s union, we had to go.
We didn’t know the other secretaries (maybe 100 of ’em); we didn’t actually know each other, either, as we all worked in different schools and never interacted.
The only good thing about this so-called picnic was that once it was over, we had the rest of the day off, paid. I noticed that the lunches and programs became shorter and shorter as the years went by . . . during my last few years, it was almost a breakfast picnic, rather than a lunch one, and we all (gratefully) left at 11 or so.
Most of the company functions I’ve been to have not allowed family members. One that I went to allowed you to bring someone, but you had to pay full freight on their ticket and it was something like a hundred bucks a ticket.
By far the ritziest (aside from the flight to London, the hotel, the wining, dining and stay at a manor house in the English countryside) was during the year I started with the insurance company. They had a ‘year end’ party on November 30. It was grand. Not overtly Christmas themed but close enough everyone was cheery. Company booked a large event space. Food was good. There was a DJ, photo booth, a couple of bottles of wine on each table (you had to go to the cash bar for more after that) and about 400 people, all dressed up fancy. They would also provide you a taxi voucher for the trip home. A really nice night out.
The next year (my second year with the company), the dirty stinking execs decided to axe our party. Now you can be sure that they still got plenty of cheer on the company’s dime, but since it was us little people, the…$50,000, $60,000, whatever…cost of our party had to go. The company was nowhere near insolvent. Part of a multi-billion dollar financial group. This set the tone for the years to come, always squeezing the workers.
When I worked for the Australian publishing company, there was a culture of going out for drinks and that was fun. We also had more organized events as well. Knowing who the people you’re working with are can be very helpful (if they’re not a-holes).
I still can’t entirely parse the picture. For example, is that just his snout, or is that a basket that has gotten stuck on it?
He should have said “pic-a-nic.”
That starts getting close to the folk etymology/urban legend.
During my days at Megacorp (and there were many) outdoor family events sort of came into and out of fashion. The last one I recall was a number of years ago.
‘First time I got home from one, my wife asked, “How was it?” and I replied, “Fine, if you like sitting in a room full of assholes with penis-substitutes in their mouths.”’
Please, Phil III, tell us how you REALLY felt about these party pic-a-nics inna back room.
That starts getting close to the folk etymology/urban legend.
I guess I should no longer say it’s surprising how long these persist after debunking. I just last week read a remark that one should not talk about “by rule of thumb” because of its supposed origins. It was in the nineties that my friend Sharon Fenick wrote a definitive researched debunking for Snopes.
And in a way, the origin stories, even if true, are beside the point. If the origin no longer inhabits the contemporary use of the expression, there is no reasonable way to brand contemporary usage as misogynist or racist or similarly improper.
(Though intent plays a role too.)
I never knew how lucky I was. My company picnic is optional, during normal work hours, and you can bring your family. The kids look forward to it every year because it has all kinds of games and food choices.
I have known people whose teams have had “morale events” that were going out for dinner outside of work hours. Not technically mandatory, but they felt that they should go, which made them usually punishments, not rewards.
A college professor(!) tried to convince an art class I was in that ‘blacksmith’ was called such ’cause they were all . . . black. I disputed this, and did research to show it wasn’t true, but for all I know, he still promulgated that story for years after I left, for obvious (to him) reasons. This was in pre-internet, pre-Snopes times, so I had to make copies of texts and bring them in.
‘I have known people whose teams have had “morale events” that were’ . . .
And heaven help the poor signmaker who forgets that ‘e’ . . . which is EXACTLY as I first read that sentence.
Do the spots in front of the bear’s eyes mean he’s drunk or something?
That’s a large part of what was confusing me, Mark.
The last accountant I worked for had a Christmas party – but no picnic. Dad decided we should take the older man who worked with us out for Christmas (before the holiday) and we brought mom and Robert along (the man’s wife had died some years before). The year the man stopped working for us dad said nothing about the Christmas party and I asked him if we were still having one. He said – good idea and the four of us went out for dinner.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Yogi, the corporate years.
Yep, Arthur has it.
Maybe not Yogi in particular, but based an the idea that Yogi popularized, that bears like to steal pickinick baskets.
That is a very poorly drawn beat. And that is taking into account how poorly drawn everything is. It looks like a rat.
That is a very poorly spelled bear. :-)
But you must concede, that it is the exception and the spelling is, overall, very lifelike. :)
I particularly like the way Woozy “yogified” the spelling of “picnic”.
I don’t think making the Beat Bear wear* glasses (which I assume is what that L-shape on his head is) helps in making it look like a bear. Even given the clothes.
*I toyed with spelling it wear weat for fun and japes but chickened out. Apart from in this footnore.
Just curious – do company picnics (or pickinicks) still exist? Did they ever, or were they just useful as comic tropes? Has anyone here ever been to one?
Beat Bear
https://images.app.goo.gl/fihzQMZ8uSjacbcz8
Yes, company events exist, including picnics. I have been to picnics, Christmas parties, holiday parties, team lunches, and the best of all, flown to London to get together with colleagues and do a lot of eating and drinking on the company dime. I have also worked for super stingy SOBs who wouldn’t do anything for the staff.
“Beat Bear”
Thanks for that link . . . a friend/former English teacher (with a name like Ron A Story, how could he NOT be an English teacher) taught a ‘BEAT GENERATION’ class for years and, ironically, I now live near old haunts of Jack Keruoac (by haunts, I mean where he supposedly lived and drank, altho he did die in St. Pete). Neal Cassady, Alan Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs were some of the others he taught about.
Approval for class trips to San Francisco were inevitably denied by whatever principal was in office at the time.
I’ve worked for a company that had a picnic, but that was back in the 1990s. My current employer has events, but so far none outdoors (aside from things like Habitat for Humanity volunteering organized by the company).
He should have said “pic-a-nic.”
The U of Minnesota Libraries had company “picnics” of a sort, though it was just “all gather in this open space behind the Law School and we’ll give you Sloppy Joe sandwiches and stuff,” rather than “bring your own stuff in baskets, and watch out for thieving bears.”
O God, yes, companies at least used to have semi-mandatory family picnics, where you’d stand around uncomfortably drinking warm beer and eating badly cooked burgers and hotdogs and wishing you were anywhere else. Think of the company Christmas party, only outside, 100F, bugs, and crappier food.
Yes, I’m a bit curmudgeonly about these things in general. There are plenty of cow-orkers I like to spend time with; there are plenty I do not. Let ME choose when, where, and who.
Though the worst was a regime with mandatory “manager meetings” of an evening, at Morton’s, in a back room. So I’d get to go home, change into a suit, miss dinner with my family, eat overpriced, surprisingly mediocre steak, and then watch the bigwigs backslap and smoke cigars. I’d get home, strip in the garage (since my wife is deadly allergic to smoke), shower, and spend $20 on dry cleaning.
First time I got home from one, my wife asked, “How was it?” and I replied, “Fine, if you like sitting in a room full of assholes with penis-substitutes in their mouths.”
Hint: I do not miss those evenings.
@narmitaj Every thing in the animal kingdom with eyes wears glasses in “Cornered” nowadays (didn’t start that way), except for cave men, who have a thick pointy unibrow. (There may be other exceptions I haven’t seen.)
Andréa:My company has an annual picnic, to which the whole family is invited.
He should have drawn the bear wearing only a collar, necktie and porkpie hat. He could have still used the world-weary slump.
The school district I worked in for 30+ years had a *mandatory* secretaries’ luncheon picnic, arranged and paid for by . . . the secretaries. Since, as a Library Assistant (one of nine or 10), we were in the secretary’s union, we had to go.
We didn’t know the other secretaries (maybe 100 of ’em); we didn’t actually know each other, either, as we all worked in different schools and never interacted.
The only good thing about this so-called picnic was that once it was over, we had the rest of the day off, paid. I noticed that the lunches and programs became shorter and shorter as the years went by . . . during my last few years, it was almost a breakfast picnic, rather than a lunch one, and we all (gratefully) left at 11 or so.
Most of the company functions I’ve been to have not allowed family members. One that I went to allowed you to bring someone, but you had to pay full freight on their ticket and it was something like a hundred bucks a ticket.
By far the ritziest (aside from the flight to London, the hotel, the wining, dining and stay at a manor house in the English countryside) was during the year I started with the insurance company. They had a ‘year end’ party on November 30. It was grand. Not overtly Christmas themed but close enough everyone was cheery. Company booked a large event space. Food was good. There was a DJ, photo booth, a couple of bottles of wine on each table (you had to go to the cash bar for more after that) and about 400 people, all dressed up fancy. They would also provide you a taxi voucher for the trip home. A really nice night out.
The next year (my second year with the company), the dirty stinking execs decided to axe our party. Now you can be sure that they still got plenty of cheer on the company’s dime, but since it was us little people, the…$50,000, $60,000, whatever…cost of our party had to go. The company was nowhere near insolvent. Part of a multi-billion dollar financial group. This set the tone for the years to come, always squeezing the workers.
When I worked for the Australian publishing company, there was a culture of going out for drinks and that was fun. We also had more organized events as well. Knowing who the people you’re working with are can be very helpful (if they’re not a-holes).
I still can’t entirely parse the picture. For example, is that just his snout, or is that a basket that has gotten stuck on it?
He should have said “pic-a-nic.”
That starts getting close to the folk etymology/urban legend.
During my days at Megacorp (and there were many) outdoor family events sort of came into and out of fashion. The last one I recall was a number of years ago.
‘First time I got home from one, my wife asked, “How was it?” and I replied, “Fine, if you like sitting in a room full of assholes with penis-substitutes in their mouths.”’
Please, Phil III, tell us how you REALLY felt about these party pic-a-nics inna back room.
That starts getting close to the folk etymology/urban legend.
I guess I should no longer say it’s surprising how long these persist after debunking. I just last week read a remark that one should not talk about “by rule of thumb” because of its supposed origins. It was in the nineties that my friend Sharon Fenick wrote a definitive researched debunking for Snopes.
And in a way, the origin stories, even if true, are beside the point. If the origin no longer inhabits the contemporary use of the expression, there is no reasonable way to brand contemporary usage as misogynist or racist or similarly improper.
(Though intent plays a role too.)
I never knew how lucky I was. My company picnic is optional, during normal work hours, and you can bring your family. The kids look forward to it every year because it has all kinds of games and food choices.
I have known people whose teams have had “morale events” that were going out for dinner outside of work hours. Not technically mandatory, but they felt that they should go, which made them usually punishments, not rewards.
A college professor(!) tried to convince an art class I was in that ‘blacksmith’ was called such ’cause they were all . . . black. I disputed this, and did research to show it wasn’t true, but for all I know, he still promulgated that story for years after I left, for obvious (to him) reasons. This was in pre-internet, pre-Snopes times, so I had to make copies of texts and bring them in.
‘I have known people whose teams have had “morale events” that were’ . . .
And heaven help the poor signmaker who forgets that ‘e’ . . . which is EXACTLY as I first read that sentence.
Do the spots in front of the bear’s eyes mean he’s drunk or something?
That’s a large part of what was confusing me, Mark.
The last accountant I worked for had a Christmas party – but no picnic. Dad decided we should take the older man who worked with us out for Christmas (before the holiday) and we brought mom and Robert along (the man’s wife had died some years before). The year the man stopped working for us dad said nothing about the Christmas party and I asked him if we were still having one. He said – good idea and the four of us went out for dinner.