Behind the Headlines

I think it’s fair to say that the recent change on our daily comics pages has created more reader response than anything else the paper has written or reported in the past six months. We’ve received emails, snail mails, phone calls and we’ve even had a couple of readers who stopped by the newsroom to speak to someone in person. Many readers enjoyed some of the comics we’ve been running for years. Many readers are, shall I say, less than thrilled about some of the newer comics we’re running.

One reader, in a recent letter that was accompanied by an earless chocolate Easter bunny, said this:

“To whom it may concern:

Last year your newspaper modified the comics. Among the changes decided upon was the removal of “Sally Forth.” I fervently hope this decision was influenced by excessive ink fumes and NOT indicative of an absolute dearth of appreciation from intelligent humor among your editorial board.
I had contemplated protests, boycotts, and letters of the editor in response to your decision. In truth, lingering dissatisfaction with your choices provided about 10 percent of my decision not to subscribe to the Herald-Leader (poverty provided the other ninety percent). However, not even depriving your paper of my business was enough to assuage my injured feelings. I wanted to make a statement.
In case you have forgotten, one of the running gags in Sally Forth was the mother’s obsession with chocolate Easter rabbits. Each year she purchased a large chocolate bunny for her daughter, and each year she was unable to resist the temptation to bite off the ears before putting it in her daughter’s basket. Easter is close upon us now. I could not resist the obvious and appropriate response.
Therefore, in honor of a good comic, in honor of a good joke, and in honor of everyone you have deprived of a lot of laughs this past year, I send you the enclosed gift: A single chocolate rabbit …. A la Sally Forth.

Yours unsubscribed,
Robert Pratt”

Thanks for writing, Mr Pratt. It’s the best letter about the comics change that we’ve received.

Sally Scherer