I went out Friday night for a couple of drinks and ran into a friend. I call him a friend but I’m not close enough to him to have him over or even to give him my number. He’s just a drinking buddy, I suppose. I don’t remember how it came up but he told me he’s rooting for the Baltimore Ravens today over the Kansas City Chiefs because he’s tired of seeing Taylor Swift at football games.
Just in case you live in a cave without cable or the NFL Package, Taylor Swift is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and she has been going to all his games this season. She sits in one of the suites with Kelce’s mom and Brittany Mahomes, KC QB Patrick’s wife. The cameras often pan to Swift throughout the game, especially when Kelce catches the ball.
Taylor Swift has no control over whether networks show her at the game other than her deciding to attend the game. But many people are blaming her for being seen. Some even blame her for when KC loses which is NUTS. In case you’re not aware, she’s not actually playing in the game. No, I don’t think her presence has any effect on the players. How much more incentive does a professional football player need to win games and reach the Super Bowl? Also, there are a lot of other celebrities at football games, especially during the playoffs. Is anyone whining about seeing Eminem at the Lions’ games?
Now my drinking buddy isn’t the most cultured person in the world, for example, I think I’m pretty safe writing about him because the odds of him reading this blog are probably about the same as him buying Speak Now, Taylor’s Version or start busting out You Belong To Me. But I asked him why he’s rooting against the Chiefs because of Taylor Swift. His answer was, “I’m just tired of seeing her.”
I pushed a little by asking, “What does seeing her do to you? How does it hurt you?” His reply was the same, “I’m just tired of seeing her.” I let it go from there because I thought that was the best I was going to get and I didn’t go out for a debate. I have never talked politics with this guy and I don’t ever want to, though I’m pretty sure where he stands though I doubt he actually votes.
Today, while working on another cartoon, I posted on Facebook that I’m rooting for the Chiefs just because I want Taylor to go to more football games just so it pisses off more butt-hurt Republicans. And then that inspired this cartoon.
By the way, because of FB algorithms, the first post will get more views, reactions, likes, and comments than the cartoon will on Facebook.
Also, how come I never hear Taylor Swift fans complaining about seeing Travis Kelce at her concerts? I honestly don’t get why seeing her angers people so much.
And for what it’s worth, I’m truly rooting for the Detroit Lions.
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Watch me draw:
CLAYTOONZ 
This conservative/Republican hate for Swift pre-dates her dating a football player. They’re STILL pissed because she got 35,000 young people to register to vote in September 2023.
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And I gather that she is still encouraging them to register and vote. So that will piss them off some more.
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The Mainstream Media is well known for OVER EXPOSING celebrities. Donald Trump is a prime example. Exposure is the lifeline for celebrities but too much is just that … too much and can have the opposite effect on a career (as your “drinking buddy” expressed). There is a solution. Turn off Mainstream Media (use off button on remote control). If in a bar … leave. But if you are hanging out for inspiration for a political cartoon … bars can be that source. I have never considered “drinking” buddies as friends. I quit drinking 21 years ago and former drinking buddies tried to get me to drink again. Those are not friends. Misery loves company. I moved on.
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I live in the Pacific Northwest, so you wouldn’t think I’d have a dog in this fight, but while I was living in northeast Ohio, the robber-baron owner of our beloved Cleveland Browns surreptitiously and under the cover of darkness absconded with the team to Baltimore. He rebranded the team The Ravens, leaving the loyal fans where pro football was born without a team for the next decade. So I feel entitled to root AGAINST Baltimore. After reading Clay’s essay, I now have a reason to root FOR KC.
Tay-LOR! Tay-LOR! Sis-Boom-Ba!
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Congratulations on your sobriety and removing toxic people from your life.
However, not everyone who goes to a bar with friends is a potential alcoholic, it’s insulting for you to insinuate they are.
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Hello – just for the record, i just read and re-read the commentary and the comments and can’t find anything insinuating that everyone who goes to a bar with friends is a potential alcoholic. I did find a comment in which someone who voluntarily stopped drinking needed to separate himself from people who would have lured him back to what he considered a bad habit. I don’t know the context but just want you to know that in case reading that made you feel bad, that’s understandable, but there doesn’t seem to be much cause from the comments here. It’s great to have friends and be connected socially, and if that goes along with a beer or two, it doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me. My suggestion would be to cut yourself some slack and take a deep breath. All things in moderation. Just listened to John Prine’s album, Sweet Revenge, and it put me in a good mood. He makes light of all the troubles in the world.
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Did you skip these sentences if so read them again “…I have never considered “drinking” buddies as friends. I quit drinking 21 years ago and former drinking buddies tried to get me to drink again. Those are not friends. Misery loves company.”
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And what does that say to you, that only alcoholics try to get non-drinkers to drink? Sorry, but you must have a sad outlook on life, or a very black and white one. I was an addictions counsellor for years (before I retired) and people were always trying to get me to drink when there was no way! Good people do that too, not just alcoholics.
Now, did I just say addictions counsellors can’t drink alcohol? Most do. Just not me..
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The insulting part about who anyone considers to be friends went over your head, or, you disingenuously decided to ignore it.
They say the reborn Christians are the worst sorts possibly the same thing could be said about former alcoholics.
In my reply I didn’t accuse anyone but took exception to being accused, lumped in with your tempers because I can socialize have a drink and don’t care whether you do or not.
Former alcoholics are not the central character in the lives of nonalcoholics, I would say as strangers that if you’re doing it right we have no clue or reason to care about your past personal history until we become friends.
What part of the 12 step program do you expect everyone of having your problem?
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You’re not talking toClay now. You are talking to ‘rawgod’ and I never said anything bad about alcoholics, so whatever you are reading into mine, or Clay’s, words, are coloured by your past experiences.
Clay said this person was not a “friend” friend, just a guy he knows from the bar he goes to.
Lighten up, please. Read what he and I are saying, not what you ‘expect’ us to be saying.
No one is trying to insult you, and we have done nothing to arouse your anger.
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If I hit reply in an email message I receive and the Software puts it under the wrong respondent that’s not my fault.
Are you too busy to read the entire thread or do you only see portions at a time?
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On reader I only see what is directed to me. But on the site there is usually a note as to who the comment or reply came from, and on email it definitely tells you who the comment or reply came from.
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Neal, I am an alcoholic. I just choose not to drink and don’t. One day at a time has now added up to 21 years. I embrace a sober lifestyle. I have sponsored many social drinkers that later became alcoholics … many didn’t intend to be alcoholics or even realize they were alcoholics until after arrested for driving under the influence.
I didn’t intend to be insulting or to insinuate that social drinkers are all “potential” alcoholics. I am a better cartoonist than writer … My drinking years were misery for me and some of my “drinking” buddies.
Friends and drinking buddies are two very different categories for me.
Oh, and there are still toxic people in my life … just not “drinking”, intoxicated people. Still working on avoiding toxic people. That is a work in progress.
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Have a nice day Neal.
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Hello Neal, maybe you have already forgotten about this exchange and are busy with something else, which is fine. But in case you aren’t, or haven’t, to answer your reply, I was saying that I didn’t see anything that equated drinking buddies with alcoholics. I did read the words you quoted in which former “drinking buddies” who encouraged an alcoholic in recovery to have a drink were not considered friends. They could be lucky people who can have one beer and not crave another, i.e. not be alcoholics, but also not be friends, if you define a friend as someone who wants what’s best for you. (Amy Winehouse’s good friends probably didn’t want her to keep drinking, but maybe her drinking buddies did, because it was how they felt people were supposed to have fun.) Hope you have a good night.
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You stated, “They say the reborn Christians are the worst sorts possibly the same thing could be said about former alcoholics.”
I am unfamiliar with “former alcoholics”. There are “former drinkers” not “former alcoholics”. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship. Through this fellowship we hope to prevent alcoholics from going out there and doing “field research”.
I want to thank you … this thread was like an AA meeting for me. Admitting I am alcoholic and powerless to manage alcohol is what keeps me sober.
I really mean it … thank you and have a nice day.
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Dear Underground Cartoonist, I appreciate your comments and I enjoyed Clay’s cartoon and blog. I have noticed that on social media there seems to be an unlimited number of people who get offended and just want to argue – over the tiny tiniest little petty things. I feel sorry for them and hope all of their anger doesn’t cause them to have a heart attack. Maybe they should have a beer and watch the game.
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