Sunday Afternoon Toons: A snowbound potpourri

We've got the Sochi Olympics, and the curious fact that everyone who satirizes Putin seems to draw him with his shirt off. We've got the sad death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. We've got the continuing slow political death spiral of Chris Christie. Somehow, CVS/Pharmacy has contrived to be news. And don't forget the newest right-wing anti-ACA talking point: If you can quit your second job because you don't need it just for the health insurance now, it proves that Obama is anti-job.

Today's toons were dug out of a snowdrift near Pioneer Square and discovered to be from the week's offerings at McClatchy DC, Cartoon Movement, Go Comics, Politico's Cartoon Gallery, Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons, About.com, and other fine sources of toony goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Jack Ohman, Stuart Carlson, Steve Benson, Jeff Danziger, Jim Morin, Ben Sargent, Drew Sheneman, Nate Beeler, Pat Bagley, Dave Granlund, Gary Varvel, Matt Wuerker, Jen Sorenson, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Jack Ohman.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (While Getting the Facts Wrong): Glenn McCoy.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (While Getting the Facts Right): Rob Roberts.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Manny Francisco (Philippines) [also a p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence, for Chappatte and Francisco].

Ann Telnaes celebrates Putin's grip on free speech.

Mark Fiore foretells the conversation that will be created by the newest invention, the iBus.

Taiwan's Next Media Animation wishes Jimmy Fallon good luck in replacing that other guy – you know, the one who peaked artistically in "American Hot Wax." That one. Interesting that NMA's rendering of Leno – oh, you knew it was Leno all along; don't act surprised – makes him look a lot like Newt Gingrich, another holdover from the early 1990s who just won't go away.

Hullaballo's movie maven Dennis Hartley reviews the animated short that are up for the 2014 Oscars.

Regular p3 readers know we're not huge fans of Scott Adams and his Dilbert strip around here – we'll never be hanging over the railing of the balcony in the Ed Sullivan Theater screaming his name, to take but one measure of our feelings – but we're supporting him on this one: As a way of letting Adams ridicule the anti-gay laws passed in India, Asok the intern has announced that he's gay. Yup. Gay, gay, gay. As a result, the Idaho Falls Post-Register and the Seattle Times are both running old strips rather than Adam's attack on India's government – which he allows one of his characters to describe as having "a nuclear arsenal and the scientific knowledge of inebriated astrologists." Or the objection could be to Asok's gayness. Or both. (Commenters in the above link report other media censoring Dilbert too, although the details are a little blurry. The Portland metro area is largely shut down this weekend due to snow and now freezing rain, so I don't know if the Oregonian has made a similar move, but their record on this sort of thing is not pristine.) Displaying the problem that many conservatives have when it comes time to talk about freedom as a matter of human rights rather than a matter of libertarian economics, Adams' defense of this move comes out a little garbled. Nevertheless, we with Adams good luck on this, and remind readers so inclined that his Dilbert website always has the genuine article.

Tom Tomorrow raises the moral dilemma: First, they came for the cute, cuddly cartoon characters, but I wasn't a cute, cuddly character, so. . . .

Keith Knight brings up an awkward question.

Tom the Dancing Bug sets the standard by using "literally" perfectly correctly.

Red Meat's Ted Johnson and his son share a moment at the movies.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon shares fun history facts.

Comic Strip of the Day takes a daringly un-hip position on The Lockhorns.

The shortest animation ever shown on the p3 Sunday Morning Toon Review: This isn't the entirety of "Piker's Peak," a largely-forgettable Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam outing directed in 1957 by Fritz Freling. It's just the funniest part, and it goes out to all my Portland metro readers (!) who are snowbound for the third day. When this toon was shown on ABC on Saturday mornings, this gag was removed, because, you know, there was nothing like a Bugs Bunny cartoon to make little children want to take up competitive mountain climbing so they can get buried under an avalanche just so they can watch a dog drink a martini!

The p3 Sunday Comics Read-Along: Pearls Before Swine, Doonesbury, Rhymes with Orange, Zits, Adam @ Home, Mutts, Over the Hedge, Get Fuzzy, Prince Valiant, Blondie, Bizarro, Mother Goose & Grimm, Rose is Rose, Luann, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Rubes, Grand Avenue, and Freshly Squeezed.

The Big, But Could Be Bigger, And We're Not Giving Up, Oregon Toon Block:

Matt Bors watches as a good thing gets out of hand. I get the point, even about Pepe LePew, but I'm not giving up "Baby It's Cold Outside."

Jesse Springer notices some bad signs for Oregon education. (Note that it's not second-lowest graduation rate in the nation, it's second-lowest on-time graduation rate – not that's a whole lot better.)

Test your toon captioning mojo at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.)