September 11, 2001
While I was trying to get to sleep last night, for some reason my mind wandered over to the Dysfunctional Family Circus. It was a feature on one of my favorite Web sites, and was damn hilarious. The site's owner would post a Family Circus comic, and us sick S.O.B.'s would create captions for it. The captions were reviewed, and only the best posted, so there was always quality stuff there.
It was up for at least three years, before Bil Keane finally got tired of it, and had his lawyers descend on the site. The owner took what I'll call a "cautiously belligerent" tone, not wanting to stop, not having the time or money to defend himself if they went so far as to sue. In the end, Bil Keane actually called him on the phone and talked it out; and Geoff (or was it Jeff?) Keane, his son, made a few very reasonable postings on the site's fan newsgroup.
It's been down for quite a while now, and I'm actually glad it's gone now. Its cousin, It's a Dysfunctional Life, is a little more robust -- the subject matter isn't as limited. It now has close to 600 pictures, and it's consistently funnier than the DFC was. (Which is damn good.)
Why am I writing this? Hell if I know. Why was I thinking about it instead of falling asleep? My mind works in weird ways.
