Garry Trudeau

Garry Trudeau, award-winning "Doonesbury" cartoonist, is getting animated.Some of his most famous "Doonesbury" characters -- Zonker Harris, J. J., Duke, B. D. and more -- are represented in a new collection of computer screen savers dubbed "Doonesbury Toonscapes."Mr. Trudeau is not apologizing for selling out. In fact, he is trumpeting it. That is because the royalties from the screen savers and other "Doonesbury" products are donated to several of his favorite charities.Screen savers are software programs designed to take over the computer screen when it is unattended.

Comic-strip panels portraying U.S. soldiers in Operation Desert Shield in today's "Doonesbury" are actually the work of "Zorro," a member of the Air Force who is stationed in Saudi Arabia, according to a spokesman for the comic strip's syndicate.The panels deal with the bleak living conditions of troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. In the first panel, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau drew a soldier who tells readers, "Check out these cartoon dispatches from the front, created by 'Zorro,' an airman stationed at Central Command in Saudi Arabia."

Robert Altman barged into the nation's consciousness during the Vietnam War era with the anti-war comedy "M A S H" (1970), guiding a huge ensemble — with fresh stars like Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould — through freewheeling improvisations. The movie was set during the Korean War, but '70s audiences knew it was commenting on the bloody chaos of Vietnam. Seen today, in a new 35mm print at the AFI Silver Theatre, it remains uproarious and profound about the way human beings develop a tough humor and forge unexpected bonds to stay sane amid the human wreckage of combat.

NATIONAL Bush, Kerry mark Memorial Day President Bush declared that "America is safer" because of its fighting forces, while Sen. John Kerry went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in somber but historically asymmetrical Memorial Day tributes. [Page 3a] Weekend tornadoes kill nine Residents of Marengo, Ind., spent Memorial Day recovering from a tornado that smashed through town, part of a weekend-long wave of violent weather. One person was killed in Marengo, and eight others died elsewhere, including two in West Virginia and Kentucky.

"Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau accused Sen. Bob Dole of invoking his war wounds in his presidential campaign. This prompted former Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, a frequent critic of Senator Dole's policies, to respond, "In the 35 years that we have known each other, and been in daily contact for much of that time, I have never seen Bob Dole attempt to exploit his scars of battle." Others who know Senator Dole say the same thing.But the senator's World War II heroism and suffering are in fact one of the distinguishing characteristics of his last presidential campaign, which he formally began yesterday.

-- Just as George Bush and Dan Quayle dislike Garry Trudeau, who tickles only their angry bones in "Doonesbury," so the Calgary Flames' Doug Gilmour thinks hockey cartoonist Dave Elston isn't funny.The center has reacted with pained fury to being lampooned. A Calgary Sun cartoon last week poked at him for his complaints that $750,000 a year, the sum awarded him by a NHL arbiter, wasn't enough.Elston caricatured Gilmour at an adopt-a-family table applying for funding as one of the holiday season's neediest families, evoking a Christmas promotion run by the paper.

Dear Ann Landers:Lighten up. Maybe after reading hundreds of thousands of letters from people with real problems, you've lost your sense of humor. That is the only conclusion we can draw from your deadly serious response about the humor contained in Western Maryland College's brochure about financial aid.How could anyone take seriously the brochure's tongue-in-cheek advice that the college's tuition and expenses ($19,580) be funded through a chain letter, by playing the school's telephone number in the Pick-Seven Lotto, or by opening a savings and loan?

WASHINGTON - For nearly a century, Walter Reed Army hospital has been a sanctuary for soldiers returning from battle, but yesterday the nation's flagship military hospital was itself the target as the Pentagon proposed closing its doors. The medical center would be relocated from its home in Northwest Washington to a new facility in the Maryland suburbs. More than its medical implications for veterans, the move's greatest power might be emotional, ending the story of a sprawling campus where soldiers have struggled, leaders have died and the nation has gone to heal its wounds.

Thanks so much for that round of imaginary applause. Please be seated. Before we begin, one small request: Kindly turn off your cell phones and Tasers. Shortly after I was invited to write a few words about Maryland's nondescript crop of college commencement speakers, a number came to my attention: 4,216. According to a spokesman for the U.S.