THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996               TAG: 9601120024
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   48 lines

LOOKING FOR HUMOR IN THE NEWSPAPER

Another year has come and gone and I find myself searching for a new place in The Virginian-Pilot to satisfy my desire for wit and humor. ``Calvin and Hobbes'' is gone, so I took the last line of the last strip, ``. . . let's go exploring,'' to heart.

I began my search with other comics - no real wit there, except for Garry Trudeau, but I do not care for anything else in his strip.

Next, I went to the Sports section. Baseball players striking because they do not make enough money and Buster Mathis telling everyone he can knock out Mike Tyson were so funny I found the stories ridiculous.

The Metro section was next on my list. I could not find anything humorous about Portsmouth's rising crime rate or concerns about the Virginia State Bar.

That was it. My last hope for humor and wit wrapped up in one neat package rested with the A section. ``Deadlocked budget talkers take holiday'' is not funny. ``Baby boomers turn 50'' is scary. Boot camps are interesting. Bosnia is too controversial and bloody to be funny.

With one more turn of the page I was contemplating canceling my subscription when it hit me: the editorial section! How did I miss this before? It is funny, witty and thought-provoking. It even has a cartoon! Everything I was searching for and more!

I love a good challenge. Balancing the budget is a popular idea, but the real laughter lies in paying off the debt. Leo Wardrup's idea of partisan local elections (editorial) I like - call it ``A good idea.'' But the biggest eye-catcher in today's editorial section was the letter ``Trafficking in danger in Waterview.'' The word trafficking immediately conjured up visions of drug pushers. The city in discussion was Portsmouth - poor Portsmouth. But what was this? Alma Hall was writing about cars, not drugs. That was funny; the editor really tricked me with that one.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow. And I understand that on Sundays there is a section called Commentary where I can get pages and pages of the same whimsical and amusing material.

Happiness and joy for the coming year are located in The Virginian-Pilot on the editorial page. Thanks go to Watterson for sending me exploring.

KEN PERRY III

Virginia Beach, Jan. 1, 1996 by CNB