Re the third choice in the current Straw Poll on pot: Damn right there's a reason they call it dope. Alcohol supremacist bigots are demonizing it for all they are worth. Say no to the war on users of the 'wrong' drugs.

They are really just a normal family, aren't they. All kinds, different views, snark, fun, love. Just like any other family on a visit to Granny.

Speaking of "Sorkh Razil": linguists discuss the name here.

For those who might not have noticed it, I want to say that I followed the link to an FAQ about whether any characters in the stip have died. The reply includes a 1989 sequence about the last days of Joanie's friend with AIDS. She gave him the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album on CD (which was probably new then) which thrilled him. The last panel of the last strip is a view from behind him in bed, and he is obviously gone. Next to him, the CD player is playing "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" -- one of the happiest songs on the planet. Marvelous and timeless.

You blew me away today. War porn -- amazing and accurate.

"He writes war porn." My morning coffee is all over my keyboard. Great punchline.

Let me get this straight. Garry Trudeau and Jon Stewart go on summer vacation at the same time? Don't they communicate on stuff like this? How the heck am I going to know what's really going on in the world?

Wow. Watching the birth of a brand new One Percenter; Jeff "arriviste" Redfern. Twelve bedrooms and an indoor paint ball facility -- can a car elevator be far behind?

Certainly Garry Trudeau deserves to take as long a hiatus as he likes. But that doesn't make it any easier for the rest of us Doonesbury-addicted souls going cold turkey!

I can't believe how prescient your long form strip on the weekend (Mike watching Breaking Bad) was. On Saturday I spent hours watching a large number of back to back episodes of this programme, commencing from episode one (on a pay TV channel), while my much better half was completing many and varied necessary and productive tasks. To then be confronted by Mike falling asleep after doing pretty much the same thing I had been doing was was truly startling.

Well, now we need to wait until September to see if a newly-minted Ph.D. in Neuroscience, perhaps, can deliver twins? Quite a cliff-hanger...

The best part of the Dr./Ph.D. joke is that the set up was literally years in the making. MIT, meeting Toggle, doctoral program, marriage and pregnancy. All happened to make that one punchline and it was awesome!

As an academic I've heard today's (idiotic) joke so many times from pompous Ph.D.s. How marvelous to hear it from the other side. When you need a real doctor you know what a real doctor is. This Doonesbury is going onto the office wall!

Art imitates life. In 1972 my nine-months-pregnant friend was in the lineup to receive her Ph.D. (as was her husband) when her water broke. She waddled across the stage, got her diploma, and didn't return to her seat. Instead she went outside and got the University President's chauffeur to drive her home.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the great work you've done and continue to do. I love realizing that I haven't read the strip in a week or so (gasp) and then getting to binge away. Much love from Madison, Wisconsin.

With the beginning of the arrival of the twins, I am delighted to see that there is no such thing as a simple baby delivery in Doonesbury. Joannie, J.J., and Boopsie all had highly memorable labors, but these were all following in the footsteps of the infamous Thudpucker delivery. Congratulations to our new parents, and may no stork ever make a standard landing in this wonderful world!

Wait a sec...is GBT going to start his summer hiatus the same way he started his first sabbatical, by bringing new members of the Doonesbury family into the world?? That would be amazing.

Okay, today's strip got me! I was eight weeks pregnant with twins when I defended my (Ph.D.) dissertation and I could not go to my "hooding" because I was too far along to get on a plane! Go Alex!!!!

I've been reading Doonesbury 'live' for about 35 years, and all the strips that came before that. As soon as Alex's pregnancy was announced I had a flash fear that the birth of the twins would be a closing point to end the strip. I so much hope I am wrong. I want to see how fantastic these kids will be.