I was searching for “What would Brian Boitano do?” and was disappointed it was left out. (That’s a South Park reference for those who don’t get it).
As the poll creator, I’d say it counts; I’m more interested in whether you had a copy of (and, thus, likely listened to) that album, rather than whether you made an actual purchase of it.
The Calvin & Hobbes vs. Bloom County poll was a hard one for me, as those are two of my three “Holy Trinity” comic strips from the 1980s (the third being The Far Side). But, C&H gets my vote, as I think it was the most consistently funny.
Realistically I know it’s hard to find a romantic partner. I commented to my husband the other day that it’s one of the most important decisions most people will ever make, especially if you decide to have kids. So that’s hard. That takes a lot of effort for most people.
For me… I just kind of fell into it. Met the perfect man at age 19. Sometimes it’s work, but I know it’s not nearly as much work as it should be. We’re just naturally compatible. It’s kind of uncanny.
So for me specifically, dream job is harder. I’m working what’s pretty close to my dream job if you ignore the structural implosion taking place at my agency, but that took a crap ton of work. Graduate school, entry level jobs, long bouts of unemployment, climbing up rung by rung, learning to manage depression and anxiety. Proving myself over the years. That took a lot of work and it still was dependent on a good bit of luck.
@WildaBeast I didn’t want to waste one of my 20 choices on -other. Originally, I had like 90 choices to go but then I found out about the limit.
Maybe I will put it in the next one.
@kenobi_65 Darn, I should have included The Far Side.
As one of the younger members of the board (late 40s) I’m young enough to have been part of the early iTunes generation. So while I have only 4ish of the albums on the list, I have digital singles of most of the more noteworthy singles from the majority of them.
Other than replacing old cassettes with CD or digital versions, I can’t think of any time I bought a full album of almost any music in over 10 years.
You undoubtedly aren’t the only one; artists still release albums, but people consume music differently now. Below is a link to the Wikipedia list from which I pulled the list of top-selling albums; the newest of them (Shania Twain’s Come On Over, which, interestingly, only one or two respondents in the poll own) came out 26 years ago, in 1997. That said, selling 15+ million copies of an album is probably a function of time, as well as popularity.
However, when you look at the next category on that page (10-14 million copies), there still aren’t many newer albums: there are only nine albums which were released after 1999, and only one (Adele’s 21) was released after 2004.
I was reading old “Bloom County” strips a little while ago. I was shocked at how badly it has aged. A lot of jokes about Ed Meese and Caspar Weinberger. Does anybody even remember who they were?
Yes, though I am not only old, but have always paid attention to politics.
Also, now I’m thinking about the wind tasting like jasper wine and sugar. 
That’s me! Not only do I own it, but I’m seeing her on tour later this year.
Oh, God, are we really that old? I’m 39. What does that make me?
I picked Calvin but thinking deeper I would probably say Bloom County was better but Calvin was more enjoyable. On a daily basis Calvin was more likely to be LOL funny. Bloom County was often going for an arc that didn’t always have a good daily punchline.
The magic pill makes me think of a favorite Ursula LeGuin book called Changing Planes. It’s sort of the same thing but in order to indulge, you must be in an airport, seated at a gate, and achieve a certain amount of boredom/sleepiness. And then you change planes of existence to another world. After about 10 minutes, you come back. No drugs, just boredom.
I said I’d do it less than 10 times. Possibly only once.
And I picked Calvin & Hobbes. Yes, I do remember Ed Meese and Weinburger, but I’d rather not.
I always felt those things were inserted to be absurdist. It mostly didn’t matter what name it was. I enjoyed Monty Python and laughed at the jokes even though I didn’t know late 1960s British politicians. The humor was understandable in context.
FWIW, Waterson always cites Bloom County as inspiration. That and Pogo came up a lot.
I’ve never read it so I had to go with Calvin. I read those comics when I was a kid, and they’re still great.
Someone who isn’t allowed on my lawn.
Per Doper Demographics - #6 by engineer_comp_geek, you’d be in the top 10% of the youngest members of the board. My bracket only adds another 17%. So yes, we are so very, very old. But this being the world we live in…
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Bloom County was great, but there were times when Breathed could have edited himself a little better, I think. The strip could be a bit talky sometimes, and (though it’s been years since I’ve read it) I recall occasionally losing the thread of whatever his point was supposed to be.
C&H achieved greater depth with greater simplicity.
I consider Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbs to be equivalent in quality. It’s like asking are bananas or oranges better. When I am in a mood for a banana, bananas are better. When I’m in a mood for an orange, oranges are better.
Because they are equal in my eyes, I previewed the current vote and voted for the one that was behind, just to equalize things.
Besides, Bloom County taught me a valuable lesson. The difference between a politician and a statesman.
Who is “Buckaoo Bonzai”? Does he grow miniature trees?