BEETLE'S ABNERISH LOVE LIFE

In case you haven’t noticed, in Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey the title character is dating Miss Buckley — a case, doubtless, of opposites attracting. When I interviewed Walker last winter, he told me that he doesn’t intend the relationship to proceed very rapidly — mostly, he admitted, because Beetle’s too lazy to do anything. He’s a little like Li’l Abner who managed to ignore Daisy Mae’s obvious physical attractions for 18 years before marrying her, and even then, he had to be tricked into marriage.