As the seasons cycle ever onward, Funny Paper tips its Curious George-style triangular newspaper hat to the funnies for their unstinting devotion to the seasonal phases of comedy. Only the elementary-school classroom, with its perennial construction-paper hand-turkeys and Santa Marias, can match the comics' lockstep march to the calendar's beat. Every special occasion, after all, is a day you don't have to scuffle for a gag. This week, a twofer: Daylight saving time arrived in the wee hours of April Fools' Day. FP especially salutes the Keanes, father and son, whose top-of-the-page Family Circus clock-turning gag Saturday morning gave us our first personal inkling that DST was nigh.

Sun Crossword OREO watch: Monday, 23 across: "Licked cookie."

Decontextualized punch line of the week: "How does the top of my head look, Daddy?"

Classic Peanuts: In a sequence from 1973, 1-year-old Rerun Van Pelt is introduced to the members of the gang beyond his immediate family. By week's end, the toddler has been installed in left field for Charlie Brown's baseball team. Funny Paper ponders the minimalist genius of Charles Schulz as we realize that even though we've been reading Peanuts since these strips originally ran, the precise makeup of Charlie Brown's lineup remains a mystery. Our zig-zag-shirted Everyman is of course the pitcher, and Schroeder is behind the plate. Linus and Snoopy are the 4-6 keystone combo. Lucy and Rerun play sibling right and left field, like a couple of pint-sized Alous. But who's on first? Who's on third? Who's in center? Pig Pen? Franklin? Frieda? Violet? The non-peppermint Patty?

Jumble: SURLY EARLY. "DRAINED." BE "COUNTED" ON. A "SCREAM" TEST. ONLY SEW SEW. IN A CART.

Doonesbury: Garry Trudeau reaches out to the common man with a set of Final Four picks, written before the tournament: Stanford, Duke, North Carolina, and Syracuse. Nice try. Even Funny Paper did better than that. In an extra-special slumming touch, the cartoonist says that in the event the picks work out, "look for this strip's creator to take early retirement." Nice try. Like Mister Jane Pauley is living paycheck to paycheck.

Non Sequitur: Wiley reaches out to the common man with a strip wherein a lumpen woman informs a snooty maitre d'--at "Le Phoof Ristorante," yet--that "you get to eat for free at Denny's on your birthday." Hey, Wiley: Denny's dropped the free-birthday-eats promotion years ago. Who's the phoof now?

Curtis: Curtis' dad's back pain causes him to be transmogrified into a razor-stubbled, cigarette-smoking, poopy-diapered gigantic infant.

Luann: After meeting Aaron Hill's deaf girlfriend, Claudia, Luann surrenders her natural jealousy in favor of guilty condescension toward the handicapped.

Cathy: Cathy goes shopping.

Herb and Jamaal: Jamaal and Yolanda get mis-connected through old- and newfangled channels as they try to set up a date.

Momma: Mel Lazarus comes up one hit short of the cycle. Monday: Marylou dates a loser. Tuesday: Francis freeloads. Wednesday: Daughter-in-law Tina is a bad homemaker for Thomas. Thursday: Francis is a horndog and a layabout. Friday: Daughter-in-law Tina is a bad homemaker for Thomas. All Lazarus needs to round out the basic set of Momma themes is one gag about Momma being a grasping hypochondriac. Instead, on Saturday, we get a random warmed-over Lockhorns gag. Boo.

Marmaduke: Great laffs from a great Dane!

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