Comic strip by Pulitzer winner will replace ‘Doonesbury’ flashbacks

To our readers:

"Doonesbury" political cartoonist Garry Trudeau has announced another extended break from his daily cartooning, to pursue producing "Alpha House," a video show. So, rather than run "Doonesbury Flashback" strips from the 1970s indefinitely, we’ve decided to replace the retreads with a relevant, current-day cartoon, "Barney & Clyde."

Created by Gene Weingarten, the award-winning and nationally syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post, "B&C" challenges us through an unlikely friendship between a millionaire and a homeless man.

Barney — J. Barnard Pillsbury — is the billionaire founder and CEO of Pillsbury Pharmaceuticals. Barney thinks he has it all — power, wealth, a statuesque trophy wife — until he meets Clyde Finster, an intelligent, entertaining street person.

Weingarten has written four books, including "The Fiddler in the Subway," an anthology of his newspaper feature stories. The title refers to the stunt he engineered in which violinist Joshua Bell performed incognito outside a Metro stop in Washington, D.C. It won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing — and Weingarten repeated the feat (the Pulitzer award, not the stunt) in 2010.

"Barney & Clyde" will start tomorrow on a daily basis in the "Views & Voices" editorial section. Aloha to "Doonesbury"; aloha to Barney & Clyde."