of his clichéd adventures involved being marooned on a desert island while hallucinating about his riches and his hired lawyers. Through some form or another, he always got rescued from the island but not before being surrounded by sharks, the golden sands of the island, and a meager palm tree. This tragic event would happen to Mister Drudge exactly four times in the course of two years. Cronin In the comic strip, Cronin made infrequent appearances; usually as comic relief within Mike Motley's workplace. He is usually drunk and hanging out at the same neighborhood bar as Mike Motley; occasionally drinking beer alongside him. When Cronin gets drunk, Earl usually has to drive his friend Mike home and faces the consequences for the various stunts that he fulfills while he is inebriated. Cronin became the laughing stock of the entire workplace when God claimed that "only people who wear their underwear on the outside can go to Heaven." Even the other workers have fun at Cronin's expense at work the next day when he does crazy stuff. He usually hangs out of the bus stop; indicating that Cronin's lifestyle doesn't allow him to maintain an automobile. Cronin also carries a lunch box with him most of the time. Unlike his friend Mike Motley, Cronin was the swinging bachelor who desperately looked for girlfriends of ill repute. He used the payphone at the local bar in order to contact the "women of his dreams." Yuri Litnov Yuri Litnov was Mike Motley's friend from Russia (which was part of the Soviet Union during most of the comic strip's production). He provided Cold War humor from the perspective of what Americans were conditioned to believe to be the "enemy" during the Cold War years. This character was used the most often during the Mikhail Gorbachev administration. While Yuri was visited by his friend Mike Motley in the then-current Soviet Union, Yuri rarely traveled to America. The reason for Yuri's lack of visits to the United States was that financial and security reasons prevented citizens from the Soviet Union from entering Western Bloc countries during that time. During the 1980s when the Soviets were warming relations with the United States, Mike (representing the United States of America and his capitalist employer) had fewer financial and security restrictions upon entering the Soviet Union. Yuri was fortunately enough to become a casino owner in Moscow, Russia