Mike Doonesbury The strip's namesake Mike Doonesbury has recently found a new life, a new coffee habit, and a new career in the software industry. To both his and daughter Alex's delight, he was wowed by and wooed Gen-X coder Kim Rosenthal. The three, united by both nuptial vows and a business plan, now run a mom 'n' pop 'n' pre-teen software startup.

Zonker Harris Zonker has worked as a postman, a bartender, a journalist, and served as Lieutenant Governor of Samoa. After attending medical school for several years, he won $23 million in the lottery, which had little effect on his lifestyle, though it enabled him to buy a Monet and claim a British title.

In recent years, Harris has devoted himself to the field of professional childcare. He is currently nannying and surf-mentoring Boopsie and B.D.'s daughter Samantha. When no one else is using the oven, he bakes and delivers marijuana brownies to AIDS patients.

Mark Slackmeyer Still making waves on air as a radio personality, Mark combines probing interviews with "Lite 'n' Easy Rock," for the generation that still gets down but can't catch up. Mark is the only major FM disc jockey known to have outed himself on theair. He and his life partner - conservative commentator Chase Talbott III - appear together on NPR's All Things Being Equal.

Kim Rosenthal One of the orphans airlifted out of Vietnam in 1973, Kim Rosenthal was raised as a Vietnamese-Jewish-Southern-Californian American. An honor roll student in high school, she aced college and walked out on a Computer Science PhD at MIT to begin her professional career as a Gen-X hacker. Now married to Mike Doonesbury, Kim and step-daughter Alex share passions for Skittles, ice-skating, and writing code.

Alex A true child of the media, Alex Doonesbury was born in real time on cable television. At the time, her mother, J.J., was a performance artist/taxi driver, and her father Mike Doonesbury was a chronically underemployed advertising "consultant." She played a key role in successfully bringing the Boomer and Gen-X worlds together, represented by her father and coder extraordinaire Kim Rosenthal. The three now play hardball with software, searching for the Killer App.

Duke Some people regard "Uncle" Duke, a rabid controlled-substances buff, as " the High Lord of Inner Space." But in fact he has a long record, some of it involving public service. Aftr a failed bid for the presidency, Duke recently became a key advisor to the governor of Minnesota.

Honey A graduate of Peking University (Class of l974), Honey Huan has had a distinguished if largely inexplicable career. Those who know these long-time associates agree that Ms. Huan is the only person standing between Duke and permanent incarceration, having devoted her considerable talents to the thankless task of protecting her imagined paramour from himself.

B.D. College football star, Vietnam Vet, third-string quarterback for the Rams, Gulf War reservist, California Highway Patrol officer -- B.D. has worn many helmets over the years. Recently hired by his alma mater to coach the football team he once quarterbacked, B.D. and Boopsie have come full circle, now living in the house at Walden where they first met.

Boopsie During her Hollywood heyday, Barbara Ann Boopstein was called "the drinking man's Meryl Streep." Stardom has thus far eluded the Divine Miss B, but she knows it's only a matter of lifetimes. Married to college sweetheart and current Walden football coach B.D., Boopsie shares her body with the channeled 25,000-year-old-warrior Hunk-Ra, and her house at Walden with daughter Sam and nanny Zonker Harris.

Roland A man of many talents, none of them of any use to a journalist, Roland Burton Hedley III nonetheless has made a name for himself by travelling constantly to the world's hotspots, stopping briefly at laundromats between assignments. He has covered numerous presidential campaigns and world tours, mercilessly badgering officials with probing questions and inane queries alike.