HOT TIP: You don’t have to sign a prenup if the guy you ask to conduct your wedding isn’t a real minister
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Pluggers, 1/7/26
Pluggers has been doing a string of “Classic Pluggers winter fun!” panels this week, and while most of them have in fact been mildly fun, at least for the characters involved (what if we fired up the barbecue grill … when there was still snow on the ground?) I have some questions about this one. When you stare at the TV, expressionless, thinking “Hmm, things today sure are different than they were in the past, and I’m not sure how I feel about it,” is that fun? Do pluggers enjoy doing that? The fact that this is a submission from a Florida-based plugger adds an extra layer of ennui here. “Well, I guess that’s how they do things up north now. Not the choices I would make, but it’s none of my business, I suppose.”
Gil Thorp, 1/7/26
If you had asked me, I would’ve pegged Gil as the kind of guy who has a church he belongs to and occasionally attends, but he doesn’t really spend a lot of time dwelling on religious matters. But we live in a post-sectarian age, so it makes sense that when it comes to finding someone to preside over his nuptials, he turns to his most spiritual friend (“spiritual” here means “has attempted to contact the spirit of Gil’s dead mentor in a supply closet with a Ouija board“).
Mother Goose and Grimm, 1/7/26
Not to sound sadistic or anything, but shouldn’t all these people be dead? Shouldn’t they have suffered horribly as their living flesh was transformed to stone? Because of Medusa? And her powers?
186 replies to “HOT TIP: You don’t have to sign a prenup if the guy you ask to conduct your wedding isn’t a real minister”
Gil Thorp:
“Of course, I’m not a licensed justice of the peace, but I assume that’s an unimportant detail.”
Mother Goose and Grimm:
What an asp she is to not think of putting on a hair covering in the first instance.
Pluggers:
“Well, I guess I won’t be able to traverse the roads, then, to get to my scheduled rhinoplasty!”
Equally important, how do we break it to them that SNAKES DON’T HAVE HAIR. Other Cafeteria Lady speaks for us all, here.
Gil Thorp: “And when I think back to those old times with Beth, I feel as though they were so long ago that everything was black and white, even though I’m not old enough to have dealt with black and white TV or photography. Also, it warms my heart to remember us much as better drawn than we typically are nowadays. Damn, we look good!”
Gil Thorp:
“She had classic bartender mannerisms. Whenever I would encounter her in the first instance on a given evening, she would be wiping the inside of a glass with a dishtowel (like you see in today’s second panel) — you know, like all bartenders are doing in the comics or on TV or in the movies when the protagonist first encounters them.”
GT. I was just about to compliment Rachel Merrill on her artistic breakthrough when I saw it was a guest artist. Oh well….maybe those “draw the mouse from the matchbook cover” online art classes will pay off eventually
So now we know why Rhino Guy pawned his 1970 RCA. It was so he could upgrade to a 1986 Zenith, as was foretold in the Ancient Tales.
@Chance:
“Really is a shame; she mostly looks like she’s a melting wookiee, nowadays. Kinda makes me regret eating that bag of acid tabs, now and again.”
RMMD: Do the characters have these fake hands with posable fingers they just jut into the frame when they want to emphasize a point?
JP: The look on Sophie’s face in the second panel says ‘I’m going to break my erstwhile boyfriend’s heart from thousands of miles away, and it’s turning me on!’
Luann: Ugh, talk about my *feelings*?? Why can’t you just act like how I imagined my high school crush would, and tell me how beautiful and perfect and pretty I am without ever actually wanting to have icky, dirty sex!
MW: Dear… I’m divorcing you to marry Sunny. California lets you do that!
MW2: Dear… shut the *#$% up and let me sleep.
I’m pretty sure that thinking about how things are different now than they were in the past is the definition of “fun” for Pluggers (let’s go ahead and call them Boomers already since that’s a term that’s transcended the actual generational definition)!
GT: Between whatever Martinez has up his sleeve and Keri’s cutting-edge PC contribution, it’s going to be a FUN wedding.
9CL: Unless you’re as spineless as that snowman, dude, she’s not interested.
MW: The funny thing is that when Toby comes home to find that Ian has bitten off Sunny’s head and his wearing his plucked feathers as a crown, she’s going to be SURPRISED.
SHOE: A retired Medusa is content with only turning the meat loaf to stone.
Rachel Merrill can actually draw in an appealing manner, which makes me believe that perhaps she is just very slow and can’t keep up with the pace. Her good work doesn’t feature the huge chins and bizarre shading that gives women goatees and similar. No “is she crying or trying out for a KISS tribute band?”. That or she just doesn’t care about a strip no one else has cared about for, um, how long has the strip been going because it’s that’s number.
Never thought of this before, but are the characters in “Pluggers” supposed to represent the reader who sent in the suggestion? Are insulted if they get the rhino, instead of, say, Andy Bear?
Luann – Make it stop!!
Mary Worth – Make it stop!!
You always used to close down the bar after the coach of the year awards? That’s very sweet! Where was your wife, who is also a coach, at the time?
Pluggers – Classic Pluggers is like cultivating Heritage Hemorrhoids….
GT – Don’t tell me – music by Eddy Cantor….
MG&G – …and three licenses for your dog….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Mary Worth – I’m actually hoping the parrot-smuggling cartel will come to retrieve Sunny, with deadly force if necessary. If bullets and blood fill the halls of Charterstone, all will be forgiven (spoiler, Moy will earn no forgiveness)
Okay come on now, the US started naming storms in the 1950s. If that’s not acceptable to a Plugger, I’m not entirely sure what we’re even doing here.
Pluggers still hold a grudge that they started giving storms male names. It completely ruined the “Him-icane” joke.
MG&G: Sssucksss.
Grimm: Snakes are notorious reservoirs of salmonella. Sorry to discriminate against gorgons, but I don’t think Medusa should be employed in food production in any capacity. This health inspector is being too lax!
Pluggers: “I’m going to get obliterated by a winter super-storm? OK. Huh. I always thought I’d feel something when I learned how I’d die.”
FLASH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!: “….and, on Ming’s skull, my father swore an oath to defeat cruelty and piracy….”
MG&G: The lady on the left is turning to stone. See her expression? The guy on the right talking never looks up from his clipboard.
Florida Pluggers: “Hey! Naming storms is our thing. Stay in your lane, elite state Pluggers.”
GT: My wedding was officiated by the sports information director at Tennessee State University, so I can relate.
GT: Hey, Gil. Regularly leaving the bar at 3am might have something to do with your divorce.
GT Such a sweet story! No wonder Mimi suddenly remembered she was attracted to women and left!
Gil Thorp: People tend to want their wedding officiants to be someone they know or are close to, which leads to any number of lay people getting an online ordination and when it all inevitably goes bonkers, coming to me shell-shocked, saying “I never knew weddings were so crazy.” I’m telling you now, Coach Luke, hold out for presiding at Gil’s funeral! It’s way simpler and hardly ever involves bridesmaids!
I like today’s MG&G.
Nah, no snark today. Gil might be an ass, though.
MG&G — How did the snakes get through the hairnet in the first place? Did Medusa cut holes or did they chew their way through? If the former, just don’t cut holes; if the latter, more hairnets aren’t going to help. But I guess the anonymous administrator’s regulatory impulses are just set in stone. . .
Also Gil Thorp: You don’t actually have to sign a pre-nup if your officiant is a real minister, either. I’d only recommend it if you had serious assets to consider, such as huge tracts of land or Coach of the Year awards.
Pluggers-And the less said about Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice the better.
RMMD-“Then when Rex is gone again the office will once again be ours.”
Gil Thorp-Suddenly Mary Worth’s ears perk up. “What’s this? A wedding and I’m not invited!”
Mother Goose and Grimm: Seems pretty obvious to me that “Medusa” is actually a Laufen Slinten pod, which brings up the whole problem of needing tiny space suits, rather than hair nets.
Frank & Ernest: Because I grew up in a farming town and am conversant in the digestive systems of ruminants, I get this joke.
JP: I remember in an interview that Marciuliano said he wanted to make Ted Forth a ninja assassin working for an organization called the Golden Hand but his editor relegated the storyline to a fever dream, so I assumed that when he took of Judge Parker the strip would lean heavily in the action and espionage, but the very last we saw of that mess was August 31, 2025, so, uh I guess I was mistaken? I guess that when Sophie’s internship ends and she finally dumps her boyfriend, she’ll get around to tracking down April and Randy with the help of her Norwegian boy-toy.
MG&G: These reason why nobody is turning into stone is because nobody looks service workers in the eye.
Phantom:
“Sir, I see your taut expression in today’s second panel, and I want to assure you that I have everything under control — no need to tighten up! Apropos of which, and a little off-topic, but, sir, you know everything — so let me ask you this: you know the smash ’60s R& B hit ‘Tighten Up’ by Archie Bell and the Drells? What’s a ‘Drell,’ anyway, sir?”
“Patrolwoman, how in the world would I know that?”
Anybody else reading Mandrake? If so, do you wonder how Bookworm apparently snarls with rage while noting kindness? Damn, Bookworm, lighten up!
Pluggers: Oh lord, I am a plugger. To continue the old man rant, I don’t mind naming the storms as such, but when it started they seemed to be leaning heavily into apocalyptic imagery — “Storm Fimbulwinter is approaching! Have you panic-bought your eggs and milk yet?”
Pluggers: Ha, remember when weather was less extreme and more predictable and didn’t cause regional emergencies? Good times…
MGG: Yeah, little hairnets to catch all that…snake hair? Is there anything about this strip that works?
Super-Pedant Mode activated!
What do you mean, “later in life…” Mother Goose &/or Grimm? Medusa was cursed with immortality and could only die by violence! She was already thousands of years old when Perseus decapitated her… and death precludes any “later life” if you think about it!
Also, snakes don’t need hairnets because they have no hair!
Super-Pedant away!
You make a joke about Medusa and it’s about her having snakes for hair and has nothing to do with the one thing everyone associates with her? This is almost Thursday Six Chix caliber.
The comments on gocomics.com don’t work.
@But What Do I Know?:
One, I see what you did there, and applaud.
Two, we saw that recently on Gasoline Alley, with the cruel health department guy threatening to shut down the diner just because the staff didn’t wear hairnets, or wash their hands after using the bathroom, or clean the kitchen. Damned bureaucrats.
@A Grave Mind: We haven’t even seen him pick up a book.
MG&G: No longer snake-shamed in the progressive school where she works, Medusa reins in her stone turning power. Still, kids are very cautious about criticizing the food as they walk past the statue of former superintendent John “Picky” Chalmers.
@Hibbleton: And today’s Pluggers contributor is from Florida, so he basically outed himself as ignorant. I hope someone in Dave Leich’s life educates him about hurricane preparedness.
Snowstorms are just called snowstorms, and that didn’t change because Big Television decided to get in on the dramatic hurricane action during the winter in areas that don’t get enough terrifying weather.
***
Look at his face. The bald inspector was forced to wear a hair net after losing most of his once luscious locks so there is no way he’s not going to be petty over a bunch of hairless reptiles. What he doesn’t realize in his spite is that reptiles shed scales, so their entire bodies should be covered.
MW: In P1, as Toby agrees to leave the tree up going forward, she looks like she’s staring off into some horrific future as if only now she suddenly realizes Ian is going to be there.
Josh, Josh, Josh, a plugger never says ‘it’s none of my business, I suppose.’ Everything is a plugger’s business. Right now, that rhino is calling, in order a) his congresscritter, to complain and demand action; b) his local newspaper, to complain; and c) his militia, to storm the National Weather Service offices without first checking that NWS doesn’t actually name the storms, that’s the Weather Channel.
Look, Dave from coastal Florida, if you want to slightly reword and resubmit your late-August entry about how there are just too many hurricanes to keep track of these days that’s your business but I hardly think it’s “Classic Pluggers winter fun!” material.
MW: After Ian’s violent rages failed to stir anything in Toby, he switches to the mopey sad sack routine and immediately gets results. Between this, Wilbur’s too-childish-for-actual-children antics, and whatever Zak had going on with his babysitter, I have to conclude that Moy thinks all women are searching for manbaby partners that they can mother.
Phantom: Poor Patrolwoman Han! What’s her next career step? Meter Maid and Waitress seem to be the only other jobs available in Maitwaan.
Do you, Gil &^#@&!@! Thorp, take this woman . . .
Pluggers: Rhinoman becomes so disillusioned that he sells his TV to a pawn shop.
Gil Thorp: (Upon first glance) “Wow, panel two actually looks pretty good, maybe the entire strip should just be in black and white *sees the Guest Artist note*
Oh…
MG&G: I always assumed that Medusa could control who turns to stone and who doesn’t, but turned everyone to stone anyway, because she’s straight-up evil.
Edit: I’m now remembering it was her ugliness that turned them to stone, not anything that she actually had control over. (Doesn’t stop various adaptations from making her look cute or sexy though…)
Also, do Ancient Myths count as Fairy Tales at this point? I see Medusa in a lot of public domain fantasy settings alongside Fairy Tale pastiches.
But then again, I’ve also seen Dracula in those same scenarios too, who is copyrighted?
@Victor Von: I mean, I assume that Medusa wasn’t evil before her transformation, just vain.
Athena transforming her for a very very petty slight… and she’s supposed to be the WISE one.
(Or was it Aphrodite who cursed her? I’m getting my myths mixed up)
9CL: “Hello, I am George Bernard Shaw, famous literary smart guy. I am addressing you in the 1930s although I have not produced any work for which I shall be remembered since 1920’s Heartbreak House and 1923’s Saint Joan. Yet I will remain alive until 1950. Has my role in this world been reduced solely to the production of vegetarian turds? Discuss.”
@The Rambling Otter: That’s Ovid’s revisionist take. Originally she was just a monster
@Earl: There was this indie videogame, called “Look Outside” sort of a survival game, where everyone (minus the protagonist and one kid) who looks outside, turns into monsters.
The one kid Victor, on a field trip, never notices the chaos around him, because despite being outside he’s too invested in his portable videogame to even just look away from it for one second.
Victor: I think the bus got a flat tire or something? We stopped pretty suddenly.
Florence: Dude. No, it’s like the end of the world or something. There’s monsters and stuff.
Victor: I THINK I would have noticed something like that.
Florence: Dude. Have you even looked at me? I look like a space alien! It’s actually kinda wild.
Victor: I can’t look right now. Okay? You know this bit is super tough. I just need to parry the lizardman…God damn it, I can never get it.
Florence: But I mean like, my life is different forever now. I’ll need new clothes, I think. And, like a LOT of therapy.
Victor: Dude. Are you trying to make me fall off the Bridge of Souls? I need to FOCUS!
LUANN: Luann: “Ugh, you’re specifically stating you don’t understand something about our relationship and asking for more clarity on the matter? What is wrong with you? Clumsy innuendo is the ‘language of love’ here, buddy!”
LUANN (2): (In nasally Young-Sheldon-wannabe, Alan voice): Um…Hel-LO?!? Actually, ‘therapy-speak’ would be utterly impenetrable psycho-babble designed to obscure the actual feelings you’d want to express. Like for example, if a dorky 12 year old waxed pretentiously on dubious factoids of how ‘mature’ having a ‘genius intellect’ can make a person in way to make the highly inappropriate relationship he keeps implying wants with a college girl to sound palpable to less discerning simpletons, that would be an example of ‘therapy-speak.’ Asking explicitly for your viewpoint in a clear concise manner is kinda the opposite of that.” (To be fair, Luann has no idea what a “textbook” sounds like since she never actually reads the ones assigned to her in class and just submitted finger-painting doodles she did for “homework.”)
GT: The more I learn about Coach Luke’s spiritual life, the more confused I am. He’s Hispanic and managed to wrangle an audience with the Pope, which would indicate Catholic. But he’s also married, so he can’t currently be a priest–if he’d been ordained before his marriage, he would be obliged to renounce his vocation. He believes one can contact the dead, which does line up with certain syncretistic practices, but he uses a Ouija board for it which is more of a New Age-y thing. I know the obvious answer is that he has or will get one of those quickie online ordinations, but honestly I’d rather think about this than whatever is causing Gil to age at an alarming rate.
Pluggers inspires today’s rabbit hole: how long has storm naming been a thing?
*Googles*
Huh, it turns out that as far as “giving big winter storms first names like hurricanes” goes, that was a thing started by The Weather Channel in 2012 as a way to increase social media reach, but the practice has not been adapted by and is generally dismissed by the meteorological community at large as ineffective and irrelevant. So I guess today’s implication is “Pluggers adhere to the standards set by the NOAA and the AMS.”
@2+2=7:
On Luann and talking about your feelings in “therapy speak” : …you know, if I was going to describe one of the people in this relationship as acting like an amateur therapist, I’d pick the one who mimed lifting immense suitcases while going “THIS IS YOUR EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE, LET ME UNPACK IT FOR YOU”, and then made the other sit down and discuss his issues.
…But maybe that’s just me?
@Dan: I had understood that naming of winter storms specifically, as opposed to tropical storms, was a Weather Channel invention to generate ratings and sell ads. If so, the rhino’s reaction captures the Plugger worldview precisely. Unfocused grumbling about things being different from his youth, instead of questioning how much of his world is being controlled by people with wealth and power. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll mail the rhino a cassette of Rage Against the Machine.
@The Rambling Otter: Stoker screwed up the paperwork for copyrighting Dracula in the United States, so the novel and the character, have been public domain here for over a century now. Specific artistic renderings of the novel and character (such as movies and comics) are still under copyright.
@The Rambling Otter: In some versions of the story, Medusa was priestess of Athena but had the bad luck of being raped by Poseidon in the temple (where she had fled to escape him). Because Athena required all of her priestess to be virgins and because Medusa had “allowed” the temple to be defiled, she cursed Medusa to become a hideous monster. Medusa had been impregnated by Poseidon, so when Perseus beheaded her, her children Pegasus (the winged horse) and Chrysaor (a giant warrior) sprang from her bloody stump.
@Charterstone: Dune: Interesting :3
The version I always heard was just Medusa being vain and saying that she was more beautiful than Athena.
But then again, the Medusa story has been adlibbed and rewritten over and over and over… so it’s cool to hear your version, which feels more fitting towards the myths than what I heard.
DT: “Endless” must be a reference to how many look-alike relatives the late Breathless Mahoney has.
Dustin: I mean, I don’t blame Dustin here. This guy has “middle manager who thinks way too highly of himself and abuses what little power he has in an effort to be important” written all over him. I bet he and Dustdad would get along splendidly.
MW: Go back to the irrational indignation, Ian; it’s a much better look on you. If I wanted a one-man pity party I’d check in on Wilbur.
Working Cats: Whoa, who knew Taki was violently antisemitic?
@The Rambling Otter: Also, my rambling is going to be the death of me someday.
Will I ever stop rambling? Probably not.
I probably alienated half the site by now with it though. Which I apologize for, but rambling is just me.
Luann – was there a memo that I missed? Has the demographics of comic strip readers changed so that it is mostly focused on relationships. Wasn’t it an older group?
Crankshaft – a ray of reality. Bird feeder bane are poaching squirrels! Please let Crankshaft engage in a protracted (and losing) battle to stop squirrels from poaching the bird feed.
Blondie – She doesn’t want to return anything because she is at her limit. One more return and she gets blackballed by the site.
Bizarro – Boris Karloffesque!
DT – I know this is compulsive but Tracy ran out to return the compact right? Did he return the compact? Or did he leave it in the bar?
Dustin – this strip probably started out as a fun time about a kid that just loafs around at home, sort of like what Beetle Bailey was like before joining the army, but clearly those fun times have ended.
Flash Gordon – Mongo, the wandering planet. All true to the original origin story.
Gil Thorp – Nice art. Decent anatomy, perspective, and porportions. Clear lines that withstand reproduction, shading, and inking and most of all reduction. IT CANNOT POSSIBLY LAST. This artist is TOO GOOD. Will soon move on to better and bigger projects! Enjoy it while it lasts!
JP – REENA: basically you are spoiled and so over stimulated that nothing can ever be good enough. You are going to wreck something just so you can feel something “different”.
MW: So what is Ian’s scheme? Why does he need the tree? Is he going to sneak a boa constrictor into the house?
Phantom: Yup, the old Jungle Patrol has gotten complacent. They are now arguing over an open channel when they need to get in there and get those prisoners. This is the true legacy of the striped underwear guy.
RMMD: Yes, the backlog of patients is due to yakking about Summer’s feelings so that no one got checked in or out or scheduled!
@Charterstone: Dune: Also the funny thing is, Dracula appeared in the old Sierra computer game franchise “King’s Quest” (which focuses mostly on fairy tales) but Sierra with their many series of games were infamous for violating copyrights. They got sued over and over but never stopped doing it.
So it surprises me that Dracula was actually something that they COULD get away with.
@The Rambling Otter: We’re here for the rambling, the side comments, the sprawling storylines that we invent about comics.
@Charterstone: Dune: The “cursed by Athena” thing was Ovid’s interpretation (he really favored “gods are petty dicks to humans” takes); in earlier versions she is a monster from birth, one of the three Gorgon sisters (and unfortunately for her, the only one that wasn’t immortal).
(I’ve heard some claim the idea was Athena actually blessed Medusa by giving her an ironclad defense against further assault, but I’m thinking this is a postmodern take.)
Pluggers: What is the beef that Pluggers have with the tradition of naming especially large storms? Do they have some kind of ideological opposition to anthropomorphising? If so, it’d be pretty hypocritical.
@TheDiva: So, if we were to take these myths at face value, there are two Gorgons still running amuck somewhere.
Hmmm…
MW: Wasn’t the abusive husband played by Martin Mull in “Mary Hartman” impaled on a Christmas tree while lurking in a closet? Maybe that will happen to Ian.
Pluggers: My pet peeve is how they now call an extremely heavy downpour an atmospheric river. Just call them what they do in Texas, a duck drowner or frog strangler.
Pluggers: This strip must predate Rhinoman hocking his TV.
@TheDiva: In the backstory to Final Fantasy III, a powerful wizard had three apprentices (who were all immortal, mind)
He gave one apprentice immense magical powers.
He gave another the power over dreams.
He gave the third… mortality.
The third apprentice was so furious by his “terrible” gift, that he ended up causing a genocidal temper tantrum.
SFx: Dating Slick Smitty? Your mother will be so disappointed in you, Pebbles.
MW: “We Need a Little Christmas” is an out-of-season cry for help from someone whose sanity fell off a cliff after all her money was lost in the 1929 stock market crash. Yes, Ian, keeping that tree up all year doesn’t send any worrisome signals.
H&L: Scientific proof that passive aggressive critiques of your mom’s housekeeping can be formed by pre-verbal infants. Nobel Prize, here we come!
DtM: From the looks of it your mom is making a bechamel, you ungrateful little jerk.
BG&SS: Another classic rerun from the early 1930s. Well, most of it; the first panel has Snuffy using a word that isn’t used on the internet. Well, except for X.com.
HtH: Like you don’t have fleas, Hagar. It’s the 10th century; everyone is susceptible.
Pluggers: I cast one vote for “I couldn’t tell this is a Classic without the author’s note”.
Luann is on the ball here. Social workers and therapists (any stripe) do that. Sometimes they need to go thru an emotional airlock, like an astronaut returning to a craft after a space walk, to connect with us normies.
MW: Keeping the Christmas tree up year round, so Ian doesn’t get upset. This may the first step in the transformation of the Cameron apartment into a kind of “dementia village.”
@TheDiva: #60: Ordained Catholic deacons can be married and can perform several of the sacraments, including matrimony. This was created to ease the shortage of priests.
GT: Coach Martinez says he won’t let Gil down. I can’t wait for the inevitable “letting down” that’s coming.
@TheDiva: I guess that makes me a Plugger then. I don’t remember anybody mentioning in meteorology school half the stuff that the TV talking heads spew out these days. WTF is a “bomb cyclone” anyway?
@Bob Tice: #6-GT – Plus, she was quick with a joke or to light up your smoke!
GT – Gays, trans, divorce, women’s sports – there’s a lot of things Jack Berill could never have imagined in his strip, but turning Gil into a drunk may be the biggest.
@Voshkod: I’ll try my best to stay on topic then.
Or even if its just enough context to be on topic. Like my Dracula/King’s Quest copyright comment
@Ken: Charterstone itself already was a dementia village?
@cheech wizard: Gil Thorp is turning into Nu Mark Trail so fast.
@The Rambling Otter: No, the rambling is what makes this place fun.
Pluggers remember when snowstorms were just called snowstorms, because confusing them was not a worrying reminder of Alzheimer. Wait, when did they start naming them? Again, Alzheimer
@The Rambling Otter: Yeah, it’s important to remember there is no “original version” of a myth. There are earliest documented versions, but they are no more canonical that later retellings because they’re all crafted to meet whatever vision and needs of their tellers and the societies in which they lived. I mean, who’s to say Abbott and Costello didn’t meet Frankenstein just because Mary Shelley didn’t mention it in her book?
@Ken & @The Rambling Otter: I actually had this thought today because my great aunt, who did not have dementia, did live in a nursing home primarily for dementia patients for a while, which she rather enjoyed because she could kind of boss people around and generally feel good about herself compared to the other folks there, and I think that for Mary, Charterstone’s big appeal is the same: She can surround herself with some of the most severely psychologically immature, dysfunctional on the planet and dole out mind-blowing advice like, “Have a normal conversation about your concerns without flying into a rage” and “Don’t let your bird shit in your husband’s shoes.”
@Voshkod: Okie doke, I’ll keep rambling then, thanks!
GT- Coach Martinez:”Sure ! I’d be honored! I won’t let you down!” Gil: “Great! Now all I gotta do is line up Ol’ Lady Wilson for the bachelor party!”
GT: Does Gil know that Luke’s clerical collar came from the Vatican Souvenir Shop, along with a Pope Pius XI bobble head?
You can get a one day permit from the State to be able to perform a wedding. I did it when my son got married and I officiated the ceremony.
@Guillermo el chiclero: To add to the fun and games, though, Catholic clerics (priest or deacons) cannot officiate the *Catholic* form of a marriage to a couple where neither is Catholic, or he’d be guilty of a church crime of “pretending to administer a sacrament” (there’s this whole thing about the “minister” of the Catholic sacrament being the couple themselves, but for it to be valid, it has to have the Catholic form, including a church location and cleric assisting [except in the case of “grave difficulties” waivers, which in the distant past included not having enough priests to have one in your town for months and months]).
Soooo… meandering back to *comics*… Luke had better not be an ordained deacon – so OK to officiate a *non*-Catholic shindig – or have church superiors who don’t mind their deacons playing marriage officiant outside the Catholic form- and if the ouija board wasn’t off-putting, I figure they’re cool with that
Medisa! Snakes don’t have hair! Tell that moro to look at them with his own eyes, and then turn him to stone!
Pluggers:
In happier news, Rhino Man got his telly out of hock.
Let’s take a quick minute to congratulate Scratchy Scrotum LXIX on his first day of retirement. You can now spend more time coming up with fodder to send to the Pluggers folks… although I’m not sure their sensibilities align with yours, I sure would love to see one of your suggestions come up as an entry.
@Old School Allie Cat: Great, now I’m imagining an anthropomorphic cat looking at a pharmacy shelf, with caption “Pluggers have their favorite brands of powders to treat itchiness ‘down there’.”
Luann-Luann, he’s perfect for you. Marry him.
I find it hard to believe that Pluggers can remember 2010. Their children can.
@Anonymous: Seriously! The only thing that prevents Luann from accusations of “sounding like a therapy” is her extremely limited vocabulary.
@Anonymous:
But there was, in fact, someplace she’d rather be!
So, basicly, Flash Gordon’s backstory is the same as Superman’s minus Marlon Brando?
@matt w: You always used to close down the bar after the coach of the year awards? That’s very sweet! Where was your wife, who is also a coach, at the time?
I’m guessing closing down the bar at the She-She Lounge
@TheDiva:
GT: I went to a Catholic high school and our scripture teacher was a priest who was married with children (his daughter was in my class!). It was some special thing where Anglican priests could convert over but remain married. I’m pretty sure that’s not the case in GT though.
GT: Loving “I won’t let you down!” A list of things Luke promises NOT to do on Gil’s wedding day:
1) Drop both rings down the sewer grate outside the church
2) Pull the fire alarm; escort all guests out into a heavy rainstorm
3) Channel Gil’s dead racist grandparents using personal Ouija board
4) Drink two fifths of white tequila ten minutes before the service
5) Fuck the bride doggy-style in her boudoir
6) Add yours here!
GIL THORP: Kaz who? (Seriously, when did Luke Martinez establish a close enough relationship to warrant this request? He’s a belligerent rival that’s be humbled into coaching subordinate and occasional pervy wingman. Is that enough “clout” to officiate at a person’s wedding?)
GIL THORP (2): A married Gil has been flirting with the bartender for years.l! How romantic!
Don Abundio, translated:
“We’re looking for a hunting cabin”
[On door: REAL ESTATE]
“I have the perfect place”
“It’s actually listed as a treehouse… but it’s not some hippie environmentalist thing!”
“Quite the opposite, really!”
[Sign: FOR SALE]
Pluggers don’t really care about storm names, they just want to see people confused by the winter weather and freeze in their cars or get snowed into their houses. For how else can one truly know they are alive unless they have a hand in causing the death of someone else?
@vince: #105: I believe Greek Orthodox priests can be married as long as they were married before joining the priesthood but not after. To achieve higher rank like bishop one has to be of the celibate clergy.
Gasoline Alley – I guess this is a half assed attempt to drum up suspense about what the gift is, but it comes across as padding a story that no one cares about. A week of this is too much, especially since all of the characters involved are so repulsive. At least Rufus and Joel don’t appear every day.
9CL – He’s expecting something Shavian, but with Brooke writing it, it’ll be pretentious gibberish.
Rex Morgan – Rex will have to wear dark glasses for a time. The foreshadowing seems to indicate that maybe there will be dramatic complications of some kind, but remember that this is RMMD, the comic strip that made a plane crash boring.
@The Quiet Man: Re RMMD – That’s guest star Thing from the Addams Family.
@Pozzo: If I submitted a suggestion, I’d be very disappointed if I wasn’t represented by Sheila Roo. I’d probably get Henrietta Beak.
@Ken: Re Gasoline Alley – remember that the health department guy was actually a mental patient, and the story was supposedly a hilarious take on severe mental illness.
@Guillermo el chiclero: I never heard frog strangler before. That’s wonderful.
As beliefs changed, all the old Gods and Beasts continued to exist, but in severely weakened form. Scylla got hired at a Six Flags water park, the Minotaur makes ends meet doing seasonal work at corn mazes, and the Sphinx was a losing contestant on Jeopardy.
DT: How many times a day do you suppose the current Dick Tracy writers curse Chester Gould for creating so many iconic villains — and then killing most of them off, so they have to keep creating knock-off relatives?
RMMD: “People always appreciate being seen quickly.”
“Yes, with Rex back, they’ll be seen very quickly indeed. He’s managed to turn ‘take two asprin and call me in the morning, next!’ into one word!”
SH: Okay, it was at least implied on Monday that they were going to check if the hotel took pets, and I guess I can see how they could have made it look like Pam the human was staying in the room to look after Palmtop the cat, even with only one of them appearing at a time. So thus far, I concede it doesn’t actually fail to make sense. But since the logistics are the only part of this that’s even close to interesting, I feel like we should have seen some of this.
Hats off to the non-terrible art in today’s Gil Thorp (how often do strips have an arbitrary “guest artist”, that has to be a precursor to firing the current artist, right). That said, Gil himself is now rendered as if his suit is rumpled, his hair is dyed, and he’s had at least one “procedure” done on his face, all of which is to say that the depiction is probably highly appropriate.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
I just finished reading a fictionalized history of Justinian II and the disagreement between East and West on the matter of previously-married clergy was a significant plot point (that got a church leader blinded with boiling vinegar).
@T.H. Steady: I worry I take these too literally, but whenever I see people joking about Merrill taking art lessons, I feel it’s important to emphasise that … this (guestures vaguely at past installments of Gil Thorp) … isn’t the work of someone who needs to learn to draw. This is the work of someone who’s actually not a bad artist if she cares enough about a project to bother, letting us all know that she doesn’t.
@JeffMcm: PS: I checked out the last week or so of Gil Thorps for comparison and it’s actually a little cruel to have chosen a guest artist _so_ much better than the current team, the New Year’s Day strip in particular is an artist crying out to be fired.
@Nekrotzar: But at least the Sphinx never forgot to answer in the form of a question.
Family Circus:
The Keanes really need to invest in an entertainment center.
@Ukulele Ike:
Having drank most of one fifth of white tequila in a short time, I would find that impressive, indeed. And wonder if he, too, had to spend most of the next day doing laundry (don’t puke on a bed, kids, just…don’t).
@Nekrotzar: I was delighted to learn, a few years back, that Scylla got to be Sea Monster Scylla after Circe got jealous and poisoned Beautiful Sea Nymph Scylla into monsterdom.
I bought a reproduction of Waterhouse’s Circe Invidiosa, framed it, and put it in the staircase landing across from Moreau’s Salome Dancing Before Herod.
@Peanut Gallery: “What is, ‘I used to be a mighty creature feared by all but now I’m reduced to appearing on afternoon game shows’ ?”
GT: Looks like the comments on GoComics are broken, so where will all the Gil Thorp h8rs go with their unfunny snark and griping about wokeness? Hope it’s not here.
Ease up, Coach Kaz stans, I’m guessing he’ll be the best man.
@John Plugger Mellencamp:
I’m guessing closing down the bar at the She-She Lounge
I sure hope that place finally installed a fire escape.
MG&G: probably already discussed but do food service workers need hair covering if they’re bald?
BETTY: Arc this week on inadequacy of most short-term self-defense training. I concur
CURTIS: You’re own fault, Dad. By failing to give your kids a set allowance and teaching them to budget, your kids will never be economically stable.
DOONESBURY: Who knew Z was a good nanny!
GT
I wonder how many bartenders end up marrying their customer, who refused to get his married ass off the stool until she finally had to have the bouncer throw him out so she could go home. Because I’ve tried that move many times and I haven’t even got a date out of it.
LUANN: I find this dude annoying, but the strips this week have been good reminders that Luann is so extremely annoying that she leaves him in the dust. Why her parents wouldn’t offer to pay six months of her rent if she’d just get the hell out of their house for good after more than ten years of college, I do not understand.
@Poteet:
LUANN: […] Why her parents wouldn’t offer to pay […] [to make her] just get the hell out of their house, […] I do not understand.
Frank thinks ANY money spent on Luann
*is a waste of money, apparently even “GO AWAY” money.*I’m assuming groceries don’t count because that’s not SPECIFICALLY for LuannGT: Beth looks like a normal human being today. I know it’s the guest-artist effect, but it’s more fun to think she is a shape-shifter who likes to mess with people, especially Gil. Tomorrow she’ll appear to him as a female version of Rhino Man from PLUGGERS.
Pluggers – Pluggers (the comic strip), like Hallmark, tries to stay out of the hot-button political fights while still espousing a burlesque of traditional rural values. They aren’t going to step into the gender controversies, for instance, so by proxy they make naming major winter storms like naming hurricanes their debate.
(Also, I am glad Rhino Man has his TV out of hock)
Gil Thorp – Asking someone to be an officiant is a great way to keep them out of the bachelor party .
“Sorry, man, but we just can’t get married by an officiant I just saw put dollars in a stripper’s g-string with his teeth.”
Mother Goose and Grimm – Medusa “turning a person to stone” was just a figure of speech the illiterates of a previous age took literally. But in this secular age gods and monsters have been brought down to the human level. Now the accursed immortal has not only lost her ability to strike paralyzing fear into men, she is now bound by the power of a balding bureaucrat and the health code regulations he upholds.
@Anonymous: I suppose that would help to explain her wardrobe, much of which seems to come from seniors-cleaning-out-their-closets garage sales. (And I say that as a senior.)
@Philip: Now I wonder what poor Sisyphus is doing these days..
GA: If you perchance should wish to inoculate your brain against any desire to ever follow GA, today’s strip is recommended.
Did Josh see his shadow?
@Activist: DOONESBURY: Who knew Z was a good nanny!
____________________
Zonk’s the G.O.A.T. of nannies!
@Nekrotzar: #116: Wasn’t he the emperor who had his nose cut off the first time he was deposed then managed to seize the throne a second time?
MG&G: Poor Typhon now works as the volcano machine in front of the Mirage in Vegas.
Gasoline Alley-It’s the head of Gwyneth Paltrow.
MG&G: The satyrs find seasonal work playing the devil in those Halloween hell houses put on by evangelical church groups.
Gassed Up Alleycats: Does anyone have “Chef Meow-reese™ cat treat jar” in the WHAT’S IN THE WEDDING BAG? pool? If not I claim it.
Off-topic, but another one bites the dust.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is closing in May.
Last month, the remaining 26 members of the Newspaper Guild ended a 3-YEAR long strike after a federal judge ruled that the paper’s owners engaged in unfair labor practices.
This comes a week after the PPG owners closed the city’s “alternative” paper, which they had purchased a couple of years ago to print the Gazette during a printers strike.
The PPG stopped publishing a dead tree version (except for Sundays) about a year ago but continued an online version.
The closures won’t affect the Toledo Blade which the Block family owned before moving into Pittsburgh.
The Blocks claim they’ve lost $250-million over the last 20 years.
@Poteet:
I heard Sisyphus was last seen rolling around heaven all day
Sex Organ V.D.:”……we should be able to accept MORE fees PER DAY!” “Nice, people appreciate paying money fast for decent health care, as well as for the stuff Rex dishes out.”
@Poteet: @Philip: Now I wonder what poor Sisyphus is doing these days..
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Hanging out with the Rolling Stones, I imagine.
Mary Worth – in panel 1, er, AND in panel 2 … is Toby … looking directly at the reader, instead of at her husband, with whom she is in bed, and with whom she is talking?
Is this some kind of weird comics porn I am not familiar with????
@Peanut Gallery: @Nekrotzar: But at least the Sphinx never forgot to answer in the form of a question
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At least she’s overcoming her humiliation of being on “The Critic” just so Jay Sherman could say, “It sphinx!”
@holmegm: Mary Worth – in panel 1, er, AND in panel 2 … is Toby … looking directly at the reader, instead of at her husband, with whom she is in bed, and with whom she is talking?
Is this some kind of weird comics porn I am not familiar with????
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#1 If YOU had to have sex with Ian Cameron, wouldn’t YOU look away as long as you could?
#2 She’s looking to the audience for reassurance as to how to tell Ian she wants a three way with Sunny.
@Poteet: On the other hand, GA is such a train wreck that I have to follow it. And look on the bright side – Rufus and Joel were mentioned, but at least they didn’t appear in today’s strip.
The entire wondering about what’s in the bag is done in such a charming way, by such delightful characters. I can’t wait.
@Chance:
Having guest artist Jason Margos do strips this week instead of Rachel Merrill helps. We actually have rounded, organic shapes for people, instead of Cubist horrors.
Gil Thorpe: glad to see a young Walter Matthau making an appearance in panel 3
@Capt. Picard: Jason Margos seems to be mistaking this art gig for cataloguing the Hollywood Wax Museum.
@Capt. Picard: Was there any such thing as a “young Walter Matthau”?
@Philip:
I may be mixing up my Gil Thorp characters, but I’d think Martinez was more likely to be taking dollars out of the g-string.
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: fair point, he and Abe Vigoda were born at age 79
@Anonymous: @Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol:
“Sure, Gil,but I’m only allowed to preform Klingon weddings, everybody got their bet’laths sharpened?”
@GarrisonSkunk:
Worf: We agreed it would be a traditional ceremony.
Jadzia Dax: Okay, have it your way. First we’ll shed blood, then we’ll feast.
Worf: As it should be.
MG&G: The Erymanthian Boar made the mistake of taking a gig at a Hawaiian luau. Poor guy, he should’ve known. Even Arnold Ziffel knew enough to stay away from one of those. He should’ve called Sid, who’d probably have gotten him a much safer gig in Mark Trail.
GT: So Gil (looking more Indiana basketball coach than ever) made a habit of staying at the bar until 3AM. But don’t worry, he wasn’t a drunk, it was just because they had an attractive bartender. I am no longer certain that Emily being a lesbian is the decisive factor in his first marriage breaking down.
Pluggers: One of the first strips I saw on this blog was Rhino Plugger hocking his TV set, so I’m glad to see things are looking up for him, sort of.
C-Shaft: Obviously what “they” will think of next is driving it into the ground.
DT: Sam says the first thing that comes into mind as he stares at the way Endless’s nipples stick out in the subfreezing weather.
H&L: Well, if Trixie has to be surrounded by dog dandruff, I guess it’s nice that at least one other Flagston kid is interested in playing in it.
JP: I can only assume that, on top of what Glen is paying them both, Reena is getting extra money from Sophie in order to look interested in this blather. The only question is where she’s investing it.
Luann: Luann reminds Phil that he’s not her therapist, a disappointment since he could have used the $150 per hour he was going to charge her. (Yeah, this is basically my Judge Parker joke. Shut up,)
MW: Don’t do it, Toby. You are in no way qualified to delve into the psychological issues requiring your husband to keep the, ahem, Christmas tree up all year.
Phantom: If Worubu doesn’t now say “You bet your ascot I’m back” he’s doing this all wrong.
RMMD: “Nice. People always appreciate being seen quickly. Even if it also means being seen blurrily, ha-ha. High five! No?”
@UncleJeff: Well, it’s not off-topic for me. I did some growing up in that area and am considering going back after I retire. The loss of the ‘Alternative’ City Paper really stings because that was one of my first experiences with such media. I still remember finding my first issue one fine day in Station Square (also now lamentably gone). Arguably one of the things that informed who I am today.
Damn, am I turning into a plugger??
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: @Capt. Picard:
In Bigger Than Life (1956) Young Walter Matthau (playing a gym teacher, bite me Gil Thorp) engages in a fistfight on a staircase with James Mason.
Mason wins, possibly because he is all hepped up on Goof Balls. Great movie.
My mistake. In the linked synopsis, Matthau “beats Mason unconscious.” It’s been a few years.
Goof Balls, everyone!
@The Quiet Man: I should probably clarify that Station Square as a destination is still there, but the shops that used to be in the former Freight House (including a toy store I loved visiting as a kid) have been removed and the interior redeveloped.
MGG: “Later in life” is the key. Very few post-menopausal women can turn men to stone.
@Ukulele Ike: It’s a memorably violent fight, especially for the time period. Mason was being treated with cortisone, a new and unexplored drug. In real life Jerry Lewis spent months in the hospital, shaking the cortisone monkey off his back.
Late Thread Cuisine: Look at those buns!
@Baja Gaijin: The chicken downed a whole bottle of sherry in one sitting. You’ll have to do the same if you’re going to try eating it.
@Baja Gaijin:
It’s an easy recipe:
1) Drink the sherry
2) Toss chicken liver in the trash
@The Rambling Otter: How goes the soda cleanse,Rambling?
@Baja Gaijin: I can make out a lot of mushroom shapes. I’m no fan of chicken liver, so if it’s actually a vegan version subbing mushrooms, well, maybe
@Baja Gaijin: I swear, the Seventies weren’t just a giant morass of green, orange, brown, and mustard yellow! I was there, I tell you! I remember! It’s only in these old food photos…these food photos…photos…must…stop…looking…
@Anonymous: 2) Toss chicken liver in the trash
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3) Avoid Ghost of Julia Child
@GarrisonSkunk: It is so embarrassing to be typing this, and I solemnly swear this is the only Klingon I know. It’s bat’leth. And I only know that because I remember a certain BIG BANG THEORY episode. Okay, that’s even more embarrassing.
@90 The Rambling Otter: Yes, please keep rambling.
@141 GarrisonSkunk: My guess on the mystery gift’s contents is yesterthread’s Late Thread Cuisine.
@164 Ukulele Ike: With a mistake like that, I wonder if you’re hopped up on goofballs.
@Baja Gaijin: Late Thread Cuisine: Look at those buns!
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Awwww, please don’t eat the bunnies!
@169 Artist formerly known as Ben: SNERK!
@170 Anonymous: I agree.
@172 CanuckDownSouth: A pound and a half of chicken livers are in there.
@173 Poteet: Are you sure? Everything I see from the 70’s seems to be those colors.
@174 GarrisonSkunk: Hopefully she’s haunting a Waffle House in Adairsville, Georgia.
@175 Poteet: I saw the same episode. I gleaned the same knowledge from it too.
@177 GarrisonSkunk: Are we looking at the same picture???
Ah, how nice to see a Gil Thorp strip the artist spent more than two minutes on.
@Baja Gaijin: Are you saying you keep your eyes open during movie fight scenes?
That’s when I go get my popcorn.
@Baja Gaijin: You show us what Bullwinkle only sings about.
In the ancient story Medusa’s head is cut off and she somehow gives birth to a flying horse and giant, so if you wanted to add that her head subsequently grew back and she became a cafeteria worker without petrification powers, it wouldn’t be any weirder. But the idea of reptiles needing hair covers still seems really hard to accept.
@pachoo: This sort of educational material is why I check the late-night posts.
@Bob Tice:
MG&G – Here’s is the OTHER issue. WHY would snakes require a hairnet? They are not hirsuite!! Slimy, scaly… but not hirsuite!!