Mood swing Sunday
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Pluggers, 6/28/26
Oh, did you need Moses to commune with YHWH atop Mt. Horeb and bring down a commandment about it before you knew that you have to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy? Well, pluggers just kind of know to do that, like, instinctively. Maybe even biologically. When God says He’s making man in “His image,” maybe He meant a hideous beast-man, actually, you ever think about that?
Judge Parker, 6/28/26
Yeah, so, Sophie, what you are experiencing is not so much jet lag as what we in the biz call a “manic episode.” Not sure Norwegian coffee will help! Unless it’s the opposite of caffeinated? Like, not decaf, but way way past that into negative caf. Anyway, good luck!
142 replies to “Mood swing Sunday”
Mary Worth Mashup: I think I’m not the only one who agrees with the added final panel.
Rex Morgan Mashup: This mashup has the Poteet Seal of Approval.
Garfield Mashup: I couldn’t help it.
I’m always relieved when 9 Chickweed Lane leaves out the black plate so I don’t have to read it.
Dustin-“Your lips usually move when you read.”
MW-Don’t do it, Dawn. The muffins and lemonade are drugged.
RMMD-“Do you think they are Mae Mae and Mud Mountain?”
FC-Bill wants advice on how to alter one of his dad’s old comics.
@Uncle Lumpy: I’m always relieved when I don’t look up 9 Chickweed Lane online, so I don’t have to read it.
Pluggers:
Of course, (a) a plugger probably doesn’t know what day of the week it is, anyway and (b) any day is a day of rest for a plugger.
JP: Sophie can’t brew “Norwegian Coffee” in the good old USA because …tariffs have cut off the supply of Norwegian coffee makers? You’d think someone as world-weary as her would have heard of temu.
Pluggers: So, when bears hibernate do they…I don’t know…hibernate extra hard on Sundays?
Pluggers: Dipsomaniac Sabbath.
Speaking of Judge Parker, head over to the landing page on Comics Kingdom (https://comicskingdom.com/judge-parker) and see if you agree that it’s a very… unfortunate clip of that throwaway panel.
Pluggers don’t go to church on Sunday mornings anymore. In fact, their only involvement with organized religion these days is trying to establish bible studies in public schools.
I thought that Sunday was the day that God created light, and that Saturday was the day of rest.
JP:
“Soph, you’re up already?”
“No, this is an AI-generated image of myself.”
“You know, for almost the past ten years, you can pretty much count on our strip to present some kind of dialogue that is smart-alecky or off-kilter each and every day. I’m not quite sure what constituency the writer is aiming for with that — maybe the ’80s ‘television sitcom with kids in it’-watching crowd, where in each and every show, the kids were smarter than their parents and made lippy comments to prove it?”
Pluggers don’t need a reminder that Sunday is a day of rest because they’re all days of rest now, until that fateful day when they take their biggest ‘rest’ yet!
JP: Fun fact: Scandinavian countries have the highest per capita consumption of coffee in world! Having stayed in Norway for a period, though, I can tell you that it is more of a means to an end — i.e. a source of caffeine to keep you awake during those long dark winters — and not part of gastronomic culture. So maybe Sophie’s question is less ‘How can I capture the flavors I experiences in that seaside village?’ and more ‘Why does this take so long? I could have had three more cups while I was waiting for this one to brew!’
JP: I once had a girl
Or should I say, she once had some convoluted adventures with the CIA that no-one could understand?
She showed me her room
“Isn’t it good, Norwegian coffee?”
She asked me to stay
And she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around
And I noticed there was an enormous breakfast nook the size of a small truck
I sat on the rug
Biding my time, drinking her coffee
We talked until three
And then she said, “It’s time to clean the kitchen”
She told me she didn’t work in the morning
And started to laugh
I told her I did
And crawled off to sleep in my gown
And when I awoke
I was alone, this bird was cleaning the stable
So I lit a fire
Isn’t it good, Norwegian coffee?
Pluggers:
You’re a plugger when you think that a green pattern armchair with a pink throw pillow against a blue wall, illuminated by a lamp with a polka-dot base and a white shade, is the epitome of interior design fashion.
JP:
“Abbey, are we the only house in the United States where the breakfast nook has a banquette that makes it look as if being in the kitchen is like sitting in a diner?”
Wrecks Moregone:
“Yes, they’re those entitled Morgans who think everyone should give them money. You know, the ones whose negligence wrecked Mum’s health and forced us to try and earn money by pretending to play music in the street.”
______________________________________
Wary Morth:
Dusk could improve herself no end by throttling Mary before another platitude emerges from her mouth.
Norwegian coffee might sound like a non-sequitur, but actually the Nordic countries consume a lot of coffee and, as an Italian, I find that they are one of the few peoples who can claim to do good coffee. I approve Sophie becoming one of those former expats celebrating the country they spent some months in. Next thing, celebrating the Nordic welfare state and the public property of natural resources
@Baja Gaijin:
Anyone murdering Mary by slamming her into a wall of muffins needs an award from the judge and jury.
JP:
“When I was there, Abbey, I would consume recreational cannabis and learn Norwegian words while thus relaxed!”
“Really? Give me an example of a word you learned.”
” ‘Ville.’ ”
“What is that word, and what is its English counterpart?”
“Norwegian ‘would’ !”
Crankshaft : …this better not be the note this storyline ends on.
See, it’s because I feel that then, this finale is unearned… and I want to say selfish?
Harry Dinkle forgives his dad simply because he read “When I play music, I feel like I’m the World’s Greatest Band Leader” in his journal? And then, he decides to play that one song he never got to play while he’s all alone at home? So no one else hears it? And also it’s a song meant for an entire ensemble, but he only plays his father’s part (meaning he doesn’t actually get the full song and what it’s supposed to REALLY sound like)?
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Luann : We’re meant to think Luann is an idiot, and not that’s she’s correct to tell her mom “Your inability to shop in the modern world is a skill issue”?
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Pluggers : Josh, I think you’re wrong, in that the horrible Bear-Man abomination ISN’T using his day of rest to glorify God. In fact, he is resting in a secular, PROFANE way. He’s committing the Sin of Sloth. “Pluggers use Scripture to disguise their Wicked Ways as Godliness”.
JP To make up for the lack of good strong Norwegian coffee Abby has laced her coffee with methamphetamines. Let’s see if anyone spots the difference!
MW: Speaking for myself, it would be a blessed relief if someone would make a horrendously bad decision, wreak havoc and ruin their life about now.
RMMD: If you think they’re the world’s biggest buzz kill and her spawn, then, yes.
JP Sophie is so desperate for coffee that she’s gnawing on the mug. That’s not where the caffeine is!
CS Welp, guessing this is it. Is playing the piece supposed to mean he’s now at peace with his dad? An no coherent wrapup even to what happened at the Starlight let alone the timeline of success/failure/(death?). Back to the never-ending comics interview on Monday…
RMMD Interesting that June thinks it’s important to call out the “scam” of pretending to play an instrument while begging and isn’t questioning the girls’ need for funds noted on their sign. If you really think they’re in need, why not give some $ or ask if the medical issue could be dealt with at the clinic?
MW A new fad for skinny lemonade glasses or the art got squashed horizontally a bit in the second row on comicskingdom?
Pluggers: I was going to make a Black (bear) Sabbath joke.
But Andy Bear is a grizzly(?)
Now my entire day is thrown off course… thanks Pluggers.
MW: Mary’s zucchini muffins, by default, are
not as goodworse than her other muffins. (“Good”, even in the negative, doesn’t belong in a sentence with “Mary’s muffins”.)Arlo & Janis move like people who have done some youthful dancing, but better than Pluggers do, somehow.
Slylock Fox: This detecting gag only works if there’s something, anything, telling us what NYC time is right now. No point in showing the wristwatch otherwise. But noooo, they had to demonstrate they know where Tiffany’s, Fortunoff, and Bergdorf Goodman are. (Did you guess Fifth Avenue? You’re right! Ask Mom and Dad if you can take a family trip there!)
Crankshaft: I have very little ability to sight-read music. Can someone tell me if this is any good?
@CanuckDownSouth: The Batton interviews seems to be Batiuk’s alternate towards “Praise Mary Worth for doing absolutely nothing at the end of every arc”
Except somehow MORE obnoxious and irritating.
Don Abundio, translated:
“It’s that guy at the next table”
“Him again?”
“Could you please tell him I’m not here?”
B. Bailey: If there’s one thing Miss Buxley is famous for, it’s her deep fried popsicle chicken.
Blondie puts an end to Dagwood’s latest example of stimming as quickly as it starts.
Pluggers aren’t Seventh-Day Adventists, apparently.
C’shaft: This is supposed to be the great lost masterpiece of Larry Dinkle? It’s giving major “lesser entry in the hymnal that never gets used in service because the melody is just off-kilter enough to confuse the parishioners” vibes.
DT: I guess if I were writing a couple nerds/hackers and wanted to give them thematically appropriate names but I knew nothing about hacking and very little about computer/nerd culture in general, “Widescreen” and “Lootbox” would be the kind of names I’d come up with.
Luann: 1.) A lot of places don’t accept checks any more; “cash or credit” would be the default question. 2.) Nobody asks for ID unless you’re buying cigarettes or alcohol. None of the deGroots smoke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nancy has stashed away a bottle or two to deal with her idiot family. 3.) Luann is presumed to take place in California, where plastic isn’t even an option any more–it’s paper or bring your own. 4.) Nancy is portrayed as more than a little on the frugal and/or anal side–she would have brought her own bags, only shop at a place where she has membership discounts, and know exactly how many of each item she needs to get a discount. 5.) The last four statements are on the card reader; the cashier wouldn’t say them. 6.) I may be nitpicky, but Nancy is straight-up inventing things to complain about and that always drives me nuts.
Beetle Bailey depresses me in the recent depictions of Miss Buxley. They used to at least put some effort into making her look “sexy” so far as the style allows, and she was even a regular cheesecake cover girl on the Scandinavian comic Billy (the name they use for Beetle). Now she’s just another misshapen lump in a strip slopping over with misshapen lumps. I’m not clamoring for the return of the sexist mess this strip could be, but sheesh there is zero effort put into it now.
@Ken: Bwahahaha! “Unfortunate” my eye! Someone with a healthy sense of humor is saying ‘don’t you want Juggs Parker back?’
@Anonymous:
On Luann – No, we’re supposed to think Lu-Dustin here is a disrespectful Millennial/Gen Z’er who doesn’t understand how much they’ve ruined the world that was just perfect when the Boomer writing this strip was a kid. (And also an idiot, because Luann spends her time staring off into space, getting dizzy imitating her dog and electrocuting her privates).
On CS – Oh yes, you better believe this is the end! It’s a bit premature, as I was expecting the strip to show the ‘Death of the Father’ but this is peak Batiuk. It’s schmaltzy, pointless and, as you say, completely unearned but Dinkle is playing this piece of music ‘In the Name of [His] Father’ so that’s that! It’s called WRITING!!
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver – June finally believes all those warnings Rex gave her about how dangerous it is to go into the city. What a twat.
Mary Worth – Ellen Glasgow should know that any movement after eating Mary’s zucchini muffins is definitely forward.
FC: Bil is smart enough not to ask Thel “what’s for dinner?” at this moment. He’s even smarter to send in his similar-enough-looking-at-a-glance intern to ask the question.
RMMD: Sleeper agents Anna and Ivana have identified their targets.
Anna reaches into her violin case for a submachine gun. “No, wait;” says Ivana. “Let them lead us back to the head parasite.”
MW: Dawn’s eyes show apprehension as Mary attempts to drink her fourth Arnold Palmer lemon slice first.
Phantom: ….and here’s your ride! Grab a paddle and you’re good to go!
Judge Parker: So, I googled “Norwegian egg coffee” (-ai, of course) and stumbled across something called “egg coffee,” where they crack an egg into the grounds instead of using a filter. And apparently, Lutherans do it!
Solved your problem, Sophie! Just convert to a Scandinavian version of Protestantism, and your worries are over!
Your Norwegian coffee-related worries. You’ll still have problems that matter, but being rich fixes most of those, so stop complaining.
@Bob Tice: You laugh, but they can squeeze eight breakfasters into that banquette. Pass the syrup!
I think Norwegian coffee is grown in like Uganda. At least it’s one of the closest places geographically. Sophie probably wants a particular brewing method but it would be funny if she’s falling for some scam involving super expensive rare Scandinavian coffee beans.
@ValdVin: It’s “Dancing in the Dark” (1931), and Batuik is about to be hit with a massive lawsuit by the Arthur Schwartz Estate.
(Just a little joke. No….no, it’s not good at all)
@ValdVin: It is, as the kids these days say, mid–pretty standard tonal progression and not a lick of syncopation to be found. Might be interesting with some good jazzy harmonies underneath, but still nowhere near the level of “Rhapsody in Blue’s” clarinet riff.
I had thought this might end with Harry taking his father’s long-lost tune to the Bedside Manor house band* and have them play it for the residents–including Eugene, thus bringing the plot full circle. I should have known that was too clever for Batiuk and too selfless for Harry Dinkle–it’s all about him and always has been, because he’s The Greatest Band Director in the World and experiences music completely in a vacuum, unbothered by the contributions or input of anyone else.
@TheDiva: *Remember them? Because I don’t think Harry and/or Batiuk has ever since the former became the St. Spires choir director and organist (Harry absolutely can play the organ, because once you’ve learned one instrument you’ve learned them all).
JP: Sophie, salt-of-the-earth plebeian Americans have found a solution to the problem of not having to go to work tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. It’s called “having a job.” Maybe try that?
Judge Parker: One would think a soap comic character would be too used to nothing in particular happening to ever go stir-crazy.
@Ken: Whatever it was was so unfortunate that it’s 404ing for me, as are half the other links on the Comics Kingdom website. As George Carlin might have said, it must have been reeeeaaaal bad.
@matt w:
Spoiler : it’s a cropping of Sophie sipping on the coffee mug from the first panel, except the image is cropped in a way that makes it look more like Sophie is jamming a cylindrical object of some sort deep inside her mouth.
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On Crankshaft, belatedly :
1. I like how the only other person visible is a photograph of Harry Dinkle when he was younger. Like, Dinkle could have set up the record sleeve so that his dad was his “audience”, but he didn’t.
2. IIRC, some of the print versions of this strip omits some of the panels on Sundays, but how many? Is it just the title panel, meaning that you have to KNOW the music sheet Dinkle is playing is his dad’s magnum opus (especially since it looks like you couldn’t read it, even thru magnifying the panel), or does it go so far as only printing the bottom four (three today, the final one is double-length) panels, meaning all you get is Dinkle playing the trumpet with ZERO context?
RMMD: The girls are scammers and they recognize June and Sarah? I’m calling it. They’re the daughters of René Belluso.
JP: So, um, anyone else remembering the time Abbey was the one who went on a manic decorating spree that she blamed on jet-lag and Sophie was the one bemused by it? That was caused by the nice couple next door’s “special brownies”. I haven’t figured out how this ties to “Norwegian coffee” (it’s not like Sophie was in the Netherlands or something), but I’m working on it.
…And since Comics Kingdom appears to be down, that’s all I’ve got.
RMMD- “I guess a lot of people get fooled by the fakes, huh?” “Well, let’s see, there’s Hardly Hart, Happy Trail, Jeffy Keene, Luann Degroot, Doug at the Glewood Motel, Happy’s grandson Rusty, so yes a lot of fools get fooled by the fakes. “
Pluggers: You know those occasional news stories about people who remain stationary so long that they fuse with their couches? Pluggers see those as aspirational.
JP: “Look, Sophie, we’re in a soap opera strip. So don’t bother taking that excess energy of yours and channeling it into stable-painting or coffee-making. Maybe try and have an ill-advised relationship with someone. Or kidnap someone. Or get kidnapped. Something like that. How’s your stabbing arm? You feel like stabbing today?”
The week has days such as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The rest is Sunday
“It’s weird thinking I don’t have to go to work tomorrow”
“That’s your poorness speaking! When you are rich like me, it’s completely normal!”
“I gotta figure out how to brew Norwegian Coffee here. On the other hand, my ventriloquist training of speaking while drinking is going great!”
Pluggers know Sunday is a day of rest, until they get called out to avenge a butthurt prophet.
Pluggers keep the Sabbath holy! Unfortunately, those men-beasts are soulless, so it’s all for nothing!
Also: Welp, there goes Pluggers’ Seventh-Day Adventist readership, all six of them.
“Did you clean the entire kitchen!? That’s bad, that’s the maid’s job! If she doesn’t have anything to do, she won’t spend her energies and she’ll start to get uppity!”
“A plugger doesn’t need a reminder that Sunday is a day of rest! See children, this Plugger of sound mind, no need to put this Plugger in a facility!”
I blamed my Kindle at first, but it turned out that the Seattle Times didn’t have any updates for the Comics Kingdom comics. Most of them are updated on the Washington Post comics site.
Crankshaft – After fifty years of presenting Dinkle as a cartoonish egomaniac, suddenly Batiuk decided to write a glurgefest story to show Dinkle’s allegedly human side. Why? It’s impossible to care. Just like how it’s impossible to be interested in Batton Thomas’s blathering about every tiny detail of his cartooning career.
JP – @Bob Tice: nailed exactly what is so annoying about JP, one of the reasons that JP is one of my hate reads.
Maybe Sophie can hack into the Pentagon’s website and hijack a drone if she’s so bored. It could bring her some Norwegian coffee.
Mary Worth – Mary needs a trip to the bathroom after pulling all those platitudes out of her ass.
Moy has let the plot wander all over the place. First, Tommy was all upset and carrying on because he and Brandy broke up when she went away, although the story didn’t really say that happened. Then Dawn and Tommy connected, and it looked like they might get together. But now it’s about how Tommy has improved himself over the years.
Say what you want about Moy’s writing, but in the past, she seemed to plan her stories, with a beginning, middle, and end. This is make it up one panel at a time.
Judge Parker: So apparently Cavelton is nowhere near Middle River Minnesota, home of Sannes Coffee, the small-batch Norwegian coffee roasting company? That tracks. Either that, or Sophie doesn’t know how to use DuckDuckGo, which…also tracks, to be honest.
Oglaf has degenerated to the point where it’s getting to be a hate read. Today’s rivals Questionable Content in sheer disgustingness.
Edge City (GoComics) – Sigh. There was a reason for the brown M & Ms clause.
Rex Morgan – Thanks to @Baja Gaijin: for noticing June’s hair. June is in serious need of intervention by a competent hairstylist today. It’s not only the hideous hair worm over her forehead – the back is seriously unattractive.
@CanuckDownSouth: is absolutely correct about June, too. One would think that a medical professional would be concerned that the girls are claiming to need money for medical bills instead of critiquing their musical performance.
I wondered if maybe those twins are actually Polly and Lolly, but they’re not stopping to boink with men they brought along. I guess not.
FC – I have a green electric skillet almost exactly like that one. It was a wedding gift in 1974.
MW- “Anyone can improve with the right attitude. But remember, Dear, the shit never falls far from the Horse’s ass. Have another zucchini muffin? More lemonade?”
@Baja Gaijin: Mary Worth mashup – Yes! Please.
@Schroduck: Thank you! I laughed, and I’m happy to get an earworm of my favorite song.
@Ukulele Ike: Now, THAT would be funny (like Colbert forcing Paramount-plus to cough up $2.5 million for violating the copyright on “Linus & Lucy”.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: And he went from thence to mount Carmel
Who is Carmel?
@matt w: @matt w: But Sophie is NOT a “salt-of-the-rich plebeian American”.
Tomorrow, Sophie gets a visit from one of the Vanderpump Rules kids and learns that because she inherited a boatload of money, she doesn’t have to work at all and can instead just be a burden to the rest of America.
“I’m rich, bitch!”
Pluggers aren’t comfortable unless their feet are bent at unnatural angles when crossed over each other. Try to replicate those angles and attempt to doze off. If you can do so, you are a plugger and the witch hunters are on their way.
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Ah, yes. The world famous Norwegian coffee, the delicious nectar of the gods you can only get at Stårbücks.
Luann I guess she doesn’t shop at Trader Joes — “Hi, didja find everything you were looking for? Great, great! How’s your day going so far? Great, great! Whatcha got planned for today? That sounds great! Oh, you’re buying these, these are really good, have you tried the strawberry and guava version? They’re great too! Do you need bags? Oh you brought your own, great! Okay, that’ll be 97.56, do you need any help out? Great, great! Have a nice day!”
Before anyone corrects me, I know Norway doesn’t use the umlaut. a second accented vowel just worked better for me.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: I don’t know, but if I were a campaign aide working for a candidate I hate, I would definitely keep that verse in mind for recommending it as a response while preparing said candidate for an interview with one of those media guys who asks the “what is your favorite Bible verse?” question.
@Victor Von: Huh, I thought that was the Swedes (it’s a Known Thing at the MN State Fair, although I’ve never arrived near the spot in the mood for coffee and so have tried many odd things but not that) but maybe all the Scandinavians do it?
@Guy Nerdlinger: I’ve never actually shopped at a Trader Joe’s, though I’ve vicariously lived through other people’s purchases of their products. Is such chattiness sincere or just corporate-mandated subservience to cover up the reality that every supermarket chain is just as planet-destroying as the other?
Regardless, I’m guessing that Mrs. Luann would be just as pissy about it (‘Just shut up and give me my change, harumph harumph!’) because the only people allowed to be happy in the Luanniverse are:
Luann (because she’s an oblivious dullard who cannot comprehend anything more complex than a coloring book)
Shannon (because she’s allowed to do and say whatever the hell she wants and everyone calls her ‘pwecious’ for it)
Ol’ Widder Horner (because she’s senile and near death so everyone just ignores her)
“Oh yeah? Do my fingers match the notes now, motherfucker??” *flips double birds in June’s direction*
@Ukranazi Stepan: re: Oglaf: Are you kidding? The Wish-Snake is my new favorite comic strip character!
Okay, last week at the Slutfarm was truly disgusting, but I really do love the Wish-Snake. I wish to spit venom, baby!
I’m from Norway and all the coffee here comes from the usual South American and African countries. We also don’t have any special way of brewing it. I’m guessing what she actually wants is a cup of karsk. That’s when you mix a bit of moonshine in the coffee. That’s very much a Norwegian way of having your cup of joe.
@I speak Jive: 62-FC- Does it still work?
That’s not just a hideous beast-man. That’s a hideous beast-man with three legs. Look at the two red-spotted sock heels, perfectly aligned. Look at the angle of the bent leg, far too acute to lead to the second foot (paw?). Not just a hideous beast man, but a freakish hideous beast-man. Actually, I admire the body-positivity on display here: freakish hideous beast-men are pluggers, too.
Judge Parker: On the one hand, Norwegian coffee tends to be lightly roasted to bring out the natural flavor of the beans, steeped heavily in hot water, and served black. On the other hand, I think Sophie just means she wants to sip her morning coffee while reading Hägar the Horrible.
Pluggers: Surprisingly, pluggers still need plenty of reminders not to kill, steal, or covet their neighbor’s wife or donkey. (And we haven’t met that many pluggers — for all we know, his wife is a donkey.)
Mary Worth: Man, Mary’s serving Dawn zucchini muffins and a long-winded lecture? Why not just punch her in the face if you hate her so much?
CS: calling two-part foul, possibly. 1) if he hasn’t played trumpet recently, those lips are flabby and will produce a flat sound. 2) if he hasn’t had the trumpet restored, those pads will be gone (if trumpets have pads). Such a sweet thought, though, that son debuts work of absent dad. Forgiveness?
FBoFW: now where did that rule go?
BLONDIE: refreshing a living romance
yBF: resurrecting a decayed romance
DOONESBURY (political so don’t discuss): long overdue pun.
LOLA: with you, Lola, but you’re going the wrong way.
S4Th: but the backseat/front seat squabbles is what makes it a road trip!
SFX: a wolf is a Shepherd? Give him an Oscar.
I’m always amazed at just how many 7-foot tall women seem to inhabit the Lockhorns-verse.
Luann: Calvin and Hobbes did it better, the one where Dad goes on a tirade in the store about all the types of peanut butter.
And that was over 30 years ago.
@79 BigTed: on Judge Parker: Thanks for including the umlaut.
on Pluggers: The bearman-beast is married to the giant kangaroo if I remember correctly.
@81 Rover Berkeley: Could be the opposite: The women are normal size, the Lockhorns shop at the local Elvin Outfitter shop.
Rex Morgan: Sarah: “Wait, that mother and daughter aren’t actually playing the violin while they beg for money to pay their rent and buy medicine? How dare they panhandle in our general vicinity without entertaining us in the way we prefer?!” Panhandling mother: “Hey, I know those two jerks — let’s beat them up.” Readers: “Don’t let us stop you — we’ve wanted to see that for years!”
@Rover Berkeley: But this is not the typical Leroy prey of a 7-foot bimbo in a bikini. This seems to be some sort of 7-foot mature femme fatale, with her over-left eye Veronica Lake hairdo, conical breasts, angular ass, and chicken legs. Just look at all that fucking eye shadow. Our Leroy could be growing up.
Luann: Nancy, while you’re waxing nostalgic over those 70s prices, can you also wax nostalgic over what Frank earned back then as an entry level white collar drone? He was probably lucky to make $150-200 a week.
JP: I’m surprised that once the word coffee came out of Sophie’s lips Marie didn’t magically manifest herself and pour her a cup of that high dollar brew.
@Danny S: #47:
“They’re the daughters of Rene Belluso”
Maybe not his daughters but somebody who was involved in one of Rene’s scams that was brought down by Rex Morgan. My guess one of them is the fake guru who helped peddle Rene’s holistic healing scam. If I remember she had a lot crushing student loan debt from her worthless art degree.
@Lodde: #76: We do that here in the US but we use whiskey and say Irish it up.
Dustin: The missing 4th panel is Dustin giving the little snot a “KAPOW” and “THWACK” of his own.
Actually, in the original Hebrew, the commandment is “Remember Saturday and keep it holy.” The days of the week in Hebrew are numbered (Sunday is “First Day”, Monday is “Second Day”, etc except Saturday is “Yom Shabbat” (Sabbath Day). Sunday is the day YHVH began creating the world; Saturday is the day He rested.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
Bringing up the prices is another sign of how disconnected this comic is.
Any minute now Nancy (and Greg and Karen) is going inside a store with a baseball bat and shouting “guess how much this cost in the 60s?” Like that guy from the movie Falling Down.
(Thanks to I Speak Jive for directing me to the Washington Post site. They don’t have Dick Tracy but it’s one of the few Kings Features strips that they let out of the walled garden to run loose on GoComics. And they don’t have Phantom, but the other sites started partly working again.)
Crank: And so “Sunrise over Kilimanjaro” is played for the first time since Larry Dinkle died just before he was going to perform it at a concert he later wrote about in his journal and Eugene stole the sheet music for some reason and kept it for 80 years before giving it to Lillian. I’m sure it’d be very moving if the set-up was even slightly coherent.
DT: I love that Mrs Kvetchman not only manages to be more on-the-nose named than the hackers, but that she thinks having fast food delivered is “eating like kings”. When she agreed to rent a room to these guys, she assumed they’d be gnawing on scraps to reduce her food waste!
MW: Goodness, it’s not often that the quotebox calls Mary out for being full of crap. I don’t even care if it’s a genuine quote or not, you tell her, possibly-Ellen Glasgow!
Phantom: Today in The Phantom Legacy Is Absolutely Not Colonialism, it finally occurs to young Kit that he doesn’t need to go straight to Europe to find something he’d consider civilisation.
RMMD: Okay, it took a while for it to really register, but is anyone else discombobulated by the fact Beatty has aged Sarah up in the art but is still writing Widdle Sawah dialogue?
S4th: Three miles later, Sally and Hil are both trying to think of a tactful way of suggesting maybe they should be in the other car…
Plot twist, Sophie’s final “care package” from her very quiet and polite Norwegian meth dealer, Valter Hvit, is about to run out and she’s going to crash HARD while she frantically searches for a stateside score. This could be the most entertaining Judge Parker has been in… ever!
@92 Horace Broon: The WaPo site does host “Dick Tracy.” Scroll down to the “More Comics” section. The only major strip WaPo doesn’t have is “Crankshaft.”
Luann: Just to bring up another stupid element of this, which is “Checkout clerks used to be kindly old ladies with half-moon glasses, and now they’re horrible young people with the dyed hair and the pierced God-knows-what and the…”
@Human-eared Dragon: I sometimes see people post on Reddit about Falling Down and how when they were kids, they thought the main character was nuts, but now they relate to him more and more. At those times, I think “This post is going to be an exhibit at trial.”
@Human-eared Dragon: Comic Strip Rule #1: Whenever a comic tries to “improve” upon a joke originally done by Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes always did it better.
Happy birthday today to Mel Brooks. He just turned 100.
Sophie: “Norway didn’t really change me.”
Also Sophie: *returns from Norway with OCD, an espresso addiction, and a cocaine addiction.*
@Anonymous: I haven’t cooked with my electric skillet for quite a few years, but it worked the last time I used it. It’s avocado green, which is like carbon dating in figuring out how old it is.
RMMD: Let me ask a question, “What background circumstances would make June into an assuming asshole?” With the medical bills, I would say the violin recording came from a parent, whose surgery was botched to a degree that they could never play again, and it’s Rex’s fault because, hey, at least they’re alive.
@I speak Jive: I was well on in years before I realized that an electric skillet was the best way to prepare a LOT of things — panfried chicken; schnitzels; latkes; anything requiring a slow braise, like coq au vin or Hungarian gulyas — and a ridiculously easy clean-up. But try convincing my grown children and their spouses, HA!
“It’s a PAN, Dad, I can just cook that in a PAN ON THE STOVE.”
(Morons. I bought a $15 electric skillet around 2010, and use it at least once a month.)
@Guillermo el chiclero: Seconded. Mel Brooks is a national treasure. Silent Movie is underrated.
@Baja Gaijin: Thank you, I’ll remember that for the future. (If I start using WaPo for everything except Crankshaft, I wonder how long it’ll be before I just stop checking Crankshaft? I wonder if I’ll be happier?)
@103 Horace Broon: You’ll be happier without Crankshaft.
@Ukulele Ike: Yeah, I have a bunch of nice stove top pans, but I use my electric skillet…I dunno, at least twice a week, usually three. Just right for my cacciatore or beanless chili.
RIP actress Ann Blythe. She was 94. Best remembered as Joan Crawford’s manipulative daughter in “Mildred Pierce”.
Now I can finally see the Comics Kingdom strips, I have to say Slylock Fox fails to convince me today. We see no other clocks in the strip, how should we know it’s set correctly or not?
Zits: I still feel that way around my in-laws, and I’ve been married 30 years.
Late Thread Cuisine: This is from 1980. Seriously?
@Banana Jr. 6000: For me, it’s:
“High anxiety
Whenever you’re near
High anxiety
It’s you that I fear”.
Yeah, and the fart scene from Blazing Saddles.
@Baja Gaijin: Hmm, I like pineapple, and I’m guessing much of that is vanilla ice cream. I’d be willing to try a spoonful of that.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: I dunno, but she’s awfully sweet.
JP: “Norwegian coffee.” Of course Sophie is one of those people who spend a few months in a place and won’t shut up about how much better everything is there. Why would anyone think she wasn’t?
Pluggers: I am slowly learning to hold off before commenting to see if Josh has already said it all, as is the case today.
C-Shaft: This past week there was some talk about how the jock in Intelligent Life (finding out his name would be easy but somehow not easy enough) kept a framed portrait of himself, and how this revealed him to be a narcissist. Harry Dinkle’s framed portrait of himself reveals no such thing, because it was never a secret.
DT: The delivery guy came in unprepared because the “Beware of Jewish Stereotype” sign fell down.
Dustin: A neighborhood child makes a wellness check on Dustin, because it’s not like anyone in his awful family will.
Lockhorns: Loretta turns off the TV and the county medical examiner learns she’s been called out on yet another false alarms.
Luann: Tiff’s goth friend Crystal thought she was done with Luann when she took this job at Ralphs. You can run, but as long as you’re still in SoCal, you can’t hide.
MW: No one ever told Mary Worth that iced tea doesn’t mean you let the tea sit in the freezer for three hours.
RMMD: June spent a summer playing bass for Pixies but at this point what woman hasn’t?
@Horace Broon: I’d noticed a disconnect between the way Sara is drawn and how she speaks, although I hadn’t articulated it like you did. It just seemed like that hit-and-run banged her head up worse than we thought.
@Activist: They have pads, but more importantly they have valves and slides that get stuck if they’re not regularly lubricated and cork which will deteriorate over time. A well-maintained horn should be playable for decades, but something that’s been sitting in a storage locker for decades and probably wasn’t even cleaned out after its last owner dropped dead would need extensive repair and restoration in order to be in working condition. (Of course, if anyone told Batiuk that he would simply say that The Greatest Band Director in the World did all that himself.)
MW: Iced teas my ass. Going by those skinny glasses those are Tom Collinses.
@The Quiet Man:
#111. Plus, it’s a salad! In my native culture, we had a marvelous custom of putting a dessert on a lettuc leaf and adding a dollop of mayo. This’d be perfect.
PV: can’t imagine an arc wherein Val bests his half-sis.
FRAZZ: Mrs. Olsen may look like a plugger, but she has the quickest wit in the strip.
I see big Jeffy was trolling Josh with the punchline “how much bigger did I get last night,Mommy?” Glad to see Josh didn’t take the bait.
@Baja Gaijin: On the one hand, as the caption says, you have the mental comfort of knowing that’s in your freezer in case guests drop by.
On the other hand, you have the mental distress of knowing that’s in your freezer.
@Activist: #118: re-PV: Especially if she kicks him in the nuts. Valmora is gay and she wants Aleta to herself.
@UncleJeff: High Anxiety is a fine Hitchcock homage – but I don’t find it that funny. Silent Movie has a few top-shelf laugh-out-loud moments. Robin Hood: Men In Tights also deserves more love.
Judge Parker Brothers: I once had a drink, or should I say the drink had me/dont you see,Norwegian coffee
@Guillermo el chiclero: Not big enough. A proper Collins glass should hold at least 14 ounces of Tom Collins (including copious ice and the lemon wedge, obviously).
Tall and skinny is definitely the way to go, although I have turned out fine Tom Collinses in British Imperial pint pub glasses.
@TheDiva: I bought a trumpet years ago in an antique shop filled with brass “junk.” I took it apart, washed and cleaned it, and oiled the slides and valves. Nobody’s going to accuse me of channeling Gabriel or Gillespie, but the horn sounds just fine.
I use it when I’m playing in radical protest marching bands, like the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and the Hungry March Band. You don’t want to bring your Stradivarius into political action….one of my friends had a NY cop grab her slide trombone out of her hands and break it over his knee.
@111 The Quiet Man: No vanilla ice cream. It’s whipped cream mixed with aspic. OK, it’s unflavored gelatin. Close enough.
@118 Activist: Are you a native of the US Midwest? Possibly Methodist?
@102 Ken: Good catch! I’d certainly be worried about that thing setting up house in my freezer.
@124 Ukulele Ike: Is Tom Collins made with Potato-Ade?
@111 The Quiet Man: No vanilla ice cream. It’s whipped cream mixed with aspic. OK, it’s unflavored gelatin. Close enough.
@118 Activist: Are you a native of the US Midwest? Possibly Methodist?
@102 Ken: Good catch! I’d certainly be worried about that thing setting up house in my freezer.
@124 Ukulele Ike: Is Tom Collins made with Potato-Ade?
@Baja Gaijin: Sparkly lemonade (fresh) generously laced with gin in a large, frosty glass. You will never settle for a mere gin-and-tonic again.
@Baja Gaijin: @Amelie Wikström: Sophie probably wants a particular brewing method but it would be funny if she’s falling for some scam involving super expensive rare Scandinavian coffee beans.
________________________________
Wait till she finds out its really just Folger’s™ Crystals!
@Schroduck: Sorry for the over snark.
@Banana Jr. 6000: #122: I’ve always wondered why Brooks did “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”. During a 70s interview he said he’d never do a spoof of a swashbuckler like a pirate movie because he didn’t want to walk around the studio lot wearing a rag around his head.
JP: Bah, Norway jet lag is nothing compared to Japan jet lag. Send Sophie to Japan so that when she gets back, she will attempt to put a new roof on the stable and will fall to her (very quick, I’m not a cruel person) death.
MW: I no longer watch it, but much better advice is offered every day on DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD. And DTN has the added advantage of neighbors who are more appealing than anyone in Charterstone, even though some of them are still learning how to use the toilet.
Pluggers: That’s not a design on Andy’s couch, that’s what happens when you use a combination of off brand Fabreeze™ and Lysol™ to disinfect.
MT: At this point, planting shrubs and trees native to Florida and not using insecticide is the best way to help green anoles. However, another difference between brown and green anoles is that the brown anole, as an invasive exotic species, is not legally protected like the green anole.
@Baja Gaijin: RMMD: I laughed soooo hard.
@Guillermo el chiclero: So when it came down to it, he played a rabbi in the swashbuckling movie. What’s to wonder?
@Baja Gaijin: @124 Ukulele Ike: Is Tom Collins made with Potato-Ade?
_______________________________________________________
No, but Joan Collins used it for her face lift.
@133 Poteet: You got that right. It’s 13 hours behind the US’s east coast.
@137 Poteet: Does it have the Poteet Seal of Approval?
@139 GarrisonSkunk: Which one? Face lift, that is, not Joan Collins.
Mary’s Worst: Does anyone else hear Buck Rogers’ Twiki in their mind’s ear whenever someone mentions Tommy’s last name?
Pluggers: “a hideous beast-man”.
Not just a “hideous beast-man”, but “a hideous beast-man WITH TWO LEFT FEET”.
Figure that one out . . .