Dark Tuesday
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Dustin, 11/5/24
The thing about Dustin is that it’s a perfect machine of hateability, in the sense that there isn’t a single recurring character that I have any real warm feelings for. Dustin’s sister Meg in some ways escapes my ire the most, because she has very little in terms of revealed personality and exists only to make rude comments about her brother and parents and occasionally be reprimanded for dressing too slutty. Today, however, we learn that her misanthropic attitude extends beyond her family to the human race at large, and frankly I would love to learn more about Doomer Goth Meg in future installments of this strip.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/5/24
A sobering discovery of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is that, in many places that embraced electoral democracy, it functions less as a way for wise or efficacious policies and ideas to be debated and endorsed by the citizen body, and more as a head-counting exercise: different interest groups within a society, many of them ethnic- or clan-based, use the vote as a means to assert their numbers and power rather than to win in the marketplace of ideas. While this might not be what the Enlightenment philosophers and America’s founding fathers had in mind, you have to admit that the Smifs and the Barlows taunting each other by means of “I Voted” buttons is preferable to their usual means of settling disputes (murdering one another with antique rifles and whatever other makeshift weapons they can lay their hands on).
121 replies to “Dark Tuesday”
SS. I call BS. Felons can’t vote.
@Where’s Rocky?: But they can run for President.
CS: Okay, let’s get some obvious questions out of the way now:
1. Uh, if you’re short on bus drivers, why are you pulling them off their bus routes to act as crossing guards?
2. How many cars will Crankshaft wave through the intersection while the crosswalk is full of kids?
3. Has Batiuk just given up all hope of ever being relevant and is now just cranking out nonsense in a pit of drunken despair?
BEST ELECTION STRIPS:. so hate me
– MF: patience 1
– LUANN:. tomorrow, the vote is on who wants Steph out, and she learns why a republic that protects rights of minorities is better than a dictatorship of majority
– FRAZZ:. Patience 2
– CANDORVILLE:. Time travel is still only one way
PHANTOM:. Ah guys, no matter what Ian Mollusk told you, there still are no sovereign nations on this planet or on the moon. As of today.
Phantom: This is where reality disconnects if the reply is anything but “We’re here to help you guys. Hail, Mollusk!”
Dustin: I wonder if Jeremy knows that Sara takes on gigs on other strips.
MW: Is that a player piano? There doesn’t seem to be a place for sheet music.
Mary Worth: The pets have the humans right where they want ’em. Libby’s distracting them while Odin’s peeing on Wilbur’s couch cushion. Clever!
GA:
Reading Gasoline Alley is kind of like looking at a car wreck that you’re passing. You don’t really want to interact with it, but you are somehow impelled to do so — you know, like a moth drawn to a flame.
MW: Under cover of the merriment, Wilbur puts a move on Sheila See. She jabs him with a hypodermic and he hits the floor.
H&L: It’s that daily run to the liquor store. The pricier the gas, the more it costs to get gassed.
BG&SS:
The Barlows quickly perceive that the only way that the Smiths could be sporting “I VOTED BETTER” buttons is that they somehow became aware of how the Barlows voted, thus betraying a breach of the confidentiality rules associated with casting a ballot. The Barlows take successful legal action to disqualify the Smiths’ ballots and emerge triumphant.
I wonder if there’s any deeper symbolic significance to an Election Day strip where Dustin is holding onto a video game controller but not actually using it to accomplish anything. More likely it’s just that the Dustin creative team don’t know how video games work.
CS: Tom Batiuk understandably wanted to cover the school bus driver crisis as his latest award-pandering Very Important Story. The problem is, the crisis is about there not being enough bus drivers, and Batiuk simply could not bring himself to retire any of the beloved and brilliantly-developed characters Crankshaft works with, like Silent Old Woman, Guy with Hat, Other Guy with Hat, and of course Lena the Workplace Abuse-Sink. Instead Batiuk doubled the team with a handful of other people we’ve never seen before, and then declared they had a shortage of drivers anyway. Now because there aren’t enough bus drivers, more kids have to walk to school, so… they’re using bus drivers as crossing guards. Another problem in this country masterfully solved by its wisest and wittiest social commentator.
JP: Yes, obviously the dozens of senior citizens trapped in shipping containers filled with dangerous machinery that plummeted into subterranean caverns were all fine with zero fatalities. Never mind that that is physically impossible; Neddy said so, so that’s how it is. Anyway, this is turning into a bizarrely drawn-out explanation of the origins of Hank
TollingBowen when “He’s just an ex” was a perfectly adequate answer to Reena’s redundant question and it’s not even important because Neddy explicitly did not go to visit him. But something has to fill the void after Neddy spent less than two minutes confronting and breaking up with her fiancé, so I guess we’re doing a clip show about some minor character from eight years ago. Maybe we’ll even get an explanation for how a very young local structural design engineer loaded down with at least six years of student debt was able to afford a second home in the Alaskan wilderness after a surely career-ending mistake and was willing to spend several jobless months consoling a self-pitying narcissist, but don’t hold your breath on that one.Well sounds like this is a great time and place for me to mention that if you want democracy to achieve the best outcome for all of society and not just a tug-of-war between two great forces to impose their will on everyone else, you want rangevoting.org, it produces far superior outcomes to voting systems that [gets dragged out of the room]
MW:
“Now here’s an anthemic one for our friend Wilbur, courtesy of the pertinacious Miley Cyrus. It’s called ‘Wrecking Ball’ !”
Chix (sic): Good one.
MW-Too cheap to hire a DJ?
JP-“They all survived by which I mean me. Who cares about a bunch of senior citizens.”
Dustin: It’s funny, because you would think that a young
Zoomer/googles quickly/ ‘generation alpha’ teen would be more worried about global warming than a new ice age? Maybe she’s actually quite optimistic about our society’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or maybe ice ages are the subject of the hot newY.A. novels/googles again/ ‘Tiktok dances’? No wait…that can’t be right…BGSS: The Barlows are right to look distressed: if the Smiffs voter ‘better’, it means that they voted ‘wrong’, and they’ve found themselves on the proscription list. Technically it was a hidden ballot, but those tattered rags the town uses for curtains don’t provide much privacy.
Snuffy Smith: I refuse to believe anyone in Hootin Holler votes any differently from anyone else. They all open the ballot paper, and then remember that they’re illiterate.
MW- Moy has obviously never owned a cat. Not sure if I’ve ever heard any group of humans chant ha-ha-ha.
SS- In Maryland mine said “yo voté.” Jo momma.
Dustin: I mean, if I lived with the Dustfamily I’d turn nihilist pretty quick myself.
Dustin: Almost [gulp] forty years ago, a philosophy instructor told the class about riding the elevator with one of his professors on a wet, windy, stormy day. “A good day to read Schopenhauer, don’t you think?” the professor asked, about the other famed German crank/philosopher, known for his commitment to humanity’s racial suicide. Any day in Dustin is a good day to read Schopenhauer, is what I’m saying, Meg can drag out On The Freedom of the Will, or they can all die in a fire, it’s all good.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: One of the primary characteristics of 2024, for the United States and indeed the global community, has been the suffocating dread, anxiety and omnipresence of the American presidential election. You can’t get away from it! Campaign ads blanket television, it’s jammed into every possible news story, it’s all people talk about anymore.
Shorter Schultz: Dear Penthouse Forum, I never thought this would happen to me, but I long for the days when Snuffy Smith concentrated on being a lazy, drunk chicken-stealer…
C’shaft: Because kids far enough away to take the bus to school absolutely would have no other option but to walk, likely several miles and across multiple high-traffic intersections.
JP: Man, you’d think Reena would be desensitized to Parker-Spencer-Driver drama by now.
Luann: “Look, I’m just the granola girl earth mother stereotype; I don’t have anything to contribute beyond vague new-age catch phrases.”
MT: “Yes. Next question!”
MW: I have owned several cats, and I have heard several noises out of them: meows of every pitch and length, hisses, purrs, that thing where they yawn and meow at the same time, the chittering noise they make when they see a bird, the confused “prrp?” when you poke them awake from a nap. I have never, NEVER heard a cat go “woooo” like they’re they lost Isley brother. Karen Moy should have stuck with “Meow!”
Pluggers love Election Day because it allows them to feel smug and patriotic at the same time.
MW: GLURRRRRGGGEEE!
Phantom: “Well, why didn’t you say so?” [Troopers join in beating while Mr. Man in Black jerks off at the sight]
But seriously folks, DePaul’s just getting this out of his system now because depending on what happens in the next few days/weeks, he’s probably going to find himself out of a job by New Years…
SF: How precious that Sally (and by extension Ces) think that we’re going to know anything certain and widely accepted about this election ‘soon enough’…
JP: Ces pines for the days when everyone loved his ridiculous (but effective) way of demonstrating just how stupid the previous writer’s story concept had been, before everyone realized he was merely saying ‘Hold my beer…’
I fled the Gocomics comment section because nobody could talk about anything but The Big Race. Took every watt of my mental energy not to type in ALL CAPS at all the stupid people on the other side. Not getting drawn into any of that, sticking to comics and porn today, and maybe tomorrow if the election isn’t decided.
Dustin – Only the he dead have seen the end of war.
George Santayana
BG&SS – I’m an asshole, and all I’ve got to show for it is this lousy sticker….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Dennis the Menace: Does everyone sleep in the same room? That seems uncomfortable and awkward, and yet explains a great many things.
I can only conclude Snuffy and Loweezy voted for one of his poker buddies. If they wanted to snobbily proclaim they voted in a superior way, surely the stickers would say “I Voted Gooder” or no one in Hootin’ Holler would understand.
Shut up, Meg. The next ice age? We’ll have heated ourselves to near extinction before that happens. The only good news is that as sea levels rise, you’ll start to be able to buy seaside property really cheap.
@Tabby Lavalamp: Shut up, Meg. The next ice age? We’ll have heated ourselves to near extinction before that happens. The only good news is that as sea levels rise, you’ll start to be able to buy seaside property really cheap.
Meg may be onto something. Back in the 70s, the climate change boogieman was a coming ice age within a matter of years. It never came so they switched to global warming. Maybe the powers that be are switching back again.
@Buck Ripsnort: You’re going to want to stick to porn, and for a lot longer than today or tomorrow…
G. *(*&%#$(&# Thorp: Gil looks like he’s rubbing one out in that voting booth.
Dustbin – “What do you call Dustin Kudlick buried under a glacier?” “A good start.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Today I will let my readers fill in the words”
“Hey, it works for The New Yorker“
BG&SS — On the plus side, at least we know Sheriff Tate’s first name now–it’s Better. He had it legally changed a few years back, and the Smif’s prefer a semi-competent functionary to an efficient fascist. I know how they feel.
Things that Pluggers do that are not specific to Pluggers #2397.
@John Plugger Mellencamp:
That impression was created by certain media outlets, but the majority of scientific papers on climate in the 1970s predicted warming.
@Activist:
#5. PHANTOM:. Oops, I typed while thinking of GA and Dark Side of the Moon. There are just no sovereign nations in the US. Though I think there are some enclaves (or exclaves) on Ian Mollusk’s home country.
Dustin – Doomer Goth Meg? Sounds more like Boomer Meg. Next will she make a “joke” about being more afraid of natural stupidity than artificial intelligence?
BG&SS – Part of the advance of civilization is the rule of law and a central state with authority, which sublimates our animal instincts to lash out at dangers and slights to honor, family, or personal pride. This plays out in several arenas: The adversarial role of lawyers in court, debates in the legislative bodies, the relationship between the people and police and, in the democratic societies, the people putting aside the bullet for the ballot.
There are other ways that feuding factions might jockey for status and dominance outside of direct violence: Sports, business, science and technology, architecture, public spaces and infrastructure, artistic and cultural pursuits, and endowing great centers of learning. None of these other options are likely to take hold in Hootin’ Holler for several generations, if ever. But if the Newnited States can manage to keep the denizens out of direct conflict and following the law, if not the spirit, of the quadrennial electoral process, it’s a positive sign the rest of society can avoid backsliding into primal savagery.
9CL – So, the big reboot with (some) new characters does not resolve the time travel issue. Characters still may suddenly be any age and find themselves at any point in their timeline. These new characters from a few months ago are already having their storylines retconned. Alistair was almost 20 but now has reverted back to pre-adolescence for at least a few installments.
As for Alistair’s persistent insistence on bringing a grand piano with him everywhere he goes, maybe we can retcon him to play the Triangle or some other instrument that travels better?
BG&SS – Not that I think I’m a better writer than John Rose, but changing the the buttons to “I Voted Early” and “I Voted Often” would have been funnier, and more on brand.
That said, I don’t see Hootin’ Holler as a place with a lot of variety in political ideology. I mean, how long has the mayor been mayor? Also, aside from fence post gossipin’ with Elvinney, where do they get their news? Does Loweezy have a monthly subscription to The Atlantic? Does Doc watch Fox News 24/7?
Not that I have a lot of room to talk. I grew up in a formerly sleepy little suburb of Atlanta that, for the first three decades of my life had the same mayor – a man by the name of W.L. “Pug” Mabry. He pronounced the word “chimney” as “chimbly”.
Anyway, go vote, or vote better today if you have not already done so!
@TheDiva: Doubly so, since she also plays every other “Black Best Friend” in this comic.
@Old School Allie Cat: I grew up in a formerly sleepy little suburb of Atlanta that, for the first three decades of my life had the same mayor – a man by the name of W.L. “Pug” Mabry. He pronounced the word “chimney” as “chimbly”
He sounds delightful.
Did chimneys come up a lot in municipal meetings?
@Weaselboy: Plugger sticker – I Elected Surgery
@The Quiet Man: Ripsnort: You’re going to want to stick to porn
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When you’re sticking to your porn, you’re doing It wrong, or so I’m told.
The relative superiority the Smifs are claiming is actually unrelated to their choice of candidate; the Smifs are just more adept at operating the Voting Churn.
MW: That second panel looks like Libby is sitting on top of a coffin, with all the guests laughing heartily. But I can still see Wilbur, so I guess it must be a piano.
MW: I once again implore Moy and Brigman to interact with any humans, go to a wedding, meet a cat, etc.
LUANN: Hahaha. Stef’s “campaign” is flaming out even worse than Mark Robinson’s (If they can haphazardly shoehorn election references in, then so can I.)
The Familiar Mucus: “Teacher said my only homework was to make sure you and daddy vote yes on Prop.1 More state funding for schools!”
@pugfuggly:
He sounds delightful.
Did chimneys come up a lot in municipal meetings?
He was an affable fellow, and I think his 31 years of mayorhood did better things for the city than anyone who has come after him.
Chimblys came up at least once a year, during his annual reading of “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore at the town square, just before we lit up the tree there kicking off the holiday season. It really was a charming small town back in the day. It is still charming, though much bigger now.
@Charterstoned: MW: That second panel looks like Libby is sitting on top of a coffin, with all the guests laughing heartily. But I can still see Wilbur, so I guess it must be a piano.
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Almost and Cheddar from 9Weirdchick Lame have been hired as ” wedding entertainment”
Beetle Bailey: Do modern military barracks actually have the men sleeping together in a large empty room on tiny cots? I thought they would be more like a college dormitory. Also it’s not that difficult to get rid of cockroaches.
Curtis: They let him walk to school by himself but when he’s home alone for a short period he’s not allowed to open the door for anyone?
Six Chix: Is she having a psychotic break like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway, talking to pumpkins she carved faces in?
Marvin: It’s November! I know it’s been established Marvin’s family doesn’t live in a place where it’s warm enough to swim in a backyard pool year-round.
Dustin: Meg is referring to the “Ice Age” movie franchise which I think has had 5 films thus far. She’s pretty certain John Leguizomo is going to go on a murder spree though and it will finally force our society to come together and change for the better.
SlyLock Fox: This guy likes to shower with the curtains open to force his pets to watch him.
@Peanut Gallery:
Una crítica mordaz, aunque poco sutil, de las capacidades intelectuales de la clase económica alta.
MW: So…at the conclusion of this heart-warming story, will Wilbur emerge as a kinder, gentler, better and more thoughtful man? What do you think? (One thing possibly favoring that outcome is that he *didn’t* lunge at Libby and grab her by the scruff of her neck to toss her into the bedroom because she was singing along with Ed and Estelle…that counts for *something,* doesn’t it??)
Dennis the Menace: His parents have finally decided to end it all and are filling the house with deadly carbon monoxide. “I wish I could stay awake longer” Dennis says as he succumbs. “Don’t work too hard at it” is his father’s grim response. This might be the most menacing strip ever.
MARY WORTH: Oh so this is where the Chuck E Cheese’s animatronics went after the chain discontinued their use (they are still broken-down though, since “Estelle” and “Ed” are clearly facing the backside of the piano in panel #2)
CS: I apologize, everyone. I short-sightedly said Batty should get back to showing Crankshaft as a school bus driver during the book burning saga. Apparently that well of comedy has run dry. Surely there’s another book being banned somewhere.
MW: My cat makes a similar sound before she barfs. Best alarm clock ever invented.
@Schroduck: #20
Ha!!!!!! *high five*
@TheDiva: #25
“MW: I have owned several cats, and I have heard several noises out of them: meows of every pitch and length, hisses, purrs, that thing where they yawn and meow at the same time, the chittering noise they make when they see a bird, the confused “prrp?” when you poke them awake from a nap. I have never, NEVER heard a cat go “woooo” like they’re they lost Isley brother. Karen Moy should have stuck with “Meow!””
LOVE IT!!!!
If the next Ice Age leaves only Dustin and Meg, they’d probably still quarrel…
Seriously, if you want peace, work for justice!
Hootin’ Holler is impoverished because they use their limited supply of forgeable metal to make “I voted” buttons instead of the stickers everywhere else uses.
@Old School Allie Cat: A funny story is that, according to the great fingerpicking guitarist/all-around weirdo John Fahey in his notes to “Anthology of American Music Vol. 4,” some Appalachians like the Carter Family used the word “chimbley” because it was taboo to say a body part like “knee.” I was going to repeat that as fact but then I realized that there was no particular reason to trust Fahey on that plus he was an all-around weirdo. This reputable-seeming site says it’s from Ulster Scots and came to America with the Scotch-Irish which makes a lot of sense.
FG: But tonight we feast! Say, Flash, how are you and Dale on eating human flesh? I mean, we are man-eating Lionmen after all. We caught and executed a few Ming loyalist spies a couple of days ago. No use wasting good meat.
FG: Just how many races of beastmen live on this planet? Next thing you know Flash will have to negotiate a peace between the Squirrelmen and the Three-toed Slothmen.
FG: No wonder the war between the Lionmen and the Sharkmen has dragged on for centuries. Just how does a lion, who lives on a grassy savannah, pick a fight with a shark, who lives in the ocean? It’s like arranging a fight between a whale and an elephant.
@Buck Ripsnort: #27
Good idea. I plan on listening to my favorite classical music and reading all 900 pages of Project 2025 in order to discern if we (a) dodged a huge bullet or (b) are in for a wild ride for the next four years, based on the outcome of this election. :-)
@nescio: #30
Ha!!!
@Charterstoned: MW: That second panel looks like Libby is sitting on top of a coffin,
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That’s an official Mary Worth® Muffin Coffin™ brand coffin shaped muffin made so you can eternally “enjoy” Mary’s muffin, equipped with an ICU closed circuit camera so Mary can make sure you’re not doing any nasties in the afterlife.
Dustin: I actually really like Dustin’s expression in the second panel. It’s probably the only time a character has had a realistic reaction to this strip’s weird bullshit in it’s entire history.
Snuffy Smith: Okay, confession time. I’m a proud native of Appalachia. For years I’ve bit my tongue on this blog about the fact that Snuffy Smith is – when you get down to it – a borderline offensive caricature of the region that relies on hoary or even downright racist stereotypes for self-righteous lowlanders and city-dwellers to point and laugh at while showing a complete and total lack of knowledge of what it’s actually like. And I’m breaking my silence now because this is a whole new level of failure to capture what Appalachia is like. Because there is not a single person I know high up in the mountains that cares enough to vote or even has any attitude towards the government beyond threatening to shoot any agents of said government if they come near.
@Johnny Q: If the next Ice Age leaves only Dustin and Meg, they’d probably still quarrel…
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Which one de-evolves into Ray Romano?
@Guillermo el chiclero: Dale and Flash should be so lucky to be fed human (Mongovian?) flesh at the Lion People feast tonight.
Soup to nuts, it’s Little Friskies all the way.
FC – We’re s’posed to ask if you voted for Johnson or Goldwater.
JP – 2016 was eight years ago. How old is Neddy now? My guess is anywhere between 23 and 25, which means that she was 17 at the oldest when she came up with the “Let’s design clothes and make a factory!” story. She had already spent time coming up with drawings of dresses. This doesn’t add up.
On the other hand, we now know where Mary Worth gets her ugly dressy frocks.
I have to say that I carried a good bit of goodwill toward Marciuliano for sinkholing that abysmal shipping container factory dreck. That goodwill has long since evaporated.
And speaking of the sinkhole/factory – BRING BACK SNOOTY!
Mary Worth – In case there are reports of seismic activity in the Mid-Atlantic states, that was no earthquake – it was just my eyeroll at this drivel.
6Chix – Aaaand here we go. Buckle up for rotting pumpkins from now through February.
Rex Morgan – This clunky foreshadowing is similar to the cop saying how happy he is the day before he retires, except that what happens to the cop is usually at least interesting.
Far Side – Baja might want to skip this today.
Frazz – It was hard to figure out what they’re being smug about today, but apparently it’s that Caulfield can dial back his obnoxiousness, which is what stresses other people out.
If Frazz thinks that Caulfield is not an egomaniac, the janitor is deluded.
9CL – This is exactly how today’s teenagers dress, speak, and behave.
Different characters, same shit.
Mary Worth – I’m another one who thinks that a cat would not “sing along.” I can imagine Pierre doing it.
Mr. Jive’s grandmother had a small dog which howled along to the Jeopardy! think music during Final Jeopardy.
@Old School Allie Cat: oh my God that is adorable. Heartening to hear a story of public service like that on a day like this…
Snuffy ‘s button reads in full I VOTED BETTER,AND TO PROVE IT,MY RIFLE IS STILL SMOKING!
Snuffy Smith: I’m surprised that there’s so much disagreement here. If actual hillbillies aren’t voting for J.D. Vance, who the hell will?
@Where’s Rocky?: In hillbilly law, stealing chickens is just a misdemeanor.
@Cleveland Mocks: Has Batiuk just given up all hope of ever being relevant and is now just cranking out nonsense in a pit of drunken despair?
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I think that’s always been his plan.
Democracy not Theocracy is all the Smiff’s are thinking.
FG: I’ll just say it – Prince Thun of the Lionmen is hot! He’s the male equivalent of Cassandra Cat. But I have questions – if he’s their leader, why isn’t he King? Is his father still alive and being held captive somewhere? Being forced to perform at a circus, or the colosseum? Are any of the non-human characters here clients of Sid?
Dustin: Up until this year, I never pictured Snowpiercer as an Election Day comfort watch, but come tomorrow I may be rooting for the polar bears.
I…don’t think Dustin understands how controllers work.
Democracy at work.
@Arabella: Thun is definitely the nakedest of all the royal stewards on Mongo. I hope he owns a light jacket in case the evenings are chillier on the coast.
AC: Scotland and England have entirely seperate football leagues. It’s the wrong time of year for international tournaments, and the Euros were in Germany this year anyway. Hartlepool United definitely doesn’t qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Does Andy have a Scottish team he supports, like my sister has an English one? Or is the idea that Hartlepool’s playing … it won’t be Rangers or Celtic … Clyde F.C., maybe … in some obscure cross-border lower-league cup?
BG&SS: Whoever wins the election, the Smiffs will spend the next four years telling everyone we wouldn’t be in this mess if write-in candidate Erasmus Q. Better had got more than two votes. It’s almost like his campaign slogan (“You Oughta Know Better!”) was flawed somehow.
DT: “It turns out letting prisoners in custody get murdered is ‘gross negligence’ or something. Did you know that, Tracy?”
“Sure, the trick is to let your suspect get killed before they’re in custody. And even then, ‘accidental death from plummeting off a rooftop’ is less paperwork.”
JP: I realise this is a strip that can’t even keep track of its characters’ names, but I’m very surprised that Neddy has forgotten the current official line is that Godiva wasn’t just a celebrity endorsement, but was directly responsible for all the horrible, horrible decisions we thought we saw Neddy make with no input from her whatsoever!
MW: Ugh, look at Wilbur, yukking it up with the rest of the guests like now he thinks it’s adorable when Libby joins in on a sing-song. He doesn’t, he’s just learned to camoflage what an asshole he is to some extent.
@Ukulele Ike, ythread: Qu-est ce que O&M?
Ozzie & Millie, Dana Simpson’s other comic. Which I think she’s actually completed, because the strips currently appearing on GoComics are definitely reruns. (Today’s feels a bit Christmassy, and I think there was some political stuff a few months ago that made me think “Oh, yeah, George W. Bush. I remember him.”)
JP: I snark on JP fairly often, with special attention to the common-sense deficits of Abbey’s older adopted daughter. So I had a horrifying moment today when, after remembering yesterday’s CC discussion of name anagrams, I went to an anagram generator and entered my real name. The very first result I got was “Brainchild Neddy.” Arrrrrgh!
@Peanut Gallery: “Maybe if I pretend to be Winnie the Pooh the sugar babies will come running.” Ugh, never mind!
Dustin: In the spirit of holding out some hope for Meg, I’ll note that her blouse seems to be her first step into the arms of the Pink Pony Club.
JP: Rocky Ledge was Godiva’s husband. He was a singer or a movie star, not a criminal. Ces just doesn’t give a shit, it seems.
@Horace Broon: Thanks, I’ve added it. I’ll give it a shot.….(what is Dana Simpson’s primary comic?)
@Ukulele Ike: Oh, Heavenly Nostrils. Got it.
@Poteet: #87
You poor thing!!!! OTOH, if you anagrammed “Estelle Harding” you get “Dragnet Shellie.” Whee!!!
@87 Poteet: @93 Daisy:
One of the anagrams you get from my real name is “camel hell wine”.
@I speak Jive: #72
“Mary Worth – In case there are reports of seismic activity in the Mid-Atlantic states, that was no earthquake – it was just my eyeroll at this drivel.”
In northern IL where I live and work, it’s dripping rain on a gloomy, chilly day. Even the clouds are weeping at this nonsensical nonsense.
@Arabella: #80: Maybe Thun is one of those ruling or sovereign princes, all the powers of a king but not the title, like the Prince of Monaco or the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
I asked Sid of that some years ago. He doesn’t represent fantastical animals like unicorns or mutant beastmen.
SSmith: They were out of buttons that say, “I voted so good now I need to play pocket pool,” so Snuffy settled for the next best thing.
9CL: He’d need a couple of piano movers to bring his piano to the beach, and then they’d have to clear out so that they don’t have to see what these two do on the keyboard.
C-Shaft: Crankshaft especially will have to adjust. Now he’s got to walk to Keesterman’s house and beat the mailbox with a stop sign until it falls apart.
DT: “Now homicide is on my neck. You can’t see it, but I can feel it when I put my hand up like this. It’s kind of like melted cotton candy.”
GA: Aubee wants to see the dark side of the moon. She’s got her bong ready and the Wizard of Oz DVD cued up.
GT: Each of the guys on the edges of the panel look like they’re taking a whiz, although only Luke seems at all self-conscious about it.
JP: It certainly is a different story, as in “the beginning was retconned while the end was still happening.”
MW: If we look at the stems on the word balloons, Dr. Jeff, Mary, and Estelle are laughing. So are Saul, Eve, and, I dunno, a gas man reading the meter. Wilbur isn’t laughing because he’s a mope. Neither of the vets are laughing because a cat howling like a dog isn’t funny to them, but rather a troubling clinical sign.
Phantom: “That’s the problem, sir. We got a report of what may be an illegally on-the-nose character name.”
@Sequitur: One evil starlet, or if you use my full name: Rosily venereal better.
@Peanut Gallery: That’s very true. The coming ice age was actually on the cover of Time (a popular newsmagazine of the day) on a slow news week. I was in grad school at the time, and we used to refer to the Science Fiction section of Time even then.
@Jym Dyer: I’m not looking at Meg’s blouse (I’m lying, but disappointed — having read Judge Parker for years).
@Poteet:
. . . after remembering yesterday’s CC discussion of name anagrams, I went to an anagram generator and entered my real name. The very first result I got was “Brainchild Neddy.” Arrrrrgh!
Oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my. I guess some things in life are best not trifled with. I wish there was something we could do or say to remove this curse or stigma or PTSD or whatever it is. Best of luck, Poteet.
It’s a bit quiet here. Too quiet.
I’m sure this pastry tastes better than anything that came out of Mary Worth’s kitchen.
@104 Baja Gaijin:
I prefer the one made of crap rather than the one with the barf filling.
Don’t forget to check out post #83.
@Baja Gaijin: Yeah, don’t have much of an appetite for fried bread oozing sea slugs.
Plugger voting witticism – My Vote is in the Can…but sometimes I forget to flush…
Meg is looking ahead to the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which could bring a deep freeze to Europe. She’s already made reservations on a flight to London for her brother.
Hootin’ Holler residents vote at the town hall, not the local church like I had to?
Wait. Hootin’ Holler has a town hall?
@Sequitur: A Parliament of Whores
PJ O’Rourke
Personally – I think that’s an insult to decent, hard working whores.
FC: Your mom and dad did vote, Billy. It’s elimination night on “Dancing with the Stars”.
@White Rabbit: Anna Kavan published her masterpiece, Ice, shortly before her death in 1967. It’s a feminist dystopian novel in which the Earth is rapidly chilling and humanity is menaced by encroaching mountains of ice. I read it during peak COVID, reread it just two years later, and found it nightmarishly compelling.
@UncleJeffers:
The dog has been Stockholm Syndromed but it looks like the cat might report him.
@Jym Dyer:
Could you please explain this to me? My understanding is that it’s a song about a stripper in a gay club, right? I’m afraid I’m not connecting the dots. Meg’s shirt isn’t even pink, or is that part of it? Man, I’m outta the swing of things.
@105 Sequitur: @73 I speak Jive warned me about that strip.
6CHIX:. If you don’t believe you were born with a life purpose, protecting the helpless is a good one to adopt.
@116 Activist: I don’t know; protecting helpless pumpkins until they’re large enough to put on one’s head may not be as selfless as it seems.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: the suffocating dread,
______________________
Streaming now on Paramount+!
BG&SS: I guarantee the Smifs voted for Coolidge, but the Barlows voted for Davis.
@Activist: It’s late at night, so I’ll do a pumpkin ramble and observe that protecting pumpkins can be a little complicated. In November, I collect pumpkins and gourds that were used for Halloween decorations but not carved, and I bring them home and set them around my rural house. That is protective in the sense that they don’t get stolen or smashed or collected as trash. But over the winter, they are eaten by wildlife and gradually collapse, which is not protective. By April, they have pretty much disappeared. But some of their seeds grow, so I get a few volunteer vines and pumpkins and/or gourds that continue the Circle of Pumpkin Life. I don’t know what happens to 6 Chix pumpkins after they serve as head decor.
BG&SS: Side note–the Founding Fathers, at least, were actually a little cynical about the motives and competence of the average voter, and one of the arguments they used for why the United States would work was that there were so many different identity groups and economic interests that no one would ever be able to assemble a permanent majority because electoral coalitions would eventually splinter and then reform.