When you get peeled in a dream, you get peeled in real life
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The Phantom, 4/6/25
One thing I respect about the Phantom is that, for a strip that started out with a fairly dubious colonialist attitude, it now makes a good faith effort to imagine what life would be like realistically in Bangalla, a post-colonial African state that balances a modern capital inhabited by a Westernized elite with a large citizen body that still lives more traditional lifestyles. That’s why I’m intrigued by this new storyline, in which a group of Wambesi living in Mawitaan return home to [squints at last panel] [record scratch] THE UNGRAVED? Best case scenario, it’s some nightmare where corpses are strewn about the village; worst case scenario will be a zombie situation that will have me taking back all the stuff I just said about how far this strip has come.
Dustin and Beetle Bailey, 4/6/25
Ah, it’s time for some fun dream sequences starring two of the funnies’ most callow young people! The Dustin one is straightforward enough to parse — Dustin, who lives with the father who hates him, finds himself trapped on a tiny island with him, a horizon that he can never reach visible in every direction as his father keeps demanding he get a job just in time for another general economic collapse. Beetle Bailey is a bit sillier — ha ha, he’s sick of peeling potatoes, so he’s dreaming of Cookie as a giant angry potato! — but I have to admit that the potato-man seems more and more unsettling the more I look it. The way his body is all head, the way his arms apparently connect to his back, the way he waves around a knife that will be used to slice off the skin of his fellow potatoes and, ultimately, himself? … well, it’s an unsettling look into Beetle’s subconscious, I’ll just say that.
114 replies to “When you get peeled in a dream, you get peeled in real life”
MW:
“For our next number, folks, we’re going to do a parodic take, inspired by current geopolitical events, on a Bob Marley classic whose cover by Eric Clapton itself became a hit. Ahem.
“I got the tariff/
But I swear it was in self-defense….”
Phantom:
In today’s first frame, Devil stares intently off-panel, transfixed by the shimmering ghost of Rudd Weatherwax, the trainer of “Lassie.”
I was about to let Beetle in on the secret I’ve discovered in my 23 years of cooking for myself: You can just eat potatoes with the peel and you get more flavor and more nutrition. Though I suggest washing them carefully and peeling off any unsightly black parts. Only after staring at the strip for another minute did I figure out he’s talking about punishment detail. Of course Beetle gets to personally peel pretty much every single potato consumed by Camp Swampy. And on that reflection, I wonder, is a lifestyle of constantly disrupting exercises and disobeying his officers really worth it?
Beetle Bailey-“Boiled, mashed, scalloped, fried, or stick ’em in a stew.”
Dustin-“I go to the job center every week and I get hired for jobs that last a week!”
Army life managed to intrude into Beetle’s mind even when he sleeps, the things he loves most!
The way Sarge’s tooth (singular) travels about his mouth has always disturbed me. It’s like it’s trying to dodge the furiously iincoming fork/food combo that has taken out all its brothers.
The Bangallan civil war has just started with the massacre this nice family will discover in their home village. Coming up: an exciting true to life tale of warlord gangs with child soldiers, illegal mining of gold/coltran/blood diamonds, ISIS, Wagner PMC, and the French Foreign Legion.
Or, you know, some rambling story that will go on for two years until even the writers forget the beginning.
Nia has no wish to live the traditional lifestyle but she likes to cosplay it a week every year and to have some country roots to brag about with her other urban friends. Bangallans are more westernised than I thought!
@Bob Tice:
I’ve always wondered why this strip insists on specifying that Devil is a wolf, not a dog. Real life wolves are far more difficult to train and far more timid than a dog, and less intelligent as well.
@Ettorre:
The jiggers she brings back to the city in her feet are totally a price worth paying!
B. Bailey: Happily, Beetle doesn’t have to worry about being damned for eternity by a mythic Greek curse in our Western Christian culture. Although, burning in hell is probably a small consolation.
Phantom: “I’m proud to be from our Wambesi village! Now, the Llongo, on the other hand – boy, there’s a bunch of real rubes!!!”
Dustin: It’s easy for Ed to hound Dustin about getting a job considering that his generation contributed to the shrinking job market and the incessant demand of “Go to college or you’ll be a bum” which means that the market is flooded with people in jobs that they’re way overqualified for after going into thousands of dollars in debt from high interest loans.
tl;dr DustDad is an asshole.
MW: I feel like this plot is getting creepier by the day not because of the batshit crazy dime store Kate Gosselin but because of the way Dawn and Wilbur’s relationship is being portrayed. They sing romantic duets in karaoke, both of them fall into chaotic situations when the other is away, and Wilbur is way too comfortable talking about how much he got laid to his daughter. This story probably wouldn’t be better if Ian and Toby were the focus but it would be about ten percent less creepy.
@Pozzo:
It is every bit as peripatetic as Marty Feldman’s “Igor’s” kyphotic hump was in Young Frankenstein.
Phantom:
“As the Orlons sang in their classic 1962 hit: ‘Wah, wah-a Wambesi/C’mon and take a chance and get-a with this dance.’
“Oh, wait a minute, ladies — that was ‘Watusi,’ not ‘Wambesi’ !”
The Ghost Who Self-Alienates — Ah, the fantasy that one can have two distinct personnas! The streaming show Severance played out in rural Africa. Even the most well-meaning urbanites (as these three seem to be) know that they need to hide their sense of superiority–disguising it as “being thoughtful” when talking to and mixing with the natives–disguising who they are, as if that’s going to work the moment they roll up to the village huts in their new SUV. They want to be able to visit the old home as if they were going to Megacorp World and fit in as “just one of the family.”
This sentiment is on par with the fantasy that an exile can maintain a distinct bloodline over three centuries by finding a willing bride for each successive generation from his original country (or continent, at least).
You can’t go home again.
Why is Beetle so resentful of potatoes? Because, unlike him, they have eyes!
FC: Come on, Jeff. A second panel showing Dolly kicking her feet upside down in the kitchen trashcan is right there.
Phantom: Is that really the best car to drive at speed on the backroads of Africa to see your rustic village?
Oh no! A pothole blew out a tire, then a rock ripped a hole in our gas tank!
Dustin dreams of his dad yelling at him to get a job even when they’re both trapped on a desert island with literally nothing to do? Is this strip starting to become more sympathetic towards its title character?
MW: Belle is being pretty restrained; I would have expected her to hip-bump Dawn right off the stage.
BB: Sorry, Beetle, the only thing that will save you is Sarge’s massive coronary and the ensuing dietary restrictions.
LUANN:. I haven’t worked in an office for years. Really, do young people still use Excel? Or for that matter, Word or even KPro?
BoT:. I too tried sliding down the stairs. It felt more like getting a spanking.
TG:. Sure, living in poverty can make a child resourceful. But resourcefulness is highly overrated.
Phantom: If you told me this artwork started out as storyboards for an SUV commercial, I would believe you.
Dustin: What sells this is the final panel. Remember, Dustin’s equally-terrible-but-in-a-different-way father has no idea what his son’s dream was. All he knows is that Dustin suddenly says, apropos of nothing: “I keep having the same nightmare.” Maybe the young man is on the verge of a killing spree. Maybe he wants to talk about his feelings. Both prospects are horrifying.
BB: Bonus points to our intrepid colorist for coloring in Cookie’s arm hair. Sir or madam (or machine), your work has not gone unnoticed.
The Phantom: Actually, the upcoming story line is called “The Ungraved”, pronounced unGRAHved, letting us know everyone’s speech will be stripped of the ` and will therefore be slightly flatter and less interesting than it already is, somehow.
BB: I admit that I have no personal military experience so I could be way off on this, but it feels like “punished by being put on KP and forced to peel potatoes for hours” is one of those tropes like the doctor’s head mirror: something that was a thing decades ago but now only exists in the language of zombie comic strips.”
Dustin: Dustdad harangues his son about being unemployed, ignoring the grim reality that Dustin is trapped in circumstances which put the financial security Dustdad takes for granted out of his reach for years, if not for his entire life. This is a surprisingly erudite summary of the circumstances facing young adults today, and I can only assume that the writers stumbled on it entirely by accident.
Phantom – If I’ve learned anything these days, it’s that only a genuine asshole calls someone else’s home a shithole….
Dustin – Does a handjob count…a blowjob…a rimjob….
BB – Culinary preparedness is our priority….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
MW: Re the quote box: Well, Mr. Barrie, maybe for some people it is. But way many others wouldn’t recognize humility if it presented them with a fake award.
MW: Given Dawn’s horrified look in the penultimate panel, Belle clearly just got onto the stage right then and there. Who gave her a microphone?
@Needless Exposition: MW oh, yes – and the cherry on top of this creepy Sunday sundae is Wilbur’s expressions. He’s grooving on the romance with his daughter and just lights up when Belle arrives on stage to “fight” Dawn for his love
RMMD At least the narration box remembers this is a medical soap strip and finally confirms the stalker doesn’t just “look” dead.
C’shaft: Unlike many his age, Crankshaft is not averse to new technology. He’s always open to innovations in property destruction.
JP: Even with a job lined up, two months seems a pretty tight window for getting a work visa processed, finding housing, arranging for a trans-oceanic move…
Luann: Man, Bernice puts a lot of work into being passive-aggressively mean-spirited.
MW: I mean, it’s probably not the creepiest song they could have chosen for a father-daughter duet, but still…
RMMD: Summer, honey, the time you needed a lawyer was three hours ago.
@CanuckDownSouth: Wilbur has recognized in Belle someone who is his perfect match: rude, oblivious to all social cues, and having the impulse control of an overcaffeinated puppy.
RMMD:
“You don’t suspect Augie of anything, do you?”
“Actually, ma’am, he looks familiar. I think I saw him get into a fight on The Jerry Springer Show.”
“Oh, come on, Officer. Everyone got into a fight on The Jerry Springer Show!”
@Ukranazi Stepan:
To me, Devil looks as much like a malamute or a Siberian husky as he does like a wolf, anyway.
No matter how disturbing the potato man is, it’s not nice for Beetle to call him a “poof”.
BB: As a veteran of premodern K.P. when I was a lowly private E-1, I can attest that the worst thing was the 15-hour shift, during which you worked pretty much non-stop. You did that for a week straight. Then some other platoon did it for a week and then another and so on. And actually, peeling potatoes was a pretty nice job because you could do it while sitting down. That was a lot better than mopping floors, cleaning the stoves and other equipment, and scrubbing pots and pans. I imagine things are pretty different now.
(One day on K.P., the mess sergeant assigned me to paint the outside back wall of the mess hall. Man, what a cherry job that was, being outside all by myself on a nice day just taking it easy and painting a wall.)
@CanuckDownSouth: The most irritating part about this is that Wilbur is entirely at fault. He gave his full address to a woman he only knew for two weeks on a cruise while insisting repeatedly to his daughter (in between the graphic details of the filthy sex they had) that she was just a fling and nothing serious. And then when she shows up, Wilbur makes Dawn the third wheel of an outing that she planned by inviting Belle. To put the cherry on top of this shit sundae, instead of shutting down the situation, Wilbur is enabling and encouraging this tension between Belle and Dawn by continuing this outing instead of taking Dawn home and helping Belle find a hotel. And it’s not like Wilbur’s oblivious to the situation; he knows that they’re not getting along but seems to be enjoying the attention.
@Activist:
I do work in an office, and I can tell you that Word and Excel haven’t gone anywhere. Did you think they had? I mean, people are still making spreadsheets and documents. It’s not all done with telepathy … yet.
MW: Jeez, just look at Wilbur’s expression in panel 4. He’s having a Perry Comogasm.
RMMD: When Summer tells Augie “I know a good lawyer if you don’t have one. Name’s Driver. Sam Driver,” Officer Toody interrupts. “Uh, I wouldn’t if I were you.”
@Ettorre: Roots country?
Wait, eternally peeling potatoes on punishment duty isn’t Beetle’s nightmare, it’s just his life. Because he’s a fictional character, he can’t escape! Now his creators have chosen to give him dreams as well, the better to torment him. Neat.
@Ettorre: @Ettorre: So…..Nia is JD Vance and this is about her writing “Wambesi Elegy”/
Mary Worth: Oh boy! More vaguely incestuous undercurrents to Wilbur and Dawn’s relationship!
The Phantom: Why does the kid look like a thirty-something woman’s head cut off and surgically attached to a child’s body? It’s creeping me out severely.
Dustin: “I’m pretty sure it means I have to kill you in order to stop having it. On that note, think fast.” *pitches boiling hot coffee at his dad*
The title of today’s post reminds me of one of my favorite xkcd strips.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Don Abundio is such an asshole”
“You got that right”
“We’ve been slaving over this air pump for two hours now…”
“What the hell is he doing down there?”
@Joe Blevins:
#38. Joe, thanks for the reassurance that my job skills are still marketable. I might be needing them soon!
The joke in Dustin is pretty good, but there are actually several jobs to be done on that island. Why hasn’t anyone opened that coconut? What about making a fishing pole? Some sort of structure? Seems like both of them ought to get off their duffs and start working! Unless Dustin’s dad broke his leg in the shipwreck. Then I guess it’d be okay for him to sit there and boss Dustin around.
@Bob Tice: I got the tariff – but I did not dodge the tax duty….
Beetle – That line in the throwaway panel’s not right. It should be “You’ll peel potatoes for eternity, you hockey puck!”
RMMD: Wondering “Do I need to get a lawyer?” is a valid question, but is asking a cop a good idea?
MW: Just the Two of Us is as close to Afternoon Delight we’re gonna get in a dead-tree comic. I’m taking half credit for calling it. (https://joshreads.com/2025/04/friday-is-for-pops/#comment-2846779)
Tomorrow I expect You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take Away My Man). At this point I don’t know if I’m kidding.
FC: The alphabet blocks with the teacup on them waiting to be knocked down at the door is a good touch, actually.
Crankshaft: Ed outbid some Proud Boy to get this. It’s not often I say this, but: Good job, Ed!
Luann: McKinsey & Company is looking for an efficiency consultant just like Bernice.
There are worse hells than peeling potatoes for eternity. You could be trapped forever in a legacy comic strip with the syndicate never letting you die.
***
No joke, I initially read “Mawitaan” as “Manhattan” and that would have been one heck of a drive.
@UncleJeff: Sure. But also people who brag about their connection to the Old Countrry
DT: Oh please please please let the insurance investigator be the hero of one of the great serials in radio history: “Yours truly, Johnny Dollar”.
It had insurance fraud cases framed through “the action-packed expense account” of the investigator, played by Bob Bailey.
Bailey had a unique, kinda twangy voice and the show would always end with Johnny summarizing the case for his bosses and closing his letter (verbally for the listeners) with a triumphant “Yours truly…..Johnny Dollar!’
MW quote box – Barrie knew something about life being a long lesson in humility. Impersonating his dead brother, to comfort his grieving mother. Having a marriage that everyone knew was unconsummated. His wife having an affair with a guy young enough to be her son. Adopting someone else’s children and forging his name into their mother’s will.
Just one correction: Instead of “humility” it should be “humiliation.”
@Bob Tice: What hump?
Slylock – Cassandra Cat must have gone to a lot of trouble to get that rope under the statue, just to provide an easy solution for Slylock. It’s shameless how they flirt.
I think Private Spudface would be a welcome addition to the platoon. Not sure what his one note gimmick would be, maybe offering pieces of himself to Sarge as bribes.
Dustin’s dad should really try a beard. It would prevent him from being on the outside what he is in the inside, i.e. a dickhead
@Ukranazi Stepan: French Foreign Legion?!?! I don’t think I can handle a Phantom/Crock crossover!
@Needless Exposition: tl;dr DustDad is an
assholeAuthor avatar.O why bother? Same thing.
Sex Organ V.D. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but the new Finders Keepers law indicates Augie found the body, he gets to keep it, in this case you are what we call The Weeper.”
Brewster Rockit – He was so engrossed in his phone that he didn’t notice the probe.
Mary Worth – Add me to the list of everyone who is grossed out by Wilbur and Dawn’s creepy karaoke.
9CL – She’s twenty years old and already a world class musician. Just a thought: one would think that she would be in school, training for her world class musicianship. Following her experiences at Juilliard could make an interesting comic strip. Instead it’s a daily version of boink, rinse, repeat.
Crankshaft – Is there any chance that Sophie Driver could hack that drone and aim it at Crankshaft?
Phantom: Nia knows the drill by now. Her cousins will knock her down and take her cell phone, and pass it back and forth between themselves for the entire week while completely ignoring her. And Mom and Dad are just there for the adult sex orgies.
9CL: It’s a viola in the top two panels, then shrinks down to a violin by the main strip. Truly a world-class performance in both the stage magic and fiddling categories.
@Bob Tice: Yes, much bulkier dog snout, not pointy wolf snout.
@TheDiva: At least they didn’t choose to sing “Afternoon Delight,” Arrested Development-style.
RMMD: so Officer Midwit Colombo is just making conversation? Don’t you believe it Augie.
@UncleJeff: #53: “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” went off the air in October of 1962, along with a suspense anthology show, appropriately titled “Suspense”. They were the last of the prime-time radio dramas, marking the end of the golden age of radio.
@Lauralot: I had the same question. Isn’t there etiquette for karaoke, like “don’t walk into someone else’s performance?”
Dawn’s excruciatingly lame claim today that it’s cool to connect with Wilbur speaks for itself, so I really just want to comment on yesterday’s strip which I missed.
Belle is once again implying she wants to kill Dawn. I’m just saying after all this teasing about it, she better follow through. Also “Maybe I’ll sing his band Wing’s ‘Live and Let Die!'” is a very expository sentence.
Once again, Cassandra Cat stands falsely accused. She cannot be the thief. She is far too stylish to even consider wearing such a frumpy disguise.
@But What Do I Know?: Your comment about Phantom’s bloodline reminded me of a spoof written by a ‘Mudge a long time back: https://kipwblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-toon-river-anthology-no-name-in.html.
It was part of his “Toon River Anthology” blog posts (based on “Spoon River Anthology”). The Phantom one is a favorite, but they were all great. Unless he changed his screen name, he hasn’t posted in years, hope he’s still with us.
While I’m at it, would like to put in the good word for Macanudo, which offers excellent artwork day in and day out, with whimsical gags, stories, and observations that occasionally make one stop and say “Hmmm…” Like today’s, for instance.
Mary Worth:This arc.. this is one of the all time greats. It could fizzle out true but even if it does Wilbur’s casual fling showing up in town randomly, marking out his Dawns eyes in a picture, mocking her vegetarianism constantly, spilling things on her and now interrupting a performance of just the two of us.. it’s so good. This is what makes weeks of characters blithering back and forth on things we’re already aware of worth it: the batshit insanity. It’s also the first Wilbur arc i’ve encountered, both in the wild or on cc, where he’s not portrayed as a blight that people have nightmares about. This time someone ELSE is acting the fool and he gets to react in horror. Maybe this lady will fake her death and he’ll see how fucking weird it is to make that a joke. Maybe she’ll get into a piss battle with his fish. Wilbur having his own wilbur is so fascinating.
Andy Kaulfman has decided to make his reappearance in “The Phantom” next time in “The Un Latka Gravis”. Join us, won’t you?
Wizard of Id-I had no idea Sir Rodney drank tequila.
The Phantom – Is this being guest written by Jordan Peele, because this feels like 3/4 characters from the film Us.
Dustin – Dustin’s Dad absolutely voted for Trump, and we’ll soon see a time jump where Dustin will have somehow found a job amid the chaos of the next four years and bought a decent house at the bottom of the market. Meanwhile, DustinDad, having lost his 401K, and mortgaged his house to buy into NewsMax stock, will demand to move in with Dustin. Dustin will then get to bug him to get one of those jobs as a Walmart greeter, where he is paired with a sassy humanoid drone coworker.
Beetle Bailey – It’s good that Beetle was born in modern America. Had he been born in South America between 8,000 – 10,000 years ago and been given a message from a potato God about the edibility of the nutritious tuber, he would have rejected it because of the effort required to domesticate and prepare the vegetable. The indigenous tribes would not have grown and led to the eventual Incan Empire and the history of the world would have been impacted in ways we cannot begin to understand.
@Phantom Phan: Excellent parody! Thanks for sharing the link.
Man, Mr. Potato Head has moved in a REAL self-loathing direction. Get those My Chemical Romance albums away from him, already!
Dudes Of Haz-Mat did the potato-man nightmare thing better.
MT: Mark missed today’s executive order renaming The Norway Rat, The American Rat.
Josh, you’re speaking contradictory to Dear Leader’s spokesperson who claims there will be no economic collapse and that the American people will prosper as they did the first go ‘round. Your independent media privileges will get revoked and you might possibly be awarded a one-way ticket to wherever as a result. Be careful.
PV: Ingrid is giving that roast pig’s head a real look of disgust. Can’t blame her. I’d have to quaff about three tankards of mead before I’d want to bite into that thing.
Phantom:
I’m proud to be a Wambesi from Zambezi.
We don’t burn our loincloths on Main Street….
@richardf8: #59: Only if Stripey skull punches Colonel Crock.
@Amelie Wikström: Exactly! I eat spuds, but haven’t peeled one in decades. I hope that Beetle’s outfit at least composts all those potato peelings and other veggie debris. But come to think of what we’ve seen in BB, they probably don’t.
@Philip:
Dustin. Give it a rest. PLEASE.
MT: Um, Jules? Basically nice work, but there is no species with the common name of “field mouse.” “Field mouse” is a general name for native mice that live outdoors. House mice and Norway rats are non-native and live in close association with humans whether we like it or not.
I just checked and confirmed that the two most-common “field mouse” species in NYC are the white-footed mouse and the deer mouse. We have those in Iowa, and they both look (to some of us) kinda adorable, with big eyes and brown and white fur. Deer mice get into my house occasionally. If the deer mouse gets into one of my live traps, it is conveyed outdoors and asked to please not return. If the cats find it first, it does not return. *Tiny pixie version of “Taps”*
BB: What variety of potato is Potato Man? I think russet, but I’ve seen some brownish Yukon Golds.
@Poteet: Sorry, some deer mice and white-footed mice are grayish and white. We only see brown and white ones around here.
@Poteet: A trick I picked up learning to make Austrian potato salad (the necessary accompaniment to schnitzel und kraut).
Peel the potatoes and drop the peels into a colander. Rest the colander on the sliced potatoes as they simmer so the peel is covered. The flavor of the peel gets zapped into the taters, and the resulting salad will not offend the Empress at the dining room of Schoenbrunn Palace by the existence of peel.
Oh, may as well throw out the Recipe, as long as I’m at it. Now, do your wurst.
@Poteet: Well, russets are salt-of-earth types, content to live in small towns, hold construction or ag jobs, attend church regularly, and go down to the diner on Saturdays nights. Yukon golds tend to live in the suburbs, hold office jobs or maybe work for the government, spend much of the weekend driving their kids around to sports or music and dance lessons, and maybe getting around to checking out the trendy new ramen or Indian restaurants on weekends.
@Ukulele Ike: Imma try it tomorrow.
@Needless Exposition: Thank you for your service.
We cannot take for granted the national security importance of a well-painted mess hall wall.
@Needless Exposition: Thank you for your service.
We cannot take for granted the national security importance of a well-painted mess hall wall.
@Activist: Student discount is very generous.
BB: Hasbro has bought out Beetle Bailey and are floating some radical ideas, such as recasting Cookie with a giant Mr. Potato Head. Can they turn this proverbial ship around?
Dustin: For what it’s worth the artwork is much better on palm trees than it is on people. Might suggest a change of direction.
Phantom: Can’t think of anything funny to say. I can only note that Jeff Weigel has really outdone himself here in both the family and the backgrounds.
C-Shaft: RIP to Jeff, who was on the couch taking a Sunday afternoon nap. Kinda puts his animation video habit in perspective, doesn’t it?
DT: “First few expenses are a reservation at Copper Mountain, two-way ticket to Colorado, ski rental, and various food & beverage purchases. I always think better after a good downhill run. You can’t mess with the process.”
MW: The thing about Wilbur and karaoke is that he has a pretty much unerring talent of picking the most unwise possible song in any situation. It’s preternatural.
RMMD: Oh cool. If Augie is charged he’ll have the lawyer who helped prove that Sara Morgan didn’t steal the Doggo Twins from Rene Belluso defending him, because all law fields are fungible.
SFx: Despite the Horus figure at its feet the statue was not made by Ancient Egyptians but rather by I Can Has Cheezburger users circa 2008. Vital history either way, to be sure.
@Philip:
At first the mention of Jordan Peele made me assume you were talking about Beetle Bailey but I’ll spare you the reason why.
Just heard that Jay North has died. He was Dennis the Menace.
Crankshaft-“Yelp we’re homeless now. I have a bus and a school shower I can use. How are you going to survive?”
BB: Mr. Potato Head is merely Mr. Peanut cosplaying as a cook.
CS: Well, at least he destroyed his own property rather than someone else’s. Oh wait, tomorrow we’ll find out it’s Lillian’s bookstore.
PV: Join us next Sunday as a hungover Gundar Harl steers Val’s boat into a breakwater.
Mara Llave, Keeper of Time: And join us next week when we find out whether our authors can keep a weekly schedule, a biweekly schedule, a monthly schedule or a “Pibgorn” schedule
@Liam: Mr. North said he was often typecast….
(snort)
“We’re looking for a bratty, sassy-type 73-year-old gentleman who carries a slingshot, thinks girls have cooties, loves to roll in mud, and can pull off the bright red overall look.”
@Liam:
#100. Rest in peace, Jay. You were a valuable individual who overcame the handicaps I understand your father burdened you with.
@Activist: #106. Oops, Jay North was the adorable kid who played Dennis, not the writer’s son. My bad.
@Ukulele Ike: #105: Well, he did have experience working with an elephant.
@Activist: #106: That was the son of Hank Ketchum. In Jay North’s case it was an abusive aunt who for some reason was put in charge of managing his acting career.
@Unca Bob: You raise a good point, but Philip didn’t invite Steve Kelley to the party, Josh did, and those of us who are familiar with Kelley’s political work recognize the ways in which the “generation of freeloading slackers” trope that drives this strip is a corollary of Kelley’s politics, and I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing it go the way of The Duck.
@Guillermo el chiclero: And he never forgot it!
Hey, just noticed North voiced the boy-hero character in Here Comes the Grump! I would consider that the apogee of his thespian career.
@Guy Nerdlinger: Bwahaha!
@Ukulele Ike: Wow. Thank you.
PV: Did I miss something? Did Val’s mom give any helpful hints as to where in Italy the sister might be located? Otherwise, that’s quite a search area. And unfortunately, the danger to Sis sounded kinda urgent. Otherwise, Val & Company could just wander around casually asking questions and enjoying Italian sunlight for a few years, eating grapes and wild boar and having a great time.
@Amelie Wikström: @Poteet: A neutral-flavor salad oil is preferable to EEVO olive oil….they don’t use olive oil much in Vienna. And add the chicken stock SLOW so the dressing isn’t too watery. It doesn’t thicken up as much as the recipe says it will.
If you use russet instead of Yukon Gold the potatoes will crumble and thicken the sauce a bit more, but then you don’t get that lovely yellow potato color.