Do people not get what the “anonymous” part of the name means anymore or what
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Gil Thorp, 5/5/25
Hey, remember when we met Marty’s AA pal, “Clam,” and I said, “Ha ha, wouldn’t it be funny if that was the same person as Clambake, the guy who did some unpaid coaching for Gil and claimed to be a Negro Leaguer, but it turns out he was a fraud?” Well, ha ha, it seems that is the same guy, and he only went around lying about his baseball career because he was drunk, I guess, but now that he’s clean and sober he’s welcome to come back to the Milford dugout to do some unpaid coaching again, or at least to stare meaningfully out at the field with Gil.
This actually gives me a chance to talk about the weird Gil Thorp variant of comic book time, in which the kids age in real time, spending no more than four years as school-age characters and occasionally returning as adults, but Gil and his fellow coaches seemingly do not. And the original Clambake storyline, which ran in 2007, actually gives us some pegs to real ages: in his fabrication, he claimed to have been 83 years old and played in the late 1940s, when in fact he was only 71, as Gil found out with some help from the local cops once he decided to maybe figure out if this random dude who’d been hanging around the school for weeks was on the up and up. That would make him 89 years old now … or maybe still 71, if he’s in the same time-stasis as Gil? Unclear. I’m interested in finding out, though.
Dick Tracy, 5/5/25
I haven’t really been keeping up with the details in Dick Tracy, but I am happy to inform you that Dick finally has all the information he needs to put an end to Neo-Chicago’s nephewcrime epidemic once and for all. I love that the only photo the cops have of these two is a party pic printed out from Facebook; I assume that the heavily armed SWAT team currently converging on their location has been warned that “suspects may be enjoying canapés, repeat, canapés.”
Pluggers, 5/5/25
Now, the other coastal elitists and I all like to see pluggers engaging in their vaguely depressing down-home antics and ask, jokingly, “Are pluggers OK? Ha ha!” But, for real: are pluggers OK. Are pluggers no longer able to properly care for themselves, or possibly being physically abused. Do we need to call a social worker, to keep the pluggers safe.
127 replies to “Do people not get what the “anonymous” part of the name means anymore or what”
RMMD:
“And?”
“And he doesn’t need stitching on his shirt to remind him of what his first name is, you indolent, slothful, lotus-eating, unmotivated grease monkey!”
A couple of weeks ago, I posted the following on Facebook
“Being over 65 is just a long series of saying, ‘Hmm — where’d *that* bruise come from?'”
Dear Lord, I’m a Plugger!
Gil Thorp:
“Hey, Leo, who’s the dude talking to Coach Thorp?”
“Can’t tell. The artwork in the current iteration of this strip is so contorted that I can’t for the life of me figure out who’s who!”
RMMD:
“You mean I won’t have to put up anymore with that ridiculous hairband-matches-blouse getup you’re so fond of? — what a relief!”
Even a Plugger should remember where he lost his middle finger.
I know a talking watch was hot stuff in the 30s, but it might be time for Dick and Pat to get their paws on some of those newfangled earbuds. I believe neo-Chicago has criminalized simultaneous speaker mode…or if not, they should.
yCS: “Why is there an old Colts moving van in front?”
PLUGGERS: “You’re bleeding.”
” You stabbed me.”
” I did?”
” Who ARE you?”
MW: Oh no, Belle has voodooed Dawn; her left hand is shrinking!
RMMD: That’s right, Niki, don’t let her get away with vagueness. Make her say it. Oh, you really DON’T know what’s going on? My bad.
You’re a Plugger if you can’t tell if you’ve got stigmata or if you caught your hand in a spring as you were fishing the remote out of the couch.
FC: Bil avoids the headache of interacting with his oldest son and breathes a sigh of relief knowing it’ll be at least a few years before he’s forced to talk to Billy about fornicating.
RMMD: Isn’t that the new boyfriend tall half of the “comedy” duo?
MW: If only there were some sort of easily-accessible means of determining such information.
MW: After Belle is exposed, Wilbur seeks solace from Mary Worth. “Why, Mary!? Why!? If I knew she was a homicidal maniac, I could have introduced her to my ex. (and that Ian is a little too smug for his own good).” He thinks.
GT: Now that Clambake has confessed to his fake identity, he can finally reveal his true self: Josef Stalin.
Pluggers: A painless open wound in the back of the hand? Looks like this Plugger has stigmata, meaning he is one miracle closer to becoming a saint.
Pluggers know exactly where that bruise or bleed came from, they’re just not allowed to use a trademark in the funny pages. Looking at you, Coumadin!
Pluggers are codependent dementia-stricken spousal abusers.
MW: Joel McHale voice: “Dawn Weston, unlikely voice of reason.”
DT: the wheels of justice are finally turning – slowly, creaking, rusty, and making a horrible grinding noise but still moving.
MW: Dawn’s primitive part of her brainstem is screaming danger warnings. Meanwhile Wilbur’s primitive part is screaming “ignore her, think of wonderful sexy time”, even drowning out temporarily the constant growl about stuffing his face.
RMMD: The other tall kid in the story (part of the comedy duo had straight hair and his foil had curly hair, right?)
GT: So Clamback and Marty Moon interrupted Gil getting a bouquet of flowers from his girlfriend, during a game, and now Clamback is in the dugout? Or standing next to Gil? I know jobs are hard to find in the art world but if the topic (high school sports in the USA) just isn’t an area of interest, the writers and artists should really consider moving on – or does this gig have good benefits?
Gil Thorp – With Pete Rose being considered for reinstatement amid political pressure and the legalization of sports gambling, it makes sense the Gil Thorp team would seek to get in on the trend of sports figure being rehabilitated. First Pops, the Ghost of the terrible coach that is retroactively a legend, and Marty Moon in rehab, which gives an excuse for Clambake to be forgiven for his sports stolen valor.
In honor this trend, I will soon be offering betting odds for which prior villains in the Gil Thorp universe will be rehabilitated next.
Dick Tracy – Is eating finger foods Dick Tracy short hand for evil, like a villain stroking a cat while taunting a spy, or the European enforcer smoking thin cigarettes?
Pluggers – Between this panel and the one about Pluggers home remedies about falling out of bed, Pluggers might actually have social value in identifying and sparking a discussion about the many health threats of aging while living at home. While I’m not a fan of this comic 99% of the time, I wouldn’t be averse to seeing some of these comics used in health communications aimed at older people afraid that admitting to these issues is a one-way ticket to a low rent nursing home.
@Schroduck: I think you mean Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. Stalin was his secret Pravda editor name.
@Little Blue Bicycle: I understood that reference.gif
RMMD: And DOT DOT DOT!! [Kelly bursts into a rendition of ‘Mamma Mia’]
JP: You two are about to get an all expenses paid life in beautiful Norway. Shut up.
Gil Thorp: Sadly, Clam’s records of service in the Imperial Starfleet will also turn out to have been forged.
GT: I admittedly haven’t been following this closely but is Clambake actually Fred Williamson cosplaying as Fidel Castro?
MW: I’m sort of hoping that this turns into a hostage situation, Mary tried to intervene and then gets the ol’ CHOP CHOP.
I know it isn’t going to happen but a boy can dream, can’t he?
Pluggers:
You know you’re a plugger when you think that “Cinco de Mayo” refers to stopping up your plumbing by pouring the contents of expired Kraft, Hellmann’s and Duke’s containers into your kitchen basin.
GT: Now that he’s sober, Clam feels he can take “Bake” out of his name.
Pluggers: All that neuropathy makes it difficult for Pluggers to know when they’ve sustained injuries. Ha?
Dick Tracy: We’re all expecting Mr. Insurance Receipt-Keeping Guy to offer Tracy additional evidence for his suspicions tomorrow, but in fact he’s telling the good detective he needs more to support his warrant. (He will be ignored.)
Dick Tracy : Meh, that’s not even the second most funny instance of the “only photo available on file is candid picture of person of interest eating junk food” gag I’ve seen.
***********
Pluggers : are never too old to learn that “bedbugs” are a real thing, and that they should probably have their hovels fumigated.
Pluggers: Or, since there’s no indication her husband is actually showing blood, maybe the affects of early onset dementia.
G. *(&#$@! Thorp – What is Leo Atazoon calling Bearded Clambake in the second panel: Dead Fucker? Or something worse?
Baldo: In retribution for Baldo bringing in a box of fortune cookies on the Lunar New Year. EVERYBODY in this store likes to celebrate Denigrate Your Ancestors Day.
FG: Is Seattle Times/ComicsKingdom screwing up at least a half dozen Monday updates, or did Schkrade quit and REALLY KILL everyone yesterday? Damn you, Margrave! And your hot half-naked boss!
GT: I assumed from looking at him Clambake was too young to even pretend to have played in the Negro Leagues, but Wikipedia informs me the Negro American League limped along post-integration into the early 1960s, and the Indianapolis Clowns played exhibition games a la the Harlem Globetrotters well into the ’80s. So maybe Clambake lied when he said he wasn’t in the Negro Leagues, ashamed that he never made it past minor league status.
Gil Thorp: A lot of comments on Clambake’s weird “leftist guerrilla” cosplay today, and no wonder! In panel one, I legitimately thought the kids wearing orange in the dugout were in prison. Gil and Clam posing for a Soviet-era stamp just completed the strip’s gulag vibe.
And honestly, kids imprisoned for no known reason? Yeah, newly relevant to the US of A, no notes.
Luann: I wonder how long it will be for someone to notice the dressing is actually shampoo (plus conditioner!).
CS: He supposedly can’t read well, but he can recite the marketing for Bean’s End crap.
9CL: Narrator: Amos is still waiting to reach puberty.
GT Well, that answers the is Marty an a** or does the whole Milford AA community too screwed up to even try to follow the precepts question. They all must be starting the meetings with full bios and make a point of introducing their sponsors to the family as such.
Didn’t the Indianapolis Clowns find it difficult to run the bases in those comically oversized shoes?
GT: As usual, there is so much going on in a single strip of Gil Thorp that it’s hard to know what to concentrate on, but I’m decided to spend just a second on the idea of ‘checking yourself in to AA.’ Do they think that Alcoholics Anonymous is a low-rent Betty Ford Center? Is this where you just move into a church basement or community center and subsist off bad coffee and donuts while you dry out? It actually sounds like a wonderful idea, I would like to live in this world.
DT: Jesus, do Tracy’s fists engorge when he senses that a suspect is about to be brought in? That makes me deeply uncomfortable.
Pluggers; The first rule of Plugger Fight Club is that no-one remembers about Pluggers Fight Club.
MW: I have never considered a violent person but if these two were real, I would slap both of them. Wilbur is ignorant of Dawn trying to say that she doesn’t feel safe because he cares more about having sex with a woman he barely knows and has a fetish of two women fighting over him, even though one of them is his daughter. Dawn has forgotten the simple fact that she is not a nine year old who has to get along with her dad’s new “friend” and she can leave the condo to avoid being around Belle. Yet she still stays because Wilbur has been so successful in gaslighting her to practically be Belle’s victim on a silver platter.
Both of these two are morons who deserve to be killed by a maniac.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: I assume a) that’s not Leo speaking, but the other kid whose name I don’t remember and b) he’s saying “dead-ass,” ie. really or seriously. The weird thing is that he’s using it as an interjection; it almost always seems to be a modifier. I’m starting to think Henry Barajas combs the Merriam-Webster slang page for trending vocabulary, but has no idea how to properly employ what he finds.
GT: Now Clambake goes around telling people he used to be in Mao’s Red Army.
JP: Sophie might not be ready for adulthood, but Reena apparently is. Just look at that growth spurt between panels 1 and 2.
FC: Ha haaaa, SUCK IT, Daddy! You ain’t man enough for math — or, to be precise, second-grade arithmetic.
CS: Naturally, Ed despises even his own Plugger generation.
MW: Sorry, Dawnie, Wilbur’s already made plans with Belle for today. First they’re going to casually drop by Dr. Ed Harding’s veterinary office to ask Estelle if the doctor can recommend any good goldfish food. Then they’re going to swing by Zakiks Studios to say Hi to Zak and see if he and Iris would like to go out for dinner one of these evenings.
MW: Dawn, there’s this thing called the Internet, where you can look up people like Bats. This will help you make a more informed argument about why exactly she should leave.
FC: Oh dayyum!!! Slammed about math by Billy! It could have been worse; it could have been Jeffy.
Dustin: That smirk on Ed’s face in panel one lets you know he’s come up with a real zinger.
Pluggers: Minnesota Ron, is this normal for you? Do you need to talk to someone?
MW: Shouldn’t we be celebrating Wilbur’s five favorite recipes on this Cinco de Mayo?
Dogs, being red-green colour blind, may confuse a green shirt with red blood. I think, because I certainly don’t see any bleeding as a human being with full colour vision. Unless she smells it, and his nose is failing.
***
Viva la Clamolución!
@taig: Dawn can’t even hold a smartphone; I don’t think she can even look up the food she’s able to eat on a vegan diet let alone any kind of information on Batshit Belfrey.
@Little Guy:
Got the reference!
True story. Many years ago a couple buddies and I were driving cross-country to California. So one night I’m behind the wheel and I guess I was getting a little tired. Up ahead on the interstate I saw a semi trailer, and painted on the back of it was a big hand giving me the finger. And I start thinking, “Whoa, we better pull over for the night.” But as I got closer to the semi, I could see that it was just the Mayflower logo. But I swear, from a distance at night, that ship looked just like a big hand giving me the finger.
MW: “Mr. Vacation Romance”? This goes a long way toward explaining why there are so many outbreaks of vomiting illnesses on cruise ships.
@Philip, DT: It could also be a cat smoking thin cigarettes while a villain strokes finger food.
Luann: This is the worst and unsexiest Three’s Company cosplay I’ve ever seen.
Pluggers: I don’t see a cut, scrape, or bruise anywhere. Is she gaslighting him? Is the narrator in on it?
Dustin: Maybe the problem is personality conflicts. Dustdad’s hate language is acts of contempt, while Dustin’s is ignoring and avoidance.
Luann: Please, Mrs. Horner is in assisted living. Her idea of “dressing up” is putting on tennis shoes instead of slippers.
MW: Like, Wilbur doesn’t see it as even slightly weird that this woman he’s still “getting to know” has shown up uninvited to his house and imposed herself on his whole life? Is he that desperate for…you know what, never mind, I just answered my own question.
Phantom: For a ruthless killer and criminal, Sarvana sure is naive about toxic power dynamics.
RMMD: Oh, just kill him and be rid of him! Better yet, get an aging cancer victim to kill him for you. Seems to have worked so far.
@Charterstoned: Hey, someone actually remembered Fabiana! She was a nice lady if not for the fact that she could stand to be around Wilbur without the urge to retch.
@taig: I mean, that does assume “Belle Batsfrey” isn’t a clever alias, but then again if Belle’s victims all have the average mental capacity of the Westons she probably doesn’t see a need to cover her tracks.
Gil Thorp-Of course Clambake lied about playing in the Negro League. It ended in 1958.
Slylock Fox-Once again Slylock keeps the small business man down.
MW-“But, Dawn, Belle blew me.”
MW-Don’t make Dawn call in Mary Worth.
RMMD-“And it’s not a college professor.”
It’s nice that Luann has finally found the appropriate event for her to wear those edible panties that B-wad gave her on her 13th birthday.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Nice! I had a sense I saw that cap and tunic ensemble somewhere …
MW: “Look, Dawn, I know she’s trying to kill you; that’s why I keep knocking the food onto the floor. Just let me have this, okay?”
9CL: We often ask this, but just where is Amos that his situation can unfold? The school maybe? The nuns would be all over a preteen boy locking himself in a bathroom.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I am…?”
The Plugger version of Day of the Jackal is somewhat low-key, but does feature an actual jackal with a sniper rifle.
Don Abundio, translated:
“We could get killed trying to cross this street”
“Yeah!”
“I wonder why that Walk signal isn’t working”
“I think I know”
“The traffic system’s been privatized!”
[Sign: STOP PAY TOLL]
@astroboy: re MW: Dawn could make a long-distance call to the Orlando Public Library and ask them to look up Belle in their copy of the City Directory. She may have to wait on hold for some time while the librarian tries to find any reference to a Belle Batsfrey, so I hope they have a toll-free number.
GT:
“He was my mom’s sponsor.”
“Wait, your mom was a drunk? I thought she was a whore.”
“No, that was my dad.”
GT: Wait, why is Fidel Clambake asking about a deceased donkey?
Pluggers: I’m assuming most of his superficial injuries come from the fact that he’s a dog who can only scratch his itches with his back claws.
@treetown: The Japanese navy up through World War II?
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Yes, I can see that, although the cap is more of a Imperial Navy from Star Wars as opposed to the Rising Sun.
@Myrtle: Or she’ll try one of the business Who’s Who listing since Bats works for MegaCorp, right…:)
“Hank”, Neddy’s current buddy in Judge Parker, is actually Gil Thorp’s Coach Kaz!
You’re a Plugger if the specifics of your life are vague and vanishing, only pain really exists. Pluggers would love Buddhism, but unfortunately it’s too ‘Oriental’ for them
@treetown: Naming your business MegaCorp has the same vibe as naming your grocery store FoodPlace which should have been the first red flag.
“Why was Clambake in AA for lying about the Negro League?”
“He wasn’t, the writer was, for thinking this was a good idea for a storyline”
“I don’t get it, he was in Alcoholic Anonymous for lying about being in the Negro League?”
“No, for his tendency to make up shit he was in AA, i.e. Asspullers Anonymous”
“Oh, that’s Clambake. He’s actually Joe Stalin in blackface, which is why he got cancelled and couldn’t come to the games anymore. I hear he’s in Dictators Anonymous now. How do I know? My mom, Eva Peron, is his sponsor.”
A morgue break-in can be very creepy, but not as much as a morgue break-out!
Gil Thorp-“Clambake was a porn star in the Seventies which is where he got his nickname.”
Gil Thorp-“And then there was the time he killed fifty men.”
@Voshkod: “I can excuse gulags, but I draw a line at blackface”
@Ettorre: Pretty sure they’re OK with gulags in Gil’s home town; they even run a sport-themed one for the youths.
I’m tired of Pluggers, not because of its tired content, but because its tired content reminds me frequently, that I am the Uberplugger. And that I’m tired.
Nice to see that Clambake has sobered up and has stopped lying about playing in the Negro leagues and is nicely settling into his new identity as a former Central American military dictator.
Milford time is stopping for everyone now, not just the adults. Peanut is on her 8th or so sport. After hitting .751 in softball last year, she decided that scholarships weren’t for her, and is playing soccer, after volleyball, track, swimming, wrestling, basketball, Quidditch and maybe something else. Next year, UFC! Rodney, after trying to go pro in basketball, went back to high school and is now not even mentioning the possibility of graduating.
It’s too confusing. Maybe the latest adventures of the USS Callister will clear it all up.
Phantom: Well, dahlings, I’m back in the Mountain City again – reprising my role of Savarna’s getaway Horse. They were planning at first to just use archival
hoofagefootage, but decided to add some more scenes of Savarna on the run. So I had to miss the Kentucky Derby to get here… but just as well. All that rain would have ruined my chapeau.You may recall I also starred here as Jampa’s Horse way back when. Savarna as a rider is somewhat an improvement – she smells better, but not by a lot. But after appearing in Medieval Times with Prince Valiant, I’ve learned to use scented balms for my nostrils. A new Mane ‘n Tail product available soon from the Melody Signature line!
@LTJpezcore1: re MW comment.
I just saw Mary as Scatman Crothers in “The Shining”
Or was it Groundskeeper Willie in “The Shinning”?
Finally, some good news from Pluggers! If it bleeds we can kill it!
@UncleJeff: I’m hoping it was Groundskeeper Willie, because if not, that probably makes Wilbur = Jack, and if that’s the case he’s typing, instead of his advice column “All work and no play makes Wilbur horny” (horny pronounced hor-nay for rhyming purposes, obviously)
Over and over and over….
The first rule of Plugger Fight Club is you do not remember Plugger Fight Club.
GT: Didn’t know Clambake was into Joe Stalin cosplay, but if I were a Mudlark, I’d watch my back. There might be a purge in the team’s future.
@Liam: GT: “And then there was the time he killed fifty men.”
“WITH A PENCIL!”
GIl Thorp-Wait a minute. That’s not Clambake. That’s Fidel Castro in disguise.
Gil Thorp: Why is Clambake drawn to look like the military dictator of a small South American country?
OMG Clambake is back! And instead of telling stories about the Negro leagues, he’s pretending he fought the Kuomintang and co-wrote half the Little Red Book! Oh Clambake, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you.
@wesccov: “9CL: We often ask this, but just where is Amos that his situation can unfold? The school maybe? The nuns would be all over a preteen boy locking himself in a bathroom.”
He’s in a vast empty void with a green door in the middle of it. What’s behind the green door? Amos is still too young to be exposed to that answer.
Brooke continually overestimates the amount of affection for and interest in “Amos” among his readers. He’s designed the character to be a complete simpering nonentity, and then made him into a primary character.
We’re also well into the phase where any character can be any age on any given day without warning or continuity with the day before. Plots appear and vanish without warning. Alistair devolves to a toddler one day and is playing concerts the next. It’s an amazing insight into the mind of a senile old man.
@UncleJeff: If it’s Willie, maybe we can get a scene where Mary gets an axe in her back. Repeatedly.
Plugger commentary : Is there a grammar rule or exception that states question marks are not required sometimes when sentences clearly appear to be asking something? Asking for my own knowledge and quite seriously.
@Nobody:
If it’s a rhetorical question, it need not have a question mark. If it’s a genuine interrogative, it should have one.
@Nobody: Sometimes it’s fun to play with punctuation in a nonstandard way in order to convey a particular tone!
@Bob Tice: From yesterday: I discovered The Skids “backwards”, like most Americans who are into them. Big Country also made me a Dunfermline fan.
@Josh: Thank you for this as well not concluding I was being a jerk.
Pluggers – I’m so used to seeing couples like Earl Houndstooth and Henrietta Beak, or Andy Bear and Sheila Roo that I am rather shocked to see this peculiar case of canine endogamy! They even seem to be the same breed!
I’m in my late 30s and this actually happens to me on at least a weekly basis. Coworkers often approach me and point out I’m bleeding.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Huh, not Eliquis?
@Zachary N Thomason: I think you need to speak to your range safety officer, and stay on the right side of the firing line.
DT: All good things must come to an end. And, coincidentally, so must Dick Tracy storylines. Either Costello has finally exhausted all his bullshit reasons why the cops didn’t bring in the nephews weeks ago, or Curtis has let him know his time in the big chair is ending for now. Since we’ve skipped actually hearing Morgue Attendent Nephew’s testimony, which may have provided an explanation as to why they felt it necessary to steal the body, I assume we’re not going to get one. It’s unlikely an explanation for how the wallet ended up in the church poorbox is going to show up at this point either. I think everything else has been explained, it’s just that not all the explanations have made any sense.
GT: I notice Clambake’s moustache has changed from white to black since we last saw him, as part of his general South American dictator vibe. Either he does age normally and is sensitive about it, or he’s actually aging backwards!
JP: That’s okay, Soph, neither’s anyone else in your family, and it seems to work for them.
OTF: Goodness, we’re getting into a continuity mess already; I’m pretty sure this didn’t happen in the Safe Havens story, where Fastrack’s name was all over the Mars mission from the start.
Zits: Once again, Komix Kondom’s frame-at-a-time system screwed up and I had to go to the “buy a print” page to see the punchline. (Still, at least the strip’s there at all, which is more than I can say for some others.) If I’d been warned it was body-horror, I wouldn’t have bothered.
Pluggers: Surely Ron of Birchwood, Minnesota would know the proper punchline to his joke came from former MN Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura: “I ain’t got time to bleed”.
Pluggers: The increasing incidence of stigmata among the Plugger faithful combined with the known sedevacantism of that community can only bode well for the chances of Cardnial Erdo, for sometimes the Lord moves.
@Melody Mare, flashing back:
Melody, sweetheart! You’re killing it, doll! You’ve never been better! Stay in touch! Best to Hero!
@richardf8:
Huh, not Eliquis?
Pluggers always know what other Pluggers mean when they mention the name of even the most obscure drugs.
@Horace Broon: Flash Gordon continues to be MIA, so I figure Flash and Bok are squished at the bottom of the abyss, Dale is suffering a Fate Worse Than Death, and Dr. Zarkov is slowly being lowered into boiling oil by Queen Azura while General Tal gets the Jiffy-Pop ready.
Ho hum, wonder what the Margave will be up to tomorrow? Polishing his greaves, shopping for groceries, a trip to the barber?
Pluggers. That’s quite the medical drama today. All they need a reference to roots country (which can’t be far off) and Pluggers has rendered Rex Morgan MD completely …well, RMMD is already obsolete. Let’s just say superfluous.
Bob Tice Reply@Nobody: If it’s a rhetorical question, it need not have a question mark. If it’s a genuine interrogative, it should have one.
Josh Reply@Nobody: Sometimes it’s fun to play with punctuation in a nonstandard way in order to convey a particular tone!
***I fancy myself a grammar geek, but I have put the question mark at the end of rhetorical questions, which I’m sad to say probably makes me more of a plugger than a grammar geek. However – rhetorical or whatever it is – I avoid the question mark with a cogent observations such as, “What the fuck.” Or maybe I don’t. I can’t remember. I’m a plugger.
@Zachary N Thomason: I’m in my late 30s and this actually happens to me on at least a weekly basis. Coworkers often approach me and point out I’m bleeding.
Me, too.
What an awful way to find out that I’m a Plugger.
H the H: At last! “Hagar the Horrible” has finally narrowed its time-frame to the years 871-878, between Alfred the Great’s coronation and his truce with the Vikings. What makes this particularly significant is that Christianity was not really a thing in Norway until the 10th century, making Hagar’s marriage to a prim bead-rattler a social liability for him, and a probable cause of extreme alienation. No wonder he’s horrible!
Having random minor cuts and bruises doesn’t mean you’re old, it just means you own a cat or dog.
I suppose I’m a coastal elitist because I live in the largest city in a coastal state, but I can testify that getting cuts, scrapes and bruises for no apparent reason is not a symptom of Pluggerdom but merely of being old.
@Ukulele Ike: You can see today’s Flash as well as the missing final panel of Zits at the comics section of USA Today.
Frazz – Mrs. Olsen is involved, so Frazz is smug about a song from 1952. (I looked it up.)
The kid interpreted “how much” as how often, but the song refers to how much it costs. I’m having a hard time with the kid’s understanding, but it would be a miracle if she ever heard the song.
Apparently Mrs. Olsen is a generation younger than me.
Ripley’s – The dairy farms around Rex Morgan’s town have a real problem, since the only music available is roots country.
Pluggers – Pluggers on blood thinners have patches of bleeding under the skin, and when asked about it, they jokingly blame it on domestic violence. “She beat me up. Har har har.”
Pluggers: Can’t remember your cuts and owies because you didn’t feel them? Could this be pluggers have leprosy # 1?
@Melody Mare, flashing back: #79: Melody, at least this time Savarna isn’t riding you pantless and barebacked. You’ve got a saddle between you and her hoo-haw.
BTW: If they did use archival footage from Mozz’s last prophesy wouldn’t you still get a royalty check? I hope Sid made sure of that in your contract.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: #63:
@treetown: #64:
It does look like a WW2 Japanese officers cap. Imperial Japanese Army would sport a gold star while the Imperial Marines would sport an anchor.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
Right on, Scratchy. Also, it drives me nuts when I see a question mark after a statement like “I wonder who called me.” That is not a question; it is a declarative sentence.
[goes back to wondering why he’s bleeding]
@gnome de blog: I can also testify to that as a senior resident of Greater Cowplop, Iowa.
@Melody Mare, flashing back: As one of your many devoted fans, I congratulate you on your latest role, and THE PHANTOM is fortunate to have you again. And as much as some of us would really love to see you adding class to PRINCE VALIANT once more, the new PV storyline seems to be getting off to kind of a chaotic drunken start, so maybe it’s just as well that you are not involved. Best wishes, and may all go well!
Star Wars Day, Wilburp Weston Edition — Mayo the cinco be with you.
@I speak Jive: Thanks for the blood-thinner reminder. I’m not on one (yet), but a friend who is, and who owns a few cats, told me that getting accidentally hooked by a claw is more scarlet and dramatic than it used to be.
Gil and Clambake gaze out at the setting suns of Tatooine, secure in the knowledge that the Jedis have really let themselves go. And will lose in the playdowns.
@Arabella: Thanks, Arabella! Glad it’s getting such a wide circulation.
FG: Lake of Fire? Air thick and hot? No wonder Azura has to walk around half naked. Hope Castle Syk has good air conditioning.
@Cleveland Mocks: Oh, you are TOO KIND! And as for Hero – pffft – he’s a smug, self-centered poser who thinks he’s God’s gift to Mares. Just wait til Heloise gets the Phantom 22 gig and I’M the Lead Horse!
@Guillermo el chiclero: Well, I still have to disinfect the saddle. Yes, Sid makes sure we all get our royalties from use of our archived images. You know that group shot from years back that CK uses as a header for Judge Parker? I get a payment every day from that!
@Poteet: So good to hear from you too! I had high hopes for this Prince Valiant cruise to sunny Italy! They plan to use local Equine talent there and I’m going along to do their choreography. But now this delay for a convoluted, drunken tall tale about places we can’t pronounce and names we don’t need to remember! My new cruise-wear may go out of style before we ever set sail! Alla prossima!
GT – Maybe I’m just not hip to the code, but I’ve no idea what expletive is represented in the second quote of panel 2 or what it’s supposed to mean. Dead sex? Dead tit? Dead cum? Dead ass?
DT – I see not withstanding the long list of Apple products – IPHONES, Apple Watches, Fitbits and the like, Dick still relies on the miracle of radio waves and vacuum tube valve technology. That’s dedication….
Pluggers – Coughing up blood is also not uncommon….
Adios Amigos, DJ.