Sunday is for old people
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Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/28/25
Well, I guess Truck’s not-son Cody did in fact come out ahead of beloved (?) tween neo-vaudeville novelty act “Shorty and the Beanpole,” because not only did he score an invite to Truck’s wedding but he was also allowed and/or required to perform. Obviously he was only paid in “exposure” and “the chance that he might feel the slightest amount of paternal affection for once in his life,” but now it’s all worked out … for him, anyway. Too bad about his band, but the lucrative world of younger people doing covers of country classics doesn’t have room for anything more than the one guy and one guitar that the nostalgics crave.
Mary Worth, 9/28/25
It’s only appropriate that in Mary Worth, interspecies psychic communication takes the form of a human projecting their own floating head into an animal’s mind, though I have to say that Greta and Max’s expressions look less like “We are receiving a message from our friend” and more like Olive has simply overridden their consciousness and will take control of their zombie-like bodies, for rescue purposes. Funnier to me, though, is Mary fretting “what if they forgot about us?” Like, as I age, I definitely have learned more and more that the people “in charge” in any given situation are just folks like me and often have things less in hand than I assumed all adults did as a kid, but I do sincerely believe that the people running a hot air balloon festival would in fact notice if one or more of the balloons went missing. Surely somebody involved has, like, a clipboard, right? A clipboard with a list of balloons on it?
Pickles, 9/28/25
It’s true, Grandpa Pickles walking into an oil change place and thinking it’s his optometrist’s office, which is almost certainly in an entirely different location, is not necessarily a sign that his vision is failing. He should probably take a comprehensive cognitive functions test, however.
Crankshaft, 9/28/25
This one … this one seems even more serious, to be honest. But Crankshaft is pretty sanguine about it. Let’s just take all these pills at random times and let the miracle of the human body take its course. See what happens. He’ll be behind the wheel of a schoolbus full of children when it all goes down, by the way.
208 replies to “Sunday is for old people”
Mary Worth Mashups: For your consideration, a few options for final panel. Do any of them seem either realistic or craveworthy?
Popeye: I love the throwaway panel and the final panel.
Slylock Fox-Looks like they haven’t elected a new pope yet.
MW-Oh, Mary, I’m sure the balloon organizers won’t want to incur your wrath by forgetting about you.
MW:
I don’t want to say that he’s a chowderhead, but this “Stanley” would never have had the wherewithal to hook up with Dr. Livingston.
RMMD, final panel: Mean Gene Okerlund is having none of it!
Pickles:
“I’m here for a ‘Quicky’ !”
THWACK
“What’s that, boys? Mary and that weird kid fell down in a forest in a balloon? Meh, screw them. Now what have you heard about Timmy?”
Pickles: The whole point of a “Quicky Lube” is that you drive up into an auto bay and they change your oil. You don’t make an appointment, park, then walk into a giant room with a tiny desk in the middle and ask about it. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure this guy can’t see because his glasses are covered with dirty motor oil, so maybe he’s in the right place after all.
Mary Worth: Look, gang, maybe you should be asking multimillionaire jewelry-store owner Kendra Scott for help, instead of a couple of dogs. I mean, they’re nice dogs, but she’s a lot more likely to have a helicopter at her disposal. And she just offered to help — for all we know, taking time off to rescue hot-air balloon enthusiasts from the sides of cliffs is written into her “Shark Tank” contract.
Mark Trail / Mary Worth: Meanwhile, Mark says: Watch out for the brown recluse spider! And speaking of tiny recluses, are they really expecting Saul to help? I’m almost certain he doesn’t have a helicopter!
MW:
“Allo? Passy vingt-deux-quinze? Qui est a l’appareil?”
“Stanley! — this is no time to be practicing ALM French with your dead cellphone!”
RMMD — Wait–I missed Shorty and the Beanpole? Someone else get married, quick!
MW — I confess I didn’t know who Kendra Scott was, but now I’m tempted to suggest that the quote should read, “Don’t be afraid to get a new husband.” Not really as germane to a teenager, a suspender–wearing balloonovator, and the spawn of Yog-Sothoth being stranded in a tree, I suppose.
Pickles: The optometrist office was located there twenty years ago which isn’t so bad. It’s when Earl goes to buy a pint at the liquor store which is now a daycare that gets the police involved.
RMMD: What is that hand gesture in the last panel? It’s like Mr Moustache is trying to prove to Cody that he’s got his DTs under control.
MW: Boy, it’s true what Kendra Scott, /switches tabs/ “executive chairwoman, designer, and former chief executive officer of Kendra Scott, LLC”, says: it’s ok to ask for help! Even if it involves using psychic power to control animals! I’m not totally sure that’s what Ms Scott had in mind when she (probably?) said those words, but her wikipedia page isn’t detailed enough to give her views on the paranormal, so I can’t exclude it.
Cshft: What Ed means is that he’ll likely die soon — regardless of his medication regimen — and none of this will matter.
RMMD:
“Folks, I’d like to dedicate this last song to all the mean-spirited commenters on our strip here, channelin’ a tune written by none other than that titan of a man, Mr. Hank Williams. Ahem.
“Your fleetin’ snark will make you creep
You’ll pry and pry, and try to bleep
But bleeps won’t come the whole write through
Your fleetin’ snark will dwell on you
“When sneers come down like fallin’ rain
You’ll boss around and gall my name
You’ll talk some more the way I spew
Your fleetin’ snark will dwell on you
[instrumental break]
“Your fleetin’ snark will whine some day
And crave the stuff you blew away
The time will come when you’ll be through
Your fleetin’ snark will dwell on you
“When sneers come down like fallin’ rain
You’ll boss around and gall my name
You’ll talk some more the way I spew
Your fleetin’ snark will dwell on you”
RMMD: Wow, the bride finally spoke. I guess it’s allowed in the circumstances, since she was praising her husband.
MW:
Max and Greta stare, steely-eyed, envious and in wonderment, at Francis James Barraud’s off-panel iconic painting “His Master’s Voice,” quizzing why they didn’t get the lucrative modeling gig that “Nipper” ended up securing.
RMMD:
“Why all the chicken scratch writing on the wall, Lou?”
“Well, I was looking at Zep’s album ‘Physical Graffiti,’ and I guess I just kinda got carried away with the conceit of the title!”
MW: Olive pauses the rescue long enough to take over Eve’s and Saul’s minds and have them squat walk around the dog park pecking and clucking like chickens. She is a kid, after all.
Pickles: They said it couldn’t be done, so congratulations to Pickles for finding a character who is more unsettling when seen in combination with the words “quicky” and “lube” than Dustin.
MW: I really hope that this is the point where everyone decides that MW has jumped the shark.
This strip’s plot lines have generally been about adult topics, like grief, various forms of dysfunctional relationships, and the like, and while they haven’t always been well-written they’ve at least been somewhat grounded in reality. Even Olive’s original “tummy brain” could be chalked up to some kind of hyperawareness of her surroundings.
This entire storyline, however, could have been yoinked straight from a low-budget “family” movie marketed at grandparents–a teenager who would rather hang out with a spinster than people her own age (and both looks and acts a few years younger than her supposed age) with the ability to mentally communicate with animals, an utterly contrived situation of mild peril, and old people who will be called upon to save the day, with dramatic tension being provided by whether or not they can understand what the animals are trying to tell them and if they can convince the authorities to go looking somewhere based on what is effectively mystical woo.
Now, what would be a fun twist would be if, while Eve and Saul were on their way to retrieve the trio, a search party sent out after someone noticed a missing balloon found them using mundane means, and Olive’s psychic summoning only meant that the dogs were available to provide emotional support once they got back to the festival grounds, but I don’t think Moy is going to subvert our expectations that way.
MW: I guess Olive could’ve made a worse mind meld choice; like Wilbur, who is likely slumped on the couch in a carb coma.
RMMD: Lou is breaking up the band? Tsk.
Phantom:
So Phantom is steering the old, stricken plane
He hopes that his efforts will not be in vain
This dual adventure is taking its toll —
He’d rather be earthbound with Jungle Patrol
The way this strip works, there are two tales to tweak —
The Sunday release, and the rest of the week
But each of the plot lines gives him the lead role
‘Cause both are connected to Jungle Patrol
Suppose that his plane landed right on her bike
Patrolwoman Han would say, “Go take a hike!”
While such a conclusion might not meet her goal,
We’d synthesize stories of Jungle Patrol
MW: It’s official: Mary Worth has jumped the shark. And yes, I’m saying this about Olive telepathically calling dogs to rescue them as opposed to Slenderwilbur or Wilburman or Wilbur surviving a fall off a cruise ship or any other nonsense this strip has pulled.
We know Olive can communicate with humans telepathically. She did it with Mary when she was drowning in a pool. But sure, a wiener dog is going to save them. Why, it’ll only take three weeks for her tiny little legs to get there. At least they’ll have a proper burial.
Moy has devolved into doing absolute nonsense for clicks and yet somehow it’s still so boring. It’s kind of an achievement, really.
MW I’d predicted “Max and Greta are essential to the rescue because they have Olive’s scent” and it’s somehow even stupider??!. And the writing… “what if they forgot us” – just mentioning that doesn’t make it OK to ignore that the freaking Balloon Festival would have someone with a clipboard, permits, checklists! Forget whether Moy has met an actual teen in the last decade or so, has she interacted with *anybody*? Gone to *any* human gathering??
It’s Sunday and time for JUNGLE JIM!
And this week there’s a bonus!
You;d think they would notice something like this when it was photocopied.
@Baja Gaijin: The flaming skeleton always gets my vote!
@Lauralot: The ‘telepathy’ in the old storyline was strongly connected with the whole “tummy brain” and “kindred spirits” and yeah, I agree *that* didn’t jump the shark because it didn’t turn the strip into the Psychic Adventures of Mary and Friend – plus you could speculate that Mary was subconsciously interpreting a distant splash sound. This storyline is continually rewriting the rules of the game of what the strip *is*, in order to present … a pretty boring geriatric fantasy?
H&L Because, you sweet summer child, you are the last teen in your school to _not_ figure out that they can slack all their assignments with CourseHero, ChatGPT and the like _plus_ it’s easier to learn to subvert online proctoring of tests than to actually, y’know, learn the *coursework*. So they’re at least getting you in-person for some of the assessments.
PICKLES: It turns out that Earl was just trying to psyche himself up for trying this new “massage parlor” he heard about and had a cover story on hand in case he chickened out
FC: The Keanes live next door to probably the most dangerous spot to raise children and toddlers on earth. Maybe that’s the idea.
Thel greets Billy at the back door; “You’re back??”
@Liam: Re: Mary Worth: Meanwhile, Mary keeps desperately chanting, “Rain keeps failing, rain keeps failing down, down down down.” to no avail.
Honestly laughed out loud at first two strips I read:
ZITS: yeah, while drones and satellite cams have destroyed backyard sunbathing in the buff, it has helped with civilian sleuthing.
CS: only wish the last frame had been of his toilet.
BETTY: Order the strongest option and add two ice cubes.
@Baja Gaijin: the roast meat, of course.
MW:
“Ladies, since I’m clearly no good whatsoever for anything else, let me see if I can break the tension here with a thematically-familiar humorous riddle — ‘What would a nondyslexic polytheist say if given a speaking role in this strip?’ ”
“We give up, Stanley.”
“Gods are great!”
MW: whenever I think MW has reached apex stupid I’m proven wrong but it can’t get stupider than this, can it? I’m still hoping Olive the Special summons a Bigfoot.
MW: Here’s where we discover that, while Olive can communicate telepathically, she can’t do it with precision. As Olive channels Max and Greta, she also inadvertently arouses the snarling dog encountered in Central Park and the window air conditioning unit. It’s a race between the dogs and the window air conditioning unit! And the dogs are running…but high above the forest is a cargo plane full of discarded appliances, and the door suddenly pops opens and the air conditioner falls out! The air conditioner is falling…the dogs are running and–no, wait! The dogs are stopping to sniff at the tree trunks in the forest! The air conditioner is descending…the dogs have started running again…it’s going to be CLOSE!!
C’shaft: When my grandmother could no longer keep track of her medications, it was the sign that her cognitive faculties had deteriorated to the point where she was no longer safe even living with one of her children and needed to go into assisted living. Ed Crankshaft’s progeny can do with that information what they like. (Just kidding, we all know they’ll keep letting him wander around being a danger to himself and others.)
MW: Oh believe me, Mary, if the organizers of Santa Royal Balloonfest ’25 don’t come for you, it will not be because they forgot. It will be because they recognize Stanley’s incompetence is a liability they can no longer afford, and they’re just letting nature take its course. The investigation will conclude they had no liability, as every other operator reacted appropriately to the changing weather conditions but Stanley didn’t even have a radio onboard for you to communicate the information. You and Olive will be collateral damage–unfortunate, but you two didn’t make any friends for yourselves with your “super-special wonder teen and her wise all-knowing mentor” act, and you did sign a waiver.
RMMD: Ah yes, the old story of the charismatic front man* being tempted to leave behind his loyal friends** for a shot at fame and fourtune.***
* nondescript Rex Morgan secondary character
** some guys who have not been given backstories or even names as far as I can recall
*** being a cover act in a dive bar
@CanuckDownSouth: I’m starting to wonder if Karen Moy has gone the Jules Rivera route and is trying to lean in to the reputation her strip has developed. If so, it’s going about as well here as it is in Mark Trail.
@Tom: @Lauralot: Come one now. It’s ridiculous to say that Mary Worth has now “jumped the shark” with this story. For your information, Mary Worth had already “jumped the shark”…and failed…and gotten eaten viciously by the shark…and then got vomited up by the shark because the unpleasant taste gave him indigestion or something, leaving it’s carcass floating around the sea (which explains how Wilbur survived!)
I’m just saying, that, people, this isn’t even the first implausible dog rescue we’ve gotten in the strip. So, yeah, go whole hog in this story at this point. I mean even if Olive unlocks Max and Greta’s “hidden potential” and the canines start flying everyone to safety like their Krypto from the Superman comics (which would be the only way these mutts would be able to do anything once the ballooning trio is found) it wouldn’t upset the precious balance of realism that Mary Worth drunkenly tumbled over a long time ago.
BF: adds to Josh’s theme. Sometimes it’s more fun to guilt trip yunguns anyway.
FG: is dad Vultan a good guy or is she now in danger?
FRAZZ: a while back there was a movement to start high schools later due to teen biorhythms. Did it just drop like a leaf?
JUMP START: Another LOL surprise.
MW: Oh for crying out loud, you don’t need psychic dogs to help you! The ‘freak wind storm” seems to have gone away and it’s now clear blue skies around. Just fire up the burner and lift that balloon back into the air, then set down properly on the ground nearby. Or better yet, your support crew in the chase vehicle should have arrived by now. They’re standing at the bottom of the tree and have been yelling up at you for the past ten minutes. Just look down.
Are there people, anywhere, who read Mary Worth and are legitimately fond of it? Not hate-reading or anything like that? When the plots were just nonsensical but hinged on Mary The Meddler, I could see it. People in her demographic relating to her, that sort of thing. But what real-world grandmother is going to find compelling a story involving a ridiculous kid with a random and ever changing grab-bag of magical abilities who looks like a 14 year old but seems to have the personality of a 9 or 10 year old, plus a contrived danger, plus an even more contrived solution, where Mary comes across as a rather icky groomer and so far has shown little or no agency in resolving the “crisis”?
The only non-hate-read target audience at this point would have to be people having the cognitive challenges expressed in the other strips today.
MW – Mary, don’t make a fuss. You do not want to irritate that sinister, shadowy cabal known only as The Balloon Organizers. If you cross them, they’ll… “organize your balloon” for you, capisce?
@But What Do I Know?:
The anagram of “Kendra Scott” is “Tracked Snot.”
Coincidence? I think not.
@Bob Tice:
#21. PHANTOM: You nailed to t, the crossover we need with MW! The burning plan lands on a palm tree next to the baloon…. Nope, maybe both strips would then end .
9CL: it says something about Brooke that he can combine French kissing and a dog and consider it a joke.
@BigTed: Maybe “Quicky Lube” is a sex club?
@Dmsilev: I believe that Moy personally writes for the hate readers.
@Activist:
I reached out to Uncle Lumpy via the email address which he publishes when he takes over during Josh hiatuses (hiati?) — and Uncle Lumpy graciously gave his blessing to my imitating (albeit in a pale way) the conceit that he so brilliantly invented and continues to promote. The antiMuses were singing for me this morning, so I just had to write something Jungle Patrol-ish — and they were for you, too: I absolutely love your idea of melding the two strips and having them simultaneously implode (you know, kind of like the climactic scene of Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, where there are viscera flying everywhere.)
@TheDiva: Re: Mary Worth: Thank you! I know we’re supposed to be seduced by the stirring temptation of yelling at Olive, but honestly, this guy is like the worst balloon driver ever. Olive for all of her many faults, is an unskilled child, and the driver is supposed to be a fully licensed and professional balloonist. Yet here he is, running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, while everything he did prior is like the “DON’T” portion of an HR ballooning training video.
Re: Rex Morgan M.D.:
Now, now. In the Rexverse, that’s the equivalent of playing Madison Square Garden.
RMMD – Backstage, Truck crosses “my boy” and “my youngster” off his list of folksy euphemisms for a kid who’s not really his son. Still remaining: “chip off the old block,” “junior,” “cub,” “pup,” and “whelp.”
DT: Two days. Two days Tess and Roberta have been hanging out at this bed and breakfast maybe a half-hour outside of Neo-Chicago without anybody finding them despite the APB out for them. At this point they should just be able to elude the authorities by putting on some Groucho glasses.
Dustin: “Hey Brent, how did it go with table twelve? Did you do like I told you?”
“Yep–it was easy! Just suggested the fat bastard looked like he’d been working out, and the idiot left me twenty-five percent.”
“Twenty-five? That’s nothing! Suggest he should have the filet mignon with bernaise sauce next time–the wife will glare daggers at you, but he’ll drop thirty percent easy. Just whatever you do, don’t mention your’re a lit major; Hannah mentioned her acting work and he just scrawled a note on the receipt saying ‘Get a real job’.”
“Well, the jerk has been flirting with Hannah in front of his wife all night with no success; he just needed an excuse.”
JP: Sure, Charlotte distrusts her and Judge Parker is taking advantage of her, there’s no way those two things will get worse…
Don Abundio, translated:
“Isn’t the moon romantic?”
“Yeah”
“Except the real moon is in its last quarter right now”
“Smart aleck”
@Peanut Gallery: More like “spawn”.
RMMD: Branson, here we come!
Crankshaft: Yes, who cares if he takes two extra citalopram in lieu of the prescribed venlafaxine and lorazepam?
It does answer a lot of questions, however.
Lockhorns: Our millenial couple can hop on the hot new trend of not raking the leaves, given what they do for small wildlife and soil health. It covers up a lot of lazy.
Slylock Fox: The “subtle error” is the Banksy-level joke about Forestville Museum having a “valuable medieval painting”, as all their works first were exhibited in the lobby of that TraveLodge which had to be shut down after numerous daily drug and prostitution busts.
Luann: Frank’s complement was too subtle. Some women, Nancy, need to be told “I have no further interest in hearing about this subject, and your phone has many gal pals whom you can consult.”
H&L: Walker Amusement-Like Cut-n-Paste Industries is doing everything it can to make newspaper editors cut down the size of Sunday comic. Next week all the panels will add up to about a dozen words, and they can hang their Mission Accomplished banner.
Zits: Nothing like teens and their (grandparents) classic rock. This is the perfect accompaniment to the next strip’s gag about how kids be on their phones, streaming, and don’t listen to radio anymore.
MW: I’ve always wondered if hot-air balloons were registered and followed the airplane law of filing flight plans before takeoff. But I never rooted against it being a practice until now.
Arlo and Janis: As a guy who takes full advantage of my being a natural heat source, I enjoyed this one.
@Tom: The entire comics page jumped the shark with the words “It’s a magical world, old buddy, let’s go exploring!” Anything beyond that is picking nits.
RMMD: Aw, shucks. I was looking forward to the comedy styling of Beany and Shortpole. They the next Wheeler and Woolsey! Or Leopold and Loeb.
RMMD: is that The Thing from the Adams Family in the last panel?
MW:
“Hey, Max — something’s going on, pal.”
“But what, Greta? — I just can’t tell.”
“I’ll give you a gimme
She landed like ‘Timmy’ —
She fell, off a tree, in a well!”
If Cody thought that hell was having a half-brother not want anything to do with him, wait until he finds himself playing “Drop Kick Me, Jesus” to a crowd of twenty five drunk hipsters for the thousandth time.
***
Earl Pickles is just about ready for a presidential run.
***
This Mary Worth story will redeem itself if Bruce Springsteen’s drummer Max Weinberg and environmental activist Greta Thunberg show up to rescue our downed balloonists.
I’m kidding, of course. It’s impossible to redeem a Mary Worth story.
Mary Worth: Obviously, Olive’s pet psychic powers will save the day, and it’ll all work out for Mary, the kid, and the misplaced sea captain. That said, the best-case scenario I can imagine involves Max and Greta barking at the foot of the tree the balloon’s lodged in, maybe with their owners in tow.
In a realistic setting, this would probably work out better than Saul and Eve calling the cops and saying, “Our dogs are upset and want us to follow them!” But this is Santa Royale, so there’s no telling who a bored police officer will follow to a secluded location. Maybe he’s the kind of cop who never leaves home without a ladder, I don’t know.
MW: I believe Moy abandoned the true theme of the strip about ten years ago. Before then, the plots were basically built around young/younger people taking an old person seriously and/or a senior actually accomplishing something admirable (carrying the cake in the John Dill story, for example). Not sure why she abandoned that theme but since then it’s become more soap opera-ish, i. e. ridiculous.
Slylock – I thought the error was that medieval castles didn’t have coal-burning steam plants. Anyway, it warms my heart to see how much Max is enjoying Andy Warhol’s “Anvil” series.
According to the Wikipedia page, Judge Parker was originally a dashing figure who solved crimes and chased criminals. Well, he has since devolved into a bitter old coot in what should be his golden years. Really not too different from what they did to Indiana Jones.
Zits: Jeremy wearing Rolling Stones tee shirts and naming his cat “Clapton” are equivalent to me (as a teenager in the late 1970s) being really into Al Jolson and barbershop quartets. Although there was enough cheap, strong weed around in those days to make that a possibility.
SFx: Our vulpine sleuth wanders into the Surrealist Gallery next door and denounces This painting as another Koppy Kat forgery, ripping it from the wall. “It’s daytime at the top and night at the bottom! I’m just TOO CLEVER for you, scurrilous Kat!”
FC: Billy makes no pretense of actually reading the novel, whose protagonists don’t go anywhere near those areas (well, India and China, which are kinda on the way). He looked at the title and aimlessly flipped pages, slack-jawed and daydreaming.
Doonesbury: looks like Mark Slackmeyer has lost his job at NPR.
Rex Morgan: Beatty’s bizarre and borderline creepy obsession with roots country music naturally means that he despises all other music genres and lives in a delusional fantasy world where big-shot music producers regard such genres as worthless wastes of time. Imagine a producer walking up to someone like Billie Eilish and saying “you’re squandering yourself on this garbage, the real money is in roots country ballads performed for tiny crowds at bars and cruises” totally unironically.
(Disclaimer: For the sake of one’s own sanity, this should NOT be taken as me comparing Truck Junior to Billie Eilish.)
Mary Worth: “Huh, what’s that? A balloon went missing? Eh, its just the one with the creepy old lady and mutant kid on it. No biggie. We’ll just use it as a tax write-off.”
Crankshaft: Crankshaft truly could not care less whether he lives or dies, which is pretty bleak even for the Funkyverse.
Pearls before Swine – Dogs are good. Another nice one with Pig.
MW – The look on Olive’s face in the penultimate panel makes me thing she has her hand down her pants.
@Bob Tice:
#48. MW and PHANTOM:
For the two strips
There’s no vitriol
For if Phantom dies
So would Jungle Patrol
To me, Mary Worth jumped the shark when Wilbur fell of the ship and landed on Party Island.
I feel like it says not-great things about me that the mental image of Crankshaft having The Big One (heart attack or stroke, take your pick) while driving a bus full of children gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had in weeks.
@Ukulele Ike: Also, comparing Billy’s route to an actual map (which still makes no sense) The Grand Canyon is between the Swiss Alps and the African Forest, and China is in two separate locations on either side of the The South pacific.
…. Why am I even analyzing this garbage?
REX MORGAN M.D.: You know…after the implausibility of Mary Worth, it’s good to get down-to-earth realism like “all-star” musicians doing unpaid gig at dive bar weddings (geez, no wonder Lou’s so eager to sign this kid up…without the people who usually negotiates his contracts.)
REX MORGAN M.D. (2): BTW, Cody, this will do wonders for the accusation that you’re latching on to the false paternity of Truck so badly simply for shameless nepotism purposes. Just another display of the sound judgement you’ve made in this arc so far!
Crankshaft- In my experience, when your told to take medicine at night it’s generally specifically for sleeping, or at the least has drowsiness as a side effect.
Not problem on a Sunday, but I get the impression that this isn’t the first time this has happened. So Westview is due for a horrifying school bus crash when Ed falls asleep at the wheel.
MW: At this point, we know that there’s going to be a rescue in the most contrived way possible with Olive subtly taking credit for it. The only thing that Moy can surprise us with is if Stanley still has a job after showing how utterly incompetent he is.
@literarylottie: It means you’re one of us. And that’s a good thing.
DT: So, they have a all points bulletin out for this car for what reason? Wanted for questioning?
Phantom: credit the writers and artist. A quick search of a WW2 B-17 control panel shows the on board fire exstinguishers are located in front of the right hand pilot seat – just as it is shown here and the knobs are indeed red and of that design!
RMMD: Small indie band that has actual gigs and also a tiny solo career? Cody can do both – he can visit Truck and play at Lou’s every now and then and tour with his group. No drama.
MW: Mary Worth has for so many years undermined other people, made insinuations and otherwise side eyed them that she just can’t help it. Of course a whole balloon would be missed. But she just can’t help herself. Meanwhile Max and Greta are all in Redrum mode
@Peanut Gallery: I like how the narration says that Koppy purposely “Playfully” inserts inaccuracies into his forgeries. As if this is some weird game he plays with Slylock.
FC – That’s just what Bil said to Thel in bed last night. And Thel’s reaction was the same.
@astroboy: PARTY ISLAND!
Personally I think that Mary Worth jumped the shark when Wilbur didn’t jump off Kelrast Kurve because he didn’t want to replace Dawn’s shower radio that he broke. Instead of following the advice from The Simpsons, Mary lies that Wilbur’s life is worth living and now we’re here.
CRANKSHAFT: Yeah sure Crankshaft. That’s what you said when you put your laxatives into the “Viagra” container (“It was a nightmare! I kept going instead of coming!”)
@treetown: Prick your forefinger and let three drops of blood fall on your keyboard. Then light three black candles and recite the Athanasian Creed in reverse.
This will again summon The Costellan Oracle, who will answer all your Dick Tracy queries.
Sourcing today’s Mary Worth quote to YOUR MOM. Because your mom has probably literally said this. (However, long before Kendra Scott was born, it appeared in the August 1918 issue of McCall’s, in a caption to an illustration by Mary Lane McMillan accompanying the story “The Paisley Shawl” by William Dudley Pelley; Pelley himself had written “don’t be afraid to ask him for help,” emphasis not in original.)
Anyway why don’t they just untangle the basket from the branches and take off again in the still fully inflated balloon? How has the balloon engine not already set fire to everything?
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver – Lou mentioned a “payin’ crowd,” but he didn’t mention payin’ Cuck and Cody. Even worse than doing a freebie, is Lou’s like the equivalent of vanity publishers that authors pay to have them publish their books. Will the dismal duo have to pay Lou to play for free? I hope so.
Today’s Mary Worth as imagined by @35 Charterstoned.
@38 2+2=7: See above.
@Needless Exposition: That wouldn’t have worked. If we learned anything from the other times Wilbur almost died (plus the storyline where Zak almost died), there would have been a giant trampoline waiting for him at the bottom in any case. The Simpson’s mention is very apropos, since gods of ironic entertainment knows it has to protect
Wilbur WestonHomer SimpsonPeter Griffinwhoever the “cartoonishly bufoonish dad” of this generation is supposed to be now.@Ukulele Ike: “equivalent to me (as a teenager in the late 1970s) being really into Al Jolson and barbershop quartets.”
Or the 1920s hit singer Cliff Edwards aka Ukulele Ike.
@CanuckDownSouth: Lois should not need to tell Chip that he goes to school in person to hook up with his eighty-five different girlfriends. And Chip doesn’t need to be told to ChatGPT everything, because he already did that with the one girlfriend who, mysteriously, came back for a return visit.
@2+2=7: If anything, I cite that story as an example of how Ask Wendy went from “Wilbur’s going to kill himself if he doesn’t write his advice column” to “Does Wilbur still write that advice column or does it cut into his four months of vacation time?”
@ValdVin: I must defend my beloved HI & Lois (yeah that’s a phrase I just wrote) against the cut-n-paste accusations. Lois’s sweater wrinkles and boobs subtly shift from panel to panel.
@matt w: Well, THAT one’s a given. He was the Cat’s Pyjamas.
MARY WORTH: Kendra Scott is right, Mary! Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because girl you need it! Those earrings are atrocious! Something with some sparkle would do your lobes some good. And chain link necklaces are very in right now, if you want to be stranded with style!
I don’t care what y’all say. This is why Mary Worth will never “jump the shark” for me! Who else would be so bold, so inspired to include a jewelry designer’s nondescript commentary to punctuate a ballooning rescue, something that would be totally relevant and relatable to the events pictured (I know I’m ready to seek Michael Kors’ advice the next time I’m in a car accident.)
Mary Worth – Someone needs to complain to balloon festival management that no one has bothered to account for a balloon that didn’t return from its flight.
Some time ago there was an incident where a couple went on a diving excursion and the boat returned to shore without them. It ended horribly. (The incident was depicted in the movie Open Water.) This MW story is the incredibly stupid version, and now Moy has doubled down on the stupidity to bring the dogs to the rescue. I don’t know how much more of this stupid insanity I can take.
Arlo & Janis – I can relate, Janis.
@Baja Gaijin: Mashups – My favorite is the skeleton. I also love Mary’s eyes in the last one.
RMMD: With the words “groom” and “youngster” in bold and so close to each other I thought for a moment I was actually reading “Mary Worth.”
@Baja Gaijin: I like the first one because not only is ham a better thought than Olive but it’s also much more delicious. Narcissistic teenagers tend to be stringy and cause digestive issues.
DT: Okay, I think I’ve been getting confused about the chronology here. When Tess said they needed to take the gun to show Diet Smith, but it was safe because “the gel is depowered right now”, I assumed right now was when they were going to the meeting. The next time we saw them they were getting into the car, so that tracked, and I was a bit confused by the B&B stuff, but thought maybe they were meeting him off-site at some kind of test lab. But no; they needed two days to do something else outside the city with the lab notebooks, which doubtless will be explained in due course.
OTF: It actually kind of tracks that Dethany turns out to live in the house where a man named Mr Boddy was murdered.
MW: I suspect I’ve done more research on hot air balloons confirming to my own satisfaction that literally none of this makes any sense than Moy and Brigman have even considered doing. The balloon maintaining its shape with the burner off is really the cherry on “we don’t know how hot air balloons work, and we don’t care.”
SFx: Some years ago I read a Superman comic with a take on long-time villain the Prankster, in which he made his living by being hired by criminals to stage elaborate pranks that were just dangerous enough Superman had to get involved, while said criminals were, of course, comitting a crime elsewhere. This is the only rationale I can think of for the claim that Koppy Kat includes errors in his forgeries on purpose, rather than just being a bad forger. While Slylock smugly points out the solution, Shady Shrew is stealing all the sodas in the trailer park!
@Lauralot: #22
@Tom: #19
Best summations/eulogies for this strip I’ve ever read. I could not agree more.
Breakfast sweet treat special :3
@Baja Gaijin: Awesome!
RMMD: Someone should have told the emcee not to put the words “groom” and “youngster” anywhere near each other.
MW: One thing I know for sure: if they have to resort to eating each other to stay alive out here, Mary is willing to do it. She may even be looking forward to it. Right now, she’s sizing up her fellow balloonists and thinking up ways to make their flesh more palatable.
Pickles: “What’s your name?”
“Earl Pickles. You know, from the comic strip Pickles!”
*blank stare*
‘shaft: It’s an ominous sign that, in the final panel, Ed is seen walking into the blackest void I’ve ever encountered anywhere.
@Joe Blevins: -Ed falls down the basement stairs-
MW – This is bigger than when Timmy fell down the well….
@Joe Blevins: Mary greets the rescue team with some fresh pork pies.
@Ukulele Ike: I don’t even think that’s a real copy of Around the World in 80 Days. It’s got a balloon on the cover, which has become a standard of adaptions for some reason, but occurs nowhere in the actual book.
(A hot-air balloon would be a really bad option for a journey determined by pin-point precision and strict timetables — I think most versions present it as an act of desperation when the scheduled route is blocked somehow, and even acknowledge that it’s likely to push them further off-course, but in some it’s just Fogg saying “I believe that it’s possible to circumnavigate the globe in a fixed period of time, and part of my plan is drifting aimlessly for a while.” I don’t think there’s been a version daft enough that they get stuck in a tree and Passepartout has to telepathically summon a rescue dachshund, though.)
MW: Max and Greta somehow get Eve and Saul to go looking for Mary and Olive. They find the balloon by randomly driving around, but now they’re lost too, and out of gas and cell phone range. Saul told Wilbur they were looking for Mary, and he tries to phone them, but nobody answers. Before going out to look for them, he fortifies himself with a couple of rotisserie chickens served in sandwiches, and a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Then he rests his eyes for a moment, and the story resumes next Friday.
Blondie: Dagwood hasn’t visited the pet shop with the eternally for sale parrot in a long time. I am looking forward to seeing him bested by the parrot once again.
Wonder how much it cost the Sex Organ, V.D. people to have the corpse of William Conrad reanimated?
“I’m here for my eye exam, and i pulled my car into the garage on the jacks, just like one does for an eye exam.”
Sex Organ,V.D.: Lou’s no dummy, He got where he is by telling Pete Best”You don’t need those losers, I just want you!”
Lockhorns Props to Hoest & Reiner for not trying to use some dopey fictional version of “Ikea” (“Sweada”? “Iseeya”?) for the ball pit joke.
DT: What’s the deal with the Porter? That car brand hasn’t existed since the 1920s.
Olive’s incredible psychic powers let her know someone was drowning while she was looking at them, and now she is using them to call out to dogs and people who won’t know how to help while she is stuck in a flying conveyance. I guess the message is that magic is real but it also kind of sucks? I’m looking forward to seeing future examples, like how Olive can intuit that wolves surrounding her would-be rescuers are hungry or that the people at their funerals are kind of sad.
Pickles: “Sir, are you Shorty or the Beanpole? Ok, read the top letter on the chart.” “What chart?” “The one on the wall.”, ” What wall?” (Earl thinking)”The audience ain’t laughing, I better remember to tell Lou to hire a babe with bigger headlights for the next show!”
@Lord Flatulence: DT: What’s the deal with the Porter? That car brand hasn’t existed since the 1920s.
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A 1928 Porter? That’s my Momma, dear! She helps me through everything I do and I’m so glad she’s here!
Meanwhile Dick Tracy wonders, “If I shoot a car that’s haunted does that count as a.killing?
@99 The Rambling Otter: The Late Thread Cuisine has to be extra awful to counterbalance those tasty flapjacks.
@100 Charterstoned: You had a great idea. I had the artwork. Together we work!
@111 Lord Flatulence: Everyone from the Porter company has to be dead after 100 years. No one to sue for trademark infringement.
@Baja Gaijin: A big THANK YOU for the blazing skeleton!
MW: What possible good are two dogs and a pair of geriatric dog owners when you are stuck 40 feet up in a tree? Maybe it’s just me, but I’d contact a search and rescue team with a helicopter.
RMMD: Where is the CAKE!?!?!
9CL At least it’s not Edda yelling, “More tongue! More Tongue!”.
MW: Max & Greta wish they’d gone ahead & joined that poker game instead.
If I read this strip regularly I’d stop reading it out of disgust right now.
Dirk Twacy Hollistic Defective: “Thats the car they mentioned at role call, Muldoon! Radio for instructions!” “Oh! Oh!I’m trying,Tootie! But they keep asking where are we! By the way,who is Brezhnev and what is Idle wild?
Tonight on Dirk Twacy, the collision of old sitcoms continues…after ” My Mother the Car” meets “Car 54 Where Are You?” watch Frank Drebin and Sledge Hammer! make the bust! “Yes, it’s quite impressive, Ma’am, but thats not important right now, !”
Lockhorns, upper right panel – Are you kidding me? The one thing AI is really good for is to be a scapegoat. “Why is this order so monumentally screwed up?” “I dunno, it must be that stupid AI again.”
@Die Rosenkavalieren: Gaijin: A big THANK YOU for the blazing skeleton!
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But where are the Flaming Homers we ordered?
@Horace Broon: Maybe it’s a promotional picture book for the 1956 epic film. Michael Todd spent a fortune on that thing, so it wouldn’t be out pf the question for his marketing department. And yes, David Niven took a hot air balloon from England to the continent, which was nearly as stupid as routing through Spain so Cantinflas could do his “hilarious” comic bullfighter routine.
I recently watched the late 1980s teevee miniseries in which Fogg and Passepartout got stuck anachronistically in the 1871 Paris insurrection and anachronistically escaped to Italy in a dirigible, which at least makes sense because they could steer it. Eric Idle and Peter Ustinov made an excellent Passepartout/Detective Fixx, otherwise it was a pretty bad adaptation. I have no interest at all in the 2004 version, where the “big star attraction” was Steve Coogan.
@Peanut Gallery: Lockhorns, upper right panel
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Why does the woman Lorretta is boring/talking to have her elbow in her coffee(?)? Is she going to feed it to a sitcom baby?
@Horace Broon: Correct. Tess’s zap gun is depowered.
How emasculating. “It happens to everyone once in a while,” says Roberta, grinding her teeth in frustration.
Okay so I’m not a professional balloonist or anything, but it sure looks like you are not so much stuck in a tree as you are on top of a tree. have you tried going… up? Might be something to try while you wait for a couple of octogenarians to follow their dogs seemingly several miles into the middle of the woods?
Checking the CC Mary Worth Comment-o-meter: “Why don’t they fly the fuck off the tree” closing in fast on “Har, he looks just like Captain Kangaroo” and due to pass by Wednesday.
@127 Banana Sam: You’re talking about 3 people who barely have 3 brain cells among themselves to rub together. “Going up” in the balloon isn’t going to come to them naturally.
@Banana Jr. 6000: It definitely underwent a drop in quality when Calvin and Hobbes departed.
RMMD: be nice to people who helped you on way up because you’ll see them again on your way down. Check with band members before making any commitments, kid.
JP: a little empathy for Alan. His daughter’s in prison and he never visits her. His son and d-i-l are again disappeared, his reputation as a jurist is irrevocably tarnished, and he and trophy wife are stuck raising a kid. Plenty of reason for self-pity, if he just wants to get drunk.
OTOH, if he prefers getting his life together, plenty of room for that too.
@Ukulele Ike: I recently watched the late 1980s teevee miniseries in which Fogg and Passepartout
_____________________Was that the one with Remington Steele/James Bond in it?
@Banana Jr. 6000: The entire comics page jumped the shark with the words “It’s a magical world, old buddy, let’s go exploring!”
Not quite the entire page. Wallace the Brave‘s mom just yelled at him, “Don’t be careful…be CONFIDENT!”
Mary’s Worst: Olive’s parents become literal helicopter parents when they arrive in the chopper they won in the Pepsi™ contest that they keep on the roof of their penthouse apartment.
@134 GarrisonSkunk: Was that the Pepsi contest where the first prize went to the couple who could have the most orgasms with 30 minute? I can totally believe they’d win that contest.
@The Rambling Otter: That’s “Quicky” with a D.
@Banana Jr. 6000:
@Tom: The entire comics page jumped the shark with the words “It’s a magical world, old buddy, let’s go exploring!”
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Also when Linus said, “Mr Schulz is dead, Charlie Brown.”
@Baja Gaijin: 134 GarrisonSkunk: Was that the Pepsi contest where the first prize went to the couple who could have the most orgasms with 30 minute? I can totally believe they’d win that contest.
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Yep, thats the one, Pepsi™ got in trouble for trying to rig it with ringers Almost and Cheddar from “69 Weirdchick Lame”,who agreed not to hold them to giving them the jet they “won”. They are not only in The Mile High Club, they bought the company.
@Banana Sam:
Don’t be silly. That’s like expecting The Professor to come up with a way to fix the boat and they all just sail back to Hawaii..
@139 Anonymous: The difference is that The Professor was stuck on a small island with Ginger and Mary Ann. His only competition was a jovial boob and an idiot. What motivation did he have to leave the island? Stanley has an underaged delusional egotist and an aged delusional egotistical crone.
@The Rambling Otter: @BigTed: Maybe “Quicky Lube” is a sex club?
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Congratulations, Mr Otter! You found the hidden joke in “Pickles” and won $32,000! Now…will you risk it all and attempt to find the hidden joke in “Six Chix” for $64,000? And will you accept a check from Josh and Comics Curmudgeons Inc.?
@GarrisonSkunk: There are six errors in this post…a free case of Satisfaction™ to the first person who finds them!
GT: winning can hurt
PV: winning can be a loss
@Ukulele Ike: : “Why don’t they fly the fuck off the tree” closing in fast on “Har, he looks just like Captain Kangaroo”
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Good idea! Olive suddenly remembers she was the prehistoric super hero in a previous cartoon, and shouts, “CAPTAIN KANGAROO!”, her utility pouch appears, filled with all the things she needs to fight roo-based crime, as she transforms into the Mighty Marsupial! Her tail ” accidently” nudging Mary out of the tree. Olive leaps out of the tree and passes Mary on the way down. With a cartoonish °boing° sound effect she bounces back up just like real kangaroos don’t, and catches Mary in mid air, stuffing her into her hammer space pouch!
@Anonymous: @Ukulele Ike: : “Why don’t they fly the fuck off the tree” closing in fast on “Har, he looks just like Captain Kangaroo”
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Good idea! Olive suddenly remembers she was the prehistoric super hero in a previous cartoon, and shouts, “CAPTAIN KANGAROO!”, her utility pouch appears, filled with all the things she needs to fight roo-based crime, as she transforms into the Mighty Marsupial! Her tail ” accidently” nudging Mary out of the tree. Olive leaps out of the tree and passes Mary on the way down. With a cartoonish °boing° sound effect she bounces back up just like real kangaroos don’t, and catches Mary in mid air, stuffing her into her hammer space pouch!
Sorry,that was me,guess its my turn for the CC site makes you an un person blues.
How often is the Sunday Mary Worth just a repeat of the last couple of days’ worth of strips, plus one new panel ladled out grudgingly for the fans? Pretty often, I’m guessing.
Robert Palmer was just called down on Buzzr’s TPIR rerun, and he looks nothing like he did in his “Simply Irresistible” salad days. Yes, I am a Plugger, why do you ask?
@147 GarrisonSkunk: He wasn’t “simply irresistable“?
@Pozzo:
Well let me tell ya, Mean Gene!
All jokes aside, everyone, this wedding was probably the rocking-est good time since the last rerun of Lawrence Welk!
Late Thread Cuisine: What is it with bananas and bacon?
MW: If I was stuck in a high-up place, I’d definitely be seeking help from a dog breed known for being unusually short.
MW: In the last panel, Max and Greta have the same expression as that dog that wasn’t allowed to eat the cupcakes.
The face haunts Max and Greta. “Ahhhh, yes! We DID forget to pee on her shoes!”
@Baja Gaijin:
They work, man! Ask Elvis! You know, after you die. This thing is weird, but what the Hell, right?
MW: That’s right. The balloon fest organizers may have forgotten them because they just have so many balloonists who look like Dom DeLuise as a lighthouse keeper.
RMMD: Pour one out for Cody’s old band, who are/were apparently “indie” at least by Balding Lou’s definition. They probably thought that they’d at least have a girlfriend to blame when they broke up. Then again maybe Cody’s new gig will be short-lived due to Lou’s brilliant idea of having Shorty and the Beanpole do a Flo & Eddie type thing.
@Artist formerly known as Ben:
Did his band have a name? I refuse to look this up. If they’re “indie,” I’m forced to conclude it’s, like, Cereal Prison Flamenco, or something equally murder-worthy
DT: Weird that no one at GoComics noticed that that’s Car 54, as in “Where Are You?” Come on, this is Dick Tracy. No way that’s an accident.
Dustin: Self-supporting but fawning. No doubt this is who Dustdad would like to think of as his real son.
JP: In fairness to Neddy, Alan would rather have a second scotch than do most things. Isn’t that why he hired her? So that he’d have more quality time with John Barleycorn?
Luann: Jokes on Ma & Pa DeGroot. It’s not like Luann was actually listening for an answer anyway.
SFx: Koppy Kat’s habit of sabotaging his own forgeries could only be done because he wants to be appreciated as an artist in his own right. Right now he is moved beyond words by praise from the stoner grandma gopher with a pink wig.
@A Grave Mind: Yeah, I think you’d have to comb all the way back to July to see whether there’s a frontal depiction of the bass drum if you wanted to maybe find out.
@Baja Gaijin: I’ll take the ham, thank you very much, and I truly admire that meat choice. The message is clear and yet kinda subtle.
Slylock’s anvil painting, the dinosaur madness, that beaver carrying a pot of pasta (really?), gotta give a shout-out to Mr. Weber, today.
MW: I am happy for the actors playing Greta and Max, because it’s clear that they will achieve and deserve acting-career recognition for their heroic run to the rescue, unless that annoying idiot psychic child takes all the credit. At the same time, I am glad that cats are not involved. Because although Greta and Max are making the very best they can of their script, this plot is way beyond ridiculous.
@Baja Gaijin: Cuisine – The presentation could be improved slightly by standing the bananas upright in the apple rings. It could be improved immeasurably by throwing the whole thing in the garbage.
I don’t like bananas, so I would not try that. What a waste of bacon.
@Joe Blevins: Re MW, I am hoping that Mary will turn out to be an Androgum in disguise, partly because that very episode of DOCTOR WHO was broadcast on Iowa Public Television last night.
@154 A Grave Mind: I’ll trust you. I understand the whole sweet and savory flavor thing. I don’t like bananas, whether wrapped in bacon or Fostered.
@159 Poteet: I wasn’t sure anyone’d pick up the “Olive’s such a blowhard/ham” connection.
@Baja Gaijin:
At all? Personal taste does fascinate me. Bananas are one of few fruits I really like. Go figure, eh?
@161 Poteet: You know, Libby might be a good rescue animal this time. She arrives, climbs the tree, pees on everyone in the balloon before she turns into an orange-and-black Taz, shredding the balloon into molecular pieces and distributing its occupants throughout the forest. Libby does not suffer fools–ask Wilbur.
@162 I speak Jive: Your presentation idea would subtly plant the idea that “this entree is fucked” into everyone’s minds. I like it.
@165 A Grave Mind: At all. Even the Filipino banana ketchup.
@A Grave Mind: All jokes aside, everyone, this wedding was probably the rocking-est good time since the last rerun of Lawrence Welk!
I’m ashamed to admit this, but here in the rusty buckle on the Bible Belt, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Welk is still in reruns, on OETA, Oklahoma Educational Television, channel 11. All jokes aside! The station actually bought their own copies of the Welk Show.
@White Rabbit:
All good, friend, here in Commie libwad Western NY, we might still be getting them, too. Haven’t checked out our PBS affiliate when it’s not Nova in awhile, but it used to be a staple, well, right around this timeslot. My exes’ little one used to love it ten years ago, bafflingly enough.
@Baja Gaijin:
In your defense, ketchup is super iffy under most circumstances, really.
@Baja Gaijin:
The real question: do you like banana-FLAVORED stuff? Like, I hate strawberries with every fibre of my being, but strawberry milk is the greatest thing ever made.
Man, I hit 150, 160, and 170. How little do I have going on tonight?
MARY WORTH: The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this Kenda Scott quote is just some shameless quid for quo deal to get some freebies on jewelry. I mean there is much more appropriate quote by farmore sage prophetesses:
Ok syndicate, you may now hand over the reigns of Mary Worth over to me. (Hold on for one more day, Mary! Possibly two if Max stops to lick his balls!)
@Baja Gaijin: @A Grave Mind: Re bananas – I don’t like bananas either. I don’t like the flavor. I will eat them if they’re in fruit salad, but otherwise I avoid them. I don’t like banana bread.
@A Grave Mind: Is it those little seeds on strawberries?
@White Rabbit: @A Grave Mind: Re Lawrence Welk – Some of my early memories are of my grandmother and my great-aunt coming to our house every Saturday night to watch Lawrence Welk. They lived around half a block from us and didn’t have a TV yet. They especially loved the Lennon Sisters. This was in 1955 – 56.
@I speak Jive: I imagine you can still find on YouTube, video of Welk playing “One Toke Over the Line,” with no comprehension of what it was about. It does refer to Jesus, though!
Rex Morgan, M.D. – This strip captures a reality of the music industry – newer, innovative bands are shunned as culture eats itself, and a (fake, but good enough for marketing purposes) nepo-baby will rehash old songs if he agrees to leave behind any chance of originality.
Cody has to decide whether he will sell out for a middle-class life playing to aging fans of Ameripolitan music, or keep true to himself and do indie music supported by steady session guitar work.
Mary Worth – Most poltergeist activity happens when a teenager, especially a girl, is going through puberty. Olive is always around to save the day with her psychic powers because she is also the cause of the calamities around her.
She is like the kid in school who would do dares or eat gross mixtures of cafeteria food for attention, but only made themselves less popular. Olive is being constantly rewarded for subconsciously creating dangerous scenarios where she gets to be the hero, but it only reinforces her feeling of being a “special” outsider as her peers rightfully fear her.
And when the praise of surviving a balloon crash dies down? She will need to up the stakes. God help those around her.
Pickles – I feel bad for the Vietnamese nail techs that have to figure out why Grandpa Pickles is rambling on about his new dentures he’s supposed to pick up, as he mistakes press-on nails for teeth because he missed his last six eye exams.
Crankshaft – The real business model the could have kept Montoni’s profitable is hiding senior citizen pills in pizza they won’t forget to eat.
@I speak Jive:
Whole, package, really. Hate the feel, hate the taste. The smell? Pretty nice. My dad used to drag me along to pick them and it drove me nuts. The farm also had raspberries and blueberries. Hate them, too. Unless you cook the blueberries. Like, pancakes and muffins? Awesome! A handful of them raw? Go to Hell! I might have said I’m weird with this. Do the little seeds throw you off?
@Philip: From what I’ve seen of Montoni’s pizza the pills would definitely enhance the flavor.
Naturally, psychic communication in Mary Worth is via the strip’s famed floating heads.
@Baja Gaijin: Good point!
@Baja Gaijin:
Exhibit A in the hearing that got Betty Crocker involuntarily committed.
RMMD: Crap. It looks like we’ll get gipped out of Yvonne screaming, “Play Muddy Boots!”
@3 Liam:
Yes. I’m sure they fear all the air conditioners falling from the balloons on them.
RMMD: Looks like all Cody needs to do is grow a set of muttonchop sideburns and cultivate a pompadour hairdo and he’s all set for career as a Truck Tyler tribute act.
@White Rabbit: I’ve heard of that but have never seen it.
@A Grave Mind: I didn’t eat strawberries for a very long time because of those seeds. I have learned to tolerate them, but strawberries would be much better without them.
I like bananas okay. And I can’t imaginary anyone not liking Bananas Foster, which the Buddha would turn into if the Buddha were a banana. I’ve only eaten it two or three times in my near-65 years, but it’s the closest I’ve come to Nirvana.
Being a Maineiac, I also love blueberries in every configuration. A slice of late July Maine wild blueberry pie with a scoop of Hancock county French vanilla ice cream (with a view of any body of water on Mount Desert Island) is right up there with Bananas Foster.
My grandparents were born in the 19th century and enjoyed Lawrence Welk; I remember watching his show in their farmhouse when I was a little kid in the 1960s. But he was too square even for my parents, who were born in the 1920s.
@181 Anonymous: SNERK!
@182 Guillermo el Chiclero: If it doesn’t happen in-strip, it may happen in a mashup.
@185 I speak Jive: One Toke Over The Line on The Lawrence Welk Show. Stick around for the last 4 seconds when Mr. Welk returns.
@186 Ukulele Ike: I like everything about Bananas Foster except for the bananas. Serve me Bananas Foster Minus Bananas and I’d chow down.
@JeffMcm: That’s actually not uncommon in strips with storylines–sometimes newspapers would only carry the daily and not the Sunday strip, or vice versa, and so the writers would either A. Have different storylines for each, as in The Phantom; or B. Make sure that readers who only got one or the other didn’t miss anything important.
@I speak Jive: #174: The Lennon Sisters were very Catholic and perpetually pregnant. Welk had to go through extreme measures to hide their baby bumps on TV. When they quit his show Welk was quoted, in his butchered English rivaling Crankshaft’s malaprops, “Those girls are digging their own funerals.”
@Ukulele Ike: re L. Welk: That tracks. My dad talks about how his grandparents loved Lawrence Welk, but his parents, also born in the 1920s, thought it was incredibly lame. They were more into Stan Freberg.
FG: Well, we’re down to the semi-finals, with four competitors remaining, Flash, Bok, the Kiran she-hulk, and Wolfang. My guess it’s going to be Bok against the Skel, and Flash versus Wolfang.
@Guillermo el Chiclero: I think Vultan is going to have Adrane transported back to Sky City and put to work scrubbing streets of Hawk poop with her wings and a bucket of lye, as payback for being a traitor to the new Sky City/Frigia alliance. Also for boinking Bok, since the Dragonmen seem to be the lowest possible Mongovian social caste.
Why do you think there are only four competitors left? There could be a Gooseman, who will peck you to death, and an Armadilloman who will ball up and roll over you like Bouncing Boy from the Legion of Superheroes. And a Walrusman, who will tan you for standing in the English rain.
@Ukulele Ike: @Ukulele Ike: There could be a Gooseman, who will peck you to death, and an Armadilloman who will ball up and roll over you like Bouncing Boy from the Legion of Superheroes. And a Walrusman, who will tan you for standing in the English rain.
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If they need a Skunkman, I’m available!
Dirk Twacy: Is this a Minute Misery? If so, the answer is clearly (printed upside down), “My Mother The Car 54 Where Are You?”
@Guillermo el Chiclero:
“It looks like we’ll get gipped (sic) out of Yvonne screaming…”
I’m not sure of the correct way to put this out there on this blog but the term “gipped” (sic) is considered a racist stereotype highly offensive to the Romani people.
@Unca $crooge: A ton of bricks landed on me the other night for saying “coon,” which astonished me because “coon” doesn’t get used as a racial epithet in the northeast. Up here it’s just a shortened form for the animals who tear into your garbage cans. So give the poor bastard a break.
@Ukulele Ike:
I was trying to say it in a diplomatic way and I’m sorry I fell short of that. I grew up using the word because all the neighborhood kids used it and, to me, it just meant somebody was ripped off. I had no idea that it was associated with a particular group of people. I didn’t think you used this word to disparage anybody but you could use that word in a social situation and somebody might jump on you for their perception that you are being insensitive (or worse).
Anyway, long story short, if your dog suddenly tries to run in a random direction, you should let it lead you deep into the woods because it’s taking you to a balloon accident.
@Baja Gaijin: I thought the ham-use was clever. Unlike any of the people in that balloon basket.
@Baja Gaijin: Bwahaha!
MT Monday: RUH-roh. This looks potentially ominous.
LUANN (Sunday): Noooo, Nancy and Frank. You are talking about a big fat spelling error right there in the final panel. PAH-THETIC. For a strip that is largely about college students, the LUANN general level of smarts is right down there with the IQs of concrete slabs.
Baja,
Heads Up. Do NOT read Monday’s Sally Forth
@204 Activist: Thanks for the heads-up.
@Dennis Jimenez: Weaver too
Is anybody else looking at today’s Rex Morgan MD and asking, “Hey isn’t this strip supposed to be about a doctor”? Cause I feel like “musician is tempted to sell out by soulless record executive at the wedding of his might-as-well-be-but-not-really-long-lost-father (also a musician) and a waitress” is a few levels removed from that.
Hell, I couldn’t even tell you for sure that there’s actually a character named Rex Morgan in Rex Morgan MD – but I could certainly tell you that Mud Murphy sings a song named Muddy Boots. How did we get here?
Crankshaft commenting in real time that he accidentally took his evening pills instead of his morning pills as he takes his evening pills, “accidentally,” is one of the most blatant f*-it-all moments I’ve seen in this strip.