Mostly snowy one-panels
Post Content
Six Chix, 1/10/26
You ever wonder why bad things happen to you? It’s probably because someone with interests different from yours prayed to God, and He said, “Enh, why not.” Sorry, I don’t make the rules! The omnipotent Creator has actually embedded the rules into the very nature of existence, of which you and I are a tiny part.
Beetle Bailey, 1/10/26
A question I’ve often had reason to contemplate: Is Cookie a soldier, or a civilian Army employee? I don’t think there’s a “right” answer, since the world of Beetle Bailey does not have an immutable reality; probably in the days when the strip launched he would’ve been an enlisted man (my grandfather cooked for hundreds of his fellow soldiers when he was stationed in Los Angeles during World War II) but today he’d work for some Halliburton subsidiary microwaving flash-frozen food for the troops. His status would be a relevant piece of information for today’s strip, as his rank vis-a-vis Sarge would determine who Beetle should obey under the UCMJ, but I think everyone’s facial expression makes clear that this is a story more about personal duty and personal fear than it is about anything so straightforward as the military chain of command.
Pluggers, 1/10/26
Pluggers want a clean sidewalk and frankly they don’t care how many children have to die to make that happen.
132 replies to “Mostly snowy one-panels”
Six Chix:
“This snow wasn’t predicted! — but the forecast came with a few asterisks. And here they are!”
Beetle Bailey:
Cookie’s facial and arm hair make the meals he serves especially appetizing.
FC: Jeffy has the appropriate dunce cap for every holiday.
Pluggers:
Keith likes to pool his bets at the racetrack and share proportionately in the winnings — Mutuel of Omaha.
MW-What is it, Sunny? Wilbur fell down a well?
RMMD-But June likes things rough.
FC-You should see the shoes that go with the hat.
Beetle Bailey: You’d think an Army base kitchen would have a commercial-size dishwasher, like any institutional food service. Is washing dishes by hand just a way to keep Beetle busy, because letting him near any actual military activities would cause more harm than good? If he spends all of tomorrow peeling potatoes right before Cookie serves frozen french fries for dinner, I think we’ll have our answer.
Pluggers: Exactly where is that sidewalk, anyway? It doesn’t appear to be near any houses or streets. I think someone built it in the middle of a field somewhere just so they could torture neighborhood kids with useless hard labor whenever it snows — which would be “Classic Pluggers winter fun” indeed!
Mary Worth: Oh no, little Timmy fell down a well — but wait, it looks like Sunny is getting help! Yep, it turns out this bird is an actual hero! (Oops, wait… it turns out what really happened was that Wilbur got his hand stuck in a pickle jar. It wasn’t an actual emergency, and Sunny frightened Ian awake just for kicks. Yep, that tracks.)
Six Chix-Who knew there could be snow in the winter.
6Cx: That’s right, atheist: your fancy weather predictions are nothing compared to the power of prayer! Heh, this one is more of a ‘Chix tract’, ammirite?
BB It’s a been a bit since we’ve done the whole ‘Sarge and Beetle are lovers’ bit, but that second panel…Someone must be watching the hockey show.
Plugger: The neighborhood ‘kid’? Singular? Is there a whole Children of Men aspect to this strip going on in the background that just never gets mentioned?
RMMD: Things ran more smoothly because the patients fled without a diagnosis, rather than listen to Rex whine about his surgery.
PLUGGERS: So, if the kid doesn’t have a heart attack, it’s all good? Sounds logical to me.
BB: Beetle just operates in survival mode; obey the person less likely to beat you into a toothless pulp. Rank, shmank.
@Liam: Dang, you beat me to the well.
Phantom:
The choppers are ready; the troops are afoot
And Chuma will soon be all covered in soot
He soon is to take on a real backup role —
He’ll be in the clutches of Jungle Patrol
The squadron proceeds to the vast Zumaridi
Distracting themselves with the rhymes of P. Diddy
This sojourn will not, though, have taken its toll
For only elite work at Jungle Patrol
But Phantom will be this installment’s big hero
Worubu’s role here will be one big, fat zero
Kit’s persistency makes us say, on the whole,
We’re glad he’s in charge of the Jungle Patrol
GT I am once again flabbergasted by how a comic strip that pretty boldly features characters who aren’t the “old standard” in terms of gender or sexuality is stuck portraying engagements as a (dominant) partner having to spring the question on the other. Psst! it’s 2026, folks! Even the straights are able to have a conversation, discuss their future, and mutually decide they’re going to marry!
RMMD Yes, but how many patients will you have back after he misdiagnoses them while distractedly rambling about his cataract woes?
MW: And now, the most obvious joke I could possibly make:
“What’s that, Sunny? Wilbur’s stuck in the well? Come on, Ian!”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!”
If you think about it, BB is a strip about bullying and harassment.
Beetle would complain, but:
a) he’s lazy (per canon) and
b) in Pete Hegseth’s military he’d probably be bounced for not being “alpha” enough.
@Liam: Oh damn, I didn’t see your post before I made mine.
Pluggers: Despite fifty years of warnings about older men suffering fatal heart attacks while engaged in the activity, Nebraska Pluggers only have a vague hunch that shoveling snow is dangerous.
BB: You had to say “facial expression,” and now I can’t look at Beetle without noticing he has no eyes.
@CanuckDownSouth: Future Rex line: “Well, it’s an inoperable tumor, but at least you don’t have a cataract like me.”
Or as Mel Brooks put it, “Tragedy is when I have a hangnail. Comedy is when you fall in an open sewer and die.”
B. Bailey: The moment he enters the mess hall Sarge is hit on the head with a sap. He awakens tied to a chair in front of which is a snack tray containing a 45 loaded with a single bullet by his left hand and an Ozempic hypodermic pen by his right. “Your choice;” Says Cookie.
Mary Worth Mashup: How’s this for a missing final panel?
At the court-martial, Beetle will point out that Cookie didn’t order him to keep it locked.
@Hibbleton @17: His best customer? Cookie would never.
@Ken @15: Supposedly this is why his nephew Chip Flagston (you do know that Lois is Beetle’s sister, right? right) almost always has his hair over his eyes, though they occasionally appear as in panel one yesterday. As if we can’t see the uncanny resemblance to his next-door neighbor Thirsty Thurston.
@Bob Tice: if the contributor lived in the northeast, the company would be “PONY—Parimutuels Of New York”!
(And with this comment I divulge both my age and my favorite magazine from my childhood.)
To quote the blurb from the Tribune Content Agency, “’Pluggers’ chronicles the wisdom of hardworking people across the country.” A true plugger is out there dying of a heart attack, not pawning off his duties on some beagle puppy. Shame! Shame!
That second panel of Beetle, his freckles make it look like wide open eyes with his nose coming out of the side of his forehead, It’s an improvement.
Pluggers: Shouldn’t the “Neighborhood Kid ” be a goat?
6C – A passive-aggressive woman using the passive voice. That’s next-level comics writing right there.
H&L: The thing Chip loves most about Spotify v. buying CDs is how its payment structure results in his favorite singer
busking for change outside a restaurant downtowncreating intimate al fresco performances regularly.GT: “Okay, well, uh, candlesticks always make a nice gift” is due Monday, isn’t it?
FC: Next item in the box: “Mommy, how did you get these beads?”
Gassed Up Alleycats: It’s…. its looking at me!
Six Chix:
“Oh. Those aren’t snowflakes. Those are just triffids raining down from the heavens. Whew.”
MW: The lesson here cannot be over-emphasized; so-called Christians who consciously leave their tree up after Theophany deserve to die. And preferably ironically.
Pluggers, of course, won’t pay the kid for shoveling the driveway. Not because of child labor laws, but because they’re just too cheap.
Six Chix: Panel three seems to suggest that this happens all the time, as she rolls her eyes at her reality warping friend.
GT – If you feel the need to talk about your current relationship while you’re coaching a high school basketball game, it’s best to call a timeout and get feedback from your players.
6-C – Moloch loves human suffering….
BB – Um…k…so what lascivious urge is motivating Sarge’s simile? It could just be some simpleton amusement…like a child distracted by shiny keys. Yeah…that’s a better bet for a newspaper strip for general circulation than some sort of kinky food and sodomy scenario….
Pluggers – Did I mention, Moloch loves child sacrifice….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Bob Tice: My favorite Don Martin of Mad strip shows a diner customer complaining about finding a hair in his burger.
The manager goes back to the cook. Makes sure he’s wearing gloves and a hairnet and warns him that was third complaint this week.
The cook shrugs and goes back to work.
Shoving hamburger into his armpit to squeeze out patties.
Blue toque woman is definitely praying for the skier to have an accident and let’s see how much she enjoys this snow when she has to hobble around in it wearing a cast, when what she should be doing is staring slack-jawed in awe at the woman being surprised at the snow when she was carrying her skis around.
***
Pluggers know that shovelling snow could give them a heart attack but are so in denial of their advancing years that they don’t realize that most children – decades younger than them – don’t carry that risk.
Luann: ‘But the second part… yeah, I’d be pretty lousy at that too.’
S4th: Yeah? Well just imagine the effect YOU have on your co-workers, Ted. I’m surprised they haven’t gone postal on your ass. All of them. At the same time.
RMMD: Especially when we time skip to the end of the day, thanks Narration Panel!
JP: Tomorrow’s strip – Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddd so, spring comes to Cavelton.
Abbey: Did you hear, Sophie and Reena have gone their separate ways!
Sam: Yeah, I can’t believe Sophie found April and is bringing her home!
Abbey: Yes, I hear it was a most excellent adventure. Too bad whatsherface had to miss it after that argument she had with Sophie about watching ‘Starlee and the Moonbeams’ for the umpteenth time. Wait, what strip are we in again?
6C: It’s raining assholes. Hallelujah?
@pugfuggly: 6Cx: That’s right, atheist: your fancy weather predictions are nothing compared to the power of prayer! Heh, this one is more of a ‘Chix tract’, ammirite?
Six Crucifix?
GT: Rumor is, Indiana blew out Oregon last night in the Peach Bowl because the Oregon coaches spent the game discussing their love lives. That happens, right?
Six Chix: I know there’s a better version of this strip in other universes, one where I can understand Chick #1’s rage at unexpected weather.
That said, “I’ll sever the links between Heaven and Earth! I swear it!” is a pretty good punchline, and I didn’t see it coming.
MW: Yessiree! “Here he comes, to save the daaay!” Or night, whatever. Ignoring danger to himself, Sunny has braved the smoke-filled room and the flickering flames to save Ian’s pompous ass, as well as that of his Fair Mistress! Folks, it doesn’t get any better than this!!
There was some talk of having Sunny perish in his heroic act, but I think they have thankfully dropped that idea. Sometimes a dramatic on-panel death is not the best career move – just ask Stellan! Of course Stellan doesn’t have the vocabulary and speaking skills of our Avian superstar. He’s like those early silent film stars who couldn’t transition to the talkies… but I digress.
Now where was I?… Oh, we’d like to thank our sponser of this weekend’s panels: FlyByNight Novelties who graciously provided the Christmas tree lighting. Be sure to take advantage of their special after-holiday pricing!
@The Quiet Man:
On Luann : I’m more hung up on the “next time work interferes with our time together”, because it sure seems like Phil’s job doesn’t prevent them from having a long personal conversation. Heck, the implication is that only Luann’s job interferes with their relationship, and that would be because
a) Luann’s boss doesn’t allow her to chat with customers the way Phil’s boss just allows a visitor to hang out with one of the orderlies while they’re doing their rounds;
b) Phil would never bother visiting Luann when she’s at work (even just to order food at that particular restaurant) like she does (possibly using visiting Mrs. Horner as a pretext);
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: I suppose that explains his full name, Stellan X. Bushman.
@Anonymous: I’m actually more hung up on Luann’s ‘AAUUGH!’ face in the middle panel. If I were Phil (which I’m not, thank God!) I wouldn’t be attempting innuendo, I’d be backing away slowly and calling security to have the crazy woman removed from the premises.
Pluggers: At least the contributor possibly knows a thing or two about snow this time.
Pluggers: It can be reasonably assumed that the contributor knows a thing or two about snow this time.
Pluggers – A plugger has a hunch. It’s usually due to osteoporosis.
Six Chix: A violent anti-snow extremist spies her next target and prepares to murder the filthy snow-lover profilgate.
6C: Parka Girl is not only mad because Skier Girl successfully petitioned the gods for a change in the weather, but because she’s able to traipse about on top of the snow like Legolas.
Pluggers would likely suffer mortal injury if they exerted themselves enough to shovel their own walk.
Don Abundio, translated:
[Sign: APPLIANCES]
“Can you deliver a new dishwasher right away?”
“No, sir. Do you have one now?”
“I did…”
“But he just quit!”
@Little Blue Bicycle: #42: The story I heard was that silent film star Francic X. Bushman lost his career because he snubbed Louis Meyer at a party.
BB: In the earliest strips Cookie was a mess sergeant and sometimes shown in uniform.
DT: “Fine, I’ll get to the assassination attempt on your husband just as soon as I figure out what the Hell is going on with your car door.”
FG: Uh-oh, they’re at the cat-nun hospital from Doctor Who!
GT: Gee, maybe your ambivalence over getting hitched again after your unhappy first marriage is something you should be discussing with your girlfriend and not your assistant coach in the middle of a game?
Luann: “….I’d be even worse at.”
MW: “I wonder what Sunny wants! Maybe it has something to do with the acrid smell of burning electrical equipment and the flickering of flames in the den…”
RMMD: “We’re so much more efficient at indifferent, assembly-line style medical ‘care’ when Dr. Morgan is available!”
@47 TheDiva: “Pluggers would likely suffer mortal injury if they exerted themselves enough to
shovelwalk down their own walk without using the electric scooter.” Fixed that for ya.Luann: “Just let me know when it’s time to fuck.”
@Bob Tice: No Obelixes? An Obelix or two could build her a ski slope of her own in minutes.
MW: After the fire is put out, Mary, as head of the Charterstone HOA, slaps Ian with a hefty fine for leaving his Christmas decorations up after Epiphany Day.
Phantom: Colonel Worubu is such a dork. This Jungle Patrol expedition should clearly be called “Operation Look Ma — no Hans.”
RMMD: ”So….golf?” “Golf.”
Pluggers: Wait until you see the expression on that kid’s face when he uncovers the frozen corpse of another plugger who died shoveling snow.
PLUGGERS: Come winter, Pluggers (like all REAL AMERICANS) coerce children into digging their own graves.
@Lord Flatulence: It’s Luann. That time is *never* coming.
6C: I don’t like learning Grandpa Keane had a secret second family this way.
REX MORGAN M.D.: “It’s amazing how fast the work goes when
we’re not wasting time rehashing the every excruciating detail of our boring-ass love livesRex is around to help!”@Baja Gaijin: That seems like the most sensible solution. But then Ian wouldn’t have know that Sonny Saved. Their. Lives.
MARY WORTH: Toby: “Oh my God, Ian! I figured out what’s going on. Olive is using her animal telepathy to lead us to the hot-air balloon she and Mary got stuck in!” (Remember: Toby is always a day late and a dollar short. 3 storylines from now, she’ll going to her apartment, wondering why the door handle is hot for some reason….)
I live in Omaha, Nebraska. Tuesday’s high will be 56. It’s been pushing record highs all winter. There is zero standing snow, and there’s barely been any all year. When today’s Pluggers strip is re-used, the caption will be: “Pluggers in northern states remember when it used to snow.”
Beetle Bailey-Sarge wants his protection fee.
Pluggers-Pluggers are paranoid that people out to get them so they send the neighborhood kid out first.
MW: Am I right to assume that Sunny squawks to the voice of George C. Scott as he slaps Ian awake?
Mary Worth:
My years of owning budgies taught me that birds are incredibly sensitive to airborne chemicals. You can’t even cook non-stick frying pans in the same house as them.
Ian might be getting his wish soon.
@Guillermo el chiclero: I never heard that, but I do know that Bushman had steady radio acting jobs after his big-screen star dimmed, so his voice wasn’t the problem.
I would have snubbed Mayer too; he was a pig. Expected young actresses to sex him up in return for professional favor, among many other disgusting habits.
Otoh, he made sure the MGM commissary had great matzoh ball soup and pastrami.
6ix Chix: “This raining of men wasn’t predicted. Why is it happening?” “Oh boy! It’s raining men! I prayed for this. Off to the bars for some free drinks!”
BB: Why is Beetle wearing a chef toque while washing dishes? Is this part of some kind of sexual cosplay with Cookie, before getting back into regulation attire for the evening’s D/s session with Sarge?
“Sure Cookie, I’ll be your Sue chef.” “That’s sous chef, soldier.” “I’ll stick with my spelling. Life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue, especially where his butthole is concerned.”
CS: Pam is radical! As if first hand experience were somehow better than info processed through fallible technology. Silly Luddite. /s
CURTIS: “How to Make a Dad Disappear Lesson 18” – innocently parody his values.
DOONESBURY: Real question as I fortunately haven’t been inside a hospital or nursing home for some time. Back in the day, patients, like BD, had to use landlines or sat phones because cellphones might mess up heart patients. Are cell phones allowed now?
MW: and in today’s exciting installment, the role of Lassie will be played by Sunny and the role of June will be played by To-Be.
Very clever pluggers. Trying to hide your sadistic need to recapitulate your childhood traumas behind the hypothetico-deductive method. But you made two mistakes. One, pluggers find science scary and confusing, and two, all pluggers emerge from cold climates so you know perfectly well how snow works. Leave that child alone!
6Chix: When I saw the background in the strip, my first thought wasn’t “Snow!” but “That woman’s been locked in an old fashioned sanitarium, and those are rubber-matted walls to keep her from smashing her brains out.” The snow is just a hallucination of a mind corroded by hatred of skiers!
@Bob Tice:
#4. Mutuel of Omaha? So that’s why Warren Buffett retired from the less profitable Berkshire Hathaway.
LUANN: It’s like Luann and Phil saw the tepid romantic entanglement in Rex Morgan M.D. and thought of it as a “Hold my beer” challenge. (“I’ll show them what inane conversation between couples look like!”)
LUANN (2): The best time to have a discussion about “work interfering on your relationship” is at a time when it is being explicitly demonstrated that work is not interfering in your relationship. That’s a tip on how to do art and love correctly, kids. Write it down.
@Stuart F: To be fair, I think the bear Plugger hibernates around this time, so maybe he isn’t familiar with winter activities
@2+2=7:
On Luann and work not interfering with her and Phil’s relationship : …why did this conversation occur during Phil’s shift at the retirement home, anyway? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for it to occur during their monday meet at a coffee shop?
Heck, that way, it’s why Luann brings it up : with that offer to take up more hours, they might never get to meet like this again! (and don’t give me “this conversation couldn’t have occured in a coffee shop, people would have reacted to Luann making a loud scene”; is it really that more appropriate to yell like this in the hallway of a retirement home?)
@Lauralot:
#14. MW: same for all of us, the Lassie comparison too easy. And nod to “Every body writes but nobody reads” (before posting)
Pluggers: Pluggers have learned from experience that this testing-out is simpler if you choose a child who’s an orphan. Fewer questions if things go wrong.
6C: “There goes stupid Janice with her stupid connection to God.”
BG&SS: Yeah, well, the third or fourth time you get caught and have your thumbs broken, you begin to think things over.
DT: Endless namedrops the assassin who’s after her husband and does she wait to see if Dick has any questions? No, she hops in the back of her limo and boogies her ass back to her penthouse. Because the first rule of showbiz is “Leave ‘em wanting more…information about a potential murder.”
Dustin: That tiny adjustable lamp is perched on Hayden’s shoulder whispering secrets to him, isn’t it? It’s already my favorite character.
GT: I’m sure that Valley Tech’s dyeing all of their students grey is part of some Emily strategy to outdo her ex-husband but I can’t quite put it together.
JP: Ces has gotten so tired of trawling Archive of Our Own and not seeing any Sophie/Reena fics that he’s decided to write his own. This is gonna be some kind of Sunday all right.
Luann: The longer Luann follows Phil around screaming and generally spazzing out, the less believable it is that the rest of the nurses haven’t gotten together to forcibly eject her.
MW: “What’s that, Sunny? Who is Timmy and what is he doing in a well? Never mind, let’s go.”
Phantom: Worubu repurposed “Operation Emerald” for ops in Ivory Lana when he found out that Oz isn’t a real place.
@brendancalling: in Pete Hegseth’s military he’d probably be bounced for not being “alpha” enough.
I feel like we need to pay this some attention. Pfc Zero has two characteristics: He is a crack shot, and he interprets orders hyperliterally.
In his goal to obey the order to be “alpha” the body count mounts. First corporal Yo, then Sarge, the Lt. Brownose, then Major Who-cares, and finally General Halftrack. Atl last the order tho become Alpha fulfilled, he runs the camp the only way he knows how: Sniper training. Before long everyone-even Beetle, is a crack shot.
Camp Swampy, under Zero’s command, becomes the major feeder of sniper talent to the elite squadrons, esteemed across all three branches.
When the man who issued the order to be more Alpha arrives at camp, well, he was the alpha guy right? General Zero zeros in on that, and is soon Secretary Zero.
This is one of the Beetle Bailey strips that becomes immeasurably better if you subscribe to the headcanon of “Sarge” and “Cookie” being alters of the same person, as supported by the strip art
@Peanut Gallery: I’m really confused by the “nuestra” in the original. I thought Don Abundio was a single rich asshole batting about in that mansion of his with the help, but that wouldn’t make him part of a “we.” Maybe if it were Polonio making the call, but Abundio? Or is the joke that Abundio’s Chrf had him whipped?
6Chx: One big reason I stopped watching local TV news a couple of decades ago was because of the low-level griping from the TV weather people about how awful winter is, and how awful snow and rain are, and how tragic, apparently, that Iowa’s weather isn’t constantly sunny and 70 F. You remind me of those TV weather people, Blue Hat Woman, and I hope you will soon get sprayed with slush from passing cars.
@Ukulele Ike: #69: Saw some old publicity photos of Bushman from his younger star days, was he ripped. No wonder he got all the shirtless roles. In the 1925 “Ben Hur”, where he played villain Masala, he was the only actor in Hollywood who could actually handle a chariot team without being injured. In the 1959 version, Charleston Heston asked famed stuntman Yakima Canute on how to win a chariot race. Canute told him if you can finish the race without falling off you’ll probably win.
6Chx: Maybe snow-loving ski freak woman can go over to Pluggers and give that poor kid a hand.
@Ukulele Ike: Rex enjoys golf a great deal more with the excuse that the cataract provides. “10 over par? Not too bad considering I’m half blind here!” “Oh nonsense! It’s better than your usual!”
DT: I want a Minty.
Somebody who holds the door for me, pulls cute little revolvers on police detectives, probably drives the car while I ride in the back seat, wears peppermint drops on his eyeballs, and carries sticks of chewing gum around in silver cigarette cases. D’you think Endless pays this guy, or he’s just smitten by her perfumed presence?
@richardf8: That’s a good point. I took the “our dishwasher” to mean “the household’s dishwasher.” Sure, it belongs to Don Abundio, but he doesn’t want to associate himself too closely with anything so plebeian. In fact, the only reason I can think of for Abundio to be making this call personally is that Pierre is threatening to quit on the spot, and Abundio knows that no other chefs are desperate enough to work for him.
MT: This story is finally over, apparently, having very weirdly portrayed both feral hog-hunting and flooding. What kind of outdoor issue will be very weirdly portrayed next? [pause to think of an outdoor issue that doesn’t matter] How about an outdoor handsome contest featuring men competing to see which one looks best in flannel shirt and jeans and boots, with a skill test to see which one is best and fastest at applying DEET from an aerosol can?
DT: Oh, that’s right, this was the guest writer who introduced Mr Mirror in the first place. We’ve had plenty of time to consider the fascinating mystery behind this enigmatic figure and now it’s time to see how our speculation holds up. Or maybe we just thought “Huh, the boring hitman with the mirror mask already knows Tracy somehow. Okay then,” and never gave him another thought until he got mentioned on Sunday.
FC: No, Jeffy, that’s the hat you’re going to wear when Mommy sells you to the circus.
RMMD: It’s okay, ladies, he can’t hear you. He’s been asleep since lunchtime!
SH: I am genuinely curious as to how Bill Holbrook thinks avalanches work. I would have thought that being tied to a tree as tonnes of snow bury everything in their path makes you a lot less safe than being swept away by it. I did a websearch for “avalanche safety” and not a single page I found recommends tying yourself to a tree. They did, however, recommend having an “avalanche transceiver”, so I’m sure an experienced mountaineer like Alex will be found with little difficulty and no need for Palmtop to enter “rescue cat” mode, right? Right?
@matt w: Thank you for that interesting quotation, which does not seem to accord at all with the panels that we are most often shown.
@Anonymous: That was me, sorry.
But is the Plugger’s neighborhood kid likely to suffer a massive heart attack, which is the common health fear that comes from shoveling snow?
@Poteet: That was me, sorry.
If it helps, we’re sorry it was you, too.
@Ukulele Ike: #69: It was probably his age. Bushman was born in 1883, meaning he was already on the north side of 50 when he was in “Ben Hur”. Though still physically buffed, his face showed every day of his age. Too bad he didn’t come around in our time, where old geezers like Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson could still play leading man roles and nail the hot, young leading lady.
Nancy: I realize that the new artist has a unique style. She draws everything on a black background.
DT: Okay – so we have Endless Mahoney, Minty and Mr. Mirror. Are all the dramatis personae now declared?
GT: Complex layout. Detailed backgrounds, maybe a bit over inked (see frame 2), clever use of color and black and white. Tip of the hat to Jason Margos! I appreciate your work and know that soon you’ll be moving on to a better position!
JP: Here is to you, one endless mug of cocoa to another.
MW: Ok, Sunny wanted you both to know that a bulb has burned out. Because this string of lights were made by a certified manufacturer, nothing is going on – unless of course Ian is a miserly SOB and bought these from a shady source.
Phantom: OK, so one slip of a patrol person riding her scooter and aided by the striped underwear guy is going to take down General Chum, meanwhile you have teams of soldiers and helicopters are standing by. I guess the Colonel really is guy who follows orders unless he is goaded into action by the looks of a few co-workers.
Rex Morgan MD: Well, the clinic moves along quickly if you know everyone actually works and not stand around jawing about their personal lives for hours!
@Horace Broon: Mr. Mirror is an appropriate hitman for Mahoney to hire (because of course Mahoney hired the hitman) because of her fondness for mirrors.
Mr. Mirror could use a break from being the nemesis of The Flash, anyway.
Six Chix – Today’s Chick could commiserate with Calvin, who often appealed to the snow gods for snow, but was disappointed. The snow gods are a fickle bunch for the leads of comic strips.
Beetle Bailey – Heated Rivalry (2025 – Colorized)
Pluggers – Plugger “humor” isn’t funny largely because the inherent contradiction of setting it up around their perceived superior values of “hard work” and “traditional values”, while relying on the actual labor of younger generations and their dynamic open-mindedness to maintain their ability to live in their own homes and not be shipped to the nursing home.
Ghost-Whose-Hobby-Is-Civil-War-History: “If Colonel Worubu does not wish to use the Jungle Patrol, I would like to borrow it for a while.”
Late Thread Cuisine: They’re not even trying, this time.
@Baja Gaijin: What in the suburban white people food?!?
MW: The Cameron’s dried out Christmas trees burned hot and quickly, the flames soon spreading to the walls and across the ceiling. Trapped in their bedroom by the flames, Toby throws open the window in a desperate attempt to escape the growing conflagration. The sudden burst of fresh air causes the flames to explode into an inferno. Soon the fire spreads to other units, explosions ensue as the oil in Wilbur’s tubs of mayonnaise reach critical temperature. While the Santa Royale (with cheese) fire department races to the scene, Charterstone is a collapsing inferno with little to no hope of survivors. As the sun rises over the charred remains of buildings and bodies, a lone bird takes flight from a nearby tree. “Pompous Axx” it cries out, vanishing into the distance.
Hi and Lois – And cardboard boxes save a lot of tedious work having to actually draw things.
@Baja Gaijin:
I’m not trying it either.
@Baja Gaijin: Caption error. It was supposed to say “Angeled Eggs.”
Six Chix/Pluggers: When I was a kid, I saw a Frosty the Snowman special, where a company invented a spray, that instantly melts all snow and ice when sprayed upon.
Of course that stuff is EVIL because… um…. show is whimsical? (And would kill magical talking snowmen)
The townspeople gave very valid points as to why the stuff was good.
Mary Worth – I should have been here much earlier, as my planned “Timmy fell in the well!” comment has already been covered. Instead, I’m thinking that California surely has requirements that apartment buildings and condos must have smoke detectors. However, Ian seems like the type who would disable a smoke detector because he’s annoyed that it goes off every time Toby tries to cook.
FC – And @taig: #62 beat me to the Dead Grandpa reference. However, I’d like to point out that 6Chix is an amateur compared to Dead Grandpa. The Chick is merely upset because of the snow. Dead Grandpa gives the melonheads the weather they want, and who cares about how it affects farmers and their crops.
Pluggers – I call BS. Around here, all I hear is ranting about how kids today spend all their time on their phones and are too lazy to shovel snow or mow lawns.
9CL – We don’t know the new guy’s name yet, and Oversexed Twin probably doesn’t, either. Get help, Brooke.
@Baja Gaijin: Cuisine – They look like plain hard boiled eggs to me.
@Baja Gaijin: Hard boiled eggs and rice, with ketchup on the side???
@104 taig: I guess the late 60’s were a different time. This recipe card is from 1967.
@108 Peanut Gallery: True.
@109 The Rambling Otter: I remember that Christmas special. John Goodman voiced Frosty. He doesn’t have a singing voice for radio. I think the little girl, unlike the townspeople, worried about the future she was going to inherit: The factory making the snow-melting spray was pumping pollution into the environment.
@111 I speak Jive: They are plain hard-boiled eggs. For some reason, they placed them sliced-side down on the rice. I guess they didn’t want to have people complaining about the egg-eyes staring at them.
@112 Lord Flatulence: It’s not ketchup on the side, surprisingly. Tomato juice, flour, butter, a teaspoon each of mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and a pinch of brown sugar.
@Baja Gaijin: Yep, plain hard boiled eggs. What th’ devil?
@Baja Gaijin: Do they want you to dip the egg in that mixture as you eat or mix it in with the yolk?
@Baja Gaijin: That makes more sense.
Also, I liked the overly “Peanuts” style the animation had.
Being made by some of the people who worked on the original Peanuts specials probably had something to do with it.
Six Chix: “Snow in January…? the devil you say!”
@Baja Gaijin: At first I thought that the eggs were plopped down whole on that rice glop, but I gave them a second look. Sure enough, they are sliced, and, as you said, arranged sliced sides down. That makes no sense. However, that’s one of the least revolting late cuisines I’ve seen. At least there are no olive eyes or dismembered frogs.
I do kind of like the serving dish, which looks like cabbage.
@The Rambling Otter: But really, I was fondly recalling a Let’s Play I watched years back of a fan remake of an old computer game.
Little girl: A dwarf stole my flower basket!
Narrator: A dwarf?? You can hardly believe your ears.
Let’s Player: A dwarf? In this magical land of fantasy? The devil you say!
@116 Lauralot: The recipe is sorta wishy washy. It says to “Pour [the] sauce over or serve separately.” Oh yeah, that’s not just plain white rice. It’s “creole rice.” It has an onion, a stalk of celery, a green pepper, some mushrooms, stock (unspecified what kind), and unspecified “seasoning.” Doesn’t sound very “creole” to me.
@119 I speak Jive: The cabbage serving dish and its matching bowl have been used in a few recipe photos. Being from 1967, the paint is probably filled with lead. Sorry about the dismembered frog.
@The Rambling Otter: I thought the frosty specials were Rankin Bass productions and designed by Mad magazine artist Paul Coker. jr.
@Baja Gaijin: the mustard and Worcester sauce is what I’d guess makes it devilled, it’s an old term for anything with “spicy” seasonings in British cuisine and some mustard or Worcester zip is all it takes. I think it migrated to the eggs due to the paprika sprinkle and now it’s hard to think of “devilled” as anything other than eggs whipped with mayo and stuffed back.
All I want is for “Beetle Bailey” to finally acknowledge what we’re all afraid to say out loud: Cookie and Sarge are clearly twins separated at birth, perhaps in a tragic P.L. Travers-type situation.
@Her Father, John Darling: The majority of them were, but the special in question was produced long after Rankin-Bass had passed from the scene.
Pluggers
He thought it was worth the $5 to not have a heart attack. When the kid wanted $30 the plugger chased him out of his yard screaming about how he used to do the whole neighborhood for a quarter in his bare feet.
@Baja Gaijin:
Mary Worth Mashup: How’s this for a missing final panel?
_________________________________________________
Parrotcat to the rescue!
The Familiar Mucus: “Mommy! Can I put the Wiz’s hat on and turn Dolly into a chicken?”
The Familiar Mucus: “Mommy! May I put the Wiz’s hat on and turn Dolly into a chicken?”
RIP Bob Weir
Sex Organ V.D.: Rex Motel – Patients check in, but they don’t check out until the bill is paid.
Cornelius “Cookie” Jowls is the Mess Sergeant. There is no contradiction in orders here–Beetle should lock the door as ordered, and then hand over the keys to Sergeant Snorkel as ordered.