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Apartment 3-G, 10/21/08

It looks like Apartment 3-G, having made drug abuse and murder bland and vaguely boring, is about to do the same for China’s meddling in Tibetan monastic politics. Remember how Eric was supposed to be rescuing his brother from some combination Tibetan temple/hospital/Chinese prison thingy in Lhasa, or something? Apparently he took this Lodi character instead, which we may or may not have been told at the time? Lodi, I am assuming, is a stand-in for Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was chosen as Panchen Lama as a child with the Dalai Lama’s blessing; he and his family were taken out of Tibet by the Chinese government and haven’t been seen since, while the government has nominated its own candidate for the post. Gedhun/Lodi seems to be none the worse for wear for his time as a political prisoner, having learned valuable English and hiking skills. The question is, can he retain his sense of detachment from desire and suffering upon encountering the ultimate threat to any holy man: Margo Magee?

Family Circus, 10/21/08

It’s obviously unsettling that the Keanes have some kind of gargantuan microwave that can heat up an entire full-sized pizza, though that may explain why Billy thinks that nuking food qualifies as “making” it. Poor Jeffy is once again stuck with the being-baffled-by-everyday-slang role usually reserved for comical foreigners, robots and aliens, and dorky white dudes. But what really gets me about this cartoon is the drooping tip of Billy’s pizza. I imagine that he’s gesticulating with the slice, the tip flopping up and down as he does so, grease splattering everywhere. I think that it would be pretty hypnotic to watch; no doubt that’s what Mommy is focusing on, which is why she looks so beatific despite being surrounded by morons.

Luann, 10/21/08

“I mean, Toni never talks about him, but he hangs around in my mind … brawny … vaguely threatening … half-dressed…”

Mary Worth, 10/21/08

Oh, Dr. Jeff, always so bad at strategy. If you’re going to try to escape Mary’s clutches, you don’t announce it. You just leave town the minute she walks out the door. You can set her condo on fire on your way out if it would make you feel better.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/21/08

Ha ha, Rex is grinding something! Get it, because … ha ha … grinding … oh, what’s the use.

Based on Sarah’s weird, distorted face in the final panel, I’m guessing the wind is so strong and the boats are tilting because they’ve accidentally wandered into a nuclear weapons test site. Soon everyone will be killed in a ball of flame, which will at least alleviate the boredom of watching a sailboat race.

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Crock, 10/19/08

I’m not sure which thought is more disturbing: that this is some sort of metaphor for pubic hair depilation, or that it’s a straightforward and genuinely insane comic about cactuses having sex.

Family Circus, 10/19/08

In order to keep Jeffy pure, his parents are sheltering him from troubling concepts such as “genitals.”

Slylock Fox, 10/19/08

Oh, Cassandra, isn’t trying to worm your way out of speeding tickets kind of beneath you? For that matter, isn’t stopping speeders kind of beneath the chief of police? Look, just show some leg, thus disabling the part of Chief Mutt’s brain that can do math, and we can all forget that any of this ever happened.

Panel from Blondie, 10/19/08

This is way more than I ever wanted to know about Mr. Dithers’ personal life.

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Mark Trail, 10/15/08

I cannot believe that I was taken so completely aback by this totally obvious development, but I was, to my great delight. Ha ha, another sexy seemingly not-insane gal cannot resist Mark Trail and his grinning, tan-clad quasi-autistic stylings! There’s a lot to love about this strip, but I’ll start with the fact that Sue Butler was apparently relaxing in her home with her feet tucked underneath her; note how she daintily slips her toes into her slipper, like the lady that she is! I also like the fact that she’s hanging around the house wearing some kind of form-fitting all-white outfit; she knows that if she wants to bag Mark, she’ll have to advertise her purity, because nothing repulses him like sex appeal.

Curtis, 10/15/08

180 degrees by 180 degrees? That’s … that’s not how geometry works, I don’t think. I’ll admit that those measurements may well denote something that’s not round, but rather “round.”

Note that Gunk’s enormous head appears to be protruding from a Flyspeck Island volcano in the third panel. Does that make him the strange land’s Supreme Being? Is he cheerfully telling the tale of how he, as a vengeful God, wiped out all life on earth as a whim? That would go a long way towards explaining this.

Family Circus, 10/15/08

“Yes, sweetie! You see, your daddy and I got to be about sixteen and we couldn’t resist our filthy, sinful urges for each other’s hot, sexy bodies anymore, so we had to wrap them up in marriage’s holy sacrament.”

(I was originally going to write a joke about a failed attempt to abandon newborn Billy in the bathroom at the prom, but I decided it was in poor taste even for me.)

Apartment 3-G, 10/15/08

Oh, Margo, you lovable minx! “This unholy mess” is, naturally, Alan’s blood, splattered all over the Mills Gallery. You could try collecting it for your delectation later, Margo. I know you usually go for the blood of the innocent, but if you’re lucky there might be some traces of dope left in it.