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Something a little different for you today: America’s coming economic collapse, as foreshadowed in the funnies. Just a couple of days ago, Lois was chatting to one of her friends about her work:

Hi and Lois, 11/29/05

Today, though, the situation seems a little different:

Hi and Lois, 12/1/05

Hi and Lois deserves kudos for not only giving Lois a job, but giving Lois a job that isn’t a cop-out extension of the “lady’s work” she does at home (I’m looking at you, Blondie, you food-addiction enabler, you). Still, she’s throwing herself into her role as a pimp for the real-estate-industrial complex with a bit more enthusiasm than perhaps is wise. First, she’s telling Brunette Neighbor Lady Whose Name I Don’t Remember that the housing market is a nonstop rocket ride to the moon, with no possible downside. I knew a lot of people who talked like this when I worked for an Internet company in San Francisco in the late ’90s; despite their ostensible business savvy, they were a lot more surprised than I was when the pink slips started fluttering down on everyone’s desks. It’s only at show and tell that we see that the housing-market balloon is full of hot air and nothing more: making your kid shill crappy suburban bungalows to other kids reeks of financial flop sweat.

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Hi and Lois, 6/1/05

Sure, Trixie, that nice hawk is just giving the adorable little mouse a ride. A ride … into his stomach!

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I feel like there’s been something of an uptick in melancholy in this strip of late. Maybe soon Hi and Lois will be faced with a dilemma: travel to Europe, or pay to have Trixie’s colon unblocked? She is the one they’ve had the least amount of time to get attached to…

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Hi and Lois, 2/27/05

My fiancée says that Hi’s bug-eyed, sweaty expression in the last panel is his “having fun” face. I say he’s out of his mind on helium. Look at Lois’ expression in the rightmost panel in the middle row: she knows that trouble’s brewing; clearly Hi has a longstanding “problem” whip-its and the like, and she’s been down that light-headed, squeaky-voiced road before. I don’t mean to blow the cover off the seamy side of an ostensibly family-friendly strip like this, but obviously substance abuse is the only logical explanation here: nobody has that much fun just blowing up balloons.

Also: Hi seems to have purchased his drug paraphernalia at a “Fun Store,” surely a euphemism for a head shop if I’ve ever heard one. Also also: Lois appears to be wearing black lipstick in the final frame, which both complements her skeletal visage and signifies her S&M lifestyle.