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Rex Morgan, M.D., 3/21/23

Ha ha, I was right, this cruise is going to get a healthy dose of Mud Mountain’s musical scheming! I’m taking “privy” in that last word balloon as foreshadowing: there’s absolutely going to be a poop angle on this storyline as well.

Marvin, 3/21/23

Surprisingly, there isn’t a poop angle to today’s Marvin, because the strip’s going to its other typical humor source: the fact that the characters all hold each other in contempt. Hey there, generic office coworker supporting character, if you’re unsettled by this revelation, how do you think I feel, now that I know that I’m a full 13 years older than this beaten down, combovered, comics dad dweeb?

Gil Thorp, 3/21/23

You know, back in the early days of my reading this strip, if an elderly, bald African-American man showed up on the Milford campus to offer free advice to the student-athletes, he would be named Clambake and his stories about having played in the Negro Leagues would turn out to be made up. You have to admit, this is a significant upgrade that I’m not sure the Milford teens deserve.

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Daddy Daze, 3/20/23

OK, I know we’re all in agreement that the Daddy Daze daddy is deep in the throes of some kind of kind of seriously delusional state, but this is truly one of the most wack Daddy Dazes yet. The Daddy Daze daddy … likes all teams, equally? Like, from all sports? And thinks rooting for one in particular is a Sophie’s Choice situation? When it’s actually 100% how sports fandom works, you just pick one for more or less arbitrary reasons involving where you live or what players you liked when you’re between the ages of 8 and 12 or who your friends root for? And also he’s not in the position of picking a favorite child, so the metaphor doesn’t make any sense, which he admits two panels later???? It’s a good thing the Daddy Daze baby is too young to actually understand speech so his tiny mind won’t be permanently warped by all this.

Family Circus, 3/20/23

I do love that in Billy’s vision, his father is being angrily berated by the family doctor. I’m not sure if this is meant to indicate that he has an overly literally idea of how our for-profit health care system works, or if this is a sad reflection of how he’s treated when he inconveniences his parents by becoming ill.

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Mary Worth, 3/19/23

It’s true and tragic that the veterinarians have higher than typical rates of death by suicide, and it’s also great that there’s a support group specifically targeted to them. But you have to admit that it’s very funny that Estelle has been blown off by a Ed after exactly two dates that were a year apart, and the conclusion she’s come to is “He’s probably avoiding me because he wants to kill himself.”

Rex Morgan, M.D., 3/19/23

Am I little sad that we didn’t get several strips of Hank Jr. watching rambling hour-long YouTube videos of “cruise tips from an expert”? Am I disappointed that we weren’t treated to the several wrong turns he and Yvonne took on their journey to this cute little out-of-the-way eatery? Yes, of course. But just as it was designed to do, the carefully crafted narrative of this strip BLEW THOSE THOUGHTS OUT OF MY MIND in the final panel by teasing me with the prospects of who the last-minute musical guests are. Will one of them be “Mud Mountain Murphy?” Will his signature musical power move — pretending that he has to take a huge shit in order to move up in the order from opener to headliner — backfire spectacularly, during this cruise’s inevitable norovirus outbreak?

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/19/23

This is actually a cunning move on Snuffy’s part. The pastor is about to wander onto the landholdnings of the Barlows, who don’t take kindly to being hit up for money, and Snuffy’s made sure that his clan rivals’ alibi isn’t going to hold up in court.