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Hey! It’s Labor Day in the US, Labour Day in Canada, and late summer all over the Northern Hemisphere — a great time to kick back, relax and recalibrate the ol’ work/life balance.

I’ve worked in just about every environment I can think of: classroom, lab, shop, on the road, retail floor, cube, office — even a few grim days in the Tokyo hive-warrens of a Japanese manufacturing giant. And let me tell you, I’ve got a grip on my home-office desk like Immanuel Rath’s in Der Blaue Engel.

Even though most comic strips are produced by work-from-home types like me, they reflect a pretty broad range of work environments:

They’ll Do It Every Time, 8/8/07

This reprise strip (from faithful reader gh!) shows a roomful of desks — could be anywhere, and any time from 1900 through the late 1970’s. Of course, since it’s TDIET, bet on earlier rather than later.

Dilbert, 9/3/07

Dilbert is famously based on author Scott Adams’s experience in the vast cube farms of Pac Bell (formerly ATT, now — through the miracle of mergers and acquisitions — ATT). Here, we see contracting in action.

My Cage, 8/30/07

With long hours, close quarters, and young workers, work and social boundaries blur — My Cage, by faithful CC reader Ed Power with Melissa DeJesus, seems to capture that vibe, at least to the satisfaction of someone with no exposure to the demographic.

Retail, 9/3/07

And the simmering warfare between retail clerks and customers doesn’t seem to have changed much over the past 30 years. Hey! This one’s based on a submission by long-time reader Adah – way to go! Soon, all comics will be written or submitted by CC readers, and will exist only to mock other such comics! At that point, we will implode.

Gasoline Alley, 9/3/07

Now, here’s somebody with the right idea, and I’m going to take it — no more posts until the Tuesday comics are up — promise! Go have some fun!

— Uncle Lumpy

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Curtis, 9/3/07

This

Curtis, 9/11/06

is

Curtis, 9/19/05

just

Curtis, 9/13/04

shameful.

— Uncle Lumpy

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I closed my eyes.

There was a sound like that of the gentle closing of a portal as big as the sky, the great door of heaven being closed softly.
It was a grand AH-WHOOM.

I opened my eyes—and all the sea was ice-nine.

The moist green earth was a blue-white pearl.

Cat’s Cradle © 1963 by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

For Better or For Worse 9/3/07

Today is Fööberdämmerung — launch of the new, frozen phase of For Better or For Worse.

Well, so they say. In fact, the strip road-tested its “Mike ‘n’ Meredith” photo-reminiscence gimmick back in July — so nothing really begins today. And the current storylines, including the one with Canada’s Favourite Couple, won’t treacle out until early next year — so nothing ends, either. In fact, despite the announcements and interviews, there is no actual event here — it’s like Canadian Grandparents’ Day or something.

Whatever the timeline, I’m conflicted about the conversion of FOOB into a zombie/rerun hybrid:

 Gee!

But!

And Yikes!

Despite all the buildup, the FOOBocalypse turns out to be precisely nothing — perfectly congruent with the way the strip manages characters and events, and oddly satisfying.

AH-WHOOM

— Uncle Lumpy