CSotD: Leftovers

Monty (AMS)‘s pal Moondog is still hauling a turkey around and aren’t we all?

Thanksgiving leftovers are something people in cartoons complain about but that I suspect people in real life not only don’t mind but actually enjoy.

The microwave really shines this time of year, when you can quickly recreate Thanksgiving dinner in miniature, cold turkey sandwiches are a highlight of the season and, when it comes to the end, you can boil that carcass down, toss in some celery and onion, maybe carrots, for the kind of soup November weather was made for.

 

Granted, this assumes you have some rudimentary kitchen skills. Between Friends (KFS) suggests otherwise, though my kids are better cooks than I was.

Somehow, we seem to have created a binary culinary universe in which some people go way over the top with exotic dishes and the others can’t boil water.

Maybe it’s a result of our overscheduled lives. I learned to cook from hanging around the kitchen talking to my folks while my mom made dinner, and my boys learned to cook hanging out while I cooked. I suppose if people are flying in and out from meetings and practices, they don’t have time to stand around talking, and observing.

In some families, they barely have time to eat the stuff together, much less enjoy the social element of preparing it en group.

I bought a Julia Child book, by the way, but it had too much preparing this and pinning that and tucking the other and I wasn’t that interested. I like a more primitive style of homecooking, which, in its lowest and least celebrated form, consists of looking in the cupboards and figuring something out.

Perhaps on a slightly higher level than this 2000 Tom the Dancing Bug, but somewhat along those lines.

 

I like the kind of homecooking seen in this 2002 Arlo & Janis, which drew my all-time favorite, “Wait, what?” punchline ever.

The original point being less about food than about the fact that we’re in a bit of a cartoon leftovers trough at the moment, since a lot of political cartoonists have taken the holiday off and all they’ve left behind are yawners about leftovers and political arguments at the table and turkeys coming up with ingenious ways to avoid being slaughtered.

 

The strippers, of course, have to keep on schedule, and Tank McNamara (AMS) even drops a rather large bit of news on a weekend when little generally happens.

There is a lot of potential in Tank and Barb tying the knot, starting with how much foo-foo happens in the case of a first marriage between a pair of grown-ups.

I remember being a bit stunned by someone who, in her late 30s, threw herself a Barbie Dream Wedding and when I say “herself” I mean it. “I’ve been planning this since I was six,” she declared and nobody doubted her for a minute.

One of the chief elements in The Philadelphia Story being how incredibly spoiled Tracy Lord is, in staging a first wedding that isn’t even a first wedding.

It’s hilarious in a movie. Considerably less so in real life.

I expect Barb to be a little more pragmatic and to include Tank in her plans, though it probably won’t be as understated as a second marriage.

I’m sure there will be hijinx.

 

I’m also hoping that, as a married couple, they’ll bring in some of the domestic humor of Second Chances, a Millar/Hinds strip that I still miss.

 

The current story arc in Sherman’s Lagoon (KFS) has hardly that sort of lasting potential, but it does bring back memories of the falling of Skylab back in 1979, which I mostly remember because a woman Then-Wife was working with was not only terrified that the debris would fall on her, but was, for some reason, convinced that it would only kill her if she happened to be outside when it hit.

Obviously, the mission was not to explain to her not to worry, that it would also pulverize the building they worked in.

In case you thought paranoia and illogic were something new.

 

As it happens, Skylab crashed to Earth in Australia, home of David Pope, who offers this highlight in history, suggesting that we haven’t changed all that much after all. Best part is that you don’t have to recognize his “peasants” to get the point, and a laugh.

 

While John Auchter, operating on this side of the planet, comments on something from that side of the planet.

Singapore is noted for some draconian laws, but treating people as if they had American health coverage must surely be a violation of international law.

 

Finally today, this Rhymes With Orange (KFS) brought back a memory.

I was presenting to about 100 juniors and seniors one Friday and noticed that a girl in the third row indeed had orange makeup, whiskers and cat ears. It was really distracting, but one thing you learn in dealing with young people is that you absolutely must not under any circumstances comment on their eccentric fashion choices.

Still, it seemed strange, since most of the really bizarre stuff happens in middle school, not among the 16-to-18 crowd.

However, I soldiered through the period, trying very hard not to stare at this odd child.

Then the bell rang, those classes filed out and a new set of kids filed in, among whom was a girl in a blue gingham dress and braids, clutching a wicker picnic basket.

Dorothy Gale, as I live and breathe.

Turns out it was the start of Homecoming Weekend and the cheerleaders were all dressed in Wizard of Oz costumes, the previous period having included the Cowardly Lion.

It was still pretty bizarre, but at least I was allowed to mention it, and the kids got a pretty good laugh at my expense.

 

Enjoy your leftovers!