CSotD: On the Eve of Christmas Eve

Big Nate (AMS) has wisely enlisted Dee Dee to help him find a Christmas present for his sister, which sends our brave lad into the forbidden world of estrogen.

I like that Dee Dee uses the term “cute,” because it’s one of the most flexible terms in the female lexicon and can be applied to anything that you like, by which I don’t mean “whatever you want” but, specifically, anything that you like.

That’s small potatoes, however, compared to the divide over smell. Guys don’t understand how much more smell matters to women than it does to them. As I’ve said here before, I heard a Harlequin editor on CBC-Radio explain that, while their books are written under pseudonyms, you can tell the male authors from the female authors because the women include smell in their sex scenes.

But, as even Dee Dee concedes, enough is enough. And Nate is lucky he doesn’t do the grocery shopping in his family, because this is the time of year when you have to wade past the cinnamon brooms, which will clear your sinuses, or, if they are already clear, make your nose bleed.

The thread starts here and is good fun, particularly if you did some wandering this season, or if you miss having done that.

Personally, I miss living just south of Montreal, because Rue Ste. Catharine this time of year is beautiful, with snow and lights and window displays and a thousand languages being spoken around you. Cruising the mall is just not the same thing.

And the border is still open, for the moment.

 

Speaking of Canada, Graeme MacKay offers this view of on-line shopping, and, while it’s hard to rival Montreal for winter atmosphere, I’m sure the 45-minute drive from Hamilton to Toronto would yield a good in-person shopping experience.

I don’t know how much Canada is bound up in the whole supply chain argument, though I know that, just as we have people determined to scapegoat Biden, they have people who live only to find things to blame on Trudeau.

Down here we’re torn between insisting the supply chain is destroying Christmas and insisting that everything is pretty much up to normal and I’m pretty sure neither is particularly true.

Remember, we had fistfights in the toy aisles over Cabbage Patch dolls some 40 years ago. Supply-and-demand is a constant, whatever else is going on.

Getting to MacKay’s actual point, and having shopped on line, we ought not to forget to also give on line. Not only is it possible, but it’s easier, given how few of us carry cash to drop in the buckets any more.

BTW, I’m not accepting any arguments about the Salvation Army. You don’t have to like Sally Ann but that’s no excuse for not helping out somewhere, somehow, and it’s easy to find groups you approve of if you’re donating on-line instead of on the street.

 

You can also spread a little cheer in your own circle. Candorville (WPWG) offers a tug on the heartstrings. This can be a tough time of year indeed, and, and if you missed my take on such things the other day, here’s the link again.

Meanwhile, Lemont needs to learn the difference between condescending charity and sincere affection.

 

Which prompts me to point out today’s Between Friends (KFS), part of the arc I introduced earlier, in which Maeve’s ex invites her to his wedding.

I’ve often cited Maeve’s self-destructive approach to relationships, but it’s particularly striking here, as she and her ex talk, because, in the world of comics, it’s always the guys (hiss! boo!) who can’t commit, but Sandra Bell Lundy is honest and perceptive enough not to hang that entirely on one gender.

Just as Darrin Bell goes against the current to depict Lionel as a young, struggling single father who is perhaps a bit too proud to let a friend help out. Also a bit too blind to realize how much Susan loves him, but, then, she’s a bit undeclared on the topic as well.

In a two-dimensional medium, it’s a pleasure to occasionally encounter three-dimensional characters.

 

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost ripping off your clothes

(Mt. Pleasant – AMC)

 

(Pickles – WPWG)

I just realized, in reading this pair, that I haven’t heard a lot of Holiday Muzak this year. I don’t think any of the grocery stores have switched over, and the only place I remember hearing it was at CVS, where I stood in line for 45 minutes waiting for a prescription.

The only amusement for those of us in line being the Karen who ranted about them closing at 7 pm when she had actually arrived a few minutes past anyway. But they did have Christmas carols going, to help make the wait seem even longer.

Like the goat in Next Door Neighbors, I like Christmas carols. I also like egg nog and fruit cake, but I like them mostly at this time of year and even then only in moderate servings.

I’m not as averse as Earl, but I did work one holiday season in a mall with a short Christmas loop on a continuous thread.

People say that after a while you don’t hear it, but I suspect those are also the people who can happily work in the smelly candle department at the Nesting Nook.

 

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Ann Telnaes)

 

(Steve Kelley – AMS)

The same gag through a very different pair of lenses.

Telnaes ties her parodies to items in the news, while Kelley employs his to contrast good people with bad people, playing on the smash-and-grab robberies being highlighted in the media.

BTW, the Hammer Song is not a Christmas carol. It’s a song of the Civil Rights Movement.

The connection is there, however: Hammering out justice, freedom and love between my brothers and my sisters.

 

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

(Deflocked – AMS)

(Kevin Kallaugher – AMS)

If you haven’t finished shopping, you’ve got today and tomorrow. But I’ll trust you all to keep things in perspective.

 

And I hope the biggest errors you encounter this holiday season are as easily refuted as this Mother Goose and Grimm (KFS):

 

It is, Harry Bliss. It sure is.