CSotD: Don’t Eat at the Duncans, and other advice

Nobody, I said, as I slid down the bannister, could call me a fussy man, but I’m not eating at a place — as demonstrated in today’s Zits (KFS) — where they go out of their way to prevent the dishwasher from cleaning the silverware.

I assume putting the saucers together is to make unloading easier, and of course you don’t set the bowls up so they will fill with water, but nesting the forks and spooning the spoons seems like a purposeful attempt to keep their surfaces from getting washed.

Surely Connie Duncan knows all this.

Scott and Borgman should be sentenced to doing all the dishes for the next three months.

 

By contrast, this Between Friends (KFS) indicates that Sandra Bell Lundy does the shopping in her family, and that’s not a sexist comparison, because I did the shopping in our family, and, yes, you establish certain patterns that not only help you find things but allow you to keep a sort of subconscious shopping list in your head.

However, if you shop on weekends, you’ll see people — okay, predominantly men — who have a written list in hand and are following it slavishly, going from Aisle 3 to Aisle 5 to Aisle 2 to Aisle 7, and then phoning their spouses to ask if tomato paste is the same thing as tomato sauce.

When I was doing all that family shopping years ago, I had one store and it made life easy. Today, I shop at four different stores, depending on whether my main goal is produce, meat, fish or proximity. This makes navigation hard enough without anybody suddenly deciding to swap things around.

 

And another thing …

Zach Weinersmith is luckier than Scott and Borgman, since this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereals should cause him to be sentenced to go shoot pool, not do dishes.

I could be wrong, but I couldn’t think of a game that requires sinking the balls in order, though 9-Ball and Rotation do require hitting the lowest-numbered ball on the table first. I think people are more apt to play 8-Ball or Straight, which don’t even require that.

Granted, it’s been awhile. I remember some nights in which I was down to fifty cents — one quarter on the rail to challenge on the next game and one more for when I lost and had to buy my opponent a beer.

That’s how long it’s been. But I drank a fair amount of beer on those nights.

 

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Lola – AMS)

 

(Frazz – AMS)

Why do I have a feeling that Lola’s about to get one upside the head? Is it because I think the people in comic strips all know each other?

I suppose that, if they did, they’d all come to Frazz for spiritual guidance. He has that gift for offering neutral acknowledgment when that’s needed, dispensing wisdom on occasion, and asking difficult questions when it’s time to do that.

And, if he knows both Caulfield and Lola, he’ll likely remain neutral and as far out of the line of fire as possible.

 

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

(Prickly City – AMS)

 

(Monte Wolverton)

As noted yesterday, we are entering the Horse Latitudes when there is no real news except the occasional disaster, and very little for reporters to do but compile those tiresome Year in Review pieces to fill the pages.

 

As also noted yesterday, the ones from the cartoonists are actually fun, but so far they seem to mostly be buried behind paywalls, though Clay Bennett (CTFP) offers a colorful preview with this graphic.

There are a couple of regulars I’ve got an eye out for, but I’m not going to bother passing along the dead ends. What I will pass along, however, is that the Washington Post is offering $9.99 per year subscriptions if you sign up before the end of the year and the NYTimes is having a dollar-a-week sale.

The Post doesn’t put Telnaes and de Adder behind its paywall, and the Gray Lady doesn’t do much with cartoons at all, but tough times call for arming yourself with good news coverage, so take your pick or grab them both, but keep an eye on your calendar, because when your cheap year is over, they’ll auto-renew you at the not-so-cheap rate.

Still, it’s good to invest in knowing what’s going on, if only to recognize misinformation, as in

 

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

(Dana Summers – Tribune)

 

(Chip Bok – Creators)

 

(Mike Lester – AMS)

Three approaches to the idea that it is foolish to fear the coronavirus.

Summers portrays Biden’s warnings as the ravings of a lunatic, while Bok insists that fear of the pandemic is more harmful than listening to science and to those who advocate it, particularly if those who call for caution are not our political allies.

Meanwhile, Lester proposes the idea that people who are vaccinated and boosted are still afraid of dying of covid, which is simply not true. They just warn that — as former President Trump has said — most of the people who do die were not vaccinated. And, of course, that those who don’t wear masks are more apt to spread the virus.

However, we’ve entered the Era of Alternative Facts, and, if they won’t listen to Donald Trump, they sure as hell won’t listen to you.

 

It’s time for the annual run of Returning Gifts cartoons, and Jeff Berry jumps onto a topic that reflects foolishness from yet another corner.

It would be interesting to see how many NFT and cryptocurrency people are also antivaxxers, since I suspect a lot of crossover among those who were too cool for school.

But debate is pointless. I’ll just suggest you check out this solid takedown of makebelieve money. If you run into a paywall, just read the scary comments from the True Believers.

For that matter, I’d also like to see the crossover of those who believe in cryptocurrency and those who believe in cryptozoology, though it takes a lot longer to piss away your life savings sitting on the banks of Lake Champlain waiting for Champy.

This Champy, that is.

 

Not this equally credible one.