It's certainly enough to make me cry

I guess I feel bad for Grogley in today's strip, but...meh. Really. It's another, "Yeah, that sucks" strip. I don't disagree with sentiment behind it; he shouldn't have to put up with a harridan wife (and I must admit that it's a nice change to see a husband being beaten down by a wife; far too often it's the opposite). So I'll tell Grogley what I usually tell the put-upon wife: Get out. It's iffier in this case, though, as there are (downtrodden) children. (And Junior doesn't look like he could possibly be "sassy" to his mom; he's far too beat-down.) (And I feel bad for the girl, who has a face like a 55-year-old man.)

I'm trying to figure out the "Your lov-e-ly sarcastic sister called today" line. He is trying to show that the wife is being hypocritical by implying that being sarcastic is bad by using sarcasm herself, right? I almost feel like that's too clever for this strip.

So Grogley's the manager of complaints at a department store. As manager, he'd still have to respond to complaints, but I'd think the vast majority of that would be handled by the people on the front lines (i.e., customer service reps, not the manager). In my world, managers have to deal with a lot of paperwork and such, and deal with actual customer complaints only when a customer requests to talk to the manager. I could be wrong, though.

I think I put my finger on why I can't feel too bad for Grogley (beyond the "manager" issue). This strip harkens back to the ol' "I had a long day at work and just want a nice, quiet dinner at home with the family" situation. (Actually, it blatantly says that in the caption.) Which leads to the work vs. home debate. Because being a stay-at-home mom, from what I've heard, is not easy. She could've had just a crappy a day as him--and honestly, it sound like she did. (Though, "oil delivery man"? Huh? Just say the meter reader or something, Scaduto, because no. Just, no.)

Wow. I guess my thinking on this totally changed. Both Grogley and Mrs. Grogley suck. As does Scaduto, for the "Living on the edge" which doesn't even make sense in this case! Usually when he uses it, it's at least because the wife is about to smack the husband around. Unless...Grogley is about to knock Mrs. Grogley around. Hmm.