Doesn't make me wonder how good is TDIET

Not suprisingly, there are many things about today's strip that annoy me.

1. It is no longer the first half of the 20th century, Al. Movie posters these days no longer say things like, "The greatest movie ever produced!" They did at one point, I admit. I love looking at posters for old movies because of that. But nowadays, the closest you'll come is, "The summer's comedy sensation!"

2. If you're dumb enough to fall for what the movie poster tells you, I can only pity you. You shouldn't go to the theater all, "What should we see? Well, this movie's poster says it's good, so clearly it is. Let's check it out!"

3. No movie has a trailer that includes "Next week." It's the 2000s, Al, not the 1950s. Movies don't change every week. At the very least you could've put "Coming soon" to make it somewhat better.

4. "The movie poster says thus..." Thus? Are you kidding me? Just get rid of it altogether and simply have "The movie poster says..." It makes more sense that way! Geez. Also, "ultraest." Kill me now.

5. Don't believe advertising, particularly when it's just a poster for a movie. Make up your own mind. Read the reviews. Listen to what your friends/family/coworkers recommend.

6. "Enough to make you wonder how good is good." I don't understand. Watch the movie, yo. If you like it, great. If not, well, you were an idiot in making this decision based on the poster alone. That's why there are trailers.

We're talkin' baseball

Scaduto is clearly using today's strip and his knowledge of my love of baseball to suck up to me. When the O's are winning, I have that same idiotic expression as the guy in the top panel. And oh, I do know this pain--the team's out on a long road trip, they do well, you're excited, and you go out and watch them lose. It's painful. But...really, it's not a given that it'll happen every time.

(This reminds me of last season. After the All-Star break, the O's went on a long road trip. They had been tearing it up in the first half, but were starting to fall. Even so, spirits were high. Palmeiro had just had his 3000th hit. Javy Lopez was coming back off the DL. The O's return to Camden Yards. All is exciting. We were only 3.5 back! And...they lose. They win the next night, but lose the next 8. The season goes straight to pot. It totally sucked. We wound up 21 games behind.)

(...Um, yeah, sorry. This is about a comic strip, not baseball.)

The headline "Win 14 out of 16 on road" confuses me. There's no way that the Birdlegs went on a 16-game road trip. The longest road trips are usually around 9 or 10 games, and those are considered pretty darn long. Maybe they had a brief homestand in the middle? The top caption seems to imply this happens a lot, so I'll just assume it's early in the season and they've only had 16 road games, total. Still...odd. Most teams do better at home than on the road.

I noticed that the submitter is from New York, so thought I'd take a gander at the Mets' and Yankees' records. The Mets are 38-26 away, 43-23 at home. Clearly this doesn't apply to them. The Yankees are 38-29 away, 39-23 home. Hmm, a bit closer here, but even so, they still have a better home record than away. Maybe the submitter is complaining about a minor league team?

And the score is 19-0. That smarts.

Detail he got right: Visiting team is listed on top on the scoreboard; home team on bottom. Correct! Good job!

Detail he got wrong: The scoreboard goes to 14 innings? Dang! Most nowadays are electronic, but even the older ones only go to 10 or 11 innings, because honestly, how often do you run into a 14-inning game?

Yes, I have put too much thought into this. Once you get me started on baseball, I won't shut up.

Well-grilled sardine sandwiches would go well with the squid goulash

Today's strip is yet another illustration of an instance where the people it mocks aren't the ones doing anything wrong; the people whose behavior needs to change are the ones who sent in the complaint.

Why, why, why would these people continue to ask Tomainia (which I'm sure has some sort of double-meaning, but I'm too lazy too look it up) to bring food without providing any themselves? It looks like there's a whole table there, ready to hold her various dishes (which, mmm, goat cheese). In the background, that might be a table with food alternatives, but I'm not going to bet on it.

Idiot relatives--Tell her not to bring anything! If she insists, make sure there's other food there to eat! It's really that simple. And don't look so surprised! Again with the inappropriate shocked expressions. They clearly all knew this was coming.

I do appreciate Scaduto's continued examples of horrible food: squid goulash, goat cheese fondue (would this really be bad? goat cheese on its own is good), liver pot pate, lima bean dessert.

And, bicarb? Wha? Clan reunion? Just say "family reunion," Al! Geez. I won't even go into "most worst-cooked dishes," because if I think about it more, my head will explode. At least the "erp" is actually fairly appropriate.

Although I do really like the name Fooster.

Chair + pillow = comfy

Grandma's expression in the top panel of today's strip is an illustration of one of the things that annoys me most about TDIET: People in the background whose expressions make no sense. She has a look of shock or surprise on her face. Why? If Grandpa's exaggerating (which I'm sure he is), she's probably used to it. I have no doubt that he's told this kind of story before. And geez, I'm 27 and pull the, "In my day, I had to walk 10 miles to school, in the snow, up-hill both ways." Does anybody not do that?

Grandpa's excuses in the bottom panel are a bit nuts ("Won't they deliver?" I guess there are grocery delivery services, but they usually have a minimum charge), but really...he's not a kid anymore. I have no idea how old he is, but I'm not about to get on a guy's case for not wanting to walk down to the store to buy some milk. He could just drive down, I supposed, but we're supposed to be all, "When he was young, he walked a lot! Why won't he now?" And...no. This isn't some youngish, 50-something grandpa; he looks pretty old (seriously, his name is "Croaker"). I'm not going to begrudge him an afternoon to sit and watch his stories. Though he should get the milk for his wife.

LOVE the picture on the tv; that doctor is just asking for a sexual harassment suit.

Yes, some of us do still use the postal service

Today's strip brings up an interesting point: Did my parents ever write thank-you notes? Huh. I'm quite sure my father never did (well, perhaps when he was growing up); my mom probably did. Not that I ever saw the proof. I'm now intrigued.

I like the dog (he looks so happy!) and the mother's expression in the top panel; I'm not sure what that's supposed to convey. I'm also a bit curious as to why Arfo's blush isn't red; does Scaduto not have a red pencil? Arfo just looks really dirty.

Anyway...I got nothin'. See you Monday!

TDIET aggravation #1750

Today's strip again includes my favorite car (which anonymous believes to be a 1960 Impala), although, in a freakish turn of events, it seems that the woman driving the car is way too big for it. Seriously. Her head is taller than the windshield! She looks like she's driving some sort of child's car; it'd be like me trying to ride a Big Wheels. (Well, not quite that bad.)

Again with the "sooper"market. He's trying to kill me, I swear. The whole structure of the caption box aggravates me: "Ever happen to you? Soopermarket parking lot aggravation #1,750...Being outnumbered by shopping cards, that is..." Why why why is that "that is" at the end? I can usually let the usual "Oh yeah!" and "Fer sure!" go. And the "that is" wouldn't bother me if he hadn't included the stupid "aggravation #1750" business. You can have one or the other, Scaduto, but not both. Structurally, it doesn't work.

And no, that has never, ever happened to me. Ever. The closest is when I'm trying to park the car, only to find a cart in a parking space. That's annoying. But never have I been blocked in by carts that are in the middle of the road. And why is she so surprised? I mean, I realize that she did park right next to the store (convenient!), but how could she miss all those carts right in front of her car? And her problem isn't that she's outnumbered by carts, it's that she's blocked in by them. Gah!

I will sandwich him to the moon

Strips like today's strip upset me a lot more than they should. I think we're supposed to react by laughing and saying, "Yeah, that is annoying," whereas my reaction is more along the lines of yelling at the beleagured wife to just leave her jerk husband already.

Honestly, if my (hypothetical) husband berated me for serving sandwiches for dinner, including a sarcastic "A fine housekeeper you are!!" to it (which doesn't even make sense, as I consider "housekeeping" to be stuff more like cleaning and doing laundry; really, he should've been all, "Some chef you are!"), I would take the sandwiches away from him, eat one myself, throw the other away (and notice that there's only one sandwich; does she not get to eat?), and let him fend for himself. I somehow doubt that he could come up with anything better than a sandwich himself.

I mean, look at his expression in the top panel. He has totally lost it. Elpeena needs to get out of this relationship ASAP.

This strip almost riled me up to the point that I didn't notice that it's another "Living on the edge" entry. Almost. Ditto the horrifying looking cabbage (is that neon green?) and the "yum...yeah...yum-m." It's like these people have Tourette syndrome, and their tic is to say that word "yeah" a lot.

I kinda like the name "Rapadapa"

Woo hoo! The black convertible returns in today's strip. And I'm enjoying the fact that there is no "bad guy" in today's strip, either; no alleged idiots other, I suppose, than the people who named the various bodies of water.

The time warp in the second panel is fantastic. From the woman's outfit, I'd say she's from the late 1800s/early 1900s. The man, however, seems to be wearing a more modern suit, which is confusing. I'm just going to have to go ahead and assume that she's a time traveler, and he's pointing out the country's landmarks. She's clearly about to tell him how there used to be a small cottage on the banks of the Rapadapa River, explaining the patch of land where there's no grass.

And yes, it's amazing how even though in one particular location a river is fairly narrow, it's still a river! Let's ignore the fact that it could be huge in other sections. And I've never seen anything that big called a creek--250 yards??? That's 2.5 football fields! (Which Scaduto clearly didn't take into account when he drew the thing.)

Honestly, this kind of reminds of those "Why do we park on a driveway and park on a driveway?" things.

We get it. You don't like doctors.

As soon as I saw that today's strip was set in a hospital, I sighed. Seriously, what does Scaduto (and, I guess, the people who send in these ideas) have against the medical system? God knows it's not perfect, but the situations he highlights are hardly the ones that most people encounter, namely, waiting forever for a doctor and only getting to see him or her for 5 seconds before he or she bustles out. ("D'ja ever notice that you wait, you know, um, forever to see Dr. Tardy...but it seems like as soon as he's in the door, he goes right back out it! Oh yeah!")

Anyway. I'm trying to figure out why exactly this guy is getting a visit from a dietician in the first place. It looks like he's suffering from a broken arm. (My theory is that Scaduto is convinced that people need to be wrapped up in bandages to justify their presence in a hospital. Just draw some IVs, dude!) I believe that most people who are visited by a dietician have undergone something that will affect their diet--maybe they had something removed from their body, so they can no longer digest food. Maybe they had a heart attack. Maybe they were diagnosed with diabetes.

And just because this woman is overweight doesn't mean she doesn't know what's good and bad to eat. It's the same thing as doctors who smoke. And pretty much all of us know what we should eat (broccoli, carrots, whole wheats), and yet at least occasionally indulge in things we shouldn't (funnel cake, McDonald's, Twinkies). And how I could give dating advice to others without necessarily a fabulous track record myself. Just because we know what we should do doesn't mean we actually do it ourselves. This is a universal problem.

Unrelated, has anyone else ever had a bowl of chicken broth? I thought it wouldn't be too bad--I imagined it would be like chicken noodle soup, only without the noodles and small chicken bit--but it was dreadful. Blech.

Dear Al Dente, Please come clean my kitchen. Kisses, Barb

Yes, I would imagine that the situation in today's strip would suck, but is it really that common? First of all, not many of us could relate, seeing how the vast majority of readers are not, I would imagine, chefs running a restaurant. I guess we're supposed to translate that into things that happen to us at work.

However, a sink backing up and a stove going berserk don't really account for the total chaos in the kitchen. I really think I need more details here. How long ago did these things happen? I'd think that the stove malfunctioning would actually cause Al Dente (very clever, Scaduto!) to close the restaurant for the evening. And does the Health Board allow for contingencies? I honestly don't know.

I guess Scaduto is aiming for a niche market segment today.

Color me baffled

I'm trying to figure out what about today's strip doesn't make sense, or is supposed to be wrong or upsetting. The dad (Hekkie Sr.?) wants the door open for a breeze because he doesn't have air conditioning. When he gets the a/c, he wants to make sure the door stays closed. What...is bad about that? I'm completely stumped.

Of course, if his wife is Catastra from the August 5 strip, she might welcome the heat from the outside coming in a bit.

Also confusing? Li'l Herkimer's hands motions as he comes through the door.

Man, those cars have HUGE wheels

Today's strip marks the return of the old, black convertible. Welcome back! It's positively been days since we've seen you! Or, a day. Since Wednesday, in fact. Sad. There are other types of cars, Al.

Anyway, yes, it is annoying when the car in front of you uses the first pump. Well, I imagine it would be. I don't know that I've ever had that happen to me. I like how Scaduto drew a barrel and other crap in the bottom right corner to show that our hapless driver can't just go around, which is what most people would do in that situation.

I don't see being annoyed with people because they're filling up the tank; don't most people? Maybe not always, but it's not that rare, is it? And yet, it's the final straw, pushing the driver to want to "hi-test" the other one to the moon (I guess Scaduto is a big Honeymooners fan, judging from his fondness of threatening to "blank" someone to the moon a lot).

Again with the misuse of the word "nerd." That's not what a nerd is, Al! Catch up on the slang! "Nerd" has only been in common usage since...um...well, my entire life, and I'm almost 28. Need another sign that Al's living in 1955? The gas station worker, in the overalls, with the old-fashioned oil can. Water can? Not sure.

I'll tell you what isn't sooper

I'm trying to be positive about today's strip. At least it's not a recycled idea. And, um...Shoot. I'm out of positive things to say.

Because, really. "Soopermarket"? Soopermarket? I'm cringing. A lot. That is just so wrong. It's not like he's trying to go for the phonetic spelling, as "sooper" and "super" are pronounced the same way. It's just wrong and bad. Ugh. And "calorie cart"? Do people actually use that term? Because they're stupid and wrong.

And no, that has never ever happened to me. If a cart sucks inside the store, it sucks outside the store, too. It usually sucks more outside, because it's rolling over asphalt, not pretty, shiny, slippery tiles. Maybe the problem is that the submitter is from San Francisco, which I hear is a fairly hilly city (I've never been, so I wouldn't know). Perhaps F. Fiorino's local grocery store is located on a hill, so whenever he/she takes his/her cart outside, it rushes down the hill--gravity is tricky that way.

This did get me to wonder whether people submit ideas that are fairly reasonable, but Scaduto just changes them around for humor reasons. Like, he'll read something and be like, "Yeah, that's true, but it needs to be funnier!" and then totally mess with it. I wonder if I contacted one of these people and asked whether the strip illustrated what was sent, whether the person would say yes, or whether the person would complain about how Scaduto messed with his/her idea.

Searching for Crovney

OK, wow. The hatred that Nerdly shows for mailmen (shouldn't that be "mail carriers"?) in today's strip blows me away. Who has such strong feelings about mailmen? I can understand not being terribly fond of them--I mean, really, the vast majority of my mail is either bills or junk. (Scaduto, not realizing that it's no longer the 1950s, needs to hop on the e-mail train; though he does have an e-mail address himself, so, I don't know.) But dang! And if that's one of his favorite things to talk about? And who's really around to personally receive the mail from their mail carrier? I guess Nerdly is retired, and waits for that moment every time, when he can go out and berate his mailman. And they wonder why these people go postal!

His wife really does need to stop him, though. She's obviously shocked and horrified, even though this is apparently a commonplace occurrence.

I love how lost Nerdly is in the bottom panel, though. Particularly the fact that he doesn't know what town he's in. Awesome. I'd imagine that he'd probably know the Crovneys' address, at least, and a mail carrier would be an excellent source to ask. You know, assuming you were in the right general location.

I do wish to point out that "Nerdly" isn't the right name in this situation. There's nothing nerd-like about what he's doing, which is essentially being a big, jerkish bully--not exactly traits of a nerd.

The Adventures of Pasty McWhiterson

Today's strip got me all riled up. Like Pale Perko, I am one of the whitest, pastiest people around. There's a glare off my legs when I wear shorts. Except for my face, which is ruddy (thanks, German heritage!), and my forearms, which have the faintest of farmers' tans, I am white white white. Frighteningly so.

And Al, do you know what happens when I go to the beach and soak up the sun? If I have on sunscreen--which, duh, some of us want to avoid skin cancer--then I don't really tan. Maybe if I had a nice, long vacation, I would, but if we're talking 3 or 4 days...nope, I remain pasty white. If I go light on the sunscreen, I turn a lovely shade of red. Like, immediately. There's very little in between.

So what's the problem with Pale taking a vacation at the beach? There's something innately relaxing about just being on the beach, hearing the waves, relaxing. Seriously, G. Schiffman from Ft. Lauderdale, shut up. I'm sorry that pasty people who visit your area and refuse to brown themselves somehow offends you.

I like how all the men at the beach seem to be older, paunch-having gentlemen, whereas the two women we see clearly are "knock-outs" (bikinis, styled hair). Well, at least they aren't excessively thin. I just wish Scaduto could've added a could of good-looking men...although, really, I don't think he knows how to draw good-looking men.

I will from now on refer to my car as my "gas chariot"

When I returned from my trip yesterday, I glanced at the strips that I missed. And man, did I not miss anything. It's summer, so reruns are to be expected, right?

While I wouldn't say that today's strip involves a situation they'll do every time, it does seem pretty typical. I knew quite a few guys in high school who kept their cars nice and shiny--it makes sense. Lots of people see your car. You drive it to school every day. Cindy Cheerleader that Junior wants to impress will see it. On the other hand, not many people will see his bedroom, and the people who do see it will most likely be other teenaged boys, who don't care. Squalor is a perfectly acceptable setting in which to play video games.

What makes no sense is that this confuses his parents. Also, his comment about not being able to stand sitting in a messy car (admittedly, I knew--and still know--a lot of people with very messy cars who have well-maintained homes) doesn't really make sense, mostly because Scaduto isn't even trying to understand the motivation behind the behavior.

And I'm sure we all noticed immediately that Junior's car isn't exactly a 2007 model.

I'm going to refrain from commenting on Junior's hair, but...OK, I'll just say that I'm getting a flashback to Prince Valium in Spaceballs.

Run away, run away!

I'm fleeing town for a long weekend, so sadly I won't be around to reflect on the undoubtedly thought-provoking upcoming strips. I'll be back Monday.

Those are some informative boxes

I don't know if I'm getting stupider or what, but it took me a minute to figure out today's strip. It wasn't until I bothered looking at the name of the store on the box that I realized what was going on. I was like, "Well, I'm sure they have Macy's up in Nome, too." I grew up living on the opposite side of the country from my dad's side of the family, and never had these problems. I'm happy to see the return of Lulula; too bad she's the baddie in the strip.

And what small boy will look that happy modeling a sweater he got from his aunt--a pink sweater, at that. At his age, he doesn't want his presents to be clothing; he wants toys, dang it. Give him a truck, or some sort of video game. Give him a baseball glove or a football.

But of course, that's not how aunts/cousins work, I suppose. I'm sure he'll get over the disappointment soon enough.

And I notice that it was submitted by, God help us, Aunty Fifi in Silver Spring, MD. Seriously, is there some newspaper around here that carries this strip? Where do all these submitters read it??? "Aunty Fifi." Sheesh.

Ein anderer Dummkopf

I saw the huge exposition box in today's strip and shuddered--that's never a good sign. But what really blows me away is the sheer amount of dirty dishes Mr. and Mrs. Leadbutt have lying around their kitchen (living room? kitchen/living room? I'd say the staircase Leadbutt is coming down must be the back staircase, but the presence of the table with the lamp on it is throwing me off). Seriously, that is way more than just one night's worth of dishes, unless they had some sort of dinner party, which I guess is possible.

I'm totally thrown off by the "lighting" in this strip. It actually looks like it's the middle of the night; or, at least, that it's dark (maybe a winter morning? do they just get up really early?). The lack of color of anything besides the Leadbutts is bothering me as well; it makes it much harder to make out anything in the room.

Also, "frau"? I guess Scaduto took German in high school or something.

Scaduto does get points for including that Mrs. Leadbutt works hard and the message of the strip is a valid one. And it reminds me of the times that after dinner, my dad would be all, "Oh, honey, you don't have to clean up the kitchen tonight!" to my mom. Then he'd say, "Barb will clean up!"

Only I always actually did. Which makes me better than Leadbutt. Woo.

Do puppy pizzas give puppy power?

I'm sure there's some sort of alleged point to today's strip, but every time I try to look at it, I wind up thinking, "Puppy pizza? Puppy pizza? Huh? What would that have on it?"and then I'm just useless for the next 5 minutes. But that's what Google is for, right? Of course, now that I know, I'm just frightened. And it's certainly not something you just go to Giant and pick up.

OK, well, now I can move on to the strip. And no, that's never happened to me. If I see a sign that says "Sale," I usually glance to see what the original price was; I think pretty much all grocery stores tell you (right?). It is kind of weird that different grocery stores charge different amount for the same items, I guess; I just figure out which stores are the expensive ones, and which ones are cheaper.

I like how the grocery store worker at the cheaper store is all smiling and happy--his store isn't cheating anyone! Whereas the other worker looks kind of downbeat.

Anyway, no harm, no foul. It's not like she paid more and then found a lower price.

It's getting hot in here, but don't take off all your clothes. Please.

(Apologies...family was in town over the weekend, cruelly keeping me from the computer.)

Yesterday's strip is a timely one, depicting the recent heat wave that's struck much of the U.S. Like all other TDIETs, it's a deep, moving commentary on the trials facing the nation.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Just kidding. I slay me.

I really don't see what the issue is here, unless Scaduto and submitter J. Kitzner don't understand that sometimes, the air conditioner can be on too high. Yes, that's right, folks; air conditioned rooms can be chilly! Anyone who's ever gone to a movie theater knows this. It's a trial during the summer; you want to wear light, cool clothing because it's 800 degrees out and the humidity is insane, shooting the heat index up to 1000 degrees, but you also know that it's about 45 degrees in your office. You look like an idiot carrying a sweater to work, but you also know that you'll spend the next 8 hours shivering if you don't. This is incredibly common.

I'm not even going to get into women being cold vs. men being comfortable. But I don't think that's necessarily the issue here. Possibly it is, in which case, shut it, Scaduto, and shut it, Kitzner.

I'd go look for previous Catastra strips, but am too lazy. Sorry!

Shocker: A non-recycled concept!

Interesting twist in today's strip, in that I don't think there's anybody involved that we're supposed to see as being wrong. Well, maybe Hocker and his wife for letting their kid answer the phone, but really, what can you do? (Side note: I had to read "Boss Honcho dials Hocker" something like 4 times to realize that the boss is named Honcho and the guy is named Hocker.)

Not that Boss Honcho comes off as sounding too nice. He probably doesn't know how to deal with small children, because throwing in a "Y'hear?" is not doing anyone any good. Also, "Do yez-z-z?" Ack. The child horrifies me. The puppy's name is "Soozu"? I just don't understand. Any why is the dog on a leash inside the house? Is she about to walk the dog?

I get the feeling from the "Heh heh" in the exposition box that we're supposed to be mocking the boss for calling and needing to talk to Hocker on short notice. Which...yeah, is a bit unreasonable. Was this phone call totally unexpected?

Obviously it's Friday; I'm just all over the place. But I do think that whenever somebody asks to talk to someone else, I'm going to say, "Ooko, who?"

If anyone finds a trapeze artist/ladder joke, let me know

Ah, today's strip marks the return of Migraina, last seen on July 27. She doesn't seem to be the most supportive of wives, what with telling her husband to stop telling stories and having no sympathy for him when he's in the hospital.

I suppose we could look at today's strip in two ways. The first is, I imagine, how we're supposed to; namely, that once Migraina hooked her husband, she did her best to suppress everything that she fell in love with. Or, at least his sense of humor.

The second is the way I can't help but read it; namely that they're going to a party with people they've probably seen a number of times and to whom the husband has already told his stories. "Oh man, there he goes again," you can just hear the party-goers say. "Not the trapeze artist and the ladder again!" (I'm sure there's a reverse TDIET for this somewhere; oh wait, there is.) Really, she's doing him a favor by stopping him from boring all of their friends; her problem, like so many others in the TDIET world, is that she's doing it in an obnoxious way.

Is it wrong that I'm happy that Migraina is still a redhead? I can pretend that Scaduto means it to be the same woman. She looks a bit older in the July 27 strip, though. The husband's hair looks different, though.

Scaduto vs. doctors...again

Today's strip proves that Scaduto--and the people of America, I guess--really don't like doctors. And are easily influenced by television and its portrayal of doctors. It was only last Thursday's strip that examined the differences between a wife's reaction to a tv character's illness and her husband's; the July 4th strip lamented high-cost precriptions that don't do anything; and on June 14, Scaduto railed against hospitals with lots of non-health workers (whose desks, naturally, did not have anything more technologically advanced than a cup of coffee).

More than make me shake my head and sigh--which is what the typical TDIET strip does--this one makes me annoyed. Does Scaduto know anything about the health care system? I imagine the doctor is more than overworked. I'd suggest the patient call for a nurse, but there's a bit of a nursing shortage. It's all well and good to say that doctors should remain by their patients' sides 24/7, but that's not realistic. And I certainly wouldn't go so far as to suggest that this implies that doctors aren't concerned about their patients.

(I mean, yes, of course, there are a lot of jerky doctors out there. I won't deny that.)

And really--you broke your leg. What do you want the doctor to do? Unless...I guess he could also have a concussion or something. Can you tell that I haven't dealt much with hospitals? (And I like it that way, thanks.)

I am amused at the woman's "My, my!" in reaction to the tv show. I think it's cute for anyone to have that reaction. You know her full thought is, "My, my, that doctor is hot!" That's not concern on her face; it's lust. Trust me.

At least Papa Bear is pulling his weight

Today's strip isn't so much a case of being wrong--that situation sucks, and if I were the wife, I'd kill the husband--as not being a case of something they'll do every time. I'm sure it happens on occasion; it just sucks that Papa Bear is bringing home pizza on a night Mom made a big ol' turkey dinner instead of a night where she's heating up leftovers. And again, this is a case of Mom pulling ol' Papa Bear aside and telling him that the next time he has the urge to grab pizza for dinner, call first. (Though, since it is still the 1950s, he'd have to call from work, as this is the time before cell phones.) I know there were a number of times growing up that my mom would just be starting dinner, and my dad would call and suggest going out. If Mom was too far along with dinner prep, we'd stay home. That wasn't usually the case; Dad was pretty good with gauging when to call.

Right. Anyway. That is quite a spread Mom has; in addition to the turkey, there are at least three or four other dishes (the only one of which I can positively identify is the corn; and is that ice cream or eggs?). That almost seems like a special occasion dinner.

Two other notes: Not "Living on the edge" again! I swear, he's trying to kill me. And Papa Bear actually says, "Yeah!" at the end of his dialogue bubble. Awesome.

Oh! Maybe the pizza is for the family's dog...because who refers to dinner as "din-din" when not talking to an animal or baby? Seriously, I'm looking at that and wincing.