A teenager girl who doesn't want to talk to her mother? Shocking!

I'm having a hard time with today's strip. Are we supposed to be upset that as a teenager, Shalimar didn't want to talk with her mother, but as an adult, she likes talking to her mother? Is asking advice a bad thing? Are we supposed to correlate her talking to mother with her getting married (as opposed to just growing up and maturing)?

No, I guess we're supposed to focus on her asking for help with a down payment. I shouldn't complain that that's not exactly uncommon, seeing that this is "They'll Do It Every Time." This is supposed to be stuff that happens frequently. And I guess we're supposed to judge hubby Ragmop as a doofus (since that's how he's drawn).

I don't know. Maybe it would help if Al specified that Shal only ever shows up to ask for money. But I'm in a sunny mood and looking forward to seeing my mom this weekend, so I'm going to come down on Shal's side, and say that it's nice that she wants to talk to her mom.

And hey, Mom could always try to pull a Gilmore Girls-type promise that in order to get the money, Shal and Ragmop have to have dinner with her every week.

Hey, I actually shoveled more than I had to this weekend

I feel like we've seen today's strip before, but I'm in too much of a rush to be able to dig through the archives. Al gets props for timeliness--winter, snow, etc. It makes sense. My main problem with the strip is not that Dragbutt is balking at shoveling the sidewalk. It's that there's only an inch of snow. Does that really need to be shoveled? I don't really think so. It's not that much. I suppose it'd be nice, but it's hardly necessary. Unless, of course, the weather there is such that the snow probably won't be melting anytime soon (and, seeing how the submitter is from Maine, it probably won't) (but then, if these people did live in Maine, they wouldn't blink at a mere inch of snow).

And really, I'm more concerned about my back than my heart when I shovel snow.

By "suburbs," does he mean "Florida"?

Today's strip is another in the suburbs vs. the city series. Swell. Maybe I'm jaded from living in DC, where housing isn't cheap in the suburbs, either, but I don't think people move from the city to the burbs for the cheap housing. Or, the housing might be cheaper, but that's because most people, when retiring, go from a larger home to a smaller home.

Anyway, most of this strip is over my head. I rent an apartment, and thus know next to nothing about condo associations and assessment fees (or "a$$e$$ment charges"). I realize that means higher property taxes, but in the long run, it means you get to sell your condo for more, so that's good. Plus, a pool!

I would also like to point out that those look less like condos and more like bungalows. They are very cute, though.

I'm not dead yet

No, I haven't been carried away by the TDIET police. I actually started a new job this past week, and thus have been fairly busy and somewhat preoccupied. But I'm settling in, so hopefully should be able to get back to posting regularly. I haven't looked at TDIET this past week, so hopefully I didn't miss anything good. Though I did notice that the strip on Tuesday was the one pictured in that article about Scaduto. Nice!

Women like shopping, men like sports

I think the big question about today's strip is, Why is there so much red? Both Annoyia and Alf are wearing red, and with one exception, everything in Flo's Boutique is red, or has red in it. I'd accept it if this were the February 14 strip, but...got me. Maybe to Al, we commemorate President's Day by wearing red? It's patriotic, I guess.

(And speaking of Al, faithful reader Setgreen emailed me this link to an article about Al. And seeing that picture of him makes me feel really guilty about making fun of this strip. It feels really mean. So I'm trying to forget I ever read it.) (Hey! I wonder if the strip included is the one from tomorrow! We'll have to wait and see, but I'm excited.)

I'm confused about the timing within this strip. I suppose Annoyia could've gone, bought the gift certificate, seen the dresses, and picked them out. But it seems kind of odd. Clearly she either didn't actually intend on shopping while she was there, or went through the motions of buying the certificate first as a ruse. In either case, there's no way that Alf has already been standing there long enough to have cobwebs magically form on him.

And now I'm totally distracted by the "Dream on, brother," as it's making me think of Desmond from Lost.

Shocking! A strip related to doctors!

As martin pointed out the other day in the comments, if it's something you'll never see, how can it be something they do every time?

I realize that even though today's strip seems like a repeat of a strip we've seen pretty recently, I think, in fairness, that it's been a while since the "You wait a long time at the doctor's office!" strip. I do know that "medical" was the first tag I made, though. Really, I have nothing to say about this. Yes, people generally wait a long time at the doctor's office. I do want to smack Mister Noodnik around a bit; if you know that you're going to spent 2 hours waiting, then bring something to read. Don't whine about the old magazine. I would also like to say that at my doctor, they have a tv. Of course, it just shows some sort of health-related program, but hey.

Another twofer

Apologies for another double-up...my life just gets away from me sometimes.

It makes me sad that Al never seems to do any holiday strip. I have to believe that people have foibles related to holidays. Unless we assume that in yesterday's strip, the couple is going out to a nice Valentine's Day dinner. But really, M. Hariton, this is why we have Tivo or a DVR or even a VCR. Love how the husband actually swears about all these shows being on at the same time. My big question, though, is the "Only an old movie on at 2 a.m." almost makes it seems like there's literally nothing on tv, not just anything good. I will give credit for the feast vs. famine thing. Somewhat clever. Good job.

In today's strip, after reading just Loopina's dialogue, I got annoyed with her. I think it's the hand wave. And then I read the mother's dialogue. Good God. Talk about your overreactions. Of course, judging from her her freakout in the bottom panel, this seems to be common. And at least in the bottom panel, Mom appears to be whispering; it's obvious in the top panel that whoever's calling can hear every word being said. And now I'm curious about why Loopina doesn't want any calls. Hmm. Anyway. People are hypocritical! Shocking. I do like "The phone was on the other ear," though.

Catching up

It's two for one today, since I didn't post yesterday.

Yesterday's strip is awesome for having Fauna and her boyfriend go steady. I'm debating whether or not he looks like a shiftless loafer. I want to say no, mostly because he's wearing a suit and tie, which I find impressive. I wonder where he and Fauna are going! The person who annoys me the most in this strip is the dad. Hey, Dad! You could've stepped in and stopped Fauna from being a brat yourself! Raising a kid doesn't rest solely on Mom's shoulders! Sorry, I think I'm making too much sense.

Today's strip is another case where the basic premise is correct--one frequently does come back from vacation to find a lot of voicemail and e-mail waiting. And we again see a computer! Shocking. But..."E-mail glop"? And did you not bring a cell phone? Maybe they don't have them. Even if I accepted the answering machine premise, the recording should clearly be something like, "You have 23 new messages and 4 old messages," not what he has. Also? That mail is probably mostly junk. Sure, everyone still gets regular mail, and some of it is important. But there's no way that there would be a large pile like that that isn't easily sorted into junk mail vs. personal mail.

Patience is a virtue, Frank

I admit that most of the time, I don't even notice the "Oh-h-h yeah!" that Al generally throws into the strips. But in today's strip, I just couldn't ignore it. And it made me laugh. It's such a cliche for him to throw it in totally randomly. I think that's why I loved it.

Also awesome is that there's really so little to this strip. I mean, look at the acknowledgement box. It's ginormous! And instead of the usual "Thanx to" we get a huge "So sez."

I can get behind the general concept here, but not the way it's drawn. Four people lined up isn't good, but what's odd is that there aren't any other lanes open. I guess it's a fairly quiet time of day. And it looks like Dragbutt there was herding carts, which also needs to be done. I can get as impatient as the next person when it comes to waiting in line, but usually I can see that it's because there aren't any available employees.

And it doesn't even really look like the women in line are that impatient (and isn't it nice that is't only women? Because men obviously don't go to the supermarket) (although I'm happy he called it a "supermarket" not a "soopermarket"). None look happy, but the women at the front of the line has the same general expression as the rest.

The manager should also know that it's totally unprofessional to chew out an employee in front of the customers like that, too. Really, a simple, "Hey, Dragbutt, the line's getting long; go open another register" would've sufficed.

The child in the background frightens me

Today's strip just absolutely blew me away. Al does know what a computer is! He's heard of blogs and the Internet! (Although now I'm thinking that the contributor probably wrote "Kids who spend all their time on the Internet updating their blogs," so Al didn't have to fret about proper usage there.) Although I do need to point out that "that Internet" and "blogs" are hardly "the latest technology trends." I mean, I've had a blog since 2000, and I'm hardly a trend-setter.

I am, however, a "total computer-armchair potato."

I'll just ignore, also, that this strip totally applies to me. I love listening to records on a turntable (this does not mean, however, that I don't enjoy listening to new CDs). There's something comforting about the sounds of a record. I can't explain it. My sister has an awesome cassette/CD/record player. I covet it.

And maybe Loopina does like "the old-time sound," and since it's available on records that her folks already own, she doesn't feel the need to blow money on CDs when she can listen to it for free.

Mmm, vacation

I can kind of sympathize with today's strip. Growing up, my family tended to take trips to tropical places during the rainy season. But really, this is more a case of, "Yeah, that sucks" (which is the correct description for the examples in "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette) that something that happens every time. Unless you have particularly bad luck. Or parents who travel during the rainy season.

And while that does totally suck, if you're going on a tropical beach vacation, you're probably going to relax. Which, quite honestly, you can do in a hotel room. And then you won't have to worry about sunburn! By the time I went on a cruise last fall, I didn't really care if it had rained the whole time. I could've spent the week in bed and been content. Though going snorkeling and parasailing was awesome. So.

The people in the background frustrate me, because it shows that Al can draw attractive people, he just chooses not to. Ever.

And what's up with the arror pointing to the balloon in the top panel? Oh, we're supposed to read that! Thanks for pointing it out, Al!

Isn't a "detritus-chewing drain" a garbage disposal?

I'm happy that in today's strip, Al has returned to using the proper spelling of Migraina. That "y" in there totally threw me off.

As for the content...yeah. I admit it. I totally do this. (Did this. I don't have a dishwasher in my current apartment.) Because my mom does it, probably. Now, I don't have to get everything off the dishes, but I definitely scrape off a lot of it. It helps keep the dishwasher clean, I imagine, and it's really not that much effort. I can't really explain it. But rinsing doesn't mean cleaning, you know; it just means getting off the extra food remnants. But would she really call it "the machine"? That just rings false.

My question is, Did Migraina do the rinsing business with her old dishwasher as well? If she didn't, then yeah, this makes no sense. If she did do it before, well, it's habit.

Love the pageboy-haircutted son next to her.

The strip that induces guilt

I admittedly have some mixed feelings writing about today's strip, as I notice that it comes from someone in Louisiana--just outside New Orleans, it looks like. Admittedly this means that the person felt that a good way to deal with his frustration that possibly stemmed from Katrina was to submit it to Al, which is odd, at best. But still.

I will ask, though, what insurance agent actually comes to your house to deliver a policy? And honestly, these people are already at the agent's office. I seem to remember just walking out of the insurance agent's office, policy in hand, when I did this.

Really, it seems that the insurance agent is really just a scam artist. (Unless, of course, this actually happened to this guy after Katrina. Insurance agents at that time must have been overwhelmed, and if the only damage to the house is a single broken window, I can see an insurance agent putting these people off for a while.) Because there's no way this should take a couple of weeks. Geez, when I had fairly major damage to my car, the insurance company had someone out the same day to take pictures. (And I'll just pimp Erie Insurance here, because I've had to deal with them a few times and have had nothing but good experiences.)

Why is "After a tree falls on your house" followed by a question mark? It really should read "But after a tree falls on your house, where is your agent then?" Or something similar. Though when I'm reduced to critiquing Al's punctuation in the expo boxes...that's a bad sign.

I'm also starting to get weirded out by the fact that the characters in the strip look at the reader, to get our sympathy. I find it freaky.

The key is to pick up an easy meal while you're shopping

The big mystery in today's strip is the spelling change in Migraina's name to Mygraina. Is Al trying to trip us up so we no longer see the connection to the word "migraine"?

I will make a confession. I totally do this thing all the time. I'll go through my cookbooks, find some recipes, do a big trip to the grocery, and come home and have, like, a hot dog. Or order Chinese. This is possibly because I tend to do my shopping after work, so after all that, it's like 8 and I really don't feel like putting any effort into cooking. There was an episode of a British show called Bob and Margaret (which I totally miss) that was basically this--a big trip to the store, followed by going out to eat.

Anyway, kudos on an idea that actually does happen with a fair amount of regularity. I'm going to ignore the fact that we're clearly supposed to be exasperated with My/igraina. My only disappointment is that we don't know what she's making for Fignewt. It obviously involves squid, but I'd love to know what else. (Also, "fixins"?)