Ragweed and the closet. PLUS! Pushover mothers and

From the name of the wife (Nubbia? Really?) to the concept, I don't get today's strip. I mean, I do to a point--you think getting more closet space will lead to having more room, but it still fills up! But why does Ragweed look so upset in the bottom panel? It's really those Disgust/Anger Lines over his head that confuse me. Ragweed, dude, if there's not enough room in your closet, it's your fault, not the closet's. Just go through and get rid of whatever you don't wear. (And judging from the suit in the top panel, he should also get rid of the stuff he does wear.) I mean, both Ragweed and Nubbia look mad in the bottom panel. Why? Also, it doesn't look much worse than before; it looks the same.

Are there honestly parents like the mom in yesterday's strip? I cannot imagine telling my mom that I didn't want to eat when she called me for dinner. (And Alonzo looks like a teenager; aren't teenaged boys always hungry?) At the very least, I'd have to come down and sit at the table, and probably pick at my food. I'm assuming that Mom tells Alonzo that he can find his own food at this point, because if I were her, I certainly wouldn't be serving him anything. Or telling him he would just have to wait until breakfast, if this is something he pulls with any regularity. There is absolutely no reason why she should put up with this behavior.

In Monday's strip, we're again in an office. [Insert usual comments about lack of computers, etc., here.] I'm kind of at a loss for words. "No alibis"? Shouldn't that be "excuses"? Except, of course, that it was used in the expo box. Not that it makes it better. And Honcho is smoking in his office? I don't think that's legal in many places. Honestly, I think this would've worked better if it had just been that Honcho insisted on punctuality, but was still late in getting shipments out. Ha ha! The company is clearly headed down the tubes! Oh, yeahhh! Honestly, though, I wouldn't think that Boss Honcho would be in charge of making shipments, would he? That seems to be a bit below his pay grade.

Dumpy lawn, dumpy clothing

I kind of love yesterday's strip. It rags on the submitter and has snarky neighbors. Awesome! Honestly, though, if that happened to me and the talk of the neighbors was getting to me as much as it seems to be affecting that guy, I'd just suck it up and bring all the trash back to my garage. (Well, OK, I might leave some of the furniture out there. That would only look slightly dumpy.) And honestly, what was this guy doing that he was throwing all this stuff out? I can only assume that he just thoroughly cleaned and evaluated his house. Well, good for him. But hee hee. Judgmental neighbors. Love it.

And how awesome is Al's portrayal of "casual" work attire in today's strip? The only real difference between what Ragweed is wearing and what everyone else is wearing is the jacket. The other men (because women don't belong in the office, of course!) (except as secretaries) all have shirts and ties on, but the ties are a bit loose and the shirts untucked. That's not casual. Khakis and a golf shirt is casual. And I love the fuzzy pink sweater for casual Friday. I'm kind of torn on how I feel about the bottom panel. If this were a normal situation, I'd be all, "Well, tough, Ragweed, you shouldn't have ignored the e-mail." But this is TDIET, Land of No Computers, so it's quite possible that he just literally didn't get the memo about J.P. Honcho visiting. I do feel a bit bad for him; it does seem the sort of thing that could happen to anyone. Though again, we don't need to diss his coworkers. It easily could've been "Ragweed always makes an effort to look his best, but on a normally casual Friday..."

HDTV, but no computers

I love the juxtaposition in yesterday's strip between the plasma HDTV (and wow, correct terminology throughout! Al must've had an assistant help him with this) and the actual image we see on the tv. It's in a shade of gray, and the ancient-looking ballplayer is tossing the ball in some random fashion. It doesn't look like he's throwing the ball on a play; maybe they're just tossing the ball around the horn after a strikeout? Anyway. The strip. Some of the set-up Junior is going on about isn't required for having a plasma HDTV (not that I do know what is required, seeing as I have a 27" regular tv). But home theater and DVR? Nope, not necessary. My parents just got an HDTV, and I don't believe they have a DVR. They certainly don't have a home theater system. I do like how Al not only had to write "Dunce" on the dunce cap, but tell us that this means "Dummy." Thanks!

Today's strip confuses me. Who are the two women in this strip? Is the woman next to Ragweed someone who works in his "home office"? Is she a maid? What's going on there? And really, this shouldn't come up. Mrs. Ragweed should say, "I'm sorry, my husband is working right now." If the jerks go into his study and start talking to him, he should just say, "I'd like to chat, but I'm really busy and possibly broke, as this 'Past due' invoice indicates. I'll give you a call later." If they won't go away, just don't engage. Continue working as though they weren't there, and they'll get the hint. And honestly, does this happen? Do whole families stop by in the middle of what's presumably a workday? If he's doing work on a Saturday, then I can see an issue. I feel bad for Ragweed and His Ladies, but they need to grow a spine, as is the case in so many of these strips.