Politeness starts at home

The thing throwing me off in today's strip is the "(Really)". I guess it's just to set us up for the bottom panel? Or is it just to say that he's super polite only to hot women? Anyway, Lulula, leave him. He clearly has anger issues. If you bump someone and he starts swearing and freaking out, that counts as verbal abuse. Get out.

Bonus points for the "Oh, yeah!" though. Man, I'm going to miss that.

What's up with the sock in the filing cabinet?

We've seen today's strip before, right? I actually thought that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had messed up and repeated a strip. But no. Once again, it's just a case of someone insisting or being neat one place, but not another. We've seen it time and time again. The only thing that makes this even a little different is that this time, a husband is yelling at his wife! Excellent! I'm not really sure what kind of work Barfwell is referring to--cooking? I know I let my kitchen get a bit cluttered, but if I'm going to cook, then I clean up first. It's a wacky system I have.

The thing that gets me is that Mrs. Barfwell had to know that the home office was in that state--she probably watched it devolve to that point. And the second he got into it about the kitchen, she could've actually said something to shut him up instead of later just having the urge to vacuum his hide, which actually doesn't correspond to anything else in the strip--the state of the two rooms isn't one that calls for vacuuming so much as just straightening up in general.

Just divorce him!

I debated whether or not to tag today's strip as "abusive husband," but decided that this qualifies as emotional abuse. I mean, honestly. Fauna, get out of the marriage! For a second I was contemplating why she even had to ask her husband if she could take night school classes, like, she isn't a child, Al. But then I realized that in Al world, Fauna obviously doesn't have a job (Women in the workplace? The horror!), so she'd need the money. Obviously if she's taking a number of classes, it's something to discuss...but man.

And why would Fauna believe that "enjoy her company" and "talk to her" nonsense? I mean, she's married to him. She knew that this is how it would be. She had to have known. It's pissing me off, because you can see that Fauna is upset. You'd think she would know that she was married to a jerk. Agh!

Maybe I should track down this Fifi Meisner and have a talk with her.

Also, what the hell is up with the batter on the tv? I'm just going to assume that we're seeing the end of a swing.

Of course you fell down, maam

There's so much wrong with today's strip. I would certainly hope that Barflow (a name which I assume makes him worse than Barfwell) is concerned about his wife. She just fell down the stairs! Good God! And she's not "speechless," Al, she's injured. I mean, her fall managed to upset the side table at the bottom of the stairs. This wasn't gentle.

Of course, I imagine Barflow would be pretty concerned. Judging from the bottom panel, he probably pushed her. He's so upset that he's actually knocking over the tables on either side of the chair he's in. Not that she looks like a prize herself--that's not just her talking about her day, she's angry. Look at how she's holding her arms. As one of the commenters over at the Comics Curmudgeon noted, the two panels should probably be reversed.

This is not a couple I want to get to know. To the point where I had to create an "abusive husband" tag.