It's the weekend

I slept til 9 am yesterday, than from 12 to 4, than from 5:30 to 7:15, than from 12ish to 4am. Gah. I spent most of yesterday asleep, watching TV, or sleepy. (At 10, my mom and I watched an hour-long thing on History about Cults - part 2, according to the bottom of the screen - Charles Manson, this fucked up German guy in Chile who was Pinochet's buddy, and Waco ended it. It creeped the hell out of me - normally, I fill the dog's food at night, but I couldn't during the commercial, because I can't turn the light on, since the cord broke and it's less than 6 inches long and at the top of the shed, and I'm short.)


So here's the weekend - two at once, you win!

Yes, it's not 5 AM yet, but the Sunday paper's here. And looking at today's strip, I'm glad we still waste comic space on "Classic Peanuts" 7 days a week. Same with yesterday's. And the whole mess.



Pluggers are only hard-working as kids, big opponents of abortion, and supporters of child labor, judging by their laziness as adults.

We had a lot of fun with our wheelbarrow when my dad planted our 3 trees - he let us sift through the dirt - I found a piece of copper in the willow tree dirt.

So this poor little Plugger is going to be dirtier than 'Pigpen' his whole life - the caption leads one to believe he'll be 'driving a dump truck' as an adult, as well.

Truthfully, this applies to most middle-class suburban or rural families, the ones with money for yard work, but without money for a gardener.



And speaking of the suburbs!

The ... after the ! is puzzling.

But what's not puzzling is the choice of species - this is plainly a show that he treats his little laborer like a father treats a son, teaching him how to ride a bike so the neighbors can see how 'normal' they are.

Or that's bitterness about my own childhood, where we weren't used a child labor or physically abused, but we were not normal, in a bad way, but my dad had us look normal.

One thing that points to the two being connected - how tired the adult is. Since he makes the kid do all the work, he gets no exercise besides using the remote.

And... why doesn't that kid have training wheels? My sister and I had training wheels, and then they came off, and we didn't have our mom or our dad holding us, we fell. A lot. I hate edged yards to this day, because, on the base, those military jerks would edge their yards into bike tire catching machines. Bah.

Plus - I don't want to know why this is a 'classic'. Did it run before? Did he just discover this submission and it's 10 years old? Or did he use the idea for a different picture and is re-using it for this one?

And - who's the personal trainer? The kid for making his dad run? Or the dad for helping his kid?

Gripe about the Sunday strips - They'll Do It Every Time is also run by reader's submissions. Monday through Saturday, it's a one panel comic. But Sunday! On Sunday, there are 4 or 5 panels in the Sunday space, not just one huge one.

That's why TDIET is better than Pluggers.

Two for Thursday.

I just wrote 'Tue for Thursday'.

It's not Tuesday, that was the other day. I know this.

Yeah, exhausted, woke up late, it was nice outside when I got home (70s, springlike weather in May! Only a fool wouldn't take advantage of that).

That's my excuse.

Let's travel back in time to yesterday, via yesterday's strip.



Ha ha! Parental pluggers don't remember math from when they were in school, proving that their children are right, you don't need math once you're out of school.

Yes, math homework, once you get past 3rd grade, can be tricy for the average parent, because you don't use the skills you learned (or in my mom's case, didn't learn) in your regular life unless you're in one of the few jobs that do.

But "Sudoku" isn't some hoity-toity elitist technological thing...

It's supposedly easy, once you firgure it out. And it's in most daily papers, most magazines, online, it's everywhere but in my MADs.

So I don't buy that the average Plugger doesn't know about Sudoku. They're supposed to be everyfreakycreature, and most everyone does these things. (Not anybody in my house, but some of my relatives do it, and that includes the ones in Nebraska.)

Now, back to the future! Today's strip:



I don't get it.

I don't understand it.

At all.

Not the "joke" or "truth about life", I don't understand one word.

Maybe it means that to turn on high-beams in old cars, you had to use the pedals, and now you don't, and Pluggers are old?

And you don't want a dog near the driver's side floorboard!!!

Sorry it's so late.

I felt good today, but Sunday's are busy for me - sleep late, watch tv, read all but two sections of the paper and then time for Fox's Sunday lineup.

And we had a Mother's Day thing as well. I made my mom a pillow out of one of my old and clean pajama shirts - what did you do?

Today's strip is meant for next month, since it's about fathers.



Apparently, they believe weight is hereditary in Pluggerville - unless you're a woman, as we learned this week, then you fret and worry yourself sick, but never as thin as you want.

That's all I have to say. I am fried from food and scrubbing the bathroom this morning and last night, and this cartoon actually makes me stupider the longer I look at it.

Good night.

Do people still do this to their children?

I don't know if my mom did, and it's too early to ask her. Though there are zero pictures showing that.

We still do it to Wickett, the smallest of our 3 dogs. But he's barely a newborn baby's size. That kids looks like it belongs in an industrial size sink, or, I don't know, a bathtub.

But that's not what's so confusing about today's strip.




Is that his mother bathing him or a babysitter? Is she a fox or a rabbit? If she's a rabbit, isn't she in danger? I think bears are omnivores, eating fish and berries and picnic lunches, but you'd think a rabbit would still be in danger. Of course, she's one huge rabbit and she's still way bigger than the average fox. I have no idea what species that woman is! Her ears say rabbit, so I say rabbit.

If it's his mother, ooh! progressive. Interspecies dating or adoption.

Or there's a third, more sinister option - she has a pet bear, and pluggers are now pets.

And I just don't get it. Your average kitchen sink does not have whirlpool jets and is nowhere near as comfortable as your average hot tub.

And what, do they not have enough hot water to fill their tub?

Oh, she can't be the babysitter... since when do they bathe their charges?

I am quite confuzzled.