Sunday the 16th

I'm watching a show about the Black Plague on the History Channel.

Would Pluggers ban gambling in an attempt to stop the spread? Or would they kill the Jews? I doubt they'd be kicking the prostitutes out of town.

I can't wait to make some connection between the plague and today's comic. Besides the fact that they'd be dead - they'd never wear anything as newfangled as a flea collar.


Ha! Not since August 27th has my life imitated this 'art'. Today's comic was made and sent in before I knew about this show. However, the first one was more of art imitating life (mine and every other students), since it was at the end of August - right around the start of the school year.

But still - today is weird! If I hadn't fallen asleep while watching the 7pm showing, I wouldn't be watching it when today's comic came online.

Spoooooooooooooooooky.

Onto the comic -

That's not germ warfare! Germ warfare is offensive, a band-aid is defensive! I suppose the term could be used to describe a band-aid or latex gloves. I don't know - is the band-aid attacking germs? Doesn't it just try to keep them out?

Whether or not germ warfare is offensive or defensive, this is just weird.

"Germ warfare"? Really? This is supposed to be a plugged-up common phrase, one with a different definition than what is in the elitist, white-collar dictionary.

Are they saying that non-Pluggers engage in real germ warfare? Or do we take bigger precautions before we get injured or sick? What?

Of course, the warfare could refer (and probably does) to the fight over the band-aid design.

If so, way to blow something meaningless out of proportion, Kirby Sides of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida!

So the fight is over whether or not the Plugger will get a shot or have blood drawn. I don't recall ever being bribed with a band-aid, though I can see how it might work - if you're EIGHT!

The weird cherry on top - That Plugger is old, at least older than the nurse! And he has to be bribed to ...what? Sit still?

Not to mention the wrongness of giving a shot to or taking blood from a dog's front leg.

Sorry I'm late.

I've been busy and away from the house.

It would have been better to just skip today's strip, honestly.




I just don't get it.

Is this the entire newspaper? The scores in the sports page? The stocks section?

Huh?

My stomach was upset before I got online...

and today's strip didn't help. They never do.



"Cute" license plate.

DOGS CAN'T DRIVE, NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY!

I'm done.

They're old.

Really old.

I can't imagine a time when any of my relatives were alive ('30s) that a hotel cost that little. Hey, things were cheaper back then, but you got paid $3 a month and you were happy, and uphill in the snow in your gym shorts and snore.

Every strip about old or fat pluggers, I am so tempted to replace with pictures of my puppies, who don't drive or dance with chickens!

A comic about marriage...

with no loathing involved!

How sweet.

Really.

Take a look at today's.



Finally! The gender matches!

Though the species don't, which is just creeping me out more and more because dogs kill chickens!

And chickens lay eggs, and dogs don't, so this couple ain't procreatin', which means that gay marriage is okay in Pluggerville, because that's one of the asinine arguments against gay marriage. (No kids can come of this union.)

He probably snores, and his eyes are probably shut as well as not changing the channel.

So the husband and wife don't hate each other, but we still have a stereotype - guys won't stick to one channel.

In my house, it is kind of true - Wickett, the littlest dog, is very bold, and will sit on or near your face or chest, often near or on the remote when he sits on Mom. He's changed the channel before.

I fell asleep yesterday while Mom and Beck were watching Judge Judy, and the judge said the mother was an unfit mother and I said, "She beats her kid." That was never mentioned in the show, and I don't know why I said it. If I fall asleep around others and a TV, I say odd things, and they rub it in.

Augh!

WE GET IT.

THEY'RE OLD.

By the way, one will kill the other within five minutes.

My 50th post!

I feel cool.

Today's comic is... well, meh-er than usual.



Though it finally clued me in to the fact that "Plugger" really means "redneck".

I have never seen this done.

And I've been to Georgia numerous times!

What I see done to vehicles that is odd and redneckish is on trucks, between the cab and the bed, there are boots hanging down, with the foot of the boot holding it up. The first time I saw it, I was convinced there was a person stuck there, for whatever reason.

Back to the comic, again with the gender change!

Of course, she could have been talking about a male relative or aquaintance, but still. This happens too much for my comfort.

That car does not look like any on the road, of course. The backseat must be 6 inches wide...

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 I missed yesterday.

I still didn't feel good, and when I felt better, it was storming or threatening to, so I couldn't get online.

I may feel better, but yesterday's strip confuses me.



So... huh? Oh, now I see - Pluggers are cheap.

Plus, it's Florida, and that guy's retired, he doesn't need to own more than one suit. Guys can wear a dark suit to a wedding and a funeral (hopefully not the same day), while women can't.

But we're talking 20+ years out of style... Cheapskate. Don't be surprised if you're not in many photos, Gramps!

But I'm still confused! Maybe it's because I've never been to a wedding?

But today's strip I understand completely.



Except for one thing...

Pluggers have DVD players now????

And they think they're saving money, but they're not. Netflix seems great. You pay $5 a month per DVD you can have out. So if you pay $5, you get one DVD, watch it, send it back, and get another one, and repeat until you're done. You can pay $10 and have 2 DVDs out at once, and there's no monthly limit to how many you can turn in and rent.

Library DVDs have due dates. And you have to pay for each movie and get it back in less than a week. And if you pick up 3 and it's less than $15, well, you can't pick up 3 more.

One monthly payment! No due dates!

My aunt and uncle in Nebraska should be Pluggers, and they're signed up with Netflix. The library's only open a couple hours 2 days a week (Tuesday and Saturday), and they're nowhere near a Blockbuster.

I've rented movies from the library. (VHS, that's how long ago it was.) It cost less than Blockbuster, but was due in 3 days. Blockbuster lets you have them a bit longer, but Netflix still seems the best of the bunch.


Unless they get movies for free from their libraries...

Pluggers have DVD players????

Eek, I didn't mean to come off as a shill for netflix, we don't even use it, I'm just going by what I see in commercials, their website, the library, and the local Blockbuster.

Two for one!

Sunday's strip has been posted!

I have no idea why it wasn't there two days ago, or why it's there now, but it is.



Pluggers are lazy - but they're the salt of the earth 80% of America that does the dirty work. What am I missing here?

Also - he's henpecked!

Except she doesn't have a beak...

You know... I have a dog here on the floor, she's lazy, but she's a female of the species. There are guy dogs and girl dogs. Do all these pluggers live together or something?


Today's strip is right on time.

But very sleepy.

I just got my 8 hours, thank you very much. I went to sleep at midnight and woke up at 8 because somebody was calling. I think I was already awake when the phone rang because normally, I can sleep through everything.

My dad's a plugger. He has a set nap time, and he's "always there for [my sister and me]", but not during nap time!

Again, they're lazy or retired. Hard working people have work to do after lunch, we don't have siestas like they do in some countries, because we're Americans and we work hard.

We're also stupid. Naps are really good for you, I may take one, but I'm doing nothing today because that was a call from the director of the volunteer job and she's not going in, so I can sleep! But I shouldn't, because an hour long nap will keep me up until 2 in the morning.

Since that's the same creature from Sunday, no wonder he hasn't touched his 'honey-do' list - he's sleeping all the time.

And what the heck's a 'honey-do' list anyway? I've only seen it in bad comics.

This is just sad.

I hope ordinary Americans aren't like the DogMan in today's strip.



Our dogs don't wear glasses, but Mikey likes scrambled eggs.

Who says 'striking gold' anymore?

Honestly.

I'm just glad he wasn't digging for gold... you know what I mean...

And yeah, it is interesting when there are 2 or more yolks in an egg, but that's the highlight of your day?

I get it! He gets it! She gets it! My mother and sister, who've never HEARD of pluggers, GET IT!

They're old.

Today's strip breaks new ground in nothing.



Since the DogMan (must be a man, they never ask for directions, according to movies, sitcoms, and, of course, comics - but it was sent in by a woman. Is it too hard for Brookins to match the gender of the contributor to the drawing? Unless she was talking about her husband/boyfriend, brother, or father.) in the strip hasn't bought a new map in 20 years and is driving a Popemobile with a covered roof, I went with cheap, not broke.

A map costs less than a tank of gas, less than an insurance payment, and less than his hideous outfit.

The only way this would happin in real life is if you're visiting your home town after 20 years.

But you'd have to be an idiot to rely on 2 decade old maps! Especially when there's this neat little website that can help you, and printing out directions, or even a little map, costs less than a dollar at your local library.

Cheap, lazy dogman.

Funny thing - my mom and I ended up lost last summer in a place that looked like that - no road, under a bridge. Of course, we weren't looking for Route 66 and we didn't even have an old map with us.

Mom wanted to go into Arkansas using the 'old bridge' from Memphis and we finally did that, and somehow we ended up off the main bridge and doubled back to riverside flatlands owned by the federal government and monitored by cameras even though nothing was there.

That part of our day is funnier than every Pluggers comic ever published.

I knew there was a place for these freaks!

I learned something new today, courtesy of today's strip.




The contributions may have cities and states found in America, but they're picked at random.

They all live in Pluggerville!

We are safe.

So, Pluggers live in a town big enough to have its own school buses (Memphis school buses say Laidlaw, Shelby County says Shelby County, and Tipton County says... Tipton County!), but they most likely don't have city buses, because Pluggers are 'small-town folk'.

But if they live in small towns, can't they walk to places like school or work?

Oh wait, these are Pluggers, they're hard workers, they probably live in tiny Pluggerville and work at the factories in Shelbyville.

I'm just glad we won't run into them accidentally.

Who wants to bet Pluggerville is the capital of an island?

Pluggers are Old 3

This is getting repetitive.

Annoying was 27 days ago.

In today's comic, we learn that Pluggers are *gasp* Old Farts.

Again.

Broke ones, if he hasn't been to the dentist in decades.

Or maybe he's been brushing real well.

No, he's broke and he had to buy dentures - look how sharp and straight they are! No one will believe they're real teeth - from someone who believes in 'inner beauty' and put the differences, the thing that makes the pair look like normal teeth, inside.

Or he got them capped decades ago and can't eat or drink anything because of the surgery, so he forgot about his teeth.

Old Pluggers... Day 2!

Today's cartoon, again, says that Pluggers are old.

But they're saying a bit too old for anyone to be breathing... take a look...



Um, my parents were in the Navy in the 80s and there were no sails on the boats.

Judging by a tour of the USS Alabama, there were little sails back then, either, and I think the USS Alabama was from the '40s.

So what Navy used sails in the last 50 years?

And also - the kid looks like a bear, but the grandfather looks like a dog!

Chickens don't clap!

Thankfully this mess isn't animated, or I'd have to fight somebody.

If you got that, you're awesome and you know it.

Woah - I'm a plugger, and so is my mom, according to today's strip.



I don't like that.

And cute, real cute, the dog listening to records.

I got a Prince 45 for Christmas this year, and my mom got a Phil Collins LP for a buck at Goodwill - no scratches, big success - as well.

She got the record player the year before - it plays CDs and has an AM/FM radio as well. I wrapped my favorite records individually and stuck the rest in a box. She didn't understand why she was opening her old records until...

But the dogs? They listen, sure, but they can't hold a record. Can you imagine the scratches?

My mom has Japanese LPs and 45s of American/British pop music of the 80s. She has so many great ones... the record player got me hooked on Prince.

But how does this tie into the whole Pluggers thing? My mom's not that old, her mom's still alive. As medical technology improves, we'll get older and older. In 50 years the cartoon will have MP3s and earbuds because our grandkids/kids will have the music sent straight to their brain at birth.

Would suck to have a song stuck in your head then, I imagine...

Pluggers are fat.

Here we go.



I wouldn't think Amish people could be fat, I mean, don't they have to churn their own peanut butter or something?

And the Amish are in Pennsylvania, Mr. Hoover! Not Texas!

I haven't seen a skinny male Plugger, though.

And the last one in our house to use the beanbag... Ginger, our cocker spaniel from the pound. The beanbag left long before she did.

So bravo on using an appropriate species this time, Brookins. A rhino could never sit in a beanbag.

We got rid of ours before the new millennium because beans were not staying in the bag.

Ginger still loved it.

It's Friday afternoon - take the rest of the day off.

Here we go.



Another one with no name given. Hmm.

I don't get it... a shovel... something I use to pick up dog poop... is the same as a backhoe, which requires more knowledge and fuel than a mere shovel.

And elbow grease... isn't that physical labor in general?

Does Brookins think you use some sort of grease with the name elbow to operate a backhoe?

I am lost.

And you wouldn't use a backhoe to spread fertilizer or weedkiller!

Not at the scale he's drawn.

Resisting urge to make a Brokeback Mountain joke...

Here we go, before I fall back asleep.


I can't, I can't, I can't!

That is like the only western that's come out that I remember. And I've only seen one Western, Blazing Saddles. Nobody named Duke was in that.

I don't know any Brokeback jokes, and I heard it was a tearjerker of a movie, if you weren't pissed at GAY COWBOYS on the screen.

This reminds me of a bit from MAD's parody of All in the Family - Archie's favorite movie is Joe, and he will watch it until all the hippies are dead.

Again with the Pluggers = Old People. Old, clueless people.

Okay, it was sent in by a woman, but a man plays the plugger. Did she send in something about her dad? Her boyfriend? Her brother? Herself?

It's weird.

Pluggers are narrow-minded freaks.

Hi Rhino Guy!

Here we go.

This strip confused me at first - I saw the plaid jacket on the Rhino and assumed he was the salesman. Don't most used-car dealers wear horrible jackets?

Ha! The person who sent it in is from California, and I heard they have the highest gas prices in the nation, requires a lot of driving, and that might make your car crappy in a hurry.

But I don't think rhinos drive in California.

Do they?

Pluggers are Amish now?

It's called a watch, people!

AUGH!

And the cohabitation thing, again, Dogman will kill ChickenLady!

Marlene what'sherface lives in Montana. There are farms in Montana. Farms where dogs may kill chickens if they get out!

Though that's a big chicken or a dog the size of Wickett...

I didn't know the Amish lived in Montana... wait... they had to use technology to take those pictures... I'm lost...