Guess the whole Lord of the Late arc really is over and done. Not that I was looking forward to week 3…anyway…looks like Linda’s dire prediction has come true: Westview’s voters have rejected the school levy and some teachers have been let go. Sadly, thanks to tenure, Jim Kablichnick not only gets to keep the job he despises, but is allowed to help himself to the spoils of others’ misfortune.
Here’s another strip that would have worked without Batiuk tacking on a punchline: the humor derives from the fact that even in the midst of a crisis, sour, selfish Mr. Kablich-prick thinks only of himself. But we get Jim not only offering a sassy retort, but mangling the famous “when the going gets tough” quotation. Maybe he means to say “When things get tough, the tough get…things”?
Son of Stuck Funky 
What layoffs? Doesn’t Westview have only five staff members to begin with?
Don’t they have a budget for the year? And wouldn’t they wait till after the school year to fire teachers? This doesn’t make sense!
So what Linda is trying to express here via her especially clunky dialog is that they really ought to leave those unused desk chairs there as a show of solidarity for their former coworkers who will neither see the gesture nor know it was ever made. Yes, that’s sensible. Perhaps they could also leave their half-eaten lunches in the break room fridge too, as a sort of living memorial.
I bet a certain snide English teacher kept HIS job, as well as that fat bloated “athletic director” and the miserable one-armed band teacher too. WHS should cut right to the chase and do away with everything but the five Westview essentials: Professor Moore Explains The Classics, Pizza Making 101, The History Of Comics, Band and, of course, Girls’ Basketball. Everything a young Westviewian needs to prepare for adulthood right there, with none of the budget-bloating excess.
Linda must be the designated sourpuss of the school. How do you layoff a teacher yet still teach his course? Do the students just add another study hall period for that time slot?
So, they lay off teachers, but leave the marching band and the girls’ basketball program unscathed? I guess the school board’s priorities involve, “only keep the funny stuff”. Sadly, their concept of “funny” is way off-base.
And the fact that Linda is still alive pisses me off more than anything. I hate her so very, very much.
I actually find Jim endearing today. Maybe that’s because I imagine it’s Les who was laid off, and they’re picking through his old belongings.
is Linda supposed to be Caylas mother ??
Tommy McOriginal is probably pilfering the idea of raiding the office furniture and supplies of laid off co-workers from Dilbert. Yeah, like everyone else, I’m wondering who the hell lays off teachers mid-year. Ooooh, everybody, you see what happens if you don’t give da gubmint more money to piss away NOW? Shit, I’ll bet they escorted that teacher out in the middle of a class! Only in Ahia, I guess.
Sorry, BatTax. F-minus today. This doesn’t even begin to make sense. It must kill him to think not everyone is as tax hungry as he is.
As I type this on my desktop tower computer with DVD-ROM and Intel CORE Duo processor, using my keyboard with numeric keypad and mouse with two buttons and scroll wheel, I must note that “desk chairs with the arms on the sides” is an awfully laboroius way of saying “chairs with armrests”.
Alternate panel 2:
LB – “… rather than rushing to their rooms to steal their chairs with armrests.”
JK – “Relax Linda, this is Becky’s chair…”
Linda looks especially ugly today. She can’t even keep her appearance consistent today. Meanwhile, Jim mangles the punchline and sounds like an idiot. And we have yet to see that terrible smirking Les (Tuesday?)
Seeing as I hate Linda more than Les, why not have Linda gunned down as she leaves the school? I mean, Mary Worth has done more daring things than this, and Bathead can go for the “dramatic” as a dying Linda tells Bull that she always loved him.
You know, basic research would show that this isn’t how decisions are made once a school’s funding is voted on. It’s an especially low bar, and still Batiuk fails to clear it. Hell, I know how school funding works and I don’t even have kids. I just know because I pay a modicum of attention to what happens in my community.
This also suggests that the school proceeds from the start of the school year with the notion that they have more money than they may actually, in fact, have. So they’re all idiots, but we already knew that.
Btw, this recession has been a veritable gold mine for Batiuk. I bet he had an actual orgasm when the housing market crashed because it gave him an easy pretext for his misery porn for years!
Also, check out the Lisa cameo in today’s Crankshaft! So that’s where she went! You can tell from the hair style and color, and her damnable pink polo shirt. She rarely wore anything else.
Also, check out the Lisa cameo in today’s Crankshaft!
Good eye, Charles! I was so taken by the teacher’s resemblance to Susan Smith that I didn’t even notice the Lisa doppelganger receptionist.
-Also, check out the Lisa cameo in today’s Crankshaft!.-
You can take the girl out of Westview…but you can’t take the Westview out of the girl!
Komrade Batiuk, doing his part for the collective. The sequester and the failure of school levies will bring about the end of civilization. TFH, please add potholes to the street and broken windows in the Post Office to the banner comic!
“When things get tough, the tough get…things”?
See, that punchline would have made the strip funny. You know we can’t have that!
Linda: “I’m looking down my nose at you Jim.”
Jim: “Mmm-hmm.”
Linda: “I’m totally shaming you, Jim.”
Jim: “Bite me.”
Linda: “Your disrespect leaves me with no choice but to droop my eyelids and drone on, Jim.”
Jim: “Whatever.”
*********************************
So, to sum it up, Linda kills time by doing nothing at all while Jim finds use for school property that DID NOT BELONG TO THE LAID OFF TEACHERS.
Jim’s just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
The last time this came up I looked at the website for the schooldistrict … It looks like there were some funding shenanigans a few years ago and the voters are still ticked.
“Question: What happened 10 years ago or longer that has the community so angry with the Board?
Answer: Community members were upset due to the moving of “inside millage” to fund the construction of the elementary schools. This increased taxes without a vote.”
But wait! Googling today turned up some good news:”Midview schools rebounded from a discouraging November election when voters passed a 9.75-mill, 10-year emergency tax levy last night….The levy will cost property owners an additional $298 per year for each $100,000 of a home’s value…This is the first time Midview voters have passed a levy since 1993.” (emphasis mine)
Looks like Batiuk’s year-ahead schedule puts him once more out of step!
–Jim’s just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic–
Riddle: What’s the difference between the Titanic and Funky Winkerbean?
Answer: The Titanic had entertainment in it.
Westview, other differences between FW and the Titanic:
– one is a tragic disaster and the other one hit an iceberg
– the captain of the Titanic had the decency to go down with the ship
– Molly Brown would rather have sank than to read FW
– at least with Titanic we can follow the storyline
When you think about it, FW’s main WHS “players” (Les, Bull, Becky, etc.) are pulling a scam quite similar to Batom Inc.’s. They’re all collecting a nice salary while going through the motions and often times not even bothering to hide or disguise their disinterest and/or disgust with the subject matter. Interesting parallel IMO.