For a nice change of pace, everyone in today’s strip looks cheerful. As usual, though, there are no customers to be seen. Not even freeloaders like Harry.
What happened to Adeela in panel two? She was right next to Holly, and now she’s been shunted to the rear of the restaurant. And why is she there? I thought Wally and Adeela were managers who worked different shifts, though I don’t care to remember who had the day and who had the night.
I guess Batiuk feels if she’s not a part of every Montoni’s strip going forward, he’s not going to get any of those diversity awards.
Son of Stuck Funky 
I guess you could say I’m sort of a closet Tony fan. He only shows up every five years or so, he’s not particularly annoying in any kind of annoying way and he really doesn’t look like any of the other characters. So there is that. I’m sure this week will put that take to the test, however.
Most endearing moment for me was when Tony went back downstairs to play the old Space Invaders.
It’s been possible to play the original Space Invaders on home consoles since 2005, and further back than that via emulators. So of course Montoni’s keeps the actual 42-year-old machine around.
Adilly looks nonplussed about decorating the infidel holiday.
Most American Muslims don’t seem bothered by Christmas. They don’t celebrate it as a religious festival, but Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet so he’s not exactly a stranger to them. Plus, they don’t celebrate the births of their prophets in general.
So, Tony picks “one special day” each year to show up unannounced to oversee restaurant Xmas decorating that could easily be done without him and by all rights should have been finished a week or two ago? Or did Hunky and Folly know today was the day and neither of them thought it was necessary to tell their assistant manager(s)? I could see if Adeela was unaware of this “Yuletide tradition” or didn’t know Tony, but you would think Wally would be kept in the loop.
How long has Wally worked at Montoni’s at this point? If he’s been there more than a year, and Tony does this every year, wouldn’t he have seen this before?
Wally started working at Montoni’s in February 2010.
See, without context, I would interpret the phrase “another reality check has just bounced” as “the reality check failed, so those people are still lost in their delusions.” But here it apparently means “the reality check did exactly what reality checks are supposed to do, and also it was related to financial problems.” Which is confusing, at best.
Yes, it should be “another reality check has cashed.” But try telling that to the Lord of Language. He’s so enamored of his phrases he can’t be bothered to have them make sense.
Time sure flies when nothing whatsoever happens.
“Why is everybody standing around?”
Uh, exactly how long has it been since you’ve checked in on your restaurant, Tony? Standing around is about all these people do.
I liked this gag so much I used it twice. I don’t know anyone else who would do that.
So in this week’s installment of “Holiday Hijinks” Tony flies up from Florida for the day? How long can he reasonably be at Montoni’s? The duration of a nonstop flight between Cleveland and Ft. Laurderdale takes over two hours, so let’s estimate a round trip of about five hours. TSA at Cleveland recommends arrival 90 minutes before departure. Assuming the same is true in Florida, we add another three hours. The drive from Cleveland Hopkins to The real Luigi’s in Akron is about 45 minutes, so a round trip adds another hour and a half. Let’s assume a similar round commute time in Florida. We’re already at around eleven hours in travel time and we haven’t factored in the time to pick up and drop off the rental car.
This is so dumb. Most businesses would have their decorations up after Thanksgiving.
Many of my retired neighbors go to Florida in the winter, but they all leave right after New Year’s Day as they want to spend the holidays with family and friends.
Looks like more Batiukian virtue signaling. Like when a character deletes their “Facespace” page, or comic book store employees agree with each other that expanded universes are bad. I can just see “no Christmas decorations until your pizza shop owner returns from Florida” being a holiday tradition that the citizens of Westview would hold dear.
I’ll make my usual observation about the excessive product placement:
What is with Funky’s massive smirk in panel 2? He looks like “yeah, I just farted in the cash tray. Next time that jerkoff skims from the register, he’s getting a little bonus.”
Well, I owe somebody a Shiny Nickel. I didn’t think we’d ever see Adeela again.