Author: oddnoc

Paint the room red!

In today’s strip, the doormat Cayla worries whether the sleeping accommodations and paint on the walls are adequate to properly house the glory who is Mason Jarr, the movie actor. As a reminder, here is an image of Mason Jarr, the movie actor, as he unlocks a car:

Mason Jarr unlocks Masons car. This schlub only recently moved up from guy on couch.
Mason Jarr unlocks Mason’s car. This schlub only recently moved up from “guy on couch.”

Based on her expression of dismay and despair in the last panel, Cayla looks as though Les regularly beats her. BanTom’s portrayal of anyone who isn’t Les Moore is pathetic. She should be saying: “Now, look here, you patriarchal cracker! You clean the damn house for your unannounced house guest! I’m going to Las Vegas. On your dime.”

Instead we got this:

Cayla: Where will Mason Jarr, the movie actor, sleep? Les: In bed, obviously. Mason Jarr, the movie actor, knows where to sleep! I guess some children WERE left behind!

Woo hoo! Les’s hair is on fire! Oh, wait.

Today’s strip, at first glance, seems to show Les, head aflame in the purifying fire of just desserts. But no, they’re just burning their Yuletide tree out in the field. That practice makes my Californian instincts turn to rage, and calls to mind Johnny Cash’s infamous “buzzards” incident.[1] Then I remembered that Ohio used to burn its rivers (for decades), and it all seemed to make more sense.[2]

The picture of the Cuyahoga River on fire that ended up in Time Magazine a month later – a truly arresting image showing flames leaping up from the water, completely engulfing a ship – was actually from a much more serious fire in November 1952. No picture of the ’69 river fire is known to exist.—Cleveland Historical

My live-in expert on all things Ohio tells me that residents of Buckeye Lake toss their trees into the water’s edge. This encourages the growth of algae, which attracts fish, which makes for easy fishing in the springtime. By the next winter, the tree will have completely decomposed. That seems awfully green for the midwest, but it’s a damn sight greener than just lighting it on fire and smirking at it.

Given how Cayla usually reacts to news from Les, I’ve corrected the dialog in panel 3.

Cayla asks, 'How much can we make Mason pay?'

  1. To be fair to Mr. Cash’s memory, the part about roasting 49 California condors appears to be apocryphal.  ↩
  2. Speaking of uniquely Cleveland things, thanks to @Nathan Obral (yesterthread) for pointing out that the Lost reference had extra meaning for those in the Cleveland TV market.  ↩