Oh thank goodness, no more Les.
Uh, Dinkle? Literally ZERO of these sessions have practical applications for you. You’re retired. You are no longer a music educator. The only reason I can imagine they still allow you to attend these conferences is because you pay for it. The only session that would be practical for you would be “How to step away and fade into the sunset and let the current band director do her job, it’s almost as if a certain writer can’t let go and is terrified of having his Dinkle crutch”.
Author: spacemanspiff85
Cayla’s Awakening
Today’s strip wasn’t available for preview. I’m just going to take a guess and predict it’s a recreation of the ending of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, with Cayla walking into the ocean to her death to be rid of Les.
Next week, Les begins the book tour for Lisa’s Story: Appendix C (Wife #2 Dies).
Okay, I was off a little. As terrible as this art is, the way Cindy is drawn she looks like she’s still an underclassman in college, at the oldest. Which makes her supposedly being past her prime way, way creepier than intended, since she looks 19 complaining about how her best days are behind her. And once again, her entire worth is from how men react to her body. I’m normally not a fan of protests and boycotts, but there have to be some activist groups out there who’d be up in arms (sorry, Becky) about crap like this if they were aware of it.
Fun Honeymoon
Whee, more patented, beloved Tom Batiuk Women Talking About Their Relationship Humor. Can we please get back to Les being smug or whiney? Or Dinkle typing at a computer?
Here’s a fun tidbit that I really hope I’m not the only one who noticed: Cindy’s cleavage has been featured in 4/6 of this week’s strips. I have to imagine Batiuk included that in his notes to the artist: “Make sure you showcase her nice boobs”. And yet she’s going on and on again about how lucky she is to find Mason, despite the fact that she’s a successful attractive woman who looks thirty years younger than she actually is. Those are literally the only two character traits Cindy has “I’m a hag whose beauty has faded” and “I’m so lucky a man finds me attractive”.
I also notice how the art has made sure to showcase Cindy’s “sexiness” this week (despite how it conflicts with the dialogue of her mourning her faded beauty) but not Cayla’s. I thought that was odd at first, since Cayla is Les’s Wife and you’d think she’d be drawn as the prettiest woman ever, because Les deserves nothing less (humor!) but then remembered she’s Secondary Wife and can’t look better than Lisa.
Women Are Vain, Get It?
Oh, joy. More character development for Cindy. Of course, being the Hot Blonde model of female in this strip, there is basically nothing to her character apart from obsession over how attractive men find her (the other model of female is Frumpy Potato-Nose). Good job, Tom Batiuk. Honestly this strip would’ve been better off being totally wordless and just putting a little more effort into drawing a pretty, scenic nighttime beach scene. Of course, the writing took zero effort.
The Most Romantic Moment of Cayla’s Life
Beyond just finding it hard to believe Cindy couldn’t get a date for New Year’s Eve, I think the really hard to believe thing is that she had literally nothing better to do than hang out with Les. Like, did she not have homework to do? Were there no walls to stare at? Could she not sleep?
I could be wrong, but this really does seem like more chemistry going on in today’s strip than anything portrayed between Les and Cayla. Cayla just showed up out of the blue and started throwing herself at Les for literally no rational reason, and he only deigned to pick her when Susan bowed out and Cayla won by default.
Oh, wait, the joke is that Batiuk knows two classes of ships? Oh. Ha.
Son of Stuck Funky 