Were it not for the strips last week, where Annie revealed not only that she and Fred were not in love “so much”, but that their marriage kept her from pursuing her dreams…today’s strip might provide a chuckle. Instead, all I can think about now is that Ann is going to pay Fred back for taking away the best years of her life. She’s going to be the one helping him regain his speech? I guess tomorrow Coach Bushka will show up to start Fred’s physical therapy.
Smotherly Love
Ann hears the nurse’s footsteps coming down the hall. She has just enough time to remove the pillow from Fred’s face and fix his glasses and hair, to hide the telltale signs of the fierce struggle that has taken place just moments before the nurse enters the room. Composing herself, Ann mutters some nonsense to Fred about the stroke being “God’s way of telling him to slow down a little.” Fred, enfeebled by the stroke, and near exhaustion from fighting off the murderous Ann, tries vainly to alert the nurse that his wife has just tried to smother him, but is horrified to hear his own voice sounding like Mimi from Rose is Rose. Thinking quickly, Ann helpfully “translates” Fred’s garbled speech for the nurse, who continues on her rounds, never suspecting Ann’s cruel plans for her husband…
Less Hope
Yes, I know this is a “comic” strip, but must every conversation serve as setup for a wry riposte? For starters, Jessica’s is sort of a loaded question; asking about old Fred’s chances of a “full recovery” from an obviously severe health episode. The guy’s lucky even to be alive. Then Darin goes into the windup: “We-e-e-l-l-l, hope isn’t dead, dot dot dot…” The “punchline”—and I always feel the need to put that word in quotes when talking about FW—is confusing as well: so is Fred on life support? Hope is on life support? Way to stay positive, “son”.
On a side note, the Westview P.O. Bombing Arc page has been updated, and is more or less complete.
Hard-y Hard Hard
Chyron HR
January 28, 2013 at 8:36 am
Fred may have trouble articulating himself, but at least he doesn’t describe everything as being “hard”.
Whereas yesterday, Darin could manage a wisecrack about the effect of the stroke on his father’s speech, today the seriousness of Fred’s condition seems to finally be sinking in. In fact, Darin’s gone to the complete other extreme, writing Fred off as not being “there anymore.” Jessica offers a perfectly sensible, sympathetic response; then, because we must have a punchline, follows it up by unnecessarily overstating the fact that she’s made an understatement. Forget Owen and Cody: these two are the biggest idiots in Westview.
A Tale of Two Nitwits
An indeterminate period of time has passed since Fred’s stroke. Jessica’s gung-ho “marriage, not a dorm” attitude has diminished to the point where she no longer feels she has to accompany Darin on his hospital visits. Fred’s regained consciousness, but his speech has been affected by the stroke. TB’s going to attempt to derive a chuckle from this situation by likening it to the communication gap between between parent and child. The difference, of course, is that Fred likely understands what’s being said to him, but he’s suffered a serious impairment to the part of his brain that allows him to speak. It’s just one of the cruel aftereffects of stroke. And when this happened to my late Mom years ago, my family and I found it difficult, no, impossible, to joke about it the way Darin’s doing. Kudos to him, I guess.
Son of Stuck Funky 
