TheDiva
May 2, 2013 at 10:55 pm
I’m getting the subtle impression that Frankie might not be a nice person…
Like the rest of you, dear readers, I cannot even begin to fathom what sinister plot Frankie has in mind. Something to do with besmirching St. Lisa’s immaculate image, I guess. Interesting how TB’s managed to intersect two plot threads, each having something to do with A Book By Les Moore.
Tom Batiuk doesn’t care about stroke victims. The discussion of Fred’s day-to-day existence is relegated to the Sunday “throwaway” panels up top (which don’t appear in all newspapers). The former Westview principal exists these days merely to generate cheap pathos or cheaper marble-mouthed speech gags. TB is much more concerned with his special “Coda to Lisa’s Story”.
“I’ll be happy if we can just be half the parents you and Dad were.” Way to set the bar, Darin. Never mind that Fred wasn’t even half a parent to Kerry, the daughter he wasn’t even allowed to see, and the older half-sister that you (and we) only recently learned about.
Back at the motel, the world’s nosiest desk clerk continues feeding straight lines to the mystery man, who is revealed to be none other than Frankie, clean-shaven and slavishly copied from the model sheet.
O.B. Dan
December 28, 2012 at 12:56 am
Is it just me, or does anybody else see that Cayla has put a little edge on since she married The Grounded One?
Since her “best thing that ever happened to me moment” last fall, Cayla has seemed kinda cranky, as the enormity of the mistake she made in marrying Les has begun to set in. Today she lets slip that Les is not her first choice to spend New Year’s Eve with, before regaining her composure in panel 3 and offering a weak apology. Is Les offended? Not at all: he’s already got a date for when the clock strikes twelve…
As the baby-blue Batiukmobile® rolls into, or out of, Kent, Ohio, Cayla stares intently at her phone, as if willing it to ring. Seems the daughter she raised single-handedly and sent to college now can’t be bothered to answer her mother’s phone calls. Rather than explore her relationship with Keisha to understand why this might be, Cayla instead disparages Theodore “Ted” Paraskevakos and blames his invention.
Thanksgiving 2010: Becky is so exhausted from selling band turkeys that she’s unable to stay awake for Thanksgiving dinner with her family (no wonder she stuck Owen with the job this year).
New Year’s, 2011: While two living, breathing women compete for his affections, Les rings in the New Year pining for his long-dead wife.
Labor Day 2011: At Cayla’s family picnic, Les fouls a softball off his face.
New Year’s, 2012: Coach Bull is too busy fretting over the Lady Scapegoats’ winless streak to enjoy a party with friends.
Mother’s Day 2012: Summer carefully selects just the right card to leave on her mother’s grave.
Father’s Day 2012: Funky “honors” his father by dragging him from the rest home for an awkward meal at the food court in the bustling mall.
Readers have surmised by now that, in a Funkiverse where people avoid expressing joy lest they tempt cruel fate, the holidays are occasions to ratchet up, rather than leave aside, despair. Having decided that it’s too taxing to take Dad out of the home for the holidays, Funky contents himself with paying the old man a visit “now and then”. Pop may not recognize his only son, but you can’t blame him for thinking that this “nice man” must live in the nursing home too: he certainly looks to be of age.
Son of Stuck Funky 
