A single phone call reveals what a most snarkers and my long-dead grandmother suspected; Summer will be going to Kent State. With most folks a lot more wary of the value of a college education I’m not sure Les should be making his smirk/smug satisfaction face.
In a development that should surprise no one, Summer II got invited to Kent State as well, causing Cayla to break out into her best hatchet-face.
Guest blogger DavidO here, filling in as best I can for the very funny TFHackett!
Les looks like he’s just about to set some ground rules with a spatual upside of Cayla’s head, if his tiny flippered arm will let him reach that far. Meanwhile, Keisha’s transformation into a classic Westview Turtle person is almost complete. And, of course, no gathering would be complete without at least mentioning Montoni’s greasy pizza.
(Methinks guest blogger DavidO and myself got our signals crossed; his guest stint will begin tomorrow! –TFH)
Here’s something you don’t see every day: wimpy, prissy Les doing some actual, physical labor. Even more than the physical effort, query what the psychic toll must be for Les as Cayla helps him transform what once had been his and Lisa’s conjugal chamber.
Hoo boy—she is mad, too! Just look at her little fists clenched in front of her. This is the strongest display of emotion we’ve seen from Cayla in a long time!
Now that he’s put “the intolerant” of the world in their place, the un-didactic Mr. Batiuk takes a(nother) swipe at those wicked Wall Street Billionaires, who in Cayla’s mind have somehow (how, exactly?) made college tuition difficult to afford. Les soothes her by relating an anecdote that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. had shared in his commencement address to Rice University’s Class of ’98:
I’ll pass on to you what another Methuselah said to me. He’s Joe Heller, author, as you know, of Catch 22. We were at a party thrown by a multi-billionaire out on Long Island, and I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to realize that only yesterday our host probably made more money than Catch 22, one of the most popular books of all time, has grossed world-wide over the past forty years?”
Joe said to me, “I have something he can never have.”
I said, “What’s that, Joe?”
And he said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Let’s don’t quibble over the distinction between having “the knowledge that I’ve got enough” and just “enough”. Cayla expresses to Les her concern over the expense faced by their soon-to-be-blended family, and Les’ idea of easing her mind is to (mis)quote a writer, because writers are wise and all-knowing. Billionaires, on the other hand, are “greedy, amoral morons” who fuck things up for decent folk like “us”.
From April 2010:
Well, today’s strip is just so epic that I’m gonna invoke “fair use” and reproduce it here. Today’s our payoff, snarkers, our “ending earned”; here’s where it all comes together. Why did TB dredge up not just Roberta, but her limp dishrag of a husband? Why did Nate, instead of dealing with Roberta in his office one-on-one, assemble “every student, teacher, and parent volunteer“? Why, it was all setup in order to provide old, fat, evil Roberta’s very public dénouement, at the hands of the aforementioned wimp husband, no less.
In all honesty, panel 3 had me confused for a moment: I didn’t get why Summer was gasping “Dad?” while Dad was standing way behind her. Then I noticed the highlights in her hair were not blue, but brown, and realized I was looking at Becky. Please, please let her startled expression not be due to Dad finally asserting himself, but rather because she’s just witnessed her father being shanked by her berserk, hateful mother.
Son of Stuck Funky 
