Upon first seeing today’s strip, I was going to mock Les for yelling his secret across the crowded dining room at Montoni’s. Then I remembered, this is Montoni’s; no one else is there.
And then I noticed them.
Something smirking this way comes
Tag: Cindy
Les knows nothink! Nothink!
In today’s strip, Les admits that he’s an intellectual cipher. And Les is the author avatar, so… the prosecution rests.
Jarrnalism
I don’t know how to break this to you, but in today’s strip, nobody smirks. Les, however, spills the beans, lets the cat out of the bag, and otherwise squeals like a stoolpigeon, revealing his ethical depths in a single panel. BanTom’s star journalist loses her composure, because Mason Jarr ZOMG!!!!! Her only question is “WHAT!!?” I’ll try to help Cindy out with this:
Because you’d think a former national news anchor, who presumably has interviewed stars, presidents, prime ministers, and kings, wouldn’t be overawed by the mere mention of a B-grade movie actor. “Wimmen, amirite?” thinks BanTom, as he imagines himself rounding the bases of a tiny baseball diamond.
The temptation of Les
In today’s strip, the green pitcher bears witness as Holly tempts Les to betray Mason Jarr the movie actor’s confidence. Cindy suffers yet another case of Westview face from oversmirking.
Cindy’s ambush interview
In today’s strip, the background has been transformed into a wall of generalised human flesh.
One can only assume that the background has just awoken from uneasy dreams. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” screams the background as it awakes with a start. “I’ve been transformed into a featureless wall of flesh.”
As for the action, Cindy channels some amalgam of Edward R. Murrow and Mike Wallace—who am I kidding?—she reaches deep into her rich background as a journalist, and pulls out a legalistic trick right out of the 4th grade playground. Oh? You promised not to say anything? That’s fine; just write it on this napkin. As Les demurs, I tried to come up with other techniques for her to suggest:
- tweet it
- sing it like a Broadway show tune
- jungle drums
- tap it out in Morse code on the table
- smoke signals
- semaphore!
- let’s play charades
- perform it as interpretive dance
- send me a singing telegram
- something… Hey, wait a minute!
Why is Cindy in Westview—in Montoni’s of all places—on a weekday? Shouldn’t she be in Cleveland anchoring the news? Why is Les not at work? Shouldn’t he be at the high school making teenagers hate literature? It’s like BanTom is the issue of some unholy DNA experiment involving The Two Eds: Bulwer-Lytton and Wood.
Son of Stuck Funky 