Everyone else in the room seems to be taking Summer’s injury rather well, but panicky Les is having visions of $cholarship money growing wings and flying out the window. And in addition to the apparent knee injury, Summer has curiously been rendered mute.
The bald guy in panel 2 has that look on his face because he just spent the last four hours on a plane listening to Les abusing the flight attendants. And now Les is walking behind the poor guy and muttering to himself.
I guess Les’ cellphone battery died again, because he doesn’t know if his superstar daughter’s team won tonight’s tournament game. By the way, Panel 3 Les: the momentum would take the team into the next round, not vice-versa.
Les arrives home (didn’t need to be picked up this time?) not to the expected victory celebration, but to be greeted by the sight of his golden girl on crutches. A tip of the SoSF porkpie hat to the many FW followers who predicted a career-threatening sports injury to Sum’ Mo’.
And you thought the Book Tour was over? I wonder how Principal Nate is feeling now about giving Les unlimited personal days?
I thought Les was getting “fried” too, when he got that courtesy call from his dead wife. But as far as we know, he never shared that incident with his daughter. Instead, Les apparently regaled her with stories about how he behaved like a complete asshole, annoying lowly, hard-working security personnel, newsstand vendors and flight attendants, everywhere he went.
I wonder if he tried the Spinal Tap foil-wrapped-cucumber-down-the-pants trick?
Today TB trots out one of his favorite themes: that role-reversal in which children feel the need to protect their poor hapless parents. Although when your father is a complete idiot like Les, perhaps some sheltering is in order. And we see another Batiuk trait in panel 3 when Keisha says “Point” where in real life one would say “Good point” or “I get your point” (she could also have come back with “Bingo, Sherlock”). There’s only enough space in the panel, though, for her one-word reply. Maybe if he spread the plot more evenly over the week’s panels, it wouldn’t be necessary for TB to cram all the dialogue into Saturday’s strip.
Keisha continues to relentlessly grill her BBBFF (basketball BFF). In today’s strip, “lately” extends to include that platonic (at least on one side) porch embrace from over seven months ago.
