The Whole Week!!?

October 8, 1966

I guess pants are part of the suit... What kind of bet was this? On the bus?! Is Brutus allowed back on the bus? Is the other guy?

Is that a boot scraper attached to the step?

Why are you teaching about Mount Rushmore? First of all, colonizer bullshit. Second, saying there are four presidents on it will be moot in about two years when Trump has his ugly mug sandblasted into it, long thick red tie and all.

Special Guest Star: Orson from U.S. Acres

Joke's on Hattie, Wilberforce has two pennies in that bank, but also 30 Kennedy half-dollars.

Is this one of those piggy banks you have to smash with a hammer to open? I hope so. I hate its face.

I Bet Those Fat Cats In Washington Are Eating Brand-Name Corned Beef Hash

August 11, 1985

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to add some sort of warning to this website about racially insensitive stereotypes that have appeared in these older strips. I just hope readers realize it reflects the time these strips were created and not the current views of me or Chip. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

That aside, this is good. Although I think it's kind of mean to try to take $5 away from Agnes. What's she mopping anyway? The hallway? This carpet was due for a good moppin'.

I have to say, I am not a huge fan of when The Born Loser attempts to make commentary on what's going on today. Groceries prices are high because of supply chain issues (for some reason, people don't want to work high pressure jobs for no money) and because companies are greedy (they've admitted it). But I'm sure that's not what the comments say. I didn't look. I try not to scroll down and see that wasteland.

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Brutus and the Waiter Are Wearing the Same Thing

I am no longer on Twitter. I knew this day was coming but I figured I had some time. I was honestly thinking it would crash and become virtually useless by the time I left but, yet, here we are. I've updated my Linktree to add a couple more places where you can follow me, Mastodon and my old Tumblr that I haven't updated since 2014. You will probably see me mostly on Instagram but who knows what the future will bring. It was a fun, yet traumatic ride while it lasted.

April 21, 1985

One of my favorite tropes is animals that talk but only when no one is around, refuse to talk when anyone else is around, or says things that it shouldn't. There's an episode of Matlock where Matlock is given a parrot that only says "Your mother is a jackass!". Reciting the Gettysburg Address is almost as good.

GoComics is still down. Here's the original black-and-white posted by Chip on the Born Loser Facebook Page. The wrong website went down.

What kind of movies does Brutus watch? Are there that many movies where someone sends back their food? I mean, it's kind of a trope but not enough of one to warrant it's own listing. Anyway, I hope Brutus is prepared for a fight when the chef barges out of the kitchen with a knife screaming about the steak being perfect.

If you would like to support my writing, research, and website, you can buy me a cup of coffee over on Ko-fi.

Lottery Sunday

September 30, 1984

So Brutus is perpetually 44-years-old. I'll try to keep that in mind.

Wait. If Brutus is perpetually 44, that means he's a Gen Xer. But in only 4-5 years, Brutus will be a Millennial. This is the worst news I've heard since being told that the Lockhorns are more than likely Millennials.

"Today's my birthday." "Cool, but enough about that. Let's talk about numerology!"

I'm surprised Uncle Ted still plays the lottery since he played one time, won, and then got struck by lightening. Brutus apparently used to play regularly but has since stopped since the odds are too stacked against him.

I hate when Brutus refers to himself at The Born Loser, it completely takes me out of the comic.

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Absolutely Nothing

January 3, 1975

We don't know where the term 'bob' came from for a shilling. Or maybe we do and it just didn't pop up when I was looking this up. The reason I looked it up was because I wanted to know how much a 'bob' was. It's one-twentieth of a pound. That's roughly five cents so this wager and phrase makes no sense.

So Mother Gargle's mood hasn't gotten better since yesterday. As if we expected it to.

"I sincerely want you to know, there's nothing I wouldn't do for you!"

"Are you coming on to me? You pervy horn dog! Wait until Gladys hears about this! And you're own mother-in-law, too! You're disgusting!"

His Mother Was a Mudder

You don't really know that's an odd way of phrasing that until you read it a couple of times.

Look, I don't really know what to say about today's strip. I could comment about the Kentucky Derby but that's boring and I don't really know what happened. I'm more of a fan of greyhound races.
"Come on, catch that rabbit!"

The Gambler

🎵You got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run

You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done.🎵

Yeah, he was playing the slots but I didn't have anything else.

1262: Last Panel Seems a Bit Clunky

Brutus has played Veeblefester numerous times in the nearly eight years I've been writing this thing so you would think Brutus would know Veeblefester's handicap. Also, why is Veeblefester not jumping at the chance to take Brutus' money? It's almost like Brutus is just handing Veeblefester his wallet.

1254: I Said I Won $80, I Didn't Say That I Kept It

I have to give today's strip credit that it's a joke about losing $480 instead of a "Oh, I don't have any extra cash--I do have a wife, you know" joke. Geez, I just thought: $480 is a lot of money. Maybe Brutus' friend here has a gambling problem.

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Help me edit a story! Go to yesterday's post and click the links to read and give me feedback on the draft of Riley & Tyler. The story link will be available until Saturday.

1241: Unspoken in Small Town America

If you haven't finished the third season of Orange Is the New Black, then do not continue reading.

One of my favorite characters in Orange Is the New Black is Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett, a redneck who is serving time for shooting a nurse at an abortion clinic after she insulted her. Pennsatucky has always been one of my favorites, despite being an uber-Chrisitan pro-life idiot despite have five abortions herself, because I knew people like her.

In episode 10, Pennsatucky is raped twice. Once in a flashback and the second time by one of the new prison guards that she had befriended. Sadly, Pennsatucky's story is all too common across rural America. According to 2012 FBI crime estimates, the states with the highest rates of reported rapes per capita were Alaska, South Dakota, Michigan, New Mexico and Arkansas. In my home state of Kansas, there were 36 reported rapes per 100,000 people. That number is more than likely higher since the data only considers reported rapes.

A report from 2003, the most recent available numbers, found that the number of people seeking crisis services far exceeded the number of reported rapes. A further look showed that the reporting was less because the victim was a part of the offender's social circle or because the police were part of the social circle. Other factors also included poor cell phone reception, lack of transportation and long distance to travel. In rural areas, sexual assault is hidden due to the close-knit community lifestyle and, to a point, the anti-government/anti-police sentiment. "They don't report unless they have to," said a program director in a rural community in Pennsylvania, identified in the report as Tanya. My first girlfriend had been raped by a classmate of ours that went unreported. Around the lunch table, it was considered her fault because she was sexually active anyway and had big breasts. When she told her parents, they worried about what their church would think of them.

I've read that Pennsatucky's being paid in Mountain Dew for sex was something created just for "shock value" but I don't think it was. Instead, I think it was an attempt at a joke to show just how child-like she was and still is. In high school, there was a girl who would sleep with you if you got her drugs or alcohol. We don't know, we never see, if Pennsatucky trades sex for other types of services. What I do think was "shock value" was Pennsatucky's mother telling a 10-year-old Pennsatucky who had just gotten her period was to "Go on and let [boys] do their business." This seems like odd advice from a mother but we don't know much about Pennsatucky's mother. Her advice tries to create a traumatic back story and give us a reason for Pennsatucky's promiscuity. Most rural mothers want their daughters to understand sex and make good choices but Pennsatucky's mother isn't like that. She's a stereotypical redneck who is a bad parent. No other reason or explanation necessary.

Being a part of this culture, even for a short period of time, we're taught that rural women bring sexual assault on herself. Just like that family down the street is poor through mistakes that they made, not because of a system designed to keep poor people poor. And we're taught that about all classes of women that if you are sexually assaulted, then it is probably your fault. Women in rural areas are at higher risk of rape and sexual assault because of the societal and cultural structure that they are a part of, something unmentioned in OITNB or in general.

I'm not a huge fan of horse racing but when I was a kid, I loved to watch the greyhound races on TV. We used to have a racetrack near us and the races were aired late at night on a local channel. I think the mechanical rabbit's name was Woody and the announcer had a trademark call for when the rabbit started moving but I don't remember how it went.