Rom Com V. Sports

October 18, 1987

Why did Brutus think this would work? The discount applies to the person getting the service. Also, who is giving senior discounts for health care? Why is Wilberforce need to go the doctor? Just some routine maintenance?

By the way, love the third panel.

Well, this explains where Gladys (and maybe Wilberforce) goes when Brutus is watching sports all day. I assumed there was a TV in the bedroom, or even just in another room, but it's nice to have confirmation.

And I don't watch, but I saw people on social media talking about everything Brutus is mentioning last night. It's been quite a football season, I guess.

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Snow Blow

February 22, 1967

The whole problem with this ruse that now you are wandering around the city with no lodge meeting to go to and what are you going to do with your outfit when you get to wherever you are playing poker? Is Brutus the Grand Poobah of his lodge?

If only there was something that could've happened so Brutus wouldn't have to make up a lodge meeting and still go out and hang with his friends.

Dick Cavalli, who this strip gives apologies to, was the writer/artist on NEA's Morty Meekle which would become Winthrop. The strip would last from 1956 until 1994. Cavalli would pass away in 1997 at the age of 74. I am just assuming Cavalli would fake lodge meetings to get away from his wife, Helen.

I'm glad to see Wilberforce is excited for the snow. I'm more in Hattie's camp. If you're gonna snow, get me out of work.

Impressed that the sidewalks have already been cleared. Wherever they live is on it with snow removal, unlike every other place in the country.

Holliday Park Fountain

Given to the city of Topeka by the National Humane Alliance--a foundation created to provide fountains to horses (and other animals) in high-traffic areas--this fountain was originally planned to be installed at Gordon and Kansas in North Topeka. Ultimately, Lewis Sever, the person from the NHA who had the final say, decided the fountain should be placed at 6th and Quincy.

In 1929, deemed a traffic hazard--it was in the middle of the street after all--it was moved to the warehouse district near the river and many other places according to news reports. In the 1970s, it was given to the Topeka Round-Up Club to be restored but that never happened. In 2000, it was given to the Holliday Park Neighborhood Improvement Association for restoration and reinstallation in Holliday Park.

Toothpaste Was Probably One of the Better Choices

*Sigh* Someday. (You can add Noem, RFK Jr., Patel, whoever you want
to either side of who I have labeled Vance and Johnson.)

I'll be honest, this is the only logical way out of this. Even if we do elections in November and can get Trump impeached, Vance is still there and Trump will still be around doing what he wants, just using Vance to get his way. Trump could also just leave office and we vote in a new president in 2028, but Trump has exposed so much of what we need to change as a country.

Clearly the guardrails put in place cannot be enforced if those put into power to enforce those powers do absolutely nothing. I don't understand how MAGA can see everything they claimed President Obama was going to do happen and be fine with it, but I guess that's why we consider it a cult. All these years, they were just projecting. Republicans and conservatives worried about Obama taking their guns, locking them up, or killing them because deep down, that's what they want to do to Democrats and other liberals.

And don't worry. I understand the irony of me alluding to Hitler/Mussolini for the Trump Administration, but there needs to be consequences of great magnitude to insure that someone else who might want to do this, will think twice.

February 21, 1967

ACAB includes dog catchers. When I watch TV or movies, I often see things and am like "Nope, I'd be out." I gotta chase this dog around, trying to catch it? I'm out. I'm going to break into this house over the holidays, but a little brat just shot me in the balls with some little steel balls? I'm out. I'm not going to break my body mentally and physically for my job. I can't. I won't.

I wonder how Chip came up with toothpaste as his solution to the correction fluid situation. He's just running around the house in a panic and frustrated trying to find different white colored things he can smear over ink.

Chip's wife, watching him try to finish this comic.

If I'm Not Facing East, I'm Not Living

February 20, 1967

You can't do proper pranks these days because of inflation, shoddy workmanship, and woke. How much would something like this cost? I couldn't find anything similar for sale online so I think you'd have to build it. We're looking at hundreds of dollars here. Wilberforce probably got this for $15 at Oswald's Magic & Mystery Novelty Shoppe downtown.

"Why do you have the TV turned off, Uncle Ted?" "Because I just wanted to sit here quietly." "If you didn't want to..." "I said 'QUIET'!"

Wilberforce lives in a comic strip and doesn't know that people outside of a pop culture setting don't have to position their furniture around a television. It's sad when you think about it.

65% of the day is spent next to that watercooler

Uh, so I'm just supposed to make snarky comments about a comic strip when we have federal agents just shooting down citizens in the streets? I don't have to, but if it keeps you distracted for a couple minutes and makes you forget about wanting to march to Washington, drag Trump from the White House, shoot him, and then hang him and any of his enablers by their ankles in Lafayette Square then it's well worth the post.

Abolish ICE and Fuck Trump.

February 18, 1967

One of my favorite but completely stupid tropes is people who look shady as hell but are allowed to go about their day. This guy is clearly going to rob this bank--he's wearing a mask over his eyes!--and no one is concerned but Brutus. How is this all on Brutus?

It's to make fart noises and jokey announcements. Everyone knows that.

Don't You Be Bringing Facts Into This Argument!

February 17, 1967

It's nice to know this Veeblefetzer enjoys going to work as much as I do. And that's really saying something considering Veeblefetzer is the--NOW HEAR THIS!--president of the company.

Sigh. I'd rather see Brutus slip on the ice at the bus stop.

Decaf Riff-Raff, Part 4 apparently

Nancy from January 1, 2026

In case you didn't know, the classic comic strip Nancy has a new writer/artist, Caroline Cash. Olivia Jaimes ended her run back in September after 7 years with her last comic being printed on December 31, 2025.

Cash did a series of guest strips over the summer and in her debut as the regular cartoonist, pays homage to past Nancy incarnations. Bushmiller (1925-1982), Guy Gilchrist (1995-2018), and Jaimes (2018-2025). Oddly, the Jerry Scott version, which ran from 1983-1995 despite being stylistically unpopular, is ignored.

Anyway, to check out the new Nancy, you can head to GoComics here.

February 16, 1967

I mean, I can't make a sweater. Although to be fair, I've never tried. I've made a pillow before. In middle school. In a FACS class.

Brutus had caffeine-free coffee back in September and he hated it! I don't know why he would make that his resolution. His hatred of caffeine-free coffee lasted three days!

Donut Dilemma

October 11, 1987

I'm glad that Virgil Gumthanks is so proud of all the work he's had done that he brings it up the first chance he gets. The shirt he's wearing is stupid-looking though. And he really went with that nose? He looks like Professor Hinkle or Snidley Whiplash.

"Big deal cooking..." Oh, God! He's going to be put in charge of Venezuela, isn't he?

I've never been to a bakery where they give you a free fucking donut and I'm 103-years-old (elder Millennial). Am I getting screwed out of a 13th donut? I want the 13th donut, give me the 13th donut.

I want to point out the comic strip magic in today's strip. Brutus could've easily been drawn on the left side of the panel so he is sitting properly with the wheel where it should be in America! but Chip went a different way.

🎵Thorn-ap-ple🎶

William Ward Harding

Around 1902, a young boy was born in Pennsylvania. His mother died shortly after giving birth and he was placed in an orphanage under the name Elmer LaPelle. In late 1906 or early 1907, a group of children were sent from that orphanage to Topeka, Kansas in hopes that they would be adopted here.

Dr. Eva Harding fell in love with little Elmer, who was considered bright, handsome, and lovable. Dr. Harding officially took custody of Elmer on January 30, 1908 and the little boy was re-christened William Ward Harding.

Sadly, on February 6, screams came from the back room of the office/apartment where Dr. Harding and Dr. May Stout lived and worked. When Dr. Stout arrived, Ward was engulfed in flames. She tried to douse the flames with a rug but was too late. It appeared that he tried to light a candle and caught his nightgown on fire.

A small funeral was held in Dr. Harding's office and Ward was buried in Rochester Cemetery in North Topeka.