Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Words of wisdom about one with four letters

Skip to comments

Mike Peterson Published: January 3, 2013 1 minute 6 comments

The Heart of Juliet Jones was broken on a fairly regular basis, and the current rerun at DailyInk has her falling for a feckless  (Note to Irish readers: That's not what it means) architect, who dreams great artistic thoughts but doesn't seem to ever buckle down and get to what other people would recognize as work.

Now dinner with his boss and boss's wife has taken a sudden turn for the disappointing. However, considering they seem to have only met a week or two ago, I'd also offer Juliet this quotation: "Marry in haste, repent at leisure."

Which may be the boss's situation, given that he is trapped in a loveless marriage to a dessicated harridan who can't figure out where he gets the time to quote scripture. And is drawn with bags under her eyes. 

As long as we're quoting, how about "Misery loves company"?

By the way, though it gets a lot of hits, I wasn't able to source John's first quote, about the hero dying in the first act, but his second is by Disraeli. 

Meanwhile, in this century, Judge Parker's son was planning to elope, but Mom has stepped in and now the family is headed for a cruise, at the end of which they will arrive in the bride's homeland and have a small wedding with only the parents present.

In this case, the wife knows how he finds the time: He steals it. 

Judge Parker is one of the few remaining continuity strips, and it succeeds with a combination of drama, memorable characters and whimsy that isn't quite the same as a James Bond movie but has several of the same elements. The latest arc was eccentric and funny, but with suspense. This arc is just starting and you can still jump in.

I say so hoping that the bulk of the drama will not be centered on the wedding. I'm all in favor of marriage, but I hate weddings.

And you may quote me.

Today's Pros & Cons was yet another reminder that I need to find the time to track down a quotation I think comes from Neitzche, which is that, when you hear somebody go on and on complaining about something, you can bet that he is getting some pleasure from it.

The nice thing about looking for a Neitzche quote being that he's fun even if you don't find what you're looking for. You don't want to be stuck trudging through Aristotle or Aquinas for some half-remembered nugget.

Kieran Meehan's comic-strip shrink is considerably more directive than most real-life therapists, and, if I ever do dig out that Neitzche quote, I'll have to be judicious in using it.

As in the case of this patient, most people do not enjoy being told why they haven't gotten a grip on their problems.

And Harry Bliss depicts a piece of advice I've never followed, which is to deliver bad news in a public place, with the waiter having seen this scene so often that it simply becomes part of his routine. When he works breakfast and lunch, he probably watches a lot of people get fired.

I suppose it's not a bad idea, but I prefer to humiliate and crush people in private, particularly since it's very, very rarely a case of dropping an anvil but more a case of facing up to things. The quote now being from Zimmerman: "Sooner or later, one of us must know, that you were just doing what you were supposed to do. Sooner or later, one of us must know, that I really did try to get close to you."

Or, if you prefer, "Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me, and I do not really need to be assured that love is just a four-letter word."

I did break up with one woman over lunch in a public place, but it was unplanned, given that it was our first date.

I told her that I was negotiating a job on the East Coast that would likely come through in about four or five months and she became furious and asked why in the hell I had asked her out if I knew I was leaving Colorado.

"Because I wanted to go out with you" was apparently not an acceptable answer.

And "because I thought you were footloose and adventurous enough to maybe come with me" was no longer on the table, given that the first half of the conversation had been about her and how she was living with her parents after spending the previous year or two in Europe, strung out on heroin and sleeping under bridges. Which, I had to admit, was pretty footloose and adventurous, all right.

The appropriate quote being not from Dylan but from Pangloss, "All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."

Or, more specific to the point, from Nelson Algren:  "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."

Though the artistic results of disregarding Algren's Third Rule are often impressive, whichever partner actually turns out to have had the worse troubles. Or the better comeback.

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.