Monday, June 16, 2008

Mary Worth 229

He's having trouble getting past that one sentence. Isn't that exactly what Jeff said yesterday? He's also having trouble getting past Mary who has completely power blocked his attempt to leave her apartment. The question is, will we ever get past this silly little plot development. Does anybody really doubt Jeff and Mary will work it out and reunite? I mean, her love for Jeff actually killed a man less than two years ago. But if they do break up, does anybody really care?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes we do care deeply if Mary and Jeff break up. That is, in the sense that we will be overjoyed if they do. It would certainly be a daring move to permanently change the relationship dynamics after all these years and we would be priveleged to witness it.

Sorry, Jeff. It's over and no amount of overly extravegant gesticulation on your part will change that. Swing your arms wide, point your fingers straight and true but it will make no difference.

Toonhead said...

Dr. Jeff is becoming younger and more vital as this discussion goes on. He will realize that Mary was the one sucking the life out of him.

Anonymous said...

OK, why is it that everytime Mary passes that mirror, she casts no reflection?

Anonymous said...

On May 31st 2008 A.D. exactly, this strip firmly established that that door in the background is NOT the front door (although Mary does tend to point at it when ordering soul-seared Doctor Jeff about like a pet). The door out of the apartment is in the wall to the right (our right) of that door, which also has a stereo system and a window simultaneously occupying the same space-time coordinates. The wall with the table that somehow jumps instantaneously from one side of the door to the other.

But I've already ranted about the impossible floor plan before. No, now what I want to know is this:

What exactly does that door lead to?

There seems to be nothing beyond it but some vague, shadow-catching vertical surface. Is it the portal to Mary's home dimension? Is it Doctor Jeff's "Punishment Box", aka an empty closet with a lock on the outside knob only? If you go through it, do you end up coming out on the other side of Mary's apartment, like a big loop? Or is it like that Futurama universe-in-a-box episode, leading to an infinite number of alternate reality Mary Worths, some of whom are simply meddling robots, while others are meddling hippies?

I demand answers in the form of complex mathematical formulae!

FUN FACT! Do you know what the last name of the infamous, malicious, mirror-dwelling entity named "Bloody Mary" was?

Wanders said...

Spike, I think Anon's Fun Fact may hold the answer to your question.

Wanders said...

And Anon, that door is stranger than you think, given the fact that the doorknob seems to float across its surface depending on which side the hinges seem to appear.

Wanders said...

Wait a minute! I think I've figured it out. Jeff actually has past through the door. He's in a different room, and Mary is following him... Hmmm, this strip is much more complex then one might think.

Anonymous said...

wanders: Now I've got to go back and revisit the furniture arrangement in Mary's place--Yeeesh!!! Seattle Post Intelligencer, here I come!

Scott Frederick said...

Wanders:
I've been fanatically studying the past month or so of strips trying to piece this one together. I'm actually trying to construct a floor plan but now realize that would be impossible.

Your theory about Jeff moving from one room to another is intriguing, but it has a fatal flaw: it makes sense.

Instead, I direct your attention first to the strip from 5/29. We can see the couch and the configuration of the paintings above it in panel 1. Mary tells Jeff to leave through a door in that same strip - we can assume it is the exit to the hall.

The June 5th strip has the couch and pictures visible directly behind Mary as she opens the front door; the door she ordered Dr. Spineless through is in the same room as the couch, on the opposite wall.

Jeff doesn't need to move through any other rooms in order to be emasculated.

Of course, going back to 5/21, we see the wall opposite the couch has no door in it at all. The exit is thus both there and not there. It is Shrodinger's Wall, its existence entirely dependent on the observer.

So you see, trying to make sense here -- as you, a perfectly reasonable and intelligent fellow, are prone to do -- will end only in tears. Tears, and soft, sorrowful, dirge-like wailing into the night.

Anonymous said...

Watch Mary's dress. She is covered in mysterious dots that move randomly around its form. I believe they are causing Jeff to have to shift from room to room during this riviting discussion with Mary.
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