We didn't know a lot of things in ol' New York: The fork goes on the left, don't eat butter... I didn't even know a different way to style my hair. Still don't. Just put it in a ponytail, and cut the end off straight.
Today's Full Strip
We didn't know a lot of things in ol' New York: The fork goes on the left, don't eat butter... I didn't even know a different way to style my hair. Still don't. Just put it in a ponytail, and cut the end off straight.
I see Mary has steered Gina right for the Meddle Bench. What's with the "we were happy and didn't know any other way to be"? Such odd phrasing. It almost sounds like she was disappointed by that. I guess we have to spend a few more days on the Meddle Bench before Dad takes his Evil Turn.
ReplyDelete"we were happy and didn't know any other way to be"? Odd wording indeed. She continued, "We heard that some people experienced unhappiness occasionally, but we didn't know what that meant."
ReplyDeleteThe flashback panel made me laugh! It's like a TV show flashback where they use the same actor to portray her younger self, only here it's been done very badly.
ReplyDelete"I come from a long line of blue-haired people. We ate in the bedroom to save money on a kitchen."
ReplyDeleteWe was dumb as dirt, but we was happy!
ReplyDeleteI bet her mom and dad both have ponytails sprouting from their heads on the side facing away from us.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Mary could look any more gleeful than she does in the first panel. "Oh boy, another story for me to stick my nose and my pithy sentiments into..."
ReplyDeleteFrom this one panel, I will predict... hmm. I'm going to say, Dad died early in a tragic accident, mom forced to remarry a creep for money, a rift occurs between mom and Gina, mom dies before they can reconcile.
ReplyDelete"I was HURT and ANGRY--if my mother was really in love with my father, how could she ever remarry, especially to my icky stepdad? Real love DOESN'T EXIST--it's a SHAM! And that's how I've been dealt a cruel blow."
That's what I say!
Dang it Wanders, you beat me to the punch(line) again! lol.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Gina would look the same in a flashback, ponytail and all, as that is the only way she apparently knows how to style her hair.
Should Mary set her up on a blind date or something (Dr. Drew Cory, perhaps? Or maybe some new neighbor at the Charterstone?) will she suggest that Gina wear her hair down?
And in regards to Gina's stilted English, maybe Yakov Shmirnoff was her good ol' dad? (In Soviet Russia, we deal fate a cruel blow!)
Folks, I hate to be a be a buzzkiller on this one, but isn't this a lead in to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the twin towers coming down?
ReplyDeleteWait?! The guy in mom pants who hit on her is her father!!! This is going to be a great story line.
ReplyDeleteSteve W., I hope you're not right about where this story is going- but now that you mention it, I have a sinking feeling that either Gina's father, or boyfriend or possibly both, died on 9/11. With the slow pace of this strip, it will probably be September, before we hear Gina's whole story, so the timing and location would work out. Would Mary Worth really ''go there''? I just hope we don't have to see a badly drawn strip depicting it.
ReplyDeleteHi Maude, I think we're in for a lot of nods to 9/11 in the comic strips next month....
ReplyDeleteIf I'm right about this,I won't be particularly happy about it...the timing and Moy's long story lines feel like a fit though.
We shall see......
That has to be the tiniest table I have ever seen. This of course explains the fact that they are using plates and silverware from Gina's dollhouse set. Does Dad just waste away from a lack of caloriic intake? What a cruel blow!
ReplyDelete"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands..."
ReplyDeleteBeing a resident of NYC, I can totally relate to the purple walls and tiny glassware. It is very trendy!
The 9/11 anniversary is in four weeks. By then we will still see Gina and her parents licking the butter knives.
Just noticed the first panel. I though frontal lobotomies were a procedure of the past, but Mary's expression disproves that notion.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that even Moy would refer to the events of 9/11 as a cruel blow dealt by fate. Fate would act differently... something more along the lines of Gina having unknowingly killed her father and married her mother.
ReplyDeleteBesides, Gina's mother suffered through a long illness. Is ten years enough time for Gina's story: a long illness, lost love, and fate?
"We didn't know any other way to be" -- their stilted talk reminds me of the Coneheads! (Showing my age here!) Her male parental unit probably got sick and upon his bed of death, pressed her for an eternal promise -- "do not ever cut ponytail, do not wear hair down" to which Gina agreed.
ReplyDeleteNOW she realizes this was a cruel blow of fate, as NO earthling man will ever give her the time of day!
Maybe she needs to move to France.
C'mon Gina, cut to the chase...what's your cruel blow?
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the flashback, Vicky!
ReplyDeleteWhat was really said at the breakfast table:
Gina's dad: Ahhh! The morning meal! Shredded swine flesh.. and fried chicken embryos!
Gina: Good morning, parental units. I must inform you now that I will not be home from school tonight.
Gina's mom: Gina, your ponytail is hiding your cone! Unacceptable! Undesirable! Unacceptable!"
Seriously, I WILL stop reading the strip if Moy gives the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 the MW treatment. THAT would be unacceptable!
I disagree that this storyline will be about 9/11. I think Moy has Gina growing up in NYC only because Moy LIVES in NYC and she's already demonstrated that it's the only place in the whole USA that she actually knows anything about (example: Liza "closing on an apartment" in California).
ReplyDeleteBesides, if Gina's father had been a 9/11 victim, wouldn't that be fate (or the Taliban) dealing HIM a cruel blow?
If you were "happy and didn't know any other way to be," how would you recognize the state of being happy? Then again, didn't Descartes say, "I am happy, therefore I am"? Hmm, maybe I am overthinking this, especially since it's Mary Worth.
ReplyDeleteKitKat said... If you were "happy and didn't know any other way to be," how would you recognize the state of being happy?
ReplyDeleteLikewise, if you were trapped in the Worthiverse, would you know it? You would see nothing wrong with leaving a ten dollar tip on a 5 dollar salad, or having 4th graders man the admissions desk at the local hospital, or wedding rehearsal dinners having drinks and dancing.
My head hurts.
Kathyo, you had me snorting with the reference to LiZa closing on her apartment.
ReplyDeleteI did not consider that 9/11 would be involved in this storyline, nor did I ever think it would come around in Mary Worth. Take away Dr. Jeff's "electronic reading machine" (or what have you) and Toby's identity-theft-by-Internet, and this could easily take place in the 1980s. That would explain the ponytail!
was the family so poor they had to eat on a table the size of a checkerboard/? maybe thats why there happy got toplay checkers after dinner everynight instead of watching freinds reruns wb11
ReplyDeleteHas Mary had a minor stroke? Her face, in panel one, appears to be frozen in distorted puzzlement.
ReplyDeleteLooks more like they live in Smallville than NYC, to me.
ReplyDelete