Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Mary Worth 1,351

So much action for Joe Giella to draw in this horrifying nautical disaster. The most horrifying image so far? The gelatinous dinner that has flown off its plate, but retained the shape of the plate!

Well, as you may know, we just returned home from our camping trip in Niagara Falls. While our cruise did not sink, we did have a few bumps along the way:
  1. I sat on my Kindle and broke it!
  2. We had a flat tire.
  3. The ice chest drain opened in the back of the van and flooded the luggage well. 
  4. My wife accidentally dumped a quart of Gatorade on my sleeping bag and it soaked all the way through for an hour. 
  5. The last two nights we camped at a KOA where neighbors partied until 2:00 a.m. 
  6. It poured rain on the morning we struck camp to leave 
  7. We stopped at a hotel and our swimsuits were bleached out by the hot tub. 
  8. And the worst thing of all, I was offered the senior discount at Wendy's. 

And yet, as these photos prove, we had a wonderful trip!

Today's Full Strip

24 comments:

  1. Camping is brutal.

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  2. Ha Ha Ha Ha! I'm going to go watch endless episodes of Bunheads.

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  3. Wow. In a bit of foreshadowing, it would seem that the cruise chef served an aspic in the shape of a ship. It has tumbled off the plate and is diving downward.

    Maybe the couple in this panel aren't really in distress, but merely performing an homage to The Talking Heads choreography in "Once in a Lifetime."

    "same as it ever was"....

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  4. You do realize that Wilbur will be saved by clutching a floating sandwich, right?

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  5. Dawn must be perking up; she had the presence of mind to snatch a necklace from some poor panicked passenger.

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  6. Wendy's has a "senior citizens discount"?

    On another note - "EVERYMAN FOR HIMSELF!!!"

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  7. Wouldn't AIIIIIIEEEEEE be a more appropriate utterance under the circumstances?

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  8. Wanders, your post today more than makes up for your absence. Glad you had a nice time despite all those "bumps"!

    When I look at the black and white version of today's strip in the paper, it's hard to tell what that thing is that's saying "AAAHHH!" Sort of reminds me of Cousin Itt, but with shorter hair.

    The "AAAUGHHH!" bubble appears to be coming from three people, but it only points to the blond woman. Who's responsible for the other two? And who says "AAAUGHH" in unison anyway?

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  9. Welcome back, Wanders and family! Despite the vacation bumps in the road you detailed, thank you for refraining from uttering "Life is brutal."

    Dawn's dress seems to be getting skimpier and tighter as the action proceeds (note that cleavage!), Not the most demure look for dinner with Dad, but she may catch the eye of a crew member/rescuer/potential love interest.

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  10. I think it is a weird coincidence that the boat had the posiedon accident the same day teht ernest borgnine passed away.

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  11. More candidates for Panel of the Year!

    Wanders, glad you had a good trip despite the horrors of the senior discount offer. At least the Wendy's didn't sink.

    --Beagle Vet

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  12. I had a lot of trouble with the lower left corner of the panel above (and not just my usual trouble of trying to make sense of Mary Worth).

    See that blue triangle that apparently represents a woman's sleeveless dress? On my monitor at least, it matches the background color of the rest of the panel. So initially the hair looked like a wig that had flown off a passenger's head, and the bare shoulder looked like the top of a bald head with one arched, dark eyebrow.

    That seemed kind of odd, until I noticed the people doing the weird dance in the background, and then the whole wig thing seemed perfectly normal in comparison.

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  13. I agree that the background couple in panel one appear to be dancing rather than fleeing. That being said, they are not shouting "Help!", they are singing "Help!" by the Beatles. (It's oldies night on the Unita del Mare.)

    Speaking of oldies, Wanders, I still am chagrined when given the senior discount--and I'm 63!

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  14. The black goo creeping out from Dawn's shoulder in panel one is clearly her whiny, misanthropic Id, which has finally managed to escape her mind and is now intent on causing as much mayhem and havoc as possible. Will Mary Worth be able to defeat it's black hopelessness and obsessive fixation on Dave before it devours all of Italy? READ ON TO FIND OUT!

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  15. The best thing to do at this point is to dig out the good ol' Forever Lazy, throw in the DVD of Game of Thrones, and keep repeating, "Cruises are brutal."

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  16. Wait - the waiter must have delivered the food sometime afer "BAM!" and before the ship started to list. Now that's great service, especially since it was done in the dark.

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  17. Wanders, you were practically in my backyard! Too bad we couldn't have had a Mary Worth Appreciation Society meeting.

    Sorry to hear the camping didn't go so well, but the Falls are so much fun.

    As for this nautical disaster, is Karen Moy honestly just taking a page from recent history and putting them in a Costa Concordia-type situation? Phew, the creativity well sure runs deep. O_o;

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  18. The ship is jolted badly enough to send food flying, glasses knocked over, people thrown sideways... and Dawn is just sitting there with her neck oddly off-kilter. Impressive balance.
    My daughter is really hoping the Unita del Mare has been rammed by a pirate ship because seeing how Giella would draw pirates and how Moy would make them talk would be a dream come true.

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  19. I believe that "aaaughhh" should be attributed to Charlie Brown.

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  20. Don't let the Wendy's senior discount incident get you down, Wanders. By the way, nice photo of you & your daughter at sunset!

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  21. I had the reverse Wanders experience in the late 1980s--I got given a kids menu at a Dennys after being the driver....on the trip to visit colleges.... (no tip for you). Always take the discount Mr. Wanders.

    As for this wonderful strip, my first thought is "this never happens at the Bum Boat." I also like Dawn's "every man for themselves Wilbur" pose in the second panel.

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  22. Text says the ship VEERED (a horizontal directional change) while panel 2 shows the ship LISTING.

    Do Moy and Giella talk to each other?

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  23. I'm giving up on anything less than stupid and cloying to takeplace. My hopes are now on seeing the captain of the ship, dressed in a frilly naval outfit, top button undone, manly beard and chest hair flowing, all the while getting the heck off that sinking ship. Allowing Mary to point out where humanity is brutal and lets you down.

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  24. Apart from Dawn's freakish neck in panel 1, my favorite part is how everyone in panel 2 is fleeing the restaurant to the safety of... somewhere else on the same sinking boat?

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