Problem Solving vs Elimination

Happy almost Anniversary to us! Our marriage is gonna be a teenager. Weird.
This comic came about on a road trip where I was sitting in the back to help Lucy keep calm, and my Jeep has a speaker right between where I was in the back and where Mark was in the driver seat. There are (at least) two mindsets when it comes to problems - solve the issue or eliminate the issue. Solving the issue of the radio overpowering our conversation would be to simply turn down the radio or change our seating. Elimination the issue would involve probably rewiring my car's sound system. One is much simpler than the other, but simpler isn't always better. 

Text:
M: We could have this awesome setup -
L: OR we could just turn down the radio.
M: I want to eliminate the problem, not solve it!

Alexa Joke Fail

 

As you can see, this comic was not drawn at the same time as the previous one because my Alexa design is a bit different. Oh well, stylistic choice and all that. I don't know the answer to this joke because I couldn't get it from her - so now you all have the same unanswered question as me! I feel like the answer could be something about a chicken. 

Explanation: The Amazon Echo Show has a screen that cycles through many topics, but one of them is jokes and she has some very lame but a few rather good ones. She'll show you what to say (literally what I put in the comic is what she had prompted me to say) and then she usually has the prefect answer to what you've asked since she wanted to show you anyways hence her prompt. 

Text:
L: Alexa, why did the egg cross the road?
A: Sorry, I don't know that.
L: Why did you prompt me to ask you, then???

Dinner Tragedy via Alexa

 

So very glad this one is not a True Story, but I had this thought after telling my assistant to set multiple timers and didn't view them right away and later asked to see them and thankfully they were all there but if they weren't then dinner would have been rough because I just "set it and forget it" and move on to other parts of prep and have no cognizance of how long the rice has been cooking or the vegetables have been in the oven. 

Text:
Title: Dinner Tragedy
M: Alexa, show me my timers.
A: There are no timers set.

Thresholds

So true. Kids are like that. On a related note, I recently posted on a social media "The Bible says 'foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,' but I didn't realize the level or quantity of poor choices before being shown by my Lucy Darling." She is being told "No" many times a day now (via phrases like "we don't bite Mom" or "no summersaulting on the stairs") and she indeed has a low threshold for that. And she also took several tumbles outside today and had abrasions on her knees but didn't even cry or act bothered about it. So yes, very different thresholds. 

Text:
A: How can she smack her head and not care, but you tell her "no" and she melts?
M: She has a high threshold for pain, and a low threshold for emotions. 

Coffee Rex

 

Part two, sort of. This time it is a T-Rex, but she is drinking coffee rather than tea. But the joke still continues, despite her protests. Maybe she and the Spinosaurus are heading to the same place, away from the jokers to enjoy their hot beverages. Yes, the posture of my Tyrannosaurus is incorrect BUT the proper posture wouldn't work nicely in this layout. Also, it's already impossible for her to drink what she is holding and correcting her posture would make it worse. 

Text:
Stego: Haha, you're a -
T-Rex: Coffee drinker - there is no joke here.
Bronto: Tea-Rex! Haha.

Tea Spinosaurus

 

So I have this tea-rex shirt and I wanted to draw some dinosaurs but I was wondering what situation to put them in and then this comic came into being. The little green dinosaur was going to be a Pachycephalosaurus but I was struggling to draw him so I went with a baby Brontosaurus. 

Explanation: the Stegosaurus sees the Spinosaurus drinking a hot beverage and wants to call her a Tea-Rex because she is vaguely Tyrannosaurus-shaped and drinking tea, therefore the tea-rex/t-rex pun. The Spinosaurus wants to have none of that, but the Brontosaurus finishes the joke. 

Text:
Stego: Haha, you're a -
Spino: SPINOSAURUS drinking by tea - there is no joke here.
Bronto: Tea-Rex! Haha. 

Folgers Tea

 

This was sparked by a pastor talking about coffee. I just feel like Folgers tea would be rather low quality, like the kind of tea bag stocked in a bland hotel room. As far as a quick search can tell, Folgers does not sell tea BUT they do make single-serve coffee bags so it's like a tea bag but it's coffee. My memories of Folgers would be seeing the tub on the kitchen counter in my Baptist church's basement. I don't drink coffee so I just have the memory of the big red tub. I have been asked to make coffee approximately once and it was at my church and I got someone else to do it because quite frankly I haven't a clue how to make one of those big urns of coffee. I might be able to figure out a regular coffee maker (given enough time) but I know people who are rather particular about the strength of their coffee and/or have complicated coffee makers that grind the beans as well as make the coffee so who knows. Also you probably want someone who actually drinks coffee to make the coffee. That's enough talk about coffee - let's focus on tea next (that's a hint for the next few days of comics).  

Text:
J: You can drink Folgers, if that's your cup of tea.
L: They make tea now?!

Bird Wing Wish, Part 3

 

The conclusion of the whole matter, where I remind you yet again of my favorite bird. You can search my blog to find my other references to emu or I could just add them here. But that's a wrap with the three wishes from the genie! I had to look up how to spell vestigial since that's not a word I use often or spell ever. This person should have just wished for like a hang glider or something simpler to attain flight. 

Text:
A: I wish I had real, feathery bird wings on my back.
G: Ok! 
*POOF*
A with small, non-functional wings on his back: What?! Vestigial?!?
G: I think emu are really cool.

Bird Wing Wish, Part 2

 

A classic trope, when you try to get more specific then you mess up in new ways. What will part three be??? Will he finally get his bird wings??? Do you like that the KFC from the previous wish is still in the panel? Object permanence! I'm working on it, don't usually have much need for it since my comics don't have many props. 

Text:
A: I wish I had real, feathery bird wings.
G: Ok!
*POOF*
A, holding a bird cage with a bird in it: WHAT?
G: I did you one better and got you a whole bird!

Bird Wing Wish, Part 1

 

So this is a three-parter, because most genies in the stories give three wishes! Yes, in this one the person gets some KFC chicken wings. hot and fresh and all that. Why am I thinking of bird wings? I was not sure but my husband reminded me that we had just watched The Batman before I drew these (they started out as sketches on the back of a page-a-day calendar, like all great comics) and that movie has a lot of things with wings (Batman, Penguin, Falcone, ...), So that's probably the link. Stay tuned for the next wishes!

Text:
A: I wish I had bird wings!
G: Ok!
*POOF*
A, holding a bag of KFC: That's not what I meant and you know it.
G: fresh from KFC!

Cheese Mustache

 Very much a true story. I was and am proud of my play on words. This happened after our darling had some mac and cheese (rather messily but that's how it works with kiddos) and had not been cleaned up yet (she resists that part quite strongly). 

Explanation: Cheese is mature milk, like you have milk and you wait and somehow eventually it turns into cheese. I think there's a specific way you have to have it wait so you don't just get moldy sour milk. 

Text:
M: WHAT is on her FACE?!?
L: Cheese mustache.
M: What?
L: It's like a milk mustache, but more mature. 

Elbow Surgery

After hearing that someone I know needed elbow surgery, this comic came into being. Kind of reminds me of my older comic "On the third hand" but in this one, it's three elbows instead of arms. Except not really, it's just a misconception about three elbows. 

Explanation: Upon hearing that a friend had elbow surgery, a person thinks that elbow surgery means adding an elbow, rather than the actual fixing an elbow. 

Text:
L: I heard about your elbow surgery - I always thought two elbows were enough but you do you, I guess.
D: But... wait, no, ... what?!
L: Kids these days, always wanting more.

Political Band Dissolvement

Happy Independence Day Eve! Last year we were reading the Constitution and I noticed the phrase about dissolving political bands and this comic came into being. Did I look up the Founding Fathers and draw their hairstyles slightly correctly? Perhaps. I had something else to say about the Founding Fathers.... OH so I was at my in-laws and the topic of road trip playlists came up and I decided one car (our family was all going up to New Hampshire for a week together and there are several carloads going) needs to play Hamilton on repeat, but it's the Muppets Hamilton. Does such a thing exist? I feel like it could. All of the cast is Muppets except Alexander Hamilton is still played by Lin-Manuel. 

Text:
G. Washington: Dissolve these political bands!
FEDeralists: *silent*
DEM-REPS: *silent*