I must watch myself from acting too much like a Grammar Czar. I am no grammarian and certainly no pedagogue. There is only so much space in a comic strip and brevity is a necessity. What I mean to say is that from here on I will not comment on grammar except in cases that seem to me too significant to ignore. Ugh. That still sounds smug. But be my guest and speak up, if you have your own peeves. At least Rivera does not terminate every sentence with an exclamation point, as was standard in the pre-Rivera Mark Trail days.

Why does Violet speak to Ernest in the way somebody would butter up a person you would otherwise ignore? Well, it was a year ago that Ernest professed his love for Violet, leading to scandal and the apparent breakup of Ernest’s marriage. This past March, Violet professed her continued love for Ernest when she hired him to pave the grounds for a parking lot. Later she got really upset when she discovered the concrete pavement caused flooding problems. Their affair seems to have run its course, at least from Violet’s perspective.