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The Week in Review and the Sunday Nature Chat

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Call this the Week that Weaved, if you wish. As Cherry dropped Mark off at the local airport to fly down to Florida and protect Max the Manatee from danger, the Fickle Fates of Airline Scheduling conspired to have Cherry’s two sisters, Olive and Peach, fly into the airport at the same time. Well, truth be told, Cherry knew they were coming, so she likely scheduled Mark’s plane to take off around the same time to save herself another trip.

And lucky Cherry, not only did airport police not chase her away from the curb while waiting on the sisters (as noticed by commenter Be Ware of Eve Hill), but she learned that the visit is really to get Peach out of Florida and away from her violent ex-boyfriend. His identity is a mystery at this point, but we do know that he is heinous, which is pretty far down the scale of personality attributes. Speaking of mysteries, will we continue with Cherry’s story on Monday or pivot to Mark and Max the Manatee?

While you’re flipping that coin, I hope you’ll stick around long enough for the Nature Monologue.

Growing herbs (outside or inside) is certainly a useful sideline and doesn’t take much work. We grow several herbs, which is to say, my wife does. I have a brown thumb, because anything I try to grow turns to … well, my wife is the gardener and she keeps me away from it.

One thing I tire of is TV commercials with the always smiling faces of the actors, even people in those dreadful, omnipresent drug commercials. Cherry and Mark’s frozen smiles in today’s nature chat just trigger a reaction that makes me want to immediately turn the page (or scroll away).

Today’s strip is like watching an Infomercial. I keep waiting for Mark and Cherry to tell me how little they want to charge me for their customized mail-order herb baskets that I can grow in the comfort of my own home: “Just three payments of $14.99 (plus shipping) and they will arrive within seven business days! Order now and they’ll throw in the Grow Light! Don’t wait! Call 555-1212. That’s 555-1212. Call today at 555-1212. Why are you still watching? Call now!! Did you get the number? It’s 555-1212.“

Peach doesn’t feel so peachy at the moment!

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So, the Pitt sisters are united once again! For those of you who came in late, I noted back in 2020 that the given names for the three sisters is the basis for one of Rivera’s earliest and better puns. Rivera created Cherry’s family (as far as I know at this point) with the surname Pitt; hence, we  have sisters Cherry Pitt, Olive Pitt, and Peach Pitt (note the color of their clothing). Lest you think the surname is contrived (okay, it is!), let me remind you that the Prime Minster of England during the American Revolution was William Pitt, the Younger. And there is that Brad dude, too.

Names based on puns is nothing new, of course, and they litter the history of comic strips. Entire families are rarer. The family that always pops up in my mind is the family of Olive Oyl, (Popeye’s girlfriend), including Castor Oyl and Cole Oyl. Do you remember any other examples? Let me know!

As for the “heinous hunter ex-boyfriend”, whoever could he be? This is clearly going to be the point of Cherry’s next adventure. Too bad it won’t be the dramatically serious story it should be. Maybe the dude will turn out to be Mark’s old nemesis, Dirty Dyer!