Looking like a 1980’s toy superhero doll (panel 3), Cricket Bro hands out his phony AI awards at his fundraising event. Why Mark thought this was worth a story is unclear. Looks like Mark is thinking the same thing.

I noticed that neither Mark nor Kelly bothered to eat their pork chop and mashed potatoes. In fact, neither did Sid Stump! (panel 2) That food must be really bad, which is a crime. Anybody that ruins a good pork chop should be made to eat a bag of raw chia seeds.

To be transparent: I put that stuff about pork chops and chia in for my wife, who likes to use chia seeds but has little use for pork chops. Yet, I married her.

Art Dept. You’re probably looking at panel 4 and thinking “Did Mark and Kelly change seats?” It’s possible, but I think this is just another example of artistic license. It had to be difficult to pass up a strong composition like this, with Mark leaning on the dinner table, cynically bored. Mark’s pose is well designed to emphasize his mood.

Since Rivera likes to try putting jokes into these dailies and making Mark look like a goof, I’m surprised she passed up the obvious slapstick of having Mark accidentally lean his elbow in the mashed potatoes.