We’ve seen this circular device (panel 1) that Rivera uses to visualize objects a character is thinking or talking about. In this case, it is Cherry talking to Mark. Normally, Rivera would have the two characters looking at each other (like panel 2), even though Cherry is physically someplace else. However, sometimes Rivera gets a bit clever: She has Cherry lookingat the alligator instead of Mark, based on Mark’s comment. How do I know this? It’s an educated guess, based on my many years of guessing about things.
Okay, in panel 1 Cherry’s head is a bit lower than Mark’s head (go ahead and measure it). Next, Cherry is looking across, not up. The only thing directly parallel and across from her is the gator. Ipso facto (and other Latin terms to make me seem clever), Cherry is looking at the gator. I guess,
The only thing I’ll pick on a bit is the depiction of the gator. How many of you watched that gator video I linked to? Or any other golf club gator vids? Question: Is this gator resting or walking? An alligator stands on its four legs when walking, so I’m hoping that Rivera knows this and is not suggesting the gator is moving across the grass while lying on its belly. Hah! You won’t get this kind of detailed, sharp analysis on other sites.
This is the week that was…wet. As in water parks. As in what looks like a second week with Cherry. On its own, it’s a bit unusual. But this week is not on her dime, is it? Or maybe it is. I mean, this is supposedly the story of Mark’s informal investigation of water pollution in a local swimming lake. Yet, we have had two weeks of Cherry and Rusty at the water park! (Oh, the trivia I get into. Do I even have a life?)
I think what we have is Jules Rivera “shaking up” her usual time allotments (2+ wks for Mark versus 1 wk for Cherry). So this week was really Cherry’s story slip-sliding into Mark’s. For those who came in late: The prize peacock belonging to Violet Cheshire’s mother (never “mom”!) escaped from the Sunny Soleil Society, leading to Cherry and Honest Ernest having to find it in time for a big-deal summer party. While Rusty was looking for more water slides, Honest Ernest phoned Cherry for help. Cherry had the day off, but since she’s been something of a nonentity the past several weeks, she relented and agreed to help Ernest, especially as she and Rusty spotted the peacock running around the resort.
Ernest arrived at the park. As the two conversed, the peacock suddenly ambushed Ernest by jumping on his head. Ernest was so upset that the peacock was able to escape once again. Meanwhile, Rusty had returned, shivering from the cold water of his latest slide. For reasons unknown to me, Cherry was getting very flustered and phoned Mark to make sure he was okay. I reckon all of the stress—from Rusty going on dodgy slides to getting herself talked into helping Ernest on her day off—was taking its toll. So she clearly needed a steady head and support.
Yet, talking to Mark, Cherry expressed the hope that her day was going better than Marks, thus contradicting the very reason she called (as far as I could tell)! In an attempt to downplay his own developing situation, Mark casually mentioned an alligator on the course interrupting play.
Such is the summary for the week. At least there was some action!
Andyfinally made an appearance, if only for a brief cameo. I reckon that the cane toad is yet another case study of good intentions gone awry. Their eggs are laid in long jellied strips, housing up to 25,000 eggs. But only about 0.5% reach adulthood. I read the cane frog’s article in Wikipedia (the source of information for all of us half-baked experts!). The science backs up Mark’s warning about what happens to dogs that lick or bite cane toads. It’s yet another reason to avoid moving to Florida.
But it isn’t just animals that can get poisoned. Some humans have died, apparently thinking they were consuming a normal toad! <Bleh!> Best read the article for the other interesting tidbits. Well, go on…hop to it!
Click on image to expand it. Click your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.
I understand gators are often seen on courses in various southern states, in part because people build golf courses on land frequented by alligators. So what do they expect!? And those gators can get quite large. YouTube has plenty of “golf course gator” videos, should you have the time and inclination. Here is a short one of a really big gator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXn1g0xtUMk. But none of the videos I saw showed golfers getting pulled into the water hazards, where they tend to hang out and breed. The alligators, that is.
I don’t understand Cherry’s logic. Yesterday, she’s practically falling apart in fear that Mark was having an even worse day than she was. But today, it’s the opposite. And Cherry seems to think that she can just snap her rhetorical fingers to get Mark to leave in the middle of a golf game.
Meanwhile, there is chaos on the links, as the Cheddersons attack an alligator in panel 1, or at least try to chase it off. None of the videos I watched showed golfers being that nuts. If we’re really lucky, maybe there will be an opportunity for the gator to snack on some “chedders”!
In spite of having the peacock in hand, or on-the-head, Honest Ernest seems to have lost it once again. Do you notice anything else? In panel 2 Ernest looks older, more self-reflective and serious. I’m not sure what the extra-heavy inking of his work suit is all about, but he certainly presents a different persona, like a real person. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Again.
Meanwhile, I don’t get Cherry. Well, I don’t get why she is turning into this less capable, more worrisome person, as if she has nothing more to do than just react to everything going on around her. As for that narration box in panel 3: It was my understanding that the phrase “having a man in your/her/my life” refers to somebody personally close, such as a boyfriend, husband, or son. How does Ernest fit into any of those categories!? Isn’t he the ineffectual opponent to Cherry and the entire Trail family? He’s made actual threats and instigated violence against several of them, in fact.
Even Rivera seems to have forgotten the “other men” in Cherry’s life, to wit: Her brother, Dirk, and her father, Doc Davis. They don’t count anymore? Well, they do spend most of their time stuck in the “Mark Trail Occasional Character” closet.
Cherry has become a worrywart, hasn’t she? Is Rusty really coming apart (emotionally or psychologically)? And what’s that panic phone call all about? If this trend is going to continue, I’d rather see Ed Dodd’s version of Cherry. At least she had spunk in the beginning!
Wait…
Rivera’s Cherry had spunk in the beginning, too! The pre-Rivera Cherry eventually became more of a stay-at-home, dutiful wife, worrying about her husband’s safety or catching rays on a beach. And it looks like Rivera’s Cherry is following a similar path. But it’s a dead-end that leads to obscurity and irrelevance. Still, there are differences: The pre-Rivera Cherry could have ceased to exist without affecting the strip very much. Mark could just as well have had Doc minding Rusty, or hired a nanny. Rivera’s Cherry, on the other hand, has mostly been a positive, dynamic part of the strip, with her own storylines and supporting cast. Maybe she just needs to get out of Mark’s shadow more often.
I thought the object was to catch and hold on to the peacock, not push it away. Excuse my ignorance, but what is the tree branch for? Does Cherry think the bird will suddenly jump on it, like a squirrel!? My other question is, where is the cage or sack that Honest Ernest should have had with him after capturing the peafowl? And what is Honest Ernest supposed to do while Cherry goes off in search of that tree branch? It’s not as if she can just lean down and pick one up; she’s at a golf resort, for goodness sake!
As for Rusty, looks like he took the scaredy-cat slide that goes directly into the water, rather than the other slide, reserved for those carrying catastrophic health insurance. I reckon Rusty now knows why it is a Penguin Pool.
Art Dept. Panel 1 is actually a well-designed layout in terms of the figures and the use of available panel space. A strong diagonal alignment reinforces the panicky actions of both figures. The peacock, itself, is rather striking, even while lacking very much definition. But not bad for the size of a comic strip panel.
As several of you know (or suspect), I try to get into the strip from various ways. I don’t want to simply or exclusively point out the bloopers. I want to shine light on the interesting, inventive, and positive aspects of the strip, as well. Sure, sometimes the weight falls on the former more than the latter. Well, maybe a lot more often than that.
With the peacock’s sudden appearance, will Honest Ernest grab it and thus, bring Cherry’s little side-story to a quick conclusion? It could happen! It could also be her shortest story on record.
Art Dept. The visual juxtaposition between high and low levels becomes an interesting problem when designing panel layouts. In panel 1, the ground appears to have been “tilted” to a degree to show Cherry and Honest Ernest looking up at Rusty. And we have Rivera’s stereotypical silhouettes in the background to suggest other attendees. The space between them and the adjacent downside view in panel 1 get muddied. And the angular alteration of the ground doesn’t work very well because the high and low spatial relationships are also ambiguous. Is Rusty looking down or across? Are Cherry and Ernest really below or more likely just standing on a slightly lower embankment off to the side?
The layout in panel 2 is much more credible. It’s actually done well, as Rusty clearly looks down to a more spatially coherent lower ground. Cherry and Ernest are clearly looking up. If there is any complaint, it would be Rivera’s tendency to use a profile when interacting with people positioned “behind.” I discussed this quirk on 7/30/25 and 7/31/25.
I could quibble about the drawing of Rusty’s and Cherry’s faces, as well, including curiously ambiguous facial anatomy and Cherry’s non-ending dripping from her pool incursion. But I’ll leave that to your own analysis.
Finally, we have the peacock landing on Honest Ernest’s head. On TV or the big screen, this avian assault would get plenty of chuckles. Or perhaps, shock, as we see Cherry’s reaction. Peacocks may, in fact, jump on you if they feel threatened by you. And I suppose the mere presence of Honest Ernest is threatening enough to just about anybody or any animal.
But the main issue here is the smaller size of the peacock. Perhaps that was done to fit on the head and within the panel better than drawing a more realistically-sized peacock. I don’t know. It just looks odd.
When I used to go wading and body surfing on the shores of the Atlantic in Virginia Beach, the worst that sometimes happened to me (other than sunburn) was getting stung by jellyfish. But they really sting! Reader Downpuppy left a comment referring to a post by Jules Rivera about her own unfortunate encounter with a stingray, which may have inspired the stingray pond.
That Penguin slide we see has to be some 25-30 feet above the pool (which we cannot even see)! That’s about the height of Olympic diving platforms, making this water slide beyond the normal skillset and safety margins of most families. Maybe Rivera reallywas inspired by the New Jersey Action Park.
I was amused by Honest Ernest’s panic attack in panel 1, as it brings a look of wide-eyed shock to Cherry; or maybe she reacts to how he refers to Violet as “Miss Violet.” That’s certainly an old-fashioned phrase that Cherry, herself, used from time to time in the early days of the strip when talkingto Violet Cheshire (see the strips for 8/23/21 and 3/28/23). Yet, Ernest is only talking about Violet. Why refer to her that way, when Cherry knows her almost as well as he does. Don’t worry; I’m not going to deconstruct it. It probably means nothing.
So Cherry is not above putting the family vacation (and Rusty’s water park time) aside for her Job. Well, I can’t complain much because I’ve done that a few times in my working past. But I’m still amazed that, no matter how awful and destructive Honest Ernest is, Cherry always seems to take it in stride and continue to cooperate. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a character flaw or if Cherry is designed to be the personification of Misericordia. Whatever the answer is, Rusty is certainly not so forgiving (panel 1).
I’m surprised Rusty’s being so good-natured by all this, as well. Ernest and his gang gave him a lot of grief in Lost Forest with their so-called “lawnmower races” and here is Mom, taking him away from the water while looking chummy and cooperative with The Enemy.
Okay, perhaps I’m reading way too much into a simple storyline.
Rivera shifted the story’s focus this week from the golf course to the water park. As Mark and Happy walked off with the Cheddersons for a round of golf, Cherry and Rusty went to the water park where Rusty tried out the “stingray spinner” water slide (what we used to call a snake slide in my youth). Turns out the pool (or pond) contained actual stingrays put there (according to the staff) to make the experience more exciting. But for whom? The concept of using actual stingrays in a pool designed for family entertainment sounds just a tad reckless, wouldn’t you say? Earlier this week, some readers discussed a now-defunct amusement park in New Jersey that bragged about its dangerous rides. So, reckless? Sure. More importantly, does it make any sense to include this “stingray” diversion in the story, or was it just thrown in to be weird? Or is it meant to reveal something of the character of Chet Chedderson?
Cherry yanked Rusty out of the water and berated one of the teenaged pool staff, to little avail. But right then, Cherry got a phone call from Honest Ernest whining about her not helping find the lost peacock. Cherry reminded Ernest that she had the day off, so it was now his job.
Rivera is not one to waste an opportunity for a traditional “but just then…!” opportunity, so as she ended the call, the missing peacock suddenly appeared near the pool. Will Cherry call Ernest back and tell him to come get it, or will she and Rusty go chasing after the peafowl all over the resort? Well, gang, maybe we’ll have some real suspense, at last!
And you thought getting stung by jelly fish was bad (Well, I sure do)! Looks like reader comments on stingrays discussed on Friday were not enough to replace the Sunday topic, so Rivera still had her say. But today’s topic is not really so much about the rays as the consequences of human interaction with them. And it looks to be no fun at all. I read that sometimes the blade of a stinger gets embedded in a person unlucky enough to get stabbed, requiring surgery to remove it. Ugh! Maybe wading in the surf with sandals is a better option.
Being Saturday, it appears that Jules Rivera is trying to tie up several loose ends before Monday. Does that mean we will flip back to the the golf game or do we continue this convoluted sideline?
Cherry can complain all she wants, but nobody forced her to answer the phone. Meanwhile, Rusty has been restricted to a kid-safe pool, though he is having a good time, anyway.
Looks like the timelines of Mark’s and Cherry’s adventures are, indeed, synchronous after all. This had been an earlier concern of mine when Happy showed up at the cabin (July 14) and started this golf trip subplot. Do you recall the peacock we saw on the golf course in the July 26 strip? With his appearance again today, it suggests that the golfing resort is, as surmised, close to the Sunny Soleil Society HQ. “So what,” you ask? Well, that is one question that stymies most media critics when put to them about their writing. But I have an answer for today, at least: “So I was right!”
But where does Rivera go from here? Cherry has the day off, so it’s doubtful she will dump Rusty off on Mark and head back to the Society. She could just call Honest Ernest back, report the peacock sighting, and let him deal with it. That would give her more time to complain to the pool staff.
Well, it’s not much of a confrontation; just some desultory venting. What happened to you, Cherry?
And sorry, car fans, but no vintage Corvette Stingrays are sporting about in the Stingray pond, as reader observantdonutad36129846 commiserated in a recent comment. And reader Triteon reminded us that stingrays can kill a human without using its venom, if you are unlucky enough to get struck in the right (or wrong) place on your body. Looks like we got the Sunday Nature Chat out of the way for the week!
Art Dept. When Cherry gets mad, she certainly transforms, and I don’t just mean emotionally. As many of you might recall, Dr. Bruce Banner, when under great stress, would transmorph into The Incredible Hulk®. But when Cherry gets stressed out, it looks like she turns into Jules Rivera; or maybe her sister. For Mark’s sake, let’s hope that he’s not the one calling.
The Daily Trail 