Yes!

I remember years ago going to an Administrative Board meeting at First United Methodist Church of Dallas, the church I attended when I lived in the Dallas area. The church was huge, and the Administrative Board met once a month over dinner to discuss church business with usually more than a 100 people in attendance. I was in the church singles group at the time, and I had been elected to the Administrative Board, I think, for no other reason than I was young and single and actually attended the church. The singles minister at that time was the Rev. Susan Monts, who has since died, but I remember her fondly. During this particular evening, she sat with me at one of the dining tables and there was an elderly couple also dining with us. Thus began one of the most surreal conversations it has ever been my privilege to witness. The Rev. Susan Monts struck up a conversation with the lady of the elderly couple and she answered every single question Susan asked her with the word “Yes” except each “Yes” had different tones and inflections to carry a different meaning, and moreover, these tones and inflections were actually able to answer most of Susan’s questions. This went on for at least a good 20 minutes, as I sat and ate and listened and wondered if the elderly lady would ever say anything other than “Yes.” She did not. It was not until I read today’s strip, an event which occurred probably 20 years after my dinner, did I realize the lady of the elderly couple must have had a stroke and was suffering from the same kind of aphasia Grandpa Jim is suffering, except with only one word.

As for today’s For Better or For Worse strip, I had Michael snark on Grandpa Jim doing a pun with 3 words in the last panel, Constable Paul Wright snarked the poor listening skills of the doctor in answering Iris’ question, and Jeremy Jones went on his caroling trip to visit Grandpa Jim and Iris in which (I think), he snarked the living daylights out of the Iris monthly letter for December. I was very amused with myself with the Jeremy post, even if no one else was.

Tomorrow’s strip: Dr. Foell, the fondling doctor, fondles Iris, but she likes it and asks for more. Like the strip when Iris was at the hospital and all over John Patterson, I suspect we have an “Iris needs some loving” theme going on the subtext of this strip. Sergeant Royalson (whoever he or she is) should have a field day with that, with the good Sergeant’s belief Iris is some kind of Black Widow.