Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for January 27, 2010

A woman who earns enough to own her own house and car and support a shopping habit should be able to afford a good lawyer.

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Yay, she left him! Although I’m guessing it’s only at the restaurant and not for good. And no, Irving you’re not “good”. I hate that phrase anyway. I wonder what Librarian has to say about that…

EJ -

Have you actually seen her earn it lately?

I think she’s a consultant now, ‘cause she only has to show up once or twice a month and can still afford to do all that stuff.

if he doesn’t have the time to pay attention to her, why should she stick around? it’s like watching people eat and one of them is reading a paper…. how rude!

Lightenup, good is a perfectly acceptable grammatical term for Irving’s behavior. It is not, however, an accurate one.

To differentiate between the proper use of good always remember:

“Good is an adjective, well is an adverb.”

Good describes a person, place, thing, or idea. Well describes verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

“Jason is a very good boy, but he doesn’t listen very well.”

Good describes the noun Jason; well describes how he listens.

And on the strip, since I don’t agree with divorce (both my husband and myself having been children of divorced parents, and what with God meaning marriage to be for life) I highly suggest those two get some serious counseling. In order to keep Irving’s interest, I suggest Mark Gungor’s Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage.

It did wonders for me and hubby. I finally understand the concept of the man’s “nothing box”.

My wonderful hubby also tends to stay online when he’s home, trading away on forex, emailing sales clients, or calling people on his cellphone. I was going to complain, but hated to break off my Twittering while listening to an online radio station and reading GoComics jokes. (Besides, he rubs my feet for an hour every night, so who cares?)

Lightenup, good is a perfectly acceptable grammatical term for Irving’s behavior. It is not, however, an accurate one.

To differentiate between the proper use of good always remember:

“Good is an adjective, well is an adverb.”

Good describes a person, place, thing, or idea. Well describes verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

You’re forgetting two important idiomatic uses of “good” and “well,” Librarian, and this is where the confusion lies, I think.

Compare “I feel good” v. “I feel well.” Both are grammatically correct, but there is an important distinction between the two. “I feel good” refers to emotional state or condition. “I feel well,” on the other hand, refers to physical health. The two are NOT interchangeable.

A similar distinction exists between “I am good” (emotional state or condition, which is the sense in which Irving is using the word here) and “I am well” (physical health.)

Incidentally, the same distinction is why it is always incorrect to say “I feel badly” as opposed to “I feel bad,” unless you are actually talking about your ability to feel things physically.

Maybe she’s going home to distroy his iphone’s charger, then to the divorce lawyer’s. After that, to the cops to have them remove the 2 squatters in her house, then the locksmith to change all the outside locks on the house.

Also, she’ll be placing all of his stuff on the sidewalk, all the tech stuff engulfed in flames after douseing them with gasoline…I’d like to see that transpire, wouldn’t you?

Cathy has decided to go to another place to eat by herself, and probably eat all the wrong foods and too much of them. After that she will spend a couple hours shopping at the mall. Irving can then enjoy his date with his gadgets.

As for “I’m good” I think it would’ve been more accurate to say “I’m ok” but he’s not “ok” to sit there and use his gadgets and not order anything!

Hmmm, did they come in the same car? Irving better have enough money on him for a cab!

Is the waitress the same person as the clothing salesclerk at Cathy’s favorite store?

YAY! It’s about time!

Run home and have the locks changed while he’s busy having dinner with his stupid phone, and and throw his parents and his midlife crisis clothes out on the lawn while the guy rekeys your dead bolts.

Work fast woman! Don’t look back.

Poor Irving–the sort of guy you can’t live with and can’t live without–

I think he’s very endearing, actually.

Now that we’ve heard from all the women who think the Queen of the Mall should dump Geek-Boy, let me suggest he’s actually on the iPhone to his divorce lawyer right now.

Then again, at some primal level these two deserve each other–they’re both shallow, materialistic, self-centered and as far as I can tell pretty much useless to society as anything more than a source of the occasional “at least I’m better than THAT” snicker…

I often see people who have met for lunch and one of them is constantly texting/talking on the cell. Not only rude but I wonder if the person who came to spend time with them bothers to do it again.

leagaleagle48, thank you. I was hoping someone would catch that. While I enjoy teaching my online friends a thing or two, it gives me pride to see my “pupils” pointing out things on their own.

:) Call it a teacher’s greatest joy. Those “light bulb” moments.

BTW, in speaking of health that is less than stellar, one would not say “I feel bad.” but “I feel poorly.” (Which would then be misconstrued as a deficit in the ability of one to feel anything at all.)

Of course, the easiest thing to say would be “I feel ill.” as that would remove all doubt as to your physical condition. :)

Okay, something’s definitely wrong with him………dinner with your iphone and he didn’t even notice his wife isn’t with him…….unless…..he planned it that way!!!!

Irving made his purchase too soon.

He should have waited for the APPLE announcement and bought the new ipad, instead, coming in March.

His new iphone is now NOT the latest thing.

I also see this a lot, although maybe not so much with newlyweds. Luckily, though my husband is an engineer and we both like tech stuff (like right now, for instance), we agree on no cell phones r other toys at dinner. Now, whether the kids agree in a few years, I can’t tell you. But that’s the rule!

Cathy and Irving do deserve each other, but it’s good she went off to do her own thing. Eating alone is better than eating with someone but being alone.

Puddlegum, @ your last comment. You’re right, they DO definitely deserve each other on a primal level. That’s why they finally gave up breaking up with each other to find something better, and because Irving was a commitment phobic, flake, and settled on marrying each other because it was better than being alone (which was what they did).

It’s just fun to imagine Cathy dumping him and his parents, and finding some muscley boy toy to play on the beach and be more interestingly shallow with. It would liven up this seemingly stuck storyline.

All the money and the house is hers. He sold his house, moved into hers, and bought electronics with all the money from his house. The Cathy spinoff of Irving in the rent-a-room-by-the-week with his home theatre, his phone and his parents wouldn’t last long. That’s pretty much how Cathy’s been spending this whole, boring marriage. That’s all we’re saying.