Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for July 17, 2021

“We checked it out. No leaks. And the natives are really dumb, based on our sample.”

I guess talking animals weren’t weird enough for Jim; now he needs space aliens. It’s a tacit admission that the strip’s original premise has run its course.

“Beam us up, Scotty.”

That took the bray right outa Becky !

I had a feeling they were space cases!

Too bad Becky can’t speak English—or Greek!!

RUFUS: “Look! Joel! It’s th’ Rapture!”

JOEL: " ‘Pears we’s stayin’ put—No tractor bean fer us!"

Aliens speak in the Greek alphabet?

How do you speak in an alphabet?

easy for you to say

“Μετάφέρετε μας Πάγω, Σκότη” = “Metapherete mas Pago, Scote.” One could say, “Transfer us [to] Ice, Scotty.” But “Pago” could also refer to a couple of different volcanoes, one in Papua New Guinea, the other in American Samoa. Anyway, it’s cute!

They’ll be home in a jiff: Gort’s the designated pilot.

Nice surprise.

I ran “metapherete mas pano” through Google translate Greek and it came up “take us over”. I guess that’s the closest the writer could come to “beam us up”. Why Greek I’m not sure.

SO, any guesses as to who’ll be featured Monday?

Star Fleet had folks from all over. I guess the universal translator doesn’t do Greek to mule.

Well, that retreat didn’t go as planned. And it’s funny how so many words in the language showcased / lampooned (take your pick) in the final panel look like Kaopectate……

Close Encounters of 3 kinds.

Well, that was a nice whad-a-ya-know moment!

Gotta admit, that was a cute ending.

Great ending!