Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 10, 2022

You gotta admire Caulfield’s mother not just for putting up with him but for raising a bright creative and more or less fearless child! Of course she enjoyed doing this!

The pages of instructions boil down to Let’s see if you can make it better!

And as he stated, he is highly unlikely have any further commentary other than “Thank You, Mom! This is highly appreciated.”

To paraphrase: The tree did not grow too far from the apple!

Ikea lunch.

Caulfield has just learned a valuable life-lesson: “Never criticize something that you can’t (or won’t) do for yourself.”

Number three: Shake, rattle and roll.

Overheard in a school cafeteria:

“Cream cheese & grape jelly! Cream cheese & grape jelly! That’s all I ever get in my lunches!”

“So, ask your Mom to make you something else.”

“I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“Because I hafta make my own lunch!”

I know #1 and #2 are related to having ingested food, but what is #3?

To me that seems to be very convincing on the issue of genetics. Knowing Caulfield I would have expected that to happen that way.

An inspirational thought? An encouraging word? Save those, if only in your heart.

Well, we now know which parent is responsible for Caulfield’s special way of looking at things. And I love his mom.

Maybe #3 is a cautionary note about someone else who pushed Mom a little too far, and how she dealt with them. Or perhaps a threat to invite Caulfield’s least favorite relative for a visit.

My dad always said never piss off the dishwasher.

We made our own lunches, soon as we were old enough

One of the reasons I hated high school was the lunches not to mention 2,000 kids in the place in each year UGGGHHHH!!!I had enough watered down ketchup to last me a lifetime which is mostly why I prefer horseradish mustard and good Heinz ketchup.

What do you suppose item #3 is? Whatever, it made Caulfield’s eyes wide.

Teaching someone to fish not only takes longer than catching them a fish, but adversely affects your own short term enjoyment of the fishing experience. Except that once you teach them to fish you may have a fishing companion for life. Insert cooking, woodworking, gardening, sewing, et alia for fishing. Parenting, mentoring, et alia for teaching.

I really Like his mom.

Ooooh, I love Caulfield’s eyes in the last panel — makes me really wonder what number three is! :-D His mother sounds awesome. One of those truly excellent out-of-frame characters.