Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for June 23, 2023

We all heard you play, Petey! And what a performance it was!!

She could have lied to him. He always needs an ego boost and never seems to get one.

Somehow Alice’s dress stopped itching once the concert was over.

Oot!

His mother should have told Petey that he played very well, not that they didn’t hear him because of his sister.

Judging by where the attention of the concert audience was earlier; Mom, Pop & Alice weren’t the only ones missing Petey’s performance.

Shattering dreams, but wait! Cookies solve everything…….

I feel so sorry for Petey. If his family doesn’t give him an ounce of encouragement as a young child, I fear what his teen years will bring him. Yes, I know it’s a cartoon but I’m referring to children in that type of family.

You were awesome Petey!

July 4th Boston Pops on the Esplanade playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever“.

If a tree falls in the forest near a preschooler in an itchy party dress, does it make a sound?

I’d like to make a copy of this cartoon and color all over Alice with a black crayon.

…and so ends what could have been a brilliant career.

Uh wrong answer mom

Is she chompin’ Chopin?

(≖_ʖ ≖)

Mom goofed. She should have at least said she never heard him play better

Just watch. I bet tomorrow’s strip will be of the cartoonist waking up from a bad dream, and thinking ‘boy oh boy, was that an awful dream. Here’s what I really meant to say . . . Petey , that was wonderful! You played every note to perfection!’

Weird but I feel sorry for a cartoon character.

How many “famous musicians” would Alice recognize?

Apart from Timmy Fretwork, of course…

But the sound of applause from that one little red-headed girl was deafening.

I can honestly sat that I’ve never heard fidgety digits played so well.

Boy this hit’s close to home, Petey. All that anxiety and fret about performing in public, and then you give your best ever performance but no one is even paying attention. Little consolation that you didn’t get any deviled eggs thrown at you. If I was you I’d bite the head off that cookie.

Look at it this way, it will be good fodder for your next diorama- The Struggle of the Artist Unappreciated.

Generally, Richard Thompson’s rendering of the Otterloop parents is wonderful, and Mrs. Otterloop is otherwise depicted as a great mom - centered, understanding, and gently playful. Mr. Thompson, who was a certified genius and whose humor was almost always spot-on, needed Mrs. Otterloop to say what she did in the first panel in order to get to the punchline in the third panel-and the payoff, as it turned out, wasn’t worth it. Even geniuses sometimes miss the mark!

No wonder Petey chews his arm. Alice should have been sent out with Grandma (who was sleeping). That way Petey would have had the parental support he desperately needed.

How insensitive can a mother and a little sis be? —As prime examples, I give you Madeline and Alice Otterloop.

Poor Petey! Betrayed by his own family!

Eh, they heard it plenty of times at home when he was practicing, with less pressure and distraction. The other recitalists had a deeper appreciation of what it takes, anyway. I’m sure they liked his work, and were glad to hear him.

I never valued my mother’s praise very highly, as I knew she’d like anything I did, and wouldn’t say so if she didn’t. I treasured the unsolicited encouragement of those I deemed discriminating.