Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for July 03, 2023

If you don’t read silly internet advice, how would you know that you are not supposed to stick your hand down there?

There are things I’ve learned, the hard way, to never attempt to put down the garbage disposal. Won’t try those again. My wife doesn’t seem to learn and I blame her for the last couple times we needed a plumber to unplug it.

The problem with the internet isn’t that a lot of it is silly. It’s that some of it isn’t silly, which means you can’t just dismiss the whole thing as silly. You have to read and form opinions on a case-by-case basis. Without knowing what was on that paper, Sergei is the one who looks silly here.

Kid gets to try to fix it…

Definitely avoid potato peels and onion skins. The voice of experience here.

no… but I’m pretty sure paper was on the list. :J

Maybe “don’t run the disposal without running the water” was on that list Mr. Know-It-All!

It’s not a silly list, that one sounds practical. My grandfather could have used it back in the day.

Not all internet advice is silly- some of it can be helpful. For example, there is a mantra you can repeat to yourself whenever you feel lost or uninspired. It goes like this:

OHWA

TADOO

FUSIAM

Slowly repeat that phrase to yourself, but gradually speed up the tempo until the message becomes clear.

“In the United States, garbage disposal units can be found in just over half of all homes, according to one 2020 Consumer Reports survey. These under-the-sink appliances are considered an easy way to remove plate residue, sending small food scraps down the drain.

Yet garbage disposal units are a relative rarity in other areas, including just north of the border where bans on the use of garbage disposal units are common. Municipalities across Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, Markham, Vaughan, and Guelph, have banned the installation of garbage disposal units, or garburators as they’re better known in Canada. Other communities – including Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary – discourage their use.

How can a device be so popular in one area and vilified in another? The answer, it turns out, is simple and hints at the need for alternative methods for the disposal of food waste. "

Some time later:

“Dang, that’s the third time I’ve had to pay a plumber to replace the garbage disposal! Why do they keep breaking?”

A friend of mine lived in an apartment complex that kept telling the residence to not “put food down the garbage disposals”. They kept putting these letters on their doors and threatening action if they had to fix a garbage disposal that was found to have food in it. I mean, what??? What are they for if not for most types of food scraps? Why even have them installed in each unit if they resident can’t use it for what it’s designed for? The whole thing was strange.

That was a pretty jerko move >:(

Sergio needs to start listening to others.

For example, my roommate was changing the spark plugs in my mini van a few years ago, and couldn’t get to one of the (stupid engineers!). A video we found online showed exactly where it was and how to get to it.

Cutting a hole through the floor of the van was a lot cheaper than taking it to a mechanic, and let him change them a couple more times before it basically died of old age (could no longer find parts).

People like Sergio don’t know how to learn anymore, or are simply unwilling to.

But Papi is of the age when people learned or inherited common sense and logic. Seems to be so little of that going around these days, and that goes for some of the not-so-young folk I know.

No one around here (at least that my family, husband’s family or the two of us knew/know) has a garbage disposal (and some places – not for us or either of our families – do not have sewers either).

I always thought when I saw them in movies or on TV that they were a gag – until I got older and found that they really exist.

Food never goes down the drain or it will get stopped up.

The garbage disposal will tell you by refusing to grind up those things.

Some garbage disposals will even go so far as to refuse to work until you Apologize.

Disclaimer: If you’re a “this is just a comic” type reader, then please understand that this just a comment 100% not for you. Please let those of us who use fiction and humor to catalyst serious discussion of real life do so in piece. Thank you.-—I wish that C&C had given Baldo a more ashamed, frustrated, and disappointed look on his face in the last panel, because that would be more realistic.

It really stinks that Sergio didn’t use this as an opportunity to teach Baldo about critical thinking by showing him how to question sources and think about people’s credentials.

It also stinks that Sergio models this kind of literally destructive response to perceived disrespect.

Given that……many plumbers and appliance repair techs have YouTube InstaTok Reels explaining why things that people commonly put in the disposal shouldn’t be,…very few people read the instructions on their appliances to learn to use them properly,…very few people read the instructions from the water/sewer company regarding what can safely go down the drain,…many articles and videos on the internet on this topic are produced by directly by the experts you will call when the disposal quits or the pipes back up (or by skilled journalists from reputable magazines interviewing said professionals)it is silly and arrogant for Sergio to dismiss the list without knowing any information except “internet.”