Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 14, 2010

The future return of the old “mother-in-law” jokes.

But if anyone earned being the brunt of those jokes, it’s Mrs. Deluca.

Though you have to admit, he IS getting the words out right.

Help the uninformed. The meaning of the “clouds” coming out of the mouths of DeLuca and Alex?

Cold air makes your breath “smoke” because of condensation of the moisture in your breath coming in contact with said cold air. You must be from Florida or California….(somewhere warm anyways…)

One of the joys of winter - dragon breath!

This is the first panel I’ve seen where Mrs. DeLuca is shown as just having acted in Leo’s best interests: 1. it worked, and 2. Alex is not being facetious when whe says “Good Call” - she’s smiling. As for where she may have learned about synapses, she HAS been at her son’s side, and talking with his doctors, since he was in the hospital in very serious condition. She also knew, from all these months of experience, that he WAS seriously over-tired and that a good 10 or 12 hours sleep was exactly what he needed. The proof - again, it worked.

Having said all that, yeah, she definitely has issues - she’s afraid to cut the cord, which will put Leo in the middle, ultimately. It’ll be interesting to see where Gary takes this.

THIS is the storyline I can’t wait to see. Beginning every week, I hold my breath as I click to see the strip and just about bawl when it isn’t Alex and Leo. Thank you, Gary.

Maaaaybe she isn’t just plain ign’rnt trailer trash?

Nancy, bingo. It’s easy to trash your mom, but mom sometimes does know best.

alcoholics don’t have relationships, they take hostages.

So, Toggle doesn’t stutter when he is mad? Good going for that first step to recovery.

Alex should get on her good side by saying things like: an MIT grad makes six figure salaries on average. Wouldn’t you like a double-wide trailer with a view?

Joe, if it was BBC, he would have been “poor white caravan trash.”

@Joe Doty, I was just re-reading the comments from yesterday, and you mentioned that “there is no cure for PTSD”. Then you’re out of date, man, because research has been making great strides! Read the literature! I do!

@Doctor Toon, that’s very sweet, and I am NOT being sarcastic.

I work outside in New England & I despise hats. I figure I’ll just burn more calories trying to keep warm!

Openminded, that reminds me of a quote I once read from a medic of the Vietnam war who wished they could just give every soldier in triage who could manage it a chocolate milkshake….