Mo Museums

See it here.

Apparently it's museum week in The Dinette Set. This follows last week which devoted three different panels to the perils of foreign manufacturing, at least in some small part, and recalls the two-part corn stories.

Today's panel also implies that I may have misread at least one portion of yesterday's panel. How else to explain the fact that Timmy, our first clue that something deeper was going on in yesterday's panel, is responsible for dragging Burl to a museum of natural history?

Perhaps both trips were Timmy's idea and he convinced his grandfather to drag Burl along because Timmy harbors a malicious streak and a deep-seated hatred of his grandfather or of Burl. In that sense, it is entirely possible he simply represent the reader's perspective.

But Timmy is visually positioned in the center of the panel and yet completely isolated from the surroundings. The dialog further isolates him, with everyone talking loudly about him and yet talking as if he is not present or is incapable of understanding. And then there is the stark contrast between the hand lovingly placed on the shoulder of the fortunate girl with a Yale parent and Burl's thumb jabbing towards Timmy, threatening to put out his eye.

I'm afraid what we have here is further proof that every moment Timmy spends with his grandparents is a living hell. His curious young mind is thwarted at every turn by the miserly patrician he has the misfortune to call his grandfather, in large part due to the influence of Dale's domineering friend, Burl.

One can only hope Timmy's parents read The Dinette Set and will stop allowing his grandparents access to Timmy before they do irreparable damage.

Tyrannosaurus marginalius:

• A near clone of the Yale father previously appeared in line behind Burl and Joy at the movies. The ticket taker appears to be a slightly-disguised Tom, the Personal-Injury Lawyer. It's like Burl and Joy are in an understaffed version of The Truman Show in which the actors are forced to play multiple roles.
• How many museums actually have exhibits that are not open to the public?