On the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks against America, The Dinette Set takes a close look at where we are 5 years later.
The eerily-empty city street suggests strongly that everyone is crossing the street, if not the county, to avoid any contact with Jerry, whose all-over-hairiness understandably makes the average passerby suspicious that he is Arabic. Not because Arabs are necessarily hirsute, but because Jerry looks different and different is not only bad, but potentially lethal.
Burl and Dale's high-stepping gait conspicuously exposes their heels, providing a bittersweet reminder that everyday items like shoe heels and liquids have been transformed into objects of irrational fear.
The sewer grate, spewing forth gas with enough force to lift the T-shirt from Jerry's impressive girth with a strangely billowy flourish conjures up a dual image of America's consumption of fossil fuels, thus funding our enemies, and the dangers posed by potential attacks on our infrastructure, in which sewer gas could be replaced with Sarin.
And, finally, Burl's obvious mistaken identification of the Marilyn Monroe movie reference as being from Gentleman Prefer Blondes is a potent reminder that terrorists hate the average American citizen's freedom to be so aggressively and openly stupid.
Many issues are raised, but as is befitting a struggle as nuanced as the one in which America finds ourselves and a comic as nuanced as The Dinette Set, few definitive answers are forthcoming.
Marginalia are no longer allowed on planes:
- Is Burl's shirt supposed to say Cheep!, Chief! or Chiep! Either way I don't get it.
- Is Jerry really supposed to be a member of AARP. While not young, nothing in the artwork suggests the characters are that old.
- Does Dale always wear that inane grin?
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