Ye Olde Donut Hole Employee

See it here.

Today's Dinette Set appears to be no more than a disconnected mish-mash of themes.

Visually, the panel clearly deals with issues of obesity, from the protagonists (whose mere presence is an obesity reference), to the donut-shop setting, to the non-gender-specific, but obese, worker bee.

Textually, of course, issues of cleanliness predominate, with sweatshirt and dialog working together in this direction.

Finally, the purpose of the background people, so often a symbol of the hostile world lurking just outside Burl's highly-controlled circle of family, friends, and assorted hangers-on, is somewhat vague.

The fact that these backrgouond people are all white, rather than the standard shadowy-black color, of course, suggests that perhaps we should approach them with the opposite interpretation as we might under normal circumstances. In other words, perhaps they are meant to be the better angels of our nature or of society; good-natured spirits with our best interests at heart.

Working backwards from there, the artists seems to be suggesting that the Donut shop employee is not leaving the wax paper in the sack in as an unconscious custom, but rather in a subtle, yet deliberate attempt to cut down on Joy and Burl's caloric intake.

And suddenly, this disconnected mish-mash of themes coalesces around the single, hopeful image of a passive-aggressive, but well-intentioned, gesture.

Ye Olde Marginalia Shoppe

• I believe this panel sets the mark for overuse of the phrase "Ye Olde Donut Hole", with 4 appearances in a 400x400 pixel space.
• The angle at which Pat's plump arm is drawn makes it appear as if it is growing out of her hip.