Friday, July 10, 2009 Heathcliff Analyzed

Stealthily Heathcliff creeps up on the old man, cleverly disguised as a 50 gallon drum of table scraps.

For some reason the Nutmegs have placed a 50 gallon drum in their kitchen for bottles. Pop must be a really heavy drinker if the normal recycling bin won't do for him. Heathcliff, seeing Pop with a sandwich, has disguised himself as another, identical 50 gallon drum, and marked it "Table Scraps." In the strip, either Heathcliff is sneaking up on Pop, or he had been waiting in the drum for the old man to toss in any morsels that may have fallen from his sandwich. Whatever the case, the cat decided to poke his head out, thereby blowing his cover. Pop wittily responds with a well thought-out "Scat."

One strange thing about this strip (stranger than the other strange things) is that Pop isn't eating the sandwich. Instead he seems to just be teasing the cat with it. On top of the sandwich, a small flame boom seems to be burning off pockets of natural gas within. Maybe the sandwich is just hiding a tiny oil rig.