Before the already-tardy Petroleum ‘Pothetical for this week, a much-overdue plug: I received several weeks ago an e-mail from one Bryce Baker announcing his new blog, the Daily Comics Review. It’s a Comics Curmudgeon-like site that I announce in the spirit of brotherhood and fraternity and all that. (Plus, everyone loves it when their Technorati Authority goes up. Mine just hit 10 and I’m on cloud 9. Which would have been more appropriate one link ago, but that’s just the way life is sometimes.)
Anyhow, onto last week’s winner, and I think it’s no surprise. Obviously, the winner is “Brent’s got it in one!” by Igopogo.
Okay, not really, since it didn’t actually answer the question. I just figured that Igopogo should get credit for spontaneously naming another the winner.
The actual winner will be “Rufus and Kitty will win. They’ll win by buying wagons full of the cat food – which of course Kitty won’t eat because she’s got good taste and it don’t taste good. Or they’ll win because they live in a junk yard and people in Gasoline Alley don’t do even the most basic recycling things like taking the labels off their cans.” Provided obviously, by the aforementioned Brent. Congratulations, Brent!
This week’s question: “How is Rufus going to get his labels to Chef Meowrice?” As you may remember, he’s under the gun for getting the labels there by the deadline of tomorrow. So what trick has he got up his sleeve? Answer in comments, and remember that I already suggested “pneumatic tube,” so if you use it, you will lose points for your lack of creativity.
He’s going to use a carrier cat. AKA Kitty.
After stuffing her full of food, he is then going to put all of the envelopes, each one containing only one label by itself, in a bag, which he will make her drag to Chef Meowrice in hopes that she will look so pathetic by the time that she gets there that she will instantly win based on pity.
Comment by Lynn — June 9, 2008 @ 2:40 am
Pile the cans, labels still attached, into the back of his ute and deliver them to Chef Meowrice in person.
Comment by Wallsy — June 9, 2008 @ 3:52 am
Well, by now we’ve seen that he’s just stuck the envelope in a corner mailbox (didn’t even take it to the Post Office to get it into the stream faster!) and is now worried about how they’ll contact him when he wins (’cause, y’know, nobody else will enter this national contest, right?).
But let’s pretend the Monday strip isn’t up yet:
Rufus will decide that the only way to get the labels to Chef Meowrice is to take them there in person. But he doesn’t have a car or money for a plane or train or bus ticket, so he needs a ride. Joel won’t lend him Becky and the junk wagon for what would be about a two-week trip, assuming the address on the labels is even in the same time zone as Gasoline Alley, so Rufus decides to try to hitch a ride. Slim Skinner, passing by in the GA Garage’s tow truck, sees Rufus waving and stops. Rufus tells his story and Slim agrees to give him a ride. Never mind the tow call he was on–this is Slim “Smash the loud kids with a meteor” Skinner we’re discussing here–he’s happy to just head off on a long trip to help the junkman enter a cat-food contest.
Slim and Rufus are intellectual equals, so the two-day drive goes by smoothly except for the phone call from Clovia, who wants to know where the hell Slim is with the truck.
(That conversation doesn’t go well.)
They drop off the labels just ahead of the deadline, to the dismay of the Chef Meowrice employee they meet, who points out that Rufus could have just mailed the damn things as long as his entry was postmarked on or before the deadline.
Rufus is crushed to learn that Chef Meowrice is just a piece of animation and therefore unavailable to meet with him or provide an “autygraph.” More dismay from the employees of Chef Meowrice.
Slim and Rufus return home to await the contest results (the drawing and announcement of the winner are a week away). Clovia is waiting at the garage, ready to kill them both–particularly Rufus, who, the last time he was in the garage, backed a customer’s car off the raised lift and totalled it (really! This was during the beer-tunnel storyline).
Slim has to physically restrain Clovia from bashing in Rufus’ head with a breaker bar and Rufus makes a hasty escape.
Once Rufus is out of sight, Slim lets go of Clovia, who appears to actually have flames shooting out of her head. “And as for YOU–!”
Rufus can hear her three blocks away…
Comment by Paul1963 — June 9, 2008 @ 9:05 am
Holy crap Greg thanks for the major nod in your post. The next time GA is awful I’ll give you a mention(sure to be soon!
As for Rufus, he’ll use that old hillbilly classic of listing the Meowrice contest as the return address, saving his precious pennies on moonshine instead of postage.
Comment by Bryce — June 9, 2008 @ 1:10 pm
This is completely wishful thinking, but I’m hoping that instead of regular mail, Kitty (as is her dark intent) will lash together an engine made of scrap metal and the bones of homeless Alley-ites, sling the bag of envelopes over her “master’s” shoulder, and spread a trail of fear and destruction o’er the land.
While delivering the envelopes, I mean.
I think I may need help.
Comment by Ron Rotten — June 10, 2008 @ 9:27 am
Rufus, already convinced of the existence of a cartoon cat, will hitch up a small wagon full of envelopes to a team of My Little Pony Flutter Ponies and wait for them to take off.
Comment by Gold-Digging Nanny — June 13, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
What no updates for 2 weeks?
I’ve been reading this strip since 1968.
It drove you crazy didn’t it.
Gas Alley is either interesting or dull.
this series with Rufus is dull and our host gave up.
Nice Try.
I hope you do come out of the coma and resume this blog.
Alan
Comment by ALAN — June 23, 2008 @ 6:23 am
so whats up? its been like 3 weeks.
Comment by mikey — June 30, 2008 @ 3:55 pm