Cell phones - those ubiquitous, annoying objects that we can’t seem to live without - are the subjects of both of this week’s comics. It’s hard to believe how long we lived without them, and lived perfectly well. Example: at a college lecture for Andy’s daughter back in 2004, during Freshman Orientation Week, the professor said, “Back in our day (speaking to the parents, most of whom are squarely in the target group for this comic), when we got a poor grade from a professor, we’d have the week to fix our mistakes and improve our work before the inevitable Sunday night (right after Ed Sullivan) weekly phone call home. Nowadays though, your kid gets a bad grade on Tuesday and the first thing she does is pick up one of these (a cell phone) and call you. And then you pick up one of these and call me! Earth to parents, let your kids figure it out for themselves.” Wise advice indeed. How did we live without cell phones? We lived just like the professor suggested.

Today’s first comic comes from an incident Andy had in Grand Central Station. He was walking with two favorite colleagues from his ad agency, Tanya and Amanda, the latter who doubles as a stand up comic, and they were rushing to make a train. Stuck behind an incredibly slow-moving person who was attempting to text and walk at the same time, Amanda yelled “Luke Textwalker, move it!” When Andy relayed this to John, he immediately switched the scene, because a big wide view of Grand Central at rush hour doesn’t easily fit into a little comic strip frame. Nonetheless, the subject of textwalking is grist for our New 60 mill. And next time you’re stuck behind a slow textwalker, feel free to use the phrase.

Our second strip shows the other side of cell phones. How incredibly useful they are in helping us navigate more easily through our days. In a matter of minutes, Al’s daughter does all his errands for him without ever moving. And this enables Al to spend the day with his grandson. The fact that he’s teaching him how to burp on cue is besides the point. One of your comic strip duo here knows how to do that, but which one? We will leave that to your imaginations.

That’s it for this week, we’ll be back with some more leading into Thanksgiving. In the meantime, have a wonderful, if freezing, cold weekend and don’t textwalk if either of us is behind you. Seriously!

Andy and John