First on your feed this week is a lesson in grandparenting. When Andy pitched the ending, John said, “I don’t want to do the dumb husband/smart wife thing.” Andy replied, “Why not,” and John said, “We need to be less obvious.” The guy had a point. But the other point was that this exact incident happened to Andy, his wife Joanie and their daughter Ali who was about 2 at the time. They weren’t about to go sleigh riding, they were about to go to an unveiling. Outside. In February. In a foot of snow. And Ali, always the fashion maven even at 2 years old, wanted to wear her black, shiny, patent leather, party shoes, while her dad was trying to force her boots on. She was wailing and kicking, anything to avoid putting on those rubber boots. Suddenly her mom Joanie entered the room and suggested the compromise you saw in the comic. Ali immediately calmed down and put on her party shoes, and THEN her snow boots.

The challenge for your intrepid cartoonists was how to end this and John had the thought of coming up with some ancient wisdom. It turns out both Andy and John had separately worked with Pat Morita, the famed master in The Karate Kid. So a Jew from New York and a Protestant from Long Island put their heads together came up with some ancient Chinese wisdom instead. Which makes for a more intersting ending. But as Andy says, the guy is still a dummy. And he ought to know, because that guy was him. One final note was that Joanne’s final comeback, “You learn well, grasshopper,” is a nod to the show “Kung Foo” starring a white man, David Carradine, in flowing robes. Those were certianly different times.

Our second comic was inspired by a friend of Andy’s named Kyle who was a little late to Andy’s apartment to watch the conference championship football games last Sunday. What happened was Kyle had left his house but had forgotten his phone. He went back to get it and wanted to send a text from his car, saying he’d be late. He was hoping to encounter a red light so he could stop and text but every light he reached was green. When he finally got to a red light, he pulled out his phone and…the light turned green. When he finally arrived, midway through the first quarter, he announced, “If you ever want to avoid running into a red light, just try to send a text.” Andy said, “You are late but forgiven because you just gave us a new comic.”

That’s it for this week. We will see you again on Super Bowl weekend. Until then, be well and keep on reading.

Andy and John