Fly home to meet parents, collapse into their arms, liberally distribute hugs, gorge on bird meat, watch MST3k Turkey Day, try to keep conversation on happier topics than politics (we're all more or less on the same page there, but not happy about it).

I really miss writing stuff. I just haven't been able to claw out time for it lately. What I really want is to hook up with an artist and make some goddamned comics, but that's just never worked out. Maybe next year.

I'm really looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving. The last time I saw my family was this summer, during my bedbug nightmare, which put a pall over the whole thing. I miss them like crazy and can't wait to get back there, even if much dinner-table conversation will inevitably be complaining about the election.

And Putin. And Jinping. And Duterte. And…

*Boy Scout salute*

I dunno, if he's actually wearing the Iron Man suit at the time, that could get pretty uncomfortable.

Probably "fap."

You're damned right. Also, you're damned.

I'm the same way with the Sims. I'd try to pursue some goal or other - career advancement, boning everyone in sight, etc. - and paid little attention to building houses or inciting chaos or what have you. Then I'd get bored and start a new one.

Real life also has that achievement, it's called "Luckiest Moron in France."

But they left Damocles in? I mean, I guess he's the whole raison d'etre of the thing, being synonymous with "giant dangerous thing that's liable to fall and kill you at any moment," but it's still weird that anyone would build a temple to him.

Huh, when I was a kid I don't think I ever indulged in this kind of "fuck it, let's see what we can get away with" style of gameplay. I think I was always more in the goal-oriented mindset. You could chalk that up to being raised with edutainment rather than console games, perhaps, but even in the more open-ended…

If I were a globe-trotting archaeologist, I'd be more baffled that someone chose those four mismatched mythological figures as the organizing principle for their booby-trapped temple. Damocles wasn't even a god, goddammit! And what the hell is Thor doing with two Greeks and a Roman? Who built this shit?

DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

Is this the place to start a scurrilous rumor that Netflix will singlehandedly resurrect Firefly, thus thrilling and then dashing nerd hearts across the land? Because that sounds like fun.

Stop objectifying my people!

I demand that the tsar free the serifs at once!

Ha ha, yes, Krazy Kat rules. But I do have to take exception to the suggestion that newspaper comics were considered throwaway kids' stuff at the time. This was the medium's Golden Age, after all, when newspaper cartoonists could be celebrities and cultural icons in their own right (hell, Little Orphan Annie's creator…

Oh hey, now mine's back! …OR IS IT?

"I plan to play a series of exhibition baseball games around the country to make money during the offseason and/or perform death-defying stunts while piloting a small plane."