Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for October 12, 2013

The Marine Mammal Protection Act makes it difficult to get permission to keep an elephant seal..By the way, the “lolrus” was a southern elephant seal. They’re the ones you can see on YouTube attacking parked cars. The ones on the beaches of California’s central coast are northern elephant seals.

Thanks for looking that one up,Verne! Love Verne’s and Hammy"s eyes in the first panel.

I had the opportunity to visit San Nicholas Island (“Island of the Blue Dolphins”) when the elephant seals were there with their babies. A fascinating experience, but Mom’s reasons should have included “huge” and “dangerous”. I was able to get very close, but there was a concrete barrier between us and the seals, and I was very glad for it when a territorial dispute broke out between a couple of the males. They could easily kill a human stupid enough to get in their way.

I wish we could arrest parents for that. I admire her. Most would have gone “Yes and here is an AK47 you wanted for being a good boy and not killing us in our sleep.”I watched a 16 year old call his mother a bitch and a whore because HE failed the driving test. His mother took every bit of it trying to console him.My mother would have beat me to the edge of death THEN reminded me my father was coming home soon for something like that.

I think in this dictionary most definitions would be ‘no’.

Verne needed the dictionary? I guess he understood perfectly but didn’t know how to explain it to his friends. Socially, he sure is slow to learn.