Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 05, 2016

If it weren’t so tragic watching them have this non-conversation, it would actually be amusing.

A mind is like a sponge- it can absorb so much…but then you become absorbed, and you have to wring it out,all your preoccupations… before you can take up anything else…. – Lu and Bern are feeling like what they want, is what everybody else has… Feeling like it’s “everybody but them”… – Shows that our problems can be both unique, and similar to another’s, all at the same time…. Sort of “same difference, different similarities”…

I feel more bad for Luann than for Bern honestly.

“Alone Together….” (♪)“Two Isolated Cases”

“The Same Deep Waters As You”“Spilled Milk And Two Good Paper Towels”“Two Degrees Past Frozen”“Shoutout To A Shutout”“Two Can Be As Bad As One…” (♪)“Piro Tolerance”“Wished They’d Blow The Fuse”or“Where There’s A Quill, There’s A Play”

These two one-sided conversations are getting no where.

They are both lonely because they need to spend more time together. Luann doesn’t have any friends in college and Bernice doesn’t do much besides stay in her dorm. They both need to go shopping or have a sleepover or just rant to each other… if only they would listen. -Luann: lonely; feels like everybody has a place in the world except her-Bernice: unknown feelings for Piro; all her friends in college are all party and fun except her

Maybe we will find out that this situation was just an impromptu life play. Written by Pru and directed by Quill and starring Luann.

While I’m a longtime reader of the strip, I checked out a bit during the time Brad and Toni began getting serious and checked back in close to when Luann and co. were going to graduate. Can anyone tell me how the decision was reached that Luann would start her college career at community college was reached? Was a situation where she didn’t know what she wanted to do so she figured community college would be the best bang for her buck? Or was it more that her parents told her they couldn’t pay the freight so she had to get in where she fit in? Because if it’s the latter, I can see her frustration and anger that her parents opted not to invest in her education at a place like Moony, where she could have lived on campus, made new friends and spread her wings a bit, but have now managed to splash out a bunch of cash on a pipe dream.

Sigh….If only

For Puddles, just having friendlies around makes him content. Of course a little treat would make him feel even more content, or a distracted scratching of his belly.

I wish Prudence would come in, say hello to Bernice, and inform Luann that Quill is interested in theatre—not THEATER. Instead all we have are girls obsessing over boys, ignoring one another, for yet another day.

Can we PLEASE… end this now? Very boring!!!

As sorry as I have felt for Luann lately, she’s getting nowhere by just sitting there and complaining about Quill. Not only should she talk to Quill about what she’s feeling, she should also get a life. Karen Evans had said that she wanted Quill brought back so that Luann could grow up by having a boyfriend, but as I’ve seen, Luann is still the same immature, boy-obsessed twit she’s always been. Having a boyfriend hasn’t changed her; if anything, it’s only amplified her negative traits 1,000×. Just goes to show that just having a boy/girlfriend doesn’t necessarily make you more mature, happier, more confident, or better in any other way. That has to come from within.

With Luann it is all, ME,ME,ME. Why doesn’t everyone pay attention to ME!!!

Do they ever study?

This bore fest is actually beginning to grow on me. If it carries on like this the Evanses will hopefully begin losing members of the Holy Trufan Church, because even they can’t pump up nonexistent enthusiasm, except for a few who might be Karen Evans in disguise for all one knows :)

I don’t see Bernice hooking up with Piro. He’s such a loser and she’s a bright girl. That story line isn’t believable to me. But she DOES need a boyfriend. That story line was only half developed. I think Quill’s time is done here. I’m not feeling any connection between LuAnn and Quill anymore.

Hope it doesn’t turn into a connection between Lu and Bern.Or do I?

Well, here would be an opportunity to explode the heads of comics editors all across North America.

Reminds me of that timeless Simon & Garfunkel gem:

And in the naked light I sawTen thousand people, maybe morePeople talking without speakingPeople hearing without listeningPeople writing songs that voices never shareAnd no one daredDisturb the sound of silence

I wish Greg would do a reverse Funky Winkerbean time jump and put the characters back in high school. The strip has gotten boring ever since they graduated and went to college.

It looks like she has come full circle.Only now its not Arron Hill.

@Skylark I think it is leading up to something that will be very interesting. Trouble is you have to build these thing up and that is often boring. It took me 2 tries to get thru the book Carrie for instance.

Yes, yes, your lives are terribly sad and empty. How about doing something positive about it?

Lonely, product of being self absorbed.

Luann, Puddles has always been there. Turn around and hug him. Elizabeth and April probably wish they could hug Farley now. Don’t take him for granted!

I wonder who Quill is talking to about this, Gunther or Pru? Or maybe men don’t talk to anyone about things like this?

and tomorrow they will both turn to each other over that lonely statement and have an epihiany

Really, Quill and Luann need to have a trial separation until basic questions get answered. Like: Does Luann’s need to feel special in the relationship jive with Quill’s passion for theater?

I agree with Skylark’s comment.

I WISH the TWO of You Would QUIT Yapping, get off Your DUFFS and DO Something about Your LIVES!!!

@kimberleigh: What’s tragic is Mr. Evans stretching this out across three comic strips…

Why isn’t Luann on her back on a bed with her head over the side, while Bernice sits crosslegged on the floor? Like the old days?

-Thank you

-This is not about a social life.

Prediction: several days of a similar conversation between Quill & Gunther.

-You need to read about the topic called ‘depression’. It’s an actual illness, and isn’t relieved by trying to have a social life.

I had thought from some of your previous comments that you had a greater capacity for empathy than some of the other posters here, I guess I was wrong. Oh, well. Live and learn.

-What a great idea. Spend money on a degree in a topic you have no actual aptitude for, get into debt and be unable to pay that debt off because there are already a billion other folks out there with that same degree and lack of aptitude for the topic.

Perhaps you are speaking from experience? If so, I’m sorry you had that experience.

Stop! Enough already! Ugh!

Is Piro a student, a predator, a user of other people’s good will?These are questions Bernice should consider, whether she fell “victim” to it herself or not.

Even if he helps “lonely girls” come out of their shells (something I think Team Evans is going for), as Resident Assistant she still has to address the question.

On the fateful night of their “encounter” Piro mentioned he was “crashin’ in (his) buddy’s room, but he has a girl over, so…”Obviously, he’s not always staying with females, it’s just not his own assigned dorm room (yet he has an iPhone, a laptop, and an endless supply of scarves).Further, Bernice doesn’t snap to the fact that the “buddy” is breaking dorm rules by having a visitor overnight.

-Thanks. -This is actually a good description of what the posters over at ArcaMax say they are doing…

-Being ‘moody’ is not the same thing as being depressed. Being moody comes and goes. Depression sits on you like an actual physical presence and permeates all parts of your life. Music that you used to like now seems uninteresting. Books you used to like seem empty. Food you used to like is tasteless.

Under those circumstances, getting involved in ‘busy work’, like trying to join a team sport, feels like lifting thousand pound weights.

By the way, I know it’s been years since I’ve been in college, but you keep talking about ‘clubs’. What clubs? We didn’t have ‘clubs’ when I was in college. Most of us were too busy with part time jobs and studying.

There were team sports, but that was a business, not a club.

We had clubs back in high school. What clubs did your college have?

‘alone’ vs ‘lonely’… two very different states. Often we are alone, i.e. no-one is around and we are busy and happy because we are getting things done. Thus being alone can be fine and good and is not a negative word. Being ‘lonely’ probably implies FEELING alone and being unhappy about it. I’m guessing if being alone doesn’t make you unhappy then you are not lonely. So Luann may be lonely too. She doesn’t like the feeling of being alone because she hasn’t established interests and a direction in life that would keep her busy when friends are not around.

-I hope you are right and they are only moody. But I spend a year as a volunteer on a crisis switchboard way back during the Vietnam war (and we ended up mostly talking to PTSD vets when no one knew what PTSD was, but that’s another story.)

The switchboard had been set up for exactly the kind of thing that I thought I was seeing here, kids who were overwhelmed by first year college, feeling suddenly pulled in all directions, with no clear idea anymore of what they were supposed to be doing, and it seemed like everyone else was too busy for them, etcetera.

I learned from that experience that I was not cut out to be a counselor or shrink or social worker, because the kids’ words haunted me so much that I got the shakes trying to answer the phones. I ended up raising funds to keep the service going instead.

But the guys who trained us taught us what to look out for, and one thing was a student who felt constantly lonely or alone even when surrounded by other people. So going to clubs wouldn’t fix that.

“…Shouldn’t Luann want to get out of her parent’s house?…”-——————————————————————————

I don’t really thinks so .Moving for the sake of moving doesn’t solve one’s problems. Luann just needs to get busy with established interests.. e.g. maybe art and painting.. She couldn’t afford to move anyway. She’s a community college student w/ a part time teaching job, . and now she’s needed to help staff the FUSE. You’d think she would be very busy. She just needs some focus and direction, and if she had that it wouldn’t matter where she lived. Her own state of mind is what is holding her back… I believe.

agree… other persons on this comment board think she should actually ‘move out’… so I thought you did too.

It’s always seemed to me that Quill has been rather too casual in his relationship with Luann. He’s never seemed to regard their relationship as particularly important to him. It appears similar to Aaron Hill’s attitude. I’ve always hoped that Luann & Gunther will eventually get together. Gunther seems much more serious and deeper that Quill. It’s somewhat irritating that Quill addresses Luann as “Yank”.

Are they going to turn and start kissing each other?

Bern moves out of her dorm, Lu moves out of her parents’ home, and they get an apartment together. Piro can or cannot drop in— who will care? Qu can or cannot drop in with Pru— and he can be shut out. Of course, Bern will have to give up being an RA.

Luann doesn’t want Quill to be intensely involved w/ theatre she doesn’t like that her parents have found their passion and are involved w/ the FUSE. How selfish.. She doesn’t have anything to be passionate about herself so she wants to drag others down with her.

Hey. What are friends for?

It’s been three days straight, talking and not listening to each other.

Hate watching and theatre/theater….. I think that when it comes to Luann, I’m an “art watcher” because I really like Greg’s drawing. The theatre/theater thing: I tend to say thee-A-ter and it really bugs my more cultural better half, so I just shy away and call it “show” or “performance.”

“You’ve got me babe.”Sure that isn’t the name, but it’ll do.

replying to Skylark’s comment“Can we PLEASE… end this now? Very boring!!!”.It’s only boring if you aren’t really paying attention.For some, it’s gripping drama.It is a mirror we behold and see ourselves.

““I hate-watched every single episode””^I guess, based on that example phrase, I have ‘hate-watched’ the news, this season;s horrible officiating (and last), a couple of Jeopardy! episodes. And I guess Aunt Glenda’s latest YouTube posts would also count….

You guys know this is a comic strip?

SPOILER ALERT

Backing away from serious emotion, and heading toward a lecture from Bernice…