Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for September 06, 2010

That’d sour me, too…

Look out Dill……..you may be next for the launching pad.

Yeah I could see how that might put a damper on things, Dill

Dining table…INCOMING!!!

Mixed emotions. Maybe they needed a new dining room set anyway?

Hi, MargueriteM – Miss you over at you-know-where!

I want to meet Dill’s brothers some day! If not in this comic where their anonymity is nigh on sacred, then in a spinoff! I like these guys - and they can have my ratty dining room furniture!

I can NEVER find that “Ancient War Machines” competition and exhibit at the county fairs I visit!

I love Dill and his unseen brothers.

I’d prefer never to see Dill’s brothers, but I’d like to see more of his parents. We’ve met Mr. Wedekind once (Dill’s Birthday party) and possibly Mrs. Wedekind (a parents’ night at Blisshaven), and it would be enlightening to learn more about what sort of parents gave rise to Dill and the boys.

Besides, Madeline and Peter Sr. don’t appear to have ANY friends or social lives, so far as we’ve seen. The Wedekinds live right across the street from the Otterloops, and you’d think they’d get together for cocktails or something from time to time. Yeah, the focus of the strip is on the kids and not the parents, but when parents get together they mostly talk about their kids anyway…

Instead of furniture he could launch his friends into the pool. What a grand time that would be.

The pool was empty but there may have been a few people sitting at the dining room table.

My thirteen year old son wants to build a trebuchet. I tolfd him I would help, but his dad won’t let us. Something to do with the safety of the neighborhood and yhe slightly dangerous leanings of the builders. I told him I could probably hit the local Starbucks (I work there); he still won’t let us.

They needed more chairs down at the pool anyway…

iamtxmilady, skip the trebucket. think spud cannon.

as to meeting dill’s parents and brothers. why? if you meet them, see them, then they are a fixed item defined by the author.

not seeing them allows your imagination to conjure up a thousand different images limited only by the scope of your own creative ability.

close your eyes and they are there.

Kids will be kids.

That’s the thing, glenardis, we already HAVE been introduced to at least one of Dill’s parents. (The mother wasn’t identified as such in the strip, but in the Garland Treasury commentary RT said that he thinks it might be Mrs. Wedekind.) From what we’ve seen of Mr. Wedekind, he seems like he’d be fun to bring back once in a while, and it seems that socializing with Madeline and Peter would be a fun and convenient way to do it.

(I’m assuming of course that Richard doesn’t regret having made him definite, and is hoping we’ll forget.)

iamtxmilady, I once saw a miniature version at a Renaissance Faire. It stood no more than 5 or 6 feet tall, but could fling a 5 lb weight quite a ways. Maybe your husband will let you build the smaller version.

Anyone remember “Northern Exposure” where Chris was determined to fling a cow with his trebuchet? He ended up flinging a piano instead, with the whole town of Cicily watching. They made a party of it.

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20070711/desktop-trebuchet-spells-trouble/

The History Channel has shown any number of documentaries with trebuchets launching pianos and even small cars.

Everyone should have a hobby.

fritzoid, Speaking as the mother of boys ages 4-6-8: I often socialize with my kids’ friends’ mothers (largely because of arranged playdates, which neighborhood kids don’t usually have), but rarely do my hubby and I socialize with the parents of our kids’ friends as a couple.

One reason we avoid this kind of socializing is because all of the children have to be underfoot OR a babysitter (or two) hired because our kids are not at an age when they can be left alone for any length of time.

But perhaps Dill’s brothers could be pressed into service as babysitters….

My friends in SCA have built and used many trebuchets. As a scribe I have been required to draw/paint them on scrolls for many awards, just as I often illustrate archers and those fighting with rapiers.

I must have missed all those “War Machines” entries at the fair … maybe this year.

All y’all ought to come out here to Delawarte in the Fall, when they do the Annual “Punkin’ Chunkin’” Competition! You’d see some HUGE trebuchets then!

Dill’s brothers are like the noodle incedint from Calvin and Hobbes.they keep mentioning them, but we never get to see them. We need to have a storyline where they are seen.