Swan Eaters by Georgia Dunn for December 06, 2019

Ah well, it probably would have gotten creepy if everyone in the town was nice.

Now is the time to find out exactly where that money in the town’s treasury is coming from. And then take all of it. And buy Pilot’s medical texts from Amazon.

How hard is it to refrain from a political comment here?

I saw a bumber sticker once that said:

“For a small town, this place sure has a lot of a-holes.”

I just love that Olwen remembers Pilot and is looking out for him.

That doctor doesn’t know who he’s dealing with . . .

That ‘doctor’ obviously took the hypocritical oath.

I don’t think this is over.

…she said ‘barter’…who knows what little thing she might have that the doctor would have considered a treasure…also, many wealthy people don’t flaunt it…

Usually more than one jerk.

Today’s strip reminds me of a couple of stories my dad has enjoyed telling of when he worked as a car salesman in his late teens. One is of a woman who came in with a beat up old station wagon full of kids looking to get a new car. None of the senior salesmen wanted to speak to her because of her appearance so the manager called dad over and told him to work with her and give her what ever she wanted. Turned out her husband had recently died and she had a recieved a serious life insurance policy allowing her to purchase the then current model wagon. But because of how she looked,none of the senior salesmen even wanted to find out if she had any money.

The other story was this man came in and again his dress said to the senior salesmen no money. Dad went up to them, because he knew the guy, and said “I really think you want to take this guy.” Finally one of them told him "If YOU think he’s SO important why don’t you take him. So dad went up to the guy and said, so the others could hear “Good morning Judge (whatever the man’s name was), how can I help you today?” After selling him one of the more expensive cars on the lot the other salesmen demanded to know why he didn’t tell them who the judge was. Dad basically told them he’d told them they would have made a good commission off the guy if they’d just listened, it shouldn’t have mattered how the man looked.

Basically in both cases, don’t judge a book by it’s cover. He’s had the same thing happen to him many years later, forget if I was in my mid-late teens or early twenties when it did. At the time he was working as the senior plant engineer and could certainly afford a decent suit. Went in to some suit store and the sales person took one look at him, shorts and a short sleeve shirt, and told him he couldn’t possibly afford any of their suits. He told them that was fine before letting them know who he was and walked out, leaving them flabergasted at the sale they’d just lost.

I don’t think that he can afford that attitude.

Sadly, the mass casualties of ward generally lead to major advancements in surgical and medical technology. One of the major advances that came out of WW2 was the use of antibiotics such as sulfa drugs and penicillin. The Korean war proved the value of rapid treatment in MASH as well as advancement in vascular repair. The Viet Nam war taught us that blood products can be frozen thus extending their shelf life considerably. The wars in the Middle East brought advances in burn care and limb replacement.

Olwen should have pointed out to him that this is the Soviet Union, though I’ll grant he might think of “Visibly a Party member” as “can afford it” and “not visibly a Party member” as “I can’t afford to let this get back to Comrade Stalin”.