Pickles by Brian Crane for March 24, 2020

“Ug.”

Give him a dope slap!

The latest theory is that neanderthals were very intelligent and cross-bred with cro-magnons.

Sounds like Opal will never get the task she’s requesting Earl to do taken care of.

It took me a long time to realize that word was pronounced “neigh-ander-tall”. Because I must have read it a hundred times before I ever heard it pronounced… and then I had to grok the connection between that and what I thought was “knee-ander-thall”.

I ‘spect it’ll take Earl that long… or longer…

“Uh huh.”

“Earl is currently engaged in other activities. Please leave a message.”

At least she didn’t call him Piltdown Man!

Earl is reading a news story that makes him go “Huh?”

Actually, my dearly departed spouse was a past master at the non-committal ‘huh’. I mentioned to him on a couple of occasions: If you won’t reply when I ask you a question I will stop cooking your next meal and you won’t have anything to eat. Seemed to cure him of the habit very quickly. :)

I wouldn’t say Earl was “busy”, but clearly he was occupied so she should not expect any response other than “huh” because his mind is elsewhere. If she waited until he was done reading the paper before trying to talk to him, maybe he would have given a better response.

“When you try to script my conversation, it makes you sound like a controlling old biddy. Oh, wait…”

“Huh” is a perfectly serviceable word.

Opal by now you should know Earl will only do one thing at a time ;-) so “Huh” is all you get !

or maybe even a “Are you saying anything that warrants my attention?”

It’s been said that some women have many thousand words to speak before they can settle, on the other hand guys tend to use hundreds of words. That being said, guys tend to tune out background noise and concentrate on the things at hand.

Can’t she see that he’s busy?

There is a good reason as to why Earl sounds like a neanderthal. He is one.

Way to late now but I blame his mother for not teaching him it’s bad manners to shrug, answer huh or whatever, or not to push his chair in. Thought I’d throw the last one in for free.

Were we supposed to be listening?

Walks like a Neanderthal, talks like a Neanderthal; probably a Neanderthal. I mean that in a most complimentary way.

Oy! Opal has to stop trying to change Earl into something he’s not!

Sometimes I’m sure the creators create a comic theme just to stir up comments. ☺

Huh?

Opal is a constant nag, she never stops criticizing Earl.

Sounds like my house; if I wait a beat, he answers my question.

Ah, it’s the old rhetorical “Are you busy” ploy parried by the passive-aggressive “Huh?”

I’ve got to find where Crane’s hidden the bugs in my house!

“I’ve found yet another way to micromanage you, Earl! I want you to answer me with exactly THESE words. It’s would also be nice if you referred to me as ‘Your Highness’…”

Reminds me of a couple of co-workers. The guy’s habit was to say “Huh?” if he didn’t hear something. The gal told him he should say “Excuse me?”, to which he of course replied “Huh?”. This would start a back and forth: “Huh?” “Excuse me?” “Huh?” “Excuse me?” “Huh?” “Excuse me?” “Huh?” “Excuse me?”. And this happened more than once… ☺

Well, it is said some of you do have Neanderthal DNA. “HUH?”

Hey, he acknowledged that you spoke. Get over it.

When I first met my husband he had the irritating habit of responding automatically with a “hunh?” that sounded like wild geese migrating. First I let it pass; then I told him what he sounded like; then I began imitating him. After that he quit pretty quick.

Then there was the boss who would automatically respond “huh?” when asked a question, then interrupt your repetition of the question with the answer. I finally learned to just let him catch up.

Asking someone if they are busy, when its is totally obvious that they are, and not paying any attention to the person asking the question.

My wife learned almost 40 years ago that when I was reading the newspaper, I was doing something, so she never bothers me until after I finish

“Huh?” is better than an “I couldn’t hear you” followed by an exposition of activities that are to blame for his lack of hearing me.

DUH ! It Does ? HUH ! :-)

How difficult is it to: get one’s attention first, followed by saying “I have a question for you”? Then you won’t hear “huh?”. Try it. 8-)