Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 12, 2021

Folding underwear is OK, starching it is not.

All socks the same color works, but they have to be the same style too.

I don’t mind sorting my socks. I just make sure never to buy black or navy blue socks.

I own one pair each “black” and brown, and 11 pairs of white. I wear the dark ones about twice a decade when Spouse insists. Every year or so, I toss 22 socks and replace them. It’s so easy to deal with them that I now keep them out of the electric dryer.. a bit of extra effort… which seems to extend their life a bit.

Is Caulfield making a joke about sliding undies?

Say it softly: “COMMANDO!”

I make sure that my socks match, they must have the same thickness!

I am missing the humor here.

Does nobody else use sock clips?

Smart kid. Always thinking ahead.

Caulfield’s first question was a set up for asking a similar question about underwear, but, Frazz’s sock answer caused him to picture the underwear possibilities and he passed.

Three days discussin’ frozen rivers and snow-shovelin’ … and then talk of life without socks and underwear. I reckon y’all are a lot tougher than I am. ;)

My husband buys only black socks, all from the same brand. It does make things easier… and give him more time to help me sort out my coloured socks.

Nobody notices when you wear odd socks.

People that wear sneakers without socks mystify me. How is that not uncomfortable?

All of my socks are white.

Live it up! Don’t sort socks at all – just pull a couple out of the drawer and wear them. Be eccentric.

Basically a couple of packs of black socks from Costco holds me a year. Habit from military and copper days, you can mix and match and no one notices

I only wear white tube socks. Which works great most of the time, but because even the same brand can’t actually keep their style consistent does involve a bit of sorting during the summer months when I wear shorts. I have not folded socks or underwear in over 30 years, there’s a basket of clean ones over there, grab what I need and go. (This works best if you’re single of course)

When I was in high school, my socks never matched. I was actually just lazy, but I pretended it was a fashion statement. Now, they’re just all the same color, and yes, it makes sorting them unnecessary.

I read Frazz’s first statement as an assertion that Caulfield is unable to wear socks: “You couldn’t wear socks.” This made the whole strip senseless. After rereading it three times, I finally was able to parse it as “You could choose not to wear socks.” Not sure the humor was worth the effort. Oh, well, they can’t all be gems.

i do not get this one at all…and why the reference in the comments to sock clips?

My step daughter really LIKES wild multicolored and different design socks – but only finds a couple of designs of such comfortable. So … her compromise is that she intentionally wears them mismatched in pattern as long as they are the same design.

Nope, not weird at all that the school janitor and an eight year old prodigy who fawn over each other are standing around talking about whether or not to wear underwear. Nope, this is perfectly normal at every elementary school. Carry on.

Never liked the idea of not wearing socks. Who wants smelly shoes?

Buy all sox of either of two colors. Reach in the drawer in the morning and pull out 3 sox. You are guaranteed to have a matching pair.

Two anecdotes:

One: I only wear the same kind of sock (black, but sweat socks). My girlfriend thought this was odd, and asked “What would you do if I gave you some nice Argyles as a gift?” I told her “I would frame them and hang them on the wall, so I could look at them and be reminded of your thoughtfulness.” Sure enough when Christmas rolled around I received a nice pair of Argyle socks. She is no longer my girlfriend (not because of our socks life), but I still have framed Argyles hanging on my wall.

Two: My brother had an acquaintance who thought spending time to match his socks was pointless. He always wore mismatched socks, and said that he keeps all his socks in a drawer and just grabs two at random every morning, because he didn’t care what anybody thought. However, when my brother asked him “What do you do if, by random chance, you grab two socks that match?” he was forced to admit that he’d put one back and grab another. That is to say, he DID care what people thought (he wanted them to think of him as “the guy in the mismatched socks”)…

No one bothers to ask: why is it a “pair” of underwear?

I gifted my husband with one expensive pair of buffalo wool/silk socks and that was all he ever wanted to put on his feet again. So he now has eight pairs, he wears them year round, and I never have to sort them because they’re all identical. And they last forever—even with my big tall guy walking around the house in them because the pandemic means not having to put your shoes on. They’re over a year old and still great. Yeah, I’m gushing a little—they make him happy and make that one little job easier for me: stack’em don’t roll’em.

No sorting of socks necessary. If you’re socks don’t match and you actually care, you can just wear western boots or something similar – still no sorting necessary. And folding underwear is completely unnecessary – you just lay them flat and stack them up.

For the last 40 years I have worn only one kind of sock (white, cotton blend). No matching. A little life hack that has been the most elegant solution to an unnecessary problem.