For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 14, 2021

he should do the great solo from ’ Sing Sing Sing ’

Makes me wonder in A Christmas Story, how come the Parkers’ neighbors the Bumpuses never bothered to contain their dogs? Those mutts ate the Parkers’ turkey leaving nothing for the Parkers themselves!

Careful, Phil, you could get yourself arrested for disturbing the peace. You were closer to a better solution yesterday — whenever the dog starts barking, get up, call you neighbor and politely tell him his dog is barking. Repeat every 15 minutes if he doesn’t do anything about it, but remain polite so when he claims you’re harassing him you can tell the police you were just being neighborly and letting him know his dog was barking.

I knew someone who recorded the neighbor’s barking dog for a week when the dog started barking after midnight each night, and then played the recording back at the neighbor’s house for the next week…

A fan does wonders to block out noises.

That ought to get the Bullards’ attention.

Is the neighbors house sound proof. One would think the barking dog would bother them as well.

Best laugh of my day, so far. :)

Won’t Phil also need an apple to play that??

Personally I would have opted for something by John Phillip Sousa

Good idea, it would be better with a tuba, but the cornet does the job too, although a little heavy metal would be a good finish!

Since this is Canada, how about the “Last Post”. Musically I’d prefer that to “Taps”.

I’d hate to be their other neighbor!

Phil. NO!!!!!!! Rossini don’t write that for this!

Everyone I know has a second-hand story of someone getting their dog poisoned because of this. A few stories set in the country even involve SHOOTING the dogs! So Phil’s version is more human and fit for the comics page, lol.

I saw a post where someone wrote on the house siding “Stop the barking!” several times.

This is how wars get started.

Though I do like Phil’s plan with his trumpet.

Ear plugs block out barking dogs very well. The ones they had when the strip was current probably didn’t but the compressible foam ones do.

Hopefully there are only two houses in this particular neighborhood…

Those were the days before Twitter. When you wanted to tweet you used a horn. The bigger the horn the meaner the tweet.

Dogs should be indoors (on fluffy pillows), not left out in the yard all night!

A teacher in my Mother’s school played the William Tell Overture and asked the class if they knew what it was. One little boy’s hand shot up and said, “The Lone Ranger!”

I wondered if the barking didn’t bother the Bullards, but perhaps the Bullards are on a different shift as noted by someone earlier so they’re awake at that time. However, that is still rude and I should be questioning my sanity making a serious comment regarding a cartoon.

You mean The Lone Ranger overture, don’t you? Dum-ta-da-dum-ta-da-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum.

A paint ball gun might get the message across…you might go to jail, but it’s worth a try.

Most communities have nuisance/noise laws and I suspect Phil is going to be the one busted if he uses that horn.

Find a transmitter that plays bagpipe music varying between 30,000 and 60,000 Hz over a matching speaker whenever the dog barking starts. Human cannot hear. Dog will be placed in permanent psychiatric care. I see many dogs like this.

The 1812 Overture is loud toward the end. He might try The Stars and Stripes Forever as it is loud from the beginning with the trumpet.

There’s a video on YouTube with a guy playing his trumpet, with the dog in the room. He plays scales, different things, but when he starts to play the opening trumpet solo from Mahler Sym. No. 5, the dog howls and goes crazy. More scales, calm dog. Then the first few notes of the solo, dog goes nuts.

At least it’s not a song from the Spice Girls used by Noriega (sp?). See movie scene in “Small Soldiers” hahaha!

Ooooo! Good idea. Except my neighbors only have empty space between their ears.

We lived in the country and our nearest neighbor lived a quarter of a mile away. He had big dogs that were random barkers at night: woof………….woof….woof………………….woof. One night (late) my father got out his 16-gauge, double barrel shotgun, walked to the road, aimed the gun so the pellets would come down on the neighbor’s roof, and let fly: BAM BAM. The dogs were gunshy and shut up. 30 seconds later the phone rang. All things considered, I preferred he barking to the shotgun.

Passive aggressive at its finest… never rile up the neighbors, especially musicians…unless you plan on selling and moving far, far away.

Hi Yo Silver…….

Those who have never heard the entirety of the William Tell Overture are missing out. Yes, we are all familiar with the final movement that was used as a theme song, but the first three are beautiful as well. I especially like the second movement which is one of the best depictions of a sudden rain storm I have ever heard.

Could their next door neighbor be Mike Bullard? If so, that won’t be a pleasant exchange.

The face of a man with nothing to lose.

Maybe they’re deaf, Phil.

thats a good one. but he needs a bose system to help

o i forgot. use a sansui sound system with iss speakers. thats what we used in the sevice to get the nco club to tone it down cause when we complained it didn’t help. but when we started they started complaining.

We had a police officer who let his dog bark at night. Many times we would have to call him at work and have him take care of his dog. Remember that in most places there are noise laws, so call local law enforcement to take care of noisy situations.

Led Zepplin is pretty effective..

A couple of pairs of good earplugs would do the job.

a portion of chopped liver with a little anti-freeze!

Hi- Yo- Silver!

If only Phil was a hunter instead of a fisherman. One or two SHOTGUN BLASTS in the backyard oughta frighten that dog into silence!

Maybe the dog needs someone to sing him to sleep. That trumpet could be a good tool to put him to sleep. Boping him on the head tell him that the William heard him 1,200 miles away from where they were.

Maybe the dog’s having a choir rehearsal in the back yard with other dogs. A roar from a tornado should drown out the barking so you could sleep again.

“BARF”?

My teensy town used to have the police docket in the newpaper every week. One summer you saw dog reported barking at XXX Amanda Street for weeks…..then suddenly dog reported missing on the street behind XXX Amanda Street…..never saw that dog bark again! Yikes.

Good choice! I once had a downstairs neighbor in an apartment building that would come strolling in from the bars after closing time and start blasting her country songs. She also had a German Shepherd puppy that would be locked in the small 1-bdrm apartment who would bark all the time it was alone. She frequently did not come home for days at a time so the poor pupper was stuck with no one to feed it, give it water, or walk it. I finally called animal control and they had the apartment manager open the door so they could retrieve the pupper. As for the country music, one Sunday morning at 6 a.m. I turned my speakers to the floor, put in my ear plugs, and blasted Beethoven’s Fifth as loud as my system would permit me. When she came pounding on my door, looking pretty ragged – I’m guessing it was a monster of a hangover, and demanded I turn off my music, I just smiled sweetly and said “But you seem to like loud music at all hours of the night, I’m just accommodating you.” Never heard another peep from her apartment for the rest of the time I lived there.