The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for March 14, 2023

After all Brutus is not Superman.

Having his own picture on his desk says something about Veeblefester.

You can’t fool me. Thorny can’t walk that fast.

"THINK" ???

is that motivational?

Thorny, don’t you know that the Chief has you pegged as his whipping boy? ;D

Brutus must be higher on the pecking order than I thought if he has a desk within shouting distance from the Chief. And the Chief’s almost complementary comment about Brutus’ “just a second” remark shows that Brutus enjoys a bit more of a relationship than just whipping boy.

Interesting. One is holding a blank sheet of paper and the other seems to be holding a pencil with no sheets of paper in sight. That is the sign of an office running efficiently.

It was the other way around for me. When I was younger it was, “Just a second”, later in life it was “Just a minute”. Now that retirement is in sight, it’s, “Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can, but I have to go to the bathroom first”.

He’ll be there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

Move it, Brutus!

Is a second faster or slower than in a flash or a jiffy? Brutus should THINK on that.

Interesting dynamic in this one. Rancid obviously needs Brutus enough to yell instead of taking time to pick up the phone. Plus Chief thinks he’s having a positive effect on Brutus’s performance when in all likelihood it’s just a Pavlovian reaction by our hero to avoid pain. Love his self photo on the desk. I envision the photographer saying “give me the real you” instead of “smile.”

well, that’s good news… but wait, how many seconds? :\

and all thornaple has is a reminder to think!

It’s all due to the Boss’s command presence. In Army basic training, if the DI told you to jump your only responses were yes Drill Sergeant or “how high”. OR, you jumped….

And you never called a Drill Sergeant, " Sir." He would kindly inform you that , " he worked for a living."

Brutus may respond with “Just a minute” or “Just a second”, but that doesn’t matter. It will still take him the same amount of time to get to Veeb’s office.

Sayin’ it don’t mean doin’ it.

Veeblefester, caught; with a positive for Brutus…

No, don’t tell me, Veeblefester is softening? …

OK, OK, whose the imposter playing the Chief? …

Did Veeblefester give Brutus the sign on his desk? …

Why is he calling him by his last name, is there another Brutus in the office? …

The Chief has a picture of his loved one on his desk, that’s nice…

What is the mysterious red rectangle in lower right corner of Veeblefester’s pane, is that some hidden message blocked out by the censor?…

the one on my desk said THIMK…

Brutus probably figures that once again he’s being called on the carpet, so if he gets there a little sooner, he’ll get it over with sooner.