Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for April 06, 2023

As a youth, many of the students at my school used to play a game called “shins”, where we’d take turns kicking each other in the shins until one of us gave in.

In some ways, it was a valuable ascetic practice for developing stoic resistance to physical pain. In other ways, it’s a bit weird we spent so long kicking each other for fun.

Get some boots first, Alice.

Alice is getting a kick out of all of Petey’s tribulations trying to play soccer.

Will the Otterloop parents just leave Petey alone and let him go back to his Little Neuro comics. Petey has his own creative universe of the mind.

Personally, I’ve always thought that soccer would be improved by the introduction of sticks or clubs or rackets of some sort.

One of RT’s best.

Petey’s whole life? How long does that take? Like five seconds? Ten, tops.

Alice cuts to the chase.

When you get a little older Petey, it does hurt when your shin gets kicked. Those kids learn to kick pretty hard.

Alice sees an opportunity :O

Just wait until they enroll him in a sport that requires wearing a cup

When I was a youth, we played hockey on a frozen pond. One of the kids didn’t have a stick so he brought a garden rake. I caught it in the mouth, a glancing blow, which chipped a tooth. Looking back, it could’ve been much worse. But – young a foolish…

A kick in high school gym class soccer (no shin guards) broke my fibula and tibia. I wound up with a hip high plaster cast on my leg for 2 months. I feel for you, Petey!

Alice is always so helpful.

The nightmare just keeps getting worse for Petey. Hopefully with seven Petey’s on the field, they won’t know which one to kick.

Classic Alice! Always so helpful when mayhem is called for.

My brother and I used to play a game called “splits”. You would throw a knife, usually a pen knife, into the ground and if it stuck the other person had to do the splits to reach it. If they could reach it then it was their turn. We stopped playing when I stuck it in his shin.

Will Madeline recognize the error of her ways and save her son from the abuse called “soccer”? Or is Petey doomed to suffer the slings and arrows and kicks of outrageous fortune? Alice is not being very kind today….

Petey: What’s my motivation? Why on earth would anyone want to engage in any of this?

Should have never said that with Alice around. She always wants to be the 1st to try out new things!