Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 21, 2023

C’mon, Caufield. Racing brings Frazz and Miss Plainwell closer.

I think the kid’s many bad assumptions are the thief of joy.

Get a job, kid — the grownups are talking.

Ah HAH. I knew it! There IS such a thing as a stupid question!

Thing is, that’s a big IF.

An interrogation for the sake of interrogation of a comparison is the biggest thief.

They don’t race to compare with other runners, but for the companionship, although Frazz runs a great deal more in these strips than Miss Plainwell. I think he likes running and enters competitions just to be in a larger group of like minded souls.

I never saw comparison as a thief of joy. Perhaps that is only true if comparison brings about envy. When I competed, I may not have enjoyed losing but the competition brought satisfaction even if I/we lost; especially if I/we did better than I/we did before.

I still remember one tournament where my team got skunked on the first round. We did not like how that felt so we practiced and tried harder. When we met that same team in the quarter finals, they were surprised to see us again and thought it would be an easy win. It was; for us. The whole tournament, the only rounds we lost were the first and the semifinal. And we performed better against that team than their competitor did in the finals. We lost the tournament, but nothing stole our joy at how well we did.

Check your premises.

Nobody stands around, depressed and unhappy, after hearing somebody say to them, “That was great!”—which is a comparison.

That would be you, kid.

Can’t stop this kid from thinking!!

methinks that messrs Frazz and Plainwell are coming to the conclusion that Caulfield is the thief of a painfree @ss…