Lay Lines by Carol Lay for December 30, 2024

Cat: “WHY can’t I poop in the big wooden box?”

I LOVE Madame Anya (nee Angela Flowers — perfect!), especially the green hair. Love the paisley touches in panels 3 & 5, the fainting couch/settee/whatever, the hippie parents — well, golly, just everything about this character!! HOWEVER (sorry), panel 5 should read EITHER: none of her predictions had ever COME true OR: none of her predictions ever came true. Sorry! Sometimes I’m grammar-anal, Carol. It’s an affliction.

…hmmmm, the youngest child of hippies is now over 50 years old. This must be retrospective..

She picked the right cat to assist her.

Nice diadem.

It’s all in the phrasing. And the timing.

I only just now noticed the heading “The Murderburg Profiles.” It would seem to ascribe more blame to Madame Anya for Gramma Hope’s death than I would.

You can be wrong predicting someone’s death 1000 times, but you only need to be right once (as the strip demonstrates). Grammar Hope, like Socrates, is mortal, and would eventually die. That Anya was cognizant of this in no way (as I see it) in a wish that she die (let alone on a particular date, since she’s covered all possibilities). Had Gramma Hope in fact died the first day she’d written the prediction, there might be cause (misplaced or otherwise) to assume guilt. Absent that, I see no reason to include her among any “murderers.”

It’s clear that Madame Anya has no The Gift. But she has the right look.