Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for November 18, 2009

LOL!!!! I want to see those lawn ornaments!

Yes Richard, where are the lawn ornaments? We can see the front lawn in the strip. LOL

They are there…they’re just hiding in the shrubbery

Some people and their ornaments………. (Insert favorite discount chain) explosion!!!!

“…they’re just hiding in the shrubbery” – from Big Shirley!

Hahaha!–Loving the mindboggling image I’m getting.

Sigh. To put up 300 big houses where 100 little houses used to be, you have to put up 300 big houses on little lots where 100 little houses used to sit on big lots. You got that right - unfortunately.

“national local …” huh?

I think we’re looking at the BACK of the house……………..just sayin’

My Dad had a lot of lawn ornaments on his lawn. When he died and we had a garage sale all the neighbors came over and bought them. In half an hour they were all gone and everyone was happy.

Some neighborhood associations ban lawn ornaments completely. The call it the Pink Flamingo rule.

national local treasure, then you got park rangers working there, so why is big shirley such a menace to the neighborhood? they could charge to see the giant dog habitat.

as a kid i used to think my grandmas house was huge until i hadn’t been there in years, when i visited it when i was in my 30’s it was so tiny. i wondered how she managed to raise three kids there

Did someone say “shrubbery?”

No, we’re looking at the front. In an earlier strip that featured the ornaments, they were all relegated to the back yard.

The only thing in Grandma’s front yard is a sign saying “Caution: Flying Egg Zone Next 100 Feet.”

fritzoid is probably aware of this - in the San Francisco Bay area suburbs, the mega-houses already dwarf the lots, so people are going under now, excavating under the homes and putting in huge basement rooms for living space or extra garage parking or both. For some people, there is no such thing as “too big” when it comes to showing off. If you’re curious (a 5000 sq. ft. BASEMENT?), here’s a link to an SF Chronicle story:

“Luxury Basements”

(No, fritzoid, I’m no longer in the Bay Area)

Wasn’t aware you’d left, Ush.

I think one of the other reasons people build DOWN here is that there are so many laws restricting building UP. When your next-door neighbor (10 feet away) paid $3,000,000 for a house with a view of the Bay, he’s not going to look kindly on your plans for that 3rd floor…

Our neighborhood only has about 30% penetration of these sun-blotting McMansions. They stopped building them about two years ago, and now at least half of those that went up are for sale/in foreclosure.

It’s hard to find a good gnome.

You can’t tie down a good gnome!

Most gnomes are retired banjomen…

A Banjo Man doesn’t retire as long as there’s a banjo string to be plucked! He just keeps ramblin’…

I’ll admit that Grandpa Jones looked decidedly gnomish in his later years, but he never retired, for gosh sakes.