Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for January 09, 2023

Dill’s brother actually knocks sense into animals by shooting them out of his trebuchet! Come to think of it, that might cure Alice’s ego problem.

Dill wants to help , good for him.

Doctor Dill, that kinda has a nice ring to it…

One brother is a cartherd at a supermarket, but I assume this is a different brother.

We love you, Dill. No matter what your background is.

I always pictured Dill’s brothers as slightly feral neighborhood hooligans. If one is a vet, that changes my image!

As long as his last name isn’t pickle

But, “I did stay at a Holliday Inn last night”!

I thought his brothers were cart-herds. And, kind of violent to boot. He’s always talking about the trebuchets they construct. Just how WAS Dills’ mom when she had him? Assuming the vet brother is just starting out, he would be about 28. (It’s 4 yrs for undergrad and 4 yrs at vet school) At the very youngest, she would have been about 43. I have a friend who had her last baby at 42 so maybe that’s typical.

His brother needs those large animals to pull his trebuchet.

Dill’s semi-feral upbringing has prepared him for much in life. He knows an under the weather critter when he sees one.

Alice, trust me on this: You do NOT want Dill’s vet brother taking your temperature.

See, Mr. Otterloop? Dill does have a “medical background”—very remote background to be sure, but he is concerned for the health of his future spouse (a factoid he isn’t even aware of yet)!…

In “A Clockwork Orange,” Anthony Burgess wrote a final chapter which was not included in the original printing of the book nor, obviously, in Kubricks’s (wonderful) film. In it we see Alex, 20 years after the events of the book (in the book, he was 15 when he did all his damage), working at a desk and living a thoroughly middle-class life. Whatever drove him in the previous chapters, he grew out of. Human beings between the ages of 13 and 23 (I’m thinking of males, but my understanding is that females have their parallel) are DIAGNOSABLY INSANE by adult standards. Most of us grow out of it, and Dill’s veterinarian has seemingly done so as well…

OK, Dill, now take her germs home to your large household.