Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for September 20, 2020

way to put Frank on the spot, Nancy

I had a weird thought, too. Luann is showing a bit of skin! Her top doesn’t reach down to her skirt and thee’s the hint of a (gasp) belly button! After all these years Luann is starting to dress like a teen-ager! (be still my heart!)

Let me get this straight. Frank sets the thermostat for them, rather like a servent but out of love, and now he’s the bad guy? GIVE ME A BREAK! He deserves thanks, not ingratitude.

Family Guy, season 1.

Why not adjust it yourself?

The King decrees: “HE who pays the heating bills CONTROLS the thermostat.”

Once upon a time Luann, your dad was the sole “breadwinner” of the DeGroot household. Which gave him considerable leeway on household expenditures, including use of the thermostat. Things went along smoothly for years and no one gave a hoot about your dad’s position of authority.

Of course, times have changed. Nancy is now also working and helpling to make ends meet. But your father would have continued to enjoy the perks of being the “king of comfort” if you hadn’t opened your mouth.

Thanks for throwing your dad under the bus.

Well, the “King” is wearing a royal color – a purple shirt…

Is Luann volunteering to pay the utilities bill? HAHAHA of course not.

I think the temperature just went down a few degrees…and the thermostat was never touched.

Luann here fine you want to set thermometer do it but you will have to pay the utilities bill for next month.

A relative of mine always keeps the house too cold. One time, my elderly father spent the night there. He’s on blood thinners. The coldness overnight made him feel physically ill. Everyone is too polite to ask her to stop. Frank’s family should have a say, unless he wants his kids to sleep in a hotel when they visit someday!

Just because Frank doesn’t ask Nancy or Luann to adjust the temperature to his personal liking and lets them have the temperature set to their liking doesn’t make him King of the thermostat. It appears that the ladies ask him to adjust it to their desired temperature because they are too lazy to go and adjust it themselves or maybe they haven’t bothered to learn how to do it.

Someone is in trouble…..

He who pays the piper calls the tunes

….Says the young woman who’s living rent free in her always messy room.

This is a dad joke and like most dad jokes it’s labored and unfunny

Devious, Luann

My reply to Templo, above:

Actually, strips like today’s are why some of us would like to see a lot less Luann in the Luann comic strip. For all we know, Luann and Nancy are just too lazy to adjust the thermostat themselves. Now, Luann has (perhaps unwittingly) just turned Frank into an ogre, a dictator.

And at no point did either Luann or Nancy say that Frank would refuse their request. Just that neither Luann nor Nancy would do it themselves.

And now, Frank has gone from hero to zero in three panels.

Luann in her new abode during winter: “Gee, Puddles – who’da thought it would have cost $422 to keep us warm this month?”

Once upon a time I had a job that for whatever reason put me in possession of the only key to the only thermostat box for a large, heavy traffic building containing offices, a retail shop, classrooms, a day care center, and much more. Constant streams of visitors in and out all day.

Word quickly got around that only I could adjust the temperature.

So every day, many times a day, all seasons of the year, I got " I’m shivering. Will you turn up the heat?" Or, “I’m being roasted alive! Can you make it cooler?”

Sometimes I’d get exactly opposite requests simultaneously, one in my right ear, one in my left.

It was the only time in my life that I made it a personal policy to answer every such request with a lie. I’d express sympathy and promise to fix it, but would do nothing.

Far more often than not, I would later get direct feedback that usually consisted of “Thank you so much! I feel much better now!”

Glad to be of service.

In my house thermostat wars reign supreme, less so when my daughter moved out!

In my mother in laws house I spent most time outside, before coming into the sauna! and then having to go outside again!

Everybody needs a job. :)

Time for a revolution to start!

So why doesn’t she just adjust the thermostat herself instead of getting mad at him for adjusting it when he’s uncomfortable?

Don’t touch the thermostat.

Revolt in the kingdom?

“Oh king, eh, very nice. An’ how’d you get that, eh? By exploitin’ the workers - by ‘angin’ on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic an’ social differences in our society! If there’s ever going to be any progress-”

Well, you’re a weird kid, Lu.

Sorry, Luann. And, shockingly, Nancy too. But Frank is Old School. Father is head of the household and responsible for caring for his family. Don’t beat up on dad for doing what dad is supposed to do.

Luann is ever more distressing.

Patriarchy, you say? Uh huh. I love it….

it is my house Kid .

This makes no sense at all.

Damn right, Young Lady.

I am the KING of the castle too, but like Frank, I’m just a figurehead. The Queen runs the show…

He’s not the King of Comfort though. He’s more like the Technician or Operator of Comfort. If he was the King of Comfort, he wouldn’t be doing requests. The house would just always be at his comfort level.

Not the king. The custodian. They say and he does.

It’s the law of the jungle!

I’m trying to figure out what Nancy’s problem is. Did he FORBID them to touch the thermostat? Just change it yourself if you want to.

Because he pays the bills, is how come.

Luann needs to ponder more important things, like how to keep her mouth shut so she doesn’t appear stupid. It is possible to think something and not let it fall out of your mouth. And Nancy doesn’t need to go giving Frank the evil eye. If you must adjust the thermostat learn how to do it correctly so that the house isn’t on a rollercoaster of too hot and then too cold. Keeping it constant is the most economical practice. Don’t forget the old saying….if you’re cold put on a sweater.

It’s a gadget, guys like to play with gadgets

They trained Frank to act as he does and are about to complain that he does.

LIFE AIN’T FAIR!!! (or at least some members therein)

My wife and kids think the thermostat is a gas pedal, the farther you turn up or down the faster the temperature will change. Not so.

Smart thermostat with password protection – problem solved…

Maybe because HE pays the bills?

Sowing the seeds of dissension!?!?

There can only be one ComfortKing.

I think it’s to Frank’s credit that he doesn’t order others to adjust the thermostat FOR him. THAT would be authoritarian. Neither is he, apparently, forbidding other family members from touching the thermostat, so I think Frank’s getting an unfair rap here…

Another reason I’m glad I live alone… I set the thermostat for whatever’s comfortable at any given time for me.

As is correct and proper the king is ruled by his subjects.

Give him one. You get the rest.

My wife, thermostat queen.

Who pays the power bill?

Is Dad demanding control of the thermostat, or don’t you know how to set it yourself?

“A Man Is The King Of his Castle” of course the queen has a LOT of influence in what the king does.

I think Luann realized this when she saw the thermostat in the dorm.

Careful what you wish for, Nancy. Let him run that.

Nancy can adjust the temperature if she wants to. It is her house and she never needs to ask Frank to do it. Luann should ask since she does not own the home.

Hell I already mentioned Angela Davis in this forum, even cited her on housework being honored and how much it should be rewarded but for patriarchy, which most of the comments reflect today. Frank pays the bills so shut up, and of course Luann can’t joke, oh the temerity of it, about her dad. And heavens to Murgatroyd, Nancy has the gall to give her husband a rueful look. In my house I do adjust the thermostat, but my wife having retired from a position that gives her a really good pension, pays that bill, and most bills. We agree on the temperature, and even if I was the bill payer I would ask her. When the kids were small I tried to see what temperature would work for the family, given one of my children had asthma. The self-righteousness in most of the responses is proof that Sister Angela had something back 50 years ago early in her career.

I am the only person in my house who adjusts the thermostat. My husband could do it if he wanted to, but he doesn’t seem to notice the temperature.

Is this a thing, where the man of the house is the only one allowed to adjust the thermostat? (I do wonder why Luann and her mom don’t just adjust the temp when they want to.) The joke sounds like a variation on the fight over the TV remote where the guy won’t let it go.

The joys of having a daughter!! Been there, done that too!!

Easy. Who’s income contributes the most to the mortgage and utility bills?

You ask Dad to do something and then complain that he “gets” to do it? He’s only doing it because you asked him to instead of doing it your own lazy butt self.

Next time you just say “Dad, I’m turning up the heat/ AC” and then do it.

In our household, the women usually were the Queens of the Thermostats because we can’t handle the heat (we get migraine headaches, sick to our stomachs and sometimes leg cramps and it is not just dehydration – there is only so much water you can drink). You can always put on more clothes or wrap up in an electric lap robe if you are cold, but you can only take off so much before there is nothing to take off if you get overheated. I had several extra advantages in controlling the thermostat. 1. I paid the electric bill, 2. I had medical reasons to keep the temp low, 3. my husband had issues with walking and balance, and 4. he didn’t understand how to read and adjust the electronic thermostat.

At least Dad’s not accused of being the dummy who sets the thermostat way past the desired temperature because he “knows” that will bring the house to the desired temperature sooner.

She’s just stirring the pot. Time for her to move out.

In the past panel she’s turning up the thermostat without asking.

I had what had to be the weirdest argument over the thermostat in the history of such arguments as a kid. It was around the time Jimmy Carter suggested leaving the thermostat at 65 degrees in order to save energy. I suggested that to my mother and biological father and the biological father yelled “Who listens to Jimmy the Jerk anyhow?” That led to a rather heated political argument.

Also, remember, guys who say they’re kings of their castles often have women who think they’re the prime ministers of such castles—and we all know where actual political power rests in most constitutional monarchies these days. LOL

In the not too distant past, heating the home was a “man’s job.” It was dirty (wood, coal, oil) and physically taxing sometimes. This division of labor was readily acceptable. Also, fuel costs were, and often are, a significant budget item.

So here were presented with the standard gag of the “poor. clueless husband” about to be berated by the “disgruntled wife” over some inane comment by a “clueless, but ‘woke,’ twenty-something” that has apparently not had to live under a budget.

All great fun and fertile fodder for us commenters (cf. above).

Love it. So typical of a wife getting sore at her husband and he doesn’t know why.

Dad needs control. Just like the remote. Besides women’s body temperatures are different than men’s. Yes I said it.

Also, the King of the TV remote, I’ll bet! ;-D

Wow! Luann makes an observation, and catches h.e.double l for it from most of these commentators. She’s not complaining, just wondering. Nancy however may have other thoughts. Some people are ready and willing to put Luann down.

Someone’s getting in trouble…

I feel like a REALLY unnecessary fight is going to come from this…

The one who pays the bill…

My wife has a narrow temperature tolerance. She wants it 78 in the winter and 75 in the summer. I just want the heater/ac to be off.

Now this is funny. I was searching for something else and found this! LOL!

https://www.gocomics.com/luann/1995/08/09

Luann is showing us some tummy. She could certainly attract a boyfriend if she would get out more. They aren’t going to find her if she’s at home with Puddles & Bern every Sunday.

I think Nancy is waiting to see if Frank is going to clean his little shaved off hairs out of the sink himself or walk away and let magic clean them up.

Because it’s his money, you free-loaders.

Sedition in the ranks.

Telling them, “No, get off your Butt and do it yourself,” would be better?

I have always believed that no one should have sole charge of the thermostat. Ours is a programmable, and once set for the summer program or winter program, does not really need any further input. I set the winter and summer program, but made sure others in the house know how to set/override the thermostat for their comfort level. Besides, even if they set it, it is not long before the program steps in and returns the temp back to what it is programmed for, anyway. But it gives the others a feeling of empowerment, taking charge, the power of telling our natural gas/electric heating and refrigerating servant what to do. What fun!

It may be a multiple-income home now, but the rule is usually that the one earning the dollars gets the last word on spending the dollars. If you want more for gas and electric, conserve elsewhere or earn dollars to increase the budget.

Well, if EVERYBODY could operate the thermostat, it would be MADNESS, like at work.

And, why do they have to Ask Him?

Why not just Do It?

It’s not Political Science.

the jigs up..

Thermostats and bills are not an issue. Nancy’s attitude awakened by scatter brained Luann, could become one.

Well, I guess G&K needed to make dad out to be a hapless, irrelevant man to stay PC.

Oh, Luann. You instigator, you….

Easy, Frank pays the bills.

And for those who point out that Nancy now has a job, let me remind you that Nancy works for T&J, who leases space at The Fuze, which is owned by Frank & Nancy. So, it’s really a wash.

Luann would understand if she changed “adjust the thermostat” to “take out the garbage”. At the risk of sounding sexist, there are just some things that women expect men to do.