Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 23, 2015

I didn’t know Rat was so sensitive.

I lamented that my remote’s batteries would fall out, until I met a man who changed his channels by hand.

I lamented changing channels by hand until I met a man who had no TV.

I find tape can hold the battery compartment cover on nicely

I got out the duct tape and now they don’t move at all.

Has Rat never heard the old saying “Duct tape fixes everything”?

Rat never heard of scotch tape or ducktape?

the test pattern would have proved the death of rat…

I did not think of Rat as the dawn-to-dusk (and beyond) TV addict type!. He can probably change the channels on his bedroom TV manually, if he can find the control buttons….

As if whatever’s on the other channel is any better than what you’re already watching….

I totally destroyed my cable remote and had it covered 40% in duct tape. It’s gone now, but it lived a long time with a high quality of life thanks to that tape.

I lamented that my remote’s batteries would fall out, until I met a man who changed his channels by hand.(Sherlock Watson)

I lamented changing channels by hand until I met a man who had no TV.(leftwingpatriot)

I lamented having no TV until I met a man who had no head!

We had one of those old B&W sets with the dial you turned to change channels – but we had it in the 1980s. It was 30 years old, mind, but still worked quite well. But when it finally broke down, we couldn’t get the parts to fix it.

Rat has shown before that he may have some mildly-autistic symptoms and is very easily disturbed by things like slightly-rearranged furniture.

If this keeps rat from ever watching TV again, it’s a blessing in disguise.After reading the comments, I don’t think anyone is under the age of 60!)

RE: “easily derailed”—Rat has a one-track mind, & the track is an abandoned spur!

No tape. Rubber bands. Tape leaves that gooey residue. The cat hair gets all stuck up in it.

This once happened with my Game Boy, and I just used tape to ensure that the batteries wouldn’t fall out.

No . . . the most precious item . . . is now ruined . . . I thought comics were supposed to be funny . . .

Can a typo include drawing the wrong character? I can’t see Rat being so sensitive. Pig definitely. Or the crocs maybe. But not Rat.

The answer to this ultimate First World problem is to go buy a universal remote. Everyone sells them. Or hire an immigrant to change them for $.50 an hour.

Knew someone with a 3-D printer, they made a new cover.

Down here in the lightning capital of the world, it keeps this almost 80 y/o mind active re-programming the TV, the Satellite that feeds it, the VCR, the CD player, the microwave clock plus various and sundry other devices that need AC 24/7/365 !

Poor Baby!

xxx

I expect Rat doesn’t want to use Duck tape because of some cross-species treaty.E.g., Ducks aren’t supposed to eat Ratatouille.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I usually can’t change anything successfully by using the TV remotes. There are two remotes, and you have to use an arcane, esoteric, Byzantine system involving pointing them at the proper place, mashing them the proper way, and sequencing them in an intricate order between TV, cable, and what-have-you. When my husband went out of the country, I developed a near-intimate relationship with the Bright House tech guy. (Also, like Unca Jim, I’m also down in the lightning capital of the world, further involving Bright House guy to breathe life back into the TV.)