The creators of this strip should be commended for their frequent references to the past including personalities, issues and artists. Not unlike Tom Stoppard who throws in references to classic literature in his plays. It is refreshing. My 29-year son hadn’t a clue just as he did not know how to dial a rotary phone.
Wiley is calling down the ghost of Barry Goldwater, in case of you were unaware. Lucy’s statement is a paraphrases from Goldwater’s acceptance speach in 1964 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. If you didn’t know that you lost the whole meaning to today’s strip.
It works only reading the strip. It doesn’t if saying out loud. For those who don’t get it, “pain” is French for bread.