Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for December 17, 2017

Cathy is a loon. That is all.

Is the gift for a hobby they’ve spent hundreds of hours doing and researching materials for, using borrowed/rented or adapted beginners’ basics stuff and that really only certain, say, lenses will work on their telescope and only one does that and lets them see exactly the type of stuff they really want to look at? Then there’s a best. Otherwise, as long as you aren’t being cheated at an antique store with a forgery the giftee sees in 1 second because you hurried or got excited, or something out there like that, something as unlikely to have happened to Irving at the mall as picking telescope equipment… well, in short, if it’s from the mall the things at the different price level stores at the mall (the low-medium-high price stores) are about equal and moving up a price point isn’t always worth it in quality or, especially, credit card debt. Which probably explains why the gifts I’ve given in the last decades have been picking between links of “this is the exact hobby item” (they send more links so at least there’s a surprise for them), made it myself (amateur artisan) or from Etsy or the folks who make those limited edition printed shirts when one hit both a hobby, color, and the person’s sense of humor…

Wait. There were a few hardcover books picked up in-store at B&N… that’s the mall…

Uh, Cathy? Just smile, nod, and say, “Thank you, honey, for the effort with this gift. I’m sure it will be lovely.”

But without all THAT in the comic, we wouldn’t have our nut-job spin on things, would we?

HI, MOM. Happy Sunday, “Cathy” Clan.

There is no such thing as a perfect gift. Stop trying to find it.

Aack!!