Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for September 14, 2014

Gotta loathe the hard plastic packaging.

“A Tough Nut To Crack”“Achtung, Baby!”“No Comprende”“Hard To Handle”“At Your Own Risk”“Lockout, Stock And Barrel”

“Curiosity Confused The Cat”

“A Roadmap In the Dark”or“Mind What You Find In Her Mind”

There’s she is,there’s she is,not so wounded as we were led to believe but so much the better.

And the “Minnie Pearl Tag on your pants” look, too….

Frank and Nancy must’ve caught her in the middle of conducting several important scientific experiments at the same time. Such as trying to prove which is more effective: a “boo boo bandage”, or an ankle brace. Also, whether or not one can eat an ice cream sandwich and convert tennis racket strings into violin strings at the same time.. or whether or not “Punky Brewster” fashions are still a good idea….

Wouldn’t want anybody to steal that valuable…er, “stuff” inside.

Moby Dick is usually a classic college entrance question.There are many far worse books to get into.Unless, it was missed in high school, an adult should’t read it

The opening line is, “Call me Ishmael.” It’s all downhill fromthere.

I tried Moby Dock once. Saw why my wife, who had to read it in high school, didn’t like it.

Let’s see what he have here: freshly washed hair, a spa facial mask, old clothes so she doesn’t ruin them, a mirror, some tunes, a band-aid on her leg from shaving, paper between her toes to help the polish dry….

And well…I’m stumped on the footwear and why there’s a tag hanging from her pants. Maybe someone younger (or more knowledgeable) than me can explain that one.

Either way, she’s having a homemade spa day.

I think its a face mask…

Caveat: I’m a week late with this comment. I’ve been on vacation, and today I picked up LAST Sunday’s (Sept. 7) newspaper to read Luann, and noticed on the “letter from grandma and grandpa on their 7 tips to succeed in college,” #5 was typoed “Have plenty of stamps and stationary for letter writing” in my local paper. Then I came to gocomics.com and see the proper “stationery” spelling. So, the proofreader got it right for gocomics, but didn’t get it in time for print in the newspapers. Anyone else notice this?

The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking on the strandThey wept like anything to see such quantities of sand‘If this were only swept away’, they said, ‘it would be grand’

‘If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year,Do you suppose’, the Walrus said, ‘they they could get it clear?’’I doubt it", said the Carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.

By Hell’s Heart, I grasp at thee, I clutch at thee…

…I’m having terrible flashbacks, don’t mind me.

For the uninformed, newspaper can be defined as the material used to pack crabs that you can buy from San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I think the term they use is fishwrap :) At any rate, the demise of newspapers continues to accelerate with their disregard for proper use of the English language.

Try using a can opener on those blister packs. Not a Church key, a regular can opener.

Nor the Enigma Machine….

Greg has delivered us a crescendo of Difficulties, culminating in the utterly impenetrable, Luann’s teen-girl head!

I have. I thought it was excellent. Really based on a true story.

So WHAT is Greg Saying? That while the DeGroot Parental Units Wasted Precious Time Trying to Do Simple Stuff, Their Daughter was on the LOSING End of a FIGHT??

Things you can’t get inside of. I win, I win, . . . didn’t I?

Moby Dick: some monumentally slow moments, but one of the best endings in literature.

!. Pimple cream2. They make them in our sizes (sort of)3. Thieves4. Nope

tin snips work wonders on plastic packaging

Moby Dick was one of the easiest and most enjoyable books I’ve ever read. (More than once)

I actually found Moby Dick to be incredible! For me it was as much of a page turner as any bestseller currently on the market. Now, the plastic packaging and the gum…. yeah, that is aggravating as hell. I never understood wearing clothes that were uncomfortably tight, and as for a young girls mind….. well… I think it depends on the girl. Luann… impenetrable much of the time. Other young girls (and young boys)… some of them can be understandable. :)

I have one of the original plastic package opener things. It’s great!

I loved “Moby Dick” when I read it. I suspect it was because I wasn’t forced to read it for a class.

I’m waiting for the movie to come out…

At our local Radio Shack, the clerk has a small battery powered saw and happily opens any of those hard plastic packages a customer buys.

“Have any of you ever read the book “Moby D!ck? I haven’t.”A few years ago I reflected that I should read Moby Dick, since I had been an English teacher and had never read it. I got a cheap copy from a bookstore and settled down. I didn’t get past the first chapter. Ugh. I think Evans did a great job of picking that one for Panel 3.

Thanks, howtheduck. That’s what I mean!

On the other hand, I had to read War and Peace in a World Novel course I was taking. I might not have gotten past the earlier chapter (chapters?) which were pure patronymics and matronymics, as I recall, but had to read it. I still think it’s the greatest novel I’ve ever read.

I like John Bonham’s Moby Dick.

I bought a pair of sheet metal shears for the plastic packaging.

Eh, mom is a little old for skinny jeans.

1) A toner mask 2) Because mine actually fit and look cute 3) Because they don’t want people to tamper with the contents prior to purchase 4) No. But one time it was on a scavenger hunt list and since we couldn’t find a copy and the library was closed we substituted a kid’s plastic whale toy. (And received a partial point for effort above and beyond! We won :~D )

I read Moby Dick when I was eight years old.

“Why WOULDN’T a “middle aged woman” wear skinny jeans? That’s what they sell in the stores. She could be in her late 30’s early 40’s and in great shape.”

Thank you. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’m glad you did. I would just modify it to, “She could be in her mid-fifties and in reasonably good shape.”

The best book I ever read is Les Misérables. I first read the abridged version and I loved it so much I then read the unabridged version. I love all of Victor Hugo’s books.

Do you have a Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring?

OK, I admit it… I found today’s strip to be disappointing because there just doesn’t seem to be a reasonable explanation for how Luann looks in that last panel. I do love that drawing of Nancy trying to “get into” Moby Dick, though.

Moby Dick is like A Tale of Two Cities……………….everybody knows the first line.

“The Fiskars that Gobie5 mentioned are inexpensive, and would work well. I just use my trusty pocket knife.”

It would still take some strength to use the Fiskars or even the sheet metal shears, wouldn’t it? I’ve always had weak hands and now if I have to use any force whatsoever it causes me sharp, stabbing pains in my hand. I can just see myself with a pocket knife, it would slip and I would cut myself for sure.

Uggggh. My late HS headmaster was a Melville freak. His PhD thesis from Harvard was on Melville’s epic poem “Clarel.”

Moby Dick; I finally read it last year, just to say I had. Most boring few days of my life. Does not deserve to be called a classic.

“I would say the information dense “Ulysses” would be the hardest.”^Another “ringing endorsement” would also come from Alan Sherman’s Coach from the “Summer Camp letter” schtick!….

I believe another explanation would be that today’s youth would seem to be generalized or depicted as being “short spanned” in the attention dept., to the point that they’d be “multitasking”, as in the case of Lu, where she had (1) possibly went to “try on” pants she’d purchased recently, (2) she’s listening to her iPod, (3) waiting for her toenail polish to dry, (4) grabbed something (a tennis racket) from her room to either put away, or something else. On the way, she (4) grabbed a snack from the kitchen, (5-?) among maybe a few other things…

I found that a couple of well done movies can help one to get the sense of some books, whether they are hard reads (or even those that are not as hard) and not the “Hollywood” style movies out these days, but some of the better “PBS” style movies that actually gave the original books a very accurate and comprehensive treatment. I remember a couple of Jane Austen books being done this way: “Pride And Predjudice” and “Sense And Sensibility”. Actually, one or both had two accurate depictions done on them, and kept the flow of Austen’s dialogue intact, especially when “Mr. Darcy” interacted with the Bennett sisters…

Yeah, that’s what I was mentioning earlier. Two in our house, so I know an “ankle brace” when I see one, LOL!

And a dirty medium (sort of) called videos killed the radio star… – And iTunes and MPs killed everything else… (sort of)….

They (Weight Watchers) do anyway (make a fortune)…I wonder how many pounds can be lost by eating the box the meal comes in…I mean, here you have roughage! ;)

I never had to read Ulysses, and sometimes wonder what all of the good press is about… ;)

As I recall, their PANTS were sometimes harder to get into.Sometimes.

Greg, and others reading this – Moby-Dick is an absolutely wonderful novel. I consider it the greatest work ever written in the English language. Really!!! (Try the Naxos AudioBook first. – Best way to get into it.) – And Greg, I love your strip, but honestly, Moby-Dick doesn’t deserve to be repeatedly stereotyped as unreadable! Please also see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/books/review/required-reading.html?_r=0. Thanks.