Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 30, 2011

The vulture is mighty SCARY!

Not as scary as the long drop past the vulture!

daaaang, that be DARK philosophizing!

I want an express elevator to the penthouse. The elevator here has two buttons, “down” and “sideways”. It’s all Ottis Redding’s fault.

Might as well JUMP!!!

Go ahead. Jump. Calvin would, if Hobbes doesn’t sidetrack him with hot cocoa.

The “fast way” means there will be time to go back and do it over.

And I was simply thinking bathroom………………..

THIS is the unvarnished TRUTH!!!

At least she gets to open the doors first. It seems the doors are normally not marked and you don’t know what you picked until after you have stepped through it, and it locks behind you.

Toward where?

Life is like that, treading water or going up or down.

(He says this as he is paddling).

Absolutely superb.

Life is a merry-go-round. Or a Ferris Wheel, whichever you prefer to repeat on. Sometimes it’s a roller coaster. Up down round and round.

Wiley is taking creative license. Notice how the door on the left leads to stairs heading straight, but the door on the right to an immediate drop. But from the outside, that is where the door on the left should lead. Well drawn though.

What’d ya want to bet Wiley is a “lefty?”

Even the door on the left is a “left-handed” door with the knob on the right side of the door

Love Dad’s response! “How well can you tread water?”

Thanks Wiley, love the art and the look on Danae’s face is just priceless.

Would that be the analogy of a duck on the water? Cool, calm and collected on top - while paddling like the dickens underneath?

@Palos & ZorkArk - check your eyeglass prescription; the doors are correctly oriented in all views with respect to each other. What throws you off is that the stairway supposedly should be visible - or at least the stairwell enclosure - in panel 4, theoretically, and it’s not. And long-term, even treading water is a losing proposition.

Dads hair finally went grey.

Life is a carnival, two bits a shot. — The Band

Danae, after the long drop, that vulture gets its due.

When treading water, keep an eye out for sharks.

The vulture is a nice touch. Also, is Danae’s dad’s hair finally white from all the stress?

It’s no wonder his hair has gone white. He has to deal with Danae, Kate, and Victoria. It’s a wonder he has any hair left…

“Life is six to five, against.” — Damon Runyan

And not even Danae can get around it.

If only it were that easy…

The Laws of Thermodynamics (seriously):

You can’t win.

You can’t break even.

You can’t get out of the game.

There is only one way down from there. That is the “First step”. The stairs only lead up. How did Danae get there in the first place?

Escher

You forgot the one everyone forgets, puddlegum.

No matter how you may think, you also can’t make the rules. You can only discover them.

Old sign for repair shop:

Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick any two.

RadioTom you are correct. The fact that the stairs are not visible from outside the building is due to it being a metaphor, not an accurate portrayal of a real building. I still do not understand why the doorknob for the Fast Way is on the left instead of right side… never saw a knob IRL that way, ever.

Binary - that was my point about being left-handed.

Most doors will smack you in the face when opened with the left hand.

When doors open toward you, with the knob on the left of the door, they’re left handed - this holds true if they open away from you with the knob on the right, as in panel two.

Couldn’t she just lower herself onto the wire then leap over and grab the light fixture and then lower herself safely to the ground? I’m sure Danae has a little bit of a young Lara Croft in her! Don’t let other people’s perceptions rule your life!

Oooooh, me aching head…