Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 08, 2024

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    BE THIS GUY  5 months ago

    And the Home Owners’ Association (HOA) police comes knocking on the door.

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    STEPUP  5 months ago

    Very true, some will not allow it!!!

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    Richard S Russell Premium Member 5 months ago

    Any appliance that uses electrical resistance to heat things is gonna be an electricity hog. Space heaters are about the worst, but electric ranges aren’t far behind. Compare the energy efficiency of incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED lights for an outstanding example.

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    snsurone76  5 months ago

    Before there were clothes dryers, people had no choice but to hang their laundry outside—where it was coated with soot from nearby factories!!

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    Liverlips McCracken Premium Member 5 months ago

    So that is Zonker’s father in panel two? I don’t recall seeing him previously. I don’t see any resemblance.

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    weikelk  5 months ago

    Unfortunately, drying clothes outside is severely stereotyped these days. My mom did it in the 80’s and the neighbors hated it.

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    arolarson Premium Member 5 months ago

    When I was a kid we had a nice large basement with the luxury of a wringer washer. Then they dried outside in summer and inside the basement in winter. Mom and Gramma used a device called a pants stretcher that was inserted in pant legs to keep the legs straight for efficient drying and also eliminated the need to iron the legs…they left a nice sharp crease when collapsed and removed. Since both Dad and Grampa wore heavy khaki slacks it was a real time and labor saver.

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    Fliptak  5 months ago

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen Zonker’s dad before.

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    Mark Jeffrey Premium Member 5 months ago

    My (British) sister used to live in New Jersey and always used to dry her washing on the line outside (weather permitting). There was no HOA to complain about it, and her American mother-in-law always used to comment that the children’s clothes smelled much fresher than those from a dryer. The American social stigma around line drying being too “blue collar” is (or was) ridiculous. I wonder if it started with aggressive advertising from dryer manufacturers trying to guilt-trip people into buying their machines?

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    GeoffChallinger  5 months ago

    It’s always been a bafflement to Europeans that anyone would consider air-drying as anything other than a nice thing, even without the energy considerations. Once the UK weather ventures above 50F in March or so, the washing will be out on the line, sheets blowing in the wind – it’s just a lovely sight. I don’t kow whether that’s a learned aesthetic or if the members of American HOAs just get offended by the sight of other people’s underwear.

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    ladykat  5 months ago

    The HOA will get you for that!

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    Wizard of Ahz-no relation  5 months ago

    before the term ‘karen’ was around

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    [Unnamed Reader - 14b4ce]  5 months ago

    Send them to Mar-Al-Lago,they’ll find plenty of violations there

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    KeyboardsB3  5 months ago

    Actually, it’s probably the grow lights in the basement that are using all the electricity (Zonker’s start at entrepreneurial activities).

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    PoodleGroomer  5 months ago

    The new two jobs no children professionals were aghast at clothes on my umbrella clothesline until they became a young couple with 3 kids at the swimming pool daily.

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    kaffekup   5 months ago

    Check out Brewster Rockit today for another take on this

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    emiesty Premium Member 5 months ago

    A couple of months ago, I had my backyard clothesline restrung. I’s invaluable for sleeping bags and comforters; I figure my fences are high enough so that no one will grouse.

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    jbruins84341  5 months ago

    Soon after my wife and I married, we moved to Phoenix. We had a baby by this time, and decided to use cloth diapers since they were less expensive. We had a washer, but no dryer. We used a rotating umbrella-style clothesline. In the summer, my wife could hang diapers on one side of the line, and by the time she got done with the other three panels, the diapers were dry!

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    mistercatworks  5 months ago

    These folks are “sun drying” their skin right out in public. There has to be some rule about that, right? :)

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    David Huie Green ForceIsAUsefulFiction  5 months ago

    I still favor a vacuum chamber. Should dry them quickly.

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    vick53  5 months ago

    You couldn’t pay me to live in a neighborhood like that. I love hanging out the laundry!

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    KennethPrice2  5 months ago

    My Mobile Home Community forbids Clothes Line Posts even though my lot has a concrete block embedded in the lawn specifically intended for that purpose. Rooftop broadcast TV antennas are also forbidden, but a court case got a ruling allowing Dish antennas, but only if you have liability insurance on your trailer.

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    banjoAhhh!   5 months ago

    That actually happened in Lansing Illinois. A person had been drying his/her clothes on a line for some time. Some looser rated her/him out.

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    DouglasSmith1  5 months ago

    That’s the way my mom used to do it.

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