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1. 

   Ladywolf17 said, 4 months ago

   Me I sometimes end up missing socks, but that’s only once in awhile.

2. 

   Bill Wa said, 4 months ago

   To put a fact to the theory, what happens is that with older washers, sometimes socks will flow over the top and go into the interior. The other explanation is that they end up in -text deleted for security reasons-

3. 

   Carmy said, 4 months ago

   She needs a vacation.

4. 

   baslim_the_begger said, 4 months ago

   The gods of the laundry will have their due!

5. 

   hildigunnur said, 4 months ago

   No no, they’re all in the Hozone layer, swirling around outside Earth…

6. 

   wndrwrthg said, 4 months ago

   Everyone knows they are taken by sock ninjas.

7. 

   WORDMAN33 said, 4 months ago

   wich is why I only wear white sox, they always match.

8. 

   Macushlalondra said, 4 months ago

   I’d want to smack John for laughing. Let him do the laundry and see if he comes up with all matching socks.

9. 

   teamaniac said, 4 months ago

   I think Ellie has a fantastic imagination! She has to in order to deal with her family:)

10. 

    royman said, 4 months ago

    What she says makes perfect sense to me. In “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” the late Douglas Adams talks about what happens to ballpoint pens that disappear all the time - they slip through a wormhole in the space-time continuum and turn up on a planet where ballpoint pens are the dominant life form. So why not stray socks?

11. 

    atajayhawk said, 4 months ago

    Everybody knows–or should–that dryers have black holes in them that especially like socks.

12. 

    BridgeGuy said, 4 months ago

    atajayhawk - is that in any way related to the fact that all my black socks have holes in them?

13. 

    howtheduck said, 4 months ago

    With “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”style of humor, this would work. There would be a final panel labeled “The Year 2050” showing an 80-year-old Michael getting pelted by his old socks popping out of the space time continuum. In For Better or For Worse, if Elly was going off on a humorous, tongue-in-cheek tangent, it would also work. Instead she gets all moody because John doesn’t take her crackpot explanation seriously, and that doesn’t work. It makes Elly look like a loon.

14. 

    Lewreader said, 4 months ago

    Bill Wa. Every try to explain that overflow/over the top to your wife?

15. 

    Doctor Toon said, 4 months ago

    I thought it was laundry gnomes, who stole them to use as sleeping bags.

16. 

    pibfan868 said, 4 months ago

    One of my all-time favorite a capella groups, The Bobs, have a song about missing socks, part of their “Laundry Cycle” song list. It’s hilarious!

17. 

    MasterDiver said, 4 months ago

    June 1st: I go to the laundry with my laundry bag, including 7 pair of matched socks. When I open the machine one of the socks is missing.

    June 8th: I go to the laundry with my laundry bag, including 6 pair of matched socks. When I open the machine one of the socks is missing.

    June 15th: I go to the laundry with my laundry bag, including 5 pair of matched socks. When I open the machine one of the socks is missing.

    June 22nd: I go to the laundry with my laundry bag, including 4 pair of matched socks. When I open the machine another of the socks is missing.

    June 29th: I go to the laundry with my laundry bag, I have washed my remaining socks in the sink at home. When I open the machine I find only my laundry bag. Inside I find this note: “STOP TRIFLING WITH THE LAWS OF NATURE AND BRING THE MACHINE MORE SOCKS!”

18. 

    Silverpearl said, 4 months ago

    Ellys’ problem is that she spends most of her time with children and housework. You start to suppose what is really happening and there is no adult to discuss it with. Husbands don’t count.

19. 

    Sheila said, 4 months ago

    No no no I think she may have something there…better than my explanation of evil dryer Fairies

20. 

    summerdog said, 4 months ago

    Socks rarely overflow the washer drum. Most top loading washer models are hollow between the drum and the outside skin. The socks would just fall under the washer to the floor, so check under there first.

    I personally think that the dog eats them. And that the pairs are never washed together in the first place. Lost before washed. The rest are sucked into that black hole thing.

21. 

    cleokaya said, 4 months ago

    I think that it is a conspiracy by the sock manufacturing industry. They make every fifth pair of socks so that one will dissolve in water, necessitating another sock purchase.

22. 

    GJ_Jehosaphat said, 4 months ago

    Ahh - Interdimensional and/or Time Travel Machines.

    How about Doctor Who’s TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space) London police box. (See today’s New Adventures of Queen Victoria for a longer description).

    How about The Machine used in the Book/Movie “Contact”.

    How about H.G. Wells classic “Time Machine”.

    Mysterious Missing Socks Time Travel Theory - seems as plausible and with the “discoveries” of Quantum Mechanics - Not so Quarky of an Idea.

23. 

    Tami said, 4 months ago

    The a socks eat the b socks!!

24. 

    jackofstories said, 4 months ago

    The black hole isn’t just in the dryer. I’ve lost several books and a pair of glasses to it. They never left the house, and I’ve cleaned and moved furniture several times since. No logical explanation leaves me to embrace the illogical.

25. 

    Ji2m said, 4 months ago

    Missing socks are like big game… Hunting them takes patience and knowledge of their environment…

26. 

    johnparadox said, 4 months ago

    The explanation was presented in the old series Eerie, Indiana.

27. 

    pearlandpeach said, 4 months ago

    unmatched socks become baby coathangers….everyone knows that!

28. 

    Burgundy2 said, 4 months ago

    I read somewhere that socks are the larval form of hangers. That’s why socks disappear, and hangers seem to multiply in the closet.

29. 

    trying2keepup said, 4 months ago

    I think they go to the planet next to the one where Zaphod Beeblebrox found all the lost pens.

30. 

    sjackson547 said, 4 months ago

    jackofstories, I don’t remember who said it, but, If you rule out the probable, than whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the answer.

31. 

    kittylover2 said, 4 months ago

    All of your answers made me laugh. I live alone, not another person around anywhere! Missing socks, you bet, I can tear this place apart - No Socks. Go figure………..

32. 

    Tigger said, 4 months ago

    El, go through this sock pile, bet you find all of them.

33. 

    Noreen Klose said, 4 months ago

    @sjackson547
    That was Sherlock Holmes. He said that to Watson when Watson said something was improbable. He basically said whatever is left, when everything else is ruled out**THAT MUST BE SO.

34. 

    bluetopazcrystal said, 4 months ago

    I love Royman’s theory. That explains it plainly to me. Douglas Adams is a very astute man.

35. 

    Stuart Gathman said, 4 months ago

    My personal research on the sock issue determined that the socks are lost before the dryer. People throw socks at the laundy bag, and one of them misses.

36. 

    The7Sticks said, 4 months ago

    In the original version of this strip from March 8th 1981, Elly originally says the year 2001 instead of the re-written version today that says 2050.

37. 

    gab4x4 said, 4 months ago

    I bet the dog did it. My cats LOVE socks, I usually loose one a month. It works out good, you keep your socks fresh and new, LOL.