Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 22, 2010

hey Paul, two things: 1) Not everyone is as tech-savvy as you might think, and a lot of people (including Holly’s mom) have more going on in their lives than doing stuff with various ether-toys; 2) I’ve met Jan Eliot, I lived in the same community for several years. I’ve been reading her strip since before it was syndicated. She’s an incredibly down-to-earth woman who looks like the woman next door. And I think she’s doing a remarkable job of portraying a unique family that is trying to lead a normal life. Holly is entirely too normal for a middle-schooler. (I raised three of them- and I have the white hair to prove it. ;-)

That’s a leash , so you don’t have to hunt for it .

Anyway, you should keep a corded phone around in case the power goes out. I think it’s great that Holly talks with her grandma so often. There’s a lot she can learn (whether she wants to or not ;-)).

I have a landline because I can’t get cell service dependably within five miles in any direction from my home.

i have a true rotary phone = even the phone company is impressed.

(yeah, got cell too)

Holly is the epitome of a jr high school student. Anyone who has raised kids (girls especially) understands the sas and attitude at that age. We raise them to be strong, independent thinkers….not realizing they will use it against their parents!! It’s awesome to see a family so cllose and loving. (mimics real life so much sometimes!!)

it’s a new day, baby

Surprise Holly! There is a past that comes BEFORE you!!!

Paul: 4) bout half the world’s population have yet to use any kind of telephone. We cannot judge the world by our own high-tech standards.

I’d rather never use a cell phone- poor sound quality and hard to read that small stuff. Besides, I work from home so just have lots of extensions with my FAX and both of my TiVos receiving on the same single phone line- and we have sufficient pwer failures that I wouldn’t want to change;-) Oh! and I’m happy to see that the “new” dots are back on the index, since before my breakfast, when I asked about them missing.

Jeremy, in an old Zits:

“You know what would be useful? If there were some kind of cord attaching the phone’s handset to the base, so you’d always know where it is. You wouldn’t have to go from room to room looking for it every time you want to make a call. I bet a lot of people would want one. Hey! Maybe I could INVENT something like that!”

Evie’s techno-savvy enough to be able to videoconf her granddaughters from Thailand, so I doubt she’d have any objection to a cordless phone. More likely, she’s had that unit for 40 years, and as long as it’s got touch-tone she’s never had any need to replace it. It’s sturdy and reliable, and she’s never had to worry about losing it.

Handy thing about landline is if the cell tower’s out (this happened) and the house is on fire, you can call 911 before you exit. And because it tells them your exact location, after you yell “Fire!” they can just send the fire dep’t. while you get the h. out

I’ve been wanting an old style land line, they’re great when there are power outages. I for one, have absolutely no use for a cell phone. I barely answer the regular one (which doesn’t work when the power goes out).

to:paul if you don;t like so much of this strip why do you read it let alone criticize characters in it ?

I got a Magic Jack almost a year ago , $29.95 for it and a years service . Before completing all the paperwork . A pop-up screen invited me to pay $49.95 for 5 additional years of service . One of the few risks , that hasn’t bitten my below the belt . Wished I owned a franchise . Thanks somebodyshort .

I think you are all being too hard on Paul, I agree with his sentiment about Val. The storyline about her being such a technophobe/incompetent with technology is running a bit thin. This is particularly true because she has two girls who are on Facebook (“Spacebook”) and such. If for no other reason, she ought to learn to use technology just to be able to keep tabs on what her daughters are doing online.

I can’t speak for Paul of course, but I see nothing wrong with enjoying a comic strip and yet, still being able to criticize the characters in it. Sometimes you can like something generally, but still find issues with parts of it and that is what the comment section is for - to discuss/agree/disagree with what is going on in the strip.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing as such. It’s the way that people disagree that sometimes really turns me off. The comments today are not bad, but I have seen some on other days that are full of sarcasm and venom - as I have said elsewhere, meanness for the sake of being mean. Generally I flag them.

fairportfan, hehe good one there!

RinaFarina,

I agree with you that comments full of sarcasm/venom/mean for the sake of being mean are unacceptable and should be flagged. I’m just not seeing any of that with Paul’s comment. What he said didn’t seem sarcastic/venomous/mean or anything else. It just seemed a general disagreement with a particular part of the strip to me.