Gil Thorp by Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham for December 23, 2019

Uh oh….looks like trouble from the smirky guy in the background…is that DeMarco or one of his gang of master put-down artists?

…whaaat? Austintown? A suburb of Tate’s Creek, a non conference game? Where are we?

And, let me just say that Schuring bothers me from the start, not knowing what will happen…this smug SOB shows all indications of a Joel Goodson type asshat. WTF, might be Illinois!

Austintown Fitch, Ohio

Austintown. Home of tidier mustaches than the gals of Milford.

In all reality , Milford Downs has posted these odds for what will appear here on Christmas Day , 3/5 Seasons Greetings from Gil & Mimi , 25/1 Merry Christmas , Alexa turn on the Christmas Tree lights and 500/1 any appearance by the Thorp kids .

P1, Alexa nearly smashes her head into the lights blocking a shot. Alexa, lookup concussion.

P2, Alexa must have a flashlight since most of the schoolbuses I rode on were not very well lit.

P3, But Chris was smart enough to have his books on tape eliminating the eyestrain. Plenty of Springfield High School’s to choose from.

Austintown 3:16 says Milford just kicked your A$$, and that’s the bottom line

Battle of the Brains! So exciting! Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays Thorpsters!

Alexa Watson swats away three shots as well as four romantic overtures from various rubes in Austintown.

As we begin week 3, we know have accumulated a grand total of one panel of basketball action. This story is much more focused on the sports action than most of them! And speaking of focusing, you should be focusing on today’s edition of Mopped Up Thorp.

https://moppedupthorp.wordpress.com/

OK. Let’s finish up the year 2013.

Okay, let’s take bets for tomorrow’s strip. What will happen with the greeting to us?

- Will they say “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, “Season’s Greetings”, or the most unlikely, something else? (In 2016 they said “…wish you all the blessings of the season”.)

- Will Gil call a timeout or not to deliver our greeting? (I wait for the timeout all year, but actually it’s pretty rare in recent times.)

- Will the scene feature Gil and Mimi, or Gil, Mimi, Kaz and Kelly, or only Gil, or some combo of those 4 with other people? (I am not even going to give an option including the kids as the odds of that are 1,000,000,000,000,002:1)

- Will there be a panel or two continuing the current story, or will it only be the greeting?

Robbie Douglas listens to ear phones as little brother Chip looks on.

The part of Alexa in panel two today is played by Richard Roundtree.

P3- Chris is pregaming with his Koss headphones and Taste of Honey’s “Boogie Oogie Oogie.” Gotta have some rhythm to shoot the rock.