Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 31, 2020

“Call her at least once a week.”

We get wonventional cisdom.

Errr…. The mother of all wisdoms?!?

Mine is “Yes dear!”

Listen to your mother . . . and get a cat.

Most convincing explanation I ever heard about anything: “Because I’m the mom, that’s why!”

She only wants you to call her once, and not hang up.

And preferably one of your mother’s cats; keep it all in the family, truly some of us are beginning to look like a cat especially around dinner time. That 24 hour diner is always open .. morning time; mourn for the sake of your cats’ food tab ; remember a cat, stuffed full of Fancy Feast (only the best will do food) while dozing those sweet dreams allows the human to doze as well.

Why is it called "convent"ional wisdom?

Because Mother is superior.

“…and remember the “Golden Rule” that mom is always right,even when wrong.

I thought all conventions were cancelled because of the pandemic.

I very much wish I could still listen to my mother. The values she instilled in me saved me more than once.

I didn’t know Mike Pence could climb a mountain.

Mother says…

For me that will be a really Loooooong distance call.

Does her cat seem familiar?

“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time — but…you…can’t… fool… MOM." (Captain Penny, 50’s local kid show host.)

She’s feelin’ ♪guru-vy♪

I no longer hate my egg donor, but she’ll never be my mother again.

Could be one of several things with that cat. Muriel and Cap’n Eddie swap days caring for the same cat. They each have the same breed. Or the cat travels the time lines even more than Cap’n Eddie has any idea. Scary.

We wish everyone a very happy new year. May it be all you with it to be. And remember, resolutions are not limited to diet, exercise, and denial. Start out looking for the positives and grabbing on. Next, try to find ways to handle or discard the negatives. Takes a lot of effort, but it an be done. Prayers for all.

Ummm… Not all moms are the same. Those who never say this should be listened to. Those who want it tattooed on their kids forehead (but settle for saying it three hundred times a day) need therapy.

How did Paulie get there and where is Captain Eddie? Happy New Year everyone.

…and don’t run with scissors!

“Call her every day. Find a nice girl. And for heaven’s sake, get a better job. You call mountain climbing a career?

Here’s a great Nichols and May skit of a mother calling here rocket scientist son.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKL1tNv__kU

Happy New Year everyone!

Always good advice.

Oh no. My Mom always had lousy advice.

Some peoples’ advice consistently serves themselves far better than it does anyone else.

This wisdom is null and void once you get married. Listen to your father on that one.

Arthur Dent: It’s times like this I wish I’d listened to my mother.

Ford Prefect: Why, what did she say?

Arthur: I don’t know, I wasn’t listening!

—Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

I always left my cat in charge of the children when I was away. I told the kids they needed to what ever the cat was doing. If the cat was sleeping it was nap time.

I am trying that same strategy with me while working from home. For some reason I am not getting a lot of work done.

One of the many, many, many, many funny bits in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6b6nbeQCPA

It depends on the mother and the topic. My mom had excellent advice except for physics. She didn’t know spit about physics.

sadly- daddy unknown, mama in rehab——call your nana

The cat is grooming itself and ignoring the blathering human. Not that I’ve ever taken the unsolicited advice that cats offer.

Sometimes wisdom from your parents surfaces unexpectedly from the subconscious. Whenever I am on the road and buy a small bottle of water at a filling station, I clearly hear my Father’s voice:

“You paid a dollar for WHAT?”

Mother Baker says I should spend less time on GoComics and more time on my next book, but I told her people depend on my sage observations and uncanny witticisms.

I’m not sure how many months it took me to finally stop reaching for the phone, to check in on Mom, after she had passed.

Oh yeah… if I had listened to my mother…

Mom’s been gone since 1987, I still miss her and our phone calls. Not sure how she’d feel about this past year, but given she grew up in a small Midwest town during the Great Depression and WWII, she’d do her part to keep the pandemic at bay by following the science of wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and getting vaccinated when it was safe to do so. For her, it would be the patriotic thing to do.

The one thing I tell my daughter all the time is Start Saving Money. But she ignores me and spends every cent she earns.

Needs more cats.

My Mom is always right because I love her dearly, but I don’t always listen to what she says.

Especially if she tells you to put on the damn mask.

Yes, Mother.

Otherwise, no serenity for you!!

I feel like this would’ve been better as a Mother’s Day comic.

It’s day 2, 2021, and I have read all the above. I sympathize with the neglected and wish their family relations had been more satisfying in some way. I was lucky my folks cared enough to watch over me all their lives. While they directed my early years, they did not try to control or override my choices after I reached legal age – 21 in those days. In later years, distance meant fewer visits and less contact with us and their grandchildren, but they never ‘lost’ us as a family. I treasure those years which ended in 1994 with mother’s passing. I regret more people have not the same kinds of memories.

Thing is, if the smallest cohesive unit in society, the family, cannot hold together for whatever reason, what hope has the largest?