Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for August 29, 2021

the only time I wear beige — or khaki as I call it — trousers is mostly during the summer when going to church; goes well with my brown belt, brown socks, brown shoes, and a few of my brown neckties

Just so it’s not corduroy.

How’d she get “cute” outta “pinchy-looking”?

If we could only see if she has a huge Alice smile or tears…

I don’t remember the word count to go from comic to story.

No reflection on you Petey, or should I say of you? But it’s obvious that Alice leaves more of an impression on the world around her than you do.

I wonder how many synonyms Mom knows for “beige”.

Mirrors are never wrong, if you don’t want to know don’t look.

Petey, looking at all the Alices in the mirror makes me think of Pratchett’s “Witches Abroad” and how Granny Weatherwax always avoided mirrors. Dangerous things, reflections.

Go ahead Mom. Lie to you daughter.

Wear those with a red polo and you can work for Target or State Farm

When I was a kid, I didn’t even know clothes came from a store… every once in a while, something new would be in my closet and drawers!! I never had any choice about what I wore until I was a teenager!

Alice isn’t cut out for self-reflection (literally or figuratively). She’s naturally so bluntly critical that turning her powers back on herself can only have a distressing result.

I would think Petey’s preferred ‘color’ would be beige.

I remember shopping with my mom when I was a child, and playing in the store mirrors. There were some stores where the two outer mirrors were on a hinge so they could be adjusted, and you could pull them both towards you and enclose yourself in a big triangle of mirrors, all reflecting back into infinity. I thought that was so cool. I would have stayed there playing for hours.

I think it was Erma Bombeck who said “I can’t wear beige because I AM beige.”

Beige, ecru, whatever. I used to like light-colored jeans, back when they existed. Now, pretty much the only choices in jeans are blue or black. Naturally, I choose black. Your nose looks funny, Alice.

Ancient New Yorker story, I think, quoted by my dad, called a color scheme “buff, snuff, and putty.”