Jon: is either using comic strip generic language or plans to make out with Liz. Because when I ask someone to go to a movie, it's a specific movie, and I tell them the title. If I just say "the movies", it means I do not and you should not care what the movie is, because the theater is just a place to make out. Panel one, Jon puts on his half-lidded, smirking ladies' man face, a picture of confidence. Panel two reveals Jon has long-forgotten the signified emotion that's supposed to be behind a confident expression. Panel three shows Jon's self-destruct reflex trying to kick in and put his life back into the miserable rut that deep down, we consider our natural state.
Liz: is probably impressed Jon was able to restrain himself from calling her for 12 days, even as she counted each one and knitted her brow, looking at the X's on the calendar. I know I am.
Garfield: is not really happy for Jon, as evidenced in panel two. He is finally amused by a man's confusion and probably terror, and relishes the possibility that Jon's anxiety may continue for some time.
Again: Does Jon move the phone to the table for these calls, or is it a different table, or is it a different part of a very long table?
6 comments:
Maybe the table is also infinitely long, or at least long enough that a blowtorch has been on it for years without Jon or us noticing it.
Also, the differently colored phones are proof that the table is extremely long.
I think I have a more benevolent reading of Garfield's expression in panel 2. He's not surprised for the same reason that Liz is not surprised; they're an item.
The table cannot be infinitely long because occasionally Odie must be kicked off of the table.
There is a Stephen King story called The Jaunt in which a character, after being teleported without the usual sleep medicine reports, "It's forever in there." He has passed through infinite time and emerged instantaneously. He has both emerged and never emerged.
In similar fashion, there is a table that goes on without end and at the end there is an edge.
Alternatively, and easier to understand, the table is infinite in length, but finite in width. The edge that Odie is kicked off is the edge we see in every strip.
-Arlen
Did anyone notice that Liz said "Yes?" with a QUESTION MARK. Maybe she was just answering her phone...
Jon was probably over-excited as usual and blurted out his request as soon as she picked up, but before she could get the receiver to her ear.
OK, so it's a little unusual to answer the phone that way, but what's more unusual: answering Jon's question with "yes?" or answering the phone with "yes?"
I'm surprised the joke wasn't that Jon said something like "Oh, sorry for bothering you", hanging up and then immediately realizing his stupidity.
I spot a Ulysses reference
Jon said "yes?", not Liz. He was merely repeating what Liz said on the phone in question form in order to indicate his surprise.
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