First Published: July 30, 2007
Continuing to weave my wife into the strip.
My wife reads books the way other people breathe. Give her a nice potboiler and for a day or two, her presence will barely be felt. As I am writing this, she is reading a yellow-bound hardcover which she will only describe as "weird". I see the book around a lot, often on the sofa, with my wife next to it, often asleep. She refuses to give up on it, but it appears the battle is exhausting her.
Note from July 31, 2007: A female reader actually wrote me full of indignation, objecting that I was ridiculing my wife by implying that she is dumb enough to try to read the business phone book. To which I have to say: Phhbbbttt! The yellow-bound book in question is Eduardo Mendoza's "La aventura del tocador de señoras". And a double Phhbbbttt for even thinking I would insult my wife like that.
This strip actually underwent a number of revisions while I was drawing it. The original final panel was way more complex, but that became confusing (remember the overcooked bathroom scene?) and even misleading. So I re-scripted and redrew the darned thing.
While I was at it, I redid the wife's face as well, but couldn't fix what I'd done wrong and finally decided to leave things be.
(Thanks to David K. for pointing out the typo in the first panel!)