Monday's lack of a punch line did not go over well. Two colleagues took me aside, looked me in the eyes and told me, slightly embarrassed: "I didn't get it." I had to explain, once more, that the strip doesn't really have a punch line. It has a snarky half-hidden comment in panel one and it has a geographic hint in panel four, but that's it. It really was all build-up for today's strip and the one to follow on Friday.
Contest Sketch News: Thanks to my wife helping with the packaging, the three sketches have been dropped off at the post office yesterday. She made an extra effort to help the drawings arrive in good shape. All envelopes are padded with cardboard to keep mean postmen from folding them up into paper airplanes.