August 16, 2009: Sunday Showdown!

(Click to enlarge)

Clockwise from the bottom left:

• I'm a little confused as to Loretta's punchline involving the can of lemon polish. Is she implying that she gets into so many scuffs and fender benders that the poor car would be better protected by a protective polish? Or is she implying that Leroy drives such a crappy and outdated automobile that it is actually made of wood and thus better served by the polish? I guess in either scenario, whether it be the man with the dinged up car or the man with the old dinged up car, Leroy comes out the loser. Loretta starts the day off with a point.
• Leroy must have really done something wrong to raise Loretta's ire to such heights. The kennel is obviously a worse situation than the doghouse, but how the metaphor applies is a little ambiguous. Is Leroy going to be kicked out of the home? Is he grounded from going out with friends? Is he going to be imprisoned in some sort of giant cage in the basement of the house? Like the previous panel, there are many lingering ambiguities. Also like the other panel, one side (this time Leroy) comes out the winner in all scenarios.
  
• The Lockhorns' frequent visits to the good Dr. Blog's office have shown that they are under the most restrictive and overall worthless health insurance plan in America. This panel showing their trip to the local pharmacy only further demonstrates the raw deal they continue to get from their HMO. It's also interesting to note that despite the fact that Loretta is well into menopause and that they haven't approached anything close to sexual relations, Loretta sill insists on taking daily birth control pills. Push.
  
• After years of humiliatingly invasive full body searches by the TSA, Loretta strikes back at the man by intentionally wasting the security officers' time with pointless body searches. Is it a bit excessively spiteful to drive all the way to the airport with no intention of taking a flight just to hassle the security personal at the boarding gates? Perhaps. However, when you're dealing with the Lockhorns,"excessively spiteful" is a relative term. It's another push.
• The Lockhorns take a small step out of their usual apolitical void to name drop Fox News' polarizing political commentator. However, Leroy's political neutrality still remains intact since we're not sure if he is in agreement or disagreement with him. I'd like to think that, as someone perpetually stuck in the early 60s, Leroy is staunchly conservative but sides with the left on the big health care reform debate for obvious reasons (see every scene where he goes to a doctor or hospital). It's another push, which means it's been about three straight weeks of Sunday pushes. Hopefully we'll get something settled next week.

Official Count:

Leroy - 68
Loretta - 84
Push - 76