January 24, 2010: Sunday Showdown!

(Click to enlarge)

Clockwise from the bottom left:

• After another harsh winter snowstorm, Loretta takes personal pleasure in reminding Leroy about his absentmindedness. This is by far one of the mildest points I have run across in my Lockhorn detailing. Leaving the snow shovel outside after the last snowstorm seems to be hardly an egregious display of ineptitude. It's definitely nowhere near the severity of the usual faux pas Leroy gets insulted for. I'll give Loretta the point here, but I definitely expect more hate and vitriol in future scenes. Loretta goes up 1-0.
• Now this is definitely more like the excessively spiteful Loretta that I've come to know and love. Before Leroy can even take a brief moment to rest on his living room chair, Loretta brings in one of her friends for the sole purpose of being an audience to her Leroy mocking punchline, which belittles Leroy's worth as a human being. Classic insult, classic Loretta. Loretta takes a commanding 2-0 lead.
• Leroy scores another memorable point by masterfully using a picture of Loretta's mother as a prop. It's left to the imagination of Loretta and the audience as to whether her mother's profoundly unhappy portrait is supposed to scare away or actually somehow kill the mice living in the cartoonish arched hole in the wall. If I was Loretta, I'd try to take down all other known pictures of her mother in the house to prevent future liability. Leroy cuts the lead down to 2-1.
• I find this scene at the local multiplex to be a little odd. You initially have Leroy complaining about the prevalence of distracting cell phone usage in theaters by making a terribly outdated reference to "talkies" that would have sounded dated 80 years ago; nothing new there. However, all the theatergoers seem to be using completely anachronistic, unwieldy Zack Morris Cell Phones from the 80s. It's like we're trapped in some bizarre Lockhorns time warp. Lets just push on out of this strange and terrible place.
• Continuing with the anachronism vibe, shouldn't a picture of Leroy and Loretta on their wedding day taken countless decades ago look at least a little different from what they look like now? I guess the Lockhorns are like Angela Lansbury, forever late middle-aged. That being said, the expressions on their faces are priceless. Leroy has the hopeless, shell shocked stare of a man who has been given a death sentence, while Loretta can't hold back her evil sadistic grin as she anticipates all the horrors she'll inflict on Leroy. For now though, it's Leroy who gets the score, by pointing how how Loretta has completely failed to provide any happiness in his life. Leroy's furious comeback and Loretta's failure to capitalize on an early lead ends in a push.

Official Count:
Leroy - 6
Loretta - 8
Push - 10