(Original Publication Date, 25 December 1990)
Panel 1: It's Christmas dinner at the Patterson house. Seated at the table are John at the head of at and clockwise from him are Elizabeth, Elly, Michael, Phil and Georgia. As he says a very passive aggressive grace by thanking The Lord for what they are about to receive today and tomorrow and the next day and the day after that, Elly and Georgia stare at him in confusion.
Summary: My need to make a sarcastic comment about John wanting to make them all eat TV dinners like a low-class chump is being suppressed by two factors: Elly's belief that a freezer is a magic box that preserves food forever and her love of casseroles that sit in one's insides like a lump of lead.