Why is Frazz giving her tips for the more efficient flushing of oranges rather than just telling her to, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, stop flushing those !@#$ oranges down the !@#$ toilet?
And for that matter, what’s wrong with her that she’s doing this in the first place? This isn’t normal behavior.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Because Frazz is the “cool grown-up” and won’t let any-one forget it.
She packs her lunch. Her mom/dad who packs the lunch expects her to eat the orange because it’s healthy and full of vitamin C. She doesn’t like them, so she has been flushing here oranges to get rid of them, and thus avoids the “Why didn’t you eat the orange– it’s good for you” conversation. This was working fine before she went from clementines to a larger orange.
I don’t doubt that real-life school janitors have found toilets plugged by far stranger things than an orange.
Frazz’s is simply pointing out that if she ever again feels the need to flush an orange, there is a simple solution that avoids plugging the toilet.
I kind of thought the purpose of flushing things down a toilet was to see what the toilet can handle and if the toilet couldn’t to see how splendiforously and dramatically it *does* backup. Finding an efficient and safe way to flush oranges would defeat the purpose.
I don’t get the first panel. It seems related to protecting oneself from a accidental loss of phone.
(I do know the common dropping a phone in a toilet issue, but I can’t connect that to this strip.)
@Kevin A: First she “backed up” the toilet and now she has backed up her phone. Two devices in one day. Ho ho.
“Frazz’s is simply pointing out that if she ever again feels the need to flush an orange, there is a simple solution that avoids plugging the toilet.”
Maybe I’m crazy, but I still say I’d point out that if she ever feels the need to flush an orange, DON’T: she’s not a two-year-old.
I haven’t seen anybody this reluctant to tell a child “don’t” since the Twilight Zone’s “It’s a Good Life” episode.
I was disappointed that dvandom’s analysis from yesterday was proven false. It’s oranges, all the way down.
How is she “backing up” her phone? Sending all her saved data to some cloud using the school’s wi-fi connection?
Or is Mallett not entirely sure what backing up a phone means?
“Why is Frazz giving her tips for the more efficient flushing of oranges rather than just telling her to, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, stop flushing those !@#$ oranges down the !@#$ toilet?”
Frazz knows that a lesson learned is going to stick better than a lesson dictated.
Why she does it… who knows? Kids do weird stuff for weird reasons.. This is a well-known comedic trope, not something Mallett just invented.
What lesson is being learned? The best way to flush an orange down a toilet?
If he could make her unclog the toilet, THAT might be a message learned.
“Maybe I’m crazy, but I still say I’d point out that if she ever feels the need to flush an orange, DON’T: she’s not a two-year-old.”
But if Frazz said “Don’t” he’d be an authoritative grown-up and not the cool grown-up.
Now of course the *ideal* grown-up would realize that there are situations where being cool is not desirable and being authoritative is not that bad and kids flushing oranges down a toilet is definitely one of them.
“What lesson is being learned?”
Why flushing oranges down the toilet is a bad idea.
“Now of course the *ideal* grown-up would realize that there are situations where being cool is not desirable and being authoritative is not that bad”
This is not one of them. The orange-flushing has already happened. The desired outcome *at this point* is to make it not happen again. Frazz has achieved that goal.
“Don’t flush oranges down the school toilet” is a message you want the kids to have, if any of them are contemplating such an act. But it’s not imperative the way “Don’t run out onto a busy street” or “don’t put your hand on the hot stove” or “Don’t take random pharmaceuticals hoping to get high” are. (Or, for grown-ups, “don’t leave a loaded handgun in the school playground”).
But telling a student peeling and breaking an orange into pieces will allow it to flush better is *NOT* teaching them not to flush oranges down a toilet. It’s a nudge and a wink that it’s cool to flush them down toilets. THis is *definately* a case where being a responsible adult is a better idea than being the cool adult who’s subversively on the destructive side. This is a case where it’s better to let the kid know when even the cool adult thinks you were an idiot for flushing the orange down a toilet that maybe…. flushing an orange actually *was* a stupid thing to do.
I’m not clear on why Frazz would want to give the advice he does, but it doesn’t really seem so terrible to tear an orange into little pieces and flush it down the toilet. If the orange rind pieces are small enough that there’s no significant risk of clogging, then it’s a waste of food, but no worse than throwing it in the trash can.
I’m with Bill here. Preschoolers might throw fruit in the toilet but this kid is seemingly intelligent enough to know that’s a bad idea. If you don’t want to eat fruit then there’s a lot of better ways to get rid of it.
“But telling a student peeling and breaking an orange into pieces will allow it to flush better is *NOT* teaching them not to flush oranges down a toilet.”
That lesson was the two previous days’ strips.
” This is a case where it’s better to let the kid know when even the cool adult thinks you were an idiot for flushing the orange down a toilet that maybe…. flushing an orange actually *was* a stupid thing to do.”
Again, previously learned.
“Preschoolers might throw fruit in the toilet but this kid is seemingly intelligent enough to know that’s a bad idea.”
Except, of course, that apparently several rounds of clementines went without incident. She learned the difference between the clementines (OK) and orange (not OK) on her own, without Frazz’ or anyone else’s input required, because, as noted, she’s not stupid.
I see all your points (“all you all’s” if I weren’t a midwesterner), but I saw one other option. I like oranges, but I hate to peel them. I won’t put an orange in my lunch because the taste isn’t worth the effort to me (but when I remember they’re in the crisper drawer, I will take the clementines/mandarins/cuties/whatevers). If she has the same feelings about oranges, Frazz’s suggestion means she will have peeled it and separated it into bite-sized segments. Her work is done. She might as well eat them instead of go to the washroom to flush them.
I believe that’s what I said previously. My Boss for 30 years would, in addition to making coffee in the a.m. and tea in the p.m., share oranges with me – AFTER he’d peeled and segmented them. We retired six months apart in 2005; I’ve not had an orange (or tea) since. Yes, they are a LOT of work. I figure if I want an orange, I’ll drink some orange juice.
“She might as well eat them instead of go to the washroom to flush them.”
I’m going to suggest that Frazz’ last-panel advice might not be intended to take 100% seriously. He’s giving her an option, knowing full well that it isn’t likely to be put into practice. From HIS point of view, the two choices are equal. From HER point of view, they aren’t. She’s just recently learned to take his view into account.
A rough parallel: Suppose you are the sort of person who picks up your kid at school. One day, something or other makes you a couple of minutes late. In response, you suggest that if the service isn’t adequate, perhaps the kid would prefer to get out and walk. You know the kid isn’t going to make this choice, but hopefully you will convince them to re-examine the nature of your commitment to providing transportation. You want the complaining to stop… it doesn’t matter much to you if it stops because the kid stops complaining, or because the kid isn’t in the car any more. But the kid probably sees the two choices as not equivalent.
I’m with MikeD and those who agree with him (I can’t entirely tell…), that Frazz’s advice is not for how to better flush them but for how to eat them .
However, I don’t see how that works with “but she hates to peel them” nor with the idea that she doesn’t like them. I thought maybe he thinks she just doesn’t even know to peel and separate them, and is trying but failing to eat them like an apple — and disposing of them when that doesn’t work.
A solution could be that this is about clementines (or tangerines etc) as against big, hard-to-peel oranges. That would almost be perfect. Except that this day’s strip says oranges.
Andréa: I know this others already said this in the previous thread, but to affirm the others: clementines are very easy to peel.
[This comment was brought to you by the National Clementine Council.]
There are techniques that make peeling oranges much easier. The way I do it is to cut around the top and remove it, then score the peel with a knife, and use a flat spoon to get under the skin for easier removal.
There are even some tools for assisting orange peeling.
‘-)
My technique is similar to Brian in STL, but I don’t use the spoon. Instead I choose fresh navels or Cara-Caras whose peel is not yet too desiccated. They come off almost as easily as Cuties.
Well, thank dog for that . . .
As a non-smartphone user, I’m curious. When you back up your phone, are you mostly backing up sh-t? I had the impression you were backing up pictures of your kids, and funny videos. I know you get hate-filled tweets, and infuriating news stories on your phone, but I didn’t think people saved them and backed them up.
Gentlemen carry pocket knives. As a gentleman, I find peeling oranges a suitable task. Although I do actually prefer clementines.
I thought Frazz was getting close to an Arlo moment. If you peel the orange, you might eat the orange, if you eat the orange, the result in time is something that is much easier on the flushing system!
‘Gentlemen carry pocket knives.’
I really hadn’t thought of that, but yes, my dad always did, and so did my boss for the 30+ years we worked together, and that’s what he used.
“I thought Frazz was getting close to an Arlo moment”
As in the bizarre enj-
oyment to be had
in eating said orange
whilst being bad?
A few decades ago when I worked at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, there was a homeless guy who would pick through the garbage cans in the lunchroom – where school groups gathered to eat. Many schoolkids brought their lunches, but they could also buy hot dogs and burgers. I felt bad for the homeless guy until I saw what those kids threw away – perfectly good lunches with healthy fruit and other good foods. Homeless Guy would come in every day and leave with an armful of brown bags.
Chak: Presumably you still felt bad for him for being homeless, and dependent on garbage can for food? Or were you like “Man, being homeless is sweet! I wish I could get in on some of this great garbage can buffet!” ;)
Actually, all the guide-lecturers liked him. He never caused any trouble, and he was generous. He would often give the last of his food to a stray dog outside the museum. Whenever one of us would quit smoking (for some that was every other week) we’d always give him whatever cigs we had left.
No, nobody wanted to be him – he was dirty and unshaven and a little crazy. But we were all glad he had enough to eat.
A small restroom in a church had a sign by the toilet: “Do not flush anything but toilet paper down the toilet.”
Fortunately there was a trash can.
@Mark in Boston: “Anything”? Er, the people in that church were so holy that they didn’t produce bodily wastes, but they had a toilet anyway just for the fun of being able to flush unneeded/unused toilet paper? That’s a new twist on conspicious consumption.
I recall a MR. BREGER cartoon from decades back in which there’s a sign on a pole sticking up in the middle of a big lake; the sign reads “Do Not Moor Boats to This Sign,” and a couple of guys in a boat observing it ask then why the sign was needed out there in the first place. Same puzzler.
Let the record show that I had the same thought as the comment above, but refrained from posting it.
Shrug: The conspicuous consumption of toilet paper was a fun idea at first, but they soon realized the toilet wouldn’t work without the ability to flush water down it.
Shrug: That’s what the sign said. But like I said, there was a trash can. I don’t think I’m welcome in that church now.
“Don’t flush oranges down the toilet.” This is not a good thing to tell children. It might be taken to mean – it is okay to flush apples or bananas or plums or pears…. down the toilet, but not oranges (Yeah, I was that kind of kid. I never tried to flush things down the toilet, but I took – and still take – things said too literally.) They need to be told not to flush anything but (what the toilet is intended for) down the toilet.