Yes, she is gaslighting him, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting if you are unfamiliar with the term. Note that this kind of circular wreath can’t really be “crooked,” unless it were somehow not flush against the door.
To be clear: It’s gaslighting on two levels. First because the wreath can’t be crooked, and second because there is no bow.
I’m more inclined to the notion of an outdoor light (gaslight, altho ours have been electric, as there are no gas lines in this area) on which the bow is crooked. My question is: So why didn’t you straighten it, Janis?? Does he have to do EVERYthing?
And if the wreath hanger isn’t in the right place, a wreath CAN hang crookedly. or at least unevenly.
WW matches my reading of it.
Comments on GoComics go with both explanations . . . one mentioned that her comment is payback for his ‘buying underwear at GoodWill’ comment to her a few days ago. Could be!
I think with the addition of the “on that,” the bow is not on the wreath, but on something else. The joke is she is (deliberately or not) misinterpreting the gaslighting remark and not that she is going a deeper level with the gaslighting.
How do we know she’s not looking at a boat and saying “The bow on that [boat] is crooked too”?
I suppose then Arlo would say “I’m not fixing the bough on any tree.”
My thought is that the bow is on a gaslight – either real or an electric with that appearance and is not straight on same.
Our wreath goes on a magnetic hook using a short piece of rope that we attached to the back of it. It is our second wreath.
The first was a copy of one we saw at Colonial Williamsburg one year when we went there for the Grand Illumination. The original had fruit all around it – ours had matching plastic fruit around it. We had to put that one up on the outside of the storm door (new one fits between same & regular door) using fishing line through the wreath and tied off to the pieces that holds the glass in the storm door on the inside of it – and we are both short so it was not easy to get the line over the top of the storm door.
I live in an older suburb where originally all the houses had gaslights in the front, and many in the back as well. Bows on these are somewhat common, so I immediately assumed that’s what was meant.
Meryl A: Della Robbia wreath? Imagine how heavy they are/were with real fruit on them.
She is just messing with him by seeing how long she can keep him there “straightening” the wreath. When he finally catches on she admits to it with the comment about the non-existing bow.
Our previous residence was in a subdivision where the builder had them installed in the same spot in every front yard. They come on automatically at dusk, and I have to admit, the streets looked inviting [at night] when they were all [mostly] glowing. And yes, many of them had bows on them in this season; some straight, some crooked.
She is just messing with him by seeing how long she can keep him there “straightening” the wreath. When he finally catches on she admits to it with the comment about the non-existing bow.
I don’t think so. She would say, “the bow on it” in such a case. To me, it’s a clear reference to “gaslight”.
They come on automatically at dusk
Those are probably electric I’d think. Gas lights generally are on all the time. You’d need a spark igniter for gas.
Andréa – Sort of, not really. This had an assortment of fruit with less of them on the wreath. It was rather colorful due to various fruit. I would say that the first one is on the stairs of the Millinery shop. (Not a hat shop – milli as in thousand – a shop that carries a “thousand” things -fabrics, items for ladies and children, items from England/Scotland of course, imported items, baby layettes as we call them now, and also there were mantua makers to make ladies fine gowns – as “dresses’ were then called.
CW decorates for Christmas in what is known as Colonial revival. In period the Christmas decorations were small pieces of greens not huge arrangements of them with fruit (fruit too dear to waste). Wreaths came more into common usage in the 1800s. (A lot of our modern Christmas customs come from same.)
In the earlier years (1930s – when Colonial Revival came into being as a style) of the restoration Christmas decorating started like this and it has continued. The exhibition buildings tend to be more correctly decorated, while shops and such are more Colonial Revival. What many people do not know is that some of the buildings are lived in by employees or offices for staff and others are hotel space that one can stay in. (We stayed at the Market Square Tavern in the middle of the action for 3 nights (of a 10 night trip) for our 25th anniversary.) The employees occupying houses in the historic area are required to decorate the exterior of their houses for Christmas by the first full weekend of December (Grand Illumination is held that weekend). To encourage the employees to decorate and put effort into it there are prizes awarded for the best this and the best that of the decorations. (CW supplies the fruits, greens, nuts, etc.)
The natural fruit and such will need to be replaced over the Christmas season.
Comics I Don't Understand 
There’s a gaslight offscreen with a bow on it.
Yes, she is gaslighting him, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting if you are unfamiliar with the term. Note that this kind of circular wreath can’t really be “crooked,” unless it were somehow not flush against the door.
To be clear: It’s gaslighting on two levels. First because the wreath can’t be crooked, and second because there is no bow.
I’m more inclined to the notion of an outdoor light (gaslight, altho ours have been electric, as there are no gas lines in this area) on which the bow is crooked. My question is: So why didn’t you straighten it, Janis?? Does he have to do EVERYthing?
And if the wreath hanger isn’t in the right place, a wreath CAN hang crookedly. or at least unevenly.
WW matches my reading of it.
Comments on GoComics go with both explanations . . . one mentioned that her comment is payback for his ‘buying underwear at GoodWill’ comment to her a few days ago. Could be!
I think with the addition of the “on that,” the bow is not on the wreath, but on something else. The joke is she is (deliberately or not) misinterpreting the gaslighting remark and not that she is going a deeper level with the gaslighting.
How do we know she’s not looking at a boat and saying “The bow on that [boat] is crooked too”?
I suppose then Arlo would say “I’m not fixing the bough on any tree.”
My thought is that the bow is on a gaslight – either real or an electric with that appearance and is not straight on same.
Our wreath goes on a magnetic hook using a short piece of rope that we attached to the back of it. It is our second wreath.
The first was a copy of one we saw at Colonial Williamsburg one year when we went there for the Grand Illumination. The original had fruit all around it – ours had matching plastic fruit around it. We had to put that one up on the outside of the storm door (new one fits between same & regular door) using fishing line through the wreath and tied off to the pieces that holds the glass in the storm door on the inside of it – and we are both short so it was not easy to get the line over the top of the storm door.
I live in an older suburb where originally all the houses had gaslights in the front, and many in the back as well. Bows on these are somewhat common, so I immediately assumed that’s what was meant.
Meryl A: Della Robbia wreath? Imagine how heavy they are/were with real fruit on them.
https://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter96-97/deckthedoors.cfm
She is just messing with him by seeing how long she can keep him there “straightening” the wreath. When he finally catches on she admits to it with the comment about the non-existing bow.
Our previous residence was in a subdivision where the builder had them installed in the same spot in every front yard. They come on automatically at dusk, and I have to admit, the streets looked inviting [at night] when they were all [mostly] glowing. And yes, many of them had bows on them in this season; some straight, some crooked.
She is just messing with him by seeing how long she can keep him there “straightening” the wreath. When he finally catches on she admits to it with the comment about the non-existing bow.
I don’t think so. She would say, “the bow on it” in such a case. To me, it’s a clear reference to “gaslight”.
They come on automatically at dusk
Those are probably electric I’d think. Gas lights generally are on all the time. You’d need a spark igniter for gas.
Andréa – Sort of, not really. This had an assortment of fruit with less of them on the wreath. It was rather colorful due to various fruit. I would say that the first one is on the stairs of the Millinery shop. (Not a hat shop – milli as in thousand – a shop that carries a “thousand” things -fabrics, items for ladies and children, items from England/Scotland of course, imported items, baby layettes as we call them now, and also there were mantua makers to make ladies fine gowns – as “dresses’ were then called.
CW decorates for Christmas in what is known as Colonial revival. In period the Christmas decorations were small pieces of greens not huge arrangements of them with fruit (fruit too dear to waste). Wreaths came more into common usage in the 1800s. (A lot of our modern Christmas customs come from same.)
In the earlier years (1930s – when Colonial Revival came into being as a style) of the restoration Christmas decorating started like this and it has continued. The exhibition buildings tend to be more correctly decorated, while shops and such are more Colonial Revival. What many people do not know is that some of the buildings are lived in by employees or offices for staff and others are hotel space that one can stay in. (We stayed at the Market Square Tavern in the middle of the action for 3 nights (of a 10 night trip) for our 25th anniversary.) The employees occupying houses in the historic area are required to decorate the exterior of their houses for Christmas by the first full weekend of December (Grand Illumination is held that weekend). To encourage the employees to decorate and put effort into it there are prizes awarded for the best this and the best that of the decorations. (CW supplies the fruits, greens, nuts, etc.)
The natural fruit and such will need to be replaced over the Christmas season.