These are perhaps semi-CIDUs. So do two semi-CIDUs make one CIDU?
Usual John sends in this puzzler: who is he hiding from, and why? Hiding the purchase from his wife? Hiding so he can avoid tipping?
Dirk the Daring sent in this Foxtrot. May 5th is World Cartoonist Day, but even cartoonists seem to have ignored it, judging by my feed. I guess it’s hard to compete with tacos and margaritas.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think the father from the Tinkertons is just trying to avoid social contact, a phenomenon known in England as “keeping house” (or so I have been led to believe).
The father in the Tinkersons ordered Uber Eats because he doesn’t want to eat what the Mom cooked for dinner, so he is trying to receive the order without anyone seeing.
I agree that it is too avoid social interaction. It reminds me of a quote from the great philosopher Maurice Moss when discussing what to do when someone knocks:
An unopened door is a happy door.
I’m not sure I buy the ‘avoiding social contact’ theory. If that were the case, why not just give his son the money and have him pay for it? Problem solved. Also, why would he call Uber Eats in the first place if social interaction was an issue for him? In fact, it seems like he’s called them before. When the kid says, ‘Dad, the Uber Eats driver is here,’ this suggests that there is a routine to be followed: driver arrives, dad pays.
I like Richard’s explanation, but there is no evidence for this unless this comic is one in a series or mum’s bad food is a running gag. Also, the father seems to be avoiding the door all together, not surreptitiously moving towards it.
However, I don’t have any suggestions at all, so what do I know?
On closer inspection, maybe he is moving towards the door. OK, I’m with RB on this.
The problem with the avoiding-payment theory is that payment is made automatically through the app. As for avoiding social contact, the dad does not seem all that antisocial, and anyway, it’s no big deal for the driver to drop food off without any contact – a frequent option since the pandemic.
I guess he could be trying to conceal it from his wife, but I don’t recall a background for that kind of behavior in the strip, although I have not been reading it all that long. Anyway, what is she to think when food mysteriously shows up?
I have not used one of the new meal services, but my impression was that any tipping was done ahead of time and they often just leave the stuff at the door rather than hang around.
I haven’t read the strip since the Post-Dispatch stopped carrying it, but the dad didn’t seem to have any particular social phobias that I recall. I lean more toward not alerting the mom.
Important context for the Tinkertons strip is that the Tinkertons mother is constantly trying to force everyone else in the family to eat unappealing “healthy” food. Them ordering pizza or other takeout on the sly is something of a running gag.
Thanks, Gnoman, I think that’s it.
Hasn’t the “ordering pizza because mother makes them eat healthy” bit been done by at least three other cartoonists? Foxtrot for sure. Zits, probably. Maybe Curtis too.
“The problem with the avoiding-payment theory is that payment is made automatically through the app.”
I pay CoD. Am I alone?
Anyway, I agree. Richard B’s initial premise and Gnoman’s knowledge of the strip has put this to bed.
But if you haven’t prepaid, then ducking the delivery person just results in you not getting the food. Which would be even less explainable.
One reason that most of the “app-driven” services insist on online prepayment is that it prevents misuse by third party scammers. There is a group of hackers that has become known for “pizza bombing”, in which multiple (unpaid) orders are sent to the victim’s house.
P.S. Some of the geezers around here may recall that Nixon’s plumbers and CREEPs employed similar tactics against some Democratic candidates in the leadup to the 1972 election.
Ah, could the family, despite their name – Tinkerton – be Italian? If so he might be hiding where he ordered the pizza from.
Husband is Italian and pizza could only be homemade or ordered from certain specific local pizza places. I (Jewish) was taught this rule when we started dating – almost 50 years ago.
Of course since we stopped ordering pizzas due to Diabetes and it is too high in carbs to eat just pizza for dinner, his new favorite pizza is a slice of same from – of all places – the food bar at the Asian buffet we go to! He says he does not where they get it – but it is as good as he remembers pizza being when he was a boy.
Okay – Costco pizza is also a pizza he likes. I guess I have rubbed off on him as much has he done so on me.
(And if you don’t think there are problems with dealing with the two different food cultures – there was the Good Friday which was also during Passover we settled on taking in Chinese for dinner – shrimp for him, chicken for me – with no rice, so I did not have to cook two different dinners.