0147b — Charlie Don't Cast (Patreon)

This strip began with the premise of how obnoxious the new standard of wearing earbuds everywhere is. I still feel too rude to wear them in the supermarket checkout line, though I do enjoy floating around the aisles with them in my own REM video. (Everybody Hurts, 1992.) Have you ever seen a man holding a cold can of Olipop in front of the case, quietly wracked with big feels? That was me, envisioning that same store after it's been closed, the shelving rolled out on pallet jacks, the wear patterns in the tile all that's left of a silenced civilization long since scattered from that place and time, stubborn stains from decades of dropped wine and ragu around where the bases once stood.

O, grocery store. O, AirPods. O, dwelling unprofitably on imagined oblivion. I suppose we should take this opportunity to share where we do and don't find it appropriate to stuff our ears against the threat of humanity.