For years I've read the syndicated comic strip Mary Worth because I find it so incredible that something so banal exists. The strip at its core, at least how it's rendered currently, is supposed to be uplifting. Serially Mary butts into someone's life, whether it's a friend, a friend of a friend, the daughter of a friend of friend's hairdresser's cousin, or a complete stranger. She insinuates herself into this person's life under the auspice of just being concerned about that person's well-being, all the while manipulating that person into living the sort of life that Mary envisions them living. After a couple of months of hounding this poor soul, Mary moves on to her next target. She's like a pathogen, an opportunistic fungus, a brown recluse in your shoe.
There are often little things incorporated into the strip to subconsciously remind us that Mary is a saint, an angel, a truly caring spirit among us. In the last panel of this past Sunday's strip the recessed light above Mary's head gets to pull duty as a halo of sorts, hovering over her head the way that Mary hovers over her unsuspecting victims. Well played, Mary Worth. Well played.
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