Re TELEPHONE CALL: One of the many, many joys of this Doonesbury site is its assumption that we will understand (and of course possibly apply) its use of the word 'approbation.' The whole thing is a little oasis of pleasure in a frequently depressing world. More power to your elbow, GBT, and fingers crossed here in Europe for Tuesday's outcome.

This is just a note to express my eternal gratitude for making me laugh and saving my sanity throughout this ghastly election. Please keep holding people's feet to the fire. Love and thanks.

That's truly a scary commentary today. Man...Now I'm worried about Tuesday.

At the end of today's strip, the response to Leo's mother should have been: "Remember when you lost your house and had to move into this trailer?"

I wonder if there is really a humor-perceiving constituency for today's anti-Wall-Street strip. I won't trouble you explicitly with my accuracy concern because I did see the strip in the funny pages -- where editorializing is acceptable.

What an awful woman -- leaves the hospital and doesn't tell her nurse? That's not cute, it's mean!

Whoa! Waitaminute! Poor Joanie? Fragile health? Dutiful wife and mother? Who the hell are we talking about here? As a woman of Caucus years (and a Warren volunteer), I must object. Joanie is anything but poor and fragile. It's my guess she isn't a dutiful wife and mother but rather one who is a good spouse and mom due to zest, humor, and balance rather than dry duty. Were she real, I'd be buying her flowers and bringing them to the Warren campaign office for us both to enjoy. Over coffee. While making phone calls.

I sincerely hope that this is not going to be the end of the lady who hitchhiked a ride to Walden, enriched hundreds of children's lives at the nursery, entered law school, and served our nation. Please?

A predicate nominative! Oh, joy! And wouldn't it be Joanie who answers a telephone call in this old-fashioned and -- speaking strictly -- "correct" way.

Even total hip replacement patients are typically up and home within two or three days in the UK, walking with crutches. No driving, but they can be driven. Joanie attending the meeting is perfectly feasible.

Perhaps next time Joanie can get a minimally invasive anterior hip replacement. My husband had one last Thursday and was home in 23 hours. He used a cane, and we walked up and down our street. He started working at home on Saturday.

Seeing Joanie in the last panel seems, I don't know, triumphant? She has risen, sense of humor and drive and purpose intact. I think today's strip will inject a lot of enthusiasm into the Warren campaign and everyone who will vote for her. Hope so.

I hope that when we see Duke and Honey in 2013 (only a few months away!) they don't look as old as they did in the "Coming, Summer 2013!" preview strip that appeared as the 10-Years-Ago Flashback yesterday.

"People get sick." But they still have to show up for work. Even in a caring political campaign.

Today's strip has a teensy tiny typo. Instead of "they get jobs," it should say "they look for jobs."

Perhaps we are meant to infer that Joanie's trip back into the political maelstrom so soon after her surgery means she lives a "reality-based" lifestyle.

Disagree though I do with her decision to get out of bed so soon, I'd like to formally nominate Joanie Caucus for Possible Secret Identity of Superwoman.

The current Straw Poll caught my attention on two points. First was the overwhelming ratio of people who used to respect Senator John McCain. Second was the impression that people voted for what they would do, as opposed to what the Senator seems (at least to me) likely to do. Of all the depressing things I've seen happen to my former party in the last twenty years, Senator McCain's walk of shame into history is high the list.

So typical! Jeff and his dad are self-absorbed in their fussing over this comparatively trivial thing about a house and car being reposssessed, sniping about what it means to live a reality-based life, while meanwhile dutiful wife-and-mother Joanie is off having major surgery, seemingly alone except for her granddaughter. A granddaughter who has apparently permitted her grandmother to choose politics over her fragile health. Isn't there anyone in this family who is concerned about what happens to poor Joanie?

Today's strip reminded me of another instance of malingering. Years ago, when Duke was coach of the Washington Redskins, he pulled Lava-Lava Lenny because he was "playing like an old lady."