You all are giving me too much credit for thinkin’! This one is actually very literal: ever stand out in your garden and have a carpenter bee smack you in the forehead and then go about his merry way like nothing happened? Like he was just bumbling about, too absent-minded to even notice where he was going? It’s just near impossible to cheez off a carpenter bee. This strip was appreciating their cheeriness.
Gee, who’s to say the Vulture and Crow aren’t revisiting a vacation spot somewhere far away, far from the Dog and Tortoise? (Whoops, did I just say that?)
Ah, correct! The dog CAN’T read, it’s a running gag in the strip. Which is why in panel 3 he says “I only LOOK AT IT for the interesting articles..” (I realized I had to wriggle myself out of my own corner when I wrote that line!) Thanks for paying such close attention!
I used to hide behind a chair when she pulled out that creepy magic mirror