UPDATE: 3/20/12 – Due to some minor health complications (you don’t want the details, trust me) there will only be two comics this week. I should be back to normal (or as normal as I get) next week, after this round of antibiotics are done with. New cartoon tomorrow, folks, and thanks for your patience.  – Rob

OK, this is a little off topic, but it’s what was bouncing around in my head when I wrote this strip. Years of customer service training has conditioned me (like many other people) to say “thank you” when someone thanks me, like so:

• Customer: “Thank you.”
• Me: “No, thank you!”

Don’t know why I still say that instead of “you’re welcome,” but I do. Anyway, in most of the U.S. there is an awesome chicken sandwich fast food chain called Chik-fil-A (pronounced chick-fill-Ay, not chick-fill-uh). Every time I order via the drive-thru at CFA (as we “in the know” call it) and I reflexively say “thank you” instead of “you’re welcome,” the cashier always responds with “My pleasure!” Not “thank you,” but “my pleasure.” Not that this bothers me, it’s just not a phrase you hear very often or when you do hear it, it isn’t used sincerely. So, I got curious one day and as the cashier was handing me my food, I asked if they’re all told to say that. Turns out, they DO have to say it, it’s in their employee training materials and if they get caught not saying it, they can get written up. Makes me glad I am no longer in customer service, and to all of you still in it, man, you have my sympathy. I have felt your pain.

All this made me think of the poor, hapless border guard between Tarokka and Val’Dhar. Not a soul around for weeks at a time and the one time he actually has someone try to cross the border, it’s his leader’s daughter and her entourage.

Yeah, so, that’s what was in my head. 🙂

See you all next week!

~Rob