Stashing the Stuffing

Frank MarianiNov 29, 2025

Drawn from scratch (1:18)

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I didn’t have the opportunity to post a cartoon about the rising cost of groceries, while citing the Trump administration’s dubious claim that the price of a Thanksgiving dinner this year was lower than last year’s. Locking up the leftovers makes the point now, I hope. There were several ancillary gag phrases available about chilled food/money storage, such as “cold cash” and “frozen assets”, but they added nothing to the cartoon.

Since reading this post by cartoonist Paul Noth about the beautiful efficiency of captionless cartoons,

Noth ThingsShhhhhhFew things make me happier than having a wordless cartoon in The New Yorker—like I do this week…Read more5 days ago · 26 likes · 9 comments · Paul Noth

my goal was to do precisely that. The closest I came was a version with one embedded word and no characters. It would look something like this:

I wasn’t confident that this alone hit the bullseye, though, even right after Thanksgiving, when leftovers are the dinner fare for several days. Why was the food locked up? Out of selfishness? Was it to deter a dieter?

It’s a good idea to let a reader earn the punchline only if there’s a momentary pause before the lightbulb turns on. The “aha” moment has to arrive quickly, or else the cartoon bogs down into an unsatisfying “I don’t get it” experience.

Reader engagement matters to me—a lot. I’m very interested in reader reactions. They motivate me to do more and do better.

POLL

Did you connect this cartoon to high grocery prices?

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I’m not going to steer you to a more detailed survey, but if you think this cartoon could be improved, let me know in a reply. I’d love to hear from you!

I see a pattern developing

In 2024, at this time of year, I was relatively new to Substack. Like most major holidays, Thanksgiving begs to be a cartoon topic. My editorials (I call ‘em Buffatorials) run on Saturdays when I’m feasting on the remains of turkey and side dishes. The stomach tells the brain what to do, and a cartoon about leftovers inevitably follows.

2024 cartoon:

Eat The Skin

Frank Mariani·November 30, 2024Read full story

If you’re still with me in 2026, expect another turkey-inspired cartoon.