Here's my 24-hour comic book.

I was surprised to get this email today, but in retrospect I don't know why I was so surprised:

Normally, I find your cartoons accurately portray humorous library situations. But I have to comment on your recent "hearing aid" theme. I'm surprised that you allow Dewey to show such a lack of respect towards a person with a hearing impairment. What's next? Will you have him make a similar joke about a blind person?? It's hard enough coping with hearing impairment in a hearing world. Since I have worn two hearing aids since I was 7 years old, I have encountered my share of "jokes" like the one shown in your July 2nd strip. Believe me, they are not funny when you are on the receiving end.

I agree that Dewey's rude comment yesterday, and the way he gets away with it, is inappropriate. That's why we had Tamara being so upset with him yesterday and today. Dewey is not perfect, and when his attitude goes too far we do our best to show his peers dressing him down for it. But perhaps we went a little too far ourselves, and I apologize on behalf of Gene and myself.

As for the blind, we have a blind teenage boy named Matt who makes occasional appearances. Maybe we'll have our hard-of-hearing old lady take her revenge on Dewey at some point in the future.