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Today's (7/7) strip was funny, but, as a long-time breadmaker, I am puzzled as to why Ellie couldn't just add the missing salt to her dough. It is only after you bake it that you can't fix it and, indeed, unsalted bread is inedible. But since she hasn't baked it yet, what's the problem?

Lois H, Ashland, OR

I just read today's strip and am practically falling out of my chair laughing. I used to work at a printing business that was next door to a pizza place. Our dumpsters were in the alley in back. I got curious one day and looked in the dumpster next to ours. If pizza dough is not used within a certain number of hours, it is thrown away. I lifted their lid and was amazed by how huge this mess of dough had gotten and how many pretty colors were forming in the mold that was beginning to grow. It was almost like a monster taking over every space it could find.

On the other hand, it annoyed me that this dough could have been used to make something edible. They could have made pre-baked crusts, frozen them, and sold them to customers to take home. Or they could have frozen it and donated the dough to schools, churches, shelters, nursing homes and such.

Sneaking out to use your own bathroom is certainly something a kid would do. You keep hitting the nail.

Mary G, Elkhorn, WI

I laughed out loud at the Sunday bread dough strip. A few years back, while "purging" my house in preparation for a move, I threw out some freezer burnt odds and ends that had been around too long in the bottom of the freezer, among them a several loaves of forgotten frozen bread dough. Later that day, I took another bag out to the garbage area back of the garage and was astonished to see, on the hot July day, an exploded bag full of rising dough oozing all over the can. The smell was incredible! Thanks for all the memories the strip evokes, not only my own, but the memories of the Pattersons "back in the day"!

Corrie M, Bowden, AB

Well, not flushing a toilet is not that bad. My husband and I consider ourselves eco-conscious and our motto is "Save Me a Flush" when it's liquid only, as in, he goes, then I go, and we flush once. We save hundreds of gallons of water per years that way!

Amy S, NJ

I have been a fan for a great number of years and have greatly enjoyed Elly's family life and watching your children grow up and leave home for the wide world. I enjoyed even the occassional sadness such as losing your mother and Farley's passing and Grandpa Jim's advancing age and the accompanying results of his more recent stroke. The stories you tell in the graphic excellence you render are a true joy to start my days and I look forward to the strip with eagernes every morning. Even your shift to earlier times was welcome and remains my most favorite of all family strips. I am a retired Forensic Artist and learned long ago of the difficulty of producing a truly high quality and always humorous daily comic strip while meeting the regularity of pressing deadlines. My most sincere congratulations on your past successes and a fervent wish for the continuation of your strip far into the distant future.

Don E, Port Townsend, WA