I liked this strip so much, about the spin we give to friends who are having a hard time, that I named one of the Bruno books after it.
An odd side-effect of writing humor, is one can get REALLY into the mechanics of it, and so the idea of mentioning unmentionable subjects at inappropriate times can sometimes fail to occur to one.
Not speaking about anyone in particular (cough)
When playing with the dreidel, if you get “gimmel,” you get everything. If you get “nun,” you get nothing. but if you get “heh,” you get half. So, he is ludicrously suggesting that the boys say “all or nothing, no half way.”
Dreams can be really screwed up. Aside from the long dream sequence, almost all of the dreams Bruno has were adapted versions of dreams I had. I’m glad re-reading this doesn’t bring back the memory of whatever the hell it was I actually dreamed.