Terry wasn't the last rag to get on Marty's bad side. Due to the cotton shortage that preceded the war, the towels favored for work in the shell sector became more and more rare. Their smaller siblings stepped up to the challenge but were faced with discrimination and prejudice over their size and perceived prissy attitudes.
Marty came to loathe them over a series of incidents like the one depicted here, and though many rags were fired, Terry was to be the only one be kept around as a shell polisher sharpener cleaner intensifier finder grinder wiper. When troubled or enraged, Marty would bring out Terry's corpse to polish one object or another as a threat to the other workers. At his worst, Marty would stomp on Terry's body or take up an intimidating pose by stubbornly standing on it during conversation. Other workers and even supervisors quickly learned never to bother Marty when he was on the rag.
