Darth Fluffy

Grandly missing the point

Pearls Before Swine, Thursday December 16, 2021 I could more easily see just dialog and no cartoon, the drawings look like they are shipped in from an overseas sweat shop. Kind of clever, maybe 4 stars out of five.

'Birds & Bees' Bees are extremely weird. They essentially have three sexes. A single female egg laying queen - in many species she can be capable, and kick starts the colony, but even there, once established, she turns into an egg laying machine. Male drones that contribute sperm one time that the queen then stores for the rest of her life. They do no work in the hive, they don't sting, so they can't defend, they even need assistance eating. Then they mate and die. At least in the case of honey bees, the sexual function is basically subverted; it is supposed to shuffle the gene pool, but the queen mates with siblings as the swarm from a single hive. Then there's the nominally female worker bees, that basically do everything for the hive. Again, honey bees - queens and workers come from the same female larvae. Which they become is determined by what they are fed; larvae that become queens are fed 'royal jelly' which promotes them. I have never seen a detailed write up on how this happens; but the workers are involved; the royal jelly is produced in their bodies in a fashion analogous to honey. So functionally, they are a third sex that the hive needs. It gets weirder. One distinct ingredient of royal jelly is pollen. Plant sperm is required to produce a bee queen. Oh, the workers can also lay eggs. These become drones. I do not know if only workers, not queens, can produce drones. The hive as a composite organism uses a subverted sexual process to clone itself. 'Birds & Bees' in EGS Roaisol seyunolu - bird and bee. Might well be prone to eating relatives from the bee side of the family.

NP Comic for Saturday, Jan 20, 2024 In the commentary, Ashley gets the blame, but they are both thinking about it. Should say "Of course their minds go there." Kevin states an obvious thing they've done before, and probably should have thought of. He offered a good suggestion! WoD at the bottom of the commentary is that Kevin, not Tedd, said that because sticks are easy to draw. This I can believe.

The Classics

In the earliest comics, Tedd is a horn dog and Elliot is not far behind; Sarah and her hammer are the voice of moderation. In short order, the tone of the comic changed. It came out over the years that Tedd's girlfriend, Grace, did not know what sex was; apparently all they do is cuddle. Sarah complained that Elliot took no initiative in their relationship, meaning, in context, that Elliot was not taking things further. (He did more in one scene with Nanase while they were still dating than he ever did 'on screen' with Sarah). Elliot and Ashley get into situations where they are attracted to each other, then decide to put things off. The only overt relationships that I can recall are Ellen and Nanase, and possibly Diane and Lucy (not counting older adults, such as Edward and Lavendar). That Grace and Tedd may only be cuddling might be why she is comfortable shipping Tedd and Elliot. Sarah seems conflicted that Elliot shows initiative with other people; from Elliot's perspective that 'she's like a sister', it makes sense. Justin and Luke seem to do little more than hang out in the store occasionally. They don't know each others habits yet (Luke explaining why he parked in the parking garage and walked over). Ashley doesn't seem to want her fantasies to actually happen, and is mortified when they do. If she's a good match for Elliot, it is in part because he does not seem threatening to her. She doesn't want an outlet. This whole comic feels like it needs to get laid, no? At least Adrian is getting some action every now and then.

Words matter.

The evolution of consciousness - I thought about putting this in Deep Thoughts, but I didn't. I guess I'm not a true believer.

Please elaborate.

It was Velma's expression of surprise on Scooby Doo, which was released in . . . ("Scooby Dooby Doo, when are you? . . .) 1969. (Hmm, I would have guessed around 1971.) I'd guesstimate it was used about once or twice per episode, always by Velma. I'm fairly certain the expression is much older than Scooby Doo, perhaps archaic. When I heard it on Scooby Doo, it was odd, something people don't normally say, but not entirely unfamiliar. Jinkies! Jinkies! 1930s, per those articles. Might be a regional thing. Still too modern?

NP Comic for Saturday, Jan 13, 2024 Aw, @#$%&, Oh, goody, another comic featuring Scrappy Kevin, my favorite piece of firewood stick character in the EGS comic. I need a laugh track device that I can play whenever I read his lines, to take the edge off. Someone mentioned characters that were a stand-in for Dan. Kevin. Not the only one, not even the main one, but that's really his only purpose. Gadzooks - I was guessing verb noun, but no, possessive plural noun. Also explains why you never see singular Gadzook. So, since WoD is WoG for the comic, Kevin could have said, "Danzooks" (except, presumably, Dan has never been crucified, at least not physically). Since there is no nail count involved, 'Danzook' should be sufficient. There is the answer to your 2nd panel question, Ashley. Also, Ashley, you forgot to mention to Kevin, the Stick of Instruction, that Tedd's device uses uryuom tech that is outside of his bailiwick, not that it really matters for his exposition. I think the comic is missing out by not making more use of Kevin for comedy relief. I could see this as a sub-genre, 'How can we abuse Kevin this week?' I think making use of Kevin's single outstanding physical feature, he's a stick, while he's 'sleeping' could add so much. Tedd needs to stir cake batter, Kevin is handy. Oops, Kevin has cake batter all over him, run him through the dish washer. Susan gets a puppy. Let's play Fetch! Nanase and Ellen are babysitting Akiko, and they give Kevin a makeover with pain and glitter and glue on googly eyes, so he looks more like Clippy, another beloved character from a different genre. During a camping trip, beavers abduct Kevin and he becomes a part of their dwelling. Such a delightful character.

Their basement looks finished. A finished ceiling is not typical, is usually added later, and would lower the clearance from the bare beams. If the basement with bare beams is made to stand up in, but with less emphasis on esthetics, you'd think 'over seven feet, but less than eight'. Then lop off a couple of inches for the ceiling, and a tiny bit for the flooring. Theirs may be atypical. Maybe Edward anticipated the need for more room, or wanted a basement rec room, and had it built that way. Also typically, you want to ensure your basement does not leak, so improvements beforehand are not a great idea. Spring thawing leads to excess ground water, which can seep in to a problematic basement and require remediation. You generally want to iron out these issues first. I had a friend whose dad had the contractors put pitch on the foundation, then assumed it would not leak, and it appeared he was right. Although, even then, they can leak from underneath.

NP Comic for Thursday, Jan 18, 2024 Ashley made herself tall. No one appears surprised.

Philosophy

My folks house in Pa and my grandmother's house both had basements a 6" person could stand in comfortably. I think the ceilings were a little low, but not much. Other folks homes were similar. Significantly, grandma's house was built in the 1920s, so, we're not just talking about one era. I recall our church basement, where we had Sunday school, was also tall enough for the adults, but a bit shorter than an upstairs corridor. During my short time at Wright Pat AFB in Ohio, we rented, and that house had a slab. Seems odd that far north. It was serviceable while we were there.

I'm marginally elderly, I've voted in a fair number of elections, since the early 70s, and I was aware of our leadership since Kennedy. (I recall Ike, barely, but not in terms of having an impression of him.) I can't say I know what makes a good president. On paper, Jimmy Carter looks marvelous. He's an intelligent, caring, honest man. He was not a great president. Bill Clinton had moral issues. In terms of results, he's one of the better presidents in my lifetime. Ronald Regan seemed like a good thing, deregulation sounded great. It really mucked up major segments of our national environment. What is clear is that we are no longer playing by those rules. I did not vote for John Kerry. I did not want him to win. I wanted Barrack Obama. He was good for our country. But John Kerry would have been a reasonable choice. He was not off the deep end. He had the best interests of the country in mind as he understood them. I would not want Liz Cheney to be president. But she would be a reasonable choice. Dumpster Fire is not. He is not in any sense presidential. He has more in common with that kid in New England that got busted for posting military secrets on the Internet than he does with any other president within our lifetimes. You should be concerned, Don, because he's destroying your G.O.P. Anyone there with any sense of reason no longer has a voice.

This is true.

I'm cool with it until Luke's Midichlorian count is mentioned. Use the Force, Luke!

Good point, I think they would know 'fast forward'. Lacks the visceral sound of the tape speeding up, though, probably related to why it did not occur to me.

Gesundheit!

NP Comic for Tuesday, Jan 16, 2024 "Where's the beef?" - 2nd panel, lady. In EGS logic, this kind of makes sense, although I wonder what prompted Tedd's cryptic animal form comment. Ashley is being Ashley.

Also true; consider though, that you can't receive a signal that isn't sent. I fundamentally agree with you, The Dumpster, for all his ridiculous antics and delusions of adequacy, is no where near as troubling as his numerous followers. Especially the so-called Christian Right; this man is the antithesis of what you say you believe. What the Hell are you thinking?

Yes, I believe you are correct.

Yeah, this one did not make a lot of sense. He's walking directly into them; someone is going to have to step aside. His mental 'What if' - does he do this all the time? It seems like magic is scarce enough that he should know by now he probably won't get hits. But we don't really know that, Pandora was busy for a while. If it is actually rare, why did he ever use his gift, and how did he even discover he had it? His group of friends? Does he go through this level of anxiety every time? Why is he refraining for two panels, then caving in? He should have developed a habitual reaction by now. This feels like we have a framework, and it's being twisted into a shape for when it is needed to explain something about Hope being discovered. He didn't really hang out with Justin very long, unless there was a fast forward between the last comics and this. (Do kids these days understand a VCR term, 'fast forward'? I told my kids once, "You sound like a broken record." They asked, "What's a record?")

True. But only part of what is happening. The Internet enables exchange of information. But it enables our worst impulses in that regard as well as the benevolent ones. It is a neutral medium, with a lot of potential to do a lot of damage, and we have much less ability to control and moderate it than we did with earlier media.