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Tom Sewell

Miscellaneous Questions

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Or, questions that don't really merit a thread of their own, questions such as:

  • How can Elliot have his own car? Edward Verres had to arrange for his family to win a phony lottery for them to afford Ellen, and as Lucy pointed out, Elliot doesn't even have that summer job any more.
  • Why aren't there any servants at Susan's enormous house?
  • How come Diane and Nanase seem to drive the same Chrysler PT Cruiser?
  • How did Nanase get to Moperville North so fast in the second Goo fight?
  • Don't any of the parents other than Edward Verres have real jobs? Are their jobs simply "sitcom parent"? like the Cleavers, the Nelsons (Rick Nelson's parents), etc.?
  • Is Matt Cohen Italian? Because why else would a Lawful character be delivering Pizza when he's under-age unless it's the family business?
  • Did Matt Cohen deliver the pizza Ellen is eating in So a Date at the Mall?
  • Does Diane have a real tattoo on her right arm, or is it henna or something?
  • Why didn't "magic itself" come down on Jerry for providing all women with  the potential for summoning hammers?
  • Are Helen and Demetrius Jerry's kids? It would explain why they knew how to teach Susan how to use hammers.
  • Will we ever see Kevin?
  • Would you be willing to donate to the Fund for Nameless EGS Minor Characters? I mean, Ronin, Theater Clerk, Star Trek Fan, Screaming Girl, Bad Tom's Girlfriend, Some Other Guy...don't you feel for these lost souls?

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3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Or, questions that don't really merit a thread of their own, questions such as:

  1. How can Elliot have his own car? Edward Verres had to arrange for his family to win a phony lottery for them to afford Ellen, and as Lucy pointed out, Elliot doesn't even have that summer job any more.
  2. Why aren't there any servants at Susan's enormous house?
  3. How come Diane and Nanase seem to drive the same Chrysler PT Cruiser?
  4. How did Nanase get to Moperville North so fast in the second Goo fight?
  5. Don't any of the parents other than Edward Verres have real jobs? Are their jobs simply "sitcom parent"? like the Cleavers, the Nelsons (Rick Nelson's parents), etc.?
  6. Is Matt Cohen Italian? Because why else would a Lawful character be delivering Pizza when he's under-age unless it's the family business?
  7. Did Matt Cohen deliver the pizza Ellen is eating in So a Date at the Mall?
  8. Does Diane have a real tattoo on her right arm, or is it henna or something?
  9. Why didn't "magic itself" come down on Jerry for providing all women with  the potential for summoning hammers?
  10. Are Helen and Demetrius Jerry's kids? It would explain why they knew how to teach Susan how to use hammers.
  11. Will we ever see Kevin?
  12. Would you be willing to donate to the Fund for Nameless EGS Minor Characters? I mean, Ronin, Theater Clerk, Star Trek Fan, Screaming Girl, Bad Tom's Girlfriend, Some Other Guy...don't you feel for these lost souls?

1. Elliot could have bought his own much-used car from earnings from summer jobs. And/or it could be a hand-me-down from his parents or another relative.

2. All we know is that there were no servants shown in the evening on what was probably a weekend. There could be a couple housekeepers during the day on weekdays.

3. My guess is that Dan forgot whose car it was. Alternatively, they happen to drive similar cars that are even more similar in B&W.

4. The schools aren't necessarily all that far apart.

5. Mr. V is the only parent whose job has been relevant to the story line so far. We focus on the kids, who don't normally go to their parents' workplaces.

6. Lots of people who aren't Italian run pizza places. (One of the best pizzas I've ever had was from a small family-run Chinese restaurant - and everyone I saw working there appeared to be Chinese.) Matt isn't necessarily that strictly Lawful; he'd take a job delivering pizzas (and lie about his age to get it) because he needs the money.

7, 8. No idea.

9. Rather limited magic, fit into a joke meme, and while pretty much any woman *could*, not that many were aware of it. General capability isn't the problem, general awareness is.

10. We have no knowledge of reproduction among immortals - and only a little about immortal/human hybrids. I imagine Jerry was not at all bashful about sharing the information regarding the hammers, at least with other immortals.

11. No. His part is being played by Claude Rains.

 

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4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Why didn't "magic itself" come down on Jerry for providing all women with  the potential for summoning hammers?

Because it was a joke that Magic though was funny.

4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

How can Elliot have his own car? Edward Verres had to arrange for his family to win a phony lottery for them to afford Ellen, and as Lucy pointed out, Elliot doesn't even have that summer job any more.

Banger are cheap.

 

32 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

How come Diane and Nanase seem to drive the same Chrysler PT Cruiser?

Popular car with a class or people.

32 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

4. The schools aren't necessarily all that far apart.

There are two high schools in Tulsa that if you stand on the roof of the bigger one you can see the football stadium of the slightly smaller school.   Big thing is how their districts is laid out.  Edison goes east and north, Memorial goes west and south.  Students that live in the zone between the schools get a choice.  And it's by student, not family and the don't provide bus service for people in that area.  Actually fits North and South rather well.

 

4 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Is Matt Cohen Italian? Because why else would a Lawful character be delivering Pizza when he's under-age unless it's the family business?

TVTropes has him as possibly Jewish.  Doesn't rule out the working for a family business, the best Chicano style pizza place in Tulsa is run by a Thai family.  They have some weird pizzas, and their tween daughter runs the cash register.

 

32 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Mr. V is the only parent whose job has been relevant to the story line so far. We focus on the kids, who don't normally go to their parents' workplaces.

Not story arc important at this timel 

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3 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Or, questions that don't really merit a thread of their own, questions such as:

  • How can Elliot have his own car? Edward Verres had to arrange for his family to win a phony lottery for them to afford Ellen, and as Lucy pointed out, Elliot doesn't even have that summer job any more.
  • Why aren't there any servants at Susan's enormous house?
  • How come Diane and Nanase seem to drive the same Chrysler PT Cruiser?
  • How did Nanase get to Moperville North so fast in the second Goo fight?
  • Don't any of the parents other than Edward Verres have real jobs? Are their jobs simply "sitcom parent"? like the Cleavers, the Nelsons (Rick Nelson's parents), etc.?
  • Is Matt Cohen Italian? Because why else would a Lawful character be delivering Pizza when he's under-age unless it's the family business?
  • Did Matt Cohen deliver the pizza Ellen is eating in So a Date at the Mall?
  • Does Diane have a real tattoo on her right arm, or is it henna or something?
  • Why didn't "magic itself" come down on Jerry for providing all women with  the potential for summoning hammers?
  • Are Helen and Demetrius Jerry's kids? It would explain why they knew how to teach Susan how to use hammers.
  • Will we ever see Kevin?
  • Would you be willing to donate to the Fund for Nameless EGS Minor Characters? I mean, Ronin, Theater Clerk, Star Trek Fan, Screaming Girl, Bad Tom's Girlfriend, Some Other Guy...don't you feel for these lost souls?

1: he had the car before Sister, probably bought it cheap from someone on the neighborhood with the money he saved from the grocery store job he had the previous summer. That said, the car insurance is likely under his parent's policy.

2: Mrs Pompoms likely has someone come in once or twice a week to clean.

3: Probably just coincidence, I used to see PT Cruisers all over back when they were popular, now it seems like Dodge Grand Caravans are everywhere up here.

4:Either drove and traffic was light, or she ran, even without magic jogging from her place to Tedd's wasn't a big deal. Alternatively, her flight might be faster than jogging too.

5: Ms Dunkel seems like a stay at home mom, Mr Dunkel probably has an office job considering his proficiency with charts. We haven't really seen enough of Sarah's parents to guess what kind of jobs they have, Mama Kitsune is likely a stay at home mom as well considering Nanase believes that what her mom wants her to end up doing despite all the studying. Mr Kitsune could have an office job to, or maybe something in manufacturing. We know Justin's Uncle owns three Salty Crackers shops, we've never seen Justin's parents though. Mrs Pompoms, either doesn't have to work anymore because she  managed to get a pretty sizeable settlement from the divorce as well as child support, or she's got a job, I thing I speculated that she might be in real estate a while back though there isn't really anything that would suggest the type of career she has.

6: Maybe, dunno for certain.

7: Hard to say, probably not though, I got a feeling that the place he works at could get pizza to Charlotte's apartment in 30 minutes or less, and there are usually many pizza joints in college/university districts. At least from what I've seen in my area.

8: Probably is henna. We should have been able to see at least 1 of the bands on her arm during "So a Date". Though it's not uncommon for people that age to get tattoos.

9:Probably because he didn't tell all the women about the hammer spell, he made it available which was well within the "guide and empower" rules, but not all women would know, or even explain how they could do it if they were able to use them, considering he was 75, which would have been 133 years ago at the time Susan met Jerry, it's possible that after a brief period of use, the novelty wore off and the fact that women could summon hammers was pretty much forgotten aside for maybe finding it's way into cartoons (might have been the inspiration for the hammerspace trope). So Magic likely didn't worry about the hammers drawing attention to magic.

10: Doubt it, it's more likely Immortals are aware of what each other does, I would imagine that when Jerry made the artifact, other Immortals took notice to make sure it was within the "guide and empower" rules. So it would have likely be common knowledge.

11: We have seen Kevin. :danshiftyeyes:

12: Personally, I'd like to see the 3 college girls during one of their game nights.

 

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22 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Or, questions that don't really merit a thread of their own, questions such as:

  • Don't any of the parents other than Edward Verres have real jobs? Are their jobs simply "sitcom parent"? like the Cleavers, the Nelsons (Rick Nelson's parents), etc.?
  • Is Matt Cohen Italian? Because why else would a Lawful character be delivering Pizza when he's under-age unless it's the family business?

I'd like to note that Ozzie Nelson's job was band leader. I don't know if it ever got mentioned on the television show, but it did on the radio series that preceded it. (No, I am not old enough to remember this myself. I looked it up a few years ago.)

As for delivery jobs, the Goonish Shive universe isn't ours. Perhaps the sclerotic grip of government isn't so far advanced there as here. As an example that surprised me, in my parent's generation, country kids used to bring their shotguns to school so that they could go hunting afterward.

I learned that several years ago reading Jerry Pournelle's website. My mother was still alive at the time, and she had gone to a country school, so I asked her if it was true of her school, too. It was. Can you imagine what would happen if a kid walked in carrying a shotgun today?

When I was a little kid, seat belt use was rare. No one wore a helmet on a bicycle. Any collection of adults would be encased in a fog of cigarette smoke. Elementary school kids routinely were allowed to spend time home alone without adult supervision. A bow with real arrows was considered a fine toy for an eight-year-old. If a couple kids got in a fist fight at school, they weren't slapped with criminal charges. All of these changes happened over the course of a few years. It's completely possible for the EGS-verse to have somewhat different laws from ours.

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Well, it's explicitly canon that 17-year-olds aren't allowed to be employed as delivery drivers.

Working in a non-corporate business owned by one's parents, though, pokes a hole in a lot of those restrictions.

(I remember my first job working a cash register. In early September I had to reduce how many hours a week I worked, because I had to go attend second grade.)

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On ‎8‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 6:58 PM, Scotty said:

9:Probably because he didn't tell all the women about the hammer spell, he made it available which was well within the "guide and empower" rules, but not all women would know, or even explain how they could do it if they were able to use them, considering he was 75, which would have been 133 years ago at the time Susan met Jerry, it's possible that after a brief period of use, the novelty wore off and the fact that women could summon hammers was pretty much forgotten aside for maybe finding it's way into cartoons (might have been the inspiration for the hammerspace trope). So Magic likely didn't worry about the hammers drawing attention to magic.

Another possibility is that "Magic Itself" doesn't actually exist, Disco Wizard is being led on by somebody else, and the reason the rules of magic changed in the past is unrelated.  Seriously given that there are entire species, alien worlds, the "other side" of this one, and entire alternate universes where magic is apparently common knowledge, "Magic Itself" clearly has no such issues.  "Magic of Terran Humans On This Side of the World", maybe.

 

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59 minutes ago, malloyd said:

Another possibility is that "Magic Itself" doesn't actually exist, Disco Wizard is being led on by somebody else, and the reason the rules of magic changed in the past is unrelated.  Seriously given that there are entire species, alien worlds, the "other side" of this one, and entire alternate universes where magic is apparently common knowledge, "Magic Itself" clearly has no such issues.  "Magic of Terran Humans On This Side of the World", maybe.

Considering Pandora's reaction to Disco Wizard's mention of the system change, there's a lot of merit to what he's saying. Something more powerful than Immortals is capable of changing how magic works and has done so in the past for this half of the world.

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"Magic Itself" may not be a single unified entity for the entire multiverse, but may instead be localized to each planet/biosphere, with a separate mind/will/whatever for each. Thus, we are dealing with the "Magic" of EGS-Prime Earth, whereas say, the Alpha Earth (Lord Tedd's world) would be unaffected.

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Is Good Tom's g/f Matt Cohen's sister?

Premise is basically that Matt Cohen isn't shown having any kind of relationship with any other girl. 

Even more Sherlocking: She could be a year older than Matt, be in Rhea's college now, have met Diane through Rhea, and pass on to Matt that there's a girl who looks and sounds almost exactly the same as Susan the Hammer Queen. Also, even if she isn't in Susan's club, she thinks Susan is cool, or at least too cool for Matt.

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Is Lucy crushing on Diane?

Not a lot of positive evidence for this, but note that Lucy has never been seen with any boy, She's had many double dates with Diane--maybe the point was with Diane?

I think Lucy's only appeared in one strip without Diane, when she makes a snarky remark about Grace and gets the evil eye from Ellen.

Now, there have been some jokes about Diane being gay or maybe bi, but it has to be canon that she has absolutely no gaydar. Having her find out that both her BFFs are gay and have been crushing on her like forever would kind of fit right into the avalanche of revelations Diane has and will continue to get buried under.

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20 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Is Lucy crushing on Diane?

Not a lot of positive evidence for this, but note that Lucy has never been seen with any boy, She's had many double dates with Diane--maybe the point was with Diane?

I think Lucy's only appeared in one strip without Diane, when she makes a snarky remark about Grace and gets the evil eye from Ellen.

Now, there have been some jokes about Diane being gay or maybe bi, but it has to be canon that she has absolutely no gaydar. Having her find out that both her BFFs are gay and have been crushing on her like forever would kind of fit right into the avalanche of revelations Diane has and will continue to get buried under.

I don't think Lucy did, but Rhoda must have early on but was afraid to act on it, then she met Catalina so...

I'm actually curious as to how Diane, Lucy and Rhoda met and formed their trio.

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3 hours ago, Scotty said:

I'm actually curious as to how Diane, Lucy and Rhoda met and formed their trio.

So am I. Anyone else? I'd like to see backstories for all the ships that haven't been explained, such as:

  • Susan and Sarah (Why best buds?)
  • Noah and Melissa
  • Rich and Larry
  • Tony and Sandi
  • Tony and Ronin
  • Adrian, Edward, Noriko, and Noriko's sister (Potential for a whole prequel here)

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

So am I. Anyone else? I'd like to see backstories for all the ships that haven't been explained, such as:

  • Susan and Sarah (Why best buds?)
  • Noah and Melissa
  • Rich and Larry
  • Tony and Sandi
  • Tony and Ronin
  • Adrian, Edward, Noriko, and Noriko's sister (Potential for a whole prequel here)

 

 

Susan and Sarah went to grade school together.

No clue on Noah/Melissa or the whole previous generation thing.

Rich and Larry.  Geeks and Nerds find each other. Seen it in real life too many times to count.

Tony + Sandi.   Football player and popular girl or cheerleader.  That is damn near a given.  

Tony and "Ronin" on the same football team.

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2 hours ago, mlooney said:

Tony and "Ronin" on the same football team.

Yes, but why? "Ronin" says it's an "evil American monkey" so he's foreign. Too foreign to be just Canadian, the only other place for American-style football. What position does he play, anyway? Place kicker?

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3 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Yes, but why? "Ronin" says it's an "evil American monkey" so he's foreign.

Huh? Why does that make him foreign? It's a reference to saying "African-American" or "Mexican-American" and such phrases.

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4 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Yes, but why? "Ronin" says it's an "evil American monkey" so he's foreign. Too foreign to be just Canadian, the only other place for American-style football. What position does he play, anyway? Place kicker?

 

2 minutes ago, Matoyak said:

Huh? Why does that make him foreign? It's a reference to saying "African-American" or "Mexican-American".

Yeah, "Ronin" actually says "Monkey American", because he's trying to be politically correct after giving Tony heck for being politically incorrect.

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I always find it amusing when somebody uses an "X-American" compound to refer to somebody who has no connection to America at all--e.g. calling an African-descent person who lives in Britain and has never set foot in the USA an African-American. Sorry, no, if you're going to use such terminology, the person ought to be called African-British.

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1 hour ago, ijuin said:

...person ought to be called African-British.

In my experience, the -British overwhelms any other ethnicity a person might poses.  And yes, there are a more than a few Brits where I live.

Strangely, there was only one British style pub/restaurant in the area, the Fox and Firkin, but it closed after less than two years and was replaced by a biker bar.  Why don't people appreciate British cuisine?

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

In my experience, the -British overwhelms any other ethnicity a person might poses.  And yes, there are a more than a few Brits where I live.

Strangely, there was only one British style pub/restaurant in the area, the Fox and Firkin, but it closed after less than two years and was replaced by a biker bar.  Why don't people appreciate British cuisine?

Because most American places that sell "British" food sell early to mid 20th century British food.  Current  British cuisine has nothing to be ashamed about.  Granted it's sort of weird fusion of world cuisine now, but it's not the dreadful stuff it was say, 50 years ago.  Unless you want it that way (See, for example Richard Hammond, late of Top Gear)

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4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

In my experience, the -British overwhelms any other ethnicity a person might poses.  And yes, there are a more than a few Brits where I live.

Strangely, there was only one British style pub/restaurant in the area, the Fox and Firkin, but it closed after less than two years and was replaced by a biker bar.  Why don't people appreciate British cuisine?

The only instance of -Canadian that I'm aware of is French-Canadian. I am uncertain whether it's supposed to be belittling to Quebec residents though, Quebec's been very insistent on maintaining their cultural identity that it feels like we have to refer to them as French-Canadians.

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