Comic for Friday, May 12, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Comic for Friday, May 12, 2023

I like the tongue in cheek tone of this comic, not taking this situation too seriously, because the whole comic is unnecessary. This could have been one or two lines of dialog about Tensaided being hired, much as was done for Adrian Raven. Indeed, I am more curious about the circumstances of that; how was the animosity resolved. Did Arthur need a go between?

Business lady's face looks like a mask, but I think it's just a weird hairline.

I guess I am curious why, after reading Tensaided's history, they needed additional testing.

[Illjwamh 98]

Great, so how am I going to label this person in The Count? Mysterious Person in Black? That's way too long. Open to suggestions.

[ijuin 572]

Maybe abbreviate it to MPIB?

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

I've been waiting for years to be recruited by a shadowy organization.  Why should D-10 get picked first just because he has useful knowledge & skills?

 

[Illjwamh 98]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Maybe abbreviate it to MPIB?

Only problem with that is, if she doesn't appear for the next six years, will I remember what the hell that means?

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

We've seen unnamed agents before. But this is the first I recall with significant dialogue.

If the next arc does feature Lavender, we may see this agent identified at the office.

 

[mlooney 3,417]

8 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I guess I am curious why, after reading Tensaided's history, they needed additional testing.

Because it's a government job.  All government job's require tests.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

42 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Because it's a government job.  All government job's require tests.

Even if it is a state school, I don't think teaching there is considered to be a government job. I suppose it would be determined by other factors, such as presence of a government pension, government employee standards, regulations, and restrictions, that sort of thing. Would not be a federal position at all.

I'm not aware that professorships involve a written test; generally, there is a post graduate path through academia. Since producing new research and publishing is part of the process, being facile with the material is adequately vetted. Tendsaided is being recruited via a different route, probably more as a hired instructor than a tenure track professor. It has the flavor of a less academically stringent school, maybe a community college.

When Arthur and Sybil were discussing staff recently, some cast was omitted. Isn't the on-campus lab staff part of Arthur's staff? Perhaps they only meant investigative staff?

 

[ChronosCat 155]

It seems odd to me that Tensaided would suddenly be so calm and deadpan when he was all exited in the previous strip (and hadn't even guessed right what the Woman in Black's deal was). I mean I could see him playing along with her own deadpan delivery, but there should have been a moment of adjustment, and I would have expected a few thought balloons showing how exited and/or worried he was.

I doubt this is what Dan intended (since this is the end of this story, there's no good reason for it, and Dan didn't talk about it in the commentary), but I have a hard time not interpreting this comic as the woman using some sort of calming or mind-control magic on Tensaided.

[mlooney 3,417]

5 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I doubt this is what Dan intended (since this is the end of this story, there's no good reason for it, and Dan didn't talk about it in the commentary), but I have a hard time not interpreting this comic as the woman using some sort of calming or mind-control magic on Tensaided.

That would pretty much guarantee that she was DGB agent, not an employee of the school. 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

On 5/12/2023 at 1:44 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I've been waiting for years to be recruited by a shadowy organization.  Why should D-10 get picked first just because he has useful knowledge & skills?

Because mummies and other people covered in bandages have a lowered priority. Yes, I know this is unfair. Unfortunately the leaders of shadowy organizations tend to worry when confronted with recruits that might possibly be more ominous and/or evil than themselves.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

shadowy organizations tend to worry when confronted with recruits that might possibly be more ominous and/or evil than themselves.

Sigh.

Unleash a plague of Celtic Bagpipers on the Two Kingdoms and everyone just assumes that you are ( capital E ) Evil.

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Sigh.

Unleash a plague of Celtic Bagpipers on the Two Kingdoms and everyone just assumes that you are ( capital E ) Evil.

Well, of course they do. It sounds like the bagpipe player is beating on a sack full of cats. For all I know, he might be. Have you ever seen the insides of one of those? ( Bagpipes, not cats. I have a limited experience with the inside of a cat, in the mouth area. They don't like it when you attempt to medicate them. ( The cats, not the bagpipes. ( They do resemble an organism, don't they? Probably a kind of mollusc. From R'lyeh. ( What you're hearing as bagpipe 'music' is actually their chant, "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ( The State capital I live near is R'lyeh. They spell it Raleigh, but they're not fooling me! )))))

[mlooney 3,417]

I happen to like bagpipe music.  I'll grant that the're a bit off putting when played by an inexperienced piper

[The Old Hack 2,448]

11 hours ago, mlooney said:

I happen to like bagpipe music.  I'll grant that the're a bit off putting when played by an inexperienced piper

I once had an utterly unexpected but SUPER AWESOME experience.

I was riding my bicycle just south of the outskirts of Copenhagen and reached a fair sized hill. Then I heard bagpipe music. A lot of it and well played. As I ascended the hill I saw something like a dozen people standing at the very summit, all of them playing bagpipes. It was windy and they were all wearing what to my admittedly inexpert eyes looked like proper highland outfits. I stopped for a while to listen. The music sounded eerily beautiful and I really enjoyed it even though bagpipes are not normally my thing. I felt rather regretful when I finally set off again.

I could understand why they picked that hilltop, mind you. The view was gorgeous and it was probably one of the tallest points in that part of Denmark, which generally is more or less as flat as a pancake.

[mlooney 3,417]

Way the hell back in the day (mid 60s) Tulsa had a pipe and drum corp.  They practiced every Saturday in the park that my house's back yard backed into.  This was in a fairly well populated section of town.  I have no idea how they got permission to play there.  I suspect my love of pipes dates back to those days.