I’m running late today, but I am here! The above A&J from five years ago is a good example of something I mention here rather often. Regardless of what one thinks of the joke itself, it’s a good example of the essential comic strip, one where the words and the art are equally important. Take one away, and the other doesn’t work. No less than Charles Schulz said, it is what makes a comic strip a comic strip.
461 responses to “Is there any other kind?”
Sand, glad you and Loon were not hurt! Hmmm, wonder if Mindy’s John would also have pegged you as a troublemaker? 🙂 (No, he’s more alert than that.) That’s ok, we like you…
Sand – Ain’t pony-tailed Harley shirt wearing guys always trouble, leastwise in the eyes of the law? 😉 I’m amazed at how different cops look at me since I’ve been “civilized”.
Glad you both were unscathed.
This is related to the discussion of dinosaurs from yesterday. A bit late, but I didn’t have time to look for it before.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100127-dinosaur-feathers-colors-nature/
No ponytail, sand, but now a beard. Come to think of it, though, a lot of cops I know have beards, too, so I won’t worry about that. Both seat belts in use, I assume.
Again, Lily, I can’t fault your tactical plan. And I know I don’t have to remind you about the importance of situational awareness. Although I will add…SWAT ninja say: “If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, you need to reexamine your tactics.”
GR6, we go nowhere with being buckled up. Comes from too many years working in ER and Trauma Surgery.
My mother was 4’10”. Her 4 surviving sibs [a fifth, the youngest died in a train accident long before I arrived] were only a bit taller. Dad’s family were taller, but not unusually so. Next generations were taller, likely because of more hygienic environments, fewer childhood diseases, and such. My max. ht. was a scant 5’10”. My two sons are both taller > I. Wife and her family were about average.
Should clarify, I am not the medico, the honor goes to Loon. She has the brains. I was just lucky to have taken a seat next to her in a class.
eMb, I am impressed with the longevity of your aunts – or was that a typo? Hope you don’t mind my inquiry.
I am vaguely disappointed that no one has mentioned vellum lately.
Vellum
Ah!
Debbe 😉 You’ve been quiet lately, hon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqwG_rQx7A
Vellum, vellum, vellum….
Here’s a short segment of a “Dirty Jobs” program on making vellum…
Â
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2BWc1N9Cqo
Â
Saw the full show just a few days ago rerun on Animal Planet.
Considering height, sometimes there is just an aberration. My father was 5’11”, my mother was 5’3″. Both my grandfathers were under 6 feet. My grandmothers were both under 5’5″. Paternal grandfather was 6’1″. Two sisters under 5’2″, one is 5’7″. I was once 6’8″, though spinal bone loss has me down to just under 6’7″ now. I have two daughters. One is 6′ tall, the other only 5’11. My wife is 5’8″. Apparently the variation is inheritable.
Should say paternal “great grandfather” was 6’1″. Edit would be great!
You know, on second look, I think David in Austin is right, all is not better in Gene and Mary Lou land. A closer look at Mary Lou in the first panel shows her with a not especially happy expression on her face. Annoyance simmers still.
Work has been more dramatic than I’d like lately. I have one employee who has had free reign to do as she pleased for the past several years; she’s a bit of a bully and rather. I’m slowly reeling her in, but dealing with all of her pushback flare ups is getting old. She knows how to play the system as well. Further complicating the issue is her health, a recent ER visit after a slow speed car accident has revealed some serious health issues. Add to all this a large segment of the customer base eating out of her hand and willing to cause trouble to further *her* cause, and some days I want to scream. (And did I mention her serious dislike of another employee, whose life she made miserable until I got there and put my foot down? And THIS employee just lost everything in a house fire early Monday morning. Employee A1 is currently playing nice with B2 in light of this, thankfully.)
Hey Debbe – Need some help with those augers? I will happily leave my drama for someone else for a bit (and I don’t want to pack either! Too much junk!)
*bit of a bully and rather lazy. Jeez.
c x-p: “Her 4 surviving sibs [a fifth, the youngest died in a train accident in Bay St. Louis long before I arrived] were only a bit taller.” That “surviving” meant until I was around. Mom was the oldest of 6, then a brother, an aunt, another brother, another aunt, and the youngest potential aunt, who died in the train accident. Mom survived both the aunts, but predeceased the uncles in ’71 [Ides of March, no less]. Neither of her sisters had kids, but both brothers did.
We/I have lost contact with my maternal family in LA [Monroe and Shreveport] since the mid ’70s, when they [the brothers’ children and families] stopped responding to our annual yuletide letters. They [not counting the last one, in which wife left her part unfinished] always had a common structure: I started the letter, to be sure it got started even if it arrived in the new year, then wife finished it, commonly adding something at the end reminding ourselves and everybody of the needs of “the least of these”, though not always in those words. I suspect this did not sit well with their conventional value systems and priorities. It would have been fine with the aunt that moved north, but she died in ’60 or ’61. Her husband had kids from his first wife, who had died, but I knew them only casually and my wife not at all.
I am also well Left, to my knowledge, of all of Dad’s side of the family, but we still keep in touch, some > others. Actually, the one I exchange the most email with, a niece and probably the wealthiest of us all, is a widowed libertarian. Technically, since I’m oldest, I’m the patriarch, but I don’t press that. I am, after all, the only child of “that woman that Dad married.” I think I’ve mentioned here before that my three [now deceased] half-sibs were all old enough to be my parents. My [half] nephews and nieces are all retired parents and grandparents, some widowed, others with living spice. This probably whets your genealogical appetite.
Ah, yes, Lady Mindy, the joys of management. And employees? Can’t live with them, can’t TOB-SIH.
(For those who don’t know, TOB-SIH = Take Out Back, Shoot In Head.)
I think today’s strip is reflecting the tension of Mary Lou returning to deal with Gus face-to-face and Gene doesn’t want to be in the middle. It’s going to be a long drive to the coast and I feel the most sympathy for Meg. She is young enough to enjoy the trip and won’t understand why her parents are cranky.
GR6, if Mindy from Indy’s business is a convenience store as I suspect, TOB-SIH is not a good joke. There is too much of that from the “customers” as it is.
Once upon a time, you could take such an employee and send them packing. Now with the complex mess of labor law, you might end up being the one looking for new work.
And to all a good night!
One of the things I love, love, love about my job is when the patients or their families report me to The Boss Of My Life as rude or smart-alecky, and ask her if she can’t do something about it, she always answers something like, “Yeah, I can, but I won’t.” She is rich and close to retirement, so there is not a lot they can do to her. The competition to be one of her her patients is fierce, since she is the only native born physician in our little town, so that she can be as rude as she wants. Which is not very, but she matches the patients, anyway.
Yeah, Mark, driving back to face a future filled with a butt-load of money and the freedom to live your life as you wish would be tension-filled, alright. 🙂
Besides, I think Gus has already handled Lou. All that was needed was a little stroking session.
I’ve taken some ribbing over my willingness to withhold judgment on the proclamations of scientists in certain fields. Now I’ve found reason to withhold judgment on ALL such proclamations from scientists in ALL fields:
Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice? Dr. John Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/
In the article he points out errors and biases not only in medical research but in other fields including (gasp!) physics.