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...yes?

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No

NO!

maybe

space ham

I refuse to answer questions of morality

[Gyrre]

Well, Claire's going to have to face her exams sooner or later. Here's hoping Martin can convince her to get out of bed.


Anybody else tired of April Fool's Day "pranks" just being a bunch of people telling lies? We have enough of that already.

[Mr_Rose]

On the subject of whether simple falsehood is a “good” prank, I deeply object to the insinuation that there exists such an impossible creature as a “good prank” – explicitly setting out to harm someone is otherwise called fraud or assault depending on the nature of the harm and justifying it by claiming it was all for the amusement of yourself or others is just digging the hole deeper imho.

[Gyrre]

Swapped some things around in the poll to give the options a nicer curve, as well as adding quotation marks around "good prank".

[OldGoat]

On the subject of whether simple falsehood is a “good” prank, I deeply object to the insinuation that there exists such an impossible creature as a “good prank” – explicitly setting out to harm someone is otherwise called fraud or assault depending on the nature of the harm and justifying it by claiming it was all for the amusement of yourself or others is just digging the hole deeper imho.

If the pranked party finds it amusing as well and bellylaughs are had all around, I'd call that a good prank.  I'll grant you, many are indeed undertaken in a spirit of bullying and not good humor.  Perhaps it is that sort you're thinking of.

[cybersmurf]

Some things have to be set up by omission or bending of truths, which is okay. Flat out telling a lie is something different entirely, it always depends on what you want to do. Making the lie the punch line of your joke is probably going to backfire. There is so much that can go wrong.

A good prank works even if people know something's up.




Anyways, what do you think Claire will do with her freedom once she's passed all of her exams?

[Is it cold in here?]

A librarian I know tells me the job market in our world is grim.

I couldn't come up with a good prank this year but the comment about lying gave me an idea.

[Mr Intrepid]

Once she passes, she'll start applying to college libraries at Colleges around Northampton.   So, does she take over for someone at Williston, becoming Tai and Marten's boss.  Does she go further afield?  And might that entail moving away, and what would that portend for the strip? Or would she put her career and dreams on hold or would Marten decide his best future is at Claire's side?

[Zebediah]

College libraries aren’t Claire’s only options. There are also public libraries and school libraries.

That job market is still pretty grim, though.

[War Sparrow]

Depending on the type of library science, she could find work in IT. There's library degrees that are more "techy" than "booky", especially these days. There's librarian jobs at some government agencies that are basically database management.

[Gyrre]

Once she passes, she'll start applying to college libraries at Colleges around Northampton.   So, does she take over for someone at Williston, becoming Tai and Marten's boss.  Does she go further afield?  And might that entail moving away, and what would that portend for the strip? Or would she put her career and dreams on hold or would Marten decide his best future is at Claire's side?

Thanks to some weird EC tech experiment gone wrong, she becomes a cyber sentai and fights monstrous representions of computer viruses and hackers.

[Gyrre]

Now this is a proper prank. Even if it did backfire a bit.

[Case]

Do not forget your signal flares for your finals, kids.

[Tova]

Now this is a proper prank. Even if it did backfire a bit.

It's a rather fine example of Not Thinking Things Through, that's what it is. 

[cybersmurf]

Your lunch, should you accept it, is to fire the signal flare at the most inopportune moment possible.

[Cornelius]

If all else fails, she can use the flare to simply light the stack of handed in exams at the end.

[cybersmurf]

If all else fails, she can use the flare to simply light the stack of handed in exams at the end.

Cackling mischievously?

[BenRG]

I'm sort of disappointed that we don't get to see Marten talking Claire out of her panic attack. That said, we've already sort-of had this already and maybe there's no need to have the same strips twice. It's worth it so that we get an early view of Claire wearing her 'Lbrys R Srs Bsnss' clothes.

Bubbles is being cute to Small Friend as always. That said, I'm still trying to work out if the signal flare is an example of her taking things a bit too seriously, a subtle attempt to use humour to get Claire to acknowledge that her fears are silly or some kind of Chekhov's Gun! Her smile definitely makes me lean towards Bubbles being proud of her foresight and apparently thinking that final exams are more physically threatening than they actually are!

If all else fails, she can use the flare to simply light the stack of handed in exams at the end.

Cackling mischievously?

No, screaming: "You can't mark those! I messed up! I won't let that be my answers on the record!"

[Mr_Rose]

Chekhov’s Signal Flare! The real question is; what counts as the third act here?

That said, I'm still trying to work out if the signal flare is an example of her taking things a bit too seriously, a subtle attempt to use humour to get Claire to acknowledge that her fears are silly or some kind of Chekhov's Gun!

Yes. All three.

[traroth]

Claire will kick ass and eat snacks during her finals.

[BenRG]

College libraries aren’t Claire’s only options. There are also public libraries and school libraries.

IIRC, Claire's real interest is more in the preservation and care of ancient books. The idea of ancient knowledge in her hands seems to be something that fascinates her. So she could easily end up working for a museum archive or even a private collector who wants to keep their books in good condition.

Naturally, she would find the Ancient Cursed Tome of Forbidden Knowledge^TM or something similar.

[TheEvilDog]

Your lunch, should you accept it, is to fire the signal flare at the most inopportune moment possible.

Obviously the flare is to distract any wandering T-rexes that assault the exam hall.

[cybersmurf]

College libraries aren’t Claire’s only options. There are also public libraries and school libraries.

IIRC, Claire's real interest is more in the preservation and care of ancient books. The idea of ancient knowledge in her hands seems to be something that fascinates her. So she could easily end up working for a museum archive or even a private collector who wants to keep their books in good condition.

Naturally, she would find the Ancient Cursed Tome of Forbidden Knowledge^TM or something similar.

The Indiana Jones of library sciences?

[jwhouk]

I personally carry reflective triangles myself. Less dangerous.

[DSL]

Throw the veggies in water, use the signal flare to heat it and make soup.

Cue the fun-at-parties brigade to post walls-o'text as to why that's impossible.

[traroth]

A smoke grenade would be more useful. If ever Claire needs to sneak out...

[rtmq0227]

Her smile definitely makes me lean towards Bubbles being proud of her foresight and apparently thinking that final exams are more physically threatening than they actually are!

I'd imagine Bubbles' final exams were fairly physically threatening, clearly she still holds certain assumptions based on her own experience.

[Theta9]

Claire will kick ass and eat snacks during her finals.

Is she Squirrel Girl now?

[SeaWoodStage]

What I like most about this strip is that I honestly can't quite tell how serious Bubbles is, which speaks well for her character development over the last few years. Is it really a signal flare? Possible. Is it an emergency wrap with some light but tasty protein? Also possible.

[Zebediah]

Claire will kick ass and eat snacks during her finals.

“I’m here to kick ass and eat snacks, and I’m all out of ass!  .... Wait, that came out wrong.”

[SeaWoodStage]

I'm here to kick snacks, and eat... Lalala biscuits. Has anyone tried these things? Sailors used a basic version in the nineteenth century to stave off scurvy, and these things are great! Lembas bread, but not quite as tasty.

[Is it cold in here?]

Bubbles has shown leadership qualities before, and a former Marine told me long ago that humor was among the tools non-coms used.

[OldGoat]

Bubbles has shown leadership qualities before, and a former Marine told me long ago that humor was among the tools non-coms used.

If Bubbles wasn't a NCO she was being groomed for promotion.

[SeaWoodStage]

I'm taking that to mean that Bubbles did pack a sensible wrap with light protein! (When presented with options, I tend to go for the clean option.)

I've never been in the military or been close to anyone who was, but I suppose a certain type of joke gets very old very fast. I imagine humour is extremely important in military relationships, and it must keep evolving.

[SordidEuphemism]

I'm taking that to mean that Bubbles did pack a sensible wrap with light protein! (When presented with options, I tend to go for the clean option.)

I've never been in the military or been close to anyone who was, but I suppose a certain type of joke gets very old very fast. I imagine humour is extremely important in military relationships, and it must keep evolving.

The puns. My god. The puns. I have several relatives, including my father, in/retired from the Navy (and other, lesser armed forces) and the 'bored guy doing repetitive job keeping his mind active' leads to some of the absolutely worst, groan-worthy punning. It's a delight.

[Thrudd]

On the prank front

Didn't pull either at the office this year but was an instigator at someone else's by giving them ideas.

(click to show/hide)

Just load it as a screensaver image - best effect is on laptops

A classic - tape also works but don't use scotch since some types are a pain to remove cleanly and you will have to deal with the grumpy IT Bugbear

With respect to librarian positions

Commercial publishers also have libraries of still photos, filler stories, artwork, ad copy, various media.
Same goes for companies that work in media or marketing.
These days there are also just raw files on desktops or servers, placed in various user folders as well as the general directory where you are no supposed to save anything, that need to be moved, renamed, indexed and archived.

(click to show/hide)

Tangent

My baby sis, graphic artist [yeah-not exactly what most would call IT savvy], ended up doing this for the publisher she worked for because she was the most technically literate on staff.
She "discovered" an astounding amount of materials squirrelled away in file file folders, loose hard drives behind stacks of older magazines, shoe boxes full of negatives and more strange storage habits and media, that added up to an ungodly sum in value.
Place imploded when she left despite her having implemented a simple to use and maintain tracking database from yours truly. [freeware and I did it as a learning exercise]

I was surprised things lasted as long as they did having met the owners and a majority of the permanent staff.

On the sensible lunch option
I can never understand these diet fads and their twisting of language by marketing types
Light protein - what does that even mean?
Clean option - does that imply that contaminated lunches are standard and clean is an option?
I tried a quick lookup on healthy exam foods but the first few pages were all blogs and commercial diet sites and I don't have the energy to dig deep enough to find actual nutritional information not contaminated by pseudoscience or marketing or both.

[SeaWoodStage]

I can never understand these things either.

ETA: I suppose I'm thinking of some lean steak with some beetroot and rocket in a wrap?

And some mayonnaise or something. I mean, come on. ETA: I've gone over to chatter with my amazing sandwich recipe.

[Mr Intrepid]

 New comic up. 

[Is it cold in here?]

Classic story about exam food

[jwhouk]

Yeah, that last tar-and-feathering made national headlines. Turned out it was one of the Kennedys.

[BenRG]

Marten and Claire are very cute together aren't they? I'm pretty sure that they're in for the long run now. They've reached this level of comfortable with each other where they aren't treading on eggshells but can tease and unseriously mock without fear of offence

I'm also pretty sure that it's pretty much in-character for Marten that losing a school library book way back when has inspired him to research quantum dynamics to see if he can convince himself that a book can exist both on the shelf and with a lendee without violating some law of physics! Mr Marten Neurosis Reed, ladies and gentlemen!

[OldGoat]

I've never been in the military or been close to anyone who was, but I suppose a certain type of joke gets very old very fast. I imagine humour is extremely important in military relationships, and it must keep evolving.

In the US military a good joke or prank is nearly immortal.  There's a constant turn-over of personnel and the victim can always look forward to pulling it on some poor Sad Sack who takes their place as the newbie, so classics are constantly recycled.  For example, the Air Force and aviation branches of the other services all take fiendish delight in sending new arrivals for ten gallons of prop wash or a few hundred feet of flight line.  There's a female civilian employee at many facilities named Ms H. Wate, usually in the supply or personal equipment section.  Noobs and even others who become a little too impatient to obtain a popular given item or items of issue will be told to go to Helen Wate.

[hakko504]

Noobs and even others who become a little too impatient to obtain a popular given item or items of issue will be told to go to Helen Wate.

I assume she's a (distant) relative of Michael Hunt?

[traroth]

Is taring and feathering some kind of tradition? We don't do that on our side of the Atlantic. Well I sure heard about it in comics or western movies, but it really seems kind of unhealthy, or even deadly. Isn't the tar hot? Can such an ordeal be survived?

[BenRG]

Tarring and feathering is a traditional US means for communities to express extreme disapproval of certain individuals who have caused (or are believed to be causing or likely to cause) great harm to the community. Traditionally, it's aimed at con-artists and persistent low-level troublemakers. However, it can also be targetted at unpopular travelling preachers, vagrants and members of minorities that the community rejects.

Yes, it is dangerous and can be deadly. The tar will cause body-wide burns and people have lost large chunks of skin and been permanently scarred and crippled. Think of it as a method of lynching that is not at least intended to be lethal.

[traroth]

Ok, after a quick search, it seems that we do that on this side of the Atlantic, too. The last reported case was in Ireland in 2007...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarring_and_feathering

[Case]

Yes, it is dangerous and can be deadly. The tar will cause body-wide burns and people have lost large chunks of skin and been permanently scarred and crippled. Think of it as a method of lynching that is not at least intended to be lethal.

Nope, they used wood-tar rather than bitumen - the former is viscous at room temperatures.

[cybersmurf]

Yes, it is dangerous and can be deadly. The tar will cause body-wide burns and people have lost large chunks of skin and been permanently scarred and crippled. Think of it as a method of lynching that is not at least intended to be lethal.

Nope, they used wood-tar rather than bitumen - the former is viscous at room temperatures.

Still hurts like a bitch unless you use solvent and/or heat/warmth to remove it.

[Case]

Yes, it is dangerous and can be deadly. The tar will cause body-wide burns and people have lost large chunks of skin and been permanently scarred and crippled. Think of it as a method of lynching that is not at least intended to be lethal.

Nope, they used wood-tar rather than bitumen - the former is viscous at room temperatures.

Still hurts like a bitch unless you use solvent and/or heat/warmth to remove it.

And here I was thinking of it as harmless fun for the family ... 

[TheEvilDog]

Yes, it is dangerous and can be deadly. The tar will cause body-wide burns and people have lost large chunks of skin and been permanently scarred and crippled. Think of it as a method of lynching that is not at least intended to be lethal.

Nope, they used wood-tar rather than bitumen - the former is viscous at room temperatures.

Still hurts like a bitch unless you use solvent and/or heat/warmth to remove it.

Well yeah, it was an incredibly cruel form of punishment. It was public torture and humiliation.

[Cornelius]

Also, even when you get most of it off, it'll take weeks before it's entirely gone. Some one I know well, crewed on a traditional tall ship. Tarring the rigging is just simple upkeep and maintenance; however, tarred rigging in a hot summer means every one gets more or less tarred.