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The Domesticity of Marten, Faye, Claire and Pintsize

8 (9.6%)

The Talk, Phase 2

10 (12%)

Faye meets Keeper Hannelore

6 (7.2%)

Sam: "Come on! I need your help!"

1 (1.2%)

Dora Does Guilt-Trip

24 (28.9%)

Tai has no boudaries about employees' personal lives

13 (15.7%)

Clinton and Emily's "date" (because that's still happening, AFAIK)

21 (25.3%)

Total Members Voted: 76

Voting closed: 18 Feb 2015, 08:09

[brew]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I always saw Emily's oddity being unrelated to her being Asian, rather than being a function of her being Asian. In other words, she's an oddball who happens to be Asian, not somone who happens to be an oddball because she's Asian.

I definitely don't think Jeph had bad intentions. But if the only black character just happens to be a thug type, even by accident...

[AprilArcus]

I think Jeph struggled with introducing three new characters at once when he brought the interns on board. Emily is a caricature with no personality traits besides "lol so random" and Gabby didn't even get to be a caricature before she was written out. I think Emily is mostly still in the strip because she's someone inoffensive and inconsequential for Claire to bounce off of — Tai and Claire have a more frictiony dynamic, and while I enjoy that sort of conflict, the author doesn't seem to.

ETA: Maybe I'm off base in saying this, but "lolrandom" isn't on my list of stereotypes for Asian American girls. Emily and Claire's character designs also reverse the expectation of tall trans girl / short Asian girl.

[Mr. Black Licorice]

Okay consider for a moment, You are somewhere living your daily life.   People keep coming up to you and asking a question, so you answer it.   And then more come, and more still.   All asking the same question or questions.   So after a while you make a sign with the question and the answer and hold it up next to you, yet people still ask you the question.  Over and over and over.    Everyday of your life for years.   Now you have to tell people how to read the sign less than 2 feet away from you?      Does any of that seem rational?

Welcome to retail.

Try center escalations: a whole new world of stupid.

Yes, I remember those fun days. "where is this item?" Slowly turn 90 degrees and look at the shelf immediately to my right or left. "right there?"

The worst example of that though wasn't technically retail. I lived in Ocean City, MD for many  years. For those that don't know, it's a penninsula, averaging about 2-4 blocks wide at most point. The number of people who asked me 'where's the beach?' is staggering. You can literally see the ocean 80% of the time you are out doors....

I've been to OC MD a few times... I can attest to accuracy of this statement. If you walk more than 30 minutes in OC and you don't see the Ocean, you are walking North-South and need to take a 90 degree turn.

We as a species have an overwhelming need to quantify and categorize everything and everyone. I wonder if there is some sort of biological imperative for this.

I'm sure of it. We're an intelligent species, but we are only so intelligent. We quantify, categorize, and stereo type as a means to make it easy for our monkey brains... If we have stop evolving, it's because we are too lazy to push ourselves to think bigger thoughts. God, I hope that's not true...

Sorry for the multiple edits... realized that I had three posts in a row after reading through - trying to consolidate.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

Is Emily the only Asian character?  Tai's ethnicity is ambiguous, Jeph having claimed it was "tan" when asked.  But I could imagine her being part Filipino.  And of course if you use the UK version of the term Padma was, while Amir probably is.

[eschaton]

ETA: Maybe I'm off base in saying this, but "lolrandom" isn't on my list of stereotypes for Asian American girls.

Probably not, but Japanese people in general are stereotyped as being eccentric. 

[Aziraphale]

I think Jeph struggled with introducing three new characters at once when he brought the interns on board. Emily is a caricature with no personality traits besides "lol so random" and Gabby didn't even get to be a caricature before she was written out. I think Emily is mostly still in the strip because she's someone inoffensive and inconsequential for Claire to bounce off of — Tai and Claire have a more frictiony dynamic, and while I enjoy that sort of conflict, the author doesn't seem to.

ETA: Maybe I'm off base in saying this, but "lolrandom" isn't on my list of stereotypes for Asian American girls. Emily and Claire's character designs also reverse the expectation of tall trans girl / short Asian girl.

Gabby always struck me as kind of a missed opportunity. Not sure what direction her character would've gone, but it's a shame that we'll probably never know.

And I agree with the randomness not fitting stereotypes that I'm aware of regarding (to say nothing of my experience with) Asian women, though I'll admit that I'm not a connoisseur of stereotypes.  The only thing that I have seen in terms of eccentricity might be WRT fashion, though that's also highly context-specific (what reads as eccentric or quirky to a Westerner in Massachusetts or Duluth would be right at home, one would guess, in Tokyo), and that hasn't figured into her characterization anyway. Keep the same characterization and change the ethnicity and she'd be similar to any number of women I've known in, and since, college.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

ETA: Maybe I'm off base in saying this, but "lolrandom" isn't on my list of stereotypes for Asian American girls.

Probably not, but Japanese people in general are stereotyped as being eccentric. 

What he said. Also, it doesn't matter as much that a trait be a sterotype as one would think. Outside of a work where all of the characters exist to be laughed at, it's not really kosher for your token X to be a character who exists solely for the purpose of being laughed at.

Jeph's got a lot of characters, so it's not unreasonable to expect some time to pass before any character gains depth. But it's been a lot of time for Emily, and pretty much the only thing we know about her that isn't lolwut is that she looks up to Claire. Which was the setup for a short joke.

[Aziraphale]

The one thing I do take issue with WRT Emily (and Hanners, come to think of it) is that both of them seem to have regressed. Emily started out as eccentric, but has gone almost childlike; again, regardless of ethnicity, she's lost any dimensionality that she had. I know some reeeeealy eccentric people, and they also tend to be some of the smartest people I know, even if you have to get past a layer or two of "WTF" to get there. And Hanners... I thought the space station arc -- especially

(click to show/hide)

the hug with her dad at the end

(spoilered for anyone who hasn't read that bit yet) -- showed how far she'd come as a character, but now she's just wallpaper. Adorable wallpaper, but I liked her better with some rough edges. It humanized her, whereas her current characterization infantilizes her.*

*I don't mean "humanized" in the sense that it made someone who wouldn't otherwise have been or seemed human or familiar to be more so; I mean that she seemed a more fully-realized individual instead of being relegated to foil or gag fodder.

[osaka]

That might be a screentime issue. Specially on Hanners' part. Emily has seemed to be pretty much the "lolwtfisshedoin" part of the comic outside of the mini-arcs, like when she talks to Momo or Claire comes out to her. At least to me. Even in the lakehouse party arc she mentions not having any other friends, which might very well mean that she's always been over the top weird and people didn't come near. Hanners had a long run of having a lot of time as the center of attention since she appeared on the bar and now she's gradually having less and less screentime, which I assume is what's making her a more one-dimensional character - lack of time to show other dimensions.

[bhtooefr]

The other thing is that Emily might get more screen time, as part of the date with Clinton.

[wlewisiii]

On the other hand, even Jeph admits that just because he didn't intend something be read a certain way, it doesn't mean that reading has no validity.  There are definitely issues with Emily. They reduce to the fact that she be summed up as weird and Asian.

Interesting. My adopted son is Asian, so I've had to become familiar with such issues. Yet, I never thought of Emily as other than the tall girl. I never saw any particular ethnic heritage in how she was presented by Jeph. A bit of a comic relief character but it never buzzed to me that she was Asian.

Just another alternate read.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

Emily's surname is Azuma.

That her family line, presumably, traces back to Japan is conjecture. But I think it is a reasonable one.

[hedgie]

Of course, there's no telling how long her family ties to the US go back (and this is with the assumption that her ethnic background is Japanese).  For all we know, her grandparents were put into concentration camps on the west coast during WWII, or else were east-coasters who went to fight the Nazis.  Granted, she hasn't had the most development, but what I tend to read her as a rather eccentric CS student (yes, that's probably redundant) who is of East Asian ancestry.

[Aziraphale]

Speaking of the camps, I never could figure out why Issei and Nisei on the East Coast weren't treated the same as their West Coast counterparts. I'm guessing that there was a much lower concentration on the East Coast than there was on the West Coast, but I don't seem to find as much mention of the experiences of Japanese Americans from the Eastern Seaboard in the histories I've seen (Japanese were interned in Boston and on Ellis Island, but IIRC, they were from the West Coast as well). It seems like the government was more concerned with Germans and Italians back east.

Not one of our better moments as a country, to put it mildly.

[wlewisiii]

Speaking of the camps, I never could figure out why Issei and Nisei on the East Coast weren't treated the same as their West Coast counterparts. I'm guessing that there was a much lower concentration on the East Coast than there was on the West Coast, but I don't seem to find as much mention of the experiences of Japanese Americans from the Eastern Seaboard in the histories I've seen (Japanese were interned in Boston and on Ellis Island, but IIRC, they were from the West Coast as well). It seems like the government was more concerned with Germans and Italians back east.

Not one of our better moments as a country, to put it mildly.

More value in the land to be stolen on the West coast than on the East has always been my guess.

[SubaruStephen]

Not one of our better moments as a country, to put it mildly.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

[Aziraphale]

Speaking of the camps, I never could figure out why Issei and Nisei on the East Coast weren't treated the same as their West Coast counterparts. I'm guessing that there was a much lower concentration on the East Coast than there was on the West Coast, but I don't seem to find as much mention of the experiences of Japanese Americans from the Eastern Seaboard in the histories I've seen (Japanese were interned in Boston and on Ellis Island, but IIRC, they were from the West Coast as well). It seems like the government was more concerned with Germans and Italians back east.

Not one of our better moments as a country, to put it mildly.

More value in the land to be stolen on the West coast than on the East has always been my guess.

No, they were more concerned about espionage, I think. Thing is, there was just as much strategic real estate on the East Coast as on the West (Norfolk, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, countless commercial ports, refineries, terminals, rail networks, etc.). Unless the assumption was that people on the East Coast would be less likely to report those goings-on to Japan... but given that they were, after all, part of the Axis, one would think the concern would still be there.

Not that it should've been; the 442nd was one of the most decorated units in history.

[hedgie]

I think that one of the "reasons" that Japanese-Americans were treated worse on the west coast is that if there *was* going to be an attack on US soil from Japan, that's where it'd be coming from, and "leaders" were worried about a potential fifth column.  IIRC, George Takei has a play running about his experiences as an internee. 

[Aziraphale]

"Allegiance," which I'd like to see.

The first time I heard anything about that was when I saw an exhibit at Ellis Island in 1998-99 or thereabouts... and wondered why I'd never heard of it in my high school or college history courses.

[War Sparrow]

"Allegiance," which I'd like to see.

The first time I heard anything about that was when I saw an exhibit at Ellis Island in 1998-99 or thereabouts... and wondered why I'd never heard of it in my high school or college history courses.

Every country has one..I learned all about Japanese internment camps, the Chinese head tax, and other wretched things. However, Canada is really bad for not discussing our horrible treatment of natives. It's mentioned, but heavily glossed over. It wasn't till university Political Science that I learned about the "Final Solution To the Indian Problem."

I actually have high hopes for the Emily/Clinton date. If anything, it will be entertaining.
I think university History and Sociology might be better though.

[DrClef]

There were a lot of justifications for the Japanese Internment. A lot of which get put in another light, when you consider that in Hawaii (the only state to actually GET attacked by Japan), only 1% of the Japanese-American population were imprisoned, compared to practically all of them in California.

Of course, in Hawaii, the Japanese-American population were a major part of the workforce. Interning all of them would pretty much have crippled the Hawaiian agricultural industry. And the Hawaiian internees were all community leaders and such.

It's interesting to note what happened to the entire Japanese-American culture in Hawaii as a result. It practically disappeared.

. . . all of this has little to nothing to do with the strip, so I'll end it here. Suffice to say that it's not exactly America's finest hour.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

You know, considering what I know of American history, I'm stumped as to what our finest hour could possibly have been.

We only get one, by definition. All of the contenders seem to mired in tons of really horrible stuff.

Considering all of this, I suspect our finest hour probably occurred when the majority of us were asleep.

[Aziraphale]

Well, we have a lot to live down, that's for sure. Then, too, history is complicated at least in part by the fact that it doesn't stay in the past. Our past leaves its fingerprints in the present, and on whatever we might be in the future. So either the best of which we're capable is yet to happen, or our best days exist in some pre-lapsarian past to which we have to return in order to be at our best. Looking at the big picture, I tend to fall into the former camp, since our past is too crowded with the ghosts of our wrongs to make for a desirable future. All that leaves is trying to right the past in the present in hopes of a future that lives up to something better.

Hopefully that made some kind of sense.

[Half Empty Coffee Cup]

(the only state to actually GET attacked by Japan)

Not so!

Of course, neither Hawaii nor Alaska were states at the time, anyway...

[DrClef]

(the only state to actually GET attacked by Japan)

Not so!

Of course, neither Hawaii nor Alaska were states at the time, anyway...

I stand corrected. Forgot about the Aleutians Campaign.

[DrClef]

There were a lot of justifications for the Japanese Internment. A lot of which get put in another light, when you consider that in Hawaii (the only state to actually GET attacked by Japan)*, only 1% of the Japanese-American population were imprisoned, compared to practically all of them in California.

Of course, in Hawaii, the Japanese-American population were a major part of the workforce. Interning all of them would pretty much have crippled the Hawaiian agricultural industry. And the Hawaiian internees were all community leaders and such.

It's interesting to note what happened to the entire Japanese-American culture in Hawaii as a result. It practically disappeared.

. . . all of this has little to nothing to do with the strip, so I'll end it here. Suffice to say that it's not exactly America's finest hour.

*Except Alaska.

[Dalillama]

Of course, neither Hawaii nor Alaska were states at the time, anyway...

Which makes Oregon the only actual state to be attacked. (A submarine carried a small plane off the coast; the plane then dropped a fire bomb in the Oregon rainforest, which caused a very minor forest fire)

[Is it cold in here?]

BenRG, please start a comic so I can read it every day.

[Boomslang]

Of course, neither Hawaii nor Alaska were states at the time, anyway...

Which makes Oregon the only actual state to be attacked. (A submarine carried a small plane off the coast; the plane then dropped a fire bomb in the Oregon rainforest, which caused a very minor forest fire)

As an Oregonian, that story gets very incredulous responses every time I bring it up.  Even in Oregon. Despite the articles even a cursory google search turns up.

But it's not that unreasonable- Oregon has always been a huge supplier of timber to the US. And during WW2, timber was a major strategic material. Destroying the huge quantities of pine and douglas fir flowing from the hinterlands to the shipyards in Washington and California could have made a large difference if it was successful. And it isn't as though the other major war resources, oil or steel or personnel, could have been attacked at the time.

I think, short of the capitulation of the US, the course of the war was more or less certain after Pearl Harbor, but the time frame was extremely flexible and could have swerved in either direction depending on events.

[BenRG]

I think, short of the capitulation of the US, the course of the war was more or less certain after Pearl Harbor, but the time frame was extremely flexible and could have swerved in either direction depending on events.

I don't think that the Imperial Japanese ever had any intention to invade the continental US. From the start, Yammamoto's war plan seems to have been to destroy the Pacific Fleet as an effective fighting force. He hoped that, if Japan made it impossible for the United States to project military force there, it would give up its own territorial claims in the Western Pacific (at least in the short term) and sue for peace.

That plan died with two key strategic failures:

• The failure to destroy the Pacific Fleet's carriers and shore facilities in Hawaii;
• The defeat at Midway.

Although the Japanese Navy held its own for a year or so after Midway, the failure to secure control of the Western Pacific meant that they had no choice but to continue to fight a two-front war against the US in the Pacific and British Commonwealth forces in East Asia and Oceania. This was unsustainable and it was only a matter of time before attrition and the US's industrial capacity wore down Japan's earlier strategic, technical and tactical advantages.

[Zebediah]

Off topic: I've just been over to the Subreddit. There is a long thread criticising Jeph for dissing them on Twitter and they're basically saying saying that he owes them. In fact, some are so angry that they're swearing off of QC because they can't tolerate the artist not liking their opinions. One or two are even trying to work out if a Subreddit-group boycott of QC would ruin Jeph and thus punish him for his disrespect. There was also the usual spiel about the strip having become boring.

Additionally, according to at least two posters, these forums are a moderator-heavy place dominated by sycophants where no seriously discussion of Claireten or the character of Claire is permitted. I actually consider that quite funny.

You know, until now I was only passively avoiding the QC subreddit. I wasn't in the habit of reading it, so it didn't require a conscious decision to stay away. But now I'm taking the matter into my own hands and actively, deliberately not ever going there.

You know, considering what I know of American history, I'm stumped as to what our finest hour could possibly have been.

We only get one, by definition. All of the contenders seem to mired in tons of really horrible stuff.

Considering all of this, I suspect our finest hour probably occurred when the majority of us were asleep.

A while back, somebody asked me who I thought of as an American hero. The name that immediately popped into my head was Rosa Parks. By that measure, America's finest hour was when Rosa Parks decided that she had put up with enough shit.

And yes, I know, there are megatons of horrible stuff surrounding that moment. It's heroic because of that horrible stuff.

[Omega Entity]

I think, short of the capitulation of the US, the course of the war was more or less certain after Pearl Harbor, but the time frame was extremely flexible and could have swerved in either direction depending on events.

I don't think that the Imperial Japanese ever had any intention to invade the continental US. From the start, Yammamoto's war plan seems to have been to destroy the Pacific Fleet as an effective fighting force. He hoped that, if Japan made it impossible for the United States to project military force there, it would give up its own territorial claims in the Western Pacific (at least in the short term) and sue for peace.

That plan died with two key strategic failures:

• The failure to destroy the Pacific Fleet's carriers and shore facilities in Hawaii;
• The defeat at Midway.

Although the Japanese Navy held its own for a year or so after Midway, the failure to secure control of the Western Pacific meant that they had no choice but to continue to fight a two-front war against the US in the Pacific and British Commonwealth forces in East Asia and Oceania. This was unsustainable and it was only a matter of time before attrition and the US's industrial capacity wore down Japan's earlier strategic, technical and tactical advantages.

The atom bombs also heavily factor in. I believe it was directly after the second one that they surrendered.

[Dalillama]

The atom bombs also heavily factor in. I believe it was directly after the second one that they surrendered.

The influence of the bombs is heavily overrated; the Japanese high command was already discussing surrender, but wanted terms.  Then the Soviet Army invaded and took one of the smaller islands, and they decided they'd rather surrender unconditionally (or almost; there were some provisions about the Emperor IIRC) to the U.S. than to the Soviets (which was a very good plan, based on what happened to the Eastern Bloc.)

[pwhodges]

The second bomb, at least, was certainly unnecessary.  My understanding is that it was dropped as an opportunity to test a difference in the technology.

[Aziraphale]

There will always be debate over how much the bombs factored into Japan's decision to surrender. I get the feeling, though, that their use was aimed as much at Russia as it was at Japan. That may sound like an odd assertion to make, but if you look at our firebombing campaigns (especially Tokyo, which was every bit as cruelly devastating as what was visited upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki), it was entirely possible to achieve the same ends with conventional weapons (especially given the wooden construction used so much in many Japanese towns and cities, which contributed to the fires and subsequent loss of life). Atomic weapons had the same effect regardless of the city's topography or construction.

[Kugai]

I'm just wondering how much influence the Atomic attacks may have had on Hirohito.

Remember, by the time the two attacks occurred, the Govt. was divided between the Hawks and the Doves, with the Emperor having, in the end, having the final say.  One wonders just which way things might have gone had Fat Man and Little Boy not been used and Operation Olympic had gone ahead.

[Dalillama]

There will always be debate over how much the bombs factored into Japan's decision to surrender. I get the feeling, though, that their use was aimed as much at Russia as it was at Japan. That may sound like an odd assertion to make

Not at all; it makes perfect sense.  Japan's war was pretty much over at that point, no matter what, but the Soviets were feeling very muscular, and had some festering grievances towards the U.S. regarding that whole Archangel thing.  But they were also technically on our side in that particular conflict, so it would be impolitic to threaten them outright, so we nuked Japan a couple times to show the Russkies that we could, and would, do it.

[SomeCanadianWeirdo]

Any decision made in 1945 on how to deal with Japan was certain to be awful.  In an alternate timeline the debate is probably over whether dropping an A bomb would have been a lesser evil than the Japanese famine in the winter of '45-'46.

[DSL]

Any decision made in 1945 on how to deal with Japan was certain to be awful.  In an alternate timeline the debate is probably over whether dropping an A bomb would have been a lesser evil than the Japanese famine in the winter of '45-'46.

Or the million deaths incurred in the invasion.

[Aziraphale]

Any decision made in 1945 on how to deal with Japan was certain to be awful.  In an alternate timeline the debate is probably over whether dropping an A bomb would have been a lesser evil than the Japanese famine in the winter of '45-'46.

That's the other thing that I wondered. I mean, by most accounts, Olympic (which was slated for November, 1945 if memory serves) and Coronet (set for early-to-mid 1946) were expected to have casualty counts on both sides that would've made the Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns look like dinner theater by comparison. On the other hand, the Japanese Navy was practically nonexistent, and its air force only slightly less so (with the Japanese having nothing that would've presented a serious threat to the B29 anyway -- their fighters would probably have been used for close ground operations and going for slower targets like troop and supply planes).

So the options:
1. Drop the bombs, which turned out to have been the tipping point for ending the war (though this wasn't a given at the time).
2. Invade, resulting in a bloodbath on both sides.
3. Blockade and heavy bombing campaigns, which may have produced a surrender, but at the cost of millions of civilian lives, many -- if not most -- through starvation.

The American public was severely shaken by Iwo and (especially) Okinawa; there were widespread fears among the government and military brass that the kinds of casualties suffered in the invasion of the Home Islands would tip the public decisively against the war. The second option may, therefore, have seemed less politically feasible.* The third option would have produced no guarantee of success, and would've had a human cost that could easily have been on par with the Holocaust. I don't think the dropping of the bombs was the "best" option; it may, however, have been the least terrible.

*I doubt if the effects on Japan's civilian population were given much, if any, consideration in any of these scenarios.

[wlewisiii]

The second bomb, at least, was certainly unnecessary.  My understanding is that it was dropped as an opportunity to test a difference in the technology.

It was necessary to show the dead enders in the Japanese government that we had more than one bomb. They were still willing to hunker down until the Emperor said NO only after the second bomb.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

The United States (And every other nation that's gone to war) has done far worse things than fire nuclear shots in anger.

No no nation has ever done anything as spectacular. That's why those two bombs get all the attention.

[wlewisiii]

it may, however, have been the least terrible.

This is probaby the best way to consider it. I certainly believe that it was the best possible outcome, all things considered.

Operations Olympic and Coronet were a go right up until Aug 6, 1945. As an aside, we manufactured 500,000 Purple Heart medals for the first wave of the invasion. There are still over 100,000 of them left after all the wars since.

[Mlle Germain]

Off topic: I've just been over to the Subreddit. There is a long thread criticising Jeph for dissing them on Twitter and they're basically saying saying that he owes them. In fact, some are so angry that they're swearing off of QC because they can't tolerate the artist not liking their opinions. One or two are even trying to work out if a Subreddit-group boycott of QC would ruin Jeph and thus punish him for his disrespect. There was also the usual spiel about the strip having become boring.

Additionally, according to at least two posters, these forums are a moderator-heavy place dominated by sycophants where no seriously discussion of Claireten or the character of Claire is permitted. I actually consider that quite funny.

I recently stumbled into that subreddit by accident (I don't usually read anything on reddit, but I found it when googling something QC related) and found a thread where people were saying what a toxic place the forum is (apparently citing something from that week; which I'm sure must have been deleted by mods afterwards) and how it was once nearly shut down (referring to the phase after the Marten-Dora break-up) and how it caused Jeph to stab himself in the hand that one time (I know that one is not true). And how Jeph allegedly hates the forums.
On the one hand, I found it very sad that this person had obviously not even tried to get to know the forum community, but was just eager to feel superior on Reddit. On  the other hand, seeing that thread in the same subreddit as all the ones complaining about Jeph portraying Claire "too much like a normal person" was just such a complete joke. (A bad one.)

(Just to say, the forum is one of my favourite places on the internet, because you can basically find a (usually) nuanced discussion on almost topic here, as well as tons of educational resources.)

[jwhouk]

I have refused to go on Reddit for a long time now. After hearing about all the crapola in the QC subreddit, I refuse to even consider going there.

Meanwhile, we're going to have an interesting week this next week. Jeph's gotta build up his buffer again.

[bhtooefr]

Also, Jeph has threatened to delete the forum in the past.

That past was before pwhodges took over as admin, and things were very different.

[Aziraphale]

I have refused to go on Reddit for a long time now. After hearing about all the crapola in the QC subreddit, I refuse to even consider going there.

Meanwhile, we're going to have an interesting week this next week. Jeph's gotta build up his buffer again.

I thought Jeph didn't usually work with a buffer?

[Rghfrgl]

He just does for cons and vacations, is there another con coming up?

[pwhodges]

He also built a buffer for Alice Grove before launching it.  I suspect he's been trying to get more organised in general (it occurs to me to wonder if this is partly a fall-out of his split with Cristi).

[ZoeB]

You know, considering what I know of American history, I'm stumped as to what our finest hour could possibly have been.

The Atlantic Charter.
Followed by the Marshall Plan.