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Just why did Bubbles have bed-head in Strip 3444?

Brun attempts to 'help' Renee in her relationship with Elliott (and with people in general)

Clinton learns that he is a straight man in this particular romantic comedy

Bubbles angst over whether she's "hiding" behind her armour

Marten tries to get Claire to relax by taking her out on a dinner date; it couldn't be more stressful!

Pintsize pours out his troubled heart at the next support group meeting (much to everyone else's distress)

Sam is still sick so Marigold has to take over her YouTube channel for a few nights

May's next probation hearing is due and she calls Momo as a character witness (!)

Hannelore and Emily's Ordinary Day At Work (as if such a thing ever happens)

Dora and Sven have to stage an intervention when their parents are arrested for DUI

Other (specify in thread)

[Tova]

Yes! I have a couple of friends who misspell my name consistently on Facebook. I have a short name as well.  I'm more bemused than annoyed, to be honest. It's actually more common from friends, who I guess "know" my name and thus don't read it,  than strangers, who probably read my name carefully when responding.

[Stoutfellow]

One of the professional organizations I belong to - and have belonged to for about thirty years - sometimes sends me e-mail about this or that. My name appears, correctly spelled, in the "To:" field. In the body of the message... well, they usually spell it right.

[Perfectly Reasonable]

So should diacritics go into the melting pot? Your name is tied up with your family history.
Losing that is a sad thing. My grandfather's name (mine now) was probably mangled at Ellis Island.

My father's eldest brother was insistent that the family be 100% American. So that side of my family history never passed down to me.

On the other hand, my mother's mother was keen on genealogy. Thanks to her, I know that her people helped to found Rhode Island (and Providence Plantations). And I can claim ancestors who were on both sides of the American Revolution.

[Sullivan]

So that's what I've been doing wrong! I don't have a closet to cry in!

[BenRG]

New Comic!

I think that the point Jeph has been trying to make in this week's strips is the degree to which Faye's own feelings of uncertainty may have been holding her back on a lot of things; her worries about starting a business being only the most immediate. I'm also glad that he spent time to show us that Faye and Dora have regained their ease with each other.

Meahwhile... I really think that Tai is taking her new keep fit regime a bit too seriously. Bubbles look of polite surprise and incomprehension in panel 4 is a real laugh-out-loud moment. She thinks that she should be upset or offended but the whole situation is far too surreal for her to feel that emotion!

Also, we see Dora returning to her accustomed role as 'token sane one' but, unusually, she's having to do this with Tai!

[oeoek]

Ag well, after going up to basecamp Dale now Mount Bubs has been conquered. Tai takes her climbing serious.
And I am sure Bubbles don't mind. Getting climbed beats a rubber mallet by far.



(yes, I'm sorry, here's this week's lunch money for the pun jar, and I'll show myself out now).

[Neko_Ali]

She was at least asked before the rubber mallet incident. Bubbles just has the most interesting times when she visits the shop.

[JimC]

So should diacritics go into the melting pot?

Your name: do what you like! But be understanding of those who don't know where to find them on their keyboards!

[brasca]

Ag well, after going up to basecamp Dale now Mount Bubs has been conquered. Tai takes her climbing serious.
And I am sure Bubbles don't mind. Getting climbed beats a rubber mallet by far.



(yes, I'm sorry, here's this week's lunch money for the pun jar, and I'll show myself out now).

Well Tai politely commanded Dale to position himself so she could climb up him.  If it bothered Bubbles she'd say no, but thinking back to her tactic to make Marten more comfortable around her she might not mind a petite woman climbing on her since it further proves she's not afraid of her. 

And we can now confirm that the customer who was flexing with Elliot is Tai, but with a new look that was never worked into the plot. 

[JoeCovenant]

Anyone ever have people spell your name wrong when they're responding to you on Facebook? Even though, you know, your name is right there? That happens to me all the time, and my name is short. Sure, there are other legit ways to spell my name, but if my name is right in front of you, maybe spell it right.

Get it in emails all the time...

Joe becomes  Jo.
REALLY grinds my gears.

I usually respond by dropping the last letter of *their* name !     
Which can be quite amusing when it ends in a consonant. 

[pwhodges]

Hodge is a not uncommon name, so I get that from time to time; any slight irritation fades within seconds - it's not worth pursuing.

[Neko_Ali]

My name is Alison. I often shorten it to Ali. People decide that's to long and shorten it to Al. 

[BenRG]

Are you really surprised? I mean, you're asking them to pronounce two whole syllables! That's far too stressful!

[shanejayell]

*hums You Can Call Me Al*

I DID giggle when I hit the bit with Tai and Bubbles. 

[anahata]

And we can now confirm that the customer who was flexing with Elliot is Tai, but with a new look that was never worked into the plot.

I was never quite sure about that either, at the time.

The funny thing is, I don't think Tai has previously made dramatic changes in her appearance (or have I forgotten something?) but it seems very much in character for her to do that sort of thing.

[wlewisiii]

Names. I tend to confuse people by prefering William over Bill but my Grandpa was Bill Jr and there were at least 4 Bills in my class in high school. Eventually I just did it to make myself be more "me".

As for what other people call me, so long as it is fit for polite company I don't mind. But if someone tried to give me a nickname like the kind that former President Bush the Lesser used for his friends, I'd not respond.

As for Tai, I remember once reading a book on climbing and one of the FAQ's in it was "Do I have to be in great shape to start climbing" and the answer was "Don't worry about it, if you climb you _will_ get in shape. "

[A small perverse otter]

Btw, help me out here: Why is mis-sexualizing a straight person (as Dora is clearly doing to Faye) NOT a horrible faux pas? Faye has never demonstrated the least interest in the ladies, and Dora knows it.

I think it's a subtle poke by Jeph at the Faye/Bubbles shippers.

IRL? Almost certainly so. I certainly got a chuckle about the harassment, and even more by Faye's "What? No!" response.

In the QC world, though, I think that the original poster is right is that Dora should be a little embarrassed for telling the joke.

First, mis-gendering/mis-sexualizing a cis-het can honestly cheapen the very real risk that non-conforming people face every day. Faye is perfectly safe as long as everybody thinks she's straight, but the "joke" is horrific to people who are afraid of being "Matt Sheparded" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard for reference. Shepard was kidnapped and murdered in a "safe college town", remember: a place very like Northampton).

And, before you point out that Dora is in a lesbian relationship, that's no excuse. Dora passes, but not everyone can. Hell, Tai can't pass! Dora should know better.

And this completely ignores the question of whether Bubbles finds the "joke" funny. We have no idea what sexuality even means to her. It certainly might not be funny to some humans -- why can Dora blithely assume that an AI won't be offended? She's treating Bubbles as a machine, not a person. No matter what else may or may not be true, *that* joke isn't funny in the QC world.

[War Sparrow]

My name is Alison. I often shorten it to Ali. People decide that's to long and shorten it to Al. 

I have a hypothesis that people are anti-end vowel. My name is short, usually misspelled, and people like to stick an r, s, or both at the end. My boss even did it.

This strip warms the cockles of my heart.

[Kugai]

Certainly gives a new meaning to Mount Bubbles   

[jwhouk]

My name is mispronounced so often that there are times where I'll just give up and let it go if it's close enough.  Most of the time it's not worth the effort.

I don't expect English-speaking people to pronounce my name correctly (that is, as a Chinese-speaker would), but it is tiresome when they can't manage the close-approximation-in-normal-English-sounds that I use myself, and insist on using German or French pronunciations that are alien to both Chinese and English.

As I have a last name that is butchered regularly, I usually ask someone how they pronounce their name, then call them that (as best I can, of course).

And I would pronounce it "Ah-KEE-mah", as I read it right now...

[Zog]

And I would pronounce it "Ah-KEE-mah", as I read it right now...

That is how I would pronounce it also. Is this incorrect?

[94ssd]

Tai appears to be missing her POW tattoo?

[pwhodges]

As I recall, Akima's forum name and avatar are is taken from the character Akima Kunimoto, a spaceship pilot in the 2000 American animated film Titan AE.  The character is voiced by Drew Barrymore.  As the name suggests, the character is Japanese, and so the pronunciation should be something like ah-kee-mah with no predominant stress on any syllable.

(Correction - I think her avatar is Dana Tan from the Batman Beyond series.)

[Skewbrow]

My name is Alison. I often shorten it to Ali. People decide that's to long and shorten it to Al. 

I have a hypothesis that people are anti-end vowel. My name is short, usually misspelled, and people like to stick an r, s, or both at the end. My boss even did it.

I'm fairly sure this depends on the native language of people. My experience is that, when turning names into nicks, English speakers have a tendency to drop vowels from the end, often with a view of reducing the number of syllables. I guess they find the resulting word less stressful to pronounce. For Fiinnish speakers it is the opposite. For ease of pronunciation a word pretty much has to end with a vowel. Those difficult to pronounce groups of consonants, on the other hand, are in dire need of simplification. If the name does not end with a vowel we add one (often adding an extra syllable as a by-product). To take a semi-universal example: 'Christ' is the basis of many first names in the christian world, producing 'Chris', 'Kris', 'Christine', 'Kristina' and what not. For Finns the end result is 'Risto'. With a syllable break between 's' and 't'.

When my first name 'Jyrki' (one of the versions of 'Georgios' mutated into while travelling from the Mediterranean up North) is nickified, the common way is to drop the 'r', and replace the ending 'i' with 'ä', to comply with the rules of vowel harmony, to produce 'Jykä' - a much easier to pronounce two syllable word.

 

[TinPenguin]

I had the misfortune to grow up in a city with a local parish pronounced the same as my last name, but spelt differently. It's a common enough name in Lancashire, but Nottingham folk just could not spell it right.

[Oenone]

IS Faye straight? For some reason I thought she was heterflexible/bi?

[JimC]

I'm fairly sure this depends on the native language of people.

More local even than that I think. If one considers the related topic of nick names then then a terminal y- Freddy, Jimmy, Smithy and the like is not uncommon in my part of Britain. But in Sydney, Aus, for example, its much more likely to be a terminal o...

[Gyrre]

So should diacritics go into the melting pot? Your name is tied up with your family history.
Losing that is a sad thing. My grandfather's name (mine now) was probably mangled at Ellis Island.

My father's eldest brother was insistent that the family be 100% American. So that side of my family history never passed down to me.

On the other hand, my mother's mother was keen on genealogy. Thanks to her, I know that her people helped to found Rhode Island (and Providence Plantations). And I can claim ancestors who were on both sides of the American Revolution.

For a great deal of familes it was WWII that caused many name changes. 'Van Braun' became 'Brown' and the USA's large amount of German heritage was collectively forgotten. A similar thing happened in Mexico as well at some point (just listen to the polka influence clearly present in a lot of traditional Mexican music).

[shanejayell]

IS Faye straight? For some reason I thought she was heterflexible/bi?

Dunno. She didn't object to Dora joking about ravishing her once...

[DSL]

IS Faye straight? For some reason I thought she was heterflexible/bi?

Dunno. She didn't object to Dora joking about ravishing her once...

Faye and Dora are friends from way back; I imagine allowances were made that would not extend to just anyone. Faye was distinctly irritated by Tai's drunken flirting, for example.

[Akima]

As I recall, Akima's forum name and avatar are is taken from the character Akima Kunimoto, a spaceship pilot in the 2000 American animated film Titan AE.  The character is voiced by Drew Barrymore.  As the name suggests, the character is Japanese, and so the pronunciation should be something like ah-kee-mah with no predominant stress on any syllable.

(Correction - I think her avatar is Dana Tan from the Batman Beyond series.)

All exactly correct, and Dana Tan makes a reasonable "cartoon me". Ellen Yin from The Batman would be another possibility. I'm seeing a common thread here...

Tai appears to be missing her POW tattoo?

I'm not sure it would be visible from our "camera angle" as she's climbing Bubbles, but it wouldn't be the first time that tattoo slipped through the art-net. Tai does seem to have lost her glasses though. Contact lenses? Radial keratotomy? Enquiring minds want to know!

[BenRG]

Official Poll Results Post!
So, Now What?

1. Brun attempts to 'help' Renee in her relationship with Elliott (and with people in general) - 21 (27.6%)
2. Bubbles angst over whether she's "hiding" behind her armour - 13 (17.1%)
3. Just why did Bubbles have bed-head in Strip 3444? - 10 (13.2%)
=4. Clinton learns that he is a straight man in this particular romantic comedy - 9 (11.8%)
=4. Hannelore and Emily's Ordinary Day At Work (as if such a thing ever happens) - 9 (11.8%)
6. May's next probation hearing is due and she calls Momo as a character witness (!) - 6 (7.9%)
=7. Marten tries to get Claire to relax by taking her out on a dinner date; it couldn't be more stressful! - 3 (3.9%)
=7. Sam is still sick so Marigold has to take over her YouTube channel for a few nights - 3 (3.9%)
9. Pintsize pours out his troubled heart at the next support group meeting (much to everyone else's distress) - 2 (2.6%)
x. Dora and Sven have to stage an intervention when their parents are arrested for DUI - 0 (0%)
x. Other (specify in thread) - 0 (0%)

The big news is... Every option was wrong! That aside, I suspect that this poll reveals that, whilst Brun and Renee generate pretty strong negative feelings in some fans, others really do enjoy their double act.

[Gyrre]

IS Faye straight? For some reason I thought she was heterflexible/bi?

Kinsey 1 or 2?
If memory serves, Kinsey 1s make up the largest percentage of the global population (~50%), with Kinsey 0s coming in second (20%~25%).

[Method of Madness]

Are there really that many Kinsey 0s? I find that to be incredibly unlikely.

[oddtail]

Are there really that many Kinsey 0s? I find that to be incredibly unlikely.

I think most people like to simplify things for themselves. "gay" and "straight" are simpler than the Kinsey scale. And there's also the fact that in a largely heteronormative society, people may not even conceive of being anything other than straight if they are in the "1" area. Which I guess would influence both their responses regarding their self-identification, and any research done on how the human population splits on the scale.

Or to put it another way - I think most people who are borderline 1 will register as 0s, both for self-identification and purposes of research.

Personal anecdote time, because it relates to the topic - I'm pretty much heterosexual. On the Kinsey scale, I think I oscillate somewhere around 1. Sometimes I think I'm closer to 0, sometimes - that I'm closer to 2. But, in practical terms, I'm pretty much straight and pretty much cis.

The only reason I think of myself as bi is that I'm a furry. To avoid TMI-ing anyone, I'll just say that with (mostly online) interactions with furries, I've been less straight than I normally am. I've had same-sex crushes, at the very least. There's also the fact that furs tend to be more open about sexuality, so that invites questioning phases in one's life.

And I'm not a rare exception. I've met MANY men (surprisingly many) who say that they are pretty much 100% straight in their everyday life, even after being introduced to the furry fandom, but somehow lean strongly towards bisexual "as" furries. Those people are very obviously 1s, sometimes 2s on the Kinsey scale. But if they hadn't been exposed to a certain community, they'd act, think and self-identify as pretty much 0s.

I don't know how it is with people who are not into weird hobbies/subcultures, but I'd imagine most people who are 1s will never indicate in any measurable way that they are. They will just default to 0s.

Personally, I think there are *very* few people who are actually 0s or 6s on the Kinsey scale, but they will be overrepresented in any measures taken to count them. Because that's how we work as humans.

EDIT: when I was typing up this post, my wife pointed out that the Kinsey scale is very... vague. To quote her "if a woman is straight but sometimes looks at another woman and goes 'niiiiiice legs', is she a 0 or a 1? It's hard to tell".

[Is it cold in here?]

It could be defined behaviorally ...

[sitnspin]

Or, you know, we could trust people and respect how they self identify without calling it into question.

[Gyrre]

Are there really that many Kinsey 0s? I find that to be incredibly unlikely.

That's why I prefaced it with "if memory serves".

I know our estimate outnumbers that for Kinsey 6s 2:1, hetersexuals make up the bulk of the population, and that getting a good estimate for Kinsey 1s is difficult because they tend to be super insecure in their sexuality (especially American males).

It's been 6 years since I took Sociology and 7 years since Developmental Psychology. I've got all my notes in a box in storage.... at the bottom of the closet.


BTW, apologies if my original question seemed rude. I haven't been getting enough sleep lately.



@ Sitnspin: But science. 

EDIT: Clarifying the last bit was meant as a joke.

Mod edit: Fixed broken tag.

[Thrillho]

@ Sitnspin: But science.

I'm hoping this is a joke...

[Gyrre]

@ Sitnspin: But science.

I'm hoping this is a joke...

It is.