I won’t say how long ago, but two idiots, each armed with a bullhorn, decided to get into some screaming match from bedroom windows on opposite sides of our quad (with four-story dorm buildings on all sides). At three in the morning, on a weekday.
Well, then you know their opening sentence will be ‘why did you break my window!?’ and as soon as you know that, the flow of conversation will come naturally. But knocking on a DOOR? They could say ANYTHING. They could say a nonsense word like ‘kashmirga’ and you can’t be having that kind of unlimited choice in your life that you can’t be prepared for. Take control of your life and smash people’s windows instead. Never be unprepared for the conversation that follows again.
Is it actually called that? I have looked up the mainland serow but I can’t find it being referenced as that. I just took the word from a Caleb City video where it is part of the nonsense being said when the guy’s not got his glasses on.
You knock them unconscious immediately with your next rock and make their next sentence ‘Where am I? What happened? Why did you hit me with a rock?’ If they say ‘kashmirga’ again however, you have to start over with a new friend.
I mean, it’s a gag from Roomies! but Sal routinely climbed in her own window until Billie forbade it in their roommate agreement. I guess she kept honoring the clause when Becky moved in. Of course, Malaya also wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing either.
A) You’re trying to get to someone who lives in a multi-room domicile whose…
B) Housemates you don’t want to attract, or disturb, or know that you’re there at all, and….
C) Cell phones don’t exist.
It’s less nerve wracking for the same reason Sal kept biking around McNutt trying to run into Asher and why she stole a flower from the bouquet Danny was giving to her.
What you actually want to throw is stale bread rolls. Their hard enough to make an impact and get his attention but soft enough not to damage the class.
Scoop up a rock or some ice by mistake, and you’ll most likely break the window.
Disclaimer: I am from the South and have no actual proof of whether or not an icy snowball will break a window. I also hope to never be in a climate where I could figure it out, since it means that I will be spending an inordinate amount of time trying to stop the women in my life from licking anything metal because they want to know what it’s like to get stuck like that.
Nah. Ms. Abides just wants to see if it actually works (Reltzik provided a way to do that below, thanks), and Mrs. Abides . . . well, her reason is actually kinda sad, and I’m not really comfortable talking about it right now.
Not reliably so, unless you want to camp out next to the lamppost non-stop between washing and freeze and somehow account for exhaust deposits from nearby cars.
Personally if a girl did that for me I’d be won over. Back I’m the day it’s usually a romantic gesture that came from a guy but I don’t know if it would fly as not being a creeper. But really I’d love for someone to do this for me.
It’s less that it was a romantic gesture that time has changed and more like, you’re making this big, sweeping, dramatic gesture in front of someone’s house, presumably in their neighbourhood, is this actually something they’d appreciate?
‘Cause you totally can, and they totally can, but what about all those times someone did it at the wrong time to the wrong person?
Make rock throwing the entire basis for the relationship, ultimately ending in throwing rocks at the bridesmaids at the wedding, to decide who gets to throw rocks next.
Turns out the romantic fantasies Danny was trying to enact should have been 80s romantic comedies instead of superhero alter-ego drama this whole time.
@ alt text: I would assums the windows are very well shut as it is winter and there is snow outside (although I don’t remember if it has been established that Sal has lock-picking skills?)
In my experience, lock picks aren’t much use for unlocking windows from the outside. They aren’t much use for unlocking them from the inside either, but if you are inside you probably wouldn’t need them to unlock the windows anyway.
Sometimes, Sal’s emotional vulnerability is something that you only get through interpreting carefully what you see in the strip. Other times, it so fantastically obvious that you’d need to be a fool to miss it.
So, Danny or Asher’s room? I’m betting on the former.
Though she was also earlier circling Asher’s dorm on her bike hoping to run into him.
But in this case, definitely Danny. She also asked about him at the cake event for Becky’s mom. Not actually asking about him of course, just if Joe and his roommate might show up.
I know I’m going to Dehrading-the-Narrative hell, and maybe I’m just still too influenced by the time that Jeph Jacques guy fixed Joyce’s emotional-moment-on-the-toilet panels by having her fart extensively in every one, but I pictured Sal silently but ferociously letting one rip in each panel here. Seems the right mix of intimacy and determination and things-she’d-rather-have-kept-inside.
A full force head-bean will also cause Walky to assume the role of a reincarnated Shaka Zulu, and only getting conked on the coconut by Batman will fix him then.
I’m impressed with how shy Sal actually is. But it’s nice to see her decide to take action and want to go out with Danny ♡. I wonder how Danny will take it. Or how Joe will react.
Possibly the all girls Catholic school with uniforms did not prepare Sal very well for life at a Big Ten university? Speaking from a related though time distanced experience, I think this is an under appreciated factor.
I scrolled through all the comments to see if anyone made a Check Yes Juliet joke, and all I have learned is that I live in a very different part of the internet xD
Jesus, she’s got it bad for Wonderbread… I love how dorky and sweet it is! Around the time we start really enjoying the relationship is about the time Sal decides he’s cramping her style and it’s over…
CONVENTION APPEARANCES
probably not anywhere for a while 'cuz the world is covered in death
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and to think he’s on the fifth floor, too!
(j/k idk but that’s still some precision aiming)
a gentleman knocks before entering, Alt-Text
…idk about Sal, tho
She’s knocking on the window before entering. She’s just using (hopefully small) rocks to do it.
Although depending on what one is… *ahem* entering, one might prefer to “ring the doorbell” instead.
She’s doing it wrong, she’s not holding a Boom Box.
…Maybe she could find one in an antique store, shut up.
Doesn’t work in a dorm, not at this time of morning. The rest of the wing would be furious.
Yeah, harder to aim the boombox at a specific target.
. . .
Maybe you could throw the boombox.
But you could use an audio spotlight, like the ones by holosonics :p not quite the same though…
An audio spotlight is even harder to throw and hit a specific target.
I won’t say how long ago, but two idiots, each armed with a bullhorn, decided to get into some screaming match from bedroom windows on opposite sides of our quad (with four-story dorm buildings on all sides). At three in the morning, on a weekday.
The good old days!
Oh, and let’s not forget:
Boys will be boys!
They’re just letting off some steam!
And (today, decades later) campus PC is out of control!
That is grounds for murder.
Murder? What murder? These two loudmouths clearly each stabbed themselves in the back, no other possible solution.
Probably threw themselves out the window afterwards, too.
Why would she care? She’s about to commit vandelism by throwing rocks!
I choose to believe that you are replying to Regalli’s comment.
But what would she play? The kids aren’t really into Peter Gabriel anymore.
Woah! Just where did she get that alluring jacket?!?!
Shops at the same motorcycle store as Rosa Diaz?
Hey, she may have given up the bike, but that doesn’t mean she has to give up the sweet style.
a store, probably
She looks so GOOD in red. I love that she’s wearing it more.
It’s Sal. She either paid for it herself or she “stole” it.
It’s a jacket. What makes it alluring? Other than the fact Sal is wearing it I mean.
It’s a nice red jacket.
Those are cool
Isn’t that the red leather jacket she’s always had? The one Becky borrowed that one time ca. Joyce’s dorm party?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/painful-2/
No, this one is darker, with a smaller collar and a seam going up the side of the sleeves.
I don’t know, those changes could be chalked up to art style evolution too.
Art style evolution is not a thing. Comic artists just kill old characters off and sneak new replacement characters in and hope no-one notices.
Sal actually has six nigh-identical red jackets. When we see the final red jacket, the strip will end.
Okay I don’t care if you’re joking or not, as far as I’m concerned that’s canon.
@Clif: But this isn’t a strip about a quiet mill town where the population is 50% sapient AIs and 50% quirky townies (there’s some overlap)…
I guess but when other outfits show up in the new art style, they still look the same shades-and-seams wise.
Why is throwing rocks less nerve wracking than knocking on the door? Easier to pretend you’re just trying to annoy someone?
Well, then you know their opening sentence will be ‘why did you break my window!?’ and as soon as you know that, the flow of conversation will come naturally. But knocking on a DOOR? They could say ANYTHING. They could say a nonsense word like ‘kashmirga’ and you can’t be having that kind of unlimited choice in your life that you can’t be prepared for. Take control of your life and smash people’s windows instead. Never be unprepared for the conversation that follows again.
But what if you break their window, and they say “kashmirga” as their opening sentence anyway?
Kashmirga isn’t a nonsense word. A Kashmirga is a goat. It is the Nepali name for the mainland serow, Capricornis sumatraensis, also known as a Thar.
Don’t you people know how to abuse the Internet?
Is it actually called that? I have looked up the mainland serow but I can’t find it being referenced as that. I just took the word from a Caleb City video where it is part of the nonsense being said when the guy’s not got his glasses on.
“On the Internet, 110% of what you read is completely and factually correct.” –P. T. Barnum
So what you are saying is. That Clif IS the mainland serow and has been all along.
You knock them unconscious immediately with your next rock and make their next sentence ‘Where am I? What happened? Why did you hit me with a rock?’ If they say ‘kashmirga’ again however, you have to start over with a new friend.
Just panic and say: “Burma”.
This is Sal, she doesn’t like conformity.
Also a bit of a running gag from the Walkyverse; see alt-text.
I mean, it’s a gag from Roomies! but Sal routinely climbed in her own window until Billie forbade it in their roommate agreement. I guess she kept honoring the clause when Becky moved in. Of course, Malaya also wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing either.
This is why the red jacket is giving me Semme vibes.
It makes more sense when…
A) You’re trying to get to someone who lives in a multi-room domicile whose…
B) Housemates you don’t want to attract, or disturb, or know that you’re there at all, and….
C) Cell phones don’t exist.
Sal’s just a traditionalist at heart.
It’s less nerve wracking for the same reason Sal kept biking around McNutt trying to run into Asher and why she stole a flower from the bouquet Danny was giving to her.
Because normal people HATE windows.
Remember kids, “normality” is subjective!
Remember kids, “normality” is boring!
Fixed that for you.
Normal is at right angles to the current reality, it’s an engineering term.
What you actually want to throw is stale bread rolls. Their hard enough to make an impact and get his attention but soft enough not to damage the class.
Or maybe a snowball? There’s a lot to go around.
Scoop up a rock or some ice by mistake, and you’ll most likely break the window.
Disclaimer: I am from the South and have no actual proof of whether or not an icy snowball will break a window. I also hope to never be in a climate where I could figure it out, since it means that I will be spending an inordinate amount of time trying to stop the women in my life from licking anything metal because they want to know what it’s like to get stuck like that.
I’ve got a couple of questions about the women in your life.
Are they going to try it more than once?
@Delicious Taffy – feel free to ask, I’ll let you know if I can’t answer anything.
Crap, you followed up. Uh, questions, questions. Uhhhhh.
Why they lickin’ cold metal so much? Are they, y’know…[homunculus-making gestures]?
Nah. Ms. Abides just wants to see if it actually works (Reltzik provided a way to do that below, thanks), and Mrs. Abides . . . well, her reason is actually kinda sad, and I’m not really comfortable talking about it right now.
Eh, just have warm water ready to go just in case.
Just persuade them to put a spoon in a freezer for a day and then lick that. Same effect, but far easier to thaw than some unsanitary lamppost.
You never know where the spoon has been before it was put in the freezer.
But you can know if it’s been washed.
You can know the lamppost has been washed if you plan ahead.
Not reliably so, unless you want to camp out next to the lamppost non-stop between washing and freeze and somehow account for exhaust deposits from nearby cars.
Most of the time it’s fine if you’re mindful to not do that.
Wouldn’t the teacher get mad if you are throwing stuff in class?
Stay cool Sal.
When has she not?
Sal, you hopeless romantic. Next thing you know she’ll be out there blasting Peter Gabriel from a boom box.
Personally if a girl did that for me I’d be won over. Back I’m the day it’s usually a romantic gesture that came from a guy but I don’t know if it would fly as not being a creeper. But really I’d love for someone to do this for me.
It’s less that it was a romantic gesture that time has changed and more like, you’re making this big, sweeping, dramatic gesture in front of someone’s house, presumably in their neighbourhood, is this actually something they’d appreciate?
‘Cause you totally can, and they totally can, but what about all those times someone did it at the wrong time to the wrong person?
“You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?”
This sounds more like a Danny move than a Sal one.
That’s one needlessly complex booty call.
Yeah, so THIS is the arc where everyone gets laid.
Everyone?
Faz will be pleased.
Carla won’t be.
Mike will be pleasantly surprised.
Your Mom will just be surprised.
Do it this way, Sal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVv7IzEVf3M
Careful, Sal, or he might start to get the impression that you like him.
The trick to avoiding that is that when he opens the window, you just keep throwing rocks.
Throwing things at people’s heads worked for Walky
Argh, new laptop, let’s see if I can remember how I capitalized it to get Becky
Throwing a new laptop would probably break the window.
Also not good for the laptop.
Make rock throwing the entire basis for the relationship, ultimately ending in throwing rocks at the bridesmaids at the wedding, to decide who gets to throw rocks next.
In some parts of the country, getting stoned at weddings is a tradition.
AND a rock is a perfectly good mating gift. If you’re a penguin.
And if you’re human, assuming you get the right kind of rock.
She could just tell him she’s not throwing rocks at his window because she likes him or anything. Baka.
Didn’t Anybody Tell Her? Didn’t Anybody See?
Wherefore art thou, Danny-o?
(though I guess it would actually be the other way around in this case).
Nice superfluous comma, nerd!
Nah, but it’s still valid when applied to Danny. Why is he, indeed
She put on her best jacket just to see him, also oddly red really works for her.
Sounds like a romcom. He’ll love it.
Joe opens the window and gets a face of rocks.
Turns out the romantic fantasies Danny was trying to enact should have been 80s romantic comedies instead of superhero alter-ego drama this whole time.
He failed abject at the superhero romantic interest role. Let’s hope he does better with the romcom genre and makes better use of the second chance.
Danny latched onto Dorothy because his Shoujo manga would never lie to him that dating a girl in high school means you’re together forever.
He just switches genres every time he gets dumped.
As long as you don’t throw a brick at it.
@ alt text: I would assums the windows are very well shut as it is winter and there is snow outside (although I don’t remember if it has been established that Sal has lock-picking skills?)
In my experience, lock picks aren’t much use for unlocking windows from the outside. They aren’t much use for unlocking them from the inside either, but if you are inside you probably wouldn’t need them to unlock the windows anyway.
I’unno, one of the dorms I was in we kept our window open all winter because the dorm heat was… overzealous.
We also kept ice cream on the windowsill, because my minifridge froze it so hard you couldn’t get a spoon into it.
Somewhere in between, we had a comfortable climate.
She came in through the bathroom window…
The Beatles planned this decades ago….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVv7IzEVf3M
Sometimes, Sal’s emotional vulnerability is something that you only get through interpreting carefully what you see in the strip. Other times, it so fantastically obvious that you’d need to be a fool to miss it.
So, Danny or Asher’s room? I’m betting on the former.
I’m hoping Danny, I need to know what happened after she smooched him.
I’m assuming Danny’s room until proven otherwise.
Danny. She mentioned hanging around on the steps to bump into him because she was unwilling to go to his room and admit that she wanted his company.
Though she was also earlier circling Asher’s dorm on her bike hoping to run into him.
But in this case, definitely Danny. She also asked about him at the cake event for Becky’s mom. Not actually asking about him of course, just if Joe and his roommate might show up.
I know I’m going to Dehrading-the-Narrative hell, and maybe I’m just still too influenced by the time that Jeph Jacques guy fixed Joyce’s emotional-moment-on-the-toilet panels by having her fart extensively in every one, but I pictured Sal silently but ferociously letting one rip in each panel here. Seems the right mix of intimacy and determination and things-she’d-rather-have-kept-inside.
Congratulations Sal you are doing something Walky would do.
Except that her aim is probably better.
Get it? It’s because marriage is terrible.
…
Wait
I like your thinking!
And that Gravity Falls reference!
She hasn’t beaned him on the head with anything yet. Once she does, it’s all over.
Doesn’t that depend on how hard she beans him?
Lightly tossing the object at the target’s head is how they convey interest.
Chucking it full force is how they propose marriage.
It is the ancient Walkerton mating ritual.
Look, the Walkerton family crest is a knight refusing to discuss their feelings. This and the mating ritual may be linked.
A full force head-bean will also cause Walky to assume the role of a reincarnated Shaka Zulu, and only getting conked on the coconut by Batman will fix him then.
Shit, you were talking about Danny.
Actually, since King Tut (the Bat-villain) was Caucasian, it still works.
This counts as normal for Danny
I’m impressed with how shy Sal actually is. But it’s nice to see her decide to take action and want to go out with Danny ♡. I wonder how Danny will take it. Or how Joe will react.
Oh no, The Frowny Face Disease is spreading!
This is how my sister’s friends communicated with her when we were teens. They weren’t great at remembering which window was hers, though.
Did you ever go to your sister’s room going “Hey, there is a rock for you.”?
I’m pretty sure she’s allergic to doing things normally
What, you mean throwing rocks at someone’s window isn’t normal? I’m shocked.
Kinda hoping she doesn’t break a window doing this.
Is she sure, she has the right window though?
Surely the comedic point is to hit the wrong window so she’s got a large audience to her shouted dialogue with Danny?
Possibly the all girls Catholic school with uniforms did not prepare Sal very well for life at a Big Ten university? Speaking from a related though time distanced experience, I think this is an under appreciated factor.
She seems well adjusted so I often forget this aspect of her backstory.
I do think shyness is a factor though.
I dunno if she’s “shy” so much as she can’t be emotionally open to people.
Knocking on Danny’s door to say hi is an explicit admission she wants to see him, and Sal has a big problem with laying her cards on the table.
That’s also wat Roomies!Sal would do, and this isn’t Roomies!Sal.
Does Danny know she was sent to a Catholic reform school? Will his brain pop a fuse if he ever sees her wearing her old uniform?
Nah, Roomies Sal also went through the window.
Sal, no
Eh, it’s fine.
Even if she hits him in the head with a rock it’s not like she’ll damage anything important.
Even if she hits his roommate in the head with a rock it’s even less likely she will damage anything important.
Plot twist. Joyce is introducing Joe to her friend and Liz opens the window to find out what’s going on. It’s a rocky start to a beautiful friendship.
That’s why she gave him a new hat. Padding.
She naturally throws harder than Walky so she gave him the hat to adjust the intent of the Walkterton Mating Ritual to better convey her interest.
She’ll throw something real heavy if she ever wants to get serious.
note: she did shove the hat into his chest, technically an impact
Is it truly a Walkerton moment if she didn’t throw it at his head, though?
Is that why Amber and Walky didn’t work out, because they didn’t start with a yeet-cute?
Yeah same with Dorothy.
Walky stopped throwing things at her.
everyone knows danny’s head is in his heart
That was the most romantic description of ol’ Wonderbread I’ve ever seen.
That moment when one realises that we are close to september 10
I didn’t think that the big Italian Earthquake was scheduled till sometime in November.
I can’t believe it’s already been 20 years.
I scrolled through all the comments to see if anyone made a Check Yes Juliet joke, and all I have learned is that I live in a very different part of the internet xD
Combined with that moment when one realises that the buffer is close to September 10, 2022.
That was intended as a reply to pararell spade, dammit!
My Internet shows the buffer good till January 11, 2022. This is obviously the result of some sort of time travel wizardry.
I like that somehow Sal has more toxic masculinity than most of the dudes in this comic!
Don’t get me wrong, though. Still one of my favorites.
How did Gravatar know to choose the main male character with more toxic masculinity than Sal…
It’s magi, I tells ya.
Jesus, she’s got it bad for Wonderbread… I love how dorky and sweet it is! Around the time we start really enjoying the relationship is about the time Sal decides he’s cramping her style and it’s over…