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New game! BOLTED 
Barb O. Saur 
I’d be amazed if they can even see the playing field
just bleachers, as far as the eye can see
Having occupied many, many nosebleed seats, I can tell you, the view is quite good. You get a big-picture view of the game that TV just cannot match.
Unless your view is obstructed by a pillar or column or something.
Which I have also experienced.
Yeah, I figure there’s a reason it’s cool to be in a skybox.
I mean, they seem to be behind active spotlights, for one thing, can’t be TOO cool
Honestly, 10/10 planning.
In different sections of a large arena with thousands of people between you is exactly the correct way to socialize with Linda and Charles Walkerton. Perhaps come summer they can vacation together on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon.
Better yet. They can go to the beach. The beach beside the Atlantic Ocean.
The parents can try out the Canary Islands, or maybe the beaches of Spain. The kids can take the cheaper route, and hit up the east coast of Florida or the Carolinas.
On second thought, the elder Walkertons would never visit Spain, the Canary Islands, or likely Florida, for that matter.
Too many people speaking Spanish for their liking.
If you get to the right spanish island, people will ben speaking english or german.
Honestly this is so real, that’s why I didn’t take my mom to a homecoming game until after I had graduated so we would be able to sit together.
Love the way Willis included a couple of birds. There are always birds that get in somehow and end up trapped and roosting in the very upper reaches of the rafters. We even had a couple in the warehouse-style grocery store I used to work at.
The birds, always ready and willing to start stealing fries and hot dogs!
I’m glad I was fully into band by the time I hit high school and my big growth spurts, because being pushed into basketball in middle school for being juuust a little taller was hell enough.
God, the United States fucking sucks.
I guarantee you if Sal had showed up with Danny or Walky had a white girl with him Linda would have paid for the kids’ seats, too. There’s a lot to unpack in today’s strip.
I don’t think they’ve interacted with Walky’s parents yet today. On the last strip, Walky said he had a *lead* on where they are. I don’t think they even know he’s here.
That’s fair, but Walky actually said he had a fix on their location, and their appearance at the first floor of the dorm to meet Sal makes me think the game was a pre-determined meet-up.
Linda’s also so horrible that I just immediately leap to the worse action she could take and wait to be surprised.
Given how much Linda loves to call in her Dean favors like she did with Dorothy on parents day, I suspect she could have gotten everyone a ticket upgrade last minute if one of her kids was dating someone she wanted to put the best foot forward for. Last time she was able to get everyone vip room football seats very last minute. My read is that with Sall out and Walky confirmed to bring Lucy, Linda doesn’t think this event is worth making any effort for.
I can honestly say that I’ve never watched a basketball game without twenty-five pounds of metal on my shoulder.
Brass section represent. One of my biggest regrets was not transcribing Guile’s Theme into a stand tune.
I usually put the camera on a tripod when they weigh that much…
I played trombone… until I discovered I couldn’t read music!
Seconded.
Not an exclusively American thing. I was your quintessential lanky-ass “walking up the stairs gets me wheezing” nerd type, but I was automatically put on the basketball team because I was >6ft
I’m a big tall guy so I did some rec basketball growing up but I’m slow, lazy and have asthma. And I grew up at 6-7000 feet so any asthma issues get exacerbated by the thin air. In baseball I was in the far outfield, in soccer I picked dandelions while the team’s main strategy was “play good enough the ball doesn’t get back to him”. High school included a disappointed football coach.
These days my hobbies include impersonating a fridge and accidentally looming. Got rear-ended once and as soon as I unfolded myself out of the car the guy was apologizing like crazy. Like many large people like that I’d be crying my eyes out if I ever so much as injured a butterfly.
Nose bleeds? From horniness? Or refernce to Get Out?
Nose bleeds is slang from way back seats
It is possible to get nosebleeds from a change in attitude. The attitude change from the floor to the highest seats in a typical stadium is nowhere near enough to give nosebleeds, but we are a people that are fond of our little exaggerations.
altitude – height
I swear attitude is what I typed.
Altitude. Though I see what’s happening this time.
I kind of like the idea of the attitude changing from the expensive floor seats to the cheap nose blood ones.
Nosebleed seats is a reference to the highest seats up in a stadium. They’re caused that because they are SO high up that the difference in air pressure CAN cause one to be more prone to something like a nosebleed.
I can’t tell if you’re actually asking or just making a joke, so just in case, the highest seats in a stadium are often referred to as nosebleed seats because of the altitude
Eh, it’s not that weird these days for someone to just not go to big sporting events or arena concerts and not be familiar with the lingo.
I mean it’s not like learned that term from going to arenas or sporting events either. Just sorta heard it in passing, most likely through tv.
I call that cultural osmosis. I’m probably not the first to think of that, tho.
Oh hey, I call it that too! I’ve never seen anyone else use the phrase.
Yeah I’ve seen it around a lot, been around for a while. Which is good, it’s a useful term
That is how I typically think of it. I guess I acquired the term “cultural osmosis” through cultural osmosis.
Not an expert, but in academic circles I believe that there is a distinction between social osmosis that takes place within a society and cultural osmosis that takes place between cultures. Not that I’ve ever seen a formal definition to that effect. Let’s see if Google can pull up a quick example. Here we are: https://abhinav001.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/cultural-osmosis/
Yee, i am definitely not at all into sports unless you count esports and/or game speedrunning marathons
Thank you all for filling me in
“unless you count esports and/or game speedrunning marathons”
Which are not sports, by any stretch of the imagination (even if esports grandiosely has the word “sports” right there in it), so no, they don’t count.
Not claiming they are (or should be considered) sports, but… well, if pedantry’s acceptable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports includes a number of other things (the entire “motorsports” section, for example) that require levels of physical exertion comparable to speedrunning or esports.
The “mind sports” category, which includes esports, says “Requiring little or no physical exertion or agility, mind sports are often not considered true sports”, but much the same could be said of driving.
Really, though, does it really matter what we call it? For what it’s worth, I’d be more impressed to learn someone’s a speedrunner than a golfer. I mean, a certain rather pathetic and unfit recent president played quite a lot of golf (perhaps fortunately, as it distracted him from doing other things), so how hard can it be?
yeah I literally never heard of this before either
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosebleed_section
don’t listen to everyone else. It’s about the heater vent they’re sitting under that’s drying out the insides of their noses.
It’s a combo platter
But I assure you, when the air is below freezing and has a humidity above 2%, the insides of your nose are RUINED.
Don’t be silly. Life as we know it can’t exist for long when the air is below freezing.
Why yes, I live in Houston Texas. Why do you ask?
Haha, doesn’t like the whole state shut down with a dusting of powder?
Not the whole state just the places that got sneaux and the counties adjacent to it. Texans can’t drive when someone spits on the road, they lose their ever-loving minds when it sneaux. I use that spelling to prevent panic in Texas.
its life, but not as ypu know it
Uecker seats. https://www.rookieroad.com/baseball/the-field/uecker-seats/
it’s interesting that altitude? is connected to nosebleeds, not that i’ve gone outta my way to be high up but i’ve always had nosebleeds in dry heat versu being high up
Being a big guy I was pushed to play high school sports and I ended up getting an injury in my hip that wasn’t well identified and treated till years later. I say as such because I have never been to a college sports game of any kind and I went to Florida State which is so into sports it was kind of nauseating. I might be over sharing…
No, that comment match up perfectly. Thanks
Geez, hope you made a full recovery in the end!
And that your end is fully recovered.
That pressure to play sport is fucked when you think how your care systems (fail to) work…
I was in my highschool team -which was relatively a good team – while being very short. But since in my country you’re not supposed to be discovered in high school but in licensed cities clubs that play a championship, there is little to no pressure in highschool – it’s almost like highschool is for learning rather than competing…
The pressure to play sports is basically a low-key version of military enlistment.
oversharing. Not until after you share the hip xrays, and whatever else comes with it
I’m liking this bit of Walky lore. It makes sense, sorta like how many Texan kids feel like they’ll be on the Dallas Cowboys, with the hope that Jerry Jones will be long dead by then.
I say this, but christ, last time they won a Superbowl is 1996, so I wonder if Texan kids might hope they get drafted by a better team. We love our football here (“we” in this case not including me, I am extremely indifferent to it), but I think it’s somewhat more focused on college football for a lot here for that reason.
Congrats to the Commanders for not having the worst owner in the league anymore. Yet the title remains in the NFC East
Jerry’s still not dead? Jesus Christ, is he trying to get promoted to Queen of England?
The Queen of England’s still not dead? Ha! I knew it!
There’s still hope for Mike.
Come on, Bob Kraft isn’t that bad. If anyone on Pats management is the problem, is Belichick. His worn-in playbook isn’t working anymore now that he doesn’t have a Brady filtering it on the fly.
Oh. NFC. I misread that as AFC.
Point still stands.
Tbh all the NFL team owners are pretty bad except the Packers who are a publicly owned by stockholders. I am not a Packers fan but their model of ownership is better model( i am not saying its perfect model) then the Billionaires club that dominates the NFL. And also they don’t extort cities to pay for stadiums.
Third generation Packer owner here. It’s great to not have your favorite sports team not in the hands of literal idiot supervillains. You can have a great stadium without soaking local government.
God it’s been that long? If I ever run into Hank Hill remind me to roast him. And not with Propane.
Charcoal, for maximum disrespect.
Maximum disrespect is achieved by using a Foreman grill. Charcoal, at least, is an actual fuel.
Oddly, I think Hank would respect a Foreman, but only if he met a New Yorker who kept one in his apartment because it’s harder to grill when you live in the city.
They actually had an episode where they brought up the George Foreman grill. (Luanne becomes a boxer and somehow gets stuck in a fight with one of Foreman’s daughters. Meanwhile, george meets Hank and suggests that Hank could sell the Foreman grill in his store. Hank refuses which causes George to almost attack him.
That boxing match is honestly one of my favorite Luanne moments. Just the crowd going from hooting and hollering to genuinely cheering for her to stick it out gets me.
I legit feel bad for you. no disrespect.
Growing up neighboring town there was a 50s diner with a small menu. It looked like an ugly timewarp ( fake paneling covered with old newspaper clippings ) and was crazy packed Saturday afternoon.
It was chilly and the kitchen was open even in the winter. ( in New England)
Because they had no regular stoves. everything was a series of Charcoal grills.
They served mostly fresh ground charcoaled burgers and Glass Bottle ( old fashioned sugar cokes ).
My mom took me and i thought this was some old ppl place id have to humor her until I took a bite.
after that i didnt care if we’d have to bundle up to eat lunch.
It started out after worldwar two as a butcher and meatgrinder. they started cooking as a lark to let ppl sample the goods and boost beef sales,
It closed a few years before the pandemic.
You feel bad for me for… what, exactly? I was commenting on the fact that Hank Hill hates charcoal, not sharing my real-life personal opinion on it. Cool fuckin’ story though, I guess.
At least your team won a superbowl.
There’s truth to it—-I came to Indiana from out of state and when I was interviewing for my job nearly everyone I met was asking me if my kid was going to play basketball. My son was taller than average at the time but he was only 3!
Love your football? I was under the impression that it was the state religion.
Honestly, this is probably the ideal method of socially interacting with the Walkerton parents.
It is but also a bit sad from Walkys perspective. I think he’s trying to gentally let Lucy know this isn’t a sentimental family event she’s been invited to because while he tried to play last nights dinner off as a sucess he knows the fact that they have different seats then his parents is in itself a sign they still aren’t egar to get to know her. It’s such a contrast to the treatment Dorothy got at the vip section its not even funny.
All of this – was just thinking about their previous visit with the Dean in their private swanky box. What was the difference? Oh yes, the ‘calibre’ (colour) of Walky’s date to the event. Maybe plus a bit of grades frustration, at a pinch.
Hrm, I get the feeling that Walky, having ascertained his parents’ whereabouts, has been deliberately avoiding them. But it’s all for naught: Charles and Linda spot them, come over and insist that Walky and Lucy join them (in much nicer, more private seats, perfect for drama and ignoring the game).
Only better way would have been if Lucy had joined Walky for some Mario cart back in the dorms instead of having to watch a game.
i’m surprised they wouldn’t have rented out another ‘private box’ or wahtever like when they met robin
I played basketball as a kid but I sucked at it and didn’t understand the rules and also I was always on the bench. Still if you got the skills you can absolutely Ball at 5’7. Just be Miyagi Ryota from Slam Dunk!
Spud Webb was 5’6″. Is, but he was also 5’6″ when he played in the NBA and also won the Slam Dunk Contest.
Spud Webb was borderline super with his vertical leap.
I think 5’7 still towers above Ryota lol
i was never into sports, i get that height can give you an advantage but probably only goes so far without training XD;
Tho ppl are like “you’re tall are you good at basket ball” but no one ever says “you’re short, are you good at mini golf” other than as a joke lol
tho i wonder how much of a ‘game changer’ (lol) it’d be if teams were sorted into a ‘height class’ like how wrestling/mma has a ‘weight class’ XD
*plays Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball” on the P.A. speakers*
At University of Oregon in the 90s the student seats were much better. You would still not be able to sit with your parents, but they were good seats.
Is the student section really awful seats at IU? At most schools, the student section is really good seats so the cameras can get good shots of crazy student fans!
Okay, I did a Google. Apparently IU has a really huge student section, which starts courtside and goes way up toward the back. So it’s more about the fact that they decided to go last minute than that the tickets are free.
Seems strange then that they would be seated alone then (no students near them). Even if stuck in the nosebleeds there should be other students beside or directly in front of them.
With Sal being above-average and the parents being even taller than the twins, the Walkertons can NEVER be classified as “short”.
Nosebleeds are fine, especially when the farthest seats aren’t that far. It’s a cheap way to be able to root, root, root for the home team live. SRO tickets, however…
If Sal and Walky are roughly the same height, Sal being above-average could very much make Walky “short” for a male basketball player.
Average height for American men is 5’9″, and for women is 5’4″. I went from short for a guy at 5’7″ to just over average for a gal at 5’5″.
My University used to make me pay for the student section at football games and yet still also sold seats in the student section to anyone half way through the first quarter everyone was on the bleachers and some very drunk woman from OSU pushed me off and (I was lucky i didnt take full tumble just landed on my feat). And loudly declared it was her seat shoving the ticket in my face. I had to move. But big Universities already prioritize football over everything an if they are making their students pay for tickets and tuition the least they can do is keep the student section for the for the students.
I k ow they won’t beacuse $$ Also my college lost the game to OSU 23-7
Word. My school got out of the Big Ten in protest of unis becoming football factories. They eventually came back as D-III. Now, despite a shitload of Nobels, no one knows who they are, or that they were ever a big deal.
Not that their decision was wrong, but I really wonder if they’d have had the moral courage to turn down that kind of money in this day and age.
Heh, in my day our campus didn’t have a football team, and the basketball team might as well have been named “Who?” So I escaped all the rah-rah.
High school was another story. I was in band rather than sports but, despite what the band members may have thought, the band existed solely to play at games. Bleh, I hate that music. I got out when it became clear that I was gonna have to march around in freezing weather playing noise to pump up the excitement that I didn’t feel. (I think that the coat they issued weighted more than I did then.)
So she’s definitely gonna go for the Nobody’s Around Anyway Handy, yeah?
On a by-proxy date with his parents?! Scandalous. Would make me maybe like her
Turns out, Linda keeps a pair of binoculars for public events, so she can tattle on people who eat their hot dogs wrong or something, and she just happens to spot Walky right after Lucy gets down in front of him, and so Linda has no idea Zluct is there and gets Weird Ideas in her head about Walky suddenly being single.
It could happen, fuck off.
(the fuck off is general, not targeted)
Then I shall be careful to take general rather than targeted offense.
Nah, it’s too much effort. You’re good.
Lol!! Nah, I get it
Just like the Kiss Cam. There’s the handycam.
They’re going to be on the kiss cam, aren’t they.
nice wordplay tho
Thanks. I was hoping someone would get that.
I’m convinced Taffy just says stuff to bait me into drawing it.
Don’t encourage them.
*tries to bait Yoto into drawing Sal in a slutty-schoolgirl costume*
…
Um. For a, um. Drawing exercise. Kind of. Thing.
*runs*
Yeah but like, what kind? I’m assuming tied-front dress shirt and needlessly short skirt, heels and tights for no practical reason, with her hair in a ponytail? That’s the usual culprit.
Sorry, running; can’t hear youuuuuu
No ponytail tho. Reminds me of Billifer.
(actually I don’t think even Yoto reads this deep into the comments… le sigh) xD
There’s a practical reason for tights that time of year, they keep your legs and butt warm. The opaque spandex ones that cyclists wear are especially good at that.
Would you settle for genderbent Walky in a modest actual school uniform? https://www.itswalky.com/chapter/anomalie/page/4/
Oh wait also:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/littlebit/
Oh wait, I mean close enough but I meant to link this strip in particular
https://www.itswalky.com/comic/id-feel-so-angry-if-i-didnt-feel-so-pretty/
Would you say Taffy is a /master/ at baiting you?
Two-minute minor for that pun. Off to the box, you.
Dumbing of Age, Book 19: We’re Mostly Here Fer The Height Envy
Okay, I know there was some ambiguity on how many dates they’ve been on, but this is DEFINTIELY a date. It’s basketball and there’s full courting going on.
Five lashes with a wet noodle for that atrocious pun.
All right then. This being at least the fourth date, how do you suppose Walky’ll dodge having to fuck Lucy this time?
She’ll fail to answer his questions three, duh.
Personal foul. Control of ball(s) goes back to Walkerton.
I’m pretty sure they already pass that threshold. They just couldn’t sleep together because of roommate.
and an “upset stomach”, in case roommate wasn’t there.
That’s an empty student section. At my college, more students want seats than are allocated for them, so seats are assigned by lottery. (Also they tend to be close to the court so the players can hear them, because students tend to cheer louder on average than other fans. Usually down at one end where it’s still hard to see.)
College basketball was pretty big where I went, BUT the one game I ever went to was against some “never heard of them” team, and so there were plenty of empty seats. They were more mid-stadium, and I feel like there was a different student section from where we ended up, which is good because I don’t think I could have tolerated that level of school spirit and sports enthusiasm.
Is it weird that this was pitched as a family activity but they’re not actually sitting together? I suppose they could meet up at the concession stand during break periods, but it still seems odd to me.
It’s not you. It’s weird.
God DAMMIT, accidental flag again!! Sorry!!
Sadly not odd considering Linda does not like Lucy so planning an event where they don’t have to interact and can make an excuse to not to do anything after is not surprising.
Status reinforcement games, at their age? Jeez, no wonder they love Buttifer so much.
I was giving the Walkertons the benefit of the doubt, but it does seem deliberately designed to exclude Lucy.
It will be rationalized, like “giving them alone time”, but absolutely it’s too exclude Lucy.
When Dorothy met his parents, they all were invited to club seating with Dean McHenry and Congresswoman DeSanto.
which was also because it was parents’ weekend and they could use it to impress Dorothy’s parents.
Hey, they got the good free student seats; there’s no support pillar between them and the court!
What you save up on the seats you should use to invest in binoculars huh?
hahahahahahahahahahahaha oh wow
That’s a new low, even for Linda.
Is that really like that at IU? Other Big 10 schools give some primo seating to students.
assuming the strip world is similar to the real world, there’s a normal section for students, and then the nosebleeds also for students. Maybe the normal seats cost money and might need to be reserved ahead of time, depending on who they’re playing.
https://aviewfrommyseat.com/venue/Simon+Skjodt+Assembly+Hall/seating-chart/
club seating not shown in chart, but you can see it in some of the photos, from the other end of the court.
Another dick move by Mr and Mrs Walky. They can afford to splurge on a few tickets.
The top chairs of the stadium? That’s the scariest place of all. The feeling to be next abysm, behind you… It crushes me.
I went to a NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway many years ago, on corporate freebie tickets. They were basically bleachers stuck right at the very top of the grandstands. You could turn around and look straight down to the concession area multiple stories below you.
The view was better on TV.
The Maude Flanders seats!
on a bright note, you two get to spend time together without useless cop/bad cop
True but I think Lucy needs to witness some of Walkys parents uglier moments in person before she can appreciate that approval from his parents is not worth it.
Yeah, but she doesn’t really need to do that yet. (Dramatically, she probably does, but if it was reality.)
They’ve been dating like a week. She doesn’t need to deal with family drama yet.
I agree it’s very early in their relationship though Lucy seems to very much want to get to know his parents or atleast be liked by them.
LMAO HIS PARENTS ARE SO RUDE
As much as people may be objecting to this option, all things considered, I feel like this is probably the best double date Lucy can have with Walky and his parents at this point in time.
The thing is they get you with the outrageous charges for supplemental oxygen masks.
My old college the entrance to the top row was at ground level for some reason and the basketball court was like 5 floors down. For some reason it was easier that way 50 years ago.
the way Lucy is holding her id, and how the id looks, make panel 2 seem like a credit card commercial.
She’s everywhere you don’t really want to be.
Random thought, those student seats wouldn’t happen to be just under the VIP lounge the old Walkertons are probably in, would they ?