Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
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Joyce knows all about jail. She knows about the food touching other food and she knows she has to scoop the biggest lady’s eyeballs out with a rusty spoon.
Oh damn, same! Back in the early aughts I spent a full semester with food poisoning thanks to them! I coukd only eat fruit and cereal because of how tainted the rest of the food was!
Super glue was originally meant for closing wounds quickly. It’s formulated to glue skin instantly. It just happens to work on other stuff too, but less well.
It’s so good for that. Whenever I cut myself in an awkward place (between my thumb and forefinger, tip of a finger, in between my eyebrows because I bashed my head into something hard) I just superglue it and it works great. If I didn’t model stuff it’d be worth keeping around just for first aid purposes.
actually even more fun fact: that’s not true! The team that first found it was trying to make clear plastic gun sights in ’47 and then didn’t do anything with it (cause it was too sticky) but then it was rediscovered in ’54 and THAT’S when it became a general adhesive marketed as fast drying and very strong. Their packaging had a tractor on it, but there was an image I found of a car allegedly being held up by Eastman #910, the original brand of what we now call Superglue. But even then I’m not finding anything about intentional wound closing until Vietnam which was ~20 years later
unless the science is rocks then you have to lick it cause you’re a geologist and we all know it’s required (as in my geology prof said not to get into the field if you didn’t want to lick rocks)
Actually you’ve just reminded me that Carla may have followed Mary to the protest, with the intent of swapping her sign out as a prank. I wonder if Mary and Carla will get arrested. And then they’ll let Carla out because her parents are rich and Mary will be stuck because she was protesting (even if it was ‘counter’ protesting, it’s still protesting). And then Mary will be pissed off about that and it will have been the greatest prank that Carla definitely had planned all along.
And then Carla will say, no, don’t let me go, keep me in the same holding cell as Mary. And then Mary will learn the definition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’.
Just play the Imperial March for us. Back when George Lucas made the original trilogy, he was thinking of the Vietnam War, with the US as the Empire and the Vietnamese as the Rebels.
Fun fact: We got an offer at one point to write us a new anthem by none other than Antonín Freaking Dvořák. And we apparently didn’t take him up on it.
Havok’s easy to steer. You just tell him that whatever you don’t want him to do is what Cyclops would do, and whatever you do want him to do will make Polaris like him.
Is it because Trump put a federal smackdown on Planned Parenthood patients by disallowing them to use Medicaid at PP? Cause that’s why I’m upset today.
For me it’s the decision made in last November that makes me unable to really be proud of America. There’s a whole heaping of horrible stuff that’s gone on since then, but none of it’s been terribly surprising and if it were just a few evil people at the top that took over and the Day could be Saved powerpuff girls style I’d still be able to feel proud of the country.
is true, but the main point I was trying to make was that to the slave-owners, there was no contradiction between wanting liberty for everyone but not the slaves simply because slaves just didn’t count as “people” to them (hell I mean the three-fifths compromise in the constitution highlights this)
as Socrates warned us thousands of years ago, democracy by *itself* can easily look like when three wolves and a sheep decide what’s for dinner
They did ban slavery before the US did, but by that point they weren’t nearly as reliant on it as the US was. If they’d kept control of the American colonies and thus had direct profit from it, it’s unlikely they would have ended it even that early.
I haven’t felt proud of my country for a long time, especially since I started learning the non-sanitized US history. We’ve done a lot of extremely terrible things in a few centuries.
Honestly nobody should fell the need to be proud of a country. One can be proud of their culture snd heritage or of people, but having to be proud of just, the place you are born in or it’s government never made sense to me.
especially one which is basically England’s centuries-old festering dumpster, founded by the slave owners, scam artists, cultists, alcoholic wife beaters and other violent criminals they were desperate to get rid of
Right? It’s like people will be all like “yeah, we landed on the moon.” No, you did not land on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did. You didn’t build that rocket, man that station, or do anything at NASA. They did. They’re the only ones who get be proud of that. You don’t get to take credit for the efforts of remarkable people just because you share a geographic similarity to them.
It always blows my mind when my mother says something like “we won the super bowl.” No mom, you didn’t. The football team did. The hell you mean ‘we?’
Honestly no, fuck that *so hard*. I understand where you’re coming from, but there were a LOT more people involved than just those two that landed on the moon. Mission control. Scientists that charted the pathways. Hell, down to workers that built the parts.
You don’t need to give USA the credit, but damn sure give the backsupport team the credit they deserve. Humanity’s marvels aren’t donated to merely a couple standout agents at the top.
I feel like it’s relativley obvious the “they” refers to all the people involved in the process, that they just didn’t specify to make the point more succinct. Like yeah obviously they aren’t saying that buzz aldrin and neil armstrong didnt personally build the rocket in their backyard
Thank you for that. I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning, and it looks like I forgot to type down some of the connecting thoughts I was having.
And to be fair, to the people of the U.S., their tax dollars DID pay for the space program that did it. Heck, one of the few things Americans can be proud of that their tax dollars did (and although a frequent target of cuts, was something polls showed Americans never wanted cut). Heck, people were cutting tons of expenses out of their lives to send more tax dollars during that era.
When it comes to the Space Race, “we” didn’t have a lot of victories anyway. The Soviet Union had the first satellite, the first animal in space, the first human in space, the first woman in space, the first spacecraft to land on Mars, the first spacecraft on Venus, and many other space firsts. The US was first to land people on the Moon, which was an impressive achievement of course, but “we” weren’t first to much else in space.
This is true, but landing people the moon and bringing them back again is much more technically and logistically challenging than any of those things. It’s seen as the victory condition in the space race for good reasons, IMO.
I think a person should have some pride in their home, as a physical location, and the people that live there. It’s the place and the people that made you, and if someone insults it they’re implicitly insulting you to some degree.
I shit-talk my hometown constantly, and the second I have enough money, I’m leaving it behind and never coming back. Growing up somewhere decent is a form of privilege, and I’m always hesitant to be proud of privilege, especially if it wasn’t up to me in the first place.
There is a huge difference between you shit-talking your hometown and someone from somewhere else doing it. It’s like the difference between a friend criticizing you and some rando you barely know.
Also, I think people mix this up constantly, you don’t have to think a thing is good to take pride in it. I’m proud of things I make even when I know they suck. Many immigrants are proud of their home countries, even knowing it is a place they wanted to leave permanently. It’s more about how you would respond to an insult.
I’m not saying you *must* feel some pride in where you’re from, but I think it’s a good thing to do. Otherwise it’s just another place and if it has problems, oh well, not my problem.
I think it’s a neutral thing at best. (It is probably judt a personal thing that if someone dhut talked my himetown i won’t really care because i don’t fell much of a strong connection to it)
Except I’m self-aware enough to understand that if somebody from elsewhere shit-talks this town, they’re probably not even being mean enough. I didn’t make this place the way it is, and while I recognize there’s been a recent effort to put money into the place, I’m not the one spending it or helping with the new construction, and I can also tell it’s not being built for people like me. I see the improvements, and I feel no sense of pride because they’re not something I did or even participated in, and neither did anyone I know, so I can’t even be proud of them by proxy. It may as well be just another place, even if the majority of my life has been spent here. I feel pride about things I actually did, and I’m proud of what my people have done, but this town could be wiped off the map and I’d feel nothing.
Also, I can’t just choose to feel pride, its an involuntary emotion that shows up when it needs to. So there’s no point saying “It’s a good thing to do” because it’s not something I deliberately do in the first place.
Likewise. This July 4th I’ll be wearing all black, because I’m mourning the death of the democracy the founders and my ancestors fought and died to create.
It’s not dead yet. We’re getting the stupidity that a majority of people in a majority of the states voted for. But the coming mid-terms may well be the last chance to prevent its death.
hell, I reckon over half the reason we’re in this mess is because white liberals thought it was most ethical to allow no real plan for resisting fascism other than “never lose an election” (-_-)
You’re not wrong. My hope is that the reaction to the Trump years will be to pull back the different emergency powers acts as the danger they are. My fear is that people will say, it’s okay since our guy is in there now.
“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.“
The founders didn’t really care about democracy and freedom. They owned slaves, committed genocide against the native people to steal their land, and the only people who could vote in the early United States were white wealthy men like them.
This sort of ultra-negative reading of American history is just as misleading as the right wing’s ultra-positive reading. Is it too much to ask for a little nuance?
Not all states had property requirements to vote at the time of Revolution, and in those that did the amount was often very low, hardly limiting the franchise to the wealthy. In those states that had them, requirements were quickly eliminated in the decades after the ratification of the Constitution. New Jersey even allowed women to vote for about a decade in the 1790s.
Although many of the Founders were slaveowners, many were not, and even those that were generally supported the eventual elimination of slavery. Benjamin Franklin founded the first anti-slavery society in America, for example. Before the Revolution, slavery was legal in every colony, but after the Revolution, it was rapidly outlawed in about half the states, and it was generally believed at the time that without the British desire to profit from the slave trade, which was almost entirely in the hands of their merchants, the rest of the states would soon follow, although we know now that they were sadly wrong about that.
Finally, I don’t think it behooves those of us who want to push forward the causes of human freedom and equality today to spit on those who came before us who, for all their imperfections, took an important step forward for those causes.
It does seem like some people react to learning that the sanitized version of American exceptionalism isn’t true, by flipping to a negative version of American exceptionalism, where instead of being the purest, best and greatest country in the world, we’re the actually the worst. The most evil of evils.
This also often leads to whitewashing any problems with countries that oppose the US.
If you read some books about US history that tell what we’ve actually done at home and abroad instead of the sanitized version we’re taught in school, you might develop similarly negative views of this country. I can recommend several, including A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, and Killing Hope by William Blum. We’ve done a lot of extremely terrible things, and I definitely think those outweigh all the supposed good we’ve done.
“It does seem like some people react to learning that the sanitized version of American exceptionalism isn’t true, by flipping to a negative version of American exceptionalism, where instead of being the purest, best and greatest country in the world, we’re the actually the worst.”
I’m well aware. I know the sanitized version is bullshit. I said that.
No, but for real though. My town has a pretty big fireworks display every year, plus a carnival, and my family will usually try to go together for the show. Unfortunately, everyone but me’s working during it this year, so I’m planning to go and record it so they can at least see it that way. Probably grab some funnel cake while I’m there, as well.
Honestly, I prefer elephant ears, and I’m not particularly looking to get both on a day at the fair. Still, sometimes I’ll opt for a funnel cake for the texture experience.
A little bit of both. It’s clear that she want’s to have a number of things Joyce has. Not quite in the vein of Sarah’s sister in stealing other peoples boys, but you know…
This whole little section I read into it that Dorothy truly admires Jocelyne being willing and almost EAGER to… well, have “the world” crash against her. Jocelyne is being a protective older sister to both of them and recognizes neither is ready for what all this actually means.
Dorothy so badly WANTS to be that person. The one who will get arrested for her convictions, who will stand up to it all, and Jocelyne just see’s that right now she doesn’t have that. She gives them both the protective boot so that when they are ready, they can take up the fight alongside her later.
Love it. As both an older sibling and a younger sibling, this is just wonderful sibling writing.
Yeah, I think Dorothy has come face to face with a few of the realities of where she was, like how ignorant and naive she was. She was always smart as a tack, and it’s not like she was unaware of protests, etc, but she was insulated, and she was able to have a pretty distant view of it before. That is no longer the case.
I do think she is growing. Seeing that fear and recognizing it for what it is can be a path forward.
“Thanks for warning me about dad, but it’ll be way more obvious if he sees you pictured next to me, and I think he’ll be more upset about me getting you arrested than being a girl.”
I’m still hoping that Hank is cool with Jocelyne being trans, and he’s just worried about her getting hurt at the protest. He’s been much more understanding than his evil ex-wife, and I hope that trend continues.
I think maybe Hank will come and bail Jocelyne out of jail and they will have a nice long talk to catch up on some very important things during a drive home.
He is chiller that Carol (Whcuh isn’t a high bar to clesr) but he dtill a man from avery religious conservative background, so the chances of him being cool about it initially aren’t that high, but it doesn’t mean he can’t improve about it if he actually tries.
I never thought the whole not wanting my foods to touch thing was that noticeable until I saw Joyce felt the same way. It’s a nice little connection to a character I really came to like.
I’m looking forward to the Jocelyne and Dorothy chat coming up based off the preview panels! Dorothy needs to be assured that her feelings aren’t wrong or just trauma.
I can confirm that the only good thing about jail food is that it comes on a plastic cafeteria tray so that the different things don’t touch. But the mystery meat is enough to make school cafeteria food seem delicious – I joked that the patties were made out of horse, and one of the guards believed me. The Salisbury steak comes with fake grill marks painted on only one side, and there’s weird tiny blue bits that….didn’t get completely mixed in?
It’s more than a little on the nose (complimentary) that, now that Dorothy has lost who she is, Joyce is quite literally leading her around by the hand.
Really hoping Jocelyne turns out ok from all of this. The police are brutal enough with cisgender folk without giving them the “reason” to get even more murdery
I wonder if Jocelyne sees that Dorothy, and Joyce, have feelings for each other, and her smile is one of big sister approval.
I would love that to be the case; I don’t want to see Joe, or Walky hurt by this, but I really want Dorothy and Joyce to date, and enjoy sexy times. Even though that might hurt Becky if they do.
If I’m outdoors, it’s gotta be portable, with minimal stuff to carry around. Homestyle cheeseburgers off the grill are a solid choice year-round, since I can dress it however I want and maybe have a napkin or some foil to keep my hands clean. Drink-wise, coffee is super versatile and adaptable to any festivity. I tend to prefer it cold, with whatever add-ins are appropriate to the latest holiday or event. In the winter, I like adding mint or cinnamon, sometimes a raspberry syrup or apple flavoring. Those are easy variations on everyday goodies, though.
For specific events where there are trash cans around, like the local 4th of July carnival, I’m a fan of hot dogs, whether they’re on a stick or covered in chili and cheese. Light on the stomach, heavy on the calories. I don’t know how widespread they are (and won’t assume everyone knows about them), but we also have a drink called a lemon shake-up. It’s pretty much lemonade, with water and lemon juice (or flavor concentrate) and sugar all poured into a big-ass cup and shaken to mix it. Measurements are eyeballed, so you’re just as likely to get a perfect mix as you are a watery lemonade with a pile of sugar on the bottom that makes you sick, but you finish it anyway because it was $7 and you’re not getting back in line for a lukewarm water bottle.
Im celebrating the 4th on the deck of my house in Coastal Virginia, with a bowl of chips and a frosty mug of hot-dog water, preparing for tonight’s fireworks.
American Civilization may be crumbling around our feet, but damn, its good to be alive.
OK, I usually look them up, not being familiar with USA foodstuffs, but this one, I have to ask: a frosty mug of hot-dog water? My mind is boggling with possibilities.
It’s getting dusk, so the neighborhood fireworks will probably be starting up as soon as it’s dark and run till after midnight. I’m sure that the fortune in fireworks they fire off every New Years and Fourth of July could be put to better use, but damn it’s pretty and I get to watch it for free. I have chips ready and leftover gumbo ready to heat up and I plan to take a folding chair out by the tree and enjoy the view. Firecrackers have started already.
Ours are meant to go off in about an hour. It’s usually not a super long show, but some years they’re pretty impressive. Got a splitting headache from working in the sun yesterday, but I promised I’d go see the fireworks for my gal, since she can’t make it this year. A little migraine is a small price to pay.
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The most succinct depiction of the tables turning in this relationship. Lordy.
Ah yes, the old threat of foods touching other foods.
More effective than the threat of facing down a riot squad and imprisonment
100% don’tcha know
She’s never faced a riot squad. She doesn’t know what tear gas feels like. She knows exactly how it feels to have her food touch other food.
Joyce knows all about jail. She knows about the food touching other food and she knows she has to scoop the biggest lady’s eyeballs out with a rusty spoon.
Once she reveals she’s the former Ding Dong Bandit, she’ll be in charge of that place.
cruel and unusual punishment
The food service my college used has actually been ruled unconstitutional to use in prisons on those grounds.
Aramark?
Ayup.
(Though it was still just “ARA” then.)
Oh damn, same! Back in the early aughts I spent a full semester with food poisoning thanks to them! I coukd only eat fruit and cereal because of how tainted the rest of the food was!
See, my meme-poisoned brain just read that as the food service (or maybe the lunch ladies) going all “ara ara, fufufufu” or something.
[Tommy Wiseau voice] Ara Ara, Mark.
Dang, couldn’t tell if you were being facetious, so I started googling things and also learned about “the loaf”, and just wow.
We had ARA too. Cruel and unusual nourishment.
Where Joyce goes, Dorothy goes.
Because she Krazy-Glued their hands together when she wasn’t looking.
(They aren’t kidding about that “BONDS SKIN INSTANTLY” bit.)
Fun fact – that’s actually a feature, not a bug.
Super glue was originally meant for closing wounds quickly. It’s formulated to glue skin instantly. It just happens to work on other stuff too, but less well.
It’s so good for that. Whenever I cut myself in an awkward place (between my thumb and forefinger, tip of a finger, in between my eyebrows because I bashed my head into something hard) I just superglue it and it works great. If I didn’t model stuff it’d be worth keeping around just for first aid purposes.
I’m very sorry to hear about the head bashing! I hope it doesn’t happen often?
actually even more fun fact: that’s not true! The team that first found it was trying to make clear plastic gun sights in ’47 and then didn’t do anything with it (cause it was too sticky) but then it was rediscovered in ’54 and THAT’S when it became a general adhesive marketed as fast drying and very strong. Their packaging had a tractor on it, but there was an image I found of a car allegedly being held up by Eastman #910, the original brand of what we now call Superglue. But even then I’m not finding anything about intentional wound closing until Vietnam which was ~20 years later
Inventing what you didn’t try to is a scientist’s friend. It got us sticky notes, among other things.
just don’t lick the science….don’t (even if thats how we got one of the artificial sweeteners)
unless the science is rocks then you have to lick it cause you’re a geologist and we all know it’s required (as in my geology prof said not to get into the field if you didn’t want to lick rocks)
Carla tried to tie their shoelaces together, but she accidentally stole the laces and tied them around their fingers.
Then she saw what she’d done, yelled “SWEET! An even better prank!” and exited with both middle fingers up.
(but nobody noticed her because they were busy looking for Jocelyne)
Well, they’re handfasted now; in a year and a day they hafta get married. No takesie-backsies.
The whole point of that year and a day is most definitely about takesie-backsies
Actually you’ve just reminded me that Carla may have followed Mary to the protest, with the intent of swapping her sign out as a prank. I wonder if Mary and Carla will get arrested. And then they’ll let Carla out because her parents are rich and Mary will be stuck because she was protesting (even if it was ‘counter’ protesting, it’s still protesting). And then Mary will be pissed off about that and it will have been the greatest prank that Carla definitely had planned all along.
Counter-protesters are typically spared the pigs wrath, but maybe due to Carla’s antics she will be confused for a protester
And then Carla will say, no, don’t let me go, keep me in the same holding cell as Mary. And then Mary will learn the definition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’.
what are you waiting for?!?!??!
go go go go go go GO GOOOO!!!! D:<
*plays “It’s Pizza Time!” on hacked muzak*
You say “It’s Pizza Time!”, I’m going to respond with
Either way, Joyce, time to get the lead out!
NYOOOM
Siblings always know how to get you to leave.
As an eldest sibling, I approve of this message.
Seconded.
Thirded
The power of sibling knowledge.
happy glory-to-the-empire day
Happy commemoration of not being able to colonize the Philippines anymore, I guess?
Not a problem if you imagine that Iceland is still available.
I mean, you need somewhere to stick all the people who vote wrong.
I think it’s Greenland the rump crew are eyeing greedily.
Man, at leas the Galactic Empire got to have their national anthem scored by John Williams…
While John Williams is still around, we should commission him for a new and original national anthem. It would be money well spent.
I like the way you think. I would contribute to that fundraiser so hard.
It’d just be Darth Vader’s Theme, as performed by the Boston Pops.
Been done:
Jean Rohe, “Arise! Arise! The New National Anthem”
https://youtu.be/Ay1iC1zt24A
Just play the Imperial March for us. Back when George Lucas made the original trilogy, he was thinking of the Vietnam War, with the US as the Empire and the Vietnamese as the Rebels.
But then we wouldn’t get new John Williams music.
Fun fact: We got an offer at one point to write us a new anthem by none other than Antonín Freaking Dvořák. And we apparently didn’t take him up on it.
As a musicalist, I’m unfamiliar with this man. What’s your favorite piece of his?
The New World Symphony is probably his most popularly-known piece.
Largo, the second movement from his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World. The English horn melody is to die for. You might even recognize it.
I actually do recognize this one. Yeah, let this guy compos us a new national anthem.
Him or Kow Otani.
Gowron approves.
really hoping that means these two are going to be out ot the meadow when things finally break bad
They gonna start cooking meth?
no no, it’s a figure of speech from the southern US meaning, “to wreak havoc”
They should definitely leave the meadow before wrecking havoc.
Oooh so they gonna wreck havioc by becoming meth dealers got it
Havocs are hard to steer, in fairness, even without involving meth.
Havok’s easy to steer. You just tell him that whatever you don’t want him to do is what Cyclops would do, and whatever you do want him to do will make Polaris like him.
i_understood_that_reference.gif
also the Brown sisters are quite pretty
I am having a hard time feeling proud of my country today.
Is it because Trump put a federal smackdown on Planned Parenthood patients by disallowing them to use Medicaid at PP? Cause that’s why I’m upset today.
For me it’s the decision made in last November that makes me unable to really be proud of America. There’s a whole heaping of horrible stuff that’s gone on since then, but none of it’s been terribly surprising and if it were just a few evil people at the top that took over and the Day could be Saved powerpuff girls style I’d still be able to feel proud of the country.
I mean who really is at this point? 9-9
“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the slave owners?”
— —Samuel Johnson, 1775
*Plays, Frederick Douglass’s, “What, to the American Slave, Is Your Fourth of July?”*
on the hacked megaphone…
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/nations-story-what-slave-fourth-july
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/frederick-douglass-what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july-1852
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_to_the_Slave_Is_the_Fourth_of_July%3F
Worth noting that at the time Johnson and the British in general were absolutely okay with slave owners as long as they shut up and paid their taxes.
missing the point (-_-)
The British empire and thus Canada disallowed slavery long before the US did.
is true, but the main point I was trying to make was that to the slave-owners, there was no contradiction between wanting liberty for everyone but not the slaves simply because slaves just didn’t count as “people” to them (hell I mean the three-fifths compromise in the constitution highlights this)
as Socrates warned us thousands of years ago, democracy by *itself* can easily look like when three wolves and a sheep decide what’s for dinner
They did ban slavery before the US did, but by that point they weren’t nearly as reliant on it as the US was. If they’d kept control of the American colonies and thus had direct profit from it, it’s unlikely they would have ended it even that early.
I haven’t felt proud of my country for a long time, especially since I started learning the non-sanitized US history. We’ve done a lot of extremely terrible things in a few centuries.
Honestly nobody should fell the need to be proud of a country. One can be proud of their culture snd heritage or of people, but having to be proud of just, the place you are born in or it’s government never made sense to me.
especially one which is basically England’s centuries-old festering dumpster, founded by the slave owners, scam artists, cultists, alcoholic wife beaters and other violent criminals they were desperate to get rid of
Right? It’s like people will be all like “yeah, we landed on the moon.” No, you did not land on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did. You didn’t build that rocket, man that station, or do anything at NASA. They did. They’re the only ones who get be proud of that. You don’t get to take credit for the efforts of remarkable people just because you share a geographic similarity to them.
It always blows my mind when my mother says something like “we won the super bowl.” No mom, you didn’t. The football team did. The hell you mean ‘we?’
Honestly no, fuck that *so hard*. I understand where you’re coming from, but there were a LOT more people involved than just those two that landed on the moon. Mission control. Scientists that charted the pathways. Hell, down to workers that built the parts.
You don’t need to give USA the credit, but damn sure give the backsupport team the credit they deserve. Humanity’s marvels aren’t donated to merely a couple standout agents at the top.
I feel like it’s relativley obvious the “they” refers to all the people involved in the process, that they just didn’t specify to make the point more succinct. Like yeah obviously they aren’t saying that buzz aldrin and neil armstrong didnt personally build the rocket in their backyard
Thank you for that. I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning, and it looks like I forgot to type down some of the connecting thoughts I was having.
And to be fair, to the people of the U.S., their tax dollars DID pay for the space program that did it. Heck, one of the few things Americans can be proud of that their tax dollars did (and although a frequent target of cuts, was something polls showed Americans never wanted cut). Heck, people were cutting tons of expenses out of their lives to send more tax dollars during that era.
So yea, gotta give Americans the Moon Landing.
When it comes to the Space Race, “we” didn’t have a lot of victories anyway. The Soviet Union had the first satellite, the first animal in space, the first human in space, the first woman in space, the first spacecraft to land on Mars, the first spacecraft on Venus, and many other space firsts. The US was first to land people on the Moon, which was an impressive achievement of course, but “we” weren’t first to much else in space.
yeah USA is always pretending to be better at more stuff than it actually is
“”Freedom””? Oh please. Long before this shit happen Norway and Finland have had much more political and social freedom than us. (9_9)
This is true, but landing people the moon and bringing them back again is much more technically and logistically challenging than any of those things. It’s seen as the victory condition in the space race for good reasons, IMO.
The first animal to die in space.
I think a person should have some pride in their home, as a physical location, and the people that live there. It’s the place and the people that made you, and if someone insults it they’re implicitly insulting you to some degree.
Government is another story.
One is invariably shaped by the environment they are born in yes, i just don’t think that necessarily mean they gotta fell pride in it.
I shit-talk my hometown constantly, and the second I have enough money, I’m leaving it behind and never coming back. Growing up somewhere decent is a form of privilege, and I’m always hesitant to be proud of privilege, especially if it wasn’t up to me in the first place.
There is a huge difference between you shit-talking your hometown and someone from somewhere else doing it. It’s like the difference between a friend criticizing you and some rando you barely know.
Also, I think people mix this up constantly, you don’t have to think a thing is good to take pride in it. I’m proud of things I make even when I know they suck. Many immigrants are proud of their home countries, even knowing it is a place they wanted to leave permanently. It’s more about how you would respond to an insult.
I’m not saying you *must* feel some pride in where you’re from, but I think it’s a good thing to do. Otherwise it’s just another place and if it has problems, oh well, not my problem.
I think it’s a neutral thing at best. (It is probably judt a personal thing that if someone dhut talked my himetown i won’t really care because i don’t fell much of a strong connection to it)
Except I’m self-aware enough to understand that if somebody from elsewhere shit-talks this town, they’re probably not even being mean enough. I didn’t make this place the way it is, and while I recognize there’s been a recent effort to put money into the place, I’m not the one spending it or helping with the new construction, and I can also tell it’s not being built for people like me. I see the improvements, and I feel no sense of pride because they’re not something I did or even participated in, and neither did anyone I know, so I can’t even be proud of them by proxy. It may as well be just another place, even if the majority of my life has been spent here. I feel pride about things I actually did, and I’m proud of what my people have done, but this town could be wiped off the map and I’d feel nothing.
Also, I can’t just choose to feel pride, its an involuntary emotion that shows up when it needs to. So there’s no point saying “It’s a good thing to do” because it’s not something I deliberately do in the first place.
Speaking as a fellow American: you ain’t obliged to feel proud of jack shit. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fascist.
Hey, I’m proud of all the Chinese fireworks my wealthier neighbors will be firing off tomorrow night. It’s quite the show.
Likewise. This July 4th I’ll be wearing all black, because I’m mourning the death of the democracy the founders and my ancestors fought and died to create.
It’s not dead yet. We’re getting the stupidity that a majority of people in a majority of the states voted for. But the coming mid-terms may well be the last chance to prevent its death.
hell, I reckon over half the reason we’re in this mess is because white liberals thought it was most ethical to allow no real plan for resisting fascism other than “never lose an election” (-_-)
You’re not wrong. My hope is that the reaction to the Trump years will be to pull back the different emergency powers acts as the danger they are. My fear is that people will say, it’s okay since our guy is in there now.
I’m still really curious what plan for resisting fascism starts with “First we let them take control of the entire government”?
The one that German president Hindenburg implemented in 1933, obviously.
2026 would make it a nice round number.
How quaint to assume the mid-terms will be allowed to happen.
I’m so fucking sick of doomerism. Stop rolling over and normalizing this idea that we won’t be allowed further elections.
Exactly. Do NOT Obey in Advance.
But muh skibidi precompliance
“Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.“
— Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
No room for quitters.
The founders didn’t really care about democracy and freedom. They owned slaves, committed genocide against the native people to steal their land, and the only people who could vote in the early United States were white wealthy men like them.
Yeah. Democracy and freedom for white land owners. It just kind of got away from them a little.
This sort of ultra-negative reading of American history is just as misleading as the right wing’s ultra-positive reading. Is it too much to ask for a little nuance?
Not all states had property requirements to vote at the time of Revolution, and in those that did the amount was often very low, hardly limiting the franchise to the wealthy. In those states that had them, requirements were quickly eliminated in the decades after the ratification of the Constitution. New Jersey even allowed women to vote for about a decade in the 1790s.
Although many of the Founders were slaveowners, many were not, and even those that were generally supported the eventual elimination of slavery. Benjamin Franklin founded the first anti-slavery society in America, for example. Before the Revolution, slavery was legal in every colony, but after the Revolution, it was rapidly outlawed in about half the states, and it was generally believed at the time that without the British desire to profit from the slave trade, which was almost entirely in the hands of their merchants, the rest of the states would soon follow, although we know now that they were sadly wrong about that.
Finally, I don’t think it behooves those of us who want to push forward the causes of human freedom and equality today to spit on those who came before us who, for all their imperfections, took an important step forward for those causes.
It does seem like some people react to learning that the sanitized version of American exceptionalism isn’t true, by flipping to a negative version of American exceptionalism, where instead of being the purest, best and greatest country in the world, we’re the actually the worst. The most evil of evils.
This also often leads to whitewashing any problems with countries that oppose the US.
Speaking as someone from soith America we also think that the usa is evil and the worse.
Evil, mostly yes. The worse, not even close.
If you read some books about US history that tell what we’ve actually done at home and abroad instead of the sanitized version we’re taught in school, you might develop similarly negative views of this country. I can recommend several, including A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins, and Killing Hope by William Blum. We’ve done a lot of extremely terrible things, and I definitely think those outweigh all the supposed good we’ve done.
“It does seem like some people react to learning that the sanitized version of American exceptionalism isn’t true, by flipping to a negative version of American exceptionalism, where instead of being the purest, best and greatest country in the world, we’re the actually the worst.”
I’m well aware. I know the sanitized version is bullshit. I said that.
As late as 1925, you couldn’t vote in Pennsylvania unless you could show you paid real estate tax.
Could be worse, you could be an anti-genocide Israeli (there ARE some around, apparetly).
Not me. It helps that I’m not American though.
Happy fireworks and hotdogs day
cuz let’s be real here that’s all we really in it for XD
No, but for real though. My town has a pretty big fireworks display every year, plus a carnival, and my family will usually try to go together for the show. Unfortunately, everyone but me’s working during it this year, so I’m planning to go and record it so they can at least see it that way. Probably grab some funnel cake while I’m there, as well.
I’ve never had funnel cake.
It’s pretty good.
It really is. You should go out of your way to try it at least once.
Now mind you, I wouldn’t trade a pecan pie with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a cup of coffee for it, but still pretty good.
I would, but I hate pecans.
Funnel cake, however, is ambrosia.
If you like fried batter and powdered sugar, you’ll probably enjoy funnel cake. If you don’t, you’re not missing much.
Honestly, I prefer elephant ears, and I’m not particularly looking to get both on a day at the fair. Still, sometimes I’ll opt for a funnel cake for the texture experience.
Wait. You mean to tell me there are actually people who don’t like fried batter and powdered sugar? What’s wrong with these people?
I’m celebrating my rewatching Zodiac.
It totes counts as a Fourth of July movie.
Not really celebrating, but I’ve got LA Confidential set up for this afternoon.
I can’t talk about Fair Saint Louis without going on a long tangent that ends with advocating ceremonial regicide.
Well, 248 years is a pretty good run for a country.
And, yes, I meant what I said.
Dude I am willing to crawl through broken glass if that means California gets to become it’s own country 0-0
I choose to interpret Jocelyne’s expression in the last panel as flirtatious.
Seconded
I interpreted it as she ships it.
seconded
Seconded.
(or at least recognizes oh she’s got it baaaaad)
A little bit of both. It’s clear that she want’s to have a number of things Joyce has. Not quite in the vein of Sarah’s sister in stealing other peoples boys, but you know…
Samesies.
I choose to interpret as her noticing that their hands are glued together.
this is the correct interpretation to me
man I hope she comes out the other side of this okay
Happy state-mandated flag idolatry day
Stay safe guys 🥺
This whole little section I read into it that Dorothy truly admires Jocelyne being willing and almost EAGER to… well, have “the world” crash against her. Jocelyne is being a protective older sister to both of them and recognizes neither is ready for what all this actually means.
Dorothy so badly WANTS to be that person. The one who will get arrested for her convictions, who will stand up to it all, and Jocelyne just see’s that right now she doesn’t have that. She gives them both the protective boot so that when they are ready, they can take up the fight alongside her later.
Love it. As both an older sibling and a younger sibling, this is just wonderful sibling writing.
Maybe someday
Yeah, I think Dorothy has come face to face with a few of the realities of where she was, like how ignorant and naive she was. She was always smart as a tack, and it’s not like she was unaware of protests, etc, but she was insulated, and she was able to have a pretty distant view of it before. That is no longer the case.
I do think she is growing. Seeing that fear and recognizing it for what it is can be a path forward.
Agreed.
i would die for jocelyne, except i’d never get to, because she’s going to be at the danger before i get there, and that’s why she’s too good for me
I wonder if the police will actually let Joyce and Dorothy leave the area. And hopefully every there makes it out ok.
“Thanks for warning me about dad, but it’ll be way more obvious if he sees you pictured next to me, and I think he’ll be more upset about me getting you arrested than being a girl.”
I worry Hank will be there and horribly injured.
Not sure if sarcasm.
I assume he’s the one most likely to be shot because there’s set up of him trying to get his daughter.
I’m still hoping that Hank is cool with Jocelyne being trans, and he’s just worried about her getting hurt at the protest. He’s been much more understanding than his evil ex-wife, and I hope that trend continues.
I think maybe Hank will come and bail Jocelyne out of jail and they will have a nice long talk to catch up on some very important things during a drive home.
He is chiller that Carol (Whcuh isn’t a high bar to clesr) but he dtill a man from avery religious conservative background, so the chances of him being cool about it initially aren’t that high, but it doesn’t mean he can’t improve about it if he actually tries.
only because of the zeitgeist:
dang, even the five goons
Jocelyne know how to be convincing
You can tell they’re siblings because she knows exactly how to manipulate her into doing something
I never thought the whole not wanting my foods to touch thing was that noticeable until I saw Joyce felt the same way. It’s a nice little connection to a character I really came to like.
I definitely relate to Joyce in that for a long time I really didn’t like my foods touching each other. I not bothered by it as much now.
I’m looking forward to the Jocelyne and Dorothy chat coming up based off the preview panels! Dorothy needs to be assured that her feelings aren’t wrong or just trauma.
Also lmao at the strip title. If this was a couple of years ago, we all would’ve guessed Joe would be involved in this strip based on the name alone.
I can confirm that the only good thing about jail food is that it comes on a plastic cafeteria tray so that the different things don’t touch. But the mystery meat is enough to make school cafeteria food seem delicious – I joked that the patties were made out of horse, and one of the guards believed me. The Salisbury steak comes with fake grill marks painted on only one side, and there’s weird tiny blue bits that….didn’t get completely mixed in?
Yeah, that goodbye felt a little too ominous.
Please let Jocelyne make it through
It’s more than a little on the nose (complimentary) that, now that Dorothy has lost who she is, Joyce is quite literally leading her around by the hand.
Jocelyne’s knowing and amused look as she continues to collect data points that all the regulars don’t see for being too deep in.
Really hoping Jocelyne turns out ok from all of this. The police are brutal enough with cisgender folk without giving them the “reason” to get even more murdery
Jocelyne is such a badass and the best big sister. <3
OK, what’s the over/under on something really bad happening to Jocelyne so Willis can have another “Drama and Trauma!” moment?
Happy Independence of the Foods on Joyce’s Plate Day, because clearly there’s no other independence to celebrate.
Love that big sister approving smile.
I wonder if Jocelyne sees that Dorothy, and Joyce, have feelings for each other, and her smile is one of big sister approval.
I would love that to be the case; I don’t want to see Joe, or Walky hurt by this, but I really want Dorothy and Joyce to date, and enjoy sexy times. Even though that might hurt Becky if they do.
…Would anyone be up for a game? Is it too late already?…
Here’s the question:
Q: Favorite festive food and/or beverage to enjoy outdoors?
I can go:
Food — gotta be gyros souvlaki with tzatziki. Something about it…
Beverage — hot coffee. Any time. I’m a person of simple tastes…
No, no, actually: outdoor brewed milk chai, stirred over a fire, is much better.
So is fresh pressed cider.
Or hot mulled cider.
Or wassail. Or sangria. Or…
OK, you got me! I can’t pick just one!
Kvass!
Ooh, yummers! Like mead, sounds like!
nah it ain’t too late,
heck I’m literally about to use this day as an excuse to get one of my favorites
going to the LatAm ghetto to get street hotdog with mustard and salsa :9
beverage wise? I guess today having an energy drink frosty given I gotta get code done still hahahhaah XD
Happy coding! Enjoy great street food today!
If I’m outdoors, it’s gotta be portable, with minimal stuff to carry around. Homestyle cheeseburgers off the grill are a solid choice year-round, since I can dress it however I want and maybe have a napkin or some foil to keep my hands clean. Drink-wise, coffee is super versatile and adaptable to any festivity. I tend to prefer it cold, with whatever add-ins are appropriate to the latest holiday or event. In the winter, I like adding mint or cinnamon, sometimes a raspberry syrup or apple flavoring. Those are easy variations on everyday goodies, though.
For specific events where there are trash cans around, like the local 4th of July carnival, I’m a fan of hot dogs, whether they’re on a stick or covered in chili and cheese. Light on the stomach, heavy on the calories. I don’t know how widespread they are (and won’t assume everyone knows about them), but we also have a drink called a lemon shake-up. It’s pretty much lemonade, with water and lemon juice (or flavor concentrate) and sugar all poured into a big-ass cup and shaken to mix it. Measurements are eyeballed, so you’re just as likely to get a perfect mix as you are a watery lemonade with a pile of sugar on the bottom that makes you sick, but you finish it anyway because it was $7 and you’re not getting back in line for a lukewarm water bottle.
Meant as a reply to Laura.
Sounds dish delish! :-9
🥤
The mood is definitely accurate for this independence day. If anything it’s understated. The Reichstag building is on fire, figuratively speaking.
Methinks Jocelyn knows what’s going on with those two, even if they don’t quite.
Jocelyn is the only family person who recognizes what Joyce looks like when she’s horny, because Jocelyn recognizes that same face from the mirror.
Im celebrating the 4th on the deck of my house in Coastal Virginia, with a bowl of chips and a frosty mug of hot-dog water, preparing for tonight’s fireworks.
American Civilization may be crumbling around our feet, but damn, its good to be alive.
Velma spotted
OK, I usually look them up, not being familiar with USA foodstuffs, but this one, I have to ask: a frosty mug of hot-dog water? My mind is boggling with possibilities.
After you boil the hot-dogs, why throw all that flavor away?
Probably better than hot dog-water anyway.
It’s getting dusk, so the neighborhood fireworks will probably be starting up as soon as it’s dark and run till after midnight. I’m sure that the fortune in fireworks they fire off every New Years and Fourth of July could be put to better use, but damn it’s pretty and I get to watch it for free. I have chips ready and leftover gumbo ready to heat up and I plan to take a folding chair out by the tree and enjoy the view. Firecrackers have started already.
Ours are meant to go off in about an hour. It’s usually not a super long show, but some years they’re pretty impressive. Got a splitting headache from working in the sun yesterday, but I promised I’d go see the fireworks for my gal, since she can’t make it this year. A little migraine is a small price to pay.
Jocelyne is the best <3
I like big sis. And I really like how she’s drawn in this page.