228

Manager
Posted on November 28, 2015 by David M Willis

228 thoughts on “Manager”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    “Billie and her tryna improve my life gaddammit”

    1. inqntrol

      Yep, Billie sure knows how to light up the mood.

      1. Clif

        She knows how to get Ruth to feel something. Maybe.

    2. MackAttack

      Oh hey, hence cometh the comic of your gravatar’s origin!

      1. TheGrammarLegionary

        That was last week… unless I’m seeing the wrong one?

  2. Mr. Mendo

    Five bucks says she works “pissy red dandelion” into their wedding vows! ^_^

    1. Bicycle Bill

      “Pissy Red Dandelion” – Potential title for book #6?

      1. Mr. Mendo

        Thrash-punk Prince cover band, maybe?

      2. Chronos

        I like to think “EHHHHHHH” is in the running for that.

    2. cesium133

      Wedding vows? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. All they’ve agreed to is a sexy lesbian suicide pact. They’re way not ready for marriage.

      1. Lou

        Shotgun wedding?

        1. Rabid Rabbit

          Depends, did anyone pick up Toedad’s gun?

        2. DarkoNeko

          Get out.

        3. legobil

          Awh, come on, was that too soon really? 😀

        4. Roborat

          What, all forty pieces of it?

      2. random832

        Isn’t that what marriage is?

      3. dmaxx

        AKA: the tatu way:-P

    3. Cephalo the Pod

      My guess is still that one of them is gonna improve mentally*, while the other remains in a rutt. This will cause a big rift in their relationship and break them up.

      *Full disclosure, I have no professional knowledge on this sort of thing.

      1. Clif

        You have unprofessional knowledge? Or you’re making it up as you go along like the rest of us.

  3. shadowcell

    what about “You Pissy Red Dandelion”

    1. inqntrol

      “You look like a goddamn flower.”

  4. David Herbert

    And then the wrestling for the bottle turned into fucking.

    1. inqntrol

      Didn’t that happen already in the Slipshine? Didn’t see it, I’m just presuming.

      1. vlademir1

        Well, there wasn’t a bottle involved as I recall. I unfortunately came across their Slipshine installment on a different site and only skimmed the thumbnails before reporting it so I may have just missed it mind.

        1. Historyman68

          Very noble of you.

  5. Doctor_Who

    (hold up bottle) “Would you do it for a Billie Snack?”

    1. inqntrol

      How about 2 Billie Snacks?

    2. Just Here

      Or a Billie Smack?

      1. JessWitt

        Or a Billie Smock (it’s Billie in a smock).

        1. Dana

          Those last two are for getting Ruth to do it.

  6. Plasma Mongoose

    Can you feel the love tonight?

    1. inqntrol

      “No, but I smell booze in the air.”

  7. DarkoNeko

    Hey, hair colour insults are low 😐

    1. StClair

      Especially if the carpet matches the curtains.

  8. Cheshrin

    Love is angrily calling your girlfriend a pissy red dandelion because she’s using your alcoholism as a leverage point to get out of doing her job.

    Wait.

    I don’t think that’s quite right.

    1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

      Then you aren’t doing love right!

      1. Clif

        Or you aren’t doing it wrong right.

  9. Solenoid

    Not the RA you need or deserve, apparently. :c

  10. Spencer

    I’m consistently amazed at Willis’ ability to write cutesy couple banter that is also genuinely horrifying.

    1. Androiddreams

      eh, I’ve said far far worse things and recieved even worse back from my lady (who’s known as a pillar of the community)

      1. Deanatay

        My lover is also a pillar of the community.

        A pillar of salt, but it counts.

        1. Opus the Poet

          So your IRL name is Lot then? Good to know. 😀

    2. vlademir1

      Yeah, Willis has, over the years, gotten really, really good at realistic couples banter/flirting considering the personalities involved. Was one of the reasons Mike/Amber felt more realistically compatible than any of the SEMME era couples despite the wider personality gap involved.

  11. Professor Fate

    After they empty the bottle, they can fuck each other with it. Billie said she was going to get Ruth a strap-on, so the bottle would have to do for now.

    1. neeks

      while it may seem like a good idea at first, you really don’t want to use open containers as dildos, on account of…well physics. Suction is a thing and i’m not talking about the fun kind.

      (I will admit I don’t know this from personal experience, just anecdotes from paramedic types I’ve read on the internet, but all things considered I can live with that.)

      1. vlademir1

        There’s myriad other issues at play in such a scenario too. Potential bruising and lacerations among others.

      2. Commodore Jeep-Eep

        Also, if it goes in someone’s arse, it had better have a flanged bottom.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      I know things like this happen, but still …… did no one here ever hear about the Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle incident?
      EEEEeeeewwwww!

  12. Cephalo the Pod

    So, I take it Ruth got her mail and just never read it?

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      I just read the previous strip again, and now I feel stupid.

  13. Detective Boomwolf

    And with that, we now have a new nickname for Ruth. Huzzah.

  14. Taigan

    Re:alt text.
    That would make a better title than “Everything is really broken, isn’t it?”

  15. Stephen R. Bierce

    What about the Bomb/Are you sorry that you did it?/He said “hand me that bottle/and mind your own business!”–The Rainmakers, “Downstream”

  16. David Alexander McDonald

    “Pissy Red Dandelion” is going to get ALL the votes for the next book title, Willis.

    1. saltchocolate

      +100

    2. Dana

      I think it sounds more like a band name.

      1. DSL

        Obligatory “Why not both?”

  17. Liz

    OMS THIS IS LIKE THOSE BEFORE-BIG-MEETING TALKS BETWEEN SECRETARY AND BOSS OMSSSSSS

    This fits them so well since to me, Billie is like Ruth’s affair/assistant <3

    1. saki

      “OMS” ?

      And I totally agree on the assistant/boss feel there. It’s adorable. :3

      1. SpoopyFox

        Oh My Satan??

        1. Liz

          “Oh My STARS!”

      2. Liz

        “Oh My STARS!”

    2. Cerberus

      And it’s somewhat accurate because their relationship is also an abuse of power.

      1. Clif

        Billie is abusing Ruth’s power?

      2. Emma

        Not sure about an abuse of power, but a definite power imbalance. I have a feeling that imbalance is going to rear it’s ugly head sooner or later.

  18. Shiro

    Tbf, generally speaking it’s good advice. I’m not sure how I feel about this new development of Billie being Ruth’s PA, though.

  19. lime sheep

    so, wait, do people know about becky living there at this point im confused

    1. saltchocolate

      Not Ruth.

    2. Edupoet81

      I imagine that will be addressed in this story-line. I don’t know what official story Joyce and the others are going with, but I expect that will come up.

    3. Leorale

      I think just the people who were in the elevator?

      1. Tacos

        Plus Billie too.

        1. John

          And Sal. ‘Cause Billie gave her their room.

        2. Dean

          I’m guessing that at some point, Ruth will reveal that she has known about Becky all along, and just hasn’t bothered to do anything about it.

        3. Needfuldoer

          Plausible deniability.

          If she knows and does nothing, but nobody else knows she knows, if/when it becomes an issue she won’t get in trouble for allowing it.

        4. Agemegos

          Unless something bad has happened and the university decides to blame her rather than deny everything.

  20. JessWitt

    Yeesh, how is Ruth still an RA?

    Also, Billie is best secretary.

    1. Edupoet81

      It is possible for a person to be struggling with mental health issues and addiction, and still put on a decent public face most of the time.

      Of course, Ruth’s depression and alcoholism seem to be worsening, so she may not be able to keep up her public image much longer.

      That could be what the title is about. “That Perfect Girl,” is most likely in reference to that line from “Let it Go” — “That perfect girl is gone.” Maybe the title is about Ruth publicly losing face, and Billie being unable to save her this time.

      I’m not assuming anything, because I often end up being wrong. It’s one possible interpretation. I suppose we’ll all find out the significance of the title eventually.

      1. saki

        If this happens, I could see Billie saying “I don’t care what they’re going to say [about us]” like in the Let It Go lyrics… As in, if this happens, Ruth might try to protect Billie by telling her to stay away from her so she doesn’t get affected by terrible rumours about the alcoholism that will undoubtedly spread, and this would be Billie’s response. Let the storm rage on.

      2. Betty Anne

        No, you’re right. I had an RA who struggled with drug AND alcohol addiction, and no one knew until she had to call a floor meeting to tell us she was leaving school to go into rehab. :/ She covered it up by changing her “style” from cute and kind of preppie to one that made it look like the dark circles and messy hair were intentional. I still feel terrible about it, because I more than once heard her crying in her room late at night (her room was right next to mine and shared a wall) and I never knocked on her door to check on her. I figured being an RA, she’d have more access to campus resources and support groups than me as a loner and weirdo would. 🙁 [This is wrong, by the way – if you ever worry about someone, step in. She was an RA, in the sorority, part of First Year Experience, got invited to all kinds of campus events and meetings, and still managed to spiral out of control.]

      3. Rheinman

        “I’m guessing the “Perfect Girl is Gone” title will be about Joyce growing out of her parent’s image of her. Especially her being the youngest child and still “perfect” while all of her older siblings grow up and disappoint their parents in one way or another.

      4. Cerberus

        This.

        And for those with long-standing mental health stuff, you tend to get really really good at putting on a game-face for when you need it and just collapse at home. I agree with you that it might be worsening to the point where it’s starting to interfere with things and that might be getting to the point where the higher-ups start caring (not that they tend to care over-much about RAs as long as nothing bad is going on).

        And I could definitely see this as her falling beyond the point of Billie to cover for her.

      5. Someone

        Didn’t Willis say something about a Mary based storyline? Could that perfect girl be ironic?

        1. Emma

          I think he was joking but hey you never know.

    2. Tacos

      She’s still RA because most everyone is too scared shitless to go file a complaint against her.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        And the ones that aren’t scared, like Sal, are too apathetic or antiesteblishment to go to the trouble of reportimg anything.

      2. shortandfastpeople

        In my experience here at IU (and this has no actual knowledge behind it, only what I saw while living in the dorms) RA’s only get fired for one reason: alcohol. Either providing alcohol or failing to report /really blatant/ drinking. So while Ruth is definitely risking job loss, I don’t think she’s any worse than average at the counselor/support part of her job.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Two whole weeks of training!
          Not enough, by a long shot.

    3. Agemegos

      I guess that her supervisors are only somewhat more diligent than she is: supervising the lives of teenagers is work that no-one wants to do. So nothing will be done until someone complains or something goes horribly wrong. Then the university will either attempt to cover its own arse by pretending nothing was wrong, or cover its own arse by blaming everything on Ruth. Ruth can expect a complete whitewash or else a drastic over-reaction after a disaster, not competent supervision preventing a disaster.

      The same thing is going on with the TAs in the Maths department. Neither the resident assistants nor the teaching assistants are properly supervised nor properly trained.

      1. Jess

        True, but it leads to the best slipshines. :3

      2. NelC

        I guess that her supervisors are only somewhat more diligent than she is

        Yeah, witness that nobody seems to have given any advice on what Ruth needs to say to her residents. Nutcases with guns on campus is a difficult subject and, yeah, she really does need to have some guidance on what she needs to say, and what actually the university is doing about it.

      3. Cerberus

        Yup, we see that in this comic. The response to a school shooting is to dump all the responsibility for follow-up on the barely paid enough RA. Oh, yeah, take care of talking to the kids and providing some crisis therapy. Okay, we “took action”, everyone roll it up, we’re going home.

      4. Tacos

        I think it’s rather telling that the supervisors seem to have waited FOUR days before even asking Ruth to try and have a floor meeting and talk to Joyce. You’d think they’d immediately get right on it after a school shooting.

        1. Agemegos

          I gather from Billie’s dialogue in yesterday’s strip that they sent a dated memo in a timely fashion and require a written and signed or initialed return certifying that Ruth has done it, and that Ruth has been neglecting this duty along with all her others. No doubt the written instructions specify in some form that Ruth’s performance be appropriate and adequate. Then if anything goes wrong in future the university will be able to plead either that it happened despite the university providing appropriate and adequate supervision and assistance, or (if the people injured etc. show that Ruth’s supervision and counsel were inappropriate and inadequate) because Ruth disobeyed instructions and falsified her returns.

    4. Spencer

      I’m guessing we’re going to start seeing that unravel in this arc.

      1. Commodore Jeep-Eep

        And of of course Mary is gonna try to tug and make it come apart all the faster, calling it now.

    5. JessWitt

      Re: to all

      ‘Kay, I feel like a jerk now for forgetting Ruth has her own issues that they have soured her attitude towards interactions with other people. But if anything, she’s still competent in laying down the dorm law on her floor.

      1. Lord Stoneheart

        Mostly because everyone is scared of losing their femurs.

        1. Spencer

          Pretty much.

          Ruth isn’t good at her job, she just has everyone scared of her.

    6. Dragon_Nataku

      I’ve never understood the whole RA concept. Like, why is it accepted “fact” that being about two years older than the average freshman somehow gives you the life experience and worldly knowledge to adeptly handle issues ranging from homesickness to abusive relationships to fear of failing out of university to a wide range of severity of various mental illnesses to something like a school shooting.

      Like seriously, what the flying fuck.

      1. Cerberus

        It’s about distancing the school.

        You get to say “well, we were totally micromanaging the little freshmen brats, look at the RA” and get to dump a lot of the responsibility for crisis intervention on them. It also allows you to blame someone who isn’t more critical staff if things go wrong (someone OD’s, someone attempts suicide, and so on) for “failing to monitor things”. And thus avoid some of the responsibility for the negative.

        And on the positive side, it does employee a few of the students and allows some students to stay a little longer in dorms which can be key for them. It can give them a taste of responsibility that they probably weren’t going to get otherwise and can get direct information on some of the key issues before they happen. Additionally, it allows campus information to get out quickly, allows a discrete initial person for people to go to that doesn’t seem as “big” or “scary” as a therapist (note that many kids probably have bad assumptions about what a therapist is like and that college therapists tend to suck on toast). It can also allow them to have someone to talk to about identity or sexuality stuff before feeling comfortable going to queer centers. And it can defuse roommate spats between people not used to sharing rooms without involving an authority.

        Additionally, it tells the parents everything is safe and monitored, while allowing the kids freedom to explore themselves and who they are unless it’s out of control (see the previous bit about ODing). So, there’s some benefits that are good for the students and some that are just good for the school’s deniability, but it’s overall popular enough to be somewhat common.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          In many cases the students feel more comfortable when talking to someone within their own peer group (give or take a few years) than some 50-year-old guy or gal in a suit in the Dean’s office.

          As for “the Monday incident” — well, look at it from the school’s viewpoint.  No one was killed or seriously injured (ToeDad doesn’t count); only one shot was fired; most of the incident occurred off-campus; and the person who was abducted wasn’t even an IU student.  It just wasn’t a significant enough incident (and I hate myself for even thinking this, let alone writing it, but sometimes the truth can be brutal) to merit a full-blown “crisis team” response from IU.

        2. Cerberus

          That first point is a really good one and also why things like queer groups tend to be run by peers of the students. Plus, a lot of students are still probably in “adults tend to be antagonists” mode from high school and so are a lot more likely to open up to someone of the same age.

        3. Dragon_Nataku

          RE: the Monday incident.

          Some of us may have grown up in a literal war zone, but I can’t imagine many kids attending IU have much experience being around people threatening to shoot someone and then actually shooting the gun (albeit into the air). These kids probably have never had to deal with anything even close to that before and are probably freaked out (or at least some of them anyway. Again, people don’t always process the same situation in the same way)

          In regards to the peer thing, I get that but that shouldn’t be their only outlet. An RA should direct them to someone who is actually qualified to deal with this stuff (hell, even a psychology grad student would be better than an untrained RA and would also be within the age range AND would know of resources for the individual in question if they couldn’t handle the situation themselves).

          Speaking of RAs, the ones in my high school (it was a boarding school) only had like monthly floor meetings that lasted all of 2min, and the one semester I spent in a dorm in college I never saw the RA even once. No floor meetings, no introductions, nothing.

      2. Agemegos

        In the student residences I lived in the only thing that the senior residents actually did was to use their pass-key to open your door is you locked your keys in your room. And they were pretty grumpy about that.

    7. Clif

      Ruth is a fantastic RA. She keeps order and nothing requires additional work from her supervisorsince.

      1. Agemegos

        I get the impression that she might have been a bit slack about getting her paperwork signed on returned on time, but doubtless Billie will see to that.

  21. newllend(henryvolt)

    How about you both go talk to her, it’s hard to believe but you guys work better together then you are apart.

    1. Cephalo the Pod

      Ruth and Billie can’t be seen together. They need to pretend in public that they hate each other.

    2. JessWitt

      They are the Solvers Problem!

    3. electromagneticDestroyosaur

      Kind of takes the “secret” out of “secret (sic) boyfriend”

      1. Willinwoods

        as well as the “boy-“

  22. DinaWho

    It may just be me, but I can’t help picturing the colours of Billie’s outfit today as a sort of symbolic break from her high school past.

    1. DarkoNeko

      Just wait a week and she’ll dress in Leafs shirts.

    2. Willinwoods

      On re-reading the archive, I would guess that this might be the actual point where the change started … and/or the following few strips. Sort of lampshaded, IMO.

  23. LBD "Nytetrayn"

    Per the panel for the sale beneath the comic: God is really Willis here, isn’t he? I mean, it makes sense, but for clarification.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Yes, for characters in this comic Willis is their creator/God.

    2. NelC

      “The poor” are also Willis, I’m thinking.

  24. Mada

    But will “Don’t Get Guns Pointed At You” be the title of book *seven* ?

  25. pharmadan

    You know I could definitely see Billie being Ruth’s secretary when she’s a boss somewhere after college. And continuing the trope of the boss boinking the secretary.

  26. IDontcarenomore

    Agree that Willis does have great knack for dialogue between couples. And as screwed up as Ruth’s offer is: I snorted soda all over my keyboard at Billie’s answer.
    ‘Pissy red dandelion’ has got to be the best image I’ve had stuck in my head in a long time. Also, Billie is not allowing herself to be placed in a subservient position here either. Good on her.

    1. inqntrol

      So did you imagine Ruth’s face on a dandelion? Someone needs to do a sketch of that or something.

    2. John

      Yeah, like I observed the other day: these two had a big fight for dominance, starting at the first floor meeting, and while Billie’s content to be Ruth’s lieutenant now, I don’t think it’s because she thinks she lost that fight. I think she decided, in Ruth’s room after she pulled the fire alarm, that Ruth is weaker and needs her help, and she’s okay with Ruth nominally being in charge as long as she figures Ruth couldn’t do it without her. And Ruth gives her the attention she craves.

  27. Guairdean Beatha

    If you get guns pointed at you, you’re going to have a bad time, OK?

    You’re also going to have a bad time if you tick off a redhead. Trust me, I’m the father of two redheads. One’s a bright redhead named Ruth.

    1. Gamaran Sepudomyn

      Ross: worse than comic skeletons.

      1. Guairdean Beatha

        Thanks, I’ll pass that link along to my younger daughter. Her favorite video game is Earthbound.

  28. DarkoNeko

    I still think that while billie is taking care of Ruth’s agenda, she’s not taking care of her own lessons at all.

    1. Disloyal Subject

      Priorities.

    2. Cerberus

      In the past, Ruth’s been forcing her to somewhat keep up with her studies (at least to the point of getting her to her classes), but I doubt she’s been keeping up with homework or doing much in the way of studying.

  29. Bagge

    But she DID keep the ponytail…

    1. Willoughby Chase

      and putting the shirt on.

      1. Disloyal Subject

        Removing the ponytail would take effort, and putting on the shirt takes less effort than resisting Billie dressing her.

  30. Agemegos

    This is the mechanism that is supposed to get Joyce the help she needs, both for dealing with being threatened by Ross and for dealing with being attacked by Ryan. It’s also the mechanism that is supposed to get Amber the help she needs after her fight with Blaine.

    It isn’t working very well.

    1. BenRG

      In fact, it only exists in name. That is why Ruth, barring an essentially Damascene revelation, is toast as RA.

      1. Clif

        No problems are being created for the higher ups. What more could you ask from your subordinate?

        1. Agemegos

          I’d like to have the forms filled in and submitted in timely fashion, certifying that the students have been given adequate and appropriate this, that, and the other.

  31. Rabid Rabbit

    Dandelions are pissy by nature (hence also being know as piss-as-beds). Stop being so tautological, Billie. Nothing the two of you do should be linked to a word that includes “logical.”

  32. Lan

    Well this makes me wonder… Who’s the bossy-britches in this relationship? Is this like my parents where they alternate every hour, my grandparents where they exchange weeks, or my cousin who exchanges days with her fiance? Hmmm…

  33. The Gentleman Mummy

    Willis, I’m not sure your wife and child appreciate being called “the poor”

  34. Palamdrone

    I know much about alcoholic beverages….and I do not recognize that bottle. It looks like a large bottle of Elmer’s glue. Seriously Willis, walk into a liquor store and research what bottles of booze really look like!

    1. Tacos

      Isn’t it obvious? They ran outta booze already and Ruth’s just trying to trick Billie with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide with the label peeled off >.>

    2. David M Willis

      I go into a liquor store entirely too often, my friend. Well, at least I did before the pregnancy. I recommend you check out the whiskey area if you’ve never seen a brown squarish bottle before.

      Also maybe refresh your memory on what a bottle of Elmer’s glue looks like! http://cdn.dick-blick.com/items/238/87/23887-group3ww-l.jpg

      1. A Scientist

        I may be going out on a limb here, but if the bottle is opaque, I’m assuming that’s some cheap whiskey. In fact, that whiskey might be so cheap I wouldn’t even use it for cooking, much less drinking. I might, however, consider it an option for field surgery.

        1. John

          They’re doing field surgery. For depression. They’re trying to amputate part of their brains.

          This was supposed to be funny, but now that I’ve written it, I think it’s mostly just sad.

        2. Jonathan S.

          And accurate.

        3. Dana

          Sad because it’s true.

        4. Cerberus

          Self-medication never tends to go well.

        5. Maveric1984

          There are plenty of decent whiskey’s that come in opaque brown bottles.

        6. A Scientist

          I’m going to need their names, because I spend unhealthy amounts of time in the whisk(e)y sections of a giant liquor store and can’t think of a single one.

          Of course, that could also be a clear bottle, and the whisk(e)y happens to be that dark, in which case, either “Holy aging Batman!” or “Holy added color, Batman!”

      2. Palamdrone

        Liquor bottles always have long necks. The shortest necked bottle I’ve seen is Absolut, and that’s clear, not brown.

        1. Disloyal Subject

          Rule of thumb: if your argument contains the word ‘always,’ or ‘never,’ it’s probably wrong.

        2. Clif

          Rule of thumb: if your argument contains the word ‘always,’ or ‘never,’ it’s always wrong.

          Fixed that for you. 😉

        3. Smiling Cat

          By your own definition, your revision is wrong. 😛

        4. Clif

          The revision isn’t an argument in itself but rather a rule and hence needn’t be wrong on that account.

        5. Clif

          If however, it were an argument and wrong on that account, then it would be just another example of the rule being right.

          QUID (Latin for thus is ignorance demonstrated — or something like that. )

        6. Someone

          this is just deductive vs inductive reasoning. And yes there are things that are absolute.

          Tigers always breathe air.
          Humans need food.

          bears never turn into multi headed dragons.

        7. Clif

          And argument containing “always” and “never” are always ways wrong.

        8. Agemegos

          I’ve got six bottle with short necks in my liquor cupboard: Elijah Craig small batch bourbon, Dalwhinnie 15, Highland Park, and Jura Scotch, and Bombay Sapphire and Gordon’s gin. And that’s not counting Cointreau or Drambuie.

        9. Khambatta

          …or the half-bottle of Buckfast!

        10. A Scientist

          I’ve never seen a bottle of Jura from the distillery’s bottling. I’ve always seen them bottled by Battlehill, which the store carries because they can, and Battlehill sells cheaper somehow.

          But which Jura is it? I think I had the 18 year, and it tasted like a delicious campfire.

        11. Smiling Cat

          I don’t even drink or buy liquor and I know that’s not true.

        12. Eric

          By chance, do you the author of a webcomic review site? I read this “critique” of Willis’ art just the other day. MY whiskey, Bulleit bourbon or rye, both have stumpy little necks, even in liter bottles.

        13. Betty Anne

          You clearly have not had enough to drink, especially for Canadians. 😐 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7d/41/7a/7d417a928d047c34cebb6e8d0af01860.jpg

          Stay thirsty, my friend. :p

        14. Bicycle Bill

          Wasn’t that a special-design bottle, done in a style reminiscent of the CC bottles of the early 1920s, and released sometime back in the ’90s?

        15. Betty Anne

          I don’t know what year it was released, but yes, it was a specially-designed one. It’s just an example of its type; this style of bottle became popular during Prohibition (and Canadian-style Prohibition) because the neck didn’t break as easily when bagged or transported under clothes/in boots. There are still a ton of manufacturers who make short-neck bottles today.

        16. Amazistool

          Wow! Canadian Club was mentioned in the comments of yesterdays’ strip.
          Precisely it was in the second comment of ischemgeek in this thread.
          Uncanny!

        17. Betty Anne

          Heh, missed that one. ^^; Even though I can be the Queen of TL;DR myself, I’ve found myself scrolling past large blocks of text on comics forums lately. .___. I feel bad about constantly leaving my “Shut Up” app turned on, because I sometimes enjoy being part of fandoms, but I can’t handle Internet Arguments (TM) anymore, and large blocks of text tend to be a hallmark. My compromise is forcing myself to scroll without reading. ^^;

    3. Lord Stoneheart

      Just for clarification, is this a parody of “X is drawn wrong, Willis should do actual research!” arguments?

      1. Clif

        Yes, I like the reality where that’s true. Let’s live there.

    4. Guairdean Beatha

      Liquor bottles are some of the most diverse, and in some cases extravagant, bottles made. The majority of buyers can’t tell the difference between brands by taste, so the distillers rely on visual cues. Meander down the tequila aisle some day if you want to see some truly artful bottle designs. As for the bottle in the strip, I think we can safely assume that a college student can’t spring for the fancy stuff and goes for the Early Times type liquors. Those come in fairly generic bottles, especially in the smaller bottles.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        I think we can safely assume that a college student can’t spring for the fancy stuff and goes for the Early Times type liquors.
        ————————
        However, chapter 3 of book 3 was entitled “Answers in Hennessy”, which is a cognac (as opposed to a plain brandy).  Now while it’s true that all cognac is brandy, not all brandy is cognac; and on the scale of cognac prices, Hennessy is not exactly an inexpensive one, either.

        1. Betty Anne

          Whether or not a college student can afford X brand alcohol also depends on if they’re picky about their poison and will sacrifice other things to get their fix. I can’t stand most beer (I’ll drink a Guinness now and then if someone else brings it around) and I hate vodka, but I lived for Captain Morgan Tattoo for a while, and up until I got pregnant, I spent pretty much every Christmas break in a bottle of Phillips Peppermint Schnapps. I saw an ad for on-sale Phillips Blackberry Brandy the other day and thought briefly that it was too bad I don’t drink anymore, because it’s been a long time since I’ve had any, and I used to like the blackberry brandy now and again, too. (I also went through a phase where I drank box wine like it was grape Kool-Aid, which it pretty much is, but that’s a different and sadder story of a grad student trying to find a cheap drunk that didn’t suck and failing. :p) Addicts will give up a LOT – and not just frivolous things – to finance their poisons.

        2. Bicycle Bill

          Trust me; you don’t want Phillips Blackberry (flavored) Brandy.  Go instead with LeRoux Jeżynówka (generally prononced “yezz-NOFF-kah”) Blackberry Brandy — also referred to as ‘Polish style’; it’s worlds better than Phillips and at a similar price point.  If you want to splurge, then look for *genuine* blackberry brandy (there used to be a brand called ‘Stock’) which is made from blackberry wine or syrup rather than a grape-based brandy with added flavor.

      2. Inspector Hound

        Agreed. Liquor bottles are surpassed only by perfume bottles for unusual designs.

      3. Agemegos

        Billie scatters twenties where-ever she goes.

        1. Clif

          Point.

        2. Guairdean Beatha

          I’d forgotten that, thanks.

    5. Bicycle Bill

      You might check the strip when Billie found Ruth passed out in her room after pulling the false fire alarm, pushed the empty bottles under the bed, and she and a bombed-out-of-her-gourd Ruth hid in the half-bath .  There’s a couple of short-necked, rectangular bottles in that first panel.

  35. A Scientist

    “Don’t Get Guns Pointed at You” sounds like either a really terrible or really obvious self-help book.

    1. BenRG

      But one that would still quickly develop a cult-like following and spawn bizarre management fads!

    2. AnishY

      Hey, y’know that’s not the only two possibilities for such a book, right? I mean, it could be both obvious and terrible!

    3. Cerberus

      I could see it in two ways:

      A) Painfully ignorant self-help guide that reduces problems with abuse or school shootings into a matter of “self-reliance” where if you “practice the right life”, you’ll never get guns pointed at you.

      or

      B) Wry satirical novel critiquing American gun culture and the stasis surrounding handling them and the frequency of mass shootings and white Christian terrorism.

    4. Clif

      “Don’t Get Guns Pointed at You” and Other Things I Learned from Reading Dave Willis Comics.

      You know you’d buy it.

      Dibs.

  36. John

    I need to know how Billie makes these ponytails that leave the person’s hair like six inches longer than it was.

    1. Bagge

      HEAD CHEERLEADER!!!!

      1. Falling Star

        Hah! HEAD cheerleader!

    2. Disloyal Subject

      I think Ruth’s hair is just incredibly fluffy.

    3. Clif

      It’s an optical illusion that illustrates the essential principle that physics is no bar to inherent truths.

  37. saki

    Well, in situations like Monday’s, people usually give rousing speeches about how “we shall come out of this stronger”, blah blah. What Ruth as an RA could / should do, is tell the students about available counsel and / or support groups for those who need it. Also maybe to alert authorities if they ever suspect someone they know might do something like Ross did?

    Random side note: I like these colours on Billie. They look all the better next to Ruth’s shirt & hair colours.

    Random side note (bis): I can’t hear/read the word dandelion without thinking of Susan from Orange Is The New Black.

    1. Lawzlo

      A public service announcement, courtesy of Queen:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBrb0jIR2_8

    2. Dragon_Nataku

      What that meeting SHOULD be is an open forum of a group of people who have been through the same situation to varying degrees, where they can all talk openly about how they’re feeling about the situation and the aftermath if they want/need to and hopefully learn coping mechanisms from others in the group who were not as affected by it as they were (like Becky vs Joyce, while they both had guns pointed at them Joyce seems to be much worse for wear despite Becky being through more, different people react to the same situation in different ways).

      So, basically group therapy followed by, as you said, saki, information about on-campus (or even off-campus) resources for further support.

      It should NOT be a “the RA gives a stupid speech that means nothing and then the meeting is over” session like Ruth seems to think it should be. Again re-emphasizing my earlier point that the RA system is ridiculous.

      1. John

        IME, “the RA gives a stupid speech that means nothing and then the meeting is over,” is exactly what the residence administration wants. They don’t give a shit about the residents or their problems; they just want whatever happened that required them to take notice to not happen again. They have, however, no ability to address the actual root of the problems, nor any desire to commit the resources necessary to actually be able to do so, so they just task some nominally more responsible teenager to tell the others, “Don’t let people into the building, and if you see anyone suspicious around tell me, not that I have any more ability to do anything about it than you do,” or, “Drugs are bad, m’kay? And you’re not old enough to drink, and you’ll totally get busted if you do it here, honest,” or, “Drunkenness is not consent, and remember to wrap it,” or, “Don’t pull the goddamn fire alarm if there isn’t actually a fire, seriously,” or whatever the problem of the week might be. And it’s not like just telling people this is actually going to make them change their behavior, because it’s not like they didn’t already know it, they just don’t do it because they’re dumb. And the people who actually caused the problem probably skipped the floor meeting anyway, so you’re just preaching to the choir.

        1. Agemegos

          The administration also want to cover their arses against the eventually that actionable shit will go down. The records show that the kids were supervised by RAs, and that the RAs were trained, and the RAs held meetings that discussed appropriate responses to events — or at least that the administration told the RAs to do that, and got back forms with boxes checked and sections initialed. The instructions and forms all say “appropriate” right there in black and white. If it turns out that the training and the counselling and the information and the direction to support weren’t appropriate or adequate, well, that’s the fault of the people like Ruth at the bottom of the hierarchy who were told to be adequate and appropriate but who disobeyed, and who lied to the poor helpless university when they certified that they were. The university has documents to prove it.

          Where is Ruth’s supervisor in all this? Completely absent; even more neglectful than Ruth is. And, probably, no better trained for his or her duties than Ruth is for hers.

          My experience was long ago in a land far, far away. I’m not sure whether this is typical of colleges in the US, but it is, or was, typical in Australia in the Eighties. Academic supervision and teaching are largely carried out by people who have no training or inclination for it, and who are selected on criteria relevant to something quite different: research. When you do get an academic who is able to teach and mentor effectively and inclined to do so they are seldom encouraged, rewarded, or even thanked for doing it well.

  38. BenRG

    Yeah, the long put-off crisis for Ruth is coming ever closer, alright. Whilst I agree that she’s been given some difficult directives, trying to avoid or farm them out doesn’t augur well for her being able to keep the job. Similarly, Billie’s anger at her attempted manipulation doesn’t say good things about the viability of their relationship.

    On the other hand, notice that Ruth hasn’t tried to change her hair, despite making an outward show of hating it. That’s cute, in a way.

    1. Knightsword

      Ruth with her that way, makes her look like Carla though.

  39. Willoughby Chase

    Ah, the joys of marraige!

  40. Hinoron

    Physically capable of…
    Billy… Does Ruth need to throw you over another couch?

    1. John

      Billie’s probably deliberately trying to taunt Ruth into it.

  41. Lulu

    This will lead to drunk angry lesbian sex, right?

    1. Bagge

      It usually does

    2. Spencer

      Is it classified as lesbian sex if neither of them are lesbians?

      1. Just Here

        They’re into each other, so yes.

        1. Spencer

          I don’t think I follow.

      2. Cephalo the Pod

        I think so. Like, when describing a specific instance of sex, you can describe it as lesbian if only women are involved. A threeway with two women and one man would be bisexual sex.

        1. Spencer

          If anybody follows that classification I am going to buy a hat just so I can eat it.

        2. Clif

          He obviously does, so happy eating.

        3. Spencer

          Dude, when my ex and I had sex it sure as hell wasn’t “straight sex”.

          Not to mention their definition of “bisexual sex” is malarkey. If we’re going to acknowledge alternative sexual orientations to heterosexuality and homosexuality it should follow that we move beyond defining sex as straight or gay.

        4. Clif

          Well, yes. But the important point is that if they can have a sexy lesbian suicide pact then they can probably have lesbian sex. Lesbian sex for sex like lesbians have is a standard English move.

      3. Cerberus

        I don’t know. I’m not big on classifying actions versus people with labels. Though, I might be the wrong person to weigh in on this one because A) I’m asexual as fuck and B) most of the time when I’m talking about this kind of stuff, I’m just calling it queer or non-heteronormative sex or referring to it by the specific acts.

        1. Spencer

          It’s not really up to me, but I also like to refer to it as queer. It’s a more encompassing description.

          Labeling sex between people who aren’t of that specific sexual identity just smacks me as a bit dismissive, I guess. Like, there’s only one specific non-heteronormative way to make love with a partner.

        2. Cerberus

          Yeah, I can see that. Especially when combined with the way that queer sex tends to be viewed as a small handful of sex acts that get especially highlighted in porn and then how that is used to dismiss or condemn queer relationships in general. (See the homophobes freaking out about butt sex which is “clearly” all two men can get up to or the bizarre belief that strap-ons or scissoring are the only two acts that two women get up to.)

        3. John

          I’m a lot more comfortable with classifying and labeling acts that way than I am with classifying and labeling people. Acts are concrete things objectively observable and fixed in time. People’s identities are hazy and subjective and subject to change.

          So we can look at Billie and Ruth and see that they’re ladies, and they had sex together, and say that therefore they had lesbian sex, without having to make any sort of judgement call on their sexual orientation or identity or anything. It doesn’t make them lesbians or bisexual or straight or queer or pansexual or whatthefuckever. It just makes them people who have had lesbian sex at least a couple of times. If they want to make that part of their identity, or not, that’s on them.

          I had a girlfriend who once got talked into a threesome with another girl by her then-boyfriend. She had sex with the other girl, decided she didn’t like it, and hasn’t done that again. She identified, and still identifies, as straight. Does that mean that when she was going down on that other girl, she was having straight sex? That seems pretty self-evidently nonsensical to me. But saying that she’s not straight because she had sex with a girl once and doesn’t want to again also seems pretty nonsensical. Not wanting to have sex with other women (but wanting to with guys) is pretty much the definition of “straight woman”. She just has enough data to know for sure that it’s not something she wants to do. But saying that she’s a straight woman who had lesbian sex once seems to me a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

          And there’s nothing in there about what specific sex acts are involved. Stop letting bad porn define your vocabulary.

  42. Falling Star

    D-dandelion…?

  43. Marc in MN

    Is Billie becoming Ruth’s Pepper Potts now? 😛

  44. GhostWriterL

    Nothing like two abusive drunks being together to spell out “romance of the century”.

    Pardon me while I chase down the eyes that have rolled out of my head.

    1. Spencer

      I don’t think we’re supposed to view them as romantic and healthy.

  45. Guy Responding to Spencer

    Thank you! I’m glad someone else thinks this way. Alcoholism is definitely not something that should be romanticized. The dynamic between Ruth and Billie is essentially “the blind leading the blind”

  46. brumagem

    S-surely it’s a good excuse to boss people around and go over emergency procedures for outside/inside threats?

    1. Clif

      Requires energy.

  47. hack

    RUTH DEATH WATCH DAY 4

  48. Yu'Karaya

    Definitely resembles all of my alcoholic lesbian relationships so far

  49. Coolmaycroft

    My OTP

  50. Cerberus

    Okay, two major things from the comic.

    1) Of course the word of God from higher up in the school is to dump the “talking to the students who were affected” on the completely untrained in psychology bottom rung authority figure. It’s darkly accurate to how schools tend to handle the aftermath of terrible events like school shootings. Expecting those with the least power to do a band-aid on the situation with a short little meeting and call it a day. No wonder Ruth is feeling frustrated and depressed about her expected role.

    And her expected role to do in-depth crisis management with the student the school thinks is the most affected by the shooting on campus is complete responsibility dodging by administration. Even if she was competent and better at empathy than she is (we’ve seen in her attempt to follow up with Amber just how bad she is at the empathy and crisis response thing even when she’s genuinely trying her best), that’s too heavy of an ask for any student. She’s being asked to do the job of a talented psychologist as a what? Third-year english major? No wonder she’s dodging that checkmark, because she’s probably darkly aware that the potential to make things so much worse are high and that her superiors only really care about checking it off and saying “look at how quickly we reached out”.

    And that’s one of the central tragedies of Ruth as an RA. She’s got a dim view of her superiors and how little her superiors regard her which is just reinforcing how the voice on the phone (her grandpa?) belittles and looks down on her accomplishments. She’s seeing her role as a monkey dancing around in a vest and it’s helping reinforce her views of herself as pointless and worthless and that in turn is keeping her from using the role to make meaning (I mean, her floor could definitely use somebody who genuinely reaches out and checks in on everybody’s mental well-being and directs people to good resources).

    And of course, it probably doesn’t help that there’s not much she can direct students to. Campus psychological services tend to be infamously bad (like blaming people for being sexually assaulted, denying things like depression or gender identity disorder even exist, or just being really unhelpful and accusatory) as they tend to be staffed with the cheapest, worst trained psychologists they can find. So I doubt Ruth is overly enamored with them, especially if she tried to use them once and feels they “failed” her.

    2) That panel 4. This is the reveal of the toxic sore that is going untreated in this relationship. Billie still fundamentally believes she is useless and cannot help anyone. That her presence is toxic rather than helpful and is scared to reach out to anyone even if she actually is a somewhat friend. And all her codependence and effort and throwing herself into caring for Ruth is not able to reach this fundamental belief about herself and stop her from believing that she’s garbage.

    And this surface over deep is pretty much the whole underlying problem with their relationship. They each have deep issues and they both have great connections, but both are afraid of where deep may lead and so stick to the superficial and the simple “solutions”. If we have great sex, great banter, and booze away our insecurities and self-loathing, then everything’s fine because we skate around the deeper issues eating us up inside. And that’s what’s going to drown this relationship when the NRE fades. All those undealt with scars and poison that’s just being… delayed at best.

    1. Marc in MN

      It would be my assumption that Ruth’s duty in this instance as an RA would be to tell the students on her floor what resources are available and where they can go if they should need help in dealing with the situation. It would not be her job to directly help them deal with the situation.

      Realistically, using the RAs in this way is an efficient way for the school to get the word out to the entire student body.

      1. Marc in MN

        Although, I guess the part about talking to Joyce one-on-one is a little off.

        My previous comment is more focused whatever kind of floor meeting she might be required to have with everyone.

      2. Commodore Jeep-Eep

        As well as maybe running over the campus protocol for lockdowns and the like.

    2. thejeff

      OTOH, regardless of what colleges would really do in this situation, it makes narrative sense for Ruth to be doing it, rather than introducing a set of new adult characters, who probably wouldn’t be seen again – unless we have repeated sessions of Joyce (and half the rest of the cast) in counseling.
      Instead we build on existing characterization and relationships and get to showcase the flaws of a different set of characters.

  51. Tenn

    Things that happened during the timeskip:

    1. Billie became Ruth’s secretary.
    2. Becky got a job at Galasso’s Pizza (and Subs) and has now advanced to CEO.
    3. Walky ordered and received another pair of pajama jeans.

  52. Someone

    *
    crazy how things work out huh Billie

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