145

Nice out
Posted on April 27, 2022 by David M Willis
DUMBING OF AGE BOOK 11 KICKSTARTER UPDATE As of last afternoon, we have a surprise character magnet reveal!  It's DAISY!  An editor of the school newspaper!  Still hoping Amazi-Girl switches to a costume with a cleavage window.  But trying not to say that out loud. You can pledge for her by herself at the DAISY MAGNET tier, you can pick her to join your CHOOSE THREE MAGNETS or CHOOSE FIVE MAGNETS tiers, or you can go all in and add her to your growing pile of COMPLETE MAGNET POWER!

145 thoughts on “Nice out”

  1. Stephen Bierce

    *plays Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” on a passing car’s stereo*

    1. The Wellerman

      Not sure too much if this is irrelevant (maybe not, ’cause Walky?), but what the hell?

      I finally got my ADHD diagnosis!!!

      ???

      Feels so good!

      I am just SO THANKFUL to have great friends here who share my neurodivergent stripes, to be part of this WONDERFUL community full of people I can relate to, who know what it’s like!!!!!!!

      YOU ALL MEAN SO MUCH TO ME!!!

      ??? ??? ???

      *plays “Circle of Life” on Hacked Muzak*

      1. Rose by Any Other Name

        My wife is trying to get one of those.
        Congrats!

      2. Concolor44

        I think there are a lot of people on the neurodivergent spectrum who are not aware of that fact.

        There are those such as a friend of ours who is DID (five in the matrix) but high-functioning to the point that he has a job with the state government. He’s fully aware of his status, and deals with it positively.

        Then there are those of us who look on our “little quirks” as aspects of personality. My sister and I are OCD to varying degrees, and I didn’t have a clue until a decade into my marriage; she still will not admit it, though the symptoms are obvious and numerous. My wife is ADD (I used to think she was just good at multitasking, but she tended to not complete her tasks. Like, most of the time. Irked me until I understood it.)

        Then our kids got varying combos and extrapolations. Our daughter has migraine disease and synesthesia (words and numbers have colors, for example). Our son has OCD, a bit of depression, and Tourette’s. That was rough for several years until we hit on the right combination of meds.

        The mental health system in our state is broken. It varied between useless and harmful for much of the time we were involved, with two brief, shining exceptions. I wish we had lived in a more enlightened state (or been rich enough to afford good private care, ha-ha) where people were available who knew what they were doing and cared for the patients. Alas, that wasn’t us.

        I’m pleased for you that you have a diagnosis now. I hope, with the right support, you can achieve what you want to.

        1. Nova

          Hey, your daughter and I share! I’ve got migraines and synesthesia (mine is sound-colour for musical notes and people’s voices) too!

        2. The Wellerman

          It’s a neurodivergent stripe I actually WISH I had in myself, at least to a slight degree to help with memory and attention! ?

          The only times I’ve even come CLOSE to experiencing synesthesia is when I’m on cannabis, and only a few times if that, and I have no idea whatsoever as to how to consistently recreate it. At least, not yet.

        3. Keulen

          I didn’t start to realize I was autistic until last year, and only got diagnosed a couple months ago. I’m 33 now, and looking back on my life so far, I’m kinda amazed that I went 32 years without having a clue that I might be autistic.

      3. Opus the Poet

        I’m still trying to get the DoD to recognize they gave me PTSD from bouncing me all over the world as a child back in the ’60s and ’70s.

      4. Stifyn Baker

        Well done, genuinely. As a teacher of ‘special needs’ children in the UK, I really hope that this opens more doors for you to accessing stuff in the neurotypical world. My son is autistic, but high-functioning enough to make a formal diagnosis unnecessary; we pushed to get him one, though, because of the extra support and access it opened up for him in school (extra time in exams, supported time away from the classroom, that sort of thing). Took us a couple of years of jumping through hoops though (CAMHS – Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, the UK agency responsible for assessing and diagnosing neurodivergence – is under-funded, under-staffed and over-worked, typical for the UK health services).

        1. The Wellerman

          Thank you! ?

          From personal experience though, I might actually advise against the “autism” label, or at least telling people other than governments or school staff who have to know to give him and other neurodivergents support.

          At least in America, there’s a lot of harmful baggage behind the “autism” label, that leads to people making really hurtful assumptions us neurodivergents, and make it really difficult for people to tell the difference between our disabilities and our personalities. Not to mention making it difficult for us to understand ourselves and our own unique compositions of neurodivergent stripes. For all I know, the cultural baggage might be different in the UK, just something I’d look out for. ?

          You and your son take care!

      5. Decidedly Orthogonal

        Congrats! Love thyself, as you love others!

      6. Spencer

        Hey, congrats on that. I hope it’s a game-changer for you like it was for me.

  2. Sirksome

    Considering how questionable a health choice breathing in Sal’s second hand is, I think Joyce breaks even on this decision.

  3. Darkoneko

    please don’t second-hand-smoke right into Joyce :<

    1. Darkoneko

      (it’s a joke. I am not actually blaming Sal)

    2. King Daniel

      Joyce is specifically aiming for Sal’s carcinogenic vapors, it’s cool

      1. Geneseepaws

        Or warm-er… depending.

        1. Decidedly Orthogonal

          Ahhhhh. Methol!

        2. khn0

          Heavy or Death Methol?

  4. jeffepp

    Listen, some of us need every inch of our body covered in the cold.

  5. The Wellerman

    I know the feeling Joyce. ?
    Ironically alcohol wouldn’t help in the cold, so much for the drink! ?

    1. Raen

      It would help, so long as the only concern is comfort.

      1. The Wellerman

        Alcohol constricts your blood vessels and makes you even colder, so that comfort would be rather short-lived. ?

  6. DailyBrad

    I miss cold sometimes, but also very much not other times.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Autumn is the superior season. Light jackets and/or hoodies, the best.

      1. Yotomoe

        I do like light jackets but god the COLORS of early spring when I’m on a walk are second to none.

      2. TheLurkerAbove

        As a photographer, it also yields some of the best light and landscape moments!

    2. mrnoidea

      As a Californian who moved to Idaho for a few years, there’s an important distinction to be made:

      upper 30’s F: Kinda cold, but if I have a nice sweater I can warm up easy.
      low 10’s F with 10 mph winds: THE AIR HURTS MY FACE

    3. Rose by Any Other Name

      I normally say I prefer spring and fall… but the cloud of allergens that has been kicking my noses ass the past two weeks begs to differ.

      1. Needfuldoer

        One reason I still wear KN95s. These last couple allergy seasons have been the easiest for me since I was a kid. Claritin helps, but filtering the pollen out from the beginning helps even more.

        1. thejeff

          Weirdest thing about that for me is that wearing masks these last years has done a lot for my allergies despite really only wearing them inside (and not even that at home.) The office and stores aren’t where I’m exposed to pollen. Why has this helped?

        2. King Daniel

          Possibly indoor dust, if I had to make a guess? Most household dust is cast-off biological material after all.

        3. thejeff

          But mostly from work and stores, not my house?

        4. Uly

          Possibly your allergies were exacerbated by mild infection. Now you’re not getting sick, and your lungs aren’t working overtime handling inflammation due to infection, so you’re capable of dealing with allergens better.

        5. thejeff

          That’s more my suspicion honestly.

        6. Uly

          There was actually an interesting article about this I read in… probably The Atlantic? – where by coincidence a study had been started on asthmatic kids just before the shutdown.

          Which led them to make the novel conclusion that when kids don’t get sick, they don’t get asthma attacks. For years doctors have been blaming allergens, allergens, allergens – but if kids don’t get sick, they don’t get asthma. If you’re not nearly constantly battling a low-grade infection, you have more slack to handle everything else.

        7. Uly

          (And to be clear, you might easily have a mild infection and not consciously register it, especially since the symptoms overlap so well with allergies! And then when you feel like you’ve recovered your lungs and all are still a little behind, catching up.)

  7. Nono

    As someone who’s way more into the warm than the cold… I’m with… Sarah? I don’t think I’m ‘would stand in cigarette smoke to keep warm’ level

    1. thejeff

      Even if I didn’t mind the cigarette smoke, I don’t really think the warmth from it would be noticeable.

  8. Ana Chronistic

    “My dick’s small just LOOKING at that!”

    “WHAT”

    “Because it shrinks when it gets cold!”

    “…THANK YOU FOR THAT VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION”

    /actual conversation

    /was asleep until just now fwiw

    1. Yotomoe

      My dick’s small when looking at everything 😛

      1. Shadowsnail

        If it’s so small, how does it have room for eyes?

    2. The Wellerman

      I suspect a new avatar is in order, no?

      Although I do admit, I will miss your Sal one!

      1. Opus the Poet

        Assumes Ana was AMAB. Might have been an overheard conversation being relayed.

        1. King Daniel

          What? The Wellerman’s referring to Ana Chronistic’s gravatar always being taken from a random far-future strip panel—and today’s is the strip Ana’s current grav was taken from months ago.

  9. RassilonTDavros

    Personally, I pretty much always feel either too hot or too cold, with no in-between.

  10. not someone else

    Okay, if this is at all serious, even more data for the “there’s something horribly wrong with her period” theory: sounds like anemia.

    I’ve always been a cold-loving person but I remember a couple of years ago when shit got real bad and I had to open my screen doors in 80-degree weather to keep warm…

    1. Chasey

      That was my thought too.
      Had anemia due to my periods the last couple years, which resulted in blood infusions since I’d lose so much and never have a chance to gain enough of it back before the next period. Discovered huge fibroids were the culprit, and one hysterectomy later, I’m finally pink-skinned instead of ghostly white.

  11. alongcameaspider

    So if 3 of the 4 other characters are saying it’s noticeably warmer could whatever health issue (I know we’re assuming her period right now) Joyce is having be giving her chills

    Is that something that could happen with someone’s period?

    1. bleepbloop

      She might have developed anemia. Can cause even more fatigue than usual during periods and we anemics tend to run cold. Also could explain her vision problems!

    2. samwichse

      My theory on Joyce is appendicitis… fever and chills are common and abdominal pain is a giveaway.

      1. Blue

        She did say her whole body hurt yesterday, which was very different from my experience of appendicitis. I think she has a psychosomatic illness from the stress of the last few days, meaning she would have non-specific pain and just generally feel miserable.

  12. StClair

    I grew up in a smoking household.
    I’d rather be cold.

    1. Geneseepaws

      Doctor: “well, your tumor looks to be about 1cm x 1cm. Did you smoke?”
      Me: “no.”
      Doctor: “did your parents smoke?”
      Me: “dad was up to 3 packs a day.”
      Doctor to nurse – (knowing look), to me: “well, second hand smoke, that’s what causes this type of cancer.”

      1. James Thurber

        Dad was a cigar smoker, mom smoked cigarettes. I remember, as a kid, watching TV with my parents through the bluish haze of thick smoke. During commercials I’d go to the window, crack it open, and breathe some fresh air. That first breath felt amazingly good.

  13. Wraithy2773

    As a Californian, I’d totally be Joyce here…

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      As another Californian I’d be amazed and astonished at the existence of snow since it’s not a thing down here.

    2. Johan

      As a Southern Californian.

      We get snow…

      1. Opus the Poet

        If you get high enough. (mountains, not drugs)

        1. newlland(Henryvolt)

          Mountain top climate snow doesn’t count. It has to be snow falling g from the sky.

      2. Wraithy2773

        Not in any of the cities. Or suburban areas.

        I don’t mean it in a “Only REAL SoCal People live in places that don’t get snow” sense, it’s just more fun to snark about being in LA and picturing what actual cold weather is like :D.

        Lemme tell ya, this is one of the best and funniest scenes about LA, to LA people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAbGPpQ3qx4

    3. Yumi

      Tangentially, had this memory unlocked well thinking about people from elsewhere experiencing winter here (Michigan): When I was in second grade, there was a girl in my class who had just moved from India that summer. The first time it started snowing that year was in the middle of the school day, and she was excited about it, and then when the rest of us realized it was her first time seeing snow, we all started freaking out. We convinced our teacher to let us go outside for a few minutes (don’t know if she, like, moved up recess or just added on some outdoor time) because “Uthara needs to see the snow! She needs to feel it! She can catch a snowflake on her tongue!”

  14. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Ah yes spring is just around the corner, I’m sure it’ll be here in the next couple of b9oks or so.

    1. Yotomoe

      I’ll be in my 30s before spring hits, I assure you.

      1. newlland(Henryvolt)

        Eh doesn’t matter, spring and summer dresses are always beautiful no mater what The age (I say Quoting my more younger juvenile 18 year old self who’s been waiting for spring break since I started reading this).

        1. Yotomoe

          I was thinking recently how I rarely see dresses or skirts in real life. Mostly everyone I know/see wears pants. Or if it is a dress it’s a really long one. I just see them as like…fictional character design now like big anime hairstles or a billion belts on your outfit.

        2. Imogen

          I wear skirts all the time!

        3. newlland(Henryvolt)

          I’ve only gotten to see a few every couple of years, it’s a perk of living in a coastal area where the coldest weather you get is a bit of rain through Fall and Winter.

    2. King Daniel

      It’s early January. In what world is that month “just around the corner” from spring? 😛

    3. Needfuldoer

      Good old “fool’s spring”. A reprieve just long and mild enough to give you a false sense of hope, then old man winter throws you another haymaker.

  15. Yotomoe

    No comic tonight. I crashed right after I got home.
    Have this
    https://imgur.com/a/qKAeDIc
    Not sure what to do about the composition of the word bubbles or the background though.

    Also considering coloring it.

    1. Sirksome

      Walky being called out for not groping his gf now in HD!

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      The small touches with her expression works well here.

    3. Ana Chronistic

      hahahah this is great XD

  16. Nejireon

    That’s a fairly high-brow reference for Walky.

    1. Sirksome

      Is Walky well read? Do kids these days know about or care about Dorian Gray? I guess the character has been referenced in movies, but like even League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is 20 years old. Maybe Walky’s a fan of classical cinema.

      1. Proxiehunter

        I don’t think a lot have actually read it but it comes up enough in popular culture to have the gist of it.

      2. Nejireon

        If he’s a fan of classical movies, why is he watching League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? I’d say it’s more likely he had to read it in school.

        1. Sirksome

          Depends on how you define “classical” I guess. Do you define it by time or quality or both? League of Extraordinary Gentleman is almost 20 years old and likely premiered before Walky was even born. The first Star Wars is 45 years old. Even Ironman the first film in Marvel’s groundbreaking cinematic endeavor that’s essentially become the mainstream standard for moderm films came out in 2008 making Walky like 5 probably when that movie came out. Any movie we take for granted as being in the common pop culture knowledge Walky probably had to actively seek out. Even that phase of shitty Adam Sandler movies. Think about that. Mr.Deeds is a classic film.

        2. Nejireon

          I’m not going to call something a classic just because it’s old. I certainly won’t call the movie that convinced my favorite James Bond to stop acting a classic.

        3. Keulen

          Stop making me feel old.

        4. JBento

          You’re not old, you’re a CLASSIC.

        5. Bicycle Bill

          “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is not that bad a movie, I don’t care what conventional wisdom is.  Beats the hell out of all these zombie/vampire things.  And don’t get me started on the Marvel/DC superhero shit.

        6. JBento

          Counterpoint: it very much is. The DCU movies are incredibly bad, because I still have no idea who thought it was a good idea to let a fucking objectivist, of all ideologies, have a say about Superman, of all heroes, but none of them have Mr. Hyde rape the Invisible Man to death as a joke, so they’re all better than it.

        7. Bicycle Bill

          I don’t remember that scene, but I admit I’ve only seen the version as shown on television.  But when you consider that in the original source material (the graphic novel by Alan Moore) we were informed that the Invisible Man was using his ‘talents’ as a pedophilic rapist of underage schoolgirls at a boarding school, resulting in a number of ‘immaculate conceptions’, I think we can let the movie have that one.

        8. Nejireon

          That scene didn’t happen in the movie. That was in the 2nd graphic novel.

      3. Thag Simmons

        Walky is terminally online, clearly watches a lot of stuff (especially cartoons, which tend to be reference heavy) and picks things up through cultural osmosis

      4. Taffy

        Kids these days have varied interests and access to nearly any piece of media they’d like to sample. We could learn that Sarah has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things related to Rankin/Bass Productions, and it wouldn’t be shocking.

        1. Bicycle Bill

          The fact that they rerun so many of those Rankin/Bass things at Christmastime, of course, would have nothing to do with it.

      5. Rectilinear Propagation

        I’m pretty sure it got referenced in an episode of the Venture Brothers.

        I’m not sure it got referenced in The Simpsons but that has so many episodes now there’s a 50/50 shot that it has.

      6. Opus the Poet

        The movie Picture Of Dorian Grey is public domain so good chance a UHF station showed it on afternoon or late night movies, where Walky could see it.

    2. Jeff K!

      Not if he watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at some point!

    3. hazel

      Why “for Walky”? Knowing these kind of references are mostly gatekept, figuratively, by how much money your parents made and what kinds of bullshit you were most tolerant of. Walky’s a big fan of storytelling, and having a large stack of references is always good for making jokes.

      Walky and Billie both do this thing that used to surprise me a lot more where they say stuff that is a little unexpected, and then they keep going, and you realize it’s just who they are. I think the best moment of that with Billie, for me, when she brought up the etymology of a word in some hallway argument. Cannot remember anything else about the conversation, but it struck me, so I remember.

      1. hazel

        *Knowing these kinds of references is

        What a mess! Embarrassing.

      2. thejeff

        Walky and Billie arguing about “funk”.

    4. Nono

      Sometimes the kids put out surprising references. I think Amber’s trotted out specific bible verses before and she doesn’t seem the type to be religious enough to say something like 1 Corinthians or whatever.

      1. crow

        They know as many cultural references as Willis does

        1. Spencer

          It’s not that weird, is it?

          I know I kinda sought out obscure media back then as, I dunno if “badge of honour” sounds too weird, more like something I was less likely to know about automatically made it more fun to know about it.

    5. autogatos

      I mean it was required reading at my high school. Could’ve read it in school.

      1. crow

        He might’ve even read the first two pages of the Penguin Classics edition which spoils everything

    6. BBCC

      Walky referenced Escher prints early on. He’s always been more knowledgeable than he likes to show.

  17. mommert

    ooga the cold with cramps really does blow joyce

  18. thakoru

    I’m really confused as to what Walky is trying to say here. A “Reverse Dorian Gray Thing” would be, like, getting older and uglier while the character stays young and beautiful, which A) is kind of just how pictures normally work, and B) doesn’t relate to this situation. Really, what am I missing here?

    1. thakoru

      Or maybe it would be, like, the character actually getting prettier to reflect the increasing moral purity of its subject? That makes even less sense in this context.

    2. Sirksome

      Maybe it’s a play on the fact that Joyce’s self insert character is named Julia Gray similar to Dorian Gray. It doesn’t really matter if it makes sense when you’re as hot as he is, plus it’s obvious our dear Walkman is just salty he lost the comic gig.

    3. Proxiehunter

      He’s saying it’s sapping her vitality instead of making her more healthy.

      1. hazel

        My reading was like proxiehunter’s.

      2. Thomas

        Then he should have said THAT instead of being confusing. Walky should stay away from highbrow stuff if he can’t make himself understood.

        1. Yumi

          I mean. Some people understood it.

    4. autogatos

      I read it as her character is cheery and vibrant while she’s become increasingly grumpy and physically unwell.

  19. Imogen

    I do hope Sal manages to quit smoking at some point. That’s probably one of the most serious Unexamined Problems in the whole comic.

    1. Imogen

      the commenter below me and I are archenemies and come judgment day we will be locked in battle

      1. hazel

        heheh 🙂

    2. Thag Simmons

      Asher’s apparently trying to kick the habit, and good for him

    3. crow

      Doesn’t she know smoking’s bad for you?

  20. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    I appreciate that Sal’s smoking isn’t considered much of a problem. Simply because everyone deserves to indulge in a little personal vice, and of all of the self-destructive vices she could have chosen, smoking is perhaps the least bad compared to the drinking of Jennifer and previously Ruth.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Sal’s smoking is definitely seen as a character flaw. It’s not portrayed as an urgent problem but it’s definitely still presented as a problem

      1. Taffy

        Yeah, not everything that people don’t like is gonna be a maximum-level crisis.

    2. brute

      hopefully these kids are generally enlightened enough to know that badgering someone about their addiction isn’t going to fix their addiction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Except joyce, who probably thinks it looks cool anyway

    3. JBento

      Counterpoint: smoking is only merely “personal” and “self-destructive” if you do it away from everyone else. Otherwise, it’s public and “everybody destructive”.

      1. autogatos

        Yeah this. As someone with lung and migraine issues, while I fully support people’s right to put whatever they want into their own body, people who smoke around others without consent reeeeeally tick me off.

        It was SO common at my college. People would stand right next to the “No smoking within X ft” signs on the classroom buildings, next to the open doors, and I’d end up sick, headache-y, and having trouble breathing as a result.

        1. BBCC

          I once had an asthma cough fit walking through a damn door because some asshole thought it’d be fun to vape in the doorway. Nobody wants your grape flavoured smoke besides YOU.

    4. Spencer

      It’s not that I don’t understand your point, I just feel it’s kinda dangerous to frame smoking (since you were 13, no less) as “the least bad.”

      Let alone second-hand smoke effects, it can still fuck you up longterm. I’m affected losing someone I love to lung cancer, y’know?

  21. ADLegend21

    Roast her Walky. She needs the heat to keep herself warm anyway.

  22. BBCC

    Ohhhh poor Joyce. And yeah, it sounds like the weather shift between Indiana and Tennessee would be jarring.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Having spent a few years in Nashville, not as much as you’d think. Now Texas and Indiana, yeah going from Texas winters to Indiana would be a punch in the face.

      1. The Wellerman

        With your eyes closed. ?

      2. BBCC

        Fair enough, I know nothing about Tennessee winters vs Indiana winters so I just went off Sal seeming cold.

  23. Bagge

    I love the recurring setting of them going to class together

  24. Amós Batista

    Sal’s incredible hotter today.

    1. The Wellerman

      Hotter than her cigarette LOL! ?

  25. JepMZ

    Never heard of the reference ever. Might watch jt

  26. Rabisch

    Time for Joyce to try to smoke? If she can stand in the smoke of a cigarette enjoying it, I think she’s thinking about it. Maybe Sal will offer her one… and then Joyce will throw up everything she has in her stomach.

  27. Eldritchy

    Joyce doing an Inaho

  28. motorfirebox

    Wait, does Joyce have the ‘rona?

    1. JBento

      It has been implied she has the ‘struation.

  29. Spencer

    Panel 1 Walky and the gang posing for their prog rock album cover.

  30. Keulen

    I think I’d rather be a little cold than be walking behind someone smoking. But then, I’ve always had more problems with too much heat than too much cold.

    1. Blue

      I hear that it’s the opposite for people with estrogen.

  31. Spencer

    Walky’s being a dickhead for no reason but at least Joyce is allowed to say she’d like to punch him for being one instead of it being innately assumed that everyone around her is allowed to speak about her however they want to no consequence or comment.

    1. BBCC

      Joyce has always been willing to snark back and bicker with Walky. That ain’t new. 😛

      1. Spencer

        Well yes.

        That’s kinda what I meant, Walky and Joyce deliberately annoying each other is at least an equal dynamic.

  32. GeekRyuu

    See, that’s why I have many wee hand-knitted accessories in the way of scarves and wristwarmers and hats. The more skin you keep covered, the cozier you remain.

  33. True Survivor

    Did this Gravatar thing work?

    1. True Survivor

      Hurray! It Did!

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