105

Palms
Posted on October 29, 2020 by David M Willis
It's Dumbing of Age Patreon bonus strip time, and oh hey it's Booster!  And also we answer a roommate arrangement question that's.... surprisingly never been asked.  All Patrons can go check the strip out. And if you find a need to see tomorrow's strip a day early, you can always pledge up for that!

105 thoughts on “Palms”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Dina needs to learn some cosplay tips

    1. Demoted Oblivious

      Totes. All she needs to do is pull her arms and sleeves into her shirt/hoodie and dangle her hands out and down.

      n.b. The palms are facing down/backwards (hands flat on table) as opposed to inwards like clapping. This was her gripe about the raptors in Jurassic Park(who should be clapping iirc), though I’m too lazy right now to find the relevant comic where she taught us this.

      1. Demoted Oblivious

        Though I suppose she might be dedicated to preserving the radius,ulna and humerous orientation/configuration).

  2. Doctor_Who

    So the meeting now consists of Hockey Nerd, Dinosaur Nerd, and Politics Nerd.

    Not sure if Superhero/Fanfic/Video Game/Transformers Nerd is in a fit state to attend.

    1. clif

      I’m just impressed that Dorothy realized there was a couch and so of course Dina would be behind it.

      1. Xaeon

        With Dina around, you just get used to saying those first two sentences every few minutes anytime you feel that there is no possible way someone is behind you.

    2. David T. Shaw

      I don’t think that Ruth is a Hockey Nerd – she doesn’t obsess over hockey per se – constantly comparing stats of the Great One vs Rocket Richard for example.
      She is just a fan of a hockey team.
      The fact that the team is the Maple Leafs is a strong indication that she does have some sort of sociological/psychological condition – but not nerdism.

  3. Opus the Poet

    The comic is up early tonight.

    1. Opus the Poet

      Also, I have arthritis and I don’t have any problem with backwards-facing palms, that’s their natural orientation.

      1. clif

        Maybe, but I’m pretty sure that if your palms are facing up, that simultaneously having uncrossed arms and having your thumbs oriented towards the opposite side of your body is anatomically impossible.

        1. Agemegos

          It’s topologically impossible.

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          Maybe Dina’s hands are in a tesseract and she can shift the 4-space dimensional phase over our three space to reveal a different orientation of her palms? (Or is that move our 3-space through her 4-space?)

          Though to be honest (and wholely unrelated) I thought Palms was going to be a pun on Psalms for Joyce and Becky. (Well, unrelated unless stigmata)

  4. butts

    unrealistic

    arms should be shorter

    1. Doctor_Who

      Don’t. Amber already had to wrestle a band saw away from her.

    2. UnfrozenNeanderthal

      Yeah, we’re talking about an animal whose arms look like clawed nipples

      1. clif

        Oh, come on. Amber’s arms aren’t that bad.

  5. jufreire

    wait so are those the thumbs turned towards each other? or are they turned outwards? im confused but I appreciate Dina’s commitment to the character anyways

    1. a/snow/mous/e

      yeah i need a diagram tbh. maybe she’s got both her elbows and her palms facing outward? that seems like the only position that you need to be double-jointed to do, idk

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        either that or maybe she’s crossing her arms under her jacket or something. doesn’t really look like either of those though

        1. a/snow/mous/e

          though if she hadn’t said palms i’d think she was popping her elbows or something idk

      2. SuperFroakie82

        Yeah, I’m much more confused by how her elbows are bending, I don’t have any problem with the wrists personally.

        1. SuperFroakie82

          Cause if the elbows are pointing inwards this doesn’t seem too bad at all, but then again I’m a youngin’ so I guess my joints haven’t all stiffened up yet or whatever.

      3. Reltzik

        Okay, I THINK I worked out how to do this.

        1: Bring your arms together so that your elbows come close to touching in front of you.

        2: Bend your elbows so that your hands are up at about eye level.

        3: Twist your wrists so that your thumbs point towards each other.

        4: Twist your shoulders such that your forearms rotate slightly to the outside and down. This will feel like you’re risking a subluxation. It may in fact be risking a subluxation.

        (Reltzik is not liable if you suffer a subluxation or any other injury from attempting these steps. These steps are neither invitation nor instructions, but instead simply describe a possibly-painful and -injurious contortionist routine.)

        1. Agemegos

          I don’t find it difficult.

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          Put your hands flat on a table with your thumbs pointing at each other. Bring your elbows together. Done.

          Go hide behind a couch waiting for prey.

        3. Needfuldoer

          Ow ow owowowowow

          I can rotate my elbows 90 degrees that way, but bending them in like that hurts. It’s like trying to hyper-extend them past where they’re supposed to be.

    2. AGV

      Maybe this helps? (The first digit is the thumb, the fourth being the ring finger).
      https://images.app.goo.gl/Aw5NqDWpy3HdjAEE9

      Keeping in mind that she’s trying to avoid pronation for max accuracy, her palms are probably facing inwards (see the thumbs facing eachother), although Dotty’s comment and the weird elbow posture make me think that maybe they’re facing outwards, which means that she’s twisting her arms as if trying to catch something from above.

      Either way, I think that Willis is having as much trouble as us trying to figure out how a human can pose their arms a la Carnotaurus.

  6. Lanie

    Well of course I attempted! After doing so, I appreciate Dina’s dedication to accuracy tenfold more. I’m also sending good vibes for the health of her elbows.

    1. Rose by Any Other Name

      Same.
      Although, to be fair, I couldn’t quite figure out what she was trying to do. I didn’t have any trouble getting my thumbs into the proper location, so I’m thinking I must be missing a contortion somewhere.

  7. abysswatcher1993

    There’s a thing called acting/roleplaying Dina.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      Also, Booster had the decency of meeting those characters Joyce and Wlky are too coward to talk to.

      1. UnfrozenNeanderthal

        I don’t think Ken lives a singles room in the Forbidden Zone of the Girl’s wing

        1. clif

          And to be honest, I’m not sure I care who Ken’s room-mate is.

        2. Wizard

          Sure he does, that’s why it’s forbidden.

  8. BBCC

    OW. Just…just ow. Your wrists will yell at you tomorrow, Dina.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      I’m trying to imagine me doing it, and I can’t fathom how she is doing it. She’s being accurate though, maybe being right will offset the pain.

      1. Sirksome

        I just tried it a few times. It actually doesn’t hurt as much as I thought but I wouldn’t want to do it for prolonged periods.

      2. Autogatos

        Maybe Dina secretly has hypermobile joints! They’re great for party tricks.
        Less great for functional pain-free living.

        1. Regalli

          Yeah, I only just realized I did in fact have hypermobility this summer, after needing to see a specialist for nasty shoulder tendonitis. (It’s not so significant as to be undeniably obvious… especially since an entire side of my family has it but no one was ever diagnosed, so my mom’s sense of normal range of motion is skewed, and at least my paternal grandmother was diagnosed with it as well, so who knows about that side.) Explains so very, very much about my chronic joint pains.

          I mean honestly given Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome apparently coincides with autism an unusually high amount and we’re all pretty sure Dina’s on the spectrum, I’d buy it immediately.

    2. Reltzik

      I tried it.

      My wrists feel okay.

      My shoulders are what hurt.

  9. Sirksome

    I don’t know who that loser in the bonus strip preview is, but they look like they’ve been and will remain totally irrelevant to any stories that have been told in the past ten years or will told in the future.

    1. BarerMender

      I think Booster is looking at a future mate.

    2. anonymsly

      I think his name is Blanka!

    3. Geneseepaws

      Looked like Ethan at first glance. At second glance yeah.No.

  10. Kyrik Michalowski

    Dina’s committance to accuracy is inspiring and reminds us how great she is. Never stop being you Dina, unless you can become a dinosaur. Then choose to be a dinosaur.

    On that note, what dinosaur would you want to be if you were forced to become one?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      If I had to choose, I would go with Carcharodontosaurus because I want to be a meat eater and it is one of the coolest carnivore dinosaurs.

    2. Agemegos

      A pelican.

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        Not really in the spirit of things, but I respect your decision.

      2. Reltzik

        Nice, but I’d like to be able to talk. So let’s go with some flavor of parrot.

        1. Agemegos

          Talking is only useful for communicating with humans, and I’m finding that more and more of a frost.

        2. Demoted Oblivious

          I didn’t think people generally ate those, but I’ll bite. Honey-garlic, dry pepper, classic bbq or other?

    3. StClair

      a Silurian.

      1. clif

        Wise choice. Though I think that may count as alien and not dinosaur .

        1. StClair

          I almost said Voth.

        2. Rainhat

          Silurians were here first. Bu rights, were the aliens and should be called Holocenes.

      2. Geneseepaws

        If I can’t be Ambassador Kosh, then one of the maniraptorans, not sure which, but one with good armor.

    4. Edwin I Callahan

      I suppose the premise behind DOA couldn’t support it, but I’d love to see a new online strip where Dina actually was a dinosaur. Dinosaurs, it turns out, didn’t go extinct. They just got REALLY good at disguise – this is a nod to Scott Adams’ bit in Dilbert that dinosaurs just had been hiding.

      1. Wizard

        There’s actually a series of books with that exact premise: dinosaurs didn’t all go extinct, they just learned to disguise themselves as humans. Anonymous Rex, by Eric Garcia is the first of three books featuring a private investigator who also happens to be a velociraptor.

  11. UnfrozenNeanderthal

    Carnotaurus’ arms were basically vestigial, so she could probably get away with just hiding her arms inside her jacket

    1. Bryy

      There used to be a Theropod with literally stubs for arms.

  12. Stephen Bierce

    So let’s get to the point
    Let’s roll another joint    …

    1. He Who Abides

      Slow down, Meredith hasn’t arrived yet.

  13. woobie

    How was Dina spotted?

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      Clearly Dorothy is developing mom vision early in life, she has eyes in the back of her head.

    2. BarerMender

      Perhaps Dorothy has a heightened olfactory sense.

    3. Council

      Maybe she just announces something like that to any room she is in every once in a while. Dina would never know if she was ever wrong.

  14. Kravis

    Not as much as it hurt Shiryu to “rotate” his owm arm so that his fist could hit his own shield in that stupid ass fight with Quick Draw McGraw in Saint Seiya.

  15. Beau Kirin Maysey

    oh my gosh, this new season has Dina basically being unhidden! Will she thinks she’s lost her mojo?? >_>’

  16. Axel

    how are dina’s thumbs pointing inward?

    I’ve been trying to do this with my palms up but it doesn’t seem possible

    1. BarerMender

      Turn the hollows of your elbows up but your palms down.

  17. Autogatos

    Me, with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, surprised this is not a comfortable or normal position for the average person.

    1. ischemgeek

      I have hypermobility syndrome & likewise.

      Add another to the list of “wait most people can’t do that comfortably? Oh.”

      1. Regalli

        My elbows can’t quite go out that far and there’s some mild discomfort at the moment, but yeah, that’s exactly the thing the orthopedist saw and went ‘so you see that hypermobility there?’ when I went in for that aforementioned nasty tendonitis. Up to two months ago I wouldn’t have pinged it as odd.

  18. Ornithophobix

    Huh. Guess I’m carnotaurus then.

  19. Keulen

    I’m trying to figure out what Dina’s doing with her hands and arms in the last panel and how, and so far I can’t figure it out.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Rotate your right hand clockwise 180 degrees clockwise, and your left 180 degrees counterclockwise. Palms up, thumbs away from each other. Then tuck your elbows in a little.

      1. Needfuldoer

        Wait no, that’s not right. Her thumbs are toward each other…

        I can’t get my arms to do that. Am confuse.

        (Also it kinda looks like her left wrist is broken. I’m not going that far!)

  20. Bagge

    Dorothy reading up on dinosaurs to connect to Dina will never not be adorable.

  21. Bryy

    I have never felt prouder of Dina.

  22. Joe Angel

    Ok so my Latin is rusty but I’m pretty sure “meat bull” is not a great Dinosaur name.

    1. BenRG

      Look up the Ct. It’s actually a very accurate name when you look at the shape of the skull.

  23. BenRG

    I’ve never really got Dina strips like this. Am I supposed to be laughing at her? Mocking the Random Weird Dinosaur Girl?

    1. Geneseepaws

      Might be best to shrug shoulders and walk away humming.
      I get this on three or four levels, from Dina’s desire for accuracy, from Dorothy’s gentle but not all-in support, from the contortionist frustration, and a slight smirk at watching the tableau unfold, … because I have buds who cosplay, fur-suit, or Markland. So it’s kinda cute? AND amusing? Def. Dawwwws.

      1. Regalli

        Yeah, it’s the ‘I care deeply about you and am mildly concerned you’re causing yourself pain in the name of accuracy’/‘honestly it’s not that bad’ that I find amusing. (Having basically been there myself.) Also Dorothy’s immediate sensing of Dina and going ‘so, who’s your dinosaur of the day?’ The rapport between them’s just cute.

    2. Demoted Oblivious

      It is possible for the antics of people just being, to put a smile on your face through simple happiness at their joy, rather than because of thinking badly about them. Watch kids at a playground sometime. … Just maybe not in the U.S. Alternately, watch actors preparing for a commedy.

    3. RacingTurtle

      Since neither you nor anyone else here in he comments seems to want to mock the dinosaur girl, you can probably be reassured that that is not, in fact, the intended reaction! As to what your reaction “should” be, well, that’s up to you, really. My reaction is “Ha! Relatable! I, too, have held Unnecessarily Strong Opinions about things I like”

    4. Juanoku

      I think it’s endearing

  24. Juanoku

    Yeouch, but an accurate yeouch

  25. Reltzik

    I’m surprised.

    Of the entire cast, I would have thought the most likely to be double-jointed was MEREDITH.

  26. adam Black

    Willis: hmm what Twitter group can I graft onto fandom after pissing off the yaoi fans, with that 5 year queerbait shiptease of Danny X Ethan?

    Later: Ehlers -Danlos I offer representation, in exchange for purchasing indulgences of Dina Magnets .

    1. Spencer

      That’s not what queerbait means. Queerbaiting is when straight characters are teased as queer but the writers never go through with canonizing it.

      Two queer dudes deciding not to date isn’t queerbaiting.

  27. Tenzhi

    Sounds like a rakshasa.

  28. DarkoNeko

    -wince-

  29. DiktatrSquid

    Far as we know Carnotaurus’ arms were not only positioned weird, but they were smaller than a T-Rex’s hands. They look like a malformation.

  30. Spaz8

    I’m just worried about Billie! I mean I’m glad we are getting to see everyone else but I just am worried about where Billie is and if she’s ok I’m worried she and Ruth have broken up

    1. clif

      Nah, Ruth’s just annoyed that Billie died over the time skip.

  31. Diane

    Fun Fact: Dina was actually the first to arrive, and no one noticed her, even Ruth. Only when she realized Dorothy was here and prime to be attacked so she can take her place as Becky’s roommate did she show herself. But being the kind predator she is (or maybe feeling bad for taking down a well known acquaintance), she allowed a moment for her to notice, and unfortunately, this was her undoing.

    1. Deanatay

      I still choose to believe she teleported in behind the open door.

  32. nothri

    If your concerned about inaccuracy you should transmogrify yourself into an ancient lizard/bird creature instead of a naked ape with opposable thumbs.

    1. Agemegos

      This is very bad advice. Dina: do not transmogrify.

  33. Chris

    Complete non-sequitur: can someone who is actually there capture a 3D map of blowjob-cat? i.e. https://www.boredpanda.com/3d-mapping-app-captures-objects-photogrammetry-valerio-odeca/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

  34. Kazuma Taichi

    I attempted before checking rollover text >.>

  35. thumb

    Dina is rakshasa. Confirmed.

  36. Van Jealous

    Wow Dina! Some Trick! And I only thought “Jonathan Edwards” of “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards” fame could do that with their hands….
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8eBB8DLYDo

  37. Tunasammich

    This comic honestly made me so wistful…because Dina is autistic and does weird things, and the people around her just accept it, and here with Dorothy, even engage her. She hasn’t had the ability to indulge in her peculiar joys sucked out of her by life. She gets to pretend to be a dinosaur if she wants to.

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