(with us, all the kids VANISHED upon reaching college-age–it was like the Southern Water Tribe but in a giant tobacco field, and reverse the ratio of elderly to little kids)
Something about money disappearing or getting stolen and I think losing the building and having to relocate to Willis’s mom’s house. He’s talked about the story a couple times outside the comic, I believe.
Oh, sorry, I misspoke, I meant an intentional reference to said pastor’s embezzlement. If I remember the series of tweets right, the pastor basically used the money he got bilking people out of their life savings “for the good of the church” to buy himself a shiny new sports car and then let the church go bankrupt before opening it up again somewhere new.
Orion Fury
I did too. I missed the second ‘not’ operator in my reply.
I’ve never been to a church that actually died out, but it has to happen. The same churches don’t exist forever.
And, being a non-denominational church, it may have broken up into different people saying the others were all sinners and such. No one group can afford the building and its upkeep and bills, and so they sell it to some other church.
To be honest, it’s lucky it’s still a church. I’ve seen old churches become lots of different things. I know there’s one out there that became a strip club.
Harvey Janus
All I ever see are store fronts become churches, and then die out because reasons…… And then the storefront remains empty with a church sign above it.
Meanwhile there’s a dead church in my neighborhood we use as a landmark for dog walks.
TheGrammarLegionary
That’s kind of a depressing thought… There’s a storefront in my town that is now a church, and as an atheist, I’d still actually be sad to see this one go.
merbrat
When I was little, our church was in a store front. They finally raised the money for a nice big church. It was another church, last time I was home.
(I was raised Christian Science. You’ve heard of them, the ones that don’t use band-aids)
Dean
Aren’t they the ones who think you can pray a broken leg away?
StClair
That totally works, though!
… not measurably faster than a broken leg heals on its own, but it works!
merbrat
Yeah. My grandmother used to pray for healing, but she was pretty healthy. At least she didn’t scorn if mom took us to the doctors. I used to refer to the devout ones as Orthodox CS. I didn’t know anyone like the ones that end up in the news. I stopped going to church when I was 13-ish.
Pyrpyr
… a strip club? *inappropriate snorting*
Pyrpyr
*snorting laughter* is what I meant, sorry for any confusion!
Dana
Is “laughter” some kind of drug traditionally snorted off the backs of strippers?
TheGrammarLegionary
Let’s be honest, that works pretty well either way.
Flipz
You can find all sorts of things in old churches…deathclaws and synths, for instance.
In all seriousness, none of the churches I used to go to ever died out (at least while I attended them), they just ended up moving to bigger or smaller church locations. Then again, I *was* pretty young for most of them, so I suppose it could have happened without me realizing it–my parents were extremely good at reframing the narrative of anything bad that happened at church, so now that I think of it some of those moves might well have been breakups.
TheGrammarLegionary
“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”
– William Blake
Willoughby Chase
Bristol in the UK where I live, used to be the center for methodism. Lots of empty methodist churches which have become exercise centers, tool shops, car sales etc etc. They tend to be have been built in the 19th century, so they can be recognised easily as ex-churches. I have a feeling that may not be the case so much in the US.
In some areas, mosques have built. The surburban churches tend to be like the one Willis pictures but mostly brick.
WaytoomanyUIDs
The town I live it used to be ridiculously religious. in the space of 2 blocks were a Catholic, Anglican, & Baptist Church, a Methodist chapel and a non-conformist chapel. The only one still open is the Baptist Church.
altalemur
it has always (for like 5 years) been my dream to open up an LGBT community center in closed down church.
I know the Ali Forney Center (a homeless LGBT youth center in NYC) has been recently trying to buy out the ATLAH hate church that was so close to it once its foreclosure is finally official to use it as space for housing LGBT youth who have been kicked out of their homes. They raised a bunch of money for it back in February and now it looks like they’re just waiting on the final hearings before it is placed up on auction.
altalemur
that is pure awesome.
duckgalrox
Our synagogue is in the old building of an church. Said church moved into the old building of another synagogue.
We have our High Holy Day services in the church whose building we took over (their new building, the old synagogue) and our choir director, who also works with the other synagogue always tells stories about the old synagogue in the church that used to live in the building of our synagogue.
YES IT GETS CONFUSING BUT I FIND IT HILARIOUS.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Making a gratuitous Alice’s Restaurant reference because someone has to do it.
I think the best I got in the same class was 3 Fabrice *and* 4 Julien.
ischemgeek
In my class in school there were 4 other kids with my name.
And you couldn’t even call us all “[First name] [Initial]” because two groups of two of us had the same last initials.
…. I wish I’d been old enough to realize how creepy it would be for all of us to turn our heads slowly and answer in a cold tone, “….yes?” when the teacher yelled just our first names. Cuz man that would’ve been funny.
Landshark
Two of my closest friends are named Jessica, and their last names start with the same initial. We usually either have to use their full last name or nickname to specify which one we mean when everyone’s together.
LWS
My older daughter had a high school class where she was one of four Katherines (all spelled the same). The teacher started with the girl whose last name was first alphabetically and named her “Katherine.” The second became “Katie” and the third “Kate.” My daughter was the last and spent the year in that class as “Kat.”
It’s funny when you have more colleagues with the same name. Total confusion!
Jon Rich
I once interned on a political campaign. When I started, there were five or six interns—and three of us were named Jon, all with the same spelling. To make things worse, one of the other Jons had a last name beginning with R, too. We later got more interns, but still, 3/10 or so is still pretty unlikely.
I said it was a huge missed opportunity that the three of us never practiced speaking in unison when someone said our name(s?).
In one of my classes in high school, there were four Johns, three of us John C.s, and two of us John Campbells. (Neither of us the webcomic John Campbell. Or the science fiction editor.) It was always entertaining when we had a sub.
At one point my gaming group was entirely made up of Jo(h)ns. We went by SCA or Dagorhir names to differentiate.
merbrat
When I was in Kindergarten, we had 3 Jims. The teacher sorted them. The taller, serious one was James. The younger-looking smaller one was Jimmy, and the middle one was Jim. The names stuck. They were still going by them at our 30 year HS reunion.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
To this day I will not notice one of the common shortened versions of my name because because when a phone call came into the office, that one meant the other guy.
Jon Rich
Also, on my floor in the dorms in Freshman year, the floor was made up of two groups, each of whom had one class together. Between us, we had four Jacobs and three Andrews. For some reason, the Jacobs each got a qualifier in front of their name, like “Fluffy Jake (reference to his hair),” but nobody ever seemed to come up with a similar thing for any of the Andrews.
thejeff
That’s pretty much how I wound up as “thejeff”. I was the first Jeff in that immediate circle of college friends. The others picked up distinguishing qualifiers.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
In *my* day we’d have a duel to death over the rights to the name. With Star Trek music.
JustCheetoDust
I hope one of the combatants had to sing the music.
Katherine
We have so many people in my office with the same name (mostly straight white men, because West Texas) that we all tend to just go by last names.
If they were all homeschooled they might have effectively been in the same class. I have a couple of homeschooled who were part of a group. (I don’t know what percentage of what they did was with the group vs at home, but there definitely was group stuff.)
It probably went over my head because I was one of the Brittanys. (Only ever met one Jason, though.)
Orion Fury
I don’t remember that joke.
Shiro
It was when the little imps were talking to Hades and trying to convince him this was a different Hercules. “You remember when the boys were all named Jason and the girls were all Brittany?”
People name their kids after celebrities. Or saints which I suppose is a similar deal.
I’m betting there will be a *lot* of black kids being called Obama right about now.
Caitlyn
Barack*? Also why the black kids? ‘Malia’ was in the top ten names for all races for awhile.
I’m sure celebrities have something to do with it, but sometimes a name just gains steam and doesn’t stop rolling for awhile. If you’ve had kids or going to have kids in this current decade, they will meet their share of ‘Sophia’s’ ‘Emily’s ‘Ava’s ‘Lily’s and ‘London’s in their lifetime (if they aren’t one themselves)
Willoughby Chase
Ah, Barack indeed.
Naively, It struck me as he’s a black president and he might be popular amongst the black community? But the most popular baby names according to Today are:
I believe that I heard on the radio at some point recently that Khaleesi was on the top list of most popular names last year (I don’t remember what place though.)
People, that isn’t even her NAME! That’s her TITLE. Sheesh.
Not that Daenerys doesn’t sound cool at first, but she’ll probably be a Dani all her life.
But what do you do with Khaleesi? Kal? (That makes me think of Kumar, not a girl.)
At least do your research before you inflict something like a weird name on your child. That’s like preemptive child abuse.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Turning it into “Lisa” sounds like the best option to me. Or going by your mundane middle name (If you have two weird names, considered killing your parents.)
452 thoughts on “Countryside”
Ana Chronistic
maybe there’ll only be three Jennifers
(with us, all the kids VANISHED upon reaching college-age–it was like the Southern Water Tribe but in a giant tobacco field, and reverse the ratio of elderly to little kids)
Ana Chronistic
wait, alt-text, how does church DIE, I thought that was the point of church D=
RUINED FOREVAR
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Probably just pining for the fjords….
Shaunock
The church isn’t dead, he’s just stunned.
bearfuz
He’s… resting!
Wheelpath
Judas personally comes and kisses them
TheOthin
Something about money disappearing or getting stolen and I think losing the building and having to relocate to Willis’s mom’s house. He’s talked about the story a couple times outside the comic, I believe.
Cerberus
According to the story, it seems like it was embezzlement for Jesus and by Jesus I mean expensive sports cars.
Regalli
He saved space for Jesus in the expensive sports cars! Specifically, the passenger’s seat.
Dean
Jesus returns fire at the cops as the sports car jumps the police barricade, I get it.
Oysteinthenoisy
The Rolling Stones did a song about it. “I ran 25 red lights in His arms. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord.”
merbrat
well, you hear it all the time… Jesus is my co-pilot
StClair
I don’t care if it rains or freezes
‘Long as I got my plastic Jesus
Orion Fury
Kinda puts Jonathan’s car in perspective then?
Cerberus
I’m pretty sure that was an intentional reference.
Orion Fury
Not if you knew Willis’ Church history.
Cerberus
Oh, sorry, I misspoke, I meant an intentional reference to said pastor’s embezzlement. If I remember the series of tweets right, the pastor basically used the money he got bilking people out of their life savings “for the good of the church” to buy himself a shiny new sports car and then let the church go bankrupt before opening it up again somewhere new.
Orion Fury
I did too. I missed the second ‘not’ operator in my reply.
trlkly
I’ve never been to a church that actually died out, but it has to happen. The same churches don’t exist forever.
And, being a non-denominational church, it may have broken up into different people saying the others were all sinners and such. No one group can afford the building and its upkeep and bills, and so they sell it to some other church.
To be honest, it’s lucky it’s still a church. I’ve seen old churches become lots of different things. I know there’s one out there that became a strip club.
Harvey Janus
All I ever see are store fronts become churches, and then die out because reasons…… And then the storefront remains empty with a church sign above it.
Meanwhile there’s a dead church in my neighborhood we use as a landmark for dog walks.
TheGrammarLegionary
That’s kind of a depressing thought… There’s a storefront in my town that is now a church, and as an atheist, I’d still actually be sad to see this one go.
merbrat
When I was little, our church was in a store front. They finally raised the money for a nice big church. It was another church, last time I was home.
(I was raised Christian Science. You’ve heard of them, the ones that don’t use band-aids)
Dean
Aren’t they the ones who think you can pray a broken leg away?
StClair
That totally works, though!
… not measurably faster than a broken leg heals on its own, but it works!
merbrat
Yeah. My grandmother used to pray for healing, but she was pretty healthy. At least she didn’t scorn if mom took us to the doctors. I used to refer to the devout ones as Orthodox CS. I didn’t know anyone like the ones that end up in the news. I stopped going to church when I was 13-ish.
Pyrpyr
… a strip club? *inappropriate snorting*
Pyrpyr
*snorting laughter* is what I meant, sorry for any confusion!
Dana
Is “laughter” some kind of drug traditionally snorted off the backs of strippers?
TheGrammarLegionary
Let’s be honest, that works pretty well either way.
Flipz
You can find all sorts of things in old churches…deathclaws and synths, for instance.
In all seriousness, none of the churches I used to go to ever died out (at least while I attended them), they just ended up moving to bigger or smaller church locations. Then again, I *was* pretty young for most of them, so I suppose it could have happened without me realizing it–my parents were extremely good at reframing the narrative of anything bad that happened at church, so now that I think of it some of those moves might well have been breakups.
TheGrammarLegionary
“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”
– William Blake
Willoughby Chase
Bristol in the UK where I live, used to be the center for methodism. Lots of empty methodist churches which have become exercise centers, tool shops, car sales etc etc. They tend to be have been built in the 19th century, so they can be recognised easily as ex-churches. I have a feeling that may not be the case so much in the US.
In some areas, mosques have built. The surburban churches tend to be like the one Willis pictures but mostly brick.
WaytoomanyUIDs
The town I live it used to be ridiculously religious. in the space of 2 blocks were a Catholic, Anglican, & Baptist Church, a Methodist chapel and a non-conformist chapel. The only one still open is the Baptist Church.
altalemur
it has always (for like 5 years) been my dream to open up an LGBT community center in closed down church.
Cerberus
I know the Ali Forney Center (a homeless LGBT youth center in NYC) has been recently trying to buy out the ATLAH hate church that was so close to it once its foreclosure is finally official to use it as space for housing LGBT youth who have been kicked out of their homes. They raised a bunch of money for it back in February and now it looks like they’re just waiting on the final hearings before it is placed up on auction.
altalemur
that is pure awesome.
duckgalrox
Our synagogue is in the old building of an church. Said church moved into the old building of another synagogue.
We have our High Holy Day services in the church whose building we took over (their new building, the old synagogue) and our choir director, who also works with the other synagogue always tells stories about the old synagogue in the church that used to live in the building of our synagogue.
YES IT GETS CONFUSING BUT I FIND IT HILARIOUS.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Making a gratuitous Alice’s Restaurant reference because someone has to do it.
JustCheetoDust
Well, another church did take its place.
I wouldn’t call it a resurrection though, certainly not if it took more than three days to re-open for
businessservices.a snow ʍousɐ
It came back somewhere else after three days
Cholma
Everything changed when the Devil Nation attacked….”
Reltzik
“Except the sea. The sea never changes.”
“The sea turned to blood.”
“Yeah, but it was very watery-blood. You know, it’s always changing but always the same?”
“All the fish and whales died and it worse than month-old seaweed.”
“Okay, fine. But Switzerland
Reltzik
“*but Switzerland managed to stay out of the war, so it’s pretty much still the same.”
“Point.”
DarkVeghetta
*slow clap*
DarkoNeko
The six Jennyfers, hahaha.
Now that must have been fun in class.
Dara
It’s okay, they’re all spelt differently #notok
DarkoNeko
I think the best I got in the same class was 3 Fabrice *and* 4 Julien.
ischemgeek
In my class in school there were 4 other kids with my name.
And you couldn’t even call us all “[First name] [Initial]” because two groups of two of us had the same last initials.
…. I wish I’d been old enough to realize how creepy it would be for all of us to turn our heads slowly and answer in a cold tone, “….yes?” when the teacher yelled just our first names. Cuz man that would’ve been funny.
Landshark
Two of my closest friends are named Jessica, and their last names start with the same initial. We usually either have to use their full last name or nickname to specify which one we mean when everyone’s together.
LWS
My older daughter had a high school class where she was one of four Katherines (all spelled the same). The teacher started with the girl whose last name was first alphabetically and named her “Katherine.” The second became “Katie” and the third “Kate.” My daughter was the last and spent the year in that class as “Kat.”
inqntrol
It’s funny when you have more colleagues with the same name. Total confusion!
Jon Rich
I once interned on a political campaign. When I started, there were five or six interns—and three of us were named Jon, all with the same spelling. To make things worse, one of the other Jons had a last name beginning with R, too. We later got more interns, but still, 3/10 or so is still pretty unlikely.
I said it was a huge missed opportunity that the three of us never practiced speaking in unison when someone said our name(s?).
John
In one of my classes in high school, there were four Johns, three of us John C.s, and two of us John Campbells. (Neither of us the webcomic John Campbell. Or the science fiction editor.) It was always entertaining when we had a sub.
At one point my gaming group was entirely made up of Jo(h)ns. We went by SCA or Dagorhir names to differentiate.
merbrat
When I was in Kindergarten, we had 3 Jims. The teacher sorted them. The taller, serious one was James. The younger-looking smaller one was Jimmy, and the middle one was Jim. The names stuck. They were still going by them at our 30 year HS reunion.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
To this day I will not notice one of the common shortened versions of my name because because when a phone call came into the office, that one meant the other guy.
Jon Rich
Also, on my floor in the dorms in Freshman year, the floor was made up of two groups, each of whom had one class together. Between us, we had four Jacobs and three Andrews. For some reason, the Jacobs each got a qualifier in front of their name, like “Fluffy Jake (reference to his hair),” but nobody ever seemed to come up with a similar thing for any of the Andrews.
thejeff
That’s pretty much how I wound up as “thejeff”. I was the first Jeff in that immediate circle of college friends. The others picked up distinguishing qualifiers.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
In *my* day we’d have a duel to death over the rights to the name. With Star Trek music.
JustCheetoDust
I hope one of the combatants had to sing the music.
Katherine
We have so many people in my office with the same name (mostly straight white men, because West Texas) that we all tend to just go by last names.
Brigid Keely
Joyce was home schooled & I bet a lot of her peers were as well. Including possibly the Jennifers.
DarkoNeko
Fine. Must have been fun in group bible teachings.
Christine
If they were all homeschooled they might have effectively been in the same class. I have a couple of homeschooled who were part of a group. (I don’t know what percentage of what they did was with the group vs at home, but there definitely was group stuff.)
Doctor_Who
I once had a class with four Brittanys. And another with four Jasons.
What the fuck was up with people naming their kids Brittany and Jason for a couple of years?
Shiro
…so THAT’S the source of that joke from Hercules!
It probably went over my head because I was one of the Brittanys. (Only ever met one Jason, though.)
Orion Fury
I don’t remember that joke.
Shiro
It was when the little imps were talking to Hades and trying to convince him this was a different Hercules. “You remember when the boys were all named Jason and the girls were all Brittany?”
Bad Monkey
We had the Brittanys. Managed to avoid the Jasons. Heathers and Jennifers we had in spades.
Willoughby Chase
People name their kids after celebrities. Or saints which I suppose is a similar deal.
I’m betting there will be a *lot* of black kids being called Obama right about now.
Caitlyn
Barack*? Also why the black kids? ‘Malia’ was in the top ten names for all races for awhile.
I’m sure celebrities have something to do with it, but sometimes a name just gains steam and doesn’t stop rolling for awhile. If you’ve had kids or going to have kids in this current decade, they will meet their share of ‘Sophia’s’ ‘Emily’s ‘Ava’s ‘Lily’s and ‘London’s in their lifetime (if they aren’t one themselves)
Willoughby Chase
Ah, Barack indeed.
Naively, It struck me as he’s a black president and he might be popular amongst the black community? But the most popular baby names according to Today are:
http://www.today.com/parents/most-popular-baby-names-2016-so-far-are-t85261
Not a Barack amongst them.
The current UK crop.
http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/544585/baby-names-for-2016
There’s an Ezra (from the pop star George Ezra?) Look down, and there’s an Augustine. I’m pretty sure they’re not named after Augustine of Hippo:)
Akiosama
I believe that I heard on the radio at some point recently that Khaleesi was on the top list of most popular names last year (I don’t remember what place though.)
People, that isn’t even her NAME! That’s her TITLE. Sheesh.
Not that Daenerys doesn’t sound cool at first, but she’ll probably be a Dani all her life.
But what do you do with Khaleesi? Kal? (That makes me think of Kumar, not a girl.)
At least do your research before you inflict something like a weird name on your child. That’s like preemptive child abuse.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Turning it into “Lisa” sounds like the best option to me. Or going by your mundane middle name (If you have two weird names, considered killing your parents.)
[/joke]
Willoughby Chase
Ah, yes. A boy named Sue:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp5gwi_johnny-cash-a-boy-named-sue-live-at-san-quentin-jail-1969_music
In the UK list, names like Xanthe and Artemis are starting to appear.
Artemis would probably get shortened to Artie. But yeah, I’m with you on the strange appellation.
Scoutinthenight
Yeah, only a jerk would name their kid something like Earl or Duke.
Actually, I dread the day I actually meet a Khaleesi since I hated that character enough to quit reading the books.