It’s an interesting question. My feeling is that Joyce is hetro but is so open-hearted and generous with her time and emotional energy that she often appears to be romantically interested in people.
With Sal, I think it is more of a case that Sal is so much Joyce’s mental stereotype of a strong, confident woman that she’s become something of a fangirl.
thejeff
I think she’s stated that her interactions with close female friends have been shaped by her childhood best friend having a romantic crush on her.
I’m impressed by how frazzled willis made her look with so few lines. I can only pick out a couple of details (lines under the eyes, spiky hair bits) that definitely contribute…
1Tonight at SEVEN there’s a floor meeting in the commons. 2It’s MANDATORY. I EXPECT to see you there. I WILL see you there. 3Because if I don’t, 4I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH MYSELF WITH YOUR OWN BLOODY FEMURS.
I mean, your version is infinitely better than the real verse: But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
I’d expect the Book of Ezekiel to be more up Ruth’s alley.
Yumi
Whenever I think of the Book of Ezekiel, my mind goes to Ezekiel 23:20.
Durandal_1707
Trust me, that is only one of the delights to be found in that book.
BSLangley
Oh my! I had no idea….. As a gay man who is anything but a prude, I found myself slightly scandalized and more than a little aroused. Who knew the Bible was a dirty dirty book!
I admit I was expecting something a bitt punchier, or a little deeper if it was the lesbian wedding verse.
I guess it is about… not being kicked out of the club?
Given Good
It’s in response to a woman telling Ruth to go back to her family and followed by Ruth stating that not even death will separate them.
Gay AF
TheHorseCouncil
Out of context it sounds like its about the same mentality as the sickness and health bit. Like “if youre going through a rough patch dont tell me to leave cuz i wanna be here”. And the your people bit seems to be like your family is my family whats important to you is important to me.
TheHorseCouncil
Course i dunno what the actual context is. Cuz i dont read anything biblical.
King Daniel
In context it’s…pretty much how you described it, but spoken from one no-longer-married-at-the-time woman to another. Put on some ShippingGogglestm, and it could easily be taken in a romantic way; even if not, it has been used that way by others numerous times for what seems like obvious reasons.
SeanR
Both my parents called the others parents “mom” and “dad”.
My brother-in-law calls my parents “mom”, and “dad”. (I can only suppose my sister reciprocates, as I don’t witness those interactions.)
I see nothing odd about a widow telling her husbands mother she’s family, and will not be abandoning her.
BSLangley
I actually read the entire Book of Ruth in order to try to understand the context of the referenced verse. I can’t say it helped much. 1:16 is so intense with emotion and drama, suggesting a deep relationship. Yet, the rest of the book lacks any other emotional detail, except maybe the end when Ruth’s son is born. The story doesn’t even explain how Naomi’s husband and sons die, they are simply dead, on with the story!
An important note for our Candian friends based on some comments from yesterday that I just saw:
American Taco Bells now have fries too. It took us a while, but we got there.
It is…so weird to me that KFC is your go-to for fries. I had to Google if they even have them here, and as far as I can tell, they don’t, though they do have potato wedges.
Anyway, the Taco Bell fries here aren’t just normal fries anyway (they’re called Nacho fries; they have a special seasoning), and yes, the have Nacho Fries Supreme.
Nono
It was a sad day when the local KFCs here stopped selling potato wedges.
Rowen Morland
KFC in England has stopped selling chicken.
(Ok, they mostly had to close because their supplier fluffed up all their chicken and didn’t deliver any but that is essentially what I said.)
marianne
I didn’t know that! Having done a quick Google search, these are my favourite two headlines about it… the first for being so dramatic: “KFC crisis: Almost 300 branches still closed as chicken shortage continues”
The second for showing people in my country excelling at farcical stupidity: “Police urge people to stop calling them about KFC chicken shortage”
Roborat
Ironically, I was just watching news coverage of that silliness, just minutes before I read your post.
Cattleprod
Oh, we’ve got dual KFC/Taco Bells here, they both take their fries from the same fryer, that’s how I know they’re literally the same.
Best fries are Culver’s. Fresh. Square cut to get the right mix of oil and potato. Crunchy on the outside and melty goodness inside. McDonald’s are the worst. Plus Culver’s has custard and not the chemically mix served in so many places.
We were too busy, uh, throwing parties…for…our guns.
(Do you ever want to brag about your country but it’s…really hard to come up with anything?)
(We were too busy laughing at what a ridiculous term “loonie” is for a piece of currency. Zing.)
BBCC
Calling them loonies is cute. 😛
Bathymetheus
We also have two-dollar coins unimaginatively called “toonies”. When they were introduced, the suggestion was made that they be called “dubloons”. As someone who read “Treasure Island” at an impressionable age, I thought that was a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, I was in a minority, and it didn’t stick. [sigh]
BBCC
Toonies are also cute. But I agree dubloons would be cute.
*high five* I also rooted for dubloon to catch on.
Bathymetheus
For those not familiar with Canadian coinage, the one-dollar coin is called a “loonie” because the original stampings had a picture of a loon on the obverse side, this being considered an iconic example of Canadian wildlife. Since then, other images have been used, for example the Northern Lights.
Kryss LaBryn
Also because a lot of us thought it was a stupid idea, heh.
Since then I think we’re pretty much all agreed that couch change that could legit add up to like a pizza is pretty danged awesome.
–Of course, most of us use debit anyways so it’s more couch crumbs than couch change in there these days but still
Bathymetheus
Also polar bears.
Bathymetheus
If you want something to celebrate about the U.S., how about those high-school kids in Florida campaigning for gun control? They’re not going to change the NRA nor the politicians it pays for, but if they can keep it up for eight months they just might influence the mid-term election. Now THAT would be worth celebrating.
Aplogies, Dave for off-topic and overtly political post. I will understand if you delete this.
Yumi
I’m proud of them, but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’d “celebrate.” How sad is it that it’s come to this?
Bathymetheus
Point. However, this seems to be part of a growing resistance to the current travesty of an administration. To me this seems potentially indicative of an understanding of the importance of maintaining democracy (“eternal vigilance . . .” and all that). It could be the start of a renewal of that concept. Or as fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen put it: “Democracy is coming . . . to the U.S.A.”
N0083rp00F
Sadly the travesty that is the three houses has been ongoing for much longer than this one administration. It is just that this one has no skill at polishing turds – and yes you can polish a turd – confirmed by mythbusters – but a turd is still a turd.
Bathymetheus
It is my understanding – and I am not a historian – that the founding fathers set up a tripartate government based on the concept that a three-legged stool is inherently stable. They wanted to make sure that no small group could dominate the government. And for almost 200 years, it worked tolerably well, if you exclude the failure to prevent Jim Crow laws. Gradually, power has been shifted to the administrative branch (the white house) and the congress and senate have become too partisan to accept the level of compromise that is necessary for a democracy to function. It is not too late to turn things around, but the U.S. is, IMO, dangerously close to a point of no return which will lead to something resembling feudalism. The only way out of that is bloody revolution, which would be horrible.
Bathymetheus
*tripartite
thejeff
If you exclude not only Jim Crow, but an entire Civil War.
And lets be clear, it’s not that somehow congress became too partisan, it’s that one party has decided that government not functioning is perfectly acceptable. We had a system that ran for generations largely on norms and informal rules. Those norms have been thrown out over a period of decades and replaced more and more with simple “it doesn’t say I can’t”. We saw it with the growing abuse of the filibuster. We saw it most blatantly with “nothing says we actually have to vote on a Supreme Court nomination.”
I don’t know how we get back from where we are, even assuming we survive the current crisis without ditching democracy entirely.
Bathymetheus
Due to clumsiness on my part, my reply was treated as a new comment, and is (for the moment) at the bottom of the comments.
Trump is a fascist.
Hey, let’s give his government all our guns.
I will never understand people.
thejeff
Probably too late for anyone to read, but:
1) We don’t like mass shootings.
2) If Trump’s a fascist, running the government, he’s got the army and they’ve got bigger and better weapons anyway. Guns aren’t the way to fight that.
3) The fascist and his supporters are the ones with the most guns and the most support for keeping guns not just legal, but plentiful.
4) In our situation, guns may not be as much use resisting the fascist as in arming his brownshirts.
Clif
Read. Thanks for replying, the jeff.
1. I don’t like mass shootings either. I dislike oppressive governments even less. An out of control government is a lot more dangerous and hard to get rid of than a mentally ill individual with a gun.
2. Nukes and Tanks are surprisingly ineffective for controlling individuals. Trump isn’t actually coherent enough to be a fascist;he’s just a dangerous loony that was elected only because the Democrat establishment went with someone wildly unpopular. Why did they do that and why didn’t the Republican establishment pull the cord on Trump early on while they could? Dunno. I will never understand people.
3. I don’t support Trump, but there have been very few slaves of any kind with access to weapons.
4. Actual analogs to brownshirts exist, but in the US. they are negligible, by which I mean their numbers are tiny.
I don’t own a gun and have no desire to do so, though my 95 year old mother keeps one. But when people want to prohibit my access to one because of mass shootings which continue largely due to the massive publicity given to shooters, it makes me antsy.
@Clif: Something people don’t often don’t realize is that owning a gun does not protect you from the government.
Trump and many other republican dumbasses say they want to arm teachers. You know who was both a teacher and gun owner? Philando Castille. A black man carrying a legal weapon who was shot 7 times at a fucking traffic stop because the officer “felt threatened” by a man still belted into his seat.
The officer has faced almost zero consequences, and the NRA has been utterly silent on the matter. This shit is already happening, and has been for years. They
And the reason the republicans didn’t bail on Trump is because he is merely a symptom, not the cause. There are far too many white supremacists in positions of authority, and far too many corrupt pieces of shit who have no interest in standing up to them.
Yumi
We were too busy preparing for the gold medal match in Olympic women’s hockey. There we go.
(“What about all the other years?” What about shut up.)
Mel
On one hand, my Canadian pride is annoyed. On the other, maybe four times in a row was enough for us…
270 thoughts on “Kale”
Doctor_Who
Hmmm, Joyce’s subtle proposal seems to have gone over Dorothy’s head.
Sierra looks like she picked up on it though.
Scoops
Sierra knows what’s up.
Or she’s thinking about pandas.
Makkabee
Pandas are up?
weirderthanweird
That would be really helpful to their breeding programs
Gen
Joyce is that friend you swear is gay, but only ever dates the opposite sex.
Rowen Morland
Bi-romantic, hetrosexual?
BenRG
It’s an interesting question. My feeling is that Joyce is hetro but is so open-hearted and generous with her time and emotional energy that she often appears to be romantically interested in people.
With Sal, I think it is more of a case that Sal is so much Joyce’s mental stereotype of a strong, confident woman that she’s become something of a fangirl.
thejeff
I think she’s stated that her interactions with close female friends have been shaped by her childhood best friend having a romantic crush on her.
user18
Poor Dorothy looks like she’s pushing herself pretty hard here 🙁
Inahc
I’m impressed by how frazzled willis made her look with so few lines. I can only pick out a couple of details (lines under the eyes, spiky hair bits) that definitely contribute…
Ana Chronistic
Book of Ruth?
1Tonight at SEVEN there’s a floor meeting in the commons. 2It’s MANDATORY. I EXPECT to see you there. I WILL see you there. 3Because if I don’t, 4I WILL BEAT YOU TO DEATH MYSELF WITH YOUR OWN BLOODY FEMURS.
Ana Chronistic
dang, superscript doesn’t work
VanVelding
It still works.
VanVelding
…by which I mean, the joke still works. The superscript is obviously busted.
Doctor_Who
First edition copy of the Book of Ruth.
shadowcell
“blessed be the femurs, for they shall be thy instrument of vengeance”
[Ruth 1:16]
Some Random Name
I mean, your version is infinitely better than the real verse: But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
Durandal_1707
I’d expect the Book of Ezekiel to be more up Ruth’s alley.
Yumi
Whenever I think of the Book of Ezekiel, my mind goes to Ezekiel 23:20.
Durandal_1707
Trust me, that is only one of the delights to be found in that book.
BSLangley
Oh my! I had no idea….. As a gay man who is anything but a prude, I found myself slightly scandalized and more than a little aroused. Who knew the Bible was a dirty dirty book!
Clif
Most people who read the Song of Solomon. Unfortunately the subtext in Psalms has long ago been lost in translation.
Rowen Morland
I admit I was expecting something a bitt punchier, or a little deeper if it was the lesbian wedding verse.
I guess it is about… not being kicked out of the club?
Given Good
It’s in response to a woman telling Ruth to go back to her family and followed by Ruth stating that not even death will separate them.
Gay AF
TheHorseCouncil
Out of context it sounds like its about the same mentality as the sickness and health bit. Like “if youre going through a rough patch dont tell me to leave cuz i wanna be here”. And the your people bit seems to be like your family is my family whats important to you is important to me.
TheHorseCouncil
Course i dunno what the actual context is. Cuz i dont read anything biblical.
King Daniel
In context it’s…pretty much how you described it, but spoken from one no-longer-married-at-the-time woman to another. Put on some ShippingGogglestm, and it could easily be taken in a romantic way; even if not, it has been used that way by others numerous times for what seems like obvious reasons.
SeanR
Both my parents called the others parents “mom” and “dad”.
My brother-in-law calls my parents “mom”, and “dad”. (I can only suppose my sister reciprocates, as I don’t witness those interactions.)
I see nothing odd about a widow telling her husbands mother she’s family, and will not be abandoning her.
BSLangley
I actually read the entire Book of Ruth in order to try to understand the context of the referenced verse. I can’t say it helped much. 1:16 is so intense with emotion and drama, suggesting a deep relationship. Yet, the rest of the book lacks any other emotional detail, except maybe the end when Ruth’s son is born. The story doesn’t even explain how Naomi’s husband and sons die, they are simply dead, on with the story!
Koms
Shut thine faaaaace or else I will shove femurs into it.
Yumi
An important note for our Candian friends based on some comments from yesterday that I just saw:
American Taco Bells now have fries too. It took us a while, but we got there.
Stephen Bierce
And Willis is wondering why people in his Tumblr feed are describing fries as “flaky” and “creamy”.
Cattleprod
But do they have fries supreme? That’s the only reason people care about Taco Bell fries, the normal ones are just the ones you get at KFC.
Yumi
It is…so weird to me that KFC is your go-to for fries. I had to Google if they even have them here, and as far as I can tell, they don’t, though they do have potato wedges.
Anyway, the Taco Bell fries here aren’t just normal fries anyway (they’re called Nacho fries; they have a special seasoning), and yes, the have Nacho Fries Supreme.
Nono
It was a sad day when the local KFCs here stopped selling potato wedges.
Rowen Morland
KFC in England has stopped selling chicken.
(Ok, they mostly had to close because their supplier fluffed up all their chicken and didn’t deliver any but that is essentially what I said.)
marianne
I didn’t know that! Having done a quick Google search, these are my favourite two headlines about it… the first for being so dramatic:
“KFC crisis: Almost 300 branches still closed as chicken shortage continues”
The second for showing people in my country excelling at farcical stupidity:
“Police urge people to stop calling them about KFC chicken shortage”
Roborat
Ironically, I was just watching news coverage of that silliness, just minutes before I read your post.
Cattleprod
Oh, we’ve got dual KFC/Taco Bells here, they both take their fries from the same fryer, that’s how I know they’re literally the same.
Wizard
I just had some Nacho Fries Supreme for breakfast. (I work the graveyard, so it’s currently mid-morning for me.)
Kamino Neko
But are they the best fast food fries in the world like TB fries up here are?
Yumi
I DON’T KNOW BUT IT’D TAKE ME AN HOUR AT MOST TO GET TO WINDSOR SO MAYBE I’LL FIND OUT
But they are pretty good in my opinion.
Tim
No they are not. Because Rally’s/Checkers has the best fast food fries in the world.
Justin Yates
No, because Five Guys has the best fries in the multi-verse!
HMRC4EVR
The fries are good, but any burger place you can’t get chili to put on said burger leaves much to be desired.
Formedras
Well… until ChrispCo branches into making fries.
hof1991
Best fries are Culver’s. Fresh. Square cut to get the right mix of oil and potato. Crunchy on the outside and melty goodness inside. McDonald’s are the worst. Plus Culver’s has custard and not the chemically mix served in so many places.
OBBWG
Agreed. Culver’s also has the best fast-food class burgers, as declared by Frank Bruni, New York Times food critic, in 2006.
BBCC
Took you long enough. 😛
Yumi
We were too busy, uh, throwing parties…for…our guns.
(Do you ever want to brag about your country but it’s…really hard to come up with anything?)
(We were too busy laughing at what a ridiculous term “loonie” is for a piece of currency. Zing.)
BBCC
Calling them loonies is cute. 😛
Bathymetheus
We also have two-dollar coins unimaginatively called “toonies”. When they were introduced, the suggestion was made that they be called “dubloons”. As someone who read “Treasure Island” at an impressionable age, I thought that was a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, I was in a minority, and it didn’t stick. [sigh]
BBCC
Toonies are also cute. But I agree dubloons would be cute.
Kamino Neko
*high five* I also rooted for dubloon to catch on.
Bathymetheus
For those not familiar with Canadian coinage, the one-dollar coin is called a “loonie” because the original stampings had a picture of a loon on the obverse side, this being considered an iconic example of Canadian wildlife. Since then, other images have been used, for example the Northern Lights.
Kryss LaBryn
Also because a lot of us thought it was a stupid idea, heh.
Since then I think we’re pretty much all agreed that couch change that could legit add up to like a pizza is pretty danged awesome.
–Of course, most of us use debit anyways so it’s more couch crumbs than couch change in there these days but still
Bathymetheus
Also polar bears.
Bathymetheus
If you want something to celebrate about the U.S., how about those high-school kids in Florida campaigning for gun control? They’re not going to change the NRA nor the politicians it pays for, but if they can keep it up for eight months they just might influence the mid-term election. Now THAT would be worth celebrating.
Aplogies, Dave for off-topic and overtly political post. I will understand if you delete this.
Yumi
I’m proud of them, but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’d “celebrate.” How sad is it that it’s come to this?
Bathymetheus
Point. However, this seems to be part of a growing resistance to the current travesty of an administration. To me this seems potentially indicative of an understanding of the importance of maintaining democracy (“eternal vigilance . . .” and all that). It could be the start of a renewal of that concept. Or as fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen put it: “Democracy is coming . . . to the U.S.A.”
N0083rp00F
Sadly the travesty that is the three houses has been ongoing for much longer than this one administration. It is just that this one has no skill at polishing turds – and yes you can polish a turd – confirmed by mythbusters – but a turd is still a turd.
Bathymetheus
It is my understanding – and I am not a historian – that the founding fathers set up a tripartate government based on the concept that a three-legged stool is inherently stable. They wanted to make sure that no small group could dominate the government. And for almost 200 years, it worked tolerably well, if you exclude the failure to prevent Jim Crow laws. Gradually, power has been shifted to the administrative branch (the white house) and the congress and senate have become too partisan to accept the level of compromise that is necessary for a democracy to function. It is not too late to turn things around, but the U.S. is, IMO, dangerously close to a point of no return which will lead to something resembling feudalism. The only way out of that is bloody revolution, which would be horrible.
Bathymetheus
*tripartite
thejeff
If you exclude not only Jim Crow, but an entire Civil War.
And lets be clear, it’s not that somehow congress became too partisan, it’s that one party has decided that government not functioning is perfectly acceptable. We had a system that ran for generations largely on norms and informal rules. Those norms have been thrown out over a period of decades and replaced more and more with simple “it doesn’t say I can’t”. We saw it with the growing abuse of the filibuster. We saw it most blatantly with “nothing says we actually have to vote on a Supreme Court nomination.”
I don’t know how we get back from where we are, even assuming we survive the current crisis without ditching democracy entirely.
Bathymetheus
Due to clumsiness on my part, my reply was treated as a new comment, and is (for the moment) at the bottom of the comments.
Clif
Trump is a fascist.
Hey, let’s give his government all our guns.
I will never understand people.
thejeff
Probably too late for anyone to read, but:
1) We don’t like mass shootings.
2) If Trump’s a fascist, running the government, he’s got the army and they’ve got bigger and better weapons anyway. Guns aren’t the way to fight that.
3) The fascist and his supporters are the ones with the most guns and the most support for keeping guns not just legal, but plentiful.
4) In our situation, guns may not be as much use resisting the fascist as in arming his brownshirts.
Clif
Read. Thanks for replying, the jeff.
1. I don’t like mass shootings either. I dislike oppressive governments even less. An out of control government is a lot more dangerous and hard to get rid of than a mentally ill individual with a gun.
2. Nukes and Tanks are surprisingly ineffective for controlling individuals. Trump isn’t actually coherent enough to be a fascist;he’s just a dangerous loony that was elected only because the Democrat establishment went with someone wildly unpopular. Why did they do that and why didn’t the Republican establishment pull the cord on Trump early on while they could? Dunno. I will never understand people.
3. I don’t support Trump, but there have been very few slaves of any kind with access to weapons.
4. Actual analogs to brownshirts exist, but in the US. they are negligible, by which I mean their numbers are tiny.
I don’t own a gun and have no desire to do so, though my 95 year old mother keeps one. But when people want to prohibit my access to one because of mass shootings which continue largely due to the massive publicity given to shooters, it makes me antsy.
Fart Captor
@Clif: Something people don’t often don’t realize is that owning a gun does not protect you from the government.
Trump and many other republican dumbasses say they want to arm teachers. You know who was both a teacher and gun owner? Philando Castille. A black man carrying a legal weapon who was shot 7 times at a fucking traffic stop because the officer “felt threatened” by a man still belted into his seat.
The officer has faced almost zero consequences, and the NRA has been utterly silent on the matter. This shit is already happening, and has been for years. They
And the reason the republicans didn’t bail on Trump is because he is merely a symptom, not the cause. There are far too many white supremacists in positions of authority, and far too many corrupt pieces of shit who have no interest in standing up to them.
Yumi
We were too busy preparing for the gold medal match in Olympic women’s hockey. There we go.
(“What about all the other years?” What about shut up.)
Mel
On one hand, my Canadian pride is annoyed. On the other, maybe four times in a row was enough for us…
AgentKeen
US Taco Bells had fries before, but they stopped carrying them.
And the flavoring on the new ones… isn’t good, really. I don’t think I’m gonna get them again.
Yumi