I’m thinking (hoping) that Linda and Charles are assuming that Amber now loses tuition, not that there was any actual information divulged to that effect. I can’t imagine there’s been time for anything and so hopefully this is a distant looming rather than an urgent pressing kind of issue.
No but he seems to agree with everything Linda says.
Sirksome
No. He mostly just makes wise cracks and plays yes man to his wife. He once made a somewhat racist comment about Sal’s hair and googled whether illegals get health insurance but I don’t think that’s enough to make any real judgement calls on the dude. What is your deal Charles!?!?
BBCC
Sal usually talks about her parents, plural, when she says stuff like ‘I don’t need another lecture about how I’m a failure’. When Blaine was arrested, she also told Amber she envied her ability to reject her father’s claim over her.
I don’t think it looks good for him, though he’s clearly less blatant than Linda.
Smatterguy
Wait when did he say something racist about his own daughters hair?
Honest question, not defending him. Just forgotten when he said that due to gigantic long archive/running time.
Marisa Mockery
Her hair lost its straightness when she got her math grades and he commented on it. It hurt her feelings
Sirksome
He just said she looks prettier with straight hair which devalues her natural hair type in favor of a trait traditionally associated with being white. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/appointment/
It’s not the hugest deal in the world considering society as a whole has done this for decades, centuries even in America, but as a father he should probably prioritize building his daughter’s self esteem when it comes to her appearance instead of criticizing it. He’s been called out on it. Personally I think it’s a stretch to say he’s a bad guy for it. That’s kind of systemic racism bullshit more than his fault to me. But he still doesn’t really look good.
lightsabermario
That’s a stretch to say that was criticism. It’s an opinion, in which he complimented her old hairstyle. Especially considering he is also black, I’d say he has a right to that opinion. Also, there was no malice or derision in his comment, just personal taste, and sometimes you want an objective opinion from your parents without the tired cliche of “You look wonderful no matter what you do.”
Jasie
You may not realize this, but there’s actually a whole giant real world discourse going back over a hundred years about black women’s hair and the concept of “good” hair, like it’s a whole thing.
His comment does not exist in a vacuum! Imagine if she’d tanned and he told her that she looks SO pretty with lighter skin. He may not say it with malice, but there’s a whole lot of cultural and societal baggage that would go along not only with her reception of those words, but with what caused him to form his opinion in the first place. The same is true for her hair.
And believe me, black men’s opinions about black women are not inherently unproblematic. Black men are NOT immune to misogynoir and they’re not immune to terrible opinions about black women’s hair.
thejeff
And even without all the racial issues surrounding black women’s hair, it’s still not ever a good move to tell a girl you don’t like her new hairstyle. Even your daughter. You can always not comment.
Captain Oblivious
It’s a very dick move to tell someone they used to look better than they do now. Especially when they didn’t ask for your opinion. It explicitly frames their current look as being less attractive.
Any parent would need to be pretty oblivious to their child’s feelings to not realize doing this would hurt them.
BBCC
She never asked for his racially loaded opinion. He noticed her hair was curly and then said “Too bad. You look pretty with your hair long and straight” which implies she does not look pretty with her natural hair, especially with ‘too bad’. If your first comment on someone you haven’t seen and rarely spoke to in five years is ‘too bad’ about their new hairstyle, you’re being a dick.
lightsabermario
However, right before he said that, she admitted to it not being a conscious choice, it just “happened”. If it was her choice and he offered his unrequested opinion that he didn’t like it, it’d be more objectionable than it actually is, but she established that it wasn’t really her intention, which allows him to state his opinion without it being considered an attack on her style choices. Also, BBCC, I was under the impression that they’d seen each other at the very least right before the start of the semester. As a first greeting in 5 years, yeah, it’d be pretty shitty, but a couple months, not so much. As to Jasie’s point, it’s true I don’t personally know much about societal implications of straight hair vs curly hair, and it’s kinda surprising to me that it’s a big deal, especially if you can go back and forth unlike skin color. Personally, I get comments all the time how people like or don’t like my hair style (I have a mullet, and EVERYONE seems to have an opinion on mullets), and I don’t take it as an attack, they just have different tastes. Who cares why they have those tastes, that’s their business. And sure, apparently this war over straight vs curly black hair has been going on for over a hundred years, but Sal’s only been around for 18 of them. Have you ever been thrust in the middle of someone else’s war over something like “Butter-side-up” vs “butter-side-down” and expected to carry on their fight while you’re like “who cares, just let me eat my toast in peace”? Maybe I’m projecting a little, but that’s how I’d be in that situation. Sal doesn’t seem to care, since not only does she not take offense to the comment, she literally responds, “Glad ya agree.” I’m aware it was a segue to get out of the conversation, but in doing so she positively reinforces his behavior. Ultimately, it should be the recipient of the behavior that decides whether or not the behavior is offensive on issues as borderline as this, and if she truly doesn’t like it, that’s her prerogative, but if so she does a terrible job expressing that.
BBCC
Dude, him insulting her hair when she didn’t choose it is even shittier, especially since she was only relaxing her hair around 12, right before the robbery, i.e. when she was living at home and her parents get to pick how she looks. Frankly, people shouldn’t be offering you unsolicited criticism on your hair either, but it’s even shittier when it’s racially loaded.
No, they didn’t see her just before the semester started. Walky even straight up told Billie he hadn’t kept tabs on her since she was sent away and she had no idea where she was when Billie asked. His family has not seen her and Walky, at least, hasn’t really talked to her much over those five years.
You can go back and forth on relaxing your hair (though not easily – a lot of the time the only way to grow it out is to chop it off and regrow it), but it’s still a very racially loaded thing to do. Black people’s natural hair is often derided as ‘unprofessional’, ‘dirty’, ‘wild’, etc. and they’re encouraged to relax it to make it straight. Black women in particular are often told they’re prettier with straight hair vs their natural hair. European (i.e. white) beauty standards are all up in this issue, and Sal knows it.
Sal does care. Her using it as a segue out of the conversation does not mean she doesn’t. She doesn’t like to fight with her parents all the time because it’s exhausting and emotionally draining – if she has an out to avoid their bullshit, she’ll take it. We see at the salon she comments ‘This is how I’m supposed to look’ and then she gets pensive/sad looking. She cares. She didn’t express it or pick a fight, but she does care.
Ob
You guys just love to overreact to everything don’t you… He just said “you look so pretty with long and straight hair”. He was complimenting her and supporting her hairstyle choice. He wasn’t saying “what the hell is this, you look like shit”. And her response wasn’t at all annoyed or defensive either.
David M Willis
No, they read it right.
BBCC
He said it when she did not have straight hair. Ergo, implying she does not look so pretty right now. Especially when her choice is extremely racially loaded. It’s not an accident that the conversation where she finally tells Walky their parents are racist opened with him saying ‘Oh, hey, your hair’s straight again’.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
“He just said she looks prettier with straight hair which devalues her natural hair type in favour of a trait traditionally associated with being white.”
That statement come across is markedly racist.
Where I live has become ethnically south Indian over the years and guess what. Straight hair and high melanin pigmentation levels is quite common. Also Dosa is amazingly good.
Lone Wolf
During the weekend when the parents visited and her hair curled back up, he said she looked better with her hair straightened.
There’s something very… off… about Charles. He seems less like a person and more like an appendage of his wife.
The fact that he’s mixed race… while also having said something racist about Sal’s hair and is apparently racist against mexicans, and is also married to such an officious Karen AF bongo of a woman just gives me so many weird signals.
(Fun fact, I actually did type “bongo” instead of that other word there, cause I figured it’d just get censored anyway so eh)
Dean
Charles just an easygoing doormat. Where do you think Walky gets it from?
Miri
A lifetime living with Linda “Be a doormat or get knocked down so she can walk all over you” Walkerton?
Bunny
I think Charles is suffering from internalized racism.
Yeah – given the themes of this strip, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amber’s pulled out over this, but wouldn’t they at least wait until the end of the semester?
Amber’s very likely not on the streets immediately, but should still be good for the semester. Depends on the payment arrangements with Amber’s financial aid package for the semester/year. I doubt Blaine had to write a check every month to the university directly; they likely billed him every semester. If that’s the case, she’s good until next semester (are we still in Fall semester? If so, then January). When the business office learns Blaine is dead, they’ll resort to billing Amber’s mother. They’ll try to foist PLUS loans on her for the whole amount. Meanwhile, emergency loans can make up the differences, while she works with the university (as long as Amber is responsible and maintains her FAFSA). In situations like this, the Financial Aid office has lots of resources to hold off the Business Office for a while, while student, parent, and others scramble to find alternate tuition resources. Finally, it’s possible that Amber’s mother’s new boyfriend might be able to help find resources, if not make contributions himself.
Azhrei Vep
Momber’s newFiance you mean. Definitely someone in a position to be expected to contribute soon.
Lanie
Oh boy, but doesn’t Joe’s dad seem to be the kind of guy who might actually just jump into something too soon? Like an engagement?
wilddeath
Isn’t joe’s dad rich or am i thinking of future joe that was rich?
What sort of doctor is he? And are they at a “reasonably priced” college? Is being able to pay for an extra kid to go there feasible with no chance to plan for it?
Are grants/scholarships readily available?
Agemegos
I’m not clear what kind of doctor Richard is, but some other readers seem to have picked up something that I missed, and they are sure.
Whatever. Richard is presumably paying alimony to Joe’s mother, and Joe’s tuition, and Stacy implied that she is already expecting him to pay the legal bills to defend Amber against a lawsuit by Ryan’s parents. So it’s not necessarily clear that he can just shell out $40k over four years for Amber’s tuition plus bed and board and not feel the pinch.
Landwalker
Richard is a “Bone Doctor” (giggity), meaning he’s probably an orthopedist.
Sunny
I thought he was an osteologist? But yeah, he is a bone doctor.
Chris
“Osteology” is not the standard term for any discipline of medicine. An osteologist is the person who can look at a single bone and tell you what sort of animal it came from.
BBCC
Word of Willis is osteologist, but word of willis is not immutable or unchanging (or immune to error) so he might say something else later. For now, I go by what he’s said.
Tan
The only Word of Willis I can find is https://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/56755053843/ which simply refers to him as a “bone doctor”, which generally likeliest means orthopedic surgeon. The only reference to calling him an osteologist I could find were in the comments sections of a few strips, and none of those were by Willis.
BBCC
This was a while ago. Someone asked if he was a gynaecologist and he said osteologist. I don’t recall where though, so who tf knows anymore. And acting like he’s rich does make me think if that is what he said that it’s been retconned.
Amber may also inherit some money from Blaine. Not that he would leave her anything on purpose, but he may not have made a will. Without a will, his estate would be split between Amber and Faz (and Faz’s mother assuming they were still together?) Probably not enough to cover tuition on its own, but it’s a start.
Thanatos
Until we find out that Blaine was hording money in a private account that no one else knew about and has been lying about how much the payments have been affecting him. Its not that he didn’t want to pay for Amber’s tuition because he couldn’t afford it. It was because he’s a bongo and didn’t want to. He hid money from his current family because he didn’t want anyone dictating how he spends his money and he wanted to rationalize that spending on Amber was a “hardship.” In the end, both families come out fairly well off to live a middle class life for a few years. But that’s just a theory.
When I apply for student loans, they give me the option to either get a loan for an entire year’s tuition (fall and spring semester) or just the one semester. I’m not sure how it works for the school when you do the yearly option, but I would assume that the lender disburses the entire yearly amount to the school, and the school gives you back whatever’s left over from paying fall tuition (so you’d have to later pay spring tuition from that leftover that has been shunted into your bank account).
As for schools themselves, you only pay one semester at a time. Usually that means you pay the entire semester’s tuition up front, however some schools also offer a payment plan (when I did it I’d have to pay a certain amount each month). I’m not sure what happens if you stop paying in the middle of the semester if you’re on a payment plan but if Blaine were paying her tuition on a payment plan then she might be in a bit of trouble regarding being able to stay in the dorms and in classes.
She was even okay with Joyce possibly being gay there.
In case anyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about, Carol saw footage of Joyce and Walky kissing and cause of Walky’s long hair thought he was a girl.
DrunkenNordmann
Maybe because DoA is closer to reality and fundies are rarely sensible in RL?
reblaw
I think that as he’s aged and had more life experiences, the author has gotten more comfortable with being critical to authority figures. He’s a parent himself now, he was only college-aged when he started doing webcomics.
RowenMorland
Girls you kiss in Canada only count as girl kisses in Canada.
Well, that’s just the foreign exchange student rate. And it’s good to see the market recovering. “I have a girlfriend in Canada” was really popular in the eighties, but the Internet ruined that. Despite illegal catfishing scandals, the elusive Canadian Girlfriend is on track to make a full recovery.
Maybe it’s in her personality/worldview to fight crusades and be a hero. But in this universe that means dicking over kids with shitting families instead of dicking over kids who were kindnapped and souped up by Aliens.
Perhaps, she’s always been pretty ready to sacrifice people as needed for her personal goals. But when all of humanity is threatened her personal goals become sympathetic and her sacrifices make a cruel kind of sense.
414 thoughts on “Marketplace”
Ana Chronistic
dang, I know mine was paid for from an uninsured driver settlement, but I thought tuition was paid for the whole semester/year upfront
shit
awfully convenient that Linda gets what she wants SO QUICKLY tho
(I do say Linda, I kinda don’t believe Charles has enough spine to want things)
Blob
I’m thinking (hoping) that Linda and Charles are assuming that Amber now loses tuition, not that there was any actual information divulged to that effect. I can’t imagine there’s been time for anything and so hopefully this is a distant looming rather than an urgent pressing kind of issue.
Sirksome
I still don’t have a read on that guy. He just seems like a scumbag by proxy.
Mra
He hasn’t said much this entire time, has he?
Lokitsu
No but he seems to agree with everything Linda says.
Sirksome
No. He mostly just makes wise cracks and plays yes man to his wife. He once made a somewhat racist comment about Sal’s hair and googled whether illegals get health insurance but I don’t think that’s enough to make any real judgement calls on the dude. What is your deal Charles!?!?
BBCC
Sal usually talks about her parents, plural, when she says stuff like ‘I don’t need another lecture about how I’m a failure’. When Blaine was arrested, she also told Amber she envied her ability to reject her father’s claim over her.
I don’t think it looks good for him, though he’s clearly less blatant than Linda.
Smatterguy
Wait when did he say something racist about his own daughters hair?
Honest question, not defending him. Just forgotten when he said that due to gigantic long archive/running time.
Marisa Mockery
Her hair lost its straightness when she got her math grades and he commented on it. It hurt her feelings
Sirksome
He just said she looks prettier with straight hair which devalues her natural hair type in favor of a trait traditionally associated with being white.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/appointment/
It’s not the hugest deal in the world considering society as a whole has done this for decades, centuries even in America, but as a father he should probably prioritize building his daughter’s self esteem when it comes to her appearance instead of criticizing it. He’s been called out on it. Personally I think it’s a stretch to say he’s a bad guy for it. That’s kind of systemic racism bullshit more than his fault to me. But he still doesn’t really look good.
lightsabermario
That’s a stretch to say that was criticism. It’s an opinion, in which he complimented her old hairstyle. Especially considering he is also black, I’d say he has a right to that opinion. Also, there was no malice or derision in his comment, just personal taste, and sometimes you want an objective opinion from your parents without the tired cliche of “You look wonderful no matter what you do.”
Jasie
You may not realize this, but there’s actually a whole giant real world discourse going back over a hundred years about black women’s hair and the concept of “good” hair, like it’s a whole thing.
His comment does not exist in a vacuum! Imagine if she’d tanned and he told her that she looks SO pretty with lighter skin. He may not say it with malice, but there’s a whole lot of cultural and societal baggage that would go along not only with her reception of those words, but with what caused him to form his opinion in the first place. The same is true for her hair.
And believe me, black men’s opinions about black women are not inherently unproblematic. Black men are NOT immune to misogynoir and they’re not immune to terrible opinions about black women’s hair.
thejeff
And even without all the racial issues surrounding black women’s hair, it’s still not ever a good move to tell a girl you don’t like her new hairstyle. Even your daughter. You can always not comment.
Captain Oblivious
It’s a very dick move to tell someone they used to look better than they do now. Especially when they didn’t ask for your opinion. It explicitly frames their current look as being less attractive.
Any parent would need to be pretty oblivious to their child’s feelings to not realize doing this would hurt them.
BBCC
She never asked for his racially loaded opinion. He noticed her hair was curly and then said “Too bad. You look pretty with your hair long and straight” which implies she does not look pretty with her natural hair, especially with ‘too bad’. If your first comment on someone you haven’t seen and rarely spoke to in five years is ‘too bad’ about their new hairstyle, you’re being a dick.
lightsabermario
However, right before he said that, she admitted to it not being a conscious choice, it just “happened”. If it was her choice and he offered his unrequested opinion that he didn’t like it, it’d be more objectionable than it actually is, but she established that it wasn’t really her intention, which allows him to state his opinion without it being considered an attack on her style choices. Also, BBCC, I was under the impression that they’d seen each other at the very least right before the start of the semester. As a first greeting in 5 years, yeah, it’d be pretty shitty, but a couple months, not so much. As to Jasie’s point, it’s true I don’t personally know much about societal implications of straight hair vs curly hair, and it’s kinda surprising to me that it’s a big deal, especially if you can go back and forth unlike skin color. Personally, I get comments all the time how people like or don’t like my hair style (I have a mullet, and EVERYONE seems to have an opinion on mullets), and I don’t take it as an attack, they just have different tastes. Who cares why they have those tastes, that’s their business. And sure, apparently this war over straight vs curly black hair has been going on for over a hundred years, but Sal’s only been around for 18 of them. Have you ever been thrust in the middle of someone else’s war over something like “Butter-side-up” vs “butter-side-down” and expected to carry on their fight while you’re like “who cares, just let me eat my toast in peace”? Maybe I’m projecting a little, but that’s how I’d be in that situation. Sal doesn’t seem to care, since not only does she not take offense to the comment, she literally responds, “Glad ya agree.” I’m aware it was a segue to get out of the conversation, but in doing so she positively reinforces his behavior. Ultimately, it should be the recipient of the behavior that decides whether or not the behavior is offensive on issues as borderline as this, and if she truly doesn’t like it, that’s her prerogative, but if so she does a terrible job expressing that.
BBCC
Dude, him insulting her hair when she didn’t choose it is even shittier, especially since she was only relaxing her hair around 12, right before the robbery, i.e. when she was living at home and her parents get to pick how she looks. Frankly, people shouldn’t be offering you unsolicited criticism on your hair either, but it’s even shittier when it’s racially loaded.
No, they didn’t see her just before the semester started. Walky even straight up told Billie he hadn’t kept tabs on her since she was sent away and she had no idea where she was when Billie asked. His family has not seen her and Walky, at least, hasn’t really talked to her much over those five years.
You can go back and forth on relaxing your hair (though not easily – a lot of the time the only way to grow it out is to chop it off and regrow it), but it’s still a very racially loaded thing to do. Black people’s natural hair is often derided as ‘unprofessional’, ‘dirty’, ‘wild’, etc. and they’re encouraged to relax it to make it straight. Black women in particular are often told they’re prettier with straight hair vs their natural hair. European (i.e. white) beauty standards are all up in this issue, and Sal knows it.
Sal does care. Her using it as a segue out of the conversation does not mean she doesn’t. She doesn’t like to fight with her parents all the time because it’s exhausting and emotionally draining – if she has an out to avoid their bullshit, she’ll take it. We see at the salon she comments ‘This is how I’m supposed to look’ and then she gets pensive/sad looking. She cares. She didn’t express it or pick a fight, but she does care.
Ob
You guys just love to overreact to everything don’t you… He just said “you look so pretty with long and straight hair”. He was complimenting her and supporting her hairstyle choice. He wasn’t saying “what the hell is this, you look like shit”. And her response wasn’t at all annoyed or defensive either.
David M Willis
No, they read it right.
BBCC
He said it when she did not have straight hair. Ergo, implying she does not look so pretty right now. Especially when her choice is extremely racially loaded. It’s not an accident that the conversation where she finally tells Walky their parents are racist opened with him saying ‘Oh, hey, your hair’s straight again’.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
“He just said she looks prettier with straight hair which devalues her natural hair type in favour of a trait traditionally associated with being white.”
That statement come across is markedly racist.
Where I live has become ethnically south Indian over the years and guess what. Straight hair and high melanin pigmentation levels is quite common. Also Dosa is amazingly good.
Lone Wolf
During the weekend when the parents visited and her hair curled back up, he said she looked better with her hair straightened.
Opus the Poet
During Parent’s Weekend, I don’t feel like doing an archive dive. Check the tags for Charles and Sal and look near the front of the comic.
Agemegos
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/appointment/
Azhrei Vep
Make wise cracks and plays yes man to his partner … so, Walky got into the same time-travel shenanigans as Joe and they both became their own fathers?
FLUFFY
There’s something very… off… about Charles. He seems less like a person and more like an appendage of his wife.
The fact that he’s mixed race… while also having said something racist about Sal’s hair and is apparently racist against mexicans, and is also married to such an officious Karen AF bongo of a woman just gives me so many weird signals.
(Fun fact, I actually did type “bongo” instead of that other word there, cause I figured it’d just get censored anyway so eh)
Dean
Charles just an easygoing doormat. Where do you think Walky gets it from?
Miri
A lifetime living with Linda “Be a doormat or get knocked down so she can walk all over you” Walkerton?
Bunny
I think Charles is suffering from internalized racism.
FLUFFY
You too, huh?
ego
i think the racism has internalized HIM
SuperZero
She’ll probably want to pay it next semester, too.
Raen
Yeah – given the themes of this strip, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amber’s pulled out over this, but wouldn’t they at least wait until the end of the semester?
Michael Steamweed
Amber’s very likely not on the streets immediately, but should still be good for the semester. Depends on the payment arrangements with Amber’s financial aid package for the semester/year. I doubt Blaine had to write a check every month to the university directly; they likely billed him every semester. If that’s the case, she’s good until next semester (are we still in Fall semester? If so, then January). When the business office learns Blaine is dead, they’ll resort to billing Amber’s mother. They’ll try to foist PLUS loans on her for the whole amount. Meanwhile, emergency loans can make up the differences, while she works with the university (as long as Amber is responsible and maintains her FAFSA). In situations like this, the Financial Aid office has lots of resources to hold off the Business Office for a while, while student, parent, and others scramble to find alternate tuition resources. Finally, it’s possible that Amber’s mother’s new boyfriend might be able to help find resources, if not make contributions himself.
Azhrei Vep
Momber’s newFiance you mean. Definitely someone in a position to be expected to contribute soon.
Lanie
Oh boy, but doesn’t Joe’s dad seem to be the kind of guy who might actually just jump into something too soon? Like an engagement?
wilddeath
Isn’t joe’s dad rich or am i thinking of future joe that was rich?
Undrave
I’d laugh if Joe’s dad just shrugs and pay for it to please his new wife… just because it would piss off Linda and that’s always a plus.
Devin
This is my current theory.
Miri
What sort of doctor is he? And are they at a “reasonably priced” college? Is being able to pay for an extra kid to go there feasible with no chance to plan for it?
Are grants/scholarships readily available?
Agemegos
I’m not clear what kind of doctor Richard is, but some other readers seem to have picked up something that I missed, and they are sure.
Whatever. Richard is presumably paying alimony to Joe’s mother, and Joe’s tuition, and Stacy implied that she is already expecting him to pay the legal bills to defend Amber against a lawsuit by Ryan’s parents. So it’s not necessarily clear that he can just shell out $40k over four years for Amber’s tuition plus bed and board and not feel the pinch.
Landwalker
Richard is a “Bone Doctor” (giggity), meaning he’s probably an orthopedist.
Sunny
I thought he was an osteologist? But yeah, he is a bone doctor.
Chris
“Osteology” is not the standard term for any discipline of medicine. An osteologist is the person who can look at a single bone and tell you what sort of animal it came from.
BBCC
Word of Willis is osteologist, but word of willis is not immutable or unchanging (or immune to error) so he might say something else later. For now, I go by what he’s said.
Tan
The only Word of Willis I can find is https://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/56755053843/ which simply refers to him as a “bone doctor”, which generally likeliest means orthopedic surgeon. The only reference to calling him an osteologist I could find were in the comments sections of a few strips, and none of those were by Willis.
BBCC
This was a while ago. Someone asked if he was a gynaecologist and he said osteologist. I don’t recall where though, so who tf knows anymore. And acting like he’s rich does make me think if that is what he said that it’s been retconned.
Willis, any chance you can weigh in here?
David M Willis
He’s an orthopedic surgeon.
clif
Ah. Okay. Wealthy doctor it is.
Jason Rivest
That was my first thought,too.
Amber may also inherit some money from Blaine. Not that he would leave her anything on purpose, but he may not have made a will. Without a will, his estate would be split between Amber and Faz (and Faz’s mother assuming they were still together?) Probably not enough to cover tuition on its own, but it’s a start.
Thanatos
Until we find out that Blaine was hording money in a private account that no one else knew about and has been lying about how much the payments have been affecting him. Its not that he didn’t want to pay for Amber’s tuition because he couldn’t afford it. It was because he’s a bongo and didn’t want to. He hid money from his current family because he didn’t want anyone dictating how he spends his money and he wanted to rationalize that spending on Amber was a “hardship.” In the end, both families come out fairly well off to live a middle class life for a few years. But that’s just a theory.
KJ
I believe IU also offers payment plans. And even if you pay it up front, it’s per semester rather than the whole year
ktbear
But Amber’s mum and Joe’s dad are now a “thing” right? Surely her tuition isn’t a big deal any more.
plasticwrap
You can pay in installments. Monthly, if I remember correctly.
thejeff
If you can pay in installments, Blaine probably was. On the assumption that his pathetic daughter would fold under the pressure and drop out.
RowenMorland
Asking people to pay upfront by the year, or the semester might have changed as tuition as a % of the target buyer’s budget has increased.
dragon_nataku
When I apply for student loans, they give me the option to either get a loan for an entire year’s tuition (fall and spring semester) or just the one semester. I’m not sure how it works for the school when you do the yearly option, but I would assume that the lender disburses the entire yearly amount to the school, and the school gives you back whatever’s left over from paying fall tuition (so you’d have to later pay spring tuition from that leftover that has been shunted into your bank account).
As for schools themselves, you only pay one semester at a time. Usually that means you pay the entire semester’s tuition up front, however some schools also offer a payment plan (when I did it I’d have to pay a certain amount each month). I’m not sure what happens if you stop paying in the middle of the semester if you’re on a payment plan but if Blaine were paying her tuition on a payment plan then she might be in a bit of trouble regarding being able to stay in the dorms and in classes.
Roborat
When I got student loans, the money was paid out as the tuition came due, so beginning of each term.
Spencer
Why were you nicer in It’s Walky!, Linda?
Doctor_Who
Carol was too. There she just really wanted grandkids.
DahliaRose
She was even okay with Joyce possibly being gay there.
In case anyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about, Carol saw footage of Joyce and Walky kissing and cause of Walky’s long hair thought he was a girl.
DrunkenNordmann
Maybe because DoA is closer to reality and fundies are rarely sensible in RL?
reblaw
I think that as he’s aged and had more life experiences, the author has gotten more comfortable with being critical to authority figures. He’s a parent himself now, he was only college-aged when he started doing webcomics.
RowenMorland
Girls you kiss in Canada only count as girl kisses in Canada.
FGarber
Well, that’s just the foreign exchange student rate. And it’s good to see the market recovering. “I have a girlfriend in Canada” was really popular in the eighties, but the Internet ruined that. Despite illegal catfishing scandals, the elusive Canadian Girlfriend is on track to make a full recovery.
bcb
DMW says the reason Carol in the Dumbiverse is different is (partly?) due to 15 years of Fox News:
http://www.itswalky.com/comic/yaint-gettin-no-where-with-your-pants-on/
Presumably Fox News in the Walkyverse would be affected by the presence of Aliens from Planet Alien.
Azhrei Vep
And here I just figured that all the genocide chilled out Linda because after that, it’s just really hard to muster any fucks over anything else.
Mr D
Hmmm. Maybe focusing on Aliens made her a better person?
Or maybe it is just decades of Fox News, like with Joyce parents.
BBCC
Right? She was less hateable as a war criminal.
Regalli
Which is pretty disturbing, given the genocide and the child soldiers and still showing blatant parental favoritism and all.
Maybe it’s that everything was less personal, over there?
BBCC
It probably doesn’t hurt that she didn’t show up much until she took over for McHenry and by that point there was seriously bigger fish to fry.
I mean, she was still perfectly loathsome, just not to this scale.
RowenMorland
Wasn’t she framed for genocide?
thejeff
Nicer, but more evil?
fridge_logic
Maybe it’s in her personality/worldview to fight crusades and be a hero. But in this universe that means dicking over kids with shitting families instead of dicking over kids who were kindnapped and souped up by Aliens.
Perhaps, she’s always been pretty ready to sacrifice people as needed for her personal goals. But when all of humanity is threatened her personal goals become sympathetic and her sacrifices make a cruel kind of sense.