Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, December 3, 2019.
Sometimes the fine line between family and strangers is hard to detect.
12/05/19 – Family Team
Sometimes the fine line between family and strangers is hard to detect.
There is a “me” in “team’. But “me” is also in “meat”.
dude, that’s because “team” is “meat” spelled backwards.
well, not really. but close!
Eat’m
Actually, according to Google, the Spanish word for “team” is “equipo” and there IS an I in “equipo.” 🙂
However, Google offers no immediate answer on what, in contrast, the Bhutanese/Dzongkha word for “team” is. Oh well.
Ruddick seems to be paying close attention to Aitana. If he were a domestic dog I’d presume he just figures she’s his best chance to get a treat, but he isn’t.
I wonder if Emily let Ruddick look out the window (if not hang his head out the window) or at the viewscreen during the flight from the USA to Spain. If so, he’s surely had his mind blown again. He was skeptical about Emily coming from the stars but at least he’s always been able to SEE the STARS. The OCEAN must have taken him by total surprise. 🙂
And so the group dynamics commence. I can tell this is going to be a fun group, no matter how off their actions or mistaken their motives. The fun is underway.
Yeah, pretty sure Ruddick is going to insist they adopt her. I’m sure the other two will grow on him. Listened to the local coyotes gossiping last night…pure gossip, not a call to hunt.
Were we supposed to think blanket person was a girl? I realize that’s a subtle thing to try and convey in a webcomic but I just don’t see it.
A couple commenters seemed to think so for the previous strip, but Mr. Baldwin moved swiftly and decisively.
The other character says “sounded”, so possibly the implication is they’re either transgender or just have a feminine voice?
My voice is deep enough I’ve been mistaken for a male, especially over the phone. My physical being though is pretty obvious. ????????
That’s how I took it, and I’ll happily hold to that until Mr. Baldwin confirms otherwise. Trans rep ftw!!
All this and we still haven’t seen the dozen or so humans that the “Dog Star People” have already recruited/abducted. Looks like Mr. Baldwin is setting up to play a very long game…
(addendum)
Considering the omnipresence of robots in Galactic society*, I’m also wondering how many robots Emily has on her ship. An obligey-bot, a medibot, and who/what else? I wonder if they’ll join the discussion as well. 🙂
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*I remember a strip when Nog, on Earth and asleep in Mr. Z’s guest room, was awoken by sunlight through the window and his instinctive reaction was to order “blinder-bots” to reduce the glare (OSLT). A society that has gone to the trouble of creating robots just to regulate one’s windows is a society that will create robots for virtually any task, no matter how trivial.
Reminds me of Umnia in Discworld – a long gone culture that invented golems and…. nothing else, golems were good for everything.
Don’t forget containerbot.
A lot of fun as always, but even more coyote. maybe a whole coyote strip, or turn everyone into coyotes. Especially to combat the deceptively cute space puppies.
Errors have been made against me for being mistaken for female since 1990. I did the same to another person who I thought was female. Egg on my face then. And several times on television several males have done female voices. I could have from those mistaking me for female just over the phone. Damn that sexual continuum can get fuzzy.
It would be easier if we were nude. But that really would be awkward and awkweird. Though no one wants to call someone an “it” so “they” is used as the closest in the English language to a neutral pronoun.
Dinosaurs and birds had it tougher. Since they used a cloaca. Birds use songs to tell and the males are the gaudy ones. (And expendable) Maybe so did many of the dinosaurs who have shown to have plumage now too.
Easier to talk about puppy alien experimentation on humans.
Do y’all listen to the audio version? It’s interesting to hear what Chips thinks is important enough to mention. Back when we first met the alley characters, Chris said you can’t tell if the blanket one is male or female. So with that foreshadowing, I have been waiting to see how that developed.
I just wonder if the in-universe uncertainty of Tall Guy regarding the gender of the Man from Bhutan will turn out to be a Chekhov’s-something-or-other.
Please pardon my bluntness but — and I say this as a holder of a Master’s Degree in English — IMHO “Chekhov’s Gun” is, in the strictest literal sense, such complete and utter CRAP. There’s a gun on the wall? Big deal. I presume it’s not the ONLY thing on the wall. Are the family photos, clock, school pennant, and other stuff obliged to be significant to the plot as well? Oh, I Don’t Think So. But I digress. 😉
I have a degree too. And the thermometer outside my window has us both beat.
(polite golf clap for Ronald) well done sir, well done. I tend to get apoplectic and grindingly scatological on the whole Chekov’s Gun thing.
I never had a moment of gender confusion with the Nepali. Only a guy would be sleeping in an alley close enough to the street for passers-by to notice. Only a guy would converse openly with one passer-by so casually. And only a guy would hesitate for national pride before kicking the grenade into the sewer. A female would be more cautious, more closed, less talkative. Imagine if it had been Emily trying to sleep in that alley. How would the encounter with the Murcian proceed? Besides ending in his physical injury?
By the way, the Nepalese have the distinction of being the worst soccer players in the world in part because of the altitude at which they typically play. Above some 3000 meters a regulation-inflated ball is harder, rebounds more sharply, and tends to fly considerably farther due to the lower air pressure. Conversely, when Nepalese or Bolivian players are at lower altitude, the ball, to them, is more sluggish, less responsive, and does not travel as far or as fast as they’re used to. I can see where not being certain the kick would be enough to put the grenade down the open sewer would cause hesitation. If you play enough futbol, instinct takes over from thought and this can make you pause. For what it’s worth.
I didn’t know there was an ambivalence with the Nepalese man and his sex. Gender is a cultural construct over anatomy.