The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Achewood => Achewood => Topic started by: Drygioni on June 30, 2006, 05:03:00 pm
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Got a chuckle out of this, which is actually kind of rare considering my normally unemotional expressions of humour. I didn't think it was a particularly 'good' strip; I've never enjoyed the Mensa ones.
I guess it's good satire, but not MY kind of good satire.
http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06302006 (http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06302006)
(Also, apologies for the title. I don't think today was a great one for a witty headline, but that's just me.)
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The generous remuneration schedule gets 'em every time.
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I like Mr. Bear choking on his own rage in panel 8.
His speech sounds like IMAX movie narration. "Holes define who we are and where we are going..."
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Any Mensa members on the board? Aug, I'm looking your way. Like the Bear, I would only join for renumeration. I don't know my IQ, but I'm guessing that our board members, and possibly Achewood members as a whole, have a higher IQ than the average Joe.
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I declined joining. I think I just scrape by on their qualification. Couldn't really see the benefit of it.
Although Asia Carerra is a member. Maybe I'll join and she'll be at a mixer or something.
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I like the fact that the gauge of intelligence involves knowing a synonym for "sad".
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Heh.. one can always be suckered in by their own Hubris. I know I would be all self-righteously saying "no" until they made me feel special.
"Finally! Someone sees my extra-special value and worth! Truly I am the King of Today!"
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Why call to decline in the first place? Why not chuck the letter in the trash with all the other junk mail? Perhaps because one is hoping to be persuaded?
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Any Mensa members on the board? Aug, I'm looking your way. Like the Bear, I would only join for renumeration. I don't know my IQ, but I'm guessing that our board members, and possibly Achewood members as a whole, have a higher IQ than the average Joe.
I'm not really much of a joiner (all my cabinets seem to fall apart...). My attitude is pretty much like Cornelius's. However, I am flattered that you looked my way.
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Raymond Smuckles, "PhDTM" is grand.
I've never had my IQ tested, because my parents did not want me to instill an excessive amount of importance in numbers and scores. A lot of good that did me; I still base my self-worth on grades, damnit.
I do have a good friend who was invited to be a Mensa member. He has an IQ of 190.
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PhD in quotation marks is definitely the best part of the strip. It shows Ray is smart enough to have discovered a loophole where you can get all the benefits of looking like a doctor, without all the hassle of actually becoming one.
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Why call to decline in the first place? Why not chuck the letter in the trash with all the other junk mail? Perhaps because one is hoping to be persuaded?
Dear friend, I believe Mr. Bear is simply doing the polite thing. He calls to decline pre-approved offers for credit cards, Columbia House membership, and invitations to attend financial planning seminars. He is mindful to call Penzey's and Harry & David if they send catalogues too often for his humble needs, and he always offers telemarketers a logical but concise reason why he is not interested in further extending his supscription to Harper's.
To ignore these overtures would be outright rude, and Cornelius Bear is not rude.
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PhD in quotation marks is definitely the best part of the strip.
Not just quotation marks but TM. That's the real genius.
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My old boss had one of those.
Paid 40k, got it in 6 months or so. It was for school administration here, not nuclear physics or anything, but still.
The worst part was when she started strutting around demanding to be called Doctor.
She sells real estate now. Sucker.
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Maybe Mensa membership is opt-out?
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I'm a member but I've never actually attended more than one meeting.
I can invite pretty much whomever, though, I think. Anyone want in?
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I'm not sure. Was Asia at the meeting you
went to attended?
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PhD in quotation marks is definitely the best part of the strip. It shows Ray is smart enough to have discovered a loophole where you can get all the benefits of looking like a doctor, without all the hassle of actually becoming one.
We had a state politician here that changed his name to "Bob Smith CPA" because he was running for State Treasurer and they wouldn't list him on the ballot with CPA after his name.
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We had a state politician here that changed his name to "Bob Smith CPA" because he was running for State Treasurer and they wouldn't list him on the ballot with CPA after his name.
I can only image this bold move led to his winning by a landslide?
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I was invited to join by a jerk who was a regular customer at the comic shop I used to work at. Instead of filling out the test, I just circled all the questions that I felt were socio-economically or culturally exclusionary, and filled the empty space with sarcastic comments. I can't remember if I gave it back to him or not though, but he never bothered me again.
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Oh, sweet baby Christ in a crib, the stories I've heard from women who've worked in comic book stores... the people awkwardly hitting on them in ways that only dorks could possibly believe as something with which you'd hit on a woman...
Such as, offering them Mensa memberships...
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no, man, you don't get it! 'cause, like, then she'd know that I was a Mensa member! see?
whatever, dude. it'll totally work.
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Oh, sweet baby Christ in a crib, the stories I've heard from women who've worked in comic book stores... the people awkwardly hitting on them in ways that only dorks could possibly believe as something with which you'd hit on a woman...
Such as, offering them Mensa memberships...
Oh, man... don't... don't get me started on the stories... there are so many... I was basically the only member of the opposite sex (other than their mothers) that some of those boys ever talked to on a regular basis, and I was the provider of comics, so I was basically their goddess.
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I was basically the only member of the opposite sex (other than their mothers) that some of those boys ever talked to on a regular basis, and I was the provider of comics, so I was basically their goddess.
How fortunate for these fellas to have you, not only beautiful, but kind. I wonder how many of them still think about you?
~Paul
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I actually had one guy who was so obsessed with the proper handling of his comics that he wouldn't let any other staff members but myself and the manager touch his comics. He was horribly rude to my coworkers if they tried to help him and would demand my help even if I was busy with something else. I'll always remember one day, the total look of horror on his face when he came in to find me, my boss and another coworker all hunched over a bucket of KFC, our hands glistening. He was obsessive to the point of scary. In spite of your sweet "kind" comment, Paul, I have to tell everyone that one day he ordered the official, full sized Zena Warrior Princess costume, which was over $300 if memory serves, and that I told my boss that this guy was probably going to tie his mother up and force her to wear it. He was such a mean, mentally off kilter guy that my boss was really bothered by the possibility of my suggestion.
Also, with all the guys obsessed with the slightest crinkle or fold, storing them in their acid-free-backing-boarded, mylar bags, in boxes that were guaranteed to be UV safe, the one customer who I truly loved, was a guy who religiously read Superman. He'd come in, buy his comics, roll/scrunch them up tightly into a tube-like roll, and just jam them into his over-stuffed back pack. It was so counter to everything else I saw that it was punk rock... almost erotic.
I'm actually giggling to myself right now, remembering all the naughty ways I posed our many action figures. Let's just say Mr. T was a pitcher, and Batman was a catcher, and Snow White was involved in a very not-for-Disney way. One day the figures were all gone, the rumour was that my boss thought I'd gone too far, but her never said anything, then a long time later, I found them all packed up in a box in the back room.
Like I said, I've got so many stories from that place that I could write a book. Maybe I should.
Also, Ash is right, for some of them, I could tell by the look in their eyes. *shudder*
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I'm actually giggling to myself right now, remembering all the naughty ways I posed our many action figures. Let's just say Mr. T was a pitcher, and Batman was a catcher, and Snow White was involved in a very not-for-Disney way. One day the figures were all gone, the rumour was that my boss thought I'd gone too far, but her never said anything, then a long time later, I found them all packed up in a box in the back room.
Like I said, I've got so many stories from that place that I could write a book. Maybe I should.
Also, Ash is right, for some of them, I could tell by the look in their eyes. *shudder*
I used to work with this guy who looked like Evil Spock. That's not the important part. He was in his mid-40's and was kind of an asshole. He would go on and on these tirades about how "the media and culture are making men out to be too girly nowadays", and "When was the last time you saw big hairy guys on screen all macho like" (Which I always asked him "So.. you want to see big hairy guys on screen huh? I think your bachelor status is becoming clear.")
He had this weird mixture of ridiculous opinionation (Heh.. blossom) and childlike arrested development.
The latter manifested itself in the form of the Speed Racer car. It sat atop a shelf in his cube with Speed in the drivers seat, while Spritle and ChimChim were in the trunk. Every night, after he left, I would sneak over and rearrange the figurines. My personal favorite was the time I had all three on the hood of the car into what was a modified Lotus Position 3-way. Something about making a monkey the catcher is really satisfying to the sick fuck eye.
The real reason I did this though is because of the anger it caused in Evil Spock. "Who has been touching my car!" he would yell as though it was his actual car. "Keep your hands off my stuff all of you!"
This, of course, only made me want to do it more. I stepped up, Operation: Annoy the uptight fuck, but eventually he was fired for being a dick, so I didn't exactly get to drive him slowly insane. C'est la vie.
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The people I work for own a comic shop and... so, on rare occasion, I run paperwork there or help out with a big event there and... yeeeeeeeeah. The way the guys treat the few girls who work there, man, it is just... documentaries must be made on this subject.
Especially at the little hole-in-the-wall shops, where it's still all about... a rack of new DC, a rack of new Marvel and 200 dusty longboxes, nothing else. Just flat-out no-frills corner-pusher shops. A girl or a woman walks in there and... those are the best.
Lately, especially in Los Angeles where I live these days, you see some of the larger comic book shops... trying hard to get female-friendly or at-least female-not-completely off-putting... because the larger shops are staying afloat by putting a lot more of their focus on DVD sales and shirt sales and toy sales and stuff like that. Especially, such as, goth girls, selling those cute-but-gothy toys and Nightmare Before Christmas stuff?
The extents to which those places "get it" and "don't get it" are amazing.
Oh... and? Anytime I buy comics and I'm offered bags and boards?
I'm a HUGE fan of saying "Oh, I don't collect 'em. I just read 'em"... and then strutting out of the place like I'm John Wayne.
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Instead of going into an analysis of the dysfunction and blatant-yet-unconscious misogyny of an industry in which the term "Women In Refrigerators Syndrome" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Refrigerators) needed to be coined, I'll just evaluate the comics shops I know.
The Million-Year Picnic (Boston): This place was pretty good. Incredibly tiny and cramped, but with a fine selection and friendly staff. The staff and customer base was also more mixed-gender than other comics shops I've known. My sister worked here a while and considered it positively.
Showcase Comics (Philadelphia): This place is a little closer to stereotype, I guess; the staff often is arguing about X-Men minutiae behind the counters, but it's always good-natured and their layout is positively inclined towards new readers (things that someone who isn't a hardcore superhero fan might actually enjoy reading are near the front of the store).
The Marvelous (Philadelphia): This place opened around the same time I moved to Philadelphia, which gave me a bit of a positive inclination towards it, but it has more and more become a used-records store with a couple shelves of comics, rather than the more or less even split it started with. I guess it's a pretty good used-records store.
Newbury Comics (all over the Boston area): These guys used to have comics but last I saw they were basically Hot Topic.
Okay that's it.
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I am not a reader of comics, so I have not had much of a reason to go inside the store, but this discussion has made me curious about the comics shop in Northampton, the town in which Smith College, the largest all-female school in the country (that is chock-full of awesomely geeky ladies), is located. Since Northampton basically is Smith, I wonder if the stereotypes mentioned above apply to this particular store. It would make for an interesting sociological study, to be sure.
EDIT: I know I promised not to remark anymore on posts of numerical significance, but this is POST NUMBER 666! Deal with it.
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oh my god, I think I know a lot of guys who would kill to go to the comics shop Hobot is describing. for sure.
congrats on # 666.
*puts on "The Number of the Beast" just for hobot*
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I am not a reader of comics, so I have not had much of a reason to go inside the store, but this discussion has made me curious about the comics shop in Northampton, the town in which Smith College, the largest all-female school in the country (that is chock-full of awesomely geeky ladies), is located. Since Northampton basically is Smith, I wonder if the stereotypes mentioned above apply to this particular store. It would make for an interesting sociological study, to be sure.
I'm going to guess that's it's the complete polar opposite of 5 Star Comics which is owned by the wrestler Rob Van Dam. Because when you mix comics and pro-wrestling you reach some kind of critical mass of geekiness, misogyny, and homoeroticism.
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I used to pick up comics and then play chess regularly at Comic Universe in Folsom, PA.
http://www.comicuniverse.net/
It's one of those great old comic shops that goes way back and has a treasure trove of great stuff. The owner is a True Believer and will go out of his way to find stuff for you.
Excelsior!
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I've never bought the comics at all, but an unhealthy obsession with basketball cards kept me visiting the comic shop daily for most of my time in grade school.
Nowadays, I can't stand the NBA and I can't believe that that Shaq mfer won another championship. DAMNIT.
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They made basketball cards?
Dang.
We were all about baseball cards when I was a kid. Topps brand only, please.
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Nowadays, I can't stand the NBA and I can't believe that that Shaq mfer won another championship. DAMNIT.
One of my favorite sports memories was watching Hakeem Olajuwon take Shaq to school in the '95 finals. It's was as if Shaq were made out of wood and Hakeem was mercury. I guess Shaq has improved since then.
~Paul
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Raymond Smuckles, "PhDTM" is grand.
I've never had my IQ tested, because my parents did not want me to instill an excessive amount of importance in numbers and scores. A lot of good that did me; I still base my self-worth on grades, damnit.
I do have a good friend who was invited to be a Mensa member. He has an IQ of 190.
Per a Mensa book I read many years ago, I believe called the "Mensa Think-Smart Guide" or such pap, the IQ test is based on a normal distribution and scores are related to standard deviations. As 100 is the normalized mean, this means fewer and fewer people with higher scores, and the highest score was 164 (or 166).
I am currently attempting to locate the book which is languishing somewhere in my place. The Wikipedia article on IQ is a little coy (and I'm too lazy to read the linked articles), but the graphic appears to corroborate this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:6sigmaIQrange.png