Comments on: Then Along Came a Spider

By: Araxie

Araxie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:50:18 +0000

This is random, but did the style of this strike anybody else as being Bloom County-esque?

By: meerkat

meerkat — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:42:09 +0000

Her dance causes spring, so when she was interrupted by the spider, spring reverted back to winter.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:57:23 +0000

Elyrest and Morris, I’m with you. Believe me, I know where you’re coming from, I’m on your side…. but why weather, or other equally simple things? Why has human psychological development led us toward discussing the banal with strangers? The initial topic could be ANYTHING, but for some reason we have chosen the painfully ordinary and obvious as an acceptable comfort level. We joyfully go on and on about the trivial rather than something more interesting which we are all certainly capable of, and we all know it.

I suspect it is probably a throwback to when humans were developing as social beings and competition for resources was a lot more fierce. We didn’t want to give too much information away to a stranger and potential enemy/competitor for these resources, but wanted to avoid hostilities at the same time. A neutral topic kept everybody happy. However, we are beyond this point in our development, yet this method of interaction lingers. Not only lingers, but flourishes. I find this odd/amusing, and that’s the point I was trying to make with my little comment. Unsuccessfully, I realise.

Man, it got up to 45 degrees today. It was nuts.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:06:57 +0000

Stan (26) I didn’t say what I’d like to know about Kuwait. I’d like to know much more than I do about the country than I have gained from news stories. What I said though, and Morris Keenan reinforced, is that people most often talk about what they know and that is where their comfort level lies. Weather is what we are pondering here, but we share little bits of our lives as we ponder. We talk about comics, but we share the world. I’d love to hear more about your world as we go along.

By: Morris Keesan

Morris Keesan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:54:52 +0000

Stan, it may seem to you to be about the weather, but the conversation I’ve been participating in here is about human psychology, i.e. people’s perceptions of and reactions to the weather.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:36:50 +0000

Elyrest (24) - Really, that’s the only thing I should assume you’d like to know about Kuwait? The weather? I have a bit more info that I’m certain you’d find far more interesting. I know this because what we have in common is that we’re ‘people’ and people have experiences.

As much I believe you can understand hot and sunny, I also believe you could conceive of camel herders, daily fatal traffic accidents, stinking amounts of wealth on display, people getting arrested for ‘witchcraft’ and blasphemy, and so on. I bet you have a lot of stories you could entertain me with. However, you’re right. If I met you on the bus, I’d discuss the weather with you. At length.

Sorry, I simply find the lengths at which we discuss this topic, and more so the genuine interest we show in it, a peculiar element of social interaction.

By: Minor Annoyance

Minor Annoyance — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:31:32 +0000

This is, of course, a fairly ancient cartoon from the 50s or 60s — The dancer was one if his recurring characters. Cold war and political references aside, Feiffer’s stuff holds up alarmingly well.

Feiffer recently turned up on Charlie Rose plugging his memoirs. He looked remarkably well himself, which he attributed to never being athletic — there was no level of fitness to fall from. He stopped drawing his weekly cartoon several years ago, but still does one-shots for New Yorker and writes/illustrates a lot of children’s books.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:39:50 +0000

Stan (23) In some people’s lives the weather can be the most interesting thing that happens. Or the most changeable. People often talk about the weather because it is the only thing they have in common. Kuwait? Never been there, but I understand hot and sunny.

By: Stan

Stan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:46:52 +0000

I find it amusing that this comic has received 22 comments, more than most (3nd runner up in the last 10 posts), and it’s is about the weather.

God, we’re pathetic. It’s hot and sunny here in Kuwait where I am, in case anyone is interested. And I know you are.

By: turquoise cow

turquoise cow — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:07:03 +0000

Lola - not anymore, though I didn’t think of it immediately.