Back when I was in retail there was a guy who worked in receiving who was near my age. He’d been there since before I got there and worked with the two older ladies who ran the back room. He was taciturn and when he did speak it was only to communicate the absolute bare necessity to get his tasks done. He always got his work done without any complaints and did so for many years. I found out later that he acted that way because he was an alcoholic and came to work hung over every single day. He never complained or anything though. He just did his work and went home.
Well, we had a management change at one point and she wasn’t very good. One of her many areas of failing was scheduling. One day this new manager rescheduled a weekend store meeting the day before she wanted to have it. Generally the back room staff didn’t have to attend meetings, so this guy was caught off guard. It was mandatory for everyone. The meeting itself was so fucking stupid, and generally I was the most disruptive participant in these sorts of things, but on this particular morning it was this guy. He was still drunk from the night before, and not just a bit drunk. Completely drunk and extremely happy to be that way. He was animated, talkative, and involved in the topics. This new manager was extremely offended that he had the gall to come to work drunk, except it was her fault. Everyone knew it was her fault and the staff that had any kind of pull stopped her from firing him. After that though she was on the lookout for any excuse to fire him. It was the only time I ever saw him happy or animated, and after that things went back to normal until she finally found a reason she could fire him. It was still a bullshit reason, but no one could do anything about it apart from undermine her entire tenure from that point on. (Which I did at every turn, along with most everyone else.) On his last day she intended to let him work a full day, so there wouldn’t be any disruption to receiving, then fire him before he left to go home, but his direct supervisor threw a fit and said if she intended to fire him she had to do it as soon as he came in.
He went on about his life and I heard he eventually quit drinking, but I have no idea what happened to him for sure. Losing him caused a real imbalance in the back room, which led to a lot of problems. More even than the ones we were all going out of our way to cause. Things deteriorated greatly under her “leadership” because she had no concept of balance.
She once scheduled me to work an overnight then another full shift the next morning with no sleep. I worked the shift and after I went home she called me to tell me to come back and finish the task I left incomplete before I left. I told her she could fire me right then, or shut the fuck up. Either way, I was getting some sleep. She had run off so many full time workers that she couldn’t do it. I was a manager at the time.
Shortly before she got fired we were really hurting for help and I told her one of the people she had fired was between jobs again and could come back. He was already fully trained as management so it would be extremely helpful. She was too spiteful though and told me “He will never work in this store again!”
The day after she got fired I had the guy come in and the new manager rehired him on the spot. When she came in to get her stuff from the office he was working the register and she had to go through his line. It was so fucking hilarious watching him check her out with the biggest fucking grin on his face. As she was leaving he started singing this song, and I don’t know what the song is, but some of the lyrics are this particular way of saying never ever, but it sounds more like “nevah evah”, which became a joke between us that has gone on till this day.
Anyway, the drunk storyline made me think of that guy. I hope he’s doing well wherever he is.

As always, support links are above the blog. Let’s meet back here on Wednesday and see where things stand. Until then, stay fresh.

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cha cha very smooth XD

Let’s just say that when I tried that, it didn’t work out so well, and leave it at that.

Turn it out.

Deadpan ftw, always.
Well, almost always – sometimes that wee twinkle in the eye that tips you off is even better.

Lol, Gentlemen, once again I regret to inform you that … Women.

Personally, I vastly prefer not to work with women, doubly so with girlbosses. I am content in my unacceptable sexism.

Too bad for you.

Women outnumber men in the publishing industry, so most of my bosses since 1988 were women. One of my all-time worst bosses was a woman, but so were four of the best. When I retired, there were 25 women and 3 men on staff. I was the only male in my department.

Men who are no good at working with women are at a big disadvantage.

Oh, I work with them reasonably well when I have to, but if the situation declines enough I move on. I have no hopes of getting published, lol.

I get along with women but I do understand the concerns. Women are allowed to get away with more and can ruin careers at the drop of a hat–few of them ever do it, but the fact that they CAN means some of them do and it ruins everything. A few bad apples are allowed to give the rest a bad name, and instead of fix it, people who are victimized are called names.

I checked in on Questionable Content again. It’s not all bad but let me speak of some of the bad.

Lately, Jeph seems to have run the same storyline twice. First with a black girl without social skills who has to apologize abjectly to everyone. Then with a white girl without social skills, thrown without warning into the emotional minefield that is “Faye”. This Faye is a tiresome violent drunk with pristinely preserved emotional traaaaauuuumaaaa for twenty or thirty years by now. She is what is colloquially known as an utter asshole and nobody will challenge her alpha assholeness. Nobody! Faye these days seems unable to fruitfully interact with humans and has shacked up with a big robot. The robot seems to be getting tired of her shit though.

Anyway, white girl ultimately has to abjectly apologize to Faye of course. I’m starting to wonder if the rest of the crew are quietly having some fun by pushing their new acquaintances into the minefield.

In the larger scheme of things, is this how the QC-side people of this world behave with each other? Kind of grim if you turn off the laugh track.

Why comment about QC on a webcomic that has nothing to do with it? Don’t get me wrong, you’re free to critique anything that you want, but why here?

He knows it’s the last webcomic I still read regularly.

I’ll add that Jackie has never asked for my input. I just provide it anyway.

QC is the most commercially successful webcomic out there, and is in the same genre, if you will, as Between Failures by being so long-running and having an ensemble cast. So I sometimes go through it to see if there are any insights to be found, in particular pertaining to BF.

(Lol, I should also say I have my issues with QC; perhaps they shone through this time. Sorry everyone! I think Jackie likes it a lot more than I do.)

…this is a disturbingly accurate summary.

Actually, I find the summary incredibly inaccurate. The current storyline IS there’s two women (Ayo and Liz) BOTH of whom are socially inept, and some of the fun comes from the fact that Hannalore (who has resolved? a crippling anxiety problem) is somehow the voice of reason. The girl (Liz) who pissed off Faye also spent the morning in Faye’s shop ogling Bubbles (her robot girlfriend)’s tits, but the important thing was the next conversation: to Claire (arguably the MC at this point) Liz couldn’t get away with, after pissing off Faye and Bubbles, just saying “I’m an asshole, and I suck at social skills.” Liz, if she wanted to stay friends, had to try and get better at socializing. And afterwards, Faye has been pretty cool about it (Faye knows SHE’s a minefield too, and is liable to blow up on people). Ayo hasn’t had to learn “gee, I can’t just say ‘I’m broken!’ and then get a free pass to be an asshole.” But Ayo might be a more minor character. Nobody here expects Madison, for example, to have anything other than a flash of self awareness now and then. That’s OK too.

There’s also a side joke that somehow Martin “adopted” another emotionally stunted girl into his sexles harem comedy life, and this one even looks like a mini version of him.

As someone who also regularly reads that garbage fire: I think you’re misrepresenting his position, or misunderstanding which Fayexplosion he’s talking about.

So what actually happens is that a 19 year old who has had 0 friends in her life gets dragged to Faye’s shop because Martin is stupid and spineless. This girl with the brain of a child stares at Bubbles’ boobs. Then says her friend’s boobs are bigger. People expect this 19 year old with clear and intense autism to have tact.

So then she’s brought by Bubbles to Faye, and says she wants to drink alcohol. They all point out she’s underage. She says she’s going to do it anyway. Faye says it won’t happen at her place because she’s an alcoholic. The child character replies “then don’t drink, it’s not my problem”; to which Faye, a 30+ year old adult, screams at her to get out of “my workshop” and proceeds to hold a grudge against this girl a decade younger than her until the girl apologizes and grovels.

If anything, he’s being generous by leaving out how Faye was more of a child than the womanchild character. Which is sad.

Ah. OK. I see our difference. We have different reactions to both Liz and Faye’s attitudes. I do NOT read Liz as as childlike nor autistic, just an immature little “never at fault” goblin. I have a friend who, like Faye, nearly ruined his life with alcohol, and is real sensitive about treating his drinking as a failure of willpower or constitution instead of a genetic disease with a psychological chaser. I apparently have more tolerance for her attitude. Cool Cool. The Internet is a big place, and at least we both like reading about THESE characters!

Yeah, I felt Faye’s reaction was understandable, if a bit extreme, sure Liz is clearly lacking context on what addiction actually is, but she still screwed up majorly with that “so just don’t drink” remark, addiction is a disease and a big part of treating it is by not exposing yourself to opportunities to relapse. Liz seems uneducated about what alcoholism actually is and how to deal with it, hence her flippancy, doesn’t excuse the transgression, though, just explains it. Faye’s reaction was extreme because this is an understandably sore subject for her, and nobody reacts well to people being dismissive of their problems. She is well within her rights to not want people who aren’t going to respect her to be around. Liz didn’t realize how disrespectful she was being until after it was explained to her, and was remorseful when she DID realize she was in the wrong, her reluctance to apologize wasn’t that she expects a free pass, she just doesn’t feel like she is *able* to get better, so she views trying to be a waste of time and energy.

Liz isn’t only trying to be better because of Claire and Martin, all they’ve done is encourage her not to give up on herself, she WANTS to improve, she WANTS to make friends and keep them, she WANTS to stop putting her foot in her mouth, she just puts too much pressure on herself to be perfect.

It’s actually pretty common with people who heavily identify with “being a genius”, as getting praised for being smart all the time as a kid causes you to attribute your successes with something in-born, which unfortunately also causes you to associate your failures with something in-born. You succeed because you are smart, and others who aren’t smart won’t succeed, you fail because you just aren’t good enough and no amount of effort will change the way you are so why bother trying? This is a very unhealthy attitude that is sadly quite common amongst “gifted kids” and results in them putting entirely too much pressure on themselves to succeed and avoid even trying at the things that don’t come easily to them.

This seems to be the first time Liz has had anybody in her life encourage her to actually improve and put in effort for the things she wants instead of just giving up. She doesn’t expect a free pass because she is the way she is, she’s just inclined to give up because she is struggling with the idea that she can actually *change* the way she is.

As someone who IS autistic, I don’t think Liz is autistic, she could be, but I view her lack of social development to be more the result of missed opportunity at critical points of development rather than a neurological disorder stunting her social development. She’s never had a peer group, so of course she never learned how to properly socialize, which can look quite similar to autism but is not actually the same thing.

All in all, the characters and situations are much more nuanced than some people are giving them credit for, but I don’t blame people for not wanting to invest in characters they dislike enough to understand them, sometimes a person just rubs you the wrong way, nothing wrong with that, although I feel writing the person/character off and trying to justify your own dislike of them with a shallow view of their behavior/intentions is unfair, especially if it misrepresents who they are and what they are about as significantly as these characters have been misrepresented in this discussion. If you don’t like it, don’t read it, it’s that simple.

Yeah, that’s pretty much my take on it.
No offense to anyone, but-
most people who are about 18 or 19, don’t know much, or know almost nothing, about- what adults’ lives are like, or how to act [positively, or politely] to adult people.
Most of them just don’t, IMO.

The story of Liz is not a big part of my life, but-in my view- I was hoping that Faye’s experience with alcohol addiction, + how it can make you do screwed-up things, would have shown Faye that [other] people, including 19-year-olds with no social experiences- can need [a kind + patient hand], when they are being social with you.

Faye had- gotten drunk on the job, + then was caught…and fired for it.
After that- I was hoping that Faye could see her mistakes, + gaffs, in that experience, + have patience with other people’s, huge gaffs.

Whichever.

I just believe- that if the roles had been reversed, that Faye would hope that [the offended person], would: 1] see Faye as an equal person, and 2] have patience, + extreme kindness, when these types of mistakes are made.
I just find that story between Faye + Liz, to be kind of puzzling. It’s odd.

Oh, is Faye an alcoholic again? I actually liked her arc of getting sober, getting a real job, and Bubbles. I just found the comic boring after a while, as Jeph wanted to focus more on his social politics than story-telling. I was fine with the dominatrix mom, gay dad getting married, girlfriend turning lesbian, and so on, for a while, but it seems like that’s most of what he does now; exceptions tend to be other characters who cross the line between “quirky” and “freaking weird.” The characters don’t feel very interesting outside of their “thing” and most of the more normal characters (Raven, Penelope, Steve) practically disappeared from the comic despite supposedly being just out of frame all this time (Jeph himself said that at one point). It definitely feels like an “and then” story now, or at least it was when I left.

Yes, that would have been a redemption. Roll credits for Faye.

To be clear, Faye hasn’t been drinking but went self-righteously nuts when white girl naively offered that Faye could still join them at a party and ‘just don’t drink’. Everyone supported poor Faye and her histrionics, of course, but, you know, she could equally well just have turned down the offer with a wistful smile or such.

I think your sexism and biases are coming through loud and clear throughout this thread in your mis-assessment and critique of QC. You started off by revealing that you do not like women – period. Then followed up by stating that you don’t like women’s behavior. At least you are consistent.

Jeph is a man, dude. A somewhat chunky man. Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s best you know.

Stopped reading QC a long time ago. Mainly because the characters seemed to stop developing. For the period of time they have been active and the changes that had occurred it still seemed like time haden’t moved in the slightest. The only story development really just seemed to be new characters being introduced who were becoming increasingly boring and old characters being seen less and less. Actual character development. Not really.

I think these two are about to have a lovely night.

Here’s hoping Backroom Guy and the team that protected him while they could are doing similarly well.

You nailed her expression in the second panel. Or maybe you hit it out of the park. I’m not up to date with the lingo. Anyway, just wanted to share my appreciation.

Ed’s deadpan brought Nina from 0-100 blushing in two panels. I’d say he’s doing this right.

Loved the huge SNORT btw. Soon we may have Nina dancing on the tables.

I love the idea of Nina daintily eating a burger. Yes I’m imagining her pinky is extended.

Me too. :)

This was asked of me by nobody, but:
according to The British people:
when your drinking a cup of tea, British tradition says- it is impolite to hold your pinky out, on the hand that is holding your tea cup, while you drink from that cup.

How this ever became a tradition, only “Underdog” the superhero knows. :D

The pinky out tradition had to do with syphilis. It was a sign you had it. Something to do with the symptoms not like they were signaling they were in a club. But enough rich classy types had it that it became a way to show you were as classy as the rich folks?

I read QC, along with several others, because I’ve been reading them a while. and they update fairly regularly. I enjoy them to one degree or another, I read BF last, it’s the cherry on top. I don’t analyze them too much, they’re escapism. If I only read things that aligned with my values and life experiences, the pickings would be slim to non-existant. I hope someone is taking up a similar amount of the comments on QC about BF.
Great job as always, Jackie.

2636 The World’s Greatest Lover.

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