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Hi everyone. I hope you weren’t too troubled by the fact that the website was down for most of the weekend. If you experience any further trouble, please let me know. Otherwise, on with the show!
Thanks.
Heads-up everyone. I’m uploading the new comic in just a minute. There’s a lot to it and I’ve decided the best way to present it is all in one piece.
This means a much, much, much larger image than the comic usually is. At the moment, I can’t figure a way to split it up into smaller images and keep it in a single post. I’ll look into that, but for the moment you should be warned.
Hope it’s worth the trouble for you!
Hey everyone. Gonna take my research to the streets (or more appropriately, school hallways).
How do high school libraries work? Specifically:
- Do they have at the entrances those metal-detector things like public libraries usually have?
- Are they likely to have the little “turnstile” things so that if the metal detector thing registers something you’re prevented from leaving? I remember seeing those in some libraries, but they don’t seem to be that common anymore.
- Obviously they’re going to have a librarian, and probably a paid librarian aide. Do they use student volunteers also? (Like colleges use student workers?)
I suddenly realize I’m pretty familiar with the elementary-school library drill, and the public and college library setups, but I have only vague memories of seeing the high school version once or twice from when my wife taught.
Thanks!
I think the dumbest things are romantic. I don’t mean, “they may be small silly things but they’re endearing even though nobody would make a fuss out of them.” I mean dumb.
Hopefully not all of these are examples of that. I was thinking of Valentine’s Day, and eventually that led to thinking about (of course) Muppets, and so I tried to to think of some Sesame Street songs that might be appropriate for the holiday. These are all from CDs I have, so you can probably get copies and/or samples of them from your legitimate mp3 store of choice.
If I Were
“Anything to show you how much I love you.”
Kermit the Frog wishes he had the special life skills to come up with the perfect accomplishment or gift for you, and then he realizes he doesn’t have to impress just to express his feelings, in this song with a medieval feel.
Be with Me
“Well, I see who you are, and I like what I see. If you want to be, you can be with me.”
Carly Simon sings this song on the nominally Sesame Street record In Harmony. It has undertones of exchanging life’s important events and emotions with a message that says, “I choose you.”
One Little Star
“Do you long for another just the way that I do?”
Sometimes the real test of how much you love someone is how much you miss them when the occasion arises. This one from the first Sesame Street feature Follow That Bird ilustrates the feeling about as well as any song.
A Song from Kermit
“I hope we’ll always be as close as we can be.”
Kermit seems to exude altruism, and this song, while not as identifying a banner statement as Rainbow Connection or Bein’ Green, delivers in spades. All Kermit wants to do is make you feel nice. Misson accomplished.
Love in the Junkyard
“My love for you is bigger than the biggest pile of junk you’ve ever seen.”
There’s nothing romantic about the dump. But when anyone uses the things most important to them to show you how important you are, you take notice — even Oscar the Grouch. If you can ignore the smell and consider the source, this one might just sweep you off your feet.
One and One Make Two
“Everyone needs somebody to share with.”
Ernie illustrates some basic reasons why it’s better to have friends than live the hermit lifestyle. The people you’re close to make life better and help you along the way. (A version of this song was also featured on The Johnny Cash Children’s Album.)
I’m Talkin’ Love
“Sweeter than the sweetest feeling you can think of.”
OK, this is sort of the guilty pleasure song on the guilty pleasure song list. I’ll be up front: It’s not great. But the song’s “punchline” toward the end is good for anyone with some Sesame Street nostalgia.
and finally,
I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon
“Although I may go, I’ll be coming home soon.”
I wish there were some way to run the numbers on this, but people seem to have a stronger emotional reaction to this song than most other Sesame Street songs. It makes toddlers cry just because it sounds kind of sad. It exudes wistfulness and speaks to appreciation for the familiar elements of life you hold dear. If you have a family, you’ve felt these things before. It sums up many of the things you want loved ones to know you feel about them. For my money, it’s gotta be in the top two or three songs ever written for the show, and Valentine’s Day is as appropriate a time for it as any.
Hi everyone! Let me catch you up on two things. One is comics-related, one is not. Both impact the comic.
The first is that for the past two months I was engrossed in a day-job project that ended up eating my lunch. This is why there’s been no comics, and no explanation of comics. It involved learning a lot more than I thought I needed to learn about animation, and specifically Flash. Good professional development, good personal growth, but the process ran me over with a cement mixer. Figuratively.
The other thing I want to catch you up on is that I didn’t mean for the most recent comic to be maybe quite that much of a cliffhanger, but there it is so for Valentine’s Day I want to resolve it.
Bad news: I think I’ve written myself into a corner that I can’t get out of without doing something drastic. The way I’ve decided this thing would work itself out doesn’t fit well into the format of the fabled thrice-weekly strip updates.
Good news: I’m not limited to that format because this is the Internet. I’ve figured out what I think I want to do, and it’s a longer-form, single-update kind of thing. I think it’ll end up being really good.
So I’ll spend this week wrapping up this chapter in the relatively heavy drama of Mac’s huge crush on Jenni in a relatively heavy format, and then next week come back at you with what we in the hobby of making up phrases for no reason call “the jokes.”
I’ll keep you posted.