yup… in RL, a girl with M’s attributes would mean they are about 5 times the size of her head.. there are some stocky girls that have similar proportions ( eg ‘lotta topp’ when she was younger) , but most surgery just produces ‘spherical’ shapes…
Measuring on my screen in the first frame, her chest is 7/8″ at the longest, and her head 2″ at the longest (chin to top back of head). So each breast is smaller than her head.
There are several girls who have genetics that lean this way. Some of those large girls you see out there would not appreciably loose chest if they dieted down as much as necessarily. Many of us choose to enjoy M’s diet and simply get large rather than be treated like freaks.
Others in M’s position go in for surgery so we look more normal, clothes fit, and people stop being obnoxious.
Personally I went both routs. I had 5lbs cut out of my chest when I was 21 (I’m only 5’4″ tall), then when I was 27 I started getting fat. My chest continued to grow slowly on and off the whole time. Now I’m in my 30’s and living healthier so I’m lean again, but I’m still a 32F. If I hadn’t had the surgery, I’d have been 5lbs of lean breast tissue bigger.
There’s a lot of us out here who resemble M’s plight in one way or another. Many of us love reading this comic partly because of Paul’s insightful treatment of the subject.
and yes, I am sympathetic to M’s plight…
A good friend of mine back in the ’80s had about the same body problems as her – she was less than 5 foot, italian, and her chest hung down past her waist… but she did have a good body otherwise… 🙂
she found she qualified for free reduction on the NHS, so she got them reduced to a ‘nice comfortable 36DD’ , she gleefully said! 😀 😀
ahhh it was a much nicer world back then, you could trust the value of things…
It has been a while since we’ve seen Monica’s demons. 🙂 I kind of feel relieved seeing them (or at least one of them) again. Not sure why, but that’s how I feel.
Maybe the demon’s return is related to her sudden awareness of her aging yesterday (?) morning and her need to get into better shape. After all, most of the demons seem to be related to personal issues and problems.
And–they always seem to show up where we are. There’s an old monastic saying that, if every boat makes you seasick, it’s not the boats’ fault. And wherever you go, you are there.
Yeah good old gym class, where the coach’s favorites got to run rampant over the rest of us, including those of us who would rather have spent the time in the library for all the good it did us.
I can’t run laps, I hate any kind of sport based on knocking/throwing a ball around and running (there ARE others, thank you!), always picked last, and made a laughing stock by the Athletes of Tomorrow who were destined to someday wear a Varsity jacket of some kind.
Nah, not bitter … not at all. Probably has nothing to do with why I didn’t have anything resembling a healthy body until *after* I joined the Navy, nor why I lost it so quickly after leaving the Navy and no longer having the structure of military life dictating my shape and instead falling back on what I learned (yeah right) from gym class.
Confession time. I played football(the American kind) in high school. I also played D&D and hung out with my nerdy friends and took art classes. If theres one consolation you can take away from the life all those jocks lived, it’s that most of them have let them selves go just as much as you say you have and they have joints that are wrecked to boot. I played the line and due to “accidents” my knees are trashed. At 43 I’ve got the knees of an 80 year old. And a shouder that needs replacing. ‘Course some of the stuff I did in the Army may have contributed to that.
I could run (was on the cross-country team for three years) but that got no respect from the PE teachers. The cross-country coaches were biology and English teachers, not PE teachers. They kept trying to talk me into trying out for football–they gave up on basketball after seeing my non-existent jump shot.
The ironic thing was that the cross-country team was constantly winning the conference, frequently the district, and sometimes the state championship, whereas the football team never finished above .500 and thus never participated in post-season play.
I was the quintessential nerd of my small farming community – into computers and math. I never had a problem with getting good grades in gym, but I never cared for it. I preferred solitary exercise and started getting into running and weight-lifting, which really surprised my teachers and classmates alike. Good thing too since I had a smart mouth. 🙂 Then my math teacher, who I respected, asked me to go out for wrestling so I figured why not since normal school honestly wasn’t challenging enough. Surprised people even more, and gave me more ammo to use against the true jocks who thought they were hot shit and still picked on me and the other nerds – I could tell the football players who called me, “Mat Fag,” that at least I had a winning record the past year, or that since I was in marching band and had to go to every single football game, I knew what it was like to win, yet I can’t seem to remember even a single touchdown being scored by us the last 3 games. It also came in handy when I decided to end the ritualized bullying in band class – something called red bellies where you grab freshmen, take them down to the ground and take turns beating on their stomachs. They couldn’t get me my freshman year, and when the upperclassman asshole who most enjoyed this practice tried to get me on his own the next year, he got taken down in a painful hold, and while the rest of the class circled round us, I issued the fatwa that there would be no more red bellies if people knew what was good for them. Freshmen loved me. The upperclassmen didn’t, but by that time I was bigger than they were. 🙂
It really does depend on the sports on offer. You found a path they liked, I didn’t, but in my last year at school, I enjoyed one single event.
My school offered football and rugby in the winter – oh look someone tall for his age, straight in the rugby scrum. I hated it
In summer it was cricket, athletics or if you were lucky, tennis – I always got stuck with athletics, that was almost worse than the rugby, boring as well as something I wasn’t good at.
But in the last year, a friend of mine organised a staff vs 6th form badminton match. The first comment I heard when I walked in from a PE teacher who I had hated since day one was ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ While I’ll admit one of the economics teachers beat me, I took great pleasure in wiping the floor with both PE teachers in a sport I had been playing for more than a decade, even reaching the semi finals of the local county youth tournament the previous year.
No I couldn’t run long distances or tackle well on a muddy pitch, but other sports did exist, something the PE teachers didn’t want to admit.
As much as the alteration for Gym works pretty good, I believe the proper full version goes:
Those who can, Do.
Those who can not do, Teach.
Those who can not teach, Administrate.
Those who can not Administrate, go into Politics.
(Shows you where we got all of those politicians…)
Although I like them for aesthetic reasons, I’ve never been much of a boob fan. I love them smaller, personally. But I LOVE a cute butt and long hair. The last panel is sexier to me than the previous three days.
I think Anger is more… rampant… in appearance. Doubt, on the other hand, likes being slinky and low key while delivering zingers that cause Monica’s assurance to crumble…
A short-stature woman compensating with high heels and battling with a high center of gravity… is Monica not going to do anything until she is suffering leg tendons damage and crippling back injuries? From experience, youthful physical resilience starts breaking down in the mid-30’s. M may be in a situation to poit pain away…
*crosses my legs daintily* TheEngineer cooks. the ex husband comes and cleans. i still have a large collection of naughty doodles and hot poetry from otherloves who have passed through the veil.
all i need is the *ability* to wear heels… *sighs* tearing all the ligaments loose on the outside of my right foot in 1980 cured THAT ability, permanently. i look good in them, but two hours wear means i’m on crutches the next day unable to put weight on that foot. so pretty flats it is.
I never liked that quote. Probably because I had some exceptional teachers over the years who are still people I respect. Those people felt teaching was a calling of sorts, and did it with passion that was contagious and motivating.
The coaches/PE teachers I’ve known reserved their passion for the sports they coached. PE class was a necessary evil…and heaven help you if you had to attend an academic class they taught.
i like to flavor that quote with a respectful color..
the dance instructor that is too old to bend like she used to,
the lecturer that cannot get respect from the employment market full of idiots that just want young idiots that can be told what to do, or just look pretty… like the fully qualified experienced PA that does not have a model girl figure, so rejected for some bimbo… 🙁
I’ll second that last bit. Last mandatory gym class I had to take was my first high school freshman semester. Then I had to take the mandatory health care class, also taught by the gym teacher. The sex education chapter literally was this:
Okay, chapter 8, reproductive and sexual health. *pause* Anyone *NOT* know? Okay, chapter 9, dental hygiene.
“Coach” was also one of the drivers ed teachers during the summer. We learned how to drive both out in the country and in the big city north of our small farming town. He would routinely fall asleep during country driving so we would remain really quiet and drive out as far as we could and get ourselves lost and see if he could direct us back.
I used to hate that quote too, until the day I realized I was misreading it: “those who can, do – those who can’t, teach”. This does NOT mean those who teach are incompetent.
It simply means that those who actually practice something as a career (those who can, do) reach the point where they can no longer stay in the field, so they become a teacher and pass the knowledge (those who can’t, teach) to the next generation.
That phrase was meant as a consolation for those of us reaching the end of their “viable working years” in how they can still be a contribution – not as a slam on those who do teach. That way of using that saying was a perversion of the original, used by a few jerks who wanted to slam their teachers.
As for being assigned as the school’s PE Instructor being a baaaaaad sign about your teaching abilities (unless you have a Master’s Degree in Physiology – only PE teacher I actually respected!), that is still true, yes.
The curvy calves are supposedly the reason high heels were invented. Enough walking in flats or tennies, plus some heel-raises, and you can have curvy calves AND walk in comfortable shoes.
Short?
Hmm, don’t have anything in the toolbox for that….
The demon is right. Resentment is like drinking poison ans expecting it to kill the enemy; however, I think M is just doing some inner work here rather than dwelling on past injuries. She’s got a lot of ammunition, that lady, and it’s not all physical.
It wouldn’t even have to remind her of gym. After four or more years of dreading and hating exercise (because of the way it is presented), she has a simple conditioned reflex.
People who think they aren’t “athletic” are often surprised years later when they discover an activity that they enjoy – and they become good at it!
I did something similar on an intellectual mode–never liked history much, until I found an era I liked, and had the opportunity to learn it at my leisure.
Of cause i cant say what the exact meaning is above but have you ever tried being in a PE class where one or more is a athlete or similar “star pupil”? Lets just say the teacher dont concentrate on the less promising kids at all 😀
Actually, the below-average kids are better off if the PE teachers concentrate on the “stars” and ignore the others, rather than singling-out the low-achievers and attempting to “motivate” them through sarcasm, ridicule, and punishment drills. I couldn’t hit a basketball free-throw to save my life, and being told to grind out pushups as punishment for missing didn’t do a thing to improve my shooting skills.
Showers and nudity? Two words. Towel snapping. This is a thing. Usually with a wet end. I was big enough, strong enough, and combative enough not to have experienced it, but I know those who have. Not pleasant. Don’t forget Monica delveloped early. Anyone different is usually a target for some type of abuse. She was probably teased. Kids can be cruel.
Imagine a class, that is supposed to expose you to a wide variety of athletic passtimes as well as condition your bodies, because God forbid you can’t have these young men and women have recess because who knows what would happen then. Now imagine that this class must be passed in order to graduate. Now imagine a fifty year old jock is teaching this class because he was not good enough to go pro. Now imagine that this man is bored and slightly sadistic. Now imagine he’s given a whole bunch of kids to “torture” and your body is not built well for most athletic endevers. Ask yourself if you would like any phyical activity after being around this guy two days a week for six years. He ruined any inclination to participate or enjoy sports. To top all of this off, imagine you have to get naked and take a shower after all of this and if you don’t you will fail… Imagine.
I hated gym in school too – the fat kid from Kindergarten thru Senior year. When I got to college I took Heinlein’s advice – studied Archery, Fencing, Riflery and Pistol shooting. Had there been Kendo I would have gone there, too. Traditional fencing, while fun, is not all that useful, but I couldn’t (and still can’t) afford martial arts training.
So, I guess I’ll have to shoot ’em before they get to me.
I think it was Kaiser Wilhelm once asked the ruler of Sweden what the one million man Swiss army would do when five million German soldiers swarmed over the border.
He said, “Each soldier would fire five shots and go home.”
I love that look she’s working. 🙂 I need to invest in something similar and freak my co-workers out by wearing a skirt to work one day.
That said, I’m highly amused by that first image of Mon. I know that you have to counter-balance weight and all, but dayum! She has to lean pretty far back to allow for her rack! 😛
Yeah. I thought she was not only looking at herself in a mirror, but specifically trying to see her belly, so she was hoisting her built-in awnings to check it out.
Hmm. Amanda or Kevin. She’s used both in the past to help her exercise.
Or maybe that’s the very reason she’ll avoid both of them. Not sure Monica can keep up with Shelly’s exercise routine though. And I don’t think the dead do cardio, so that rules out Tina.
… perhaps a visit to a local Punk Yoga shop? (>^_^)>
Guys…. the only things “packing” are her mammeries… and her uterus. PE had nothing to do with this. She’s knocked up. There’s a bun in the oven. The seed has planted. YOU CANNOT EXERCISE OFF LACTATION!!! Doubt will have a field day, but right now doubt is clueless… just like she is. Apparently her demons are only aware of what she is aware of.
I wonder if she pukes today? Probably too early
Uh, unless I missed a comic, Kevin hasn’t been around in a LONG time. And enough time has passed since the last time he was around that if she she DID get pregnant, she’d be showing by now.
Then again, time in this comic is a little vague, so maybe he’s only been gone a month in their time.
In any case, I just assume Kevin is around the same way the Museum is still there and Minnesota is a still a state of the Union. Mon did mention sex earlier this week, so we have confirmation that that is still a thing in her life.
Ah, right. Okay so that was winter (which lasts a pretty good, long while in Minnesota) and now in the comic there’s no snow.
So yeah, PLENTY of time to get preggers and start exhibiting mood swings and “swelling”. Total possibility.
But… Monica strikes me as someone who would take precautions like the pill to prevent that from happening. Not that I don’t think she’d be a good mom, but I don’t see her as wanting to be a mom just yet.
Babies take up a lot of time, and she’s got her day job, her supernatural job, partying with her friends… plus I think she’d want to get married before starting a family.
She’s too cautious and practical to have an active sex life and NOT use some kind of protection… Unless Paul wants to do some kind of storyline that tackles abortion, and I REALLY hope that’s not the case… That goes into all KINDS of ugly controversy that I just don’t want to see happening here.
Pam (my first wife) was on the pill when my second child was concieved. The pill is not 100% secure.
My wife was also on the pill, when our second child was conceived. All it took was for her to miss taking it for 2 or 3 days in a row..
Yeah, let’s just say that we never had to try for years whenever we wanted a kid… all she had to do was to stop taking the pill (intentionally, the first and third time…)
To clarify my previous comment:
I consider my son to be a “pleasant surprise”. All good!
None of that negative “accident” stuff. That’s mean, and can really wreck a kid, once they learn about it… (for they inevitably will, at one point or another… it’s even worse if they learn about it as part of an argument with their parent.)
I love each of our three kids. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
I hope not. Besides, it’s my understanding that pregnancy firms up the boobs… or is that just after delivery? Anyway, hopefully there are a lot of good supernatural adventures ahead before Paul feels the need to add a sprog to the mixture. I’m already “upset” at the turn of events in 9 Chickweed Lane with one of the characters being knocked up. 🙂
Some gym classes are co-ed, and in that case, the gender of the teacher is irrelevant. Granted, I only had co-ed PE classes through elementary school (mandatory gender divisions starting in 6th grade), but I’ve heard plenty of people tell stories of co-ed classes all the way into high school.
The amendment was to engage an equal value in education to all students (including ones like Monica), its greatest impact addressing a lack of funds for girls sports. Since jocks get the attention in gym class, it’s of a piece, socially.
Well, there you go again. You weren’t publicly schooled, but are speaking for those who are.
People need governance, governance works through information, money and force.
Individual families with enough money and force take over governments. Unless wider opportunities are made available.
Public schools act in loco parentis, since they have charge of children for 7+ hours a day. So. Raising children is their job description.
As for personal responsibility, well, children need to be taught that. It’s not innate. They need to be taught a lot of things. In the process, adults pass scars on to the children they teach.
We have 24 hours in the day. Ten (or more) of those hours are spent sleeping, showering and eating. Depending on travel situation, anywhere form 9 to 11 of the remaining 14 hours those kids are in the custody of the school and it is the sole place those kids hope to learn ANYTHING which is why we send them in the first place.
So is it the school’s job? Damn right it is! That’s why we sent them in the first place. Because thanks to the way the economy has been for over 30 years now, most families can’t really afford to have a stay at home parent anymore nor can they afford a nanny. So both parents work and the kids go to a public school – if they aren’t taught that fitness is good there, by a professional who should be able to do so properly, where will they learn it?
Oh right – from a burned out parent who just put in 9-10 hours of dealing with a mind-numbing job that drained them of their physical and mental energy for the day. But they should still have it in them to go play sports or do calisthenics for an hour? If it works out that way great – but most likely it won’t.
This isn’t the 50’s anymore – things have changed.
This is why I have no problem paying taxes for public schools even though I have no kids of my own in the system – I am paying for the education of the next generation, the ones who will be in control when I am too old to do anything about it. I WANT THEM TRAINED!
When murder is organized well enough we call it war, and participants soldiers who are rewarded with honor. When thieving is orchestrated on a grand enough level we call it banking, and its captains are rewarded with wealth.
Organizing knowledge and education of the young is as ancient a practice as either of those, including their physical education. It’s as much in the interest of the state as the individual.
As for the economy, the more people participating in it is supposed to expand it; women create jobs and opportunities too. Arguing otherwise is from the 1950s, and full of straw.
Professionals in all those occupations know the difference between the explanations and the reality. I was demeaning none of them. Killing and usury with impunity can be deemed legal, moral, etc. What dogma did you think better of me than? Just curious, because you seem to need me to fit one anyway.
The jobs-only model you describe is not operable because of a tight money market and globalization. This won’t change because any of the parameters you mentioned. But it is changing of necessity with stuff like crowdsourcing. I mentioned opportunities, because that’s what educated young people are making for themselves, since few others are. They are expanding their own economy.
That leaves resource scarcity putting pressures on the general market. But that means more opportunities! And you’ll need armies, so there’s more jobs now in the US Armed Forces opening up, women included. If it’s jobs you’re focussed on.
I’ve seen plenty of instances of Gym teachers of the opposite sex in all-boy or all-girl schools (though given what we’ve seen of Monica’s childhood, she was probably Co-Ed. Source = Yummy Tea).
And not just USA either (personally on its East Coast). Outside of personal experience or second-hand tales, just look at TV. Plenty of British and Japanese media that features it as well.
Oh, right. Yummy Tea. Thanks. Brain may have filed that under “recess”.
The only anime I’ve seen featuring coed sports had such fantasy twists, that it was a bit hard to tell. And though I have a source in British education, PE has never come up. An anecdotal sign that maybe more attention needs to be summoned to it.
RE: Monica and Photoshop
There was a question this week on how much of the shading in the images of Monica were done in Photoshop.
Due to first hand knowledge, I can now confirm that, apart from the Sepia tones in the images, 0% of the shading was done in Photoshop. I have seen the originals for Tuesday and Wednesday. The background was added for posting. The sepia tone as well, but they are not on the original art! The shading on the original art is grey brushpens as with other art Paul has done.
Very cool, Joe – thanks for passing this knowledge along.
Actually, “very warm!” would be more appropriate, as it seems that Paul used the digital edit on the shading only to warm up its color tone.
I predict that this is going to add a flurry of interest to the eBay auctions for the original art… they’re one step closer to what Paul has done for his commissioned and special drawings.
Good lords that’s one hell of a bra! She must shop at Jenette’s!
I have been witness to great feats of suspension.
1st was the Golden Gate Bridge. 2nd is Monica Villarreal’s brazier.
+1 Interwebs for you!
(Makes honorary donation to pun vault in your name.)
Doubt’s statement is going straight into my quote vault — with full credit to Mr. Taylor — for the edification of the grandchildren I’ve yet to have.
yup… in RL, a girl with M’s attributes would mean they are about 5 times the size of her head.. there are some stocky girls that have similar proportions ( eg ‘lotta topp’ when she was younger) , but most surgery just produces ‘spherical’ shapes…
Hey there iliad,
Measuring on my screen in the first frame, her chest is 7/8″ at the longest, and her head 2″ at the longest (chin to top back of head). So each breast is smaller than her head.
There are several girls who have genetics that lean this way. Some of those large girls you see out there would not appreciably loose chest if they dieted down as much as necessarily. Many of us choose to enjoy M’s diet and simply get large rather than be treated like freaks.
Others in M’s position go in for surgery so we look more normal, clothes fit, and people stop being obnoxious.
Personally I went both routs. I had 5lbs cut out of my chest when I was 21 (I’m only 5’4″ tall), then when I was 27 I started getting fat. My chest continued to grow slowly on and off the whole time. Now I’m in my 30’s and living healthier so I’m lean again, but I’m still a 32F. If I hadn’t had the surgery, I’d have been 5lbs of lean breast tissue bigger.
There’s a lot of us out here who resemble M’s plight in one way or another. Many of us love reading this comic partly because of Paul’s insightful treatment of the subject.
H : in Real Life (RL), nobodies head is that large in proportion to the body … please now scale the body properly.. 🙂
a human head is about 1/8 of the whole height.. 🙂
and yes, I am sympathetic to M’s plight…
A good friend of mine back in the ’80s had about the same body problems as her – she was less than 5 foot, italian, and her chest hung down past her waist… but she did have a good body otherwise… 🙂
she found she qualified for free reduction on the NHS, so she got them reduced to a ‘nice comfortable 36DD’ , she gleefully said! 😀 😀
ahhh it was a much nicer world back then, you could trust the value of things…
Hi illiad,
Thanks for clarifying. It’s nice to hear other people can understand how rough it can be to be an unusual figure. 🙂
-H
@Stigmatyr: Great feats of suspension, eh? In that case, I hereby name M’s bosom Disbelief!
[puts blank check in pun vault]
Locked and loaded is right. Only those aren’t guns she’s packing, those are anti-aircraft missiles.
More like “Weapons of Mass Distraction”.
Best kind.
Far better than Instruments of Math Instruction.
No more Instruments of Math Instruction since the leader of Al G’bra was taken out by Seal Team Six…
Bravo. Ill even pay your donation to the pun jar.
That’s a BRA? I thought it was two 747 nosecones side-by-side! O_o
ach!! or ze baby zeppelins! 😀 😀
Somewhere long ago in the days of pointy nosecone missle bras, I heard a reference to “torpedo tits.”
Sorry, but it seems fitting.
ah, zat remindsz me ov Tank Girrrrrlll!!.. 😀
http://quirky-love.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/music-video-monday-tank-girl-style.html
Aaaahaah.. lookee who’s creeping back?
Back? Never left……
It has been a while since we’ve seen Monica’s demons. 🙂 I kind of feel relieved seeing them (or at least one of them) again. Not sure why, but that’s how I feel.
Maybe the demon’s return is related to her sudden awareness of her aging yesterday (?) morning and her need to get into better shape. After all, most of the demons seem to be related to personal issues and problems.
And–they always seem to show up where we are. There’s an old monastic saying that, if every boat makes you seasick, it’s not the boats’ fault. And wherever you go, you are there.
Yeah good old gym class, where the coach’s favorites got to run rampant over the rest of us, including those of us who would rather have spent the time in the library for all the good it did us.
I can’t run laps, I hate any kind of sport based on knocking/throwing a ball around and running (there ARE others, thank you!), always picked last, and made a laughing stock by the Athletes of Tomorrow who were destined to someday wear a Varsity jacket of some kind.
Nah, not bitter … not at all. Probably has nothing to do with why I didn’t have anything resembling a healthy body until *after* I joined the Navy, nor why I lost it so quickly after leaving the Navy and no longer having the structure of military life dictating my shape and instead falling back on what I learned (yeah right) from gym class.
Not at all.
Confession time. I played football(the American kind) in high school. I also played D&D and hung out with my nerdy friends and took art classes. If theres one consolation you can take away from the life all those jocks lived, it’s that most of them have let them selves go just as much as you say you have and they have joints that are wrecked to boot. I played the line and due to “accidents” my knees are trashed. At 43 I’ve got the knees of an 80 year old. And a shouder that needs replacing. ‘Course some of the stuff I did in the Army may have contributed to that.
I could run (was on the cross-country team for three years) but that got no respect from the PE teachers. The cross-country coaches were biology and English teachers, not PE teachers. They kept trying to talk me into trying out for football–they gave up on basketball after seeing my non-existent jump shot.
The ironic thing was that the cross-country team was constantly winning the conference, frequently the district, and sometimes the state championship, whereas the football team never finished above .500 and thus never participated in post-season play.
I was the quintessential nerd of my small farming community – into computers and math. I never had a problem with getting good grades in gym, but I never cared for it. I preferred solitary exercise and started getting into running and weight-lifting, which really surprised my teachers and classmates alike. Good thing too since I had a smart mouth. 🙂 Then my math teacher, who I respected, asked me to go out for wrestling so I figured why not since normal school honestly wasn’t challenging enough. Surprised people even more, and gave me more ammo to use against the true jocks who thought they were hot shit and still picked on me and the other nerds – I could tell the football players who called me, “Mat Fag,” that at least I had a winning record the past year, or that since I was in marching band and had to go to every single football game, I knew what it was like to win, yet I can’t seem to remember even a single touchdown being scored by us the last 3 games. It also came in handy when I decided to end the ritualized bullying in band class – something called red bellies where you grab freshmen, take them down to the ground and take turns beating on their stomachs. They couldn’t get me my freshman year, and when the upperclassman asshole who most enjoyed this practice tried to get me on his own the next year, he got taken down in a painful hold, and while the rest of the class circled round us, I issued the fatwa that there would be no more red bellies if people knew what was good for them. Freshmen loved me. The upperclassmen didn’t, but by that time I was bigger than they were. 🙂
Shelly? is that you?
There are some colleges that could use your example to prevent the wasteful stupidity that is ritual hazing.
It really does depend on the sports on offer. You found a path they liked, I didn’t, but in my last year at school, I enjoyed one single event.
My school offered football and rugby in the winter – oh look someone tall for his age, straight in the rugby scrum. I hated it
In summer it was cricket, athletics or if you were lucky, tennis – I always got stuck with athletics, that was almost worse than the rugby, boring as well as something I wasn’t good at.
But in the last year, a friend of mine organised a staff vs 6th form badminton match. The first comment I heard when I walked in from a PE teacher who I had hated since day one was ‘What the hell is he doing here?’ While I’ll admit one of the economics teachers beat me, I took great pleasure in wiping the floor with both PE teachers in a sport I had been playing for more than a decade, even reaching the semi finals of the local county youth tournament the previous year.
No I couldn’t run long distances or tackle well on a muddy pitch, but other sports did exist, something the PE teachers didn’t want to admit.
Those who can teach, and those who can’t teach, teach gym.
I always thought it went “Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach.”, although I like the addition of “Those who cannot teach, teach PE.”
Would flow better if it went:
Those who can teach, teach, those who cannot, teach Gym.
I was thinking a better way would be:
Those who can, teach; those who cannot teach, teach gym.
As much as the alteration for Gym works pretty good, I believe the proper full version goes:
Those who can, Do.
Those who can not do, Teach.
Those who can not teach, Administrate.
Those who can not Administrate, go into Politics.
(Shows you where we got all of those politicians…)
These last couple of pages has been very… What’s the word I’m looking for… Hot.
Although I like them for aesthetic reasons, I’ve never been much of a boob fan. I love them smaller, personally. But I LOVE a cute butt and long hair. The last panel is sexier to me than the previous three days.
I knew Doubt couldn’t resist making an appearance and twisting Monica’s screws just a little.
I think Anger is more… rampant… in appearance. Doubt, on the other hand, likes being slinky and low key while delivering zingers that cause Monica’s assurance to crumble…
“I have just purchased real estate in your mind.”
–James De La Vega
graffito, 1990s
“Don’t think of elephants.” D’oh!
OR, The Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man…
A short-stature woman compensating with high heels and battling with a high center of gravity… is Monica not going to do anything until she is suffering leg tendons damage and crippling back injuries? From experience, youthful physical resilience starts breaking down in the mid-30’s. M may be in a situation to poit pain away…
… just dont say that to some girls, who have been wearing high heels for so long, that they *cannot* wear flats!!!!! 😛
… and you DO know, what girls like *better* than chocolate???? 😀 😀
Made of chocolate.
Who owns a shoe store.
that ejaculates money. so the perfect man is Jay-Z? (shoes, record companies, same difference) http://weknowmemes.com/2012/02/u-mad-bro-2/
LMFAO! 😀
That and shoes. 🙂 Why do you think I married my husband? He does the laundry and makes the dinner…and he let me keep my shoe collection! 😛
*crosses my legs daintily* TheEngineer cooks. the ex husband comes and cleans. i still have a large collection of naughty doodles and hot poetry from otherloves who have passed through the veil.
all i need is the *ability* to wear heels… *sighs* tearing all the ligaments loose on the outside of my right foot in 1980 cured THAT ability, permanently. i look good in them, but two hours wear means i’m on crutches the next day unable to put weight on that foot. so pretty flats it is.
Boy! Did I touch the untouchable! All for the wont of an eye appealling legform, possible permanent injury…
“want”; “appealing”
(Asshat alert!! Asshat alert!!)
why is it I hear a Sax / tom tom snare drum duet when i imagine this as animated.
Monica needs someone to follow her with a FIRE EXTINGUISHER to put out her Flaming footsteps the Girl is so HOT!!! *psssssss* OW!
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach !
The same everywhere, even in gym classes.
Jade- And let us not forget those who don’t care sometimes teach. And that is the worst of both worlds.
I never liked that quote. Probably because I had some exceptional teachers over the years who are still people I respect. Those people felt teaching was a calling of sorts, and did it with passion that was contagious and motivating.
The coaches/PE teachers I’ve known reserved their passion for the sports they coached. PE class was a necessary evil…and heaven help you if you had to attend an academic class they taught.
i like to flavor that quote with a respectful color..
the dance instructor that is too old to bend like she used to,
the lecturer that cannot get respect from the employment market full of idiots that just want young idiots that can be told what to do, or just look pretty… like the fully qualified experienced PA that does not have a model girl figure, so rejected for some bimbo… 🙁
I’ll second that last bit. Last mandatory gym class I had to take was my first high school freshman semester. Then I had to take the mandatory health care class, also taught by the gym teacher. The sex education chapter literally was this:
Okay, chapter 8, reproductive and sexual health. *pause* Anyone *NOT* know? Okay, chapter 9, dental hygiene.
“Coach” was also one of the drivers ed teachers during the summer. We learned how to drive both out in the country and in the big city north of our small farming town. He would routinely fall asleep during country driving so we would remain really quiet and drive out as far as we could and get ourselves lost and see if he could direct us back.
@Julie
I used to hate that quote too, until the day I realized I was misreading it: “those who can, do – those who can’t, teach”. This does NOT mean those who teach are incompetent.
It simply means that those who actually practice something as a career (those who can, do) reach the point where they can no longer stay in the field, so they become a teacher and pass the knowledge (those who can’t, teach) to the next generation.
That phrase was meant as a consolation for those of us reaching the end of their “viable working years” in how they can still be a contribution – not as a slam on those who do teach. That way of using that saying was a perversion of the original, used by a few jerks who wanted to slam their teachers.
As for being assigned as the school’s PE Instructor being a baaaaaad sign about your teaching abilities (unless you have a Master’s Degree in Physiology – only PE teacher I actually respected!), that is still true, yes.
fantastic legs too!
Correction: Nice calves. Her theighs are non-existant. I know Paul’s style is to tend to shorten the upper leg, but… wow.
This is what all the ‘shopping in women’s magazines has led to: Radical femural surgery.
The curvy calves are supposedly the reason high heels were invented. Enough walking in flats or tennies, plus some heel-raises, and you can have curvy calves AND walk in comfortable shoes.
Short?
Hmm, don’t have anything in the toolbox for that….
And it looks like she knows how to walk all sexy in heels too. That’s a dying art.
The demon is right. Resentment is like drinking poison ans expecting it to kill the enemy; however, I think M is just doing some inner work here rather than dwelling on past injuries. She’s got a lot of ammunition, that lady, and it’s not all physical.
Agree and well said! Bearing a grudge is like letting your enemy live in your head for free.
True very true, of course grudging a BEAR can cause severe Physical as well as emotional damage. If it doesn’t eat you.
Good Morning OLD WOLF!
Then maybe you need to Bore the Bear. Maybe it’ll fall asleep…
Just don’t gear up on the grudge… Sure, you may go faster, but you’ll pedal harder…
“Resentment is like drinking poison ans expecting it to kill the enemy.”
It kinda worked against the Borg though, see Icheb and the other Borg kiddies.
True, also don’t forget Wesley in the Princess Bride! Iocaine for the win!
Those who can’t do. Teach
Those who can’t teach. Manage
The simple law of nature.
Maji- do you read Norm Feuti’s ‘Retail’ series?
How? Probably something like giving her a psychological disposition to hate any activity that would remind her of PE.
It wouldn’t even have to remind her of gym. After four or more years of dreading and hating exercise (because of the way it is presented), she has a simple conditioned reflex.
People who think they aren’t “athletic” are often surprised years later when they discover an activity that they enjoy – and they become good at it!
I did something similar on an intellectual mode–never liked history much, until I found an era I liked, and had the opportunity to learn it at my leisure.
Of cause i cant say what the exact meaning is above but have you ever tried being in a PE class where one or more is a athlete or similar “star pupil”? Lets just say the teacher dont concentrate on the less promising kids at all 😀
Actually, the below-average kids are better off if the PE teachers concentrate on the “stars” and ignore the others, rather than singling-out the low-achievers and attempting to “motivate” them through sarcasm, ridicule, and punishment drills. I couldn’t hit a basketball free-throw to save my life, and being told to grind out pushups as punishment for missing didn’t do a thing to improve my shooting skills.
Showers and nudity? Two words. Towel snapping. This is a thing. Usually with a wet end. I was big enough, strong enough, and combative enough not to have experienced it, but I know those who have. Not pleasant. Don’t forget Monica delveloped early. Anyone different is usually a target for some type of abuse. She was probably teased. Kids can be cruel.
Plus her target zone would’ve been bigger too.
Getting hit in the backside smarts..
Getting hit in the boob…
I suspect it’ll be worse.
😀 my friend was an italian firecracker, so i would bet no one would try that with her, for fear of reprisals!!! 🙂
Imagine a class, that is supposed to expose you to a wide variety of athletic passtimes as well as condition your bodies, because God forbid you can’t have these young men and women have recess because who knows what would happen then. Now imagine that this class must be passed in order to graduate. Now imagine a fifty year old jock is teaching this class because he was not good enough to go pro. Now imagine that this man is bored and slightly sadistic. Now imagine he’s given a whole bunch of kids to “torture” and your body is not built well for most athletic endevers. Ask yourself if you would like any phyical activity after being around this guy two days a week for six years. He ruined any inclination to participate or enjoy sports. To top all of this off, imagine you have to get naked and take a shower after all of this and if you don’t you will fail… Imagine.
I hated gym in school too – the fat kid from Kindergarten thru Senior year. When I got to college I took Heinlein’s advice – studied Archery, Fencing, Riflery and Pistol shooting. Had there been Kendo I would have gone there, too. Traditional fencing, while fun, is not all that useful, but I couldn’t (and still can’t) afford martial arts training.
So, I guess I’ll have to shoot ’em before they get to me.
I think it was Kaiser Wilhelm once asked the ruler of Sweden what the one million man Swiss army would do when five million German soldiers swarmed over the border.
He said, “Each soldier would fire five shots and go home.”
Sweden and Switzerland are two different countries?
Both neutral, sure, in opposite directions to Germany.
…
I’m not making fun, you really have me wondering now who Wilhelm was threatening.
That’s what I get for posting after the Witching hour. Switerland, home of the very useful Swiss Army Knife, and the very confused Swiss Navy…. 🙂
I love that look she’s working. 🙂 I need to invest in something similar and freak my co-workers out by wearing a skirt to work one day.
That said, I’m highly amused by that first image of Mon. I know that you have to counter-balance weight and all, but dayum! She has to lean pretty far back to allow for her rack! 😛
Monica normally walks with her back straight not backward-leaning. She’s sizing herself up in the mirror in that first panel.
But you have hit on something so amazing and magical Monica herself isn’t aware of it:
That this 4′ 11 pixie with boobs as big as her head hasn’t had any back pain to complain about.
Not yet…
Yeah. I thought she was not only looking at herself in a mirror, but specifically trying to see her belly, so she was hoisting her built-in awnings to check it out.
Hmm. Amanda or Kevin. She’s used both in the past to help her exercise.
Or maybe that’s the very reason she’ll avoid both of them. Not sure Monica can keep up with Shelly’s exercise routine though. And I don’t think the dead do cardio, so that rules out Tina.
… perhaps a visit to a local Punk Yoga shop? (>^_^)>
On the other hand, some of the demons are kinda complaining that the clothes aren’t fitting no more.
So they might be inclined to have the body exercise, whereas the rest will simply go off to sleep and wait till it’s all over.
Guys…. the only things “packing” are her mammeries… and her uterus. PE had nothing to do with this. She’s knocked up. There’s a bun in the oven. The seed has planted. YOU CANNOT EXERCISE OFF LACTATION!!! Doubt will have a field day, but right now doubt is clueless… just like she is. Apparently her demons are only aware of what she is aware of.
I wonder if she pukes today? Probably too early
Uh, unless I missed a comic, Kevin hasn’t been around in a LONG time. And enough time has passed since the last time he was around that if she she DID get pregnant, she’d be showing by now.
Then again, time in this comic is a little vague, so maybe he’s only been gone a month in their time.
They were making snowmen back on December 7:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/winter-safety/
Possibly symbolic, but of what is unclear.
In any case, I just assume Kevin is around the same way the Museum is still there and Minnesota is a still a state of the Union. Mon did mention sex earlier this week, so we have confirmation that that is still a thing in her life.
Ah, right. Okay so that was winter (which lasts a pretty good, long while in Minnesota) and now in the comic there’s no snow.
So yeah, PLENTY of time to get preggers and start exhibiting mood swings and “swelling”. Total possibility.
But… Monica strikes me as someone who would take precautions like the pill to prevent that from happening. Not that I don’t think she’d be a good mom, but I don’t see her as wanting to be a mom just yet.
Babies take up a lot of time, and she’s got her day job, her supernatural job, partying with her friends… plus I think she’d want to get married before starting a family.
She’s too cautious and practical to have an active sex life and NOT use some kind of protection… Unless Paul wants to do some kind of storyline that tackles abortion, and I REALLY hope that’s not the case… That goes into all KINDS of ugly controversy that I just don’t want to see happening here.
Paul’s just confirmed the soul is an operative entity in Wapsiverse, so issues of procreation could get very controversial indeed.
Would M’s demons be allowed to torment her unborn child? Are demons too complex, or is there nothing to latch onto until the baby draws breath?
Or do they simply fear the wrath of the Risen Christ Reborn– RuPaul.
Hm. Moral dilemmas are on the menu…
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/ever-bother/
…so who knows.
Pam (my first wife) was on the pill when my second child was concieved. The pill is not 100% secure.
My wife was also on the pill, when our second child was conceived. All it took was for her to miss taking it for 2 or 3 days in a row..
Yeah, let’s just say that we never had to try for years whenever we wanted a kid… all she had to do was to stop taking the pill (intentionally, the first and third time…)
To clarify my previous comment:
I consider my son to be a “pleasant surprise”. All good!
None of that negative “accident” stuff. That’s mean, and can really wreck a kid, once they learn about it… (for they inevitably will, at one point or another… it’s even worse if they learn about it as part of an argument with their parent.)
I love each of our three kids. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Maybe. Time will tell–or show us.
I hope not. Besides, it’s my understanding that pregnancy firms up the boobs… or is that just after delivery? Anyway, hopefully there are a lot of good supernatural adventures ahead before Paul feels the need to add a sprog to the mixture. I’m already “upset” at the turn of events in 9 Chickweed Lane with one of the characters being knocked up. 🙂
Yes, I’m childfree. Why? 🙂
Before and after in a bell curve the first time, but after that you have to wear predefined shape bras or you look like a saggy grandma.
…why was M’s gym teacher of the opposite sex?
Is there some Midwest practice I’m missing here?
Some gym classes are co-ed, and in that case, the gender of the teacher is irrelevant. Granted, I only had co-ed PE classes through elementary school (mandatory gender divisions starting in 6th grade), but I’ve heard plenty of people tell stories of co-ed classes all the way into high school.
Fair enough. Wasn’t my experience.
So I’d imagine the typical male gym teacher being completely conflustered by Title IX, and take out his neuroses unequally on a co-ed class. Charming.
The amendment was to engage an equal value in education to all students (including ones like Monica), its greatest impact addressing a lack of funds for girls sports. Since jocks get the attention in gym class, it’s of a piece, socially.
Seems to be in the news today.
Ah, wait. The UK isn’t covered by Title IX. Guess they’ll have to find their own way to encourage girls to exercise.
Well, there you go again. You weren’t publicly schooled, but are speaking for those who are.
People need governance, governance works through information, money and force.
Individual families with enough money and force take over governments. Unless wider opportunities are made available.
Public schools act in loco parentis, since they have charge of children for 7+ hours a day. So. Raising children is their job description.
As for personal responsibility, well, children need to be taught that. It’s not innate. They need to be taught a lot of things. In the process, adults pass scars on to the children they teach.
One can sympathize with Monica.
@SWM
We have 24 hours in the day. Ten (or more) of those hours are spent sleeping, showering and eating. Depending on travel situation, anywhere form 9 to 11 of the remaining 14 hours those kids are in the custody of the school and it is the sole place those kids hope to learn ANYTHING which is why we send them in the first place.
So is it the school’s job? Damn right it is! That’s why we sent them in the first place. Because thanks to the way the economy has been for over 30 years now, most families can’t really afford to have a stay at home parent anymore nor can they afford a nanny. So both parents work and the kids go to a public school – if they aren’t taught that fitness is good there, by a professional who should be able to do so properly, where will they learn it?
Oh right – from a burned out parent who just put in 9-10 hours of dealing with a mind-numbing job that drained them of their physical and mental energy for the day. But they should still have it in them to go play sports or do calisthenics for an hour? If it works out that way great – but most likely it won’t.
This isn’t the 50’s anymore – things have changed.
This is why I have no problem paying taxes for public schools even though I have no kids of my own in the system – I am paying for the education of the next generation, the ones who will be in control when I am too old to do anything about it. I WANT THEM TRAINED!
When murder is organized well enough we call it war, and participants soldiers who are rewarded with honor. When thieving is orchestrated on a grand enough level we call it banking, and its captains are rewarded with wealth.
Organizing knowledge and education of the young is as ancient a practice as either of those, including their physical education. It’s as much in the interest of the state as the individual.
As for the economy, the more people participating in it is supposed to expand it; women create jobs and opportunities too. Arguing otherwise is from the 1950s, and full of straw.
Professionals in all those occupations know the difference between the explanations and the reality. I was demeaning none of them. Killing and usury with impunity can be deemed legal, moral, etc. What dogma did you think better of me than? Just curious, because you seem to need me to fit one anyway.
The jobs-only model you describe is not operable because of a tight money market and globalization. This won’t change because any of the parameters you mentioned. But it is changing of necessity with stuff like crowdsourcing. I mentioned opportunities, because that’s what educated young people are making for themselves, since few others are. They are expanding their own economy.
That leaves resource scarcity putting pressures on the general market. But that means more opportunities! And you’ll need armies, so there’s more jobs now in the US Armed Forces opening up, women included. If it’s jobs you’re focussed on.
I’ve seen plenty of instances of Gym teachers of the opposite sex in all-boy or all-girl schools (though given what we’ve seen of Monica’s childhood, she was probably Co-Ed. Source = Yummy Tea).
And not just USA either (personally on its East Coast). Outside of personal experience or second-hand tales, just look at TV. Plenty of British and Japanese media that features it as well.
Oh, right. Yummy Tea. Thanks. Brain may have filed that under “recess”.
The only anime I’ve seen featuring coed sports had such fantasy twists, that it was a bit hard to tell. And though I have a source in British education, PE has never come up. An anecdotal sign that maybe more attention needs to be summoned to it.
Well – up to 94 comments – and it’s still Friday – any thoughts as to total for the week-end. I’d hazard a guess at 296 before it’s over.
Tonight’s related link:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/balance-issues/
RE: Monica and Photoshop
There was a question this week on how much of the shading in the images of Monica were done in Photoshop.
Due to first hand knowledge, I can now confirm that, apart from the Sepia tones in the images, 0% of the shading was done in Photoshop. I have seen the originals for Tuesday and Wednesday. The background was added for posting. The sepia tone as well, but they are not on the original art! The shading on the original art is grey brushpens as with other art Paul has done.
Very cool, Joe – thanks for passing this knowledge along.
Actually, “very warm!” would be more appropriate, as it seems that Paul used the digital edit on the shading only to warm up its color tone.
I predict that this is going to add a flurry of interest to the eBay auctions for the original art… they’re one step closer to what Paul has done for his commissioned and special drawings.
Loving the coptic colored look.
Aww, crap, is that pathetic ‘drag-ass’ spirit STILL haunting Mona? Drive one of those 4″ stilettos straight into the bitch, Mona!
After reading Wapsi Square, every time I get up and put on my clothes, I say, “locked and loaded!” And I’m not even that big. 😀