Sort of. Each email account gets assigned a random DoA gravatar. We’re stuck using that gravatar until Willis updates the gravatars, at which point we get assigned a different random gravatar. I used to be Mary, now I’m Jocelyn.
(speaking of which, I hear from Willis’ twitter Joc is coming back into the story soon? that should be fun)
Is it a bad thing that I got confused and thought you made a mistake with “Jocelyn” for a second there?
It’s actually kinda a problem with my few trans friends >.< it's really hard to use the right pronouns and such, especially when sometimes their D&D characters are of varying genders 😛
Yes. However, if you use the “Get a Gravatar” link next ot the comment box, you can sign up and then upload avatars of your own choice. Plasma Mongoose makes much use of this feature as he changes his avatars to fit his mood or the story line’s.
No, its okay. Its only a problem because Mary works really hard at being as OBNOXIOUS as possible with imparting information (if not necessarily knowledge in her case)
Emu and ostrich meat is very popular in BC, Canada; if you’re in the Lower Mainland you should be able to get meat directly from the farmers. And then make your own dinosaur nuggets, which would be awesome.
You can get it some places in the U.S., too. My parents raised an emu they got from a local emu farmer in Wisconsin (they were going to get a breeding pair, but the male freaked out and died when the farmer was rounding them up). They were going to keep her until she died of old age, but then their neighbors started freaking out about her (they had never seen an emu and didn’t know what she was, so when she escaped her fence and went on walkabouts, they panicked). One neighbor gal said she was going to call the cops because she was so scared when my dad went to walk the emu home, so they decided to have emu for dinner rather than trouble with the cops. 🙁 It was good, though!
No. Ramadan is a month in the Islamic lunar calendar, which only has 354 days per year. So from the standpoint of the Gregorian calendar (the one most people in the West use) Ramadan comes a little earlier every year until it wraps around. Next Ramadan starts on 6 June 2016, and the one after that starts on 24 May 2017.
Hanukkah uses the Hebrew calendar which has a similar drift relative to the Gregorian calendar, but an extra month is added every few years to compensate. Last Hanukkah actually was 6-14 December 2015, and next one starts 24 December 2016.
One time I went to Mexico, and went on an outing where they promised us barbecued iguana. I think I was the only one who was disappointed when it was actually chicken. :/
Well, that’s enough to make me reconsider the extra pickles on my usual at Chick Fil-A.
Not enough to make me decide to skip them though. Devouring homophobia is as good a plan of attack as any? No, that doesn’t work…
“Your vices, and our virtues, are so dear to you,
So learn the simple truth from this our song:
Wherever you aspire, whatever you may do,
First feed the face!!! And THEN talk right and wrong!”
… i’m sorry, i studied theatre, sometimes that just happens…
Yup, and it’s why economic oppression is a key part of oppression in general. If people are too poor to fight too hard for their rights, then you can hit the snooze button on progress a little longer.
Definitely! I’m able to do a lot more activism now that I have a consistent income stream and I no longer have to worry about food and housing than when I was clinging to bare subsistence with my fingernails.
When I was an impoverished student, back in the 1960s (ancient!), there were lots of causes. I couldn’t afford them all. But I could pick one or two. We still can. We don’t have to be perfect to make a difference. Just try.
I’m not an expert either, but I believe that there are carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs. Dina is wearing a T-Rex hat, and I believe the T-Rex did feed on other dinosaurs. If she were wearing her Tricera-top from the Walking With Dina arc, that would have been a different story.
Hippos are an apt comparison in terms of the horrific damage they can inflict, but deer’s opportunistic scavenging is more common knowledge. I wasn’t aware hippopotami ate meat under any circumstances, though their jaws’ lethality to humans is well-documented.
Dinosaurs filled a huge variety of niches, and included herbivores, omnivores and carnivores, including various specializations, like piscavores. A great many of the non-avian theropods were carnivores, from compsognathus to raptors to T. rex
Actually, in some ecosystems, like coral reefs, a relatively small but quickly reproducing number of herbivores feed a large but slowly reproducing population of carnivores.
Actually, in some ecosystems, like coral reefs, a relatively small but quickly reproducing number of herbivores feed a large but slowly reproducing population of carnivores. So that statement is not applicable to all food webs.
Right now, they share a common concern — Joyce’s well being. They both care about Joyce, and want to see her state of mind improve. It seems that this common goal has united them.
I am beginning to get seriously concerned about Joyce. That looks like a classic “thousand-yard stare” on her face in panel #3. She needs somebody — anybody — to just be with her and help her keep her sanity as she processes everything that has happened over the past week or so.
What she needs is answers, her core has been shaken, she needs to look at how she was raised, what she was taught, see the truth and decide what that means for her.
To be fair, Dorothy, they also kinda believe in or at least support those groups who believe in an almighty god who created the universe. So…yeah. Excised principles all around!
That’s a little bit different than supporting groups that actively work against gay rights. Like “Help draft imprison gay people bills in other countries” level work against.
(I think? I’m not sure of all the different types of organizations Chick Fil A donates money to. But it’s not like it’s reasonable to expect Dorothy to avoid any organization that believes in a god. Also Dorothy doesn’t even seem to be eating there right now)
Yeah, Dotty really doesn’t mind other people’s faith, but that kind of hatemongering ideology is several steps beyond taking comfort in a formalized idea of how the universe works.
Also worth noting that while it’s absolutely evil to actively work against gay rights, it’s not evil to believe in and worship God, gods, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Satan, or Joe Pesci. Lumping those two things together as equal and equivalent reasons to avoid a person, place or thing is actually pretty bigoted and offensive.
Visualize a juicy hamburger, with lettuce and a tomato slice between a simple bun of white bread. Now replace the beef with a crispy party of white chicken meat. Then order it with pickles, because it’s better that way.
Presto, a Chick Fil-A burger. They also have rather good waffle fries, and are the only joint within a block of my uni that sells milkshakes. Add on a shiningly clean but eerily empty dining area and some extremely friendly, helpful, courteous, and professional employees, and you’ve got Chick Fil-A. It’s no wonder they so seldom hire, considering how great our location is… Shame about the people at the top of corporate.
The boss of Chick-Fil-A being anti-Gay marriage doesn’t change the taste of the chains food. It’s quite good, actually. As usual, hunger preempts idealism. You’re eating an ancestor of your beloved dino’s there, Dina, you little carnivore you.
Descendant not ancestor, birds are descended from dinos.
And I wish I could find the clip of an alien describing humans in a Sci-Fi show from the mid-’90s. He called us terrifying in our natural environment, able to eat almost anything with calories and not just survive but thrive, was familiar with the early human practice of running our prey to ground until it died from exhaustion which they also found disturbing, and also our ability to hunt from ambush, and the ability of human females to reproduce at any time of the year (“your females, they have no season!”). He ended with the statement that humans were the most terrifying monsters in the Galaxy.
But… but they’re only dinosaur if they’re dinosaur-shaped!
I’m actually kinda relieved to see Dina eating something other than cereal. I know from experience it’s a little hard to eat like… anything your first semester of college, and I was getting a little worried. It was Easy Mac for me instead of cereal. I am considerably larger than Dina as a result.
Ninjas notwithstanding, you’re right that a Japanese speaker would pronounce “Dina” to rhyme with “Tina”. And Dina’s family name is Saruyama here in the Dumbiverse, which at least sounds Japanese. (It could mean “monkey mountain”, among other things.)
That’s how we pronounce it in Scandinavia too. And I think it’s the same in German too. The more I think about it, I actually think that pronounciation is the norm.
That’s closer to (of all names) “Xena” like the warrior princess. You’re close to the right track, but “Ti” doesn’t exist on its own in Japanese. It becomes “Chi.” Softening that transforms it to “Dzi.”
To form an approximation of “Di,” you use “De” followed by a small “I.” ディ.
Dina isn’t a Japanese name, as “Di” doesn’t even exist in native Japanese. Her parents simply chose to give her a Western name. (Every American-born Asian I’ve met has a Western name, so it can’t be THAT weird, can it?)
I used to work in a call centre, and you have no idea how often I’d get a caller with a distinctly Western name (“I’m Dave/George/Bob”) on an account with a distinctly Asian name, and when I say I need to talk to the account holder to confirm something, they just sort of laugh and say, “Oh, that’s my Chinese name.”
Like, 80% of the time, if it was a Chinese first name, and the caller didn’t have an accent, it was their “Chinese name,” but they usually went by a Western one.
Which is to say that a lot of the ones I talked to, at least, seemed to have both.
Oh, I’ve met a number of Asians here with Western names too – I just never had heard the name Dina before reading this webcomic, and wasn’t aware that “Di” doesn’t exist in native Japanese. Then I read through the link David Willis provided and realized that it definitely isn’t Japanese, so I felt rather silly for thinking it might have been. 🙂
chick-fil-a chicken nuggets is not a healthy food, even if she previously was only eating cereal and mountain dew. and… oh man, that’s guilt on Becky’s face. don’t blame yourself for Joyce’s sadness! it’s toedad’s fault!
For me, the big panel of today’s strip is #4. Becky finally realises that Dorothy is Joyce’s true friend and cares for her deeply. Becky finally feels bad about needling her ‘rival’ when Joyce is in trouble and Dorothy is trying to help.
This is a big growing up moment for Becky and I think she’ll always be a little different for the experience.
I see it just a little different. #3 is the focus. Becky jabs Dorothy as usual, but Dorothy doesn’t rise to the bait and responds as if Becky had made a serious observation. That sets the stage for #4. Tomorrow will tell.
They donate money to anti-gay organizations. Even “conversion therapy” bullshit. And some people will insist that they stopped doing that, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
Well they can’t expect Joyce to magically get better. Well I mean, I guess they COULD, but they shouldn’t.
Joyce has been through a lot of trauma this year. And she’s taking it a lot better than I did when I had very traumatic things happened to me. Hell, I had to be hospitalized because I had a complete mental break. I do wonder if that’s in the stars for Joyce. She’s been drugged, threatened at gun point, had her best friend kidnapped, and is now having a crisis of faith. She’s holding up way better than I expected her to.
Faith was everything to Joyce. Having your entire worldview shattered is not a pleasant experience. My step-father had that happen to him. His parents were missionaries, and he claims to this day that the way they raised him ruined his life. He’s VERY atheist, and VERY bitter about his past. My mother was very Catholic until she, quite literally, was laughed at when she expressed the desire to be a priest. They told her that women were not allowed to be priests, and she could be a nun instead. That left a sour taste in her mouth, and caused her to re-examine the church’s beliefs, and then her own. She’s agnostic now, and it was not a pretty process.
TLDR on the above: Losing your religion is hard as hell, and I don’t expect Joyce to bounce back for a while yet.
She’s also bound to be stressed about visiting her family on top of it all.
I love how morally conflicted Dina looks trying to decide being accurate to her favorite dinos or standing up for herself and her girlfriend with regards to bigoted organizations.
Like, she’s really torn apart inside with the “these are in support of homophobia, but dinosaurs eat dinosaurs”. And the best part is these have equal value to her. Her love of dinosaur is just as serious as her stance against creationism or her stance against bigotry and that’s what makes her kinda loveable.
Honestly, one of the things I’ve deeply loved about Dina since her story arc and relationship with Becky onward is that she doesn’t feel like a joke character who just shows up to say wacky lines and be cute anymore. She’s being treated with the same agency and dignity as the other characters, and that’s especially important to see for neurodivergent characters in fictions.
Maybe she’s trying to support Becky’s decision? Like, if Becky feels that working there would be a violation of her principles, then Dina’s trying to help by eating their food.
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Now if only there were dinosaur nuggets!
There are. Chicken are dinosaurs 🙂
Dammit, I’m “well actually”-ing people with a friggin’ Mary avatar? Karma sucks.
Might I suggest you sign up for gravatar so you can upload a avatar of your own choosing? Unless, of course, you’re an “M” and LIKE being Mary.
Huh? Do commenters without official gravatars get random ones or something?
Sort of. Each email account gets assigned a random DoA gravatar. We’re stuck using that gravatar until Willis updates the gravatars, at which point we get assigned a different random gravatar. I used to be Mary, now I’m Jocelyn.
(speaking of which, I hear from Willis’ twitter Joc is coming back into the story soon? that should be fun)
Of course, you can always..
..swap your e-mail for a moment. 😛
There’s that reconfirmation delay to wait on, though. :X
Actually, no, that avatar is awesome, I’m keeping this setting :’P
Did Willis update the gravatars?
In the Dwarf Fortress sense, maybe.
Is it a bad thing that I got confused and thought you made a mistake with “Jocelyn” for a second there?
It’s actually kinda a problem with my few trans friends >.< it's really hard to use the right pronouns and such, especially when sometimes their D&D characters are of varying genders 😛
You get one randomly assigned to you on every page you comment on.
I thought it was per page. I guess wWillis updates more frequently than I post.
i know other Gravatar systems randomly gemerate a pattern avatar based on your email or IP.
It’s random, and it only changes when Willis changes the pool of random gravatars to choose from. I’m not sure how often that happens.
Using a different email would give you a different gravatar though. It would count as a new account I think?
^ correct.
Also: Merry Christmas everyone!
Enjoyable Earth Christmas Celebrations for all. Wait, did I do that right…?
Yes. However, if you use the “Get a Gravatar” link next ot the comment box, you can sign up and then upload avatars of your own choice. Plasma Mongoose makes much use of this feature as he changes his avatars to fit his mood or the story line’s.
Such is why I control my own Foo Foo Cuddly Poops destiny!
Like this!
No, its okay. Its only a problem because Mary works really hard at being as OBNOXIOUS as possible with imparting information (if not necessarily knowledge in her case)
They are. What do you think Chickens are?
those fat little guys that live in cages? dinosaurs are the big bony guys what with the teeth
They are both dinosaurs.Just as humans are apes, and all land vertebrates are fish*.
* – well, Sarcopterygii, since fish has no real meaning.
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/i-didnt-even-have-a-joke-for-this-week
Here, have some raptors.
Turkeys are a little more rippy, but if you want to approximate a Utahraptor, I recommend Cassowaries. Vicious bastards, them, and gorgeous too.
I don’t even know where you’d go to get cassowary nuggets. And I live in Australia!
Cairns, probably.
Soviet Russia? Everywhere else, cassowary eats you.
Emu and ostrich meat is very popular in BC, Canada; if you’re in the Lower Mainland you should be able to get meat directly from the farmers. And then make your own dinosaur nuggets, which would be awesome.
You can get it some places in the U.S., too. My parents raised an emu they got from a local emu farmer in Wisconsin (they were going to get a breeding pair, but the male freaked out and died when the farmer was rounding them up). They were going to keep her until she died of old age, but then their neighbors started freaking out about her (they had never seen an emu and didn’t know what she was, so when she escaped her fence and went on walkabouts, they panicked). One neighbor gal said she was going to call the cops because she was so scared when my dad went to walk the emu home, so they decided to have emu for dinner rather than trouble with the cops. 🙁 It was good, though!
Never before has an obligatory xkcd been more obligatory than today!
Try attaching a pole to a chicken’s backside. You’ll see the resemblance sharpish.
There were those Kid Cuisine meals in the 90s that had them.
Holy nugget, so tender and mild.
Crunchy and crispy with her——rbs!
Eat the dinosaur! Become one with the dinosaur!
Oh, also I wish you all folks a Merry Christmas! Have a pleasant day!
Righto. Merry Christmas everyone, happy holidays, and may the coal Santa brings you keep you warm and toasty through the new year.
Uh, here in skandinavia we had our x-mas yesterday on the 24 so is long over for me long time ago:-P
“but they don’t taste anything like Cocoa Puffs”
“WHAT KIND OF DINOSAUR ARE YOU”
“one that eats Cocoa Puffs with Mountain Dew?”
“…dang, that sounds awesome, actually”
Don’t. Tempt. Me. >_>
It’s all right, but the Mountain Dew has kind of a weird syrupy taste (moreso than usual) when mixed with the Cocoa Puffs. :/
Good! Good! Devour the chicken of intolerance! Let the hate flow through you!
You’d think marketing would want to get that message to kids through advertising.
Pickled dinosaurs?
This seems more like the dinosaur eating the meteor.
The mighty T-Rex is a carnivore! Do it Dina!
As is the cunning raptor!
all principles lie abandoned when there be chicken!
Walky is a good kind of friend.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ERRYBODY
Merry Christmas and Happy new year, and happy Hanukkah, and happy Kwanzaa….am I missing anything ?
a Festivus for the rest of us!
Happy Yule/Solstice (belatedly)! 🙂
Ooh, and I think Happy Ramadan?
No. Ramadan is a month in the Islamic lunar calendar, which only has 354 days per year. So from the standpoint of the Gregorian calendar (the one most people in the West use) Ramadan comes a little earlier every year until it wraps around. Next Ramadan starts on 6 June 2016, and the one after that starts on 24 May 2017.
Hanukkah uses the Hebrew calendar which has a similar drift relative to the Gregorian calendar, but an extra month is added every few years to compensate. Last Hanukkah actually was 6-14 December 2015, and next one starts 24 December 2016.
It sometimes falls in the winter though, but it doesn’t count as a winter holiday this year.
Festive Greetings to all.
Wait, that’s not right either, is it? Scraplets…
I hope everybody enjoyed a very festive Federal Holiday.
There, I think that covers it.
TGIF!
In Mesozoic Gondwanaland, dinosaur eats YOU!
Meanwhile in Soviet Russia…
Meanwhile in
Soviet Russia…Mesozoic Laurasia…I wish I was in Tijuana/Eating barbecued Iguana…
(Wall of Voodoo–“Mexican Radio”)
Fun fact: That iguana was probably a dog once.
… I’m from Mexicali. Tijuana sucks. 😛
But does it still taste like iguana?
(also yours is a name i recognize from ancient times, back when scans_daily still reigned on livejournal)One time I went to Mexico, and went on an outing where they promised us barbecued iguana. I think I was the only one who was disappointed when it was actually chicken. :/
Hey, you can’t taste homophobia. 🙂
Yes you can, it tastes like chicken. :b
Or in this case, pickles 😛
Well, that’s enough to make me reconsider the extra pickles on my usual at Chick Fil-A.
Not enough to make me decide to skip them though. Devouring homophobia is as good a plan of attack as any? No, that doesn’t work…
I think Becky should “eat the dinosaur”.
Open the door, get on the floor, everybody eat the dinosaur?
No. Only Becky. Becky’s Dinasaur.
Aw.
Like Chuck Klosterman?
“Becky Eats A Dinosaur” a pornographique by David Willis
I know other people are gonna say it, but you are what you eat.
As a side note Happy Holidays and all that good jazz. Hope whatever you’re celebratin has been/was/will be awesome boss sauce
Thank god, Dina is finally eating some protein.
Even in her Tricera-Top, she was still brave enough to confront the dread Ethanosaurus Rex and Dannysaurus when sausage pizza was at steak.
Not sure if you just spelled stake wrong, or its part of the joke?
Maybe he’s just hungry, like Garfield was he was stuck in a cabin with no food.
That would be telling.
+1 for the steak/stake pun!
Also her teeth are not the teeth of a herbivore.
Those teeth are the teeth of the apex predator!
“I’m too poor to have principles.”
——————————
And that’s the way it is for most people. Welcome to reality, Becky.
If only more people understood this.
Sigh.
*nods agreement, suddenly bursts into song*
“Your vices, and our virtues, are so dear to you,
So learn the simple truth from this our song:
Wherever you aspire, whatever you may do,
First feed the face!!! And THEN talk right and wrong!”
… i’m sorry, i studied theatre, sometimes that just happens…
It happens on MLP: FIM all the time. I think the internet can survive a random musical number here and there.
yaaaaay
whether you’re a King or a Street sweeper all are equal in the eyes of the Reaper.
Yup, and it’s why economic oppression is a key part of oppression in general. If people are too poor to fight too hard for their rights, then you can hit the snooze button on progress a little longer.
Hey Maslow’s hierarchy of needs isn’t all that far off. Progress or not people need to secure food before they care about most other things.
Definitely! I’m able to do a lot more activism now that I have a consistent income stream and I no longer have to worry about food and housing than when I was clinging to bare subsistence with my fingernails.
I’m p (pronounced “puh” or just an aspirated consonant “P”) I’m too poor to buy a vowel.
I’m not to poor to have principles, I just choose to ignore them.
When I was an impoverished student, back in the 1960s (ancient!), there were lots of causes. I couldn’t afford them all. But I could pick one or two. We still can. We don’t have to be perfect to make a difference. Just try.
Obviously I don’t have Dina’s extensive knowledge on the subject but I thought most dinosaurs were herbivores?
I’m not an expert either, but I believe that there are carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs. Dina is wearing a T-Rex hat, and I believe the T-Rex did feed on other dinosaurs. If she were wearing her Tricera-top from the Walking With Dina arc, that would have been a different story.
Triceratops were herbivores, but were real serious about defending themselves from the carnivore dinosaurs.
Triceratops were very horny. Make of that what you will.
http://www.amazon.com/Ravished-Triceratops-Dinosaur-Beast-Erotica/dp/B00GTI3612
There is a theory that Ceratopsians were opportunistic meat eaters. Kinda like some deer will eat meat if they have the chance.
I thought that was Hippos? Which, I think, is a more apt comparison.
Apparently both. I had no idea about the deer though, but it explains some really creepy drawings I’ve seen online.
Hippos are an apt comparison in terms of the horrific damage they can inflict, but deer’s opportunistic scavenging is more common knowledge. I wasn’t aware hippopotami ate meat under any circumstances, though their jaws’ lethality to humans is well-documented.
They’ll eat plastic as well, but only when they’re hungry-hungry.
I see what you did there.
Here we see Triceratops engaging in opportunistic meat-eating.
Their beaks were apparently well-suited to a shearing motion, somewhat like dogs. Here’s a picture by Mark Witton of one eating a T. Rex.
Dammit, urls are hard. http://markwitton-com.blogspot.nl/2015/02/controversial-ceratopsids-revisited.html
Dinosaurs filled a huge variety of niches, and included herbivores, omnivores and carnivores, including various specializations, like piscavores. A great many of the non-avian theropods were carnivores, from compsognathus to raptors to T. rex
In the sense that any food web is going to have a lot of animals eating a whole lot of plants and being eaten by a smaller number of animals, yes.
Actually, in some ecosystems, like coral reefs, a relatively small but quickly reproducing number of herbivores feed a large but slowly reproducing population of carnivores.
Actually, in some ecosystems, like coral reefs, a relatively small but quickly reproducing number of herbivores feed a large but slowly reproducing population of carnivores. So that statement is not applicable to all food webs.
Dorothy, why are you wearing a shirt that’s the colour of canned peas?
Because she’s promoting non-violence and whirled peas.
I’ll show myself out……
Canned peas? Looks more like the colour of vomit to me.
C’mon, give peas a chance.
Mind your peas and queues.
Well there’s a line 😛
The last line killed me
I’m glad Becky doesn’t hate Dorothy anymore. Maybe it’s been noted earlier, but I didn’t notice? Anyway, it’s nice. More friends for everyone.
Right now, they share a common concern — Joyce’s well being. They both care about Joyce, and want to see her state of mind improve. It seems that this common goal has united them.
Noticed that too, she’s warming up to her.
Defeated by the mightiest enemy of all… hunger, it’s relentless and unmerciless.
I am beginning to get seriously concerned about Joyce. That looks like a classic “thousand-yard stare” on her face in panel #3. She needs somebody — anybody — to just be with her and help her keep her sanity as she processes everything that has happened over the past week or so.
What she needs is answers, her core has been shaken, she needs to look at how she was raised, what she was taught, see the truth and decide what that means for her.
Good thing she’s going back a few days to her parents eh ?
Well…..
I think at this stage even a patented Dreamwave (TM) look of ‘dull surprise’ would be a hint of improvement.
Of course that might would mean Joyce had to read some Dreamwave comics and that’s probably not helping any.
Seriously? Nobody in the comic or the comment section wants to give a gal enough time to process a complete disruption of world view?
okay, i’m lost, i don’t know what “don’t they, you know” refer to, somebody help?
Support Anti-Gay causes.
Chik-Fil-A’s owners are notoriously quite homophobic.
The owners support anti-lgbt organizations
At least, if I recall correctly. Owners? CEOs? Been a while
It was discussed at length in the comments for eatmoar on 22 Dec.
merry christmas, folks, and enjoy your dino nuggets!
If they aren’t Dino shaped they don’t count
Any preferred species? I’ve got some leftover chicken parmigiana I could reshape.
So all the food in the Flintstones is a lie?
Especially the car-tipping rack.of ribs. Sorry.
Joyeux Noël \o/
To be fair, Dorothy, they also kinda believe in or at least support those groups who believe in an almighty god who created the universe. So…yeah. Excised principles all around!
That’s a little bit different than supporting groups that actively work against gay rights. Like “Help draft imprison gay people bills in other countries” level work against.
(I think? I’m not sure of all the different types of organizations Chick Fil A donates money to. But it’s not like it’s reasonable to expect Dorothy to avoid any organization that believes in a god. Also Dorothy doesn’t even seem to be eating there right now)
Yeah, Dotty really doesn’t mind other people’s faith, but that kind of hatemongering ideology is several steps beyond taking comfort in a formalized idea of how the universe works.
The Strip is a little behind the times. Check out the Daily Beast article
at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/28/it-s-time-for-gays-to-forgive-chick-fil-a.html
Wow, they stopped [i]nearly[/i] all of their donations to anti-GLBT causes. They’re [i]almost[/i] not assholes.
Also worth noting that while it’s absolutely evil to actively work against gay rights, it’s not evil to believe in and worship God, gods, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Satan, or Joe Pesci. Lumping those two things together as equal and equivalent reasons to avoid a person, place or thing is actually pretty bigoted and offensive.
Irony!
Yes. Absorb it’s power Dina. Do it enough and you shall have UNLIMITED POWER!!! And yada yada yada…
Oh and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ya’ll.
but will she get unlimited rice pudding?? That’s the lynchpin question!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-zt-o2mIM
There can be only one!
I’ve never eaten at Chick-Fil-A. Is it actually any good compared to its fast food competition?
It is pretty good, as fast food goes.
I like it even if it’s a bit pricey.
And it was always a damm sight better than the copycat McDonalds has.
I like it! But I’m not very picky. They do bad chicken really well, imo.
Visualize a juicy hamburger, with lettuce and a tomato slice between a simple bun of white bread. Now replace the beef with a crispy party of white chicken meat. Then order it with pickles, because it’s better that way.
Presto, a Chick Fil-A burger. They also have rather good waffle fries, and are the only joint within a block of my uni that sells milkshakes. Add on a shiningly clean but eerily empty dining area and some extremely friendly, helpful, courteous, and professional employees, and you’ve got Chick Fil-A. It’s no wonder they so seldom hire, considering how great our location is… Shame about the people at the top of corporate.
I haaate pickles.
Nothing special, honestly, in my opinion.
I thought it was pretty meh. But people have different tastes so whatever.
Ah glob. This was supposed to be a reply to Nono.
The boss of Chick-Fil-A being anti-Gay marriage doesn’t change the taste of the chains food. It’s quite good, actually. As usual, hunger preempts idealism. You’re eating an ancestor of your beloved dino’s there, Dina, you little carnivore you.
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!
Descendant not ancestor, birds are descended from dinos.
And I wish I could find the clip of an alien describing humans in a Sci-Fi show from the mid-’90s. He called us terrifying in our natural environment, able to eat almost anything with calories and not just survive but thrive, was familiar with the early human practice of running our prey to ground until it died from exhaustion which they also found disturbing, and also our ability to hunt from ambush, and the ability of human females to reproduce at any time of the year (“your females, they have no season!”). He ended with the statement that humans were the most terrifying monsters in the Galaxy.
I love settings where aliens fear us as unstoppable predatory apes.
and christmas marks the end of my birthday
just one more year till my next birthday
Happy birthday a few minutes late 🙂 Snow Mouse
EAT THE CHICKEN NUGGET
ABSORB THE CHICKEN NUGGET
BECOME THE CHICKEN NUGGET
It has done wonders for Walky.
Yeah, now he’s a grown up man baby.
Is there “Fix a Cutie” trope? If not, someone get on that stat.
I would but I’m currently banned from TV tropes.
Broke the indentation rules one too many times, eh?
First thing that springs to mind is “Teach Him Anger,” and we all know how well that usually ends.
Power of love/power of friendship more often than not
But… but they’re only dinosaur if they’re dinosaur-shaped!
I’m actually kinda relieved to see Dina eating something other than cereal. I know from experience it’s a little hard to eat like… anything your first semester of college, and I was getting a little worried. It was Easy Mac for me instead of cereal. I am considerably larger than Dina as a result.
Chicken ramen with carrots and broccoli is remarkably tasty, healthy, and affordable.
You can tackle a man 6x bigger than you Dina: you can eat that chicken.
When Joyce is done processing I think she will want to talk. Hope her friends just keep an eye on her as they are doing, and wait for her.
Merry Christmas all.
Why is it pronounced dee-na and not die-na? The latter is much more fitting a die-nasaur enthusiast.
Because that’s how the name is pronounced: http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/dina
The name you’re looking for is “Dinah,” with the H, if you want the other pronunciation.
I’m not picturing Dina as the new Black Canary but with a uber-powerful dino roar instead of a sonic scream.
Now that I think of it, Becky does kinda remind me of Mia (the second Speedy) in the pre-Nu52 continuity.
not=now
That means she might instantly recognise Amazi-girl is Amber, just like Mia recognised Ollie Queen was Green Arrow.
She’s Japanese, right*? That would be the Japanese pronunciation if I recall correctly.
*correct me if I am not right
And ninja’d with more accurate information. Disregard!
Ninjas notwithstanding, you’re right that a Japanese speaker would pronounce “Dina” to rhyme with “Tina”. And Dina’s family name is Saruyama here in the Dumbiverse, which at least sounds Japanese. (It could mean “monkey mountain”, among other things.)
As a non english native : how do you pronounce Tina ? 😀
Like “Tee-na” I believe.
(Just like how Dina’s name is pronounced “Dee-na”)
That’s how we pronounce it in Scandinavia too. And I think it’s the same in German too. The more I think about it, I actually think that pronounciation is the norm.
You’re not wrong, though.
ヂナ
The pronunciation fits. It’s just that I’m reasonably certain it isn’t a given name in Japanese.
That’s closer to (of all names) “Xena” like the warrior princess. You’re close to the right track, but “Ti” doesn’t exist on its own in Japanese. It becomes “Chi.” Softening that transforms it to “Dzi.”
To form an approximation of “Di,” you use “De” followed by a small “I.” ディ.
Dina isn’t a Japanese name, as “Di” doesn’t even exist in native Japanese. Her parents simply chose to give her a Western name. (Every American-born Asian I’ve met has a Western name, so it can’t be THAT weird, can it?)
I used to work in a call centre, and you have no idea how often I’d get a caller with a distinctly Western name (“I’m Dave/George/Bob”) on an account with a distinctly Asian name, and when I say I need to talk to the account holder to confirm something, they just sort of laugh and say, “Oh, that’s my Chinese name.”
Like, 80% of the time, if it was a Chinese first name, and the caller didn’t have an accent, it was their “Chinese name,” but they usually went by a Western one.
Which is to say that a lot of the ones I talked to, at least, seemed to have both.
I got a classmate named michiru who goes by michel on the class rosters and such, and michiru to his friends and family
naturally i call him by his last name nakamura
Oh, I’ve met a number of Asians here with Western names too – I just never had heard the name Dina before reading this webcomic, and wasn’t aware that “Di” doesn’t exist in native Japanese. Then I read through the link David Willis provided and realized that it definitely isn’t Japanese, so I felt rather silly for thinking it might have been. 🙂
It’s not a big if you’ve never seen it. I never questioned how to pronounce Dina’s name, because I knew a girl named Dina once. 🙂
It’s probably also worth noting that the character and the name predates the dinosaur fixation.
YES! Give me more Walky and Dina interactions! I neeeed them!
chick-fil-a chicken nuggets is not a healthy food, even if she previously was only eating cereal and mountain dew. and… oh man, that’s guilt on Becky’s face. don’t blame yourself for Joyce’s sadness! it’s toedad’s fault!
On a different note, I find it adorable that Dina is willing to eat chicken nuggets because her girlfriend is trying to apply for a job there.
By this logic I have consumed thousand of deep fried dinosaur legs.
Yes. Yes you have. How do you feel? 😀
There’s more than one correct answer, mind! I’d personally go with “Powerful.“
I think “Power Overwhelming” fits better.
They should have sent a poet!
In panel three is that guilt or Becky checking out Dorothy?
Yes.
Anyone not clear on the connection of birds to dinosaurs needs to watch the final act of A Bug’s Life. That stuff’s right out of Jurassic Park, yo.
(The dinosaurs didn’t “go” anywhere! They just got very small!)
Ahem. Cassowaries.
Still small by dinosaur standards.
But they’re significantly taller than Velociraptors.
Wooo got Dumbing of Age
Books 2-4 for Christmas!
Congrats!
reading to many webcomic.
Though you meant ‘Woo’ over at Sandra and Woo and was wondering how he got copies of Dumbing of Age.
Well he could have posted “wiigii” to stay within canon.
Walky just want you to give him the food, Dina.
Eat them with vicious ferocity!
Aww . Dotty and Becky are friends.
Maybe the only thing that made them closer is a common worry about Joyce, tho.
CONSUME THE DINOSAUR AND BECOME A DINOSAUR
For me, the big panel of today’s strip is #4. Becky finally realises that Dorothy is Joyce’s true friend and cares for her deeply. Becky finally feels bad about needling her ‘rival’ when Joyce is in trouble and Dorothy is trying to help.
This is a big growing up moment for Becky and I think she’ll always be a little different for the experience.
I see it just a little different. #3 is the focus. Becky jabs Dorothy as usual, but Dorothy doesn’t rise to the bait and responds as if Becky had made a serious observation. That sets the stage for #4. Tomorrow will tell.
“All I wanted was to eat the dinosaur that was stronger than the other dinosaurs and to absorb its power.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNwDcr2qP4M
Can we presume that dinosaurs have principles to begin with? If not, they have no care for what others believe. Just only if they taste good.
I’m from Australia and don’t get the chick-fil-a reference. We don’t have them here. What do they do?
Well, earlier in the comic they had a conversation about Chick-fil-a having donated money to homophobic thingies, IIRC.
They donate money to anti-gay organizations. Even “conversion therapy” bullshit. And some people will insist that they stopped doing that, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
Dina wants to eat the dinosaur that is smarter than all the other dinosaurs and to absorb its power? Confirmed for OITNB watcher.
Donated alot of money to homophobic organisations. See – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy
I’m too dinosaurs to have principles.
I’m too poor to have dinosaurs.
Keep a chicken, have a friendly dinosaur in your back garden.
“Chicken” “friendly”…words do not compute in that combination.
So…THIS is what it takes to get Walky to believe in feathered dinosaurs.
In which Becky encapsulates my view on morality.
Why is Dina stuttering? Is it that the food’s from Chic-fil-a, or that it’s a dinosaur?
Why not both?
It’s not cereal!
Finally someone understands the struggle… morals and principles are for rich people
For the rest of use there’s the police, and I don’t mean an eighties rock band!
STOP JUDGING OUR LIFE CHOICES, DOROTHY.
(I’m bi but I eat at Chick-Fil-A…it is too good to boycott.)
Didn’t Chick-Fil-A back down on it’s anti-gay policies recently?
Depends on who within Chick-Fil-A you ask. Conflicting reports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex_marriage_controversy#Policy_change
luckily i dont eat chicken so i dont have to make these kinds of decisions
Well they can’t expect Joyce to magically get better. Well I mean, I guess they COULD, but they shouldn’t.
Joyce has been through a lot of trauma this year. And she’s taking it a lot better than I did when I had very traumatic things happened to me. Hell, I had to be hospitalized because I had a complete mental break. I do wonder if that’s in the stars for Joyce. She’s been drugged, threatened at gun point, had her best friend kidnapped, and is now having a crisis of faith. She’s holding up way better than I expected her to.
Faith was everything to Joyce. Having your entire worldview shattered is not a pleasant experience. My step-father had that happen to him. His parents were missionaries, and he claims to this day that the way they raised him ruined his life. He’s VERY atheist, and VERY bitter about his past. My mother was very Catholic until she, quite literally, was laughed at when she expressed the desire to be a priest. They told her that women were not allowed to be priests, and she could be a nun instead. That left a sour taste in her mouth, and caused her to re-examine the church’s beliefs, and then her own. She’s agnostic now, and it was not a pretty process.
TLDR on the above: Losing your religion is hard as hell, and I don’t expect Joyce to bounce back for a while yet.
She’s also bound to be stressed about visiting her family on top of it all.
There’s a joke here about Chick-Fil-A that I’m missing, am I?
If you’re saying you don’t understand what Dorothy is talking about, she’s referring to the fact that Chick-Fil-A donates to homophobic organizations.
Walkies Major is *not* going to be in anything related to biology or medicine that’s for use.
^use^sure
Time for bed after a long day’s consumption of overly rich food.
*burp
His mom won’t be too pleased about that…
Every mother is disappointed in their offspring in one way or another.
I was so sad when I found out. Gave up their delicious waffle fries. Re: first world problems. Happy holidays or happy lack thereof, everyone!
#notalldinosaurs
I don’t understand Dina’s conflict. Most dinosaurs didn’t eat other dinosaurs.
Her hat is one of the carnivores though.
Dina: Walky? When did you get here? Wait – is that my… Give me back my teleportation device!
I love how morally conflicted Dina looks trying to decide being accurate to her favorite dinos or standing up for herself and her girlfriend with regards to bigoted organizations.
Like, she’s really torn apart inside with the “these are in support of homophobia, but dinosaurs eat dinosaurs”. And the best part is these have equal value to her. Her love of dinosaur is just as serious as her stance against creationism or her stance against bigotry and that’s what makes her kinda loveable.
Honestly, one of the things I’ve deeply loved about Dina since her story arc and relationship with Becky onward is that she doesn’t feel like a joke character who just shows up to say wacky lines and be cute anymore. She’s being treated with the same agency and dignity as the other characters, and that’s especially important to see for neurodivergent characters in fictions.
Lots of places sell chicken in various edible forms, though.
Maybe she’s trying to support Becky’s decision? Like, if Becky feels that working there would be a violation of her principles, then Dina’s trying to help by eating their food.
Best. Christmas strip. Ever. EVAR.
Yes, eat the dinosaur nuggets, absorb their sodium.
A good choice for Christmas.
What does Chick-Fil-A do? 2 “Don’t they, you know…”‘s and I don’t know either.