Glorious execution
I wonder if calling “dibs” predates spoken language, or if the contravention of dibs prior to the existence of the word “dibs” simply meant that someone got their head stove in with a rock.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
I wonder if calling “dibs” predates spoken language, or if the contravention of dibs prior to the existence of the word “dibs” simply meant that someone got their head stove in with a rock.
I think “Ding Dong” is also the effect Shelley has on these two by turning up on their doorstep
There’s Something About Shelley
I really like the colouring in that last panel.
“And I called dibs first, all right?”
Isn’t that a bit redundant of him? Whoever achieved anything by calling dibs *second*?
I call dips on calling dibs!
(That should have been “I call DIBS on calling dibs!” Not sure where the “p” came from…)
Sooooo…, have you REALLY called “DIBS” on dibs…?
Apparently, I have, in fact, FAILED to call dibs on calling dibs.
I call dibs on calling dibs!
Darn it!
No. If both/either partiy called dibs and neither was aware that the process was taking place, it becomes necessary to establish who called dibs first and therefore was the actual dibs caller.
point, we did not consider asynchronous dibs
I saw Asynchronous Dibs at the Cooperage back in ’02. Not a bad show, but the guy three rows back kept yelling “GREEN DAAAAY” in my ear. He was very confused.
With three or more parties involved, this is known as the Byzantine Lads’ Problem.
Is this where they ignore each other’s claim?
Thank you!
Darnit, I didn’t think of that. I’m a total dibstick.
But, if both/either calls dibs, doesn’t that begin the process by definition?
Could a dib-caller BE unaware of his/her own calling of dibs?
Now, a dib-caller could be unaware of any other dib-caller, but…
Is this what migraines are like?
How much dibs
Could a dibs-caller call
If a dibs-caller could call dibs?
Two cords!
Isn’t “Dib Calling” a version of the “I was here first” thing?
I think it establishes a line of succesion. So if something terrible (God fobid!) were to happen to the first dibs-caller, then the second dibs-caller inherits their dib.
This is not legal advice.
Eh, I’ll allow it. The Winters sisters do, via Destroy History, have experience beyond with matters of temporal sequencing.
While the “hunting calls” theory for the origin of language has long held sway, current theorists are beginning to consider that spoken communication may have actually evolved from the need of early hominids to call “dibs.”
Nah, it was women, because they HAD to talk about THINGS.
Peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that men talk more than women. And no, I’m not going to link to a source. You can find it if you really want to.
“Peer-reviewed” means men agreeing with what other men have written. I just have my own ideas. >>Their voices are higher-pitched and they can speak faster as they multi-task. They picked-up on new words and taught their children. Little girls are chatter-boxes while little boys are more reticent but later on it averages-out. Just in practical terms those who speak more are those who originate.
Old Andy is really unlikable. For some reason he reminds me of Thatcher.
I kind of get vibes of Thatcher’s son who famously got lost while driving in the Sahara Desert for the Camel Trophy.
Did anyone ever bother to find him?
Oh, yes. The British ambassador was all over it, demanding action, for fear of the PM. And of course his driver and mechanic were also missing.
He later got a suspended sentence in South Africa for being part of a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.
What a Lucky Boy! A mere mortal might have gone to prison! (Or have Bad Words about him on the News.)
I see Andy and Jack are already getting along famously, and as always, Shelley has the best openers.
Maybe “dibs” was the very first word. Meaning: “rock.”
Always happy to pop by and square these historical circles. You’re welcome.
Perhaps, but it must have been very frustrating at the time. Nobody could declare that they call rock, because the words “I” and “call” did not yet exist.
Since the words “Paper” and “Scissors” didn’t exist either, the game was always a draw.
Why is she ringing the bell at her own flat?
Or does she live somewhere else and only came over to study
I believe that she was present in the house for a study session which turned out to be an unsolicited dibs calling, but it is also possible that she heard them from the porch, came up with the butler line and decided it was too choice not to ring the bell.
And the Glorious Execution? Leveling the playing field between those two…
What I have gathered is that at the beginning of the story, Shelley was in Andy’s room in this flat, because he had asked her over nominally to study, but in actual fact to attempt to put the moves on her. Jack has found himself living in the same flat as Andy, and somehow, by means yet unknown, at the same time. Paolo, Donita, Jim, and Kirsten also live in this flat.
Shelley, however, appears to live in a different flat, with Della, who is currently making casserole. Shelley has now left her flat and come to Jack and Andy’s flat, presumably to see Jack, as I doubt that she’s here for another round of fending off Handsy Andy. This explains why she’s ringing the doorbell, and also the deeply confusing mystery of why she was putting on her coat on the last page.
It all ties together!
It appears to be more of a share house than a flat.
Having managed to go directly from living with my parents to owning a house, I may not be au flat with rental property terminology.
Not a very pleasant fellow this Andy. But Shelley is awesome!
Apparently Shelley called dibs on being absolutely adorable.
Some cycle riders are just plain rude, insisting on right-of-way even when it isn’t theirs.
Now, now, right of way is no longer a thing in today’s enlightened, caring society. We must all look out for each other and make allowances for their little mistakes and eccentric behavior. Driving a large lorry through Central London each day is a fascinating experience and great for my blood pressure, at my last medical the vet said it had reached a really quite unprecedented level.
Then you have some good stories about wild bike riders and their eccentric ways!!
-And you should consider finding humor in the situation to relax and lower your blood pressure. This shouldn’t be your problem when it’s the vandals and mongols interrupting your schedule need to be addressed. Perhaps a smaller vehicle, or one with a snow-plow in the front?
One day I hope to speak to the lived experience of the HGV driver in my work.
one time I was driving down a back-ish road, and there were no shoulders so this bicyclist was riding down the middle of it. A group of geese was on our side, so the bicyclist blew threw them, scattering them and blocking both lanes of the road, causing it to be complete unpassable.
Needless to say that both directions of traffic looked at each other and thought about bicyclists while the geese took their time to re-organize and… well, they didn’t cross. They just milled about, eventually not on both lanes of the road.
It’s just chickens that cross the road.
I look forward to the day. Possibly the single most reviled unfortunate found upon the King’s Highway today is the lorry driver who cycles to work. Hated by everyone! Sadly I had to hang up my touring shoes some years ago but I make up for the loss of hate by driving a lorry that shouts at people when it goes round corners, a true masterpiece of modern technology.
I once had a woman shout out the window of her car “I hope that you will be killed!” as I rode my bike slowly up a steep Toronto street, taking up too much lane for all of the drivers’ liking. I mean, don’t worry, lady. It’s not that unlikely. Plenty of cyclists are killed by cars!
Was she shouting in French?
I love bicycles (have a photo of A.Einstein riding) and have had enough close encounters in 60 years to be very cautious. I might have been off & pushing the bike up that hill, which is far safer than weaving. They don’t look, and you can’t hear electric cars so “Head On A Swivel”.
“Steep Toronto street” hahahahaha.
Well done, funniest comment of the page.
A Brace of Butlers.
Andy treating Shelley like a semisentient object is amazingly whiplashy. This comic has always centred women and it’s so weird to see it. It’s like I forgot those attitudes existed in the world, because they didn’t exist in this universe. Hi Andy. Bye Andy.
That’s a good solid bike, John. I won’t quibble over its details, as I know mechanical objects can be the bane of the cartoonist.
Andy’s getting into the sport just in time for the peak of the EPO and blood doping era.
If there’s a missed beat, it’s not the disks and cassettes but the chemicals that Andy’s using.
Andy looks like he’s lubing the chain – so oil? but then the bottle’s an off-colour
Muc-Off in the next panel. A perfectly good late 90s…spray chain cleaner.
At that time Muc-Off was just a product produced by X-Lite. It wasn’t until a decade
later that Muc-Off became so popular it became the company name and they sold
everything from lube to shampoo under that name too.
Of course, that – and the not pinkness – is just another subtle hint by Jon that there’s
something not quite right with this timeline. 😛
I just knew there’s been a comment of this nature
TBH this only happens because John’s references are always just so spot on. I was that guy on a bike in 96 and Muc Off was 100% the thing to have. The skinny steel frame was still the thing then too, just before everything went fat carbon
The yellow Muc-Off bottle is a real multiverse tell, I’ve shown my hand too soon…
The Frank Sidebottom reference really takes me back.
Looks like an Altrincham Road Club racing vest. Which is not unreasonable for Timperley. I may have been caught by a young Andy for a couple of minutes on the Chelford-Knutsford 10 course. Although turning your bike upside down to oil the chain was and remains thoroughly deprecated in club circles because it bashes up the saddle, lever hoods and bar tape.
My bar tape gets shredded when I invert the bike at speed, not generally while stationary.
God I can’t believe I’m sticking up for Spandex Andy.
Spandy