Mousing Around

Susan:
Well, well, well, aftah 2 seaons of anticipation, we finally got to see A-Rod's infamous "dropping the shouldah move."

 

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Mike:
Though despite Slappy's "weight" and his tremendous fucking "velocity," Pedroia seems to have survived that most menacing and marauding of moves.

 

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Susan:
Thank God for the small miracles in life.

 

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Mike:
You know it's gotten so bad for Yankees fans that it isn't enough just to manifest boorishness in The Toilet, now they're exporting that particular brand of "mystique" to Disney World.

 

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Susan:
Yeah, well, I'm gonna cut those Guidos some slack.

 

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Mike:
How's that?

 

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Susan:
Think about it — Who knows what kinds of repressed A-Rod memories were triggered at Disney upon seeing a big-eared mouse wearing white gloves?

 

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Mike:
Yeah, it's a small world, aftah all.

 

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Comments

[noelwhct]

Wednesday night game in yankee stadium, 5th inning.

Pettite is throwing blatent spitters. He should not be allowed to blow (heavily) into his mitt while the ball is in it.

Responses?,noel.

[h.b.]

Big dif between "contrary voices" ala Jason O and "trolls."

I'm with LC on this one. While not of the same flavor/intensity as BigBri, PT's comments here IMO brand him as one of that crowd.

And I wonder, too, if even bringing up the notion of an "echo chamber" is seeing this site as something it is not.

This is not meant to be a Red Sox news site or where people come to discuss the inner workings of the Sox.

Look, this site is a joke. It means nothing. The characters mean nothing. It's a comic.

So if you come here to argue with what the characters have put forth etc then that's just plain fucking nuts as far as I'm concerned.

The trolls more than anyone else seem to be unable to separate the absurdity of the site from reality.

For instance, to actually sit down and want to argue with something Doug or Bill etc says in the strip makes about as much sense as the following imagined comment to a Peanuts strip:

"Mr. Shultz. I hope you enjoy seeing Charlie Brown get tricked again by Lucy with the football. You crack me up. But just wait. The bald headed kid will get revenge!!!! And besides, if you weren't so stupid, you'd realize Lucy is a bully and should be sent to counseling for being emotionally disturbed."

Know what I mean?

[Rob in CT]

WHAT?!? The characters aren't REAL? You mean the centerpiece of my daily existence is all a sham? A "joke"? WTF!?! Well hell, Charlie. Let me help you pull the hatch door closed then. I've no reason to continue my useless existence....

Actually, hb. I think there's a little something more to it than a meaningless joke. Yes, the site has generated more than it's share of laughs for me - not only your characters, but the witty repartee from the regulars here -- Bob, Soxdownunder, Jason, ol' surly but lovable, Harwich Rich and many others (sorry if I failed to mention anyone else - it's not an intentional snub.)

I've also been directed to info on the Sox I'd not otherwise have seen. Not to mention tobe socks, Viet Pho food, Ditka, and trademarked catch phrases (some of which have me "Scarred for Life®.") Best aspect for me? The community of "semi-illiterates", smart-asses, wise-crackers, and Sox Faithful who show up most every day to offer their insights - both meaningful and absurd. You've cultivated quite a crop of crazies here, Hart. And from those of us who stop by throughout the day you are owed a debt of gratitude and a tip o' the bowler hat. The small joys I find lurking here brighten my day.

Many thanks.

[soxdownunder]

Well said, Rob in Ct!!

I think it was Bob who said a few weeks back that it really hurts him when HB says the characters aren't real.

[h.b.]

Yeah, that didn't come across as nuanced as I would have liked.

Didn't mean to imply the site has no value, merit, etc.

Was just trying to get across that it gets silly when people, and by people I typically mean trolls, insist on parsing every strip as if it's meant to be a Supreme Court opinion.

The strip/characters are intented to suggest a certain Red Sox fan zeitgeist, but if you look too closely at what they say to establish that zeitgeist, it won't, in most cases, hold up.

It's kind of like when a stand up comedian makes a joke about something. Typically that joke hinges on reality, but the way the comic addresses it does not.

For instance, take this Seinfeld joke:

Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my fish-burger and I realize, "Oh my God.... I could be eating a slow learner."

Here the joke points to the irony of being at Sea World and eating seafood. It's funny.

But a troll would want to waste hundreds of words telling everyone in the audience that the restaurant at Sea World doesn't really serve food from the animals on display at Sea World.

And would then accuse anyone in the audience pointing out that it's "just a joke" as being part of some "echo chamber ball washing" cabal of the comedian's.

[Bob]

//but some drunken ass-hat poster came up with that one//

Gee, thanks LC. I'm hurt... :)

[pinstripe thunder]

H.B.

I missed these comments of yours that were posted yesterday morning. I guess it's audacious to disagree with you about your own comic strip, but I think you're being too humble. It's like the Beatles in the 1968 Hunter Pence biography insisting that people read way too much into their music -- they were, after all, just silly little love songs not worth parsing for deeper meaning. And, after that, that's what they became, and they were a hell of a lot less interesting than what Lennon and McCartney had written before.

It's less fun to believe that Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds is just a little ditty about a drawing of Julian Lennon's classmate Lucy O'Donnell than to imagine something more fanciful. Nobody wanted to hear that the Beatles didn't have all the answers, even if they were ultimately proven to be as clueless as the rest of us.

Let people read whatever they want into your comic strip and your characters, but don't dismiss them as unworthy of fussing over. The humility, genuine or false, doesn't suit you. That's what literature is all about, narrative or comic, written or web-based. Once you put it out there, it belongs just as much to your readers as to you. Parsing every soxaholix strip for sly cultural references is part of the fun, even if half those references weren't really intended.

Your strip is "just a comic," but it has also created a community that has its own witty, ironic, slightly self-deprecating tone. That's what entertains me more about soxaholix than your typical blustery crossfire blogs that are all point counterpoint. And life does imitate art. Your commenters, from Rob in CT, Bob and LC to Kaz, Natalie, Jason O and Soxdownunder, have developed their own personas (personae?), just like Doug, Bill, Circle and, of course, Marty.

Just as your characters poke fun at themselves as well as others, my comments are usually intended to be tongue-in-cheek (don't take the shot --too easy). Do you really think that I have a point? Do you think that I'm trying to win a great debate with "I sing of Manny gladd and big" or "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, the MFY are gonna win?" Do you honestly think that I'm trying to argue with your characters? I have real life TV characters to argue with, thank you very much. You're taking my comments far more seriously than I do, and more seriously than you want your own to be taken. Even I'm not egosyntonic enough to believe my "Thunder has spoken" drivel.

If I were a troll (and I STILL don't know exactly what the hell that is), I probably would have considered my mission accomplished and trundled cheerfully off the field when I got you to waste a portion of your day arguing about me. Not worth it and not my intent...

I'm just looking for a way to entertain myself (and, very occasionally, others) when I get bored at work (yeah, working today, too -- no rest for the wicked and all that), so please don't take me any more seriously than I take myself. Yankees-Red Sox is arguably the best sports rivalry in history -- where's the fun if you can't work yourself into a self-righteous lather about it? Apparently I like the sound of my own voice... not exactly a capital offense.

As for my Yankees, Huey Lewis may have been right. Have a good weekend, sir.

PT

[pinstripe thunder]

Meant Hunter Davies, not Hunter Pence. Hunter Pence is my second favorite rookie next to Philip Hughes (sorry, Dice-K). I really am getting senile, and here you'd deny a senile old man his fun.