Grrl Power #117 – Table for Two
Apparently Fusion’s heat scale goes by how hot other things are perceived to be. Mostly explosions, but there are some notable exceptions. The “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator” comes in just over “Like Gargling Thermite” but a bit behind “Gigaton Naquadria Bomb” but it’s a real step up to “The Sun” which is where Sydney will start looking. Above that, there’s really only “Pulsar” then “Quasar” and finally “The Big Bang” but you have to sign a waiver as soon as the food can be described in terms of astronomical bodies and events.
The comic takes me so long to draw because I spend a lot of time noodling the pencils, and sometimes I’ll draw a whole picture only to cut it entirely, so here’s an alternate version of Sydney’s expression for the last panel. I liked this one but I thought the head tilt was a little more condescending.
BTW the margin text on the bottom middle panel says “falsetto” in case it’s too small for anyone. If you think about it too hard, it’s weird when girls use a falsetto to indicate they’re speaking in a girl’s voice. Obviously it’s usually done in a slightly mocking fashion. Probably not the best thing to do to someone who’s going to be handling your food though.
Awesome as always!
Pissing off the waitress is a good strategy to get the really spice stuff
Even better way is to piss off the chef :P
Why not piss off both of them?
..and the manager.
That gets you kicked out of the restaurant instead, and then you get nothing, spicy or otherwise.
I think she used just the right amount of condensation in speaking to her waitress so she would know that they had a serious eater on their hands, and not to give her the baby sauce.
Pre-haggling for heat is a valid strategy, but you don’t have to be obnoxious about it.
I am just suprize that Syd does not have a nicer way of getting spicy food, since she has been in this situation before. If I could handle the hot stuff like her, I would get a business card from the places that makes it to my liking, and have them sign the back with a little extra information stating on how hot they need to make it for me to consider it hot verse what everyone else gets, and the name of the person that is ordering the food. All she would need to do than is ask the waitress what spicy places she has eaten at. Pull out there business card and hand it over. With a statement of please read the back. This way she does not get any extra engreedence in the food, and Syd gets lava food.
I agree. Vewy wude. Sucks for the waitress.
However, I think that Sydney has tried to do so in the past, and has avoided the “baby food” but had still needed to send back the “normal person hot stuff”. Which at least reduces it from 2 returns to 1.
As they are short of time, she has tried the “I am gonna get them mad enough to want to kill me with the spice” route to get the good stuff first time round!
I dont think the condensation was there for to get “the serious eater” thing going this seems more like piss off the waiter so that the scenario goes something like (little twerp thinks she can handle her spice huh?) “hey Chef! we got a snarky one out here how about you toss everything you got on it.”
Condescension.
Not condensation.
Condensation is water forming on the outside of a glass of cold liquid.
Condescension is that thing that gets said glass dumped on you by short-tempered waitresses.
As for the comic… I can’t be the only one that vocalized “The “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modula-tor” as everyone’s favorite Roman-helmet-wearing sneaker-clad Martian.
Well, I tried to, anyway. Wound up sounding like Ernie from Sesame Street instead. Or the Proto-Saiyans in DBZAbridged’s Episode of Bardock.
She has probably gone through this routine several times at other “spicy” establishments. So figgures if she can get it as hot as possible fast, it’s worth a little spit in the food.
Agreed, she probably HAS gone through this routine several times and KNOWS she has to piss off somebody to get to the good stuff. And yeah, KFox is right, Sydney will still be asking “Got anything stronger?”
I’ve seen it often enough with friends who like hot food and they sure are not in Sidney’s class.
Given Sidney’s looks she likely gets more problems with servers.
If she is lucky they will try to scare her off and give her the hottest dish they have.
that will get them nowhere fast… see “ai vin”‘s answer above.
With as hot and spicy as she likes her food it would kill any biological contaminants.
It looks like Peggy’s bisexual.
Pansexual would probably be a better term for how she explained it.
Possibly.
But I still think someone wanted to invent a new word where none was needed.
I’d just refer to it as “sexual”; “bisexual” is redundant if you only have two to choose from to begin with.
Who’s to say that there actually are only two?
Traditionally we recognize two sexes being male and female, but there are genetic abnormalities such as hermaphrodites even if they aren’t very common. I imagine there is also the possibility of other genetic sexual abnormalities, but I don’t know what any of them are or what they are called.
Most people also identify with two genders (the psychological side of sexuality) being masculine and feminine. But in some cultures there are other established genders. For example: in Japan there are some people who identify themselves as Ko (not entirely sure I’m spelling that right) which is an established gender that is neither masculine nor feminine. From a certain point of view one could possibly argue that Tomboy is in fact a gender all its own, but I think I have typed enough to display my point.
From her description, it could be misanthropy. “I can find things to _dislike_ about men or women”
ah,, there is hope for me yet,,,my poor little lesbian heart wont be crushed,,:)
hope as well for my poor geeky boy heart
(sure she ogled the beefcakes before, but I don’t have abs like that!)
Look at it like this: Peggy hangs out with Perfect Physical Specimins all day, every day. She sees them in the gym, sees them goofing in the rec room, sees them eating their food and stepping out of the jakes. Don’t you think that- while still able to appreciate a nicely-carved set of muscles- she would end up more interested in someone who can make decent conversation?
Shorter version: When you see cake all day- cheese or beef, doesn’t matter- eventually you start getting more hungry for something else to eat.
(Actually, I could see Peggy and Math getting along better than expected because they seem to be the two most ‘earned my skill and paid for it’ types there.)
With Sydney she won’t get a crick in her neck from having to look up to speak to her all the time.
Uh-oh, death glare from a waitress is never a good idea. Check your plate for anything nasty, Sydney.
I’d find it hilarious if she tried to slip her a naga jolokia pepper. Sydney would be like, “Got anything stronger?”
Nasty? You mean other than those jalapeno poppers made with ghost peppers instead? Oh, that is what she ordered? I see.
Hey, she challenged them to make it as hot as possible. Ghost Pepper “Jalapeno Poppers” it is!
Not something spicy. I mean something nasty, like a dead fly or something.
and then peggy found out what’s Sydney real super power was the ability to channel hot tasting things that she eats and use the spices to foil evil every where after she eaten
The weird part is that I pretty much envisioned this entire scene just how DaveB drew it.
Cool..
We havent seen any sort of super-villain from daveb yet so I dont know whats going to appere, but I will laugh if this is where sydney gets her own personal arch-nemisis.
Ms. Antacid!
Nah, fiery foods just burn on the way in. They don’t burn while in (an otherwise healthy person), and contrary to some reports they also don’t burn on the way out.
Depends on a lot of things (burning on the way out) . Some spices will burn or irritate sensitive skin. Ever touched your eyes with pepper or onion on your hands?
Sorry, that just means you haven’t eaten enough. While the digestive tract (even the ‘last stop on the way out’) isn’t affected by the capsaicin, the tissues on the outside of the sphincter are quite capable of feeling pain. I’m a bit of a pepper head, and if I eat more than a certain amount…well, let’s just say I am pointedly reminded of it the next day. It seems like what is happening is the body can only break down so much at one time, and the excess is still at its fiery best.
As for Sydney and the waitress, I have that problem at Mexican drive-throughs. I ask for “Extra salsa, the hottest you have”; they take a look at me – a middle-aged white guy – and when I check the bag, they gave me one packet of the ‘mild.’ “OK, let’s try this again…”
I also have made this mistake. And though my stomach dealt with the fire quite fine my later visit to the “Place of Many Waters” was far from comfy. Basically felt like sitting on am open flame.
“Sorry, that just means you haven’t eaten enough.”
Lies and slanders! You must simply be worthless and weak. I love spicy foods and I’ve never encountered this issue of yours with ‘the way out.’ This despite munching on habeneros, fresh from my garden or pickled and still from my garden. And my nephews have a huge stockpile of home made habenero powder from a massive drying and grinding session they which went through a couple years back, and they share with me for my BBQ dry rubs and other culinary uses.
Unless you have an asbestos asshole I call troll.
Now that would be a great name for a band.
Since I like to say its not hot enough if it doesn’t singe the hair off my ass on the way out, I gotta disagree.
I don’t know about an arch-nemesis for Sydney, but you’ve got to admit this bloke is defiantly a villian
https://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c5.0.403.403/p403x403/303436_341912375863224_2047262522_n.jpg
I love Sydney’s face in the last pannel. She’s basicly daring them to kill her with hottnes.
Ah the old “spice haggle two-step” I’ve done that dance before.
If her food isn’t hot enough to make LUM sweat, Sydney’s gonna read em the riot act.
For those Unfamiliar with Lum…Your assignment is to go watch all the episodes of Urusei Yatsura!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oNvTWrwxYE
The falsetto sarcasm was probably over the top. But I have seen serving proffesionals do exactly what Sydney describes. Some even appreciate that they have someone that knows the routine. Depends on if she is new or jaded.
I swear I’ve seen this sceen somewhere before. Not sure which movie though.
I think you accidentally a word in Peggy’s first word bubble.
Hah hah, thanks, that’s fixed.
Personally I prefer her look in the 2nd to last panel. Is it possible to break the Stephen Spielburg sickly sweet record? Yes, when Sydney Schofield does her lidwle cutie face!
She should have gone Daffy duck style instead of falsetto because we know she’s going to order the Marvin the Martian special :p
That was just the appetizer menu, with the salsa and dips. What she is looking for starts with SUN for a light start and ends with the BIG BANG so she knows to come back later for more.
That is why I said the Marvin the Martian special (and not just the noisy cricket sized planet buster).
I imagine that there is something along the lines of “Where’s the ‘ka-boom’? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ‘ka-boom’!” somewhere as hotness indicator (meaning that they’ve hidden the spice in for example coconut milk to get a delayed blast of BURN effect).
Speaking of Daffy Duck ….
After Sydney’s challenge, I’d say the Fusion chef will be putting on a welder’ mask and ultra-thick gloves,,then using heavy-duty tongs to CAREFULLY handle and mix some highly reactive ingredients. Probably including at least one bottle with a Skull-N-Crossbones on it.
I found a DaveB Easter egg! (Actually two in one sentence) Looks like Aaron found one first.
Panel 1: Penny: Is it because I look like a big ol’ dyke?
The apostrophe replaces missing letters in a contraction. Generally ol’ is a contraction of old, so the apostrophe replaces the d. What letter is being replaced in ‘ol?
That is Southern speak. He wasn’t making a mistake, but adding southern flair into the conversation.
Still missing the “I” though.
Southern speak is putting your apostrophes in the wrong place?
Southern speak is fun. My personal favorite is “crik.”. As in, “We went down to the crik this morning and caught us a fish.”
Personally I have adopted “Y’all” as mainstream English, and am implementing the convention that “you” is now to be considered singular. “Let me buy you your drinks tonight” becomes a lot safer phrase to use!
Yawl – A type of sailboat
U’aul – A moving truck
“Bum” = Explosive device dropped from special aircraft known as “bummers”.
Example: Ah think we ought to drop the Atomic Bum on them.
Why would you drop scary-spicy sauce on them?
Spell “rat”…
…like in “rat now!”
Also comes in for urban slang, such as, kickin’ , chillin’ , ridin’ the whip (car), etc. People do all kinds of stuff with language.
Interesting that Sydney hates hormones so much. I wonder why? Nerd girls rarely have too much trouble finding boys, unless they prefer to date outside their social group. Or she could be they type that is flips from EXTREME EXTROVERT to EXTREME INTROVERT when a buy she likes is around. Possible I suppose although she didn’t do too badly with Tony way back when.
On a side note, looking that far back in the archives you can see an evolution in how Sydney looks/Dave draws.
Imagine Sydney with PMS and you might start to get an idea why. For some women certain parts of their cycle are more intense than for other women
Yeah, I had a girlfriend like that so I learned to hates hormones too.
Just wait until you;re married, dude.
Pregnancy hormones FTW.
“beggin for a preggin”…that’s a new way of phrasing it.
And a new t-shirt idea is born. (warning for brave women only)
Not sure if it’s supposed to be “preggin'” or peggin'” I guess it could be either.
IIRC “pegging” refers to the (ahem) rear tenant.
I’m counting it as a context issue either way.
The waitress should now know that Sydney can tolerate heat, from not bursting into flame from her glare in the last panel :-)
She should of told the waitress that her name was Schollville and to tell the chef she dared them to give her something too hot for her.
Now that’s the way to get some really HOT food.
then say the King of Siam’s is hotter
I thought she would do a Ron Swanson quote, like “when I say ALL the pepper you have, you might have heard I want a lot of pepper, but what I said is give me ALL the pepper you have.”
“Where’s the ‘ka-boom’? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ‘ka-boom’!”
That creature has stolen the space modulator!
Delays, delays…
Capture that creature and return the space modulator!
Pannel 6 is going to be my new avatar. XD
It’s clever when you think about it. Pissing off the waitress is sure to get her the spiciest food in the place.
It would get interesting if the chef takes this as a personal challenge :-)
I’m guessing(hoping) that Syd has Greatly underestimated the food. It is in a building Filled with the super(supra)human. Reminds of that old SNL skit where a guy orders The spiciest Buffalo wings and like Syd ends up sending it back. when finally gets his wings the next scene is an ambulance rushing to the hospital and the caption basically saying he only got the SECOND hottest wing.
*scream* YES! YES, you said Naquadria. My second-favorite fictional element!
I have to ask what your first is. There are so many to choose from.
If I had to venture a guess, I’d say naquadah…
What about the fifth element? Just to tempt you to follow the link… there is are nice animated photos of Mila Jovovich and her pussy, further down the page there!
That was Corbin Dallas’s pussy. It’s awfully cute, but I have to take Corbin to task for leaving poor pussy at home for what could have been a mission which got him killed without even bothering to make sure that pussy got her daily kibble ration. Pussy has no multi-pass!!!
“Kitty-Dallas Multi-pass!”
See, Corban even starts off by forgetting to even feed his cat on a normal day! And yet you contend that it is Leeloo Minaï Lekarariba-Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat’s pussy cat? That kitty is looking to upgrade its tin opener servant to a new model!
Plus Leeloo gets together with Corban at the end of the movie
I think there is no doubt that kitty will adopt someone who thinks chicken good
I guess people had questions about Peggy. I figured you’d just do the reveal via conversations, observations, or actions over time verses a direct question and answer scenario. However I can see how it saves time so you can concentrate on moving the story along.
One of the disadvantages of the slow posting schedule is sometimes I don’t get to do stuff as organically as I’d like cause it’d take months to lay into the story. In this case I just needed a way to start off the conversation.
I figure it as being significant in showing that Sydney is a keen social observer. Even if she isn’t alert enough to spot a golden skinned superhero with purple hair in a queue. It also reinforces her low inhibition threshold in being comfortable in raising the subject, without waiting for more signs than just her intuition.
*Gets out notebook and adds “Gaydar” to Sydney character profile*
Since she was only half right, you might want to hold off on that entry. Sydney jumped to a conclusion based upon some superficial attributes which Peggy, very gently, pointed out that Sydney has herself. Leave it to someone as socially awkward as Sydney to assume that everyone who sees her correctly assesses her own sexuality.
Is it weird that I read the last menu description as scalding poop tart filling
It will definitly come out that way.;()
Wow a call back and lampshade hanging in the same exposition, Sydney is showing just how savvy she is.
At this moment Max is remembering that Fusions is down stairs.
Wait a second. “big ol’ dyke”? Isn’t Peggy like 5’4″ or something like that? She is surrounded by very tall women, like Max and Anvil and she calls herself big? Even Harem is nearly half a foot taller.
She’s referring to the amount of dykeness in the package, not the package itself.
THAT’s a speech foible. I knew someone who described everything as little. Like, “little ol’ war,” “little ol’ elephant,” “little ol’ death star.”
That’s no a moon. It’s a ‘lil’ ‘ol Death Star!
that wouldn’t be the same “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator” Marvin the martian wants so he can destroy the earth, because “it obstructs my view of Venus” he says
“Why yes it is! Isn’t it simply Delightful?”
“Is this your first time dining with us? If not there are some things about the menu that….”
Surely “not” would be the negative, they have eaten there before and thus don’t need teaching? Rather, it should be “”Is this your first time dining with us? If so, there are some things about the menu that….”
Hmm… yes that does read better. :P
Ok, that’s fixed as well.
Grrl Power where you too can improve the comics! :)
I’m so anticipating that she might have wanted to let the waitress finish her script.
Thinking maybe Fusion is familiar with patrons with high resistance to pain.
Also, did anyone else here a little “ding” when she did her falsetto?
“My name is Scoville. Sydney Scoville.”
Name reckognition like that will only work in places that serve the hot stuff.
I didn’t know about the whole Scoville scale thing until I started reading this comic.
I have my ghost peppers sliced not diced
Sadly, “Agent 16,000,000” doesn’t sound too good…
Oh, we are going for the pure stuff, are we? Hazmat suits all round!
*PSSSH-SSSHHHHAAAH* I find your lack of spices..disturbing.
To finish what Adamas started…….
****Points to the plate*****
You may strike me down. But, in the end, I will just become more power full.
I thought that’s what the food would say to Sydney. =P
“insert ring of fire joke here”
In the 7th panel, what the waitress is saying should probably be “If so there are…” The way it is written now, the waitress would be talking to a regular, and in that case if the menu had changed the waitress would probably be saying straight out that the menu had changed recently. Also even in the south, the apostrophe is on the right side of ol. You are showing a pro-nun-see-a-tion. For people not familiar with southern vernacular ol’ in this case may not be linked to the age of the person, but added for flavor.
Sydney’s hatred for hormones is interesting. I mean sure, they do trouble females once a month for maybe 40 years, but her hatred just seems a little extreme.
Even I’m not 100% sure what her beef is, but she probably blames them for, among other things, her figure, or lack thereof. Whatever the whole story may be, we do know she has an penchant for melodrama.
“… a penchant for melodrama…” ?!?
Major understatement.
A penchant for understatement?
Oh, yes please, if you are buying? With ice please.
Sydney is just so use to not getting the hottest of the hot she is tired of going through it so she wants it done without the preliminaries. We’ll see how this works out. She isn’t cut out to be a diplomat.
Maybe she finds getting horny to be more of a distraction. Maybe she hasn’t had all that good sex she has heard about so she finds it bothersome. Or she gets bad menstrual cramps. Very bad. She may also be a little too exacting as to partners too. Who knows?
Dave, I know you are looking out for a simple widget that would allow editing of posts. Which would be real handy, needless to say. I recall you speculating that, if you found one, you might allow editing for up to five minutes or the like. I have found that I usually do not spot my own mistakes anywhere near that fast.
Should you come across one someday, may I suggest that you instead allow editing up until the post has been replied to (or, if no reply, perhaps a day or so)?
I keep an eye out for WordPress plugins that will accommodate editing, the problem is that most of them are massive plugin suites with all kind of nonsense that I don’t have any interest in navigating, or they’re part of a new commenting system, and I don’t want to do anything that may potentially mess up or remove all the comments up to this point.
Haven’t used it myself (In the past, when in need of a CMS for a particular website I was designing, I have turned to Drupal rather than WordPress) but what about this plugin:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/
Here’s the description: Users can edit their own comments for a limited time, while admins can edit all comments.
Y’know, I’m surprised that Sydney just doesn’t down pure capsaicin at this point.
And so the shipping began.
not a good idea to piss off a waitress
True. But it’s a WORSE idea to piss of Sydney.