If you’ve been reading the Pearls Before Swine comic strip this week, you’d have noticed a dramatic change in the art. There was much speculation about who the substitute artist was, and it has now been revealed: it was Bill Watterson.
Whoa.
I’m going to put a hint right here that maybe Thomas Pynchon would like to do a guest post on Pharyngula? Maybe? Harper Lee, what are you doing next week?
Rats. All I’ve got so far is a surprise visit to my talk the other day by Casey Luskin.
Not quite the same thing.
Are you sure that isn’t Louis Theroux? The resemblance is uncanny. Maybe it’s directed evolution in action…
He doesn’t look much like an attack mouse in person.
Well what are the possibilities here?
1. PZM has become an ID advocate
2. CL has become a Natural Selection advocate
3. the photo’s been photoshopped
4. human social behaviour is too confounding for me to understand
I guess #2 should be the best choice, but it’s probably #4.
So, this was taken five seconds before you locked hands for an arm wrestle, right?
You’ve done some very disturbing things in your life, PeeZee, but that Luskin pic is the worst!
You will burn for this! Oh, wait …
If Pynchon made a guest post, it would be 12000 words and not make much sense, but be amusing nonetheless.
nicely played.
ahhhemm
SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK
That’s a photo of PZ and Bigfoot? I was under the impression that Bigfoot was hairier.
I thought it was a photo of Bigfoot and Casey Luskin???
No, but seriously, you look good PZ, your regimen really seems to have a positive impact.
How does Casey Luskin’s appearance compare to the excitement of having Robert O’Brian try to beard you at your Sierra College talk in California a few years ago? That was when Robert charmingly characterized your contributions to science as “piddling” — apparently finding not the least bit of irony (or projection) is using such an adjective — and blathered a bit about Kalam.
(You are, of course, looking sleeker these days. Good for you. And Luskin’s looking cheerful instead of dyspeptic. What’s up with that?)
…But look at him: he’s not looking cheerful. He’s not smiling, he’s faking it for the camera. The corners of his mouth aren’t upturned, they’re completely straight!
If anything, he looks a bit scared. But then, that may just be what his fake camera smile looks like.
But Luskin? Who cares? I know Luskin is a PZ nemesis, but the news here is Watterson has returned! I too, thought he went recluse, but he’s back now, and doin ‘tooning!!1!1!1! Rejoice. I hope he manages to through Spiff in there, or Hobbes in the background, something, anything, as a wink to all his fans.
re myself@12:
“…or Hobbes in the background, something, anything, as a wink to all his fans.”
gee whiz, I missed the winks. I think Spiff is there in that panel with all the Martian invaders… not to mention the textual clues of “I could do better if I had more space”, and the final panel of the “Metaphorical sled”. I missed them!! (the first time, but…)
[Watterson wink]”Leaving. I’m bored of drawing.Besides, there’s a magical world out there to explore.”[/wink]
Get it?!? I finally got it!
If Mr. Luskin came to say a friendly hello I find that actually commendable.
He is still a fool, of course.
How very weird re the Watterson reference. Just this week I watched Dear Mr. Watterson on Netflix. I hadn’t realized how reclusive he is. Now for sure I am going to start digging through the boxes in my garage to find the letter he sent me in response to a letter I sent to Calvin back in the 1980s. (Wonderful artwork on the envelope.)
Too bad it wasn’t Bill Watterson who came to see your talk.
Hoping for Harper Lee then getting Casey Luskin is like wishing for a ride on the Space Shuttle then getting a ride in a wheelbarrow pushed by my 90 yr old grandmother.
gerryl #16
I really, really, really hope you can find that letter.
Post some pix if you do.
gerryl:
Rats below! I hope you find it, and it’s in good condition. Echoing Chigau, I’d like to see that envelope too.
I have no idea what was actually going on there, but the appearance makes me nostalgic…
My father occasionally talks about the farming/ranching community he was raised in, and how people with wildly different views got along, and helped each other when difficulties arose. (I’ve wondered if the understanding of mutual need in crises, along with some very direct set of possible actions was the primary, if not sole foundation of that. We don’t have that kind of visceral community anymore.)
I never got to see it in action in a community, but over the years I’ve been confused, angered, conforted, and incited to envy by his ability to be kind, even warm toward people on the other side of something.
For a very long time I thought it was the effect of not caring enough, but the rest of my father’s life gave the lie to that one.
So, yeah. I have no idea what was going on there, but, for whatever reason, what I got from it was a return to the shock of nostalgia, and that belly-spinning sense of the mystery of human interaction.
Reading too much in, I’m sure, but that’s what I do.
I’ve always wondered what Bill got up to after Calvin and Hobbes.
Here’s some Bigfoot music, courtesy of Japan’s P Model.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXLccLGtKlA
Ugh… I wouldn’t let that smug little right-wing shit anywhere near me, especially within weapons range.
Akira, what part of “attack mouse” didn’t you understand? :-)
twas brillig (stevem) wrote:
Nemesis? A nemesis must have substance.
Luskin is the dog crap in the crevices of PZ’s shoe.
Luskin has “William Lane Craig Face.” It’s that slightly plasticky, shiny, fake-smile thing with the dead eyes and the oddly-flattened nose…