I’m sorry, but what? Clearly you are having a very funny joke with me. There is no way that… THING is a bowl cut. Not even. It’s a different color than the rest of his hair and doesn’t even remotely look like a bowl cut. It’s definitely some sort of stupid hat. I will never accept that, that is hair. O_O
nope, just a REALLY bad Toupe’ 😀 … I’m glad that Dave isn’t afraid to draw people with less-than-flattering hairstyles if that’s what he meant by “bowl-cut” seeing as how i’ve never heard of a HAT style called that.
Maybe add some vertical streaks to give it some hair texture then, because as-is, it does mostly come across as a strange hat… especially since the colour is noticeably different from the hair on his neck. The horizontal indent (probably meant to mark the start of his “bangs”) is also throwing me off. Mushroom cuts (as I’ve known them to be called) tend to be center-parted.
Actually, as far as the colour goes, often hair isn’t uniform in colour along its length. The shaft takes time in grow and a lot can happen to it during that time to change its tone: Sunlight can lighten it, brushing can give it a luster, etc. The shorter younger parts we see here is his “new hair” colour.
Were I writing this for maximum drama, Mr. bowlcut hat/hair would turn out to be a member of Mina’s mosque, who is going to share this story with their Amom. He’s seen evidence of the kiss, but not that it wasn’t entirely consensual. This NOT being Saudi Arabia (or a US propaganda delivery system –er, I mean “newscast”) I doubt things would actually get VIOLENT, but some very emotionally devastating ostrization (sp?) could result.
He has effed this up on multiple levels. Any chance he might have had with her is now out the window. Any kind of sway he might have had in the PTA is gone. Any influence Mina might have had will now be suspect (yes, that dude noticed and I can guarantee it’s going to come up later). He’s put his reputation, Mina’s job and possibly Selkie’s future at this school at risk because he couldn’t control his impulses.
Whatever fallout comes of this will rest squarely on his shoulders, and he’ll have nobody to blame but himself when whatever plans he might have had come crashing down. To be honest he’ll be damn lucky if he’s not sued. She could, if sufficiently motivated, press sexual assault charges–though I don’t think she’ll do that, as she knows if she does Selkie will be taken from him (and I do think she wants to look out for her). But any kind of working deal these two might have had going? Gone. What he did was the mother of all cock-ups, and I’ll be surprised if he’ll be able to show his face at another PTA meeting.
Going to disagree. She is angry, but her private feelings on the matter are largely positive. I was in a similar situation and have been happily married to the Musleema in question for a while now. He will have to do the thousand meter crawl and a number of other things, but I’m betting that her fundamental feeling will be that he’s not completely hopeless
Nah, she could be a lot more angry. I think they’ll recover.
Plus, kissing between parent and teacher may not be encouraged and can have reperussions, but is it criminal? I don’t think so.
If they continue working for the school in a level-headed manner (or even if Mina avoids Todd), even if the bowler-guy thinks they have an affair, he won’t say anything. As long as everything works fine, it’s none of his business.
He MAY decide to help the hobbit for some reason of his own by revealing this, but it’s too early to speculate for that.
My take is that she’s scared, not angry. She’s not sure how she feels about actually dating Todd, though she has a crush on him. She isn’t pissed so much as “wait wait I wasn’t ready and there are all these things I need to work out, so back off while I sort out my stuff.”
Also, the PTA folks didn’t see it. And that one dude who was like OH HO, LIPSTICK is going to be seen as a standard gossipy conspiracy theorist because no one else saw anything, if you ask me. They have no proof. From what we’ve seen so far, the PTA folks seem pretty legit, at least the ones in charge.
Also, everyone is way too distracted by stuff like “oh shit, our principal is quitting and has been enabling bullies.”
So is there any actual reason why they can’t be seen kissing (law or school regulation) or just worried about gossip from people who should mind their own?
At the very least, given that they’ve both filed grievances against the principal, it would make it look they’re conspiring together.
It’s also almost certainly against regulations for Mina to have a relationship with the parent of one of her pupils. Depending on how the policy works it could be as benign as Selkie having to change classes/schools (still obviously a major issue for the comic’s characters) or it could be grounds to fire Mina.
While not an explicit rule in many schools, it falls under the jurisdiction of unspoken rules due to questionable influence. While you may think this should mean that “technically” it’s okay, I can tell you for a fact that they cover this topic in standard education courses. It’s similar to dating a subordinate in professional settings. There can be a conflict of interest, so it’s understood to steer clear of these situations. It’s unprofessional, it can show bias towards the student during the relationship – especially if the relationship sours, can lead to confusion, awkwardness, and lack of respect in the child’s relationship with the teacher, as well as influence the teacher and student’s interactions with the rest of the class if it becomes known. It would also reflect badly on the rest of the school and staff. If she did want to pursue a romantic relationship, she should AT LEAST wait until Selkie is not her student.
Let me clarify by “covered in standard education courses.” You’re basically warned against having relationships that overlap your social and professional life. This includes relationships (at least openly) with another faculty member, administration, or anyone with ties to the school – like a parent. Even if by some chance a married couple are both at the same school, there should not be any PDA.
I’m not sure about this, but pretty confident. There’s probably no legislation banning a relationship between a teacher and a student’s parent, but there might very well be a school policy. One might suspect conflicts of interest when a parent and teacher are dating, or want to prevent retaliation against the child should the relationship go sour, …
In other words, this kind of thing has far too much “enormous mess” potential, both in severity of damage and area of effect, that people generally want to avoid it at all costs, regardless if there is or isn’t an official ruling on it.
Which means it’s bread-n-butter for drama stories like this, of course. 🙂
Also, they just worked together to take Principal McHobbit down. Remember that the PTA doesn’t have any real reason to think Selkie’s father and the gym teacher aren’t just angry about a completely justified suspension and firing, except for Mina backing the story up. If the PTA discovered they were in a relationship, they would start to wonder if she was lying to cover for her boyfriend.
We know that wouldn’t be true, but the PTA leaders haven’t been sitting on the fourth wall with us.
It’s not considered professional. At many places of employment, it is very frowned upon to become involved with someone you work with—especially a client. And politically, it could call into question and undo everything they started against the principal as people have a more difficult time taking them seriously.
But really? As a parent (or a teacher who cares about that parent’s child), I’d be worried more how it’d directly and indirectly impact Selkie if she found out either by rumor or coming upon it herself. Dating with kids is tricky enough—let alone getting involved with a child’s teacher. It’d really taint Selkie’s relationship with Mina and her classmates, too, as a lot of them would automatically assume she gets favored as Mina is seeing her dad. This could escalate teasing/bullying from kids who never caused problems before, and even create a lot of tension between Selkie and her closest friends.
Hoping Mr. Hat keeps it to himself versus starts rumors. Also hoping Todd keeps his feelings in the “happy box” until the school year is over. He and Mina obviously need to have a talk (in private with Selkie with a sitter), but they need to keep things contained until the school year ends.
I totally ship them after that. 🙂 Will that happen? Who knows… It depends how well Mina controls herself, too, as it’s obvious her feelings are mutual—despite her (very understandable) reaction.
I asked my first girlfriend before kissing. She said no, then made fun of me after a few minutes’ passing made it clear I had taken the refusal seriously. We still kissed, but the lesson was clear: consent is unromantic. She made sure to educate me on how girls signal desire for these things without words so that I didn’t ever ruin the mood for her again. Cue unfortunate use of phrase “asking for it”.
It seems it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t, and loneliness if you avoid the problem altogether. We are a culture of mixed messages. Men are supposed to initiate, unless it turns out it wasn’t wanted, despite the fact that we aren’t psychic.
I understand what you mean. Sounds like it was kind of awkward, but you ended up with a happy ending. Do not take what you did as the lesson, though. It may be fine with the sweetie you have, but if you ever date other women it can end as disaster.
You can acquire consent *and* be smooth about it. That includes looking for strong non-verbal cues: staring into each others’ eyes, lots of touching from her (ex – fingers on your shoulder/arm/etc…, play hitting, wearing your shirt/jacket/etc…). The guys who actually wait to take cues (even if they are awkward) are way more hot than the dorks who try to paw all over a lady without even getting to know her or show interest/understanding about how she feels.
Ah-ha! Trying to think of commentary for ten minutes huh?
Time to change the [transcript] box to a [commentary] box!
Sorry, I’m OCD. That TRANSCRIPT thing has been bothering me since the strip started. A transcript is a word by word facsimile of a dialogue. What you do in that box is commentary. Once again it’s the OCD . . .
Hm. I like that it’s called Transcript, personally, as in “here’s Dave thoughts being transcribed for us. ” Like a strip bonus or addition. Even if it’s not literally a transcript OF the comic.
Bowl cut guy doesn’t look all that surprised, IMO…maybe there’s already been some rumors floating around?
And…oh. *reading DaveComments in previous strip*
Principal/Smeagol may be dating a woman named Mrs. Brown?
Coincidence of names? I actually hope so.
I’ve read through this wonderful comic many many times, and it only now occurs to me to question: Do Muslim women wear lipstick?
Seems to be in conflict with the whole dedication to modest clothing, covered hair (or face) as wards against vanity about one’s appearance. Given that standpoint, one imagines there’d be a formed cultural opinion on makeup like lipstick, no?
Seems like the PTA may not be fond of Todd… Mina is so going to get fired.
Also I’ve been meaning to ask, what is up with that guys hat? What the hell is it?
It’s a bowl cut.
I’m sorry, but what? Clearly you are having a very funny joke with me. There is no way that… THING is a bowl cut. Not even. It’s a different color than the rest of his hair and doesn’t even remotely look like a bowl cut. It’s definitely some sort of stupid hat. I will never accept that, that is hair. O_O
Because it’s not.
He’s referring to hat design, not haircut, when he calls it a bowl cut.
It’s also commonly called a trucker’s hat.
It looked like a hair cut to me. OTOH I wear a trucker’s hat and THAT doesn’t look like one.
Oh goodness, I’m sorry then. My mistake.
nope, just a REALLY bad Toupe’ 😀 … I’m glad that Dave isn’t afraid to draw people with less-than-flattering hairstyles if that’s what he meant by “bowl-cut” seeing as how i’ve never heard of a HAT style called that.
Maybe add some vertical streaks to give it some hair texture then, because as-is, it does mostly come across as a strange hat… especially since the colour is noticeably different from the hair on his neck. The horizontal indent (probably meant to mark the start of his “bangs”) is also throwing me off. Mushroom cuts (as I’ve known them to be called) tend to be center-parted.
Actually, as far as the colour goes, often hair isn’t uniform in colour along its length. The shaft takes time in grow and a lot can happen to it during that time to change its tone: Sunlight can lighten it, brushing can give it a luster, etc. The shorter younger parts we see here is his “new hair” colour.
Were I writing this for maximum drama, Mr. bowlcut hat/hair would turn out to be a member of Mina’s mosque, who is going to share this story with their Amom. He’s seen evidence of the kiss, but not that it wasn’t entirely consensual. This NOT being Saudi Arabia (or a US propaganda delivery system –er, I mean “newscast”) I doubt things would actually get VIOLENT, but some very emotionally devastating ostrization (sp?) could result.
I don’t think the PTA have a problem with Todd. But let’s just hope that dude isn’t any trouble in the future.
A mistake but not, I think, irrecoverable. Todd will have to bring his “A” game to the courtship
He has effed this up on multiple levels. Any chance he might have had with her is now out the window. Any kind of sway he might have had in the PTA is gone. Any influence Mina might have had will now be suspect (yes, that dude noticed and I can guarantee it’s going to come up later). He’s put his reputation, Mina’s job and possibly Selkie’s future at this school at risk because he couldn’t control his impulses.
Whatever fallout comes of this will rest squarely on his shoulders, and he’ll have nobody to blame but himself when whatever plans he might have had come crashing down. To be honest he’ll be damn lucky if he’s not sued. She could, if sufficiently motivated, press sexual assault charges–though I don’t think she’ll do that, as she knows if she does Selkie will be taken from him (and I do think she wants to look out for her). But any kind of working deal these two might have had going? Gone. What he did was the mother of all cock-ups, and I’ll be surprised if he’ll be able to show his face at another PTA meeting.
Going to disagree. She is angry, but her private feelings on the matter are largely positive. I was in a similar situation and have been happily married to the Musleema in question for a while now. He will have to do the thousand meter crawl and a number of other things, but I’m betting that her fundamental feeling will be that he’s not completely hopeless
Nah, she could be a lot more angry. I think they’ll recover.
Plus, kissing between parent and teacher may not be encouraged and can have reperussions, but is it criminal? I don’t think so.
If they continue working for the school in a level-headed manner (or even if Mina avoids Todd), even if the bowler-guy thinks they have an affair, he won’t say anything. As long as everything works fine, it’s none of his business.
He MAY decide to help the hobbit for some reason of his own by revealing this, but it’s too early to speculate for that.
My take is that she’s scared, not angry. She’s not sure how she feels about actually dating Todd, though she has a crush on him. She isn’t pissed so much as “wait wait I wasn’t ready and there are all these things I need to work out, so back off while I sort out my stuff.”
Also, the PTA folks didn’t see it. And that one dude who was like OH HO, LIPSTICK is going to be seen as a standard gossipy conspiracy theorist because no one else saw anything, if you ask me. They have no proof. From what we’ve seen so far, the PTA folks seem pretty legit, at least the ones in charge.
Also, everyone is way too distracted by stuff like “oh shit, our principal is quitting and has been enabling bullies.”
There’s still the whole Tod’s biological daughter plot thread still dangling out there. He’s not out of the woods yet.
So is there any actual reason why they can’t be seen kissing (law or school regulation) or just worried about gossip from people who should mind their own?
At the very least, given that they’ve both filed grievances against the principal, it would make it look they’re conspiring together.
It’s also almost certainly against regulations for Mina to have a relationship with the parent of one of her pupils. Depending on how the policy works it could be as benign as Selkie having to change classes/schools (still obviously a major issue for the comic’s characters) or it could be grounds to fire Mina.
While not an explicit rule in many schools, it falls under the jurisdiction of unspoken rules due to questionable influence. While you may think this should mean that “technically” it’s okay, I can tell you for a fact that they cover this topic in standard education courses. It’s similar to dating a subordinate in professional settings. There can be a conflict of interest, so it’s understood to steer clear of these situations. It’s unprofessional, it can show bias towards the student during the relationship – especially if the relationship sours, can lead to confusion, awkwardness, and lack of respect in the child’s relationship with the teacher, as well as influence the teacher and student’s interactions with the rest of the class if it becomes known. It would also reflect badly on the rest of the school and staff. If she did want to pursue a romantic relationship, she should AT LEAST wait until Selkie is not her student.
Let me clarify by “covered in standard education courses.” You’re basically warned against having relationships that overlap your social and professional life. This includes relationships (at least openly) with another faculty member, administration, or anyone with ties to the school – like a parent. Even if by some chance a married couple are both at the same school, there should not be any PDA.
I’m not sure about this, but pretty confident. There’s probably no legislation banning a relationship between a teacher and a student’s parent, but there might very well be a school policy. One might suspect conflicts of interest when a parent and teacher are dating, or want to prevent retaliation against the child should the relationship go sour, …
In other words, this kind of thing has far too much “enormous mess” potential, both in severity of damage and area of effect, that people generally want to avoid it at all costs, regardless if there is or isn’t an official ruling on it.
Which means it’s bread-n-butter for drama stories like this, of course. 🙂
Also, they just worked together to take Principal McHobbit down. Remember that the PTA doesn’t have any real reason to think Selkie’s father and the gym teacher aren’t just angry about a completely justified suspension and firing, except for Mina backing the story up. If the PTA discovered they were in a relationship, they would start to wonder if she was lying to cover for her boyfriend.
We know that wouldn’t be true, but the PTA leaders haven’t been sitting on the fourth wall with us.
It’s not considered professional. At many places of employment, it is very frowned upon to become involved with someone you work with—especially a client. And politically, it could call into question and undo everything they started against the principal as people have a more difficult time taking them seriously.
But really? As a parent (or a teacher who cares about that parent’s child), I’d be worried more how it’d directly and indirectly impact Selkie if she found out either by rumor or coming upon it herself. Dating with kids is tricky enough—let alone getting involved with a child’s teacher. It’d really taint Selkie’s relationship with Mina and her classmates, too, as a lot of them would automatically assume she gets favored as Mina is seeing her dad. This could escalate teasing/bullying from kids who never caused problems before, and even create a lot of tension between Selkie and her closest friends.
Hoping Mr. Hat keeps it to himself versus starts rumors. Also hoping Todd keeps his feelings in the “happy box” until the school year is over. He and Mina obviously need to have a talk (in private with Selkie with a sitter), but they need to keep things contained until the school year ends.
I totally ship them after that. 🙂 Will that happen? Who knows… It depends how well Mina controls herself, too, as it’s obvious her feelings are mutual—despite her (very understandable) reaction.
Yeah, go kiss someone, but not without mutual consent.
I asked my first girlfriend before kissing. She said no, then made fun of me after a few minutes’ passing made it clear I had taken the refusal seriously. We still kissed, but the lesson was clear: consent is unromantic. She made sure to educate me on how girls signal desire for these things without words so that I didn’t ever ruin the mood for her again. Cue unfortunate use of phrase “asking for it”.
It seems it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t, and loneliness if you avoid the problem altogether. We are a culture of mixed messages. Men are supposed to initiate, unless it turns out it wasn’t wanted, despite the fact that we aren’t psychic.
Lack of consent is even less romantic. And there are plenty of ways to “initiate” without being overly pushy.
I understand what you mean. Sounds like it was kind of awkward, but you ended up with a happy ending. Do not take what you did as the lesson, though. It may be fine with the sweetie you have, but if you ever date other women it can end as disaster.
You can acquire consent *and* be smooth about it. That includes looking for strong non-verbal cues: staring into each others’ eyes, lots of touching from her (ex – fingers on your shoulder/arm/etc…, play hitting, wearing your shirt/jacket/etc…). The guys who actually wait to take cues (even if they are awkward) are way more hot than the dorks who try to paw all over a lady without even getting to know her or show interest/understanding about how she feels.
Uh oh!
Ah-ha! Trying to think of commentary for ten minutes huh?
Time to change the [transcript] box to a [commentary] box!
Sorry, I’m OCD. That TRANSCRIPT thing has been bothering me since the strip started. A transcript is a word by word facsimile of a dialogue. What you do in that box is commentary. Once again it’s the OCD . . .
I keep meaning to change that to fit the site better but I can never seem to find the right code or the right place to put it
Hm. I like that it’s called Transcript, personally, as in “here’s Dave thoughts being transcribed for us. ” Like a strip bonus or addition. Even if it’s not literally a transcript OF the comic.
Bowl cut guy doesn’t look all that surprised, IMO…maybe there’s already been some rumors floating around?
And…oh. *reading DaveComments in previous strip*
Principal/Smeagol may be dating a woman named Mrs. Brown?
Coincidence of names? I actually hope so.
Damn hes so observant.
I’ve read through this wonderful comic many many times, and it only now occurs to me to question: Do Muslim women wear lipstick?
Seems to be in conflict with the whole dedication to modest clothing, covered hair (or face) as wards against vanity about one’s appearance. Given that standpoint, one imagines there’d be a formed cultural opinion on makeup like lipstick, no?