My apologies to readers from Scotland or the United Kingdom, but with a soccer/football fan on the cast, this joke was inevitable. XD
Heather’s shirt is also a shout out that some of my family members may recognize. Go Rockets!
My cousin also got married this weekend! Congratulations Adam and Kahla!
I have three separate story arcs intended for this chapter. Welcome to storyline #3.
Yeah, really. Under British spelling conventions it should be “Fououtblla.”
Also, the shirt reminds me of classic Lego Space sets. :3
I had to explain the soccer/football thing to a bunch of kids when I worked at a before/after school program; they didn’t quiet get it.
Right. Because it makes so much more sense to use the word “football” for a game where the players carry an ovoid-shaped object in their arms, rather than the one where they kick a ball-shaped object with their feet.
I think it’s more like it’s the name most people in the US grew up with, so it will cause confusion when it’s challenged or whatnot.
“*sigh* Americans…”, eh? ^_^
I got it when I first heard it…still call it soccer tho
Hey now, lets not start with that logic stuff. If you do, the people will start thinking and then how will I ever be able to take over the wor– err never mind.
I do prefer to call American Football Hand-Egg, confuses people more than the soccer/football thing
And yet that name makes more sense haha
lol, I’ve always been on the fence about this.
I think “Football” sounds cooler, but in context calling it “Soccer” makes more sense in the jest of things, I mean you tackle eachother and pretty much beat the crap out of eachother in the process…
Not to mention it IS played mainly with your feet…on which you wear socks 😉
As a cricket fan, could everyone please imagine me rolling my eyes? Thank you.
Wierd. I’m an American, and even as a little kid when I found out that the rest of the world calls “soccer “football”, I though that calling it “football” actually seemed completely straightforward and sensible. Especially in comparison to the arbitrary sounding “soccer” (I still have no idea what the etymology is on that). I figured we should call it that too, but even then I realized that there were far too many rabid american football fans here who would have no truck with that for purely emotional reasons.
I remember years later discovering that what Americans call “football”and consider some kind of epic inherently all-American game is actually just a variation of what the rest of the world calls “rugby”. Furthermore, that despite all the pomp and ridiculous “gridiron battlefield” chest thumping heaped around it, American “football” rugby is actually less hardcore than its overseas counterpart.
Just a couple of those many moments I think most people have as kids when they look up and for a moment catch a glimpse of how legitimately, obliviously insane the adult world really is.
Haha. True that:)
Well, you made me look it up. The etymology of “soccer” is from its original definition: “The game of football as played under Association rules”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Started out as the abbreviation “assoc”, for “association”; from there, the first syllable was dropped, leaving “soc”, then that became “soccer”. Makes perfect sense, if you’re British. (Which I’m not.) At least it isn’t Cockney rhyming slang!
English isn’t my first language, so I use a mixture of British/American/Aussie words, but for me “football” has always meant soccer, and what Americans consider football has always been “American football”. I use ‘soccer’ when I _know_ I’m communicating with someone from the States, who might not get what “football” actually is.
And I kinda have to agree with a friend of mine, who calls American football “pansy rugby”. 😛
Alright, that makes me feel like watching a rugby team, in all their lack of gear take on an american football team in their full gear. Biting someone in the ear doesn’t work when they’re wearing a proper helmet, kicks in the nuts will probably break your toes against a cup, and the all-precious scrumm would simply be dodged around. And one-on-one, guy in no gear slamming full-tilt in someone in heavy gear, let’s just say I expect a lot of broken bones.
Of course, it wouldn’t be perfect. No timeouts is hard on people wearing 30 pounds of equipment. But by the time that’s an issue the football team would have a helluva lead and the rugby team would be down to it’s second stringers.
The “pansy” part comes from the American football team having the paddings in the first place… if they’re that afraid of injuries, what are they playing a contact sports for? ;-P
Need I remind you the ancient Celts wore absolutely nothing to battle save blue paint? And had their butts handed to them by both the ancient Romans, and much later, the Anglos and Saxons? Then promptly finished off by the Vikings?
In American football, the goal is points on the board. The only goal I can really see in rugby is kicking the crap out of each other. In either case, padding means winning. Insults is just whining by the losers.
Need I remind you that only the Picts (the northernmost branch of the Brythonic Celts) wore woad on their faces as you describe… and that Celts in general never had any issue with wearing clothing and had plenty of it.
Rugby keeps score of points too, for the record. There is no kicking. And more importantly, Rugby players actually need skill to score those points. They don’t just blindly barge forward like the armoured fools in gridiron.
Long version short… you’re just a sore loser… and uneducated.
American Footballers also have more of their teeth, and more brains.
I hate American Football, but I still find Rugby to be a stupid sport.
Football, on the other hand, takes more finess and skill than either of them.
This misunderstanding is foreign to me, since I knew about the differences between countries before I even went to grade school. I suppose I’m strange in a lot of ways though.
Ah! Seatbelts!
Good man, Dave.
Seatbelts, sure, but Barbara has taken both hands off the wheel and isn’t even watching the road! 😮 Here’s hoping nothing happens.
Aren’t they already parked?
I see Heather´s new parents are at least good enough at parenting that they don´t insist removing her from her school. Maybe there is hope for them yet.
I love the comic and it’s good seeing Heather again. Barb doesn’t seem so bad in this one other than she might be taking her hands off the wheel and not looking at the road. I was assuming between the first few panels she was pulling over to drop Heather off. I didn’t know that about the football thing until I hit middle school and someone finally explained it to me then.
I also just wanted to point out that the seat belt is missing in panel 4. I’m not sure if that was intentional, but I figured I’d point that out.
I thought they both just opened their seatbelts to get out of the car/reach on the backseat for Heather’s bag. And I think they’ve stopped by the time Heather starts complaining about the football thing.
Oh! I feel dumb now. I just found the seat belt in panel 4 after posting that. Sorry.
Psh. As if the sport better described as “hand-egg” being called “football” by Americans makes any sense :p
Just want to say I’m glad Heather is doing well..I thought those parents would abuse her or something XD
Um… Not sure what to make of the new parents’ license plate of “RBN HD1”. Do they consider their rich selves very giving-back-lots-to-the-poor or something?
I immediately read that as “Robin Hood 1,” but that may just be me.
in argentina is “futbol” and “futbol americano”
Football and american football
Here in Germany we use the German word for soccer, and the English term (either just “football” or “American football”) for football.
BTW, may I ask where in Argentina you´re from? I visited Buenos Aires last – beautiful city, only a bit too big to really “get” in such a short time.
It does make sense, when you think about it. I mean, the game’s played primarily with your feet. It’s OUR game name that doesn’t make sense. xD
I’m glad to see Heather’s parents treating her well. I hope they end up being a normal family.
D: I have a bad feeling that Amanda and Keisha are going to wind up giving Heather HELL for being adopted without them.
But the poor girl didn’t do anything wrong! Logically, you’d only adopt more than one child if they were siblings already (twins or not, too, I’ve seen it before) I am taking into account the fact that they are kids and won’t think about it like that, but I am merely just stating the facts I know of.
Yep. And I’m sure Heather is expecting everything to go just fine.
The strip sums up how I reacted when I learnt that football was called soccer in America. Except the other way round, of course 🙂
Hehe, your reaction was same as mine – I didn’t, and still don’t, get the “soccer” thing (even knowing where it comes from) nor the fact why call “football” a silly version of rugby.
To answer CBob’s question, soccer is a British public (by which we mean private) school contraction of the word “Association”, that is Association Football as opposed to Rugby Football.
To answer the repeated question/comment of why American and Rugby Football are called football even thought they are played with the hands, the answer is because the “Foot” in football refers to “On Foot” as opposed to “On Horseback”.
Like I said in a previous answer, even knowing where it comes from, doesn’t make it any more sensible in the modern usage. 😛
I don’t really get why everybody was making so many negative assumptions about Heather’s new parents. The whole “Post-feminist” thing may have been a little out there, and it was kind of a bummer that she didn’t get to say goodbye to her friends at the orphanage, but they seemed nice enough, and sometimes grownups have to hurry kids along for time reasons. Did I miss something?
I think it’s because their last name is Fairweather (and the author pointed it out, if I remember right).
First impressions aren’t everything, but I got a bit of a “we’ll have that one it if it doesn’t clash with the decor” vibe from Ken and Barbie.
We don’t yet know how different from our world Selkie’s is, but I’m pretty sure these are deep-cover extraterrestrials who didn’t research their cover names enough.
Of course, I think that of some of my neighbours…
I think the Rockets got busted! 🙂
I don’t understand this Spam protection….hints
Am I the only one amused by the fact that “Yangchen” is from Scotland?!
You may want to change “sweety” to “sweetie”. I just keep reading it as “sweaty”, which isn’t what you want, at all! 😀
Not that I have much to add to the whole footie vs gridiron argument… but honestly, americans only have their own sports because if they played the same sports as the rest of the world, they’d never win anything.
And funnily enough, most american “sports” are just exaggerated versions of the TRAINING games played elsewhere. About the only one worth watching is Ice Hockey… and naturally the Canadians come out better there.
I know this is years late, but American football has a very long-established legacy for claiming the name “football.”
The reason goes back to 1510, when a description of football by Alexander Barclay included people using their hands on the ball in addition to their feet. That puts the idea of using hands in football as being done as early as the 16th century. Top it all off, American football is a refinement of early rugby, and as such would likely look like training games for rugby by some standards as rugby itself continued to evolve.
As such, as strange as it sounds, very likely soccer and rugby are two family branches of the same sport.