Ursula, one of the things I like most about this strip is the “wordless eloquence” that keeps cropping up. The “Yeah… right!” in the third panel was soundless but my ears are still ringing.
“I’m ordinary as dirt.” is a brilliant wombat concept. I’m sure to Digger dirt is very far from ordinary, with all it’s variations and mixtures. Whereas to the average human dirt would seem very ordinary.
Not to mention Digger’s fierce insistence that she’s normal, non-magical and practical. She’d like to think she’s perfectly ordinary. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for us, we all know different.
Just in case anyone cares, I had to once write a recognition guide to ordinary dirt. Some of the new archaeology students were having trouble identifying charcoal inclusions in the soil, so I got the lecturer to write down a detailed twelve-step description for the exact process of elimination for determining if there was charcoal in the soil for those individuals who couldn’t grasp the fact its BLACK and is one of the few things that makes a clay soil less sticky and more friable without adding either SAND which you can feel, or SILT which you can see precipitating out of dissolved soil if you swirl it.
Unfortunately the first step my lecture wrote was “ignore all areas of ordinary dirt” which I then had to define in terms of the colour, the sand-clay-silt ratios and the friability/stickiness we could expect from “the natural” (the layer below all anthropogenic soils) on that site.
You know, if you think about it, in a world of a thousand thousand gods that have been, will be, and are, where everything is strange, and vampire gourds exist… wouldn’t being ordinary and practical be *more* rare and important?
I’m glad you finally posted here on this page, BR. I’ve been wondering about the properties of “ordinary dirt”, and somehow I just knew that you would be the expert to whom I should listen on the subject.
Ursula, one of the things I like most about this strip is the “wordless eloquence” that keeps cropping up. The “Yeah… right!” in the third panel was soundless but my ears are still ringing.
I love wordlessly-sarcastic-Murai! And Murai in general.
Simply put.
I. Love. This. Comic!
You know, I’ve had one of these moments. I know I’m the only sane one, and it worries me that everyone else disagrees. 😉
Wouldn’t it be more disconcerting if everyone else AGREED? What would that even imply?
“I’m ordinary as dirt.” is a brilliant wombat concept. I’m sure to Digger dirt is very far from ordinary, with all it’s variations and mixtures. Whereas to the average human dirt would seem very ordinary.
I love Digger and Grim Eyes’ opposite reactions to being called ordinary!
You think dirt isn’t ordinary to wombats? They live in the stuff you know… I daresay that dirt is just as ordinary to them as it is to us.
Not to mention Digger’s fierce insistence that she’s normal, non-magical and practical. She’d like to think she’s perfectly ordinary. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for us, we all know different.
Third-panel awesomeness 🙂
Also: Jon, you raise a very important – and worrying – point…
She sounds like Vimes. “This way, Your Grace.” “Call me Sir Samuel. I think I can just about live with that.”
I’m just an ordinary wombat in extraordinary circumstances! I’m a victim of circumstance! I plead temporary insanity!
Just in case anyone cares, I had to once write a recognition guide to ordinary dirt. Some of the new archaeology students were having trouble identifying charcoal inclusions in the soil, so I got the lecturer to write down a detailed twelve-step description for the exact process of elimination for determining if there was charcoal in the soil for those individuals who couldn’t grasp the fact its BLACK and is one of the few things that makes a clay soil less sticky and more friable without adding either SAND which you can feel, or SILT which you can see precipitating out of dissolved soil if you swirl it.
Unfortunately the first step my lecture wrote was “ignore all areas of ordinary dirt” which I then had to define in terms of the colour, the sand-clay-silt ratios and the friability/stickiness we could expect from “the natural” (the layer below all anthropogenic soils) on that site.
And they wonder what drove me to drink…
You know, if you think about it, in a world of a thousand thousand gods that have been, will be, and are, where everything is strange, and vampire gourds exist… wouldn’t being ordinary and practical be *more* rare and important?
I’m glad you finally posted here on this page, BR. I’ve been wondering about the properties of “ordinary dirt”, and somehow I just knew that you would be the expert to whom I should listen on the subject.
😉
Aww, Murai and Grim Eyes are bonding!