Tag: Nate

Enrolled Up Sleeve

As the first students to move TO Westview in decades, Emily and Amelia are receiving the red carpet treatment from the WHS staff. See today’s strip, where Principal Nate personally escorts them to Lefty’s band room to get them involved in the school’s only extracurricular activity. Nate was so excited to be showing new students around that he didn’t even check to see if Dinkle was lurking, waiting to make Crankshaft look good by comparison, before bursting into the band room.

Strip #4 with Emily and Amelia, and we’re almost kinda sorta getting some insight on their personalities. Emily, the “cup-is-half-full” one, wears pink and plays the flute. Amelia wears black turtlenecks, “shreds” a “pretty mean” “guitar”, and says so while standing in a sassy half-akimbo pose (or whatever that’s called).
I haven’t seen character traits summed up this succinctly since the third season theme song of Sister Sister.

They say this Crankshaft is a bad driver… (shut your mouth)

HEAR YE! HEAR YE! TODAY’S STRIP IS PART OF A CRANKSHAFT CROSSOVER! HE IS EXPLICITY MENTIONED BY NAME AND SOME CHARACTERS EXPLAIN THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO HIM AND HOW THEY KNOW OF HIS ANTICS SO THERE WILL BE NO CONFUSION ABOUT THIS BEING A CRANKSHAFT CROSSOVER!

When meeting someone for the first time, it is common to expand further on a topic in which you discover that you share knowledge. Even so, a crotchety troll of a school bus driver (who neither of you has ever actually met, by the way) would seem to be a topic of conversation that that both parties would want to avoid. Indeed, I intend to teach my children to go out of their way to avoid discussing religion, politics, and Crankshaft in unfamiliar company.

Tuesday, March 1

I am very sorry to say that today’s strip was also not available for preview.

It is probably reasonable to assume that we will still be at Westview High School and that the typical inertia of the Batiukverse will be maintained. Maybe we’ll get a week-long commitment to yesterday’s Crankshaft crossover or maybe we’ll get more jokes about students being scapegoats from a guy who frequently singles out the younger generation for all of its alleged terribleness (i.e. making students scapegoats…)

I’m bristling with anticipation to find out. By the time you all read this, I expect we will be collectively bristling with justified antipathy.

Haiku-ly Offensive

Today’s strip is same
Joke as rest of this week’s strips
What did you expect?

“Merry Gentlemen”
Not offensive to Batiuk
Workaholic? Ha!

Depressive also
Not offensive to Batiuk
It is his trademark

Nate’s “war on Christmas”
As long as Six Day War but
There are no winners

What will Sunday bring?
I’m on sleeve pins and needles
I know you are too

Boondock Nates

Hey, did you like this joke on Tuesday? How about Wednesday? Thursday? Today is the fourth verse, same as the first. I swear that today’s strip is properly linked, and that you aren’t looking at one of the earlier strips from this week. “Seriously?” Lefty asks? Seriously Mrs. Howard, seriously.

A more valid concern about “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” for Nate is that Pa Winkerbean might start singing it during the performance. OK, that’s not really fair of me, because at this point I’d welcome that happening in any of this week’s strips.  Anything to break this up, even a joke TB obviously repurposed from a Crankshaft draft.

You know, I just saw this strip in the dictionary next to “slog”. Whoever’s footprints those are in the snow in panel 2, headed away from this den of insipidity… I envy you. I truly do.