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Comic for 17 September 2012; Trials of the Round Fountain
Topic Started: Sep 17 2012, 01:38 PM (376 Views)
Minivet
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Undead Pixie Wrangler
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Hey, isn't that the general?

Per today's note, I'm curious how many of you know the term "spear bald". I encountered it only once before, and using Google's time-restricted search functions I've been able to find more examples of it in use before 2007, but no definitions or explanations of the term itself - I'm not even sure if it has a more specific meaning than "completely bald". Is it a regionalism, maybe?
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Otter
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Minivet
Sep 17 2012, 01:38 PM
Per today's note, I'm curious how many of you know the term "spear bald". I encountered it only once before, and using Google's time-restricted search functions I've been able to find more examples of it in use before 2007, but no definitions or explanations of the term itself - I'm not even sure if it has a more specific meaning than "completely bald". Is it a regionalism, maybe?
My friend Gary wrote in to tell me it might be a phrase unique to Bloom County. I'm going to spend some more time tracking it down to see if it predates 1984, but if this is the case, I'm putting it back into the script; comic parlance FTW!
- Never send a ferret to do a weasel's work.

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yfnsa
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Minivet
Sep 17 2012, 01:38 PM
Per today's note, I'm curious how many of you know the term "spear bald". I encountered it only once before, and using Google's time-restricted search functions I've been able to find more examples of it in use before 2007, but no definitions or explanations of the term itself - I'm not even sure if it has a more specific meaning than "completely bald". Is it a regionalism, maybe?
It's a new phrase to me. I played the same Google tricks and the pickings are pretty slim pre-2007 Brit Brit meltdown.

Had I to guess "non impediti ratione cogitationis" (unencumbered by the thought process) I would expect it to be a dick joke.
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My Lone Ranger Speedy icon is courtesy of Otter.
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djheydt
Koala Commander
SFX: sound of mousetrap snapping shut
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yfnsa
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Minivet
Sep 17 2012, 01:38 PM
Per today's note, I'm curious how many of you know the term "spear bald".
Holy Serendipitous Cowinkydink Batman, I just looked up the etymology of Distaff Side having come across it recently rereading "To Kill A Mockingbird".

In that Distaff entry they also say:
Quote:
 
The term distaff has fallen largely into disuse in recent times, and its antonyms of sword and spear to describe a male grouping are even more obscure.
Maybe "Spear Bald" just means bald like a guy can go bald. That complete and shiny like Mr Clean shiny state beyond thinning female hair (and defined long before chemo baldness was a known state).
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M2Q
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I have never ever heard the phrase spearbald before, i had to go to google to find out what it even meant.

But having had hair that went past my butt, the bubbler is not the worst thing to drop it into, when i was a kid it used to end up in the toilet all the time!
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Matdredalia
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Never heard the term spear-bald before, lol.

And in regards to the comic mouse-over text: Speaking as someone who had "Mare-Length (and Mare-Colored)" hair for almost ten years....yes, yes it happens, and it is a nightmare. Fountains, doors, car doors, random things latching onto me anytime I walked past, ESPECIALLY if I had a braid in....it was never ending. Heck, a few months after my (now) husband & I got together, I woke up in a hurry to get to the restroom, sat up, and a chunk of my hair got ripped out because it got caught under him and I screamed so loud I woke up the entire house.

People would "oooh" and "aaah" about my hair, and tell me how lucky I was, and I would be disgusted and tell them "NO, I'm just willing to put 2+ hours into my hair every day & suffer it's never ending punishments!"

I was never real vain or into makeup and the like, but I actually had to organize my non-school time based around what happened during the day to make sure I had enough time to put into my hair. For example, if it wasn't brushed completely, squeeky straight before bed, I'd wake up with a rats nest that would take an hour to get out instead of the normal 20 minutes. Or, if I'd had a softball game and had gotten all sweaty, I'd have to take out my braid, get in the shower & wash my hair three times because it's SO HELLACIOUSLY THICK that if I sweat at all, it would take 3 washes to get all the grime out because it was just that extreme. It was insane.

>.> There's a reason my husband now has longer hair than I do, and I haven't grown my hair past my shoulders since I turned 19 & got it hacked off like Faye from Jeph Jacques' Questionable Content (not joking. Printed out pictures of her at different angles and took it to the barber shop). Right now it's chopped very, very short and dyed bright purple. I have way more free time for webcomics & various other awesome activities now that I am not a slave to my hair. Seriously, one of the reasons I actually admire Mare is she must have some SERIOUSLY massive patience to put up with that shizit, lol.
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djheydt
Koala Commander
M2Q
Sep 18 2012, 02:38 AM
I have never ever heard the phrase spearbald before, i had to go to google to find out what it even meant.

But having had hair that went past my butt, the bubbler is not the worst thing to drop it into, when i was a kid it used to end up in the toilet all the time!
My hair is merely waist-length. Never gets near the toilet. Indeed, since I keep it up in a Gibson knot, it never gets a chance to go anywhere.
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Taolan
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F0RUM N1NJ4
Is it too late to add a 'Dun-dun DUNNNNNN!' To the end of panel 4?
It takes an average of forty-three muscles to frown, seventeen muscles to smile...

But only three for proper trigger squeeze.

Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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yfnsa
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Taolan
Sep 19 2012, 08:56 PM
Is it too late to add a 'Dun-dun DUNNNNNN!' To the end of panel 4?
Nope, I don't think so.

Sometimes the conversation heads off in an odd direction and you forget to mention the Koala skeleton on the scanner.

In other odd business, I though it would be good to keep the spear bald daily notes in with the thread so it could be read together.
Daily Notes by Otter
 
Note for Mon, Sept 17, 2012 09/17/2012 00:00:02 by Otter

EDIT: So there are now three points of confirmation that the phrase "spear-bald" might have originated in Bloom County, by Berkeley Breathed. His comic anthologies were some of the very first comics I ever read and, as such, spear-bald has been returned to the script. TO THE SPEARBALDINGMOBILE!!!

Mare was supposed to say "spear-bald," but I looked up the etymology of the phrase (because if you do not do this, you end up using phrases which have horrible origins) and could not find a specific pre-2007 root. Following 2007, it has been widely used in the same context as bad decisions, thumbing one's nose at the media, and a sudden need for hats. THE MORE YOU KNOW!
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New redo! 09/18/2012 00:00:01 by Otter
...
P.S. : Regarding the etymology of "spear bald." With help from readers, my husband tracked down the original source. Man, those were such AMAZING comics.
I still want a Banana Jr 9000.
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Viadd
Rookie
'Spear bald seems to derive from the 2007 incident where Brittany Spears shaved her head. (@Djheydt, you've never heard of her.)

It was presented as the wacky sort of thing that entertainers do before finally realizing that it's time for another round of drug rehab.

More likely, it's the rational thing that entertainers do when they in a court case and don't want someone subpoenaing some of their hair for analysis to get a long term drug use history.
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