OOTS #309 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

Sorry about that, I forgot to leave time for translating Haleyspeak.

It should be a fairly easy translation this time, I practically gave it to you...

[Bilbo27]

Ahhh, elan and Haley at dinner. They didn't meet Roy and celia though. Maybe later on. Great strip

Wow--edit-- 1st page and 1st post--that is sssssooooo awesome. Sorry Haley, your curse isn't broke yet.

[DragoonStar47]

Great comic!

EDIT: YESS!! Second poster!

[FruitOfTheShroom]

Awesome. Hahahahha I love how Elan is just blissfully unaware of everything around him... Hahahahhaha

[Darkspear]

Yeah! Good job, Giant!

*Waits patiently for someone else to translate Starshine speech*

[TheWanderingLlama]

First Page! SO cute! Haley obviously had the same idea we all did... ;D "..which secret is causing the problem?"

[mdsoze]

I love it. Watching Haley figure out which secret she has to reveal is great. That, and Elan's child-like innocence at what's going on around him is great.

I wish Haley luck in getting this worked out.

Love IS an epic level challenge, and so is revealing your past to the one you love.

EDIT: I translated Haley, so it may as well go here.

Panel 3: Elan, I'm in love with you.
Panel 5: Elan, I'm in love with you. Completely in love. Love, love, love, love!
Panel 7: My dad is being held ransom by an evil dictator. I'm not really in the thieves guild anymore.
Panel 9: I cheat at solitaire. I have a tattoo you've never seen. I kissed a girl once. OK, OK, more than once!
Panel 11: Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call -

[AdInfinitum]

Gha! Too...much...translation...

(You know that moment at the climax of the Buffy episode Hush? It's like that...)

[Genome]

"Look, the salt and pepper shakers are fighting!" That sounds like something I'd do on a date. ;)

[TheWanderingLlama]

Yeah! Good job, Giant!

*Waits patiently for someone else to translate Starshine speech*



I'm working on it now, this one should be pretty easy, the first thing she says is obviously "Elan, I'm in love with you."

ETA: First page again! Wow.

[HypnoticMonk]

ok I went to bed... but I couldnt sleep until I checked just ONE more time...

Awesome strip(as usual)

(and a self ^5 to me for getting on the first page)

[Jonathan327]

Cute, awesome, and hilarious. Can't wait for the next.

[Bitterbadger]

I like this one. It must be tough for Haley, living like this for so long.

[Winged One]

Ah, poor Haley. I know I've got a lot of characters who'd take their secrets to their grave if they had the choice. Which, of course, they never do. ;D

EDIT: hey, first page.

[Arachnophile]

Please, please please someone translate Haley for me! I can't do cryptograms to save my life!

I love the fact that Haley is randomly trying secrets because she can't figure out which one is causing the problem! Great comic giant!

[Leo_Forestclaw]

Wonderful, just wonderful...

OK, quick, someone less lazy than me finish up the bits of Haley's speech that ... well, that I'm too lazy to translate.

;-)

Go team!

[Vaarsuvius_Prime]

Salt-Pepper conflict!

[Jeramiahh]

Haha, awesome. I knew it wasn't going to be THAT easy!

[Zora]

Wow, in the time it took me to login, this went to 2 pages.

Great comic as usual. Keep up the fantastic work!

[Redwizard26]

second page... great comic though...I wish she would get over it already...though it is absolutely hilarious...absolutely Ironic

[Balthor]

Page 2 YES!!!! And this is going to take a long time to translate. Well off to the what Haley said thread!!!

Hey! Wheres the Thread?!

[metalphil]

Ahhhhhh.. the suspense is KILLING me.

[The_Bandersnatch]

Cool, great comic. The Salt vs, Pepper was good... Now I REALLY have to find out what the cipher/code thingey means...

[ARMOURERERIC]

"Look, the salt and pepper shakers are fighting!" That sounds like something I'd do on a date. ;)


You should see what I do with the kiddie game placemats.

Eric

[humanpylon]

So the comics been up all of 10 minutes and there's already 2 pages of posts.

It's too damn late to decode the cryptogram. anyone more awake than me got it already?

[JustyUekiTylor]

Great comic. All I can say is: C Tech Astronomy.

[Flak_Razorwill]

I have never wanted to punch a wall more in my life right now.

[jmaccabeus]

Why does Haley's speech in this one remind me of Czech or Polish? I guess it's just the way the letters are together. (Strc prst skrz krk...)*

*Goes back to fighting with the salt and pepper shakers*

__________
*Darn forum software, not able to show the first c correctly...

[Narses]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
bstodrua vhcwi gxl kmyn ep

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg.
Elan, I'm in love with you.

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. Lduzrycyrv nw rdjy. Rdjy, rdjy, rdjy, rdjy!
Elan, I'm in love with you. Completely in love. Love, love, love, love!

Uv ehe nb aynwp kyre fhwbdu av hw yjnr enlchcdf.
My dad is being held ransom by an evil dictator.

N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy.
I'm not really in the Thieves' Guild anymore.

N lkyhc hc bdrnchnfy.
I cheat at solitaire.

N khjy h chccdd vdg'jy wyjyf byyw.
I have a tattoo you've never seen.

N tnbbye h pnfr dwly.
I kissed a girl once.

DT, DT, udfy ckhw dwly!
OK, OK, more than once!

Yrhw, nc cgfwb dgc N uhv wdc ay yqhlcrv mkhc vdg mdgre lhrr-
Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call-

Sorry!

[Rethorn]

Nice cliffhanger, Giant. I forsee some Haley gender debates in the future.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Here, I found this. Not sure how useful it'd be in the long run, but it translated this comic:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/cryptogram/

[Flak_Razorwill]

Uv ehe nb aynwp kyre fhwbdu av hw yjnr enlchcdf.
My dad is being held ransom by an evil dictator.

N lkyhc hc bdrnchnfy.
I cheat at solitaire.

N khjy h chccdd vdg'jy wyjyf byyw.
I have a tattoo you've never seen.

N tnbbye h pnfr dwly.
I kissed a girl once.

DT, DT, udfy ckhw dwly!
OK, OK, more than once!

Yrhw, nc cgfwb dgc N uhv wdc ay yqhlcrv mkhc vdg mdgre lhrr-
Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call-


Things that are true in my life:

-Nope.
-Yes.
-My female friend does.
-She also did that.
-That too.
-???

[Smoke_Rulz]

Thanks, Narses. Saved me the trouble. And a great cliffhanger indeed! Very funny dialogue. X)

[Rainee_Sue]

The only ends to that sentence I've got so far are "Alive", "Single" or "Human"...

And I bet y'all ANYTHING we snap back to Roy/Celia or Belkar on Wednesday. *headdesk*

[Brasswatchman]

Wow.

[notin_theface]

Let's not forget "I'm not really in the Thieve's Guild anymore"

[TheWanderingLlama]

Narses, you missed the one I had the most trouble with! Did you figure out "N'u wdc fyhrrv cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy"?

Never mind, notin_theface got it. I feel so slow..

[humanpylon]

I have an idea what she may not exactly be, and (hopefully this doesn't count as a spoiler) I think it may have something to do with her "experience"

[illathid]

i must say that my favorite part is the sound effects elan mkes for the salt and pepper battle ;D

[Brianish]

What the hell, I had a post on the first page. Where did it go?

The Voice of Mod: I deleted it. Posting just for the sake of placeholding your spot on the first page, or posting just to say "First page!" both are considered spam and are deleted as soon as any moderator sees it.

[Delcan]

N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy.
I'm not really in the Thieves' Guild anymore.

The one you missed there. :)

[jmaccabeus]

Narses, you missed the one I had the most trouble with! Did you figure out "N'u wdc fyhrrv cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy"?

Never mind, notin_theface got it. I feel so slow..


You forgot a "nw" in there, which kind of changes the meaning. :P

[Theodoxus]

Bummer...

anyway - I tossed it into Excel, all lowercase Haley-ese, and then used the obvious 'Elan, I'm in love with you' to start translating, using the Replace function with case sensitive, to change lowercase Haley-ese into English. It was obvious from the passage what 'completely' was, which gave me the C, P and T, which then was a cascading effect. Which so much to translate, it was rather easy.

I hate cryptograms, really - with a bloody passion - but using that technique, it wasn't so bad. Hope that helps somebody :)

Theo

[Leo_Forestclaw]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
bstodrua vhcwi gxl kmyn ep



Narses: You Rock! Thanks for the translating...

So. Many. Possible. Spoilers.

[JustyUekiTylor]

Transalations:

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. = ELAN, I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU.

Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. Lduzrycyrv nw rdjy. Rdjy, rdjy, rdjy, rdjy. = Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg. Lduzrycyrv nw rdjy. Rdjy, rdjy, rdjy, rdjy.

Uv ehe nb aynwp kyre fhwbdu av hw yjnr enlchcdf. N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy. = MY DAD IS BEING HELD RANSOM BY AN EVIL DICTATOR. I'M NOT REALLY IN THE THIEVES' GUILD ANYMORE.

No time to do the rest. Must get to bed now. People should be able to figure it out from here hopefully. (I cheat and use the tool available at http://www.kirby98.fsnet.co.uk/Decoder-Random.htm). 'Night all.

[TheWanderingLlama]

You forgot a "nw" in there, which kind of changes the meaning. :P

Apparently I can't decode or transcribe. Oh well.

[jmaccabeus]

Apparently I can't decode or transcribe. Oh well.

Well, hey, makes it more amusing. Now she also had delusions of grandeur!

[Martok]

Argh! Damn it, I wanted to find out what her secret was! (Yeah, I know Rich wasn't going to let us off that easy, but still!)

"I wonder if having the urge to plunge my chopsticks into my brain constitutes a secret?"

LOL! Poor Haley. I feel really sorry for her right now!

[Spiderbaby]

Wow. I suddenly understand what all the fuss about making the first page is about.

I'm having a new reader lightbulb moment. Haley's speach is translatable? huhwha?! Glee! I guess the letter replacements change with every comic?

Also -- poor, poor Haley. I had a bf similar to Elan once (so long ago). My freinds called him the 'walking vacancy sign'.

[kriklaf]

Poor Haley--she looks so sad in the 2nd to last panel. Must be a killer secret.

In retrospect, we all should have known that Haley's revelation of her love for Elan shouldn't have cured her. She tells Elan that she loves him during their abortive attempt to break out of the cells (right after he says he believes in her)

[Platinum_Mongoose]

Y'know, some people watch soap operas for these kinds of cliffhangers. Only differences are that soap operas are crap and generally don't have dragons. Yay for the non-crap and dragon-laden OotS!

...that was all meant as compliments to OotS, by the way, even if it did sound kinda wierd. But yeah, I love this comic.

[Silivren]

Poor Haley--she looks so sad in the 2nd to last panel. Must be a killer secret.

In retrospect, we all should have known that Haley's revelation of her love for Elan shouldn't have cured her. She tells Elan that she loves him during their abortive attempt to break out of the cells (right after he says he believes in her)

Though, technically at the time she expected her speech to be unintelligible, and therefore had no intention of actually telling him. I'm not sure it would count unless she was actually trying to reveal the secret (its a mental block, so intentions probably count for alot).

[PhoeKun]

You know, that waitress' outfit is really well done.

... oh, and the comic was good, too. Fantastic job, Giant.

And I'm off!

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Technically, she's not telling him anything, since he can't understand her. She'll have to find some way to communicate it wordlessly.

Smoochies ahoy!

[Matuse]

Pepper!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!



Oh, and what kind of creepy chinese food has croutons?

[RoboticSheeple]

Loved it

[Nitan]

You know, that waitress' outfit is really well done.

I think the waitress is very pretty too.

[plainsfox]

Maybe they had "Foreign" food?

[Trog]

The only ends to that sentence I've got so far are "Alive", "Single" or "Human"...

"Female"

[The_Logic_Ninja]

"Straight".

[Nightmarenny]

"Female"
Virgin, a Rouge, Good, a good girl,

[jmaccabeus]

Sane...

[Brasswatchman]

"Female"

"Honest"?

:D Might not be much of a secret, except in Haley's mind.

[EscherEnigma]

gar! I see the comic up, read, translate, and come back here to find... four pages? so sad! and knowing my luck, theres theres much more in the time it took for me to read the posts and write my own.

Anyway.

I concur with the translations already given, they're what I found. Also, this is a perfect example of why someone who's tech savvy needs to write a cipher program for the giant so that haley-speak takes barely more time then non-haley-speak.

Also, I find her secrets (mostly the ones in the middle) quite amusing. "I cheat at solitaire! I have a tattoo! I kissed a girl once!" heheh.

Well, can't wait till next week monday to see the exciting conclusion. What? C'mon, we're CLEARLY going to someone else for wednesday, and my bet is that if friday DOES come back to Elan/Haley, it'll leave off at a cliff hanger. But I really don't think that we'll have another month of haley-speak, this feels like it's wrapping up soon some way or other. maybe a vow of silence if she can't find the right secret?

[zibeck]

Speculation Spoiler:
a natural red-head

Also, I want to point out the "Not even V knows about that one...." The pretty much implies that V knows the other secrets, including the one about her father.

More Speculation:
Also, I wonder who the girl Haley kissed was. Could it (in her mind) be V?

[Leo_Forestclaw]

The only ends to that sentence I've got so far are "Alive", "Single" or "Human"...
*

Mod Please delete if this falls into spoiler territory but would it be improper to point out that Sabine is Haley's opposite and if memory serves, Rich has suggested elsewhere that they are opposites in more than a few ways...

Also, almost spit Mt. Dew all over keyboard after reading the speculation spoiler above... LMAO!

[Trog]

"Honest"?

:D Might not be much of a secret, except in Haley's mind.

Good call. She's lied about anything to do with treasure since the beginning (big bag 'o Haley's loot, the 5 rocks, etc.). It goes to the core of her personality and applies to nearly anything else that you think could fill in that blank.

Obviously we all know that she's not honest so this honest statement out of her would not be a huge revelation to the readers but would be to the other characters. That way Rich can make this seem like a cliffhanger and really not comit to revealing anything new at all in the near future (or he could be using this as a story placeholder for a future revelation not yet thought up.)

Or not. The suspense is killing me! ;D

[theKOT]

I'd say all of those are good guesses. Howzabout "Single", as in she is married? Yeah right, I know, but I'm just throwin it out there.

(when I first read the comic)Anyway, this was really good. It would have been way to predictable for her to just say that she loved him.
(now) ARG! Stupid cliffhanger! WHY WHY WHY!!!!!

yes well..... You know, giant, you should draw up a cypher, plug it into a program, then input what you want Haley to say. It would save time.

[Rethorn]

... A natural redhead.

That MUST be it.

[Culwch]

On a side note, what if Haley _does_ know what gender is V? :) That would be one hell of a secret ;D

[Trog]

... A natural redhead.

That MUST be it.

Actually, probably not. If you go back and look at that comic where Haley is goth you will note that her hair is black but with red roots. Loooved the roots, btw, Rich. I laughed out loud when I saw that. :)

[FlawedParadigm]

On a side note, what if Haley _does_ know what gender is V? :) That would be one hell of a secret ;D

Especially if "not even V knows about that one"...yipes!

[Vargtass]

Haley must be a natural redhead, otherwise the mystic prophesy of Eugene would not have been accurate. "When the goat turns red strikes true".

[Edna]

Oh, and what kind of creepy chinese food has croutons?

Elan ordered her a salad, not Chinese food.

Edna

[Ing]

i'm gonna go with human, say she's some sort of planetouched....just cause someone pointed out the evil twin part.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

"Look, the salt and pepper shakers are fighting!" That sounds like something I'd do on a date. ;)

hahahaha! i HAVE done this on a date before! ironically with the girl i'm engaged to now XD

[theKOT]

Elan: "Pow! Bam!"
He must be Emeril in disguise!!!

[divine]

What the hell, I had a post on the first page. Where did it go?

The Voice of Mod: I deleted it. Posting just for the sake of placeholding your spot on the first page, or posting just to say "First page!" both are considered spam and are deleted as soon as any moderator sees it.
thank you! it is soooo annoying seeing people post with absolutely nothing to say but "yay! first page!" as if that means anything.. really people .. it doesn't, get over it..
anyway, great strip as usual, I hope Haley realizes that Elan is too dense to appreciate her anyway :-X

[Sc00by]

Poor, poor haley. In love with an idiot and with a secret to tell...

Big thanks to those that did the translating thing. You guys Rock

Big thanks also to the Giant for making me laugh on a miserable Tuesday morning!

[Keldar]

... Sabine is Haley's opposite and if memory serves, Rich has suggested elsewhere that they are opposites in more than a few ways...


... A natural redhead.

That MUST be it.

In and of themselves, both these comments were pretty funny. But then I remembered something that linked them together, namely Comic #53 (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=53):


Haley: What, you mean other than the fact that you're an evil skank?
Sabine: Oh, no, you didn't just go there, dyejob.
Haley: HEY, this hair color is all-natural!
Sabine: Yeah, natural hair dye.
Haley: Oh, I am SO gonna have to kick your ass now!

Of course, this is assuming that Sabine wasn't just making stuff up to tick Haley off. But hey, wouldn't it really make Haley angry if Sabine thought she was just making it up but happened to be right anyway?

[evileeyore]

Awesome comic.

I hate to say best one yet, as really they've all been top notch the last couple of weeks.

[theKOT]

Goth Haley has red roots, (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=93)
And "When the goat turns, RED strikes true/ (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=60)

[Mateo]

Sorry about that, I forgot to leave time for translating Haleyspeak.

It should be a fairly easy translation this time, I practically gave it to you...

Elan rocks my socks Rich! What a great character!

[tee_kay_one]

gvgvgvgv...
Aww man, Elan, come on! Get focussed! That girl is suffering right in front of your silly joker face!! ;D

Sorry, had to say that. Besides -- AAAAAAAARGH, WHAT IS IT, WHAT IS THE LAST SECRET!
Ich halts nicht aus.
Can't wait for the next comic -- although because I read this comic for some time now I KNOW that the Giant is very very cruel -- there will be the other plotlines first, I'm sure...

[AzSteven]

Poor Haley! Of course, I guess this is pretty much exactly what dinner with Elan would be like...

[tis_tom]

Hey does this imply that V knows all about Hayley's father?

[Nerd-o-rama]

Glee. Glee to the max.

Also,

N tnbbye h pnfr dwly. DT, DT, udfy ckhw dwly!
Woo!

It's also good to hear English from Haley again, even in her thoughts. I rather missed it.

[Evik]

yay i cant wait for the rest of the story!
hehehe soo i will be able to see if my private predictions are true!! Muah hahahaaaaa

[Terrafire]

Technically, she's not telling him anything, since he can't understand her. She'll have to find some way to communicate it wordlessly.

She just has to be WILLING to tell it. She doesn't have to actually tell it. O_o

In retrospect, we all should have known that Haley's revelation of her love for Elan shouldn't have cured her. She tells Elan that she loves him during their abortive attempt to break out of the cells (right after he says he believes in her)


Every one of the secrets in this comic was said with the intention of letting Elan know. Before, anything she said (Like "I'm in love") was only said BECAUSE she knew Elan couldn't understand, so she wasn't willing to reveal the secret, so her condition stayed.

[Holy_Knight]

Another good one (eh, they're all good, but still...). Making the salt and pepepr shakers fight is totally something I would do too... one more reason for me to identify with Elan, I guess! I also sympathize quite a bit with Haley actually, because I had a similar affliction for awhile. In college I had laryngitis for ten days, and I had to carry around a pad of paper and a pen all the time to communicate with people. Or, in my room, I would write on the dry erase board and tap on it to get my roommate's attention... it was both a hassle for me, andmy friends got pretty tired of it all too... poor Haley! I know your pain, sort of at least!

Anyway, back to the strip... Elan is funny as always. I laughed really hard at "I think 'rdjy' means 'salad'", not only because of the situation, but because as readers we can tell that that must be wrong because the number of letters don't match, which goes along with Elan's typical level of intelligence!

Something else I don't think has been pointed out yet is that this is even more evidence of just how nice a guy Elan really is. A lot of people would be really irritated having to spend an evening alone with someone speaking gibberish, even if it was a friend, but Elan is as happy as always.

Finally, the suspense may kill me, but I have a theory. I guess it's off to the spoiler thread for me now...

[Hithrome]

Oh yeah. Rich, you're definitely on your game with this one. Haley is a perfect portrait of me at work, only I'm speaking English and the people I'm talking to theoretically understand it.

But more than once I've wanted to jab chopsticks in my eyes. The pretty waitress comment nearly elicited a mouthful of iced tea across my monitor.

Edit: First post on page seven! ..um...woot?

[Arky]

My key ended up looking like:

Haleyspeak: HALEY...
Actual: ABCDE...

Which I found to be a nice touch. Props to Giant on making the decoding process very entertaining! I could barely stand the suspense and laughter as I was finding out Haley's secrets. But really, who DOESN'T cheat at solitaire? ;)

[KayJay]

nice strip :)
Points I liked- "Ooh they have calamari!... Actually, I don't think I like Calamari"
"I think rdjy means salad"
"don't you think our waitress is pretty Haley?"

In fact, I think Elan got all the best lines :D

Edit: And I doubt that the last message was that haley's not straight, considering how in love she is with Elan, and how she hasn't displayed much evidence of this. unless there's some other meaning to the word I'm missing.

[Holy_Knight]

nice strip :)
Points I liked- "Ooh they have calamari!... Actually, I don't think I like Calamari"
"I think rdjy means salad"
"don't you think our waitress is pretty Haley?"

In fact, I think Elan got all the best lines :D
Elan always gets the best lines! And you're right, I forgot to mention the calamari thing before, but that was made even funnier for me because in between those two panels I was thinking "Ew, calamari?" :D

[Cirin]

Great comic. All I can say is: C Tech Astronomy.
I remember, from one of my favorite movies, actually it was "Setec Astronomy" :)

[RemoJr]

sorry, i don't know if someone has already said this but im too lazy to read ALL the posts so far. caution this is a bit of a spoiler about the origen on PCs book.
Sorry, don't know how to do the text that can't be seen unless you highlit it.

earlior in this thread, people spoke how she might not be a women because of what she said about not being exactly-. well this proves it wronge.




Spoiler! don't read unless you want to know.












In the Origen on Pcs, near the beging of the book, hailey takes her shirt off (though she's facing away from the screen) but we do see some indencation of breasts.

[Freelance Henchman]

I would appreciate it if the next intermission was something like "Condiment Wars, Episode I: A New Sauce".

[Jawsh]

In the Origen on Pcs, near the beging of the book, hailey takes her shirt off

That means nothing in a world where exist magical belts of masculinity/femininity.

My theory: Haley is "not exactly what you'd call" . . . twenty-four (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=168).

[Ulicus]

sorry, i don't know if someone has already said this but im too lazy to read ALL the posts so far. caution this is a bit of a spoiler about the origen on PCs book.
Sorry, don't know how to do the text that can't be seen unless you highlit it.

earlior in this thread, people spoke how she might not be a women because of what she said about not being exactly-. well this proves it wronge.




Spoiler! don't read unless you want to know.












In the Origen on Pcs, near the beging of the book, hailey takes her shirt off (though she's facing away from the screen) but we do see some indencation of breasts.


Um, don't most transsexuals have breasts too? Implants and all... probably some oestrogen therapy. I heard it was part of the package... uh, so to speak.

Anyway, I don't think Haley's going to reveal she's not a woman, or at least - not in the sense that "woman" means "female". I hope not anyway.

[Ivellios]

Funny, although I was kinda hoping to see how Roy's date went.

Ok...I don't really want to figure out the "Haley speak" code. If someone wanted to post a key or something, that would be great.

[wodan46]

given that people have dechipered the code repeatedly in this thread alone, and have gotten all the ciphers in the past as well, I'd say yes.

The secret can't be something like she's married to V, cause V would know, and she would've likely mentioned that secret first before whatever secret she was about to say. Also, if V and Haley had ever kissed, it would be awkward for them to room together when V is now married and Haley and V is aware of Haley's interest in Elan.

[Saithis Bladewing]

"Look! The salt and pepper shakers are fighting!"

[Delgarde]

Well, no one can say Haley's not doing her best to resolve the problem. But like she said, she's going to be there a long time if she has to go through all of her secrets one by one.

And yes, I really want to know what the missing word in the second-last panel is...

[Rithos]

"I'm not exactly what you would call...."

..A woman?
..Single?
..virginal?
..of age?
..trustworthy? ..no, wait, we knew that one already ;).

Evil, evil Giant for doing this to us! ^_^ Now, not only are we going to be trying to discern which secret she has to tell, we're going to be trying to figure out what that last secret was!

Other than that, though, this comic made me laugh repeatedly..at almost everything Elan said! It reminds me of every time I've gone to Perkins with one of my friends...

[U2QueenBee]

Today's comic made me sad, and I don't really know why. :( Maybe it's that I was really hoping Haley would be able to show Elan how she feels; maybe it's that Haley has obviously been bottling up a lot of things.

On the other hand maybe it's the depression again. Oh well. :-/

[The_Logic_Ninja]

U2--that is a pretty pretty avatar.

[Kanashimi]

awesome comic

I had to restrain myself from reading the translated spoilers so I could have the fun of the cryptogram. I can't wait to hear what her final secret is.

Great job, Giant!

[Lightman]

Good to see speech come out of a bubble pointing at Haley ;D

[Gamefreakguy]

Woah, I thought Haleyspeak should be translatable but I never tried. ...Darn, where are all the other topics telling what she said? Ghaack, great comic anyway. ;) :D

[Blaznak]

I'm guessin' Haley was going to say "not really a... Space Dragon Pirate Ninja" because I've been thinking that for a while... Ok, maybe I haven't...

Anyways, I enjoyed the comic quite a bit today. Elan is ALWAYS my favorite! My new Living Greyhawk character's a bard just because of that.

[JessmanCA]

My prediction to the end of Hailey's sentence: "a real thief"

It's pretty clear she has other motives

BTW funniest line has got to be "Can I have your Croutons?" - that is so much like Elan!

[Maxymiuk]

Hmm, you'd think that if Haley was taking Elan out to a romantic/secret revealing dinner, she'd have left her bow behind.

But great comic nonetheless.

[Jothki]

My key ended up looking like:

Haleyspeak: HALEY...
Actual: ABCDE...

Which I found to be a nice touch. Props to Giant on making the decoding process very entertaining! I could barely stand the suspense and laughter as I was finding out Haley's secrets. But really, who DOESN'T cheat at solitaire? ;)

Is the rest of the key just gibberish?

[fithi]

Poor Haley!

I've definately had meals where I've wanted to stab my brain with chopsticks. It's not fun.

I really want to know what that last secret is, but as others have said, we're probably going to cut to Roy/Celia next.

[Sebastian]

Pepper!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!



Oh, and what kind of creepy chinese food has croutons?
What is this "china" you are talking about? ;)

[ref]

cruel idea but very rich-esque. Next strip cuts to other characters. Next time we see Haley she's speaking all right, because it's THIS secret, and she told Elan while off-screen. ARGH

[Hawkeye]

Nice to see words that come from Haley which don't have to be translated.

[Zargon]

For the missing word, my vote it human! We know her dad is human, but her mom? For a master level thief that her dad is, he might have met lots of interesting females...
For those that mentioned female - um... that's just silly - so many comics from teenage girl to origins to Giant's comments etc show otherwise - here are another pair of comics
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=35
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=29

[Max_Sinister]

One little detail: Haley's still got her bow on the back while sitting in the restaurant. Bit unusual, isn't it?

And about the secret: I think I know it...

[Bill]

>:(

ENOUGH with the whole garbled speech thing. It was getting old about 20 comics ago and now it is just STUPID.

[Hawkeye]

>:(

ENOUGH with the whole garbled speech thing. It was getting old about 20 comics ago and now it is just STUPID.


True enough, it was nice for the first couple of times but now it's getting tiring having to translate it/wait for someone else to. Really it's run out of steam and I think needs to be got rid of.

[Ellisthion]

Incidentally, is this the first time we've seen Haley sad? (in particular, with the whole sad eyebrow thing)

[Barazon]

Here, I found this. Not sure how useful it'd be in the long run, but it translated this comic:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/cryptogram/
This decryption program worked perfectly. I typed in all the lines that Haley spoke, and I don't think it mistranslated a single character.

This comic was a lot of fun! Elan is just stream-of-consciousness-boy, saying anything that comes to mind... In RL the only people I've ever known like this were rather drunk at the time. I'd put my money on "good girl" or "straight"; the latter fits in well with Elan asking Haley if she thinks their waitress is pretty.

[NelinialRiverflow]

Oh my Orli!
That was absolutely brilliant!
CHOPSTICKS!!!!!!! gv gv gv gv gv gv gv gv gv gv gv gv!!!!!!!
And I'm watching Monty Python... Best day eva! Well toodles!

>Alcmariel the Druid aka JetrisLPL<

[Godai]

Maybe everyone else noticed it, but no one seems to have mentioned it (minor quible).

N'u wdc fyhrrv nw cky Cknyjtb' Pgnre hwvudfy

doesn't translate as "I'm not really in the Thieves' Guild anymore", but rather "I'm not really in the Thievks' Guild anymore" since T=K ;) Bit of a typo!

And as for the continuation of her secret, my bet's on 'single'; much more melodrama that way.

[themunck]

i'd go with '"human" (kinda makes sense), "virgin" (aouch), or even better....she still IS a virgin (24, anyone?).

[Neopolis]

Human? You mean "Half-dragon" :D

[tee_kay_one]

on Today at 9:26am, Bill wrote:
Angry

ENOUGH with the whole garbled speech thing. It was getting old about 20 comics ago and now it is just STUPID.



True enough, it was nice for the first couple of times but now it's getting tiring having to translate it/wait for someone else to. Really it's run out of steam and I think needs to be got rid of.

NO IT'S NOT!! It's freakishly funny, it's part of the plot, hundreds and hundreds of people like it, it's part of the plot AND (you guess it)... it's part of the plot! And I for one would like to let the author decide when to end plot tools.

[spectralphoenix]

Of course Haley has her bow with her.

An adventurer always has every piece of equipment they own on their person at all times, no matter how cumbersome or socially inappropriate. Sort of like V's familiar.

[garylian]

I love it! Haley and girls. I would have thrown that one in there on a guess, anyways! It's just too perfect.

Now, what was she about to say????

Awesome, Giant!

[Psiwave]

"Don't you think our waitress is pretty"
lol, thats one of my prefered ways to cut a boring date short. particularily if you actually have a waiter ;)


Edit:
not exactly what you might call a woman?
how many hearts would that break?

[themunck]

"Don't you think our waitress is pretty"
lol, thats one of my prefered ways to cut a boring date short. particularily if you actually have a waiter ;)


Edit:
not exactly what you might call a woman?
how many hearts would that break?
it would brake my hearth, thats for sure!

[Gnord]

"Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call -"

...a fan of salad.

[Loki_d20]

Something tells me that Haley can't be as incompetent as The Giant is making him out to be. I've got this uneasy feeling that Haley is just playing along in some game that we don't know about yet.

[KayJay]

For the missing word, my vote it human! We know her dad is human, but her mom? For a master level thief that her dad is, he might have met lots of interesting females...
For those that mentioned female - um... that's just silly - so many comics from teenage girl to origins to Giant's comments etc show otherwise - here are another pair of comics
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=35
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=29
This idea is the theory that I like best, in that it has any chance of being correct, IMO :)

Edit: Ok virgin COULD be it, but I don't think it matters enough for it to be the BIG secret.

[Kahlan]

Elan, I'm not a lover of... ukuleles. ;D

[KWGuyron]

Is the rest of the key just gibberish?


Here's the rest of the key (there are 4 letters missing):

haley.pkn.truwdz.fbcgjmqv.

It's missing the letters I O S X.
I tried filling them in and got this:

haleyspknotruwdzifbcgjmqvx
or
haleyspknotruwdzxfbcgjmqvi


Haley spoke no true words.

The rest doesn't make much sense.

[Chupacabrabert]

Haley spoke no true words.

Okay, I've been lurking for a while, but I thought I'd reply to this - don't you think "Haley spoke no truer words" would make more sense, given the context of the strip?

It's a nice touch; makes me wonder whether there were other hidden messages; I never bother writing out the keys.

Or, y'know, we could be making a big deal outta nothing. ;)

As for Haley's final secret, it would be meatiest, narrative-wise, if it were ...not really single - what if she's married to the evil dictator? Probably not, but think of the drama!.

Okay, why the *bleep* are my spoiler tags not working? And where's my coffee, as long as someone's answering the difficult questions?

[Railith]

I took the crutons off of my ex girlfriends salad once, she didn't like it.

Good comic as usual.

[Vengeful_Hand]

True enough, it was nice for the first couple of times but now it's getting tiring having to translate it/wait for someone else to. Really it's run out of steam and I think needs to be got rid of.


Wait for someone else to? The translation is usually on the first or second pages. Like this one, we had a full translation by post six. If you read page one, you wouldn't have to wait. If Haley's problem isn't funny to you anymore, then look at it the way she does. You can bet she's not laughing. It's an affliction tied to the plot. Either way, I hope you find other things to enjoy about your FREE online entertainment.

[BigT]

grrrrr, although it wasn't so hard to find the translation, it's frustrating to find that the big secret is hidden even from those who uncoded her speech.
Ah well, I guess the Giant's got to keep up the suspense somehow.

[Hawkeye]

Wait for someone else to? The translation is usually on the first or second pages. Like this one, we had a full translation by post six. If you read page one, you wouldn't have to wait. If Haley's problem isn't funny to you anymore, then look at it the way she does. You can bet she's not laughing. It's an affliction tied to the plot. Either way, I hope you find other things to enjoy about your FREE online entertainment.

I had seen the translation by the time I wrote that, and I have translated them in the past. I was just saying it takes a bit of the punch out of the comic if you have to do that as you would have to read it twice to get the entire dialoge. And yes, I know it's free, I'm very much glad of it and I'm not saying it makes the whole strip unfunny because of it.

[mtmouse3]

I'm new to the list :P

<waves>

Has anyone else been able to translate the previous Haley's jumble?

I translated episode #309, but it doesn't work for the previous episodes. I havent checked them all, and was wondering if the previous episodes with haley's garbled speech has a pattern?

Ciao

[Lurker]

Hey, welcome. If you look through all the posts, you'll see the translations -somewhere- in the thread for each one.

There is also a Haley translation thread somewhere.

[Ilaun_Undil]

The easiest way of getting Haley translations is via the new book coming out sometime soon? :) I do like Human as the answer, but the time that it happened she just lost all her treasure. I still think it has something to do with that, maybe she lost those two gems stones from her mother? that would be something upsetting?

[The_Librarian]

On a little side note, I would never give up my croutons. They're the best part of salads and soups! But fair play to Elan for trying. I'm absolutely loving this plot, and really stumped as to what Haley's secret might be.

[themunck]

The easiest way of getting Haley translations is via the new book coming out sometime soon? I do like Human as the answer, but the time that it happened she just lost all her treasure. I still think it has something to do with that, maybe she lost those two gems stones from her mother? that would be something upsetting?
yes, but not a secrect

[snelson66]

Elan: "Pow! Bam!"
He must be Emeril in disguise!!!
Or a cheesy Batman TV show....

Nice cliffhanger, Giant.

[JustyUekiTylor]

Translations of all of Haley's previous speaches can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=comics;action=display;num=1132355002

[Ax_Thunderblade]

*points to self* Noob!

Is the key different every time? I hate to admit that I have never translated any of Haley's gibberish in the past, but I tried to use the key I made after looking at a translation and found that it didn't work out.

If that's the case, then that's really tough. Although, I do have to give our old pal Rich credit for providing yet another reason to keep coming back for more (not that we needed one though!).

[Glorfindel]

Here's the rest of the key (there are 4 letters missing):

haley.pkn.truwdz.fbcgjmqv.

It's missing the letters I O S X.
I tried filling them in and got this:

haleyspknotruwdzifbcgjmqvx
or
haleyspknotruwdzxfbcgjmqvi


Haley spoke no true words.

The rest doesn't make much sense.

I think it should be

Haley speaks no true words.

It cannot be spoke, because the o hasn't appeared yet. In fact this is a standard variation on the so-called Caesar Substitution.

[Kedrot]

I took the crutons off of my ex girlfriends salad once, she didn't like it.

Is that why she's your EX-girlfriend? :P

Great comic, damn suspense

[DragoonStar47]

*giggles in a doll-like way* Hilarious!

[Serina_Spellbinder]

One secret she didn't get around to (it's probably been mentioned) is the treasure she kept from the others. Her aphasia started when her personal horde got obliterated in the tavern explosion.

[Corim_Danex]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Serina_Spellbinder]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Corim_Danex]

Scrubbing bubbles

[DragoonStar47]

:-XEwww.... .that is disgusting....

[aaronbourque]

Scrubbing bubbles

And the rest of Haley's sentence is obviously "a (good) catch."

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles and bleach

[ghost]

so it is ,in fact actually translateable? i thought that you were just randomly typing..weell..so begins the translation see you all next week

[Gary_Howard]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Corim_Danex]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Corim_Danex]

Scrubbing bubbles

[mec]

Elan, I'm not a lover of... ukuleles. ;D

Heh, I was thinking that!

On the female thing:

http://giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=87

[Gary_Howard]

Scrubbing bubbles

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles


quick thought, maybe Elan can understand Haily somewhate, subconsciously, that would make his question "does the waitress look pretty" less clueless than before. personally i think not but hey anything to prevent the thread from getting finger wagged at by the mods.

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Scrubbing bubbles

[noweezernoworld]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles

[The_Logic_Ninja]

YOU're a happy place!

[Ing]

let's all try to reach a common ground and agree that all kissing and anything sexual is infact revolting

think about it...

it involes siliva, mucus, bodily discharges, various slimes and oils, sweating, tentacles of forced intrusion, swaping body fluidis, sometime biting, sometimes bleeding, and noises normally reserved for cleaning with a spongue or enjoying a 'Big Gulp' slurpy.

and of couse it leads to children, which are just revolting and basicly living factories that produce mucus, vomit, urine, and fecal waste....

REVOLTING

if you think about it, and describe with enough detail. all kissing is disgusting

[Ing]

YOU're a happy place!

i'm sorry couldn't hear you way back there in 3rd grade :-p

[Serina_Spellbinder]

Scrubbing bubbles

[The_Logic_Ninja]

let's all try to reach a common ground and agree that all kissing and anything sexual is infact revolting

*I* like it.

[Taren]

Anyway, I'd like to bungee-jump out of the murky darkness above that is lurking, into the forum of sticks and stones, and say one simple thing:

I LOVE the Elan/Haley dynamic. The past few comics dealing with thier relationship have been some of my personal favorites of the new storyline thus far. I'll spare people my speculation about Haley's "biggest" secret, (hey, she COULD theoretically have something even BIGGER that she hasn't even implied to the audience...) but these two seem to get some of the more interesting reactions out of each other. ("I'm on an adventure!" being my personal favorite)

Anyway, Kudos to Giant, this is another great strip!

[Ing]

as do I.....i was trying to reach some common ground

remember compramise means everyone gives up everything they want and no one goes home happy

[Ing]

i love the fact that Elan can have a good time without understanding Haily....he's so ADD everywhere at once

[Corim_Danex]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Gary_Howard]

Scrubbing bubbles

EDIT: "You guys" here being the forum at large. This is the first forum I've really liked -- everyone seems SO nice, and sweet, and really bright.

Anyway, this comic was great! I wonder HOW Haley cheats at solitaire. Peeking? Taking cards out of the natural order of the three card flips? Does she even play draw three Klondike?

SO MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED!!

[HempRope]

Hey, this is my first post in the Comics board EVER.

Whether Rich meant to or not, I think that Haley's inability to interact with the rest of her secret-keeping is a nice parallel to the idea behind Day of Silence, which is tomorrow (www.dayofsilence.com). It's cruel that some people feel that they must hide a defining aspect of their life from people, as many GLBT people (particularly youth) do in America today. As we feel for Haley through her frustration and other emotional woes, I think we should all try to imagine going through every day of post-pubescent life that way. It might give us who are straight a hint of what many non-heterosexuals experience.

And my piece is done.

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Does she even play draw three Klondike?

...wow. Okay, this filter is way, way, WAY excessive. "Klond.i.ke" gets filtered? "D.i.ke" isn't even an orientation slur; it'd have to be spelled with a y.

[Gary_Howard]

...wow. Okay, this filter is way, way, WAY excessive. "Klond.i.ke" gets filtered? "D.i.ke" isn't even an orientation slur; it'd have to be spelled with a y.


HAHAHAHAHA!! I did NOT notice that at all! Oh well.. those filters are kind of a necessary evil. Should I edit it cleverly, or just leave it for comedic value?

Edit: ESPECIALLY considering my above posts and their reference to my .. shall we say.. Solitaire Orientation?

[kamikasei]

HAHAHAHAHA!! I did NOT notice that at all! Oh well.. those filters are kind of a necessary evil. Should I edit it cleverly, or just leave it for comedic value?
Comedic value. In fact, I'd say we need a 'hilarious false positives' award, and this is the first winner.


Whether Rich meant to or not, I think that Haley's inability to interact with the rest of her secret-keeping is a nice parallel to the idea behind Day of Silence, which is tomorrow (www.dayofsilence.com).
Quick note - it appears to be .org (http://www.dayofsilence.org), not .com.

[Taren]

Scrubbing bubbles

Umm...go Elan? Salt and Pepper must continue thier ancient war!

[Ing]

simple when you draw cards, you draw from the bottom of the pile,.,if you get nothing...than the deal from the top. slip one card to the front from the bottom....redo a turn after seeing what's under a pile. undo many terms to get a btter result.

[noweezernoworld]

...wow. Okay, this filter is way, way, WAY excessive. "Klond.i.ke" gets filtered? "D.i.ke" isn't even an orientation slur; it'd have to be spelled with a y.

haha i tried to type son of a gun as one word once and it filtered it.

[Gary_Howard]

Comedic value. In fact, I'd say we need a 'hilarious false positives' award, and this is the first winner.

Wow! I've never won anything before! In the sig it goes.

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Scrubbing bubbles

[The_Logic_Ninja]

haha i tried to type son of a gun as one word once and it filtered it.


And just try talking about N-i-g-e-r-i-a.
Filters to catch most swear-words are one thing, but I swear, this board has the most overzealous filter I've ever seen.

[Ing]

Scrubbing bubbles

EDIT EDIT EDIT: ....screw it its not my job to keep you people happy. just try to be civil

[The_Logic_Ninja]

No, it's... really not. Not that it would make it more okay if he were.

[Gary_Howard]

And just try talking about N-i-g-e-r-i-a.
Filters to catch most swear-words are one thing, but I swear, this board has the most overzealous filter I've ever seen.

I'm told that the old Ragnarok Online filter censored obscure Thai (was it Thai? or something else?) curse words and so it would inexplicably censor the words "Captian" and "Stapler". (Note that "Captain" is misspelled there... is a Pti something very, very bad?)

[kamikasei]

Wow! I've never won anything before! In the sig it goes.
You'd probably best note that it's a language-filter false-positive; for certain other things, it's not so funny to get such a result... :P

(edited for clarity)

[Ing]

Pti!!!! OMG I CAN"T BELIEVE YOU JUST SAID THAT


MY POOR EARS!!!

[Ing]

well i hope he dosn't leave the board forever because of some people....he might be good people for all i know.


maybe he was tryiing to be funny...i laughed

[Gary_Howard]

You'd probably best note that it's a language-filter false-positive; for certain other things, it's not so funny to get such a result... :P

(edited for clarity)

Wilco.


Pti!!!! OMG I CAN"T BELIEVE YOU JUST SAID THAT


MY POOR EARS!!!

Cor Blimey! I'm so sorry!
(If colorful Britishisms are not ok, I'll go back and edit.)

[Ing]

actually i have no idea what pti means... :p but i'm sure its revolting



couldn't resist

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Ing]

now you're just being a sour apple

[Gary_Howard]

now you're just being a sour apple

Sour apple can be a refreshing flavor.

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Ninjas: now in new flavors! Sour apple, watermelon, blue raspberry, and plaid!

[Blaznak]

I... somehow doubt that.

And, frankly, anyone who's that 1) extremist and 2) sensitive about it probably isn't going to have a lot of fun on the internet.



Hey, can we just quit this? I though it interesting for a bit, but now I'm just convinced LN is in this for as much shock value as anything else. If I'm wrong, so be it and I apologize. Still...

I thought the first post was actually valid because it WAS the person's reaction. It was personal to him/her and he/she shared it with The Giant as much as we all share our opinions.

The counter statements showed a lot of people disagreeing with that point of view, but now its just getting, well (Grin) Disgusting!

Eh, well, whatever... I had no problem with the joke in its context. Its just humor. That said, I can see where some people have an orientation where they would NOT appreciate it. Tolerance is a two way street... I dinna see an intolerance in the original post, just a personal reaction. But now I'm seeing an intolerance starting to appear. I'd RATHER see a conversation along the lines of:

"You don't like X? Then you need to be enlightened to the truth!" "Er... no I don't, I'm happy the way I am!" "Hmmm. Me too!" "Huh, there you go, then!"

Sigh... Back to wondering who won the battle:
Salt or Pepper. My bets on Salt - it can melt slugs with its power... Pepper can only, like, make people sneeze!

Cheers to all...

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Shock value? I'm not even on the original topic anymore.

Sure, it was an opinion. Everything's an opinion.But what if someone responded that way to, say, a black guy (Roy) kissing a white girl (Celia)? Essentially the same, but I'd bet there'd be a lot less criticism of people for standing up to it and saying "it's just a personal reaction, not intolerance". Not that tolerance is the issue.

Are you saying it's okay to say something offensive, but not to respond to it?

And when salt and pepper meet, we get Salt & Pepper potato chips, which means everyone who likes those is a winner.

Edit: and, you'll note, everyone HAD quit it 'til you brought it back up. We've moved on to plaid-flavored ninjas.

[Ing]

yes but peper can make people cry when sprayed in their eyes...

[The_Logic_Ninja]

You know, pepper is deeply ironic.

I mean, think about it. All those ridiculously hot peppers are that way for a reason: they evolved that way. Why? Well, so things wouldn't eat them.

And now, here we are... eating them... for that very reason.

[Ing]

well Ceila's not really white.... or human. what's the stance on interplanar or interlemental relationships?


I think Haily's a half celestrial of some sorts....

[Ing]

You know, pepper is deeply ironic.

I mean, think about it. All those ridiculously hot peppers are that way for a reason: they evolved that way. Why? Well, so things wouldn't eat them.

And now, here we are... eating them... for that very reason.


twis a great irony...all their well set wards and defenses turned agianst them...thus ended the great pepper empirer.

[Gary_Howard]

....

when salt and pepper meet, we get Salt & Pepper potato chips, which means everyone who likes those is a winner.

....We've moved on to plaid-flavored ninjas.

I'll start with the Salt & Pepper potato chips, then I'd like the Ninjas Plaid please.. medium rare.. extra croutons, please. And I'll have a Sour Apple martini to drink.. oh, does that come in blue raspberry now? Ok, I'll try that.

(This guy's getting the BEST tip!)

[The_Logic_Ninja]

Dude.

Your taste buds must hate you.

[Ing]

oh one order of fried calamarie of force intrusion

[tothecornfield]

Shock value? I'm not even on the original topic anymore.

Sure, it was an opinion. Everything's an opinion.But what if someone responded that way to, say, a black guy (Roy) kissing a white girl (Celia)? Essentially the same, but I'd bet there'd be a lot less criticism of people for standing up to it and saying "it's just a personal reaction, not intolerance". Not that tolerance is the issue.

Are you saying it's okay to say something offensive, but not to respond to it?

And when salt and pepper meet, we get Salt & Pepper potato chips, which means everyone who likes those is a winner.

Edit: and, you'll note, everyone HAD quit it 'til you brought it back up. We've moved on to plaid-flavored ninjas.

It wouldn't be racist to suggest that it's wrong for Celia and Roy to be together for racial reasons. They aren't even of the same species. I've dated women that were a different hue than myself but I'm pretty sure they were all human. Just think about it their children would be bald with one wing and light blue dialog bubbles. It's just not natural.

You need to consider issues like this in a world where the phrase "I kissed a girl once" is more offensive than "tenticles of forced intrusion"

[TinSoldier]

let's all try to reach a common ground and agree that all kissing and anything sexual is infact revolting

think about it...

it involes siliva, mucus, bodily discharges, various slimes and oils, sweating, tentacles of forced intrusion, swaping body fluidis, sometime biting, sometimes bleeding, and noises normally reserved for cleaning with a spongue or enjoying a 'Big Gulp' slurpy.

and of couse it leads to children, which are just revolting and basicly living factories that produce mucus, vomit, urine, and fecal waste....

REVOLTING

if you think about it, and describe with enough detail. all kissing is disgustingUggh! Like the ingredients in hot dogs, it's just better if you don't think about the details!

(Sorry, I read the whole sorry mess in 3 pages but I felt required to make the above comment.)

[Ing]

perhaps using Roy's fascination wik Miko would have been a better analogy.

EDIT: Why in the name of all that is decent are we still talking about this!!!!????

[Gary_Howard]

Dude.

Your taste buds must hate you.

Oooh.. is plaid a spicy flavor? I'll have the calamari then too.

[TinSoldier]

perhaps using Roy's fascination wik Miko would have been a better analogy.

EDIT: Why in the name of all that is decent are we still talking about this!!!!???? Because we can? Because it has become an interesting topic and no one has started a new thread for it (what would that be?) The mods haven't stomped on it yet?

Really, I just wanted to make a funny riff off of what you posted earlier. I was disturbed enough from the rest of the conversation to leave it alone.

[Ing]

i can just picutre the shaking his head muttering "i will never do another fan service agian....ever" after reading this thread

[Peptuck]

think about it...

it involes siliva, mucus, bodily discharges, various slimes and oils, sweating, tentacles of forced intrusion, swaping body fluidis, sometime biting, sometimes bleeding, and noises normally reserved for cleaning with a spongue or enjoying a 'Big Gulp' slurpy.

and of couse it leads to children, which are just revolting and basicly living factories that produce mucus, vomit, urine, and fecal waste....

REVOLTING

I read this. I am reminded of this:


Mockery: Oh Master, I love you, yet I hate everything you stand for! Let's go press our slimy, mucous-covered lips together in the cargo hold!

Ah, HK-47. What would we do without you and you casual hatred and resentment for all things meaty?

That being said, I would put my money on Salt winning this confrontation.

[Arcen]

Sorry if this has already been posted.

My theory is that Haley is not... an actual red head!

[EscherEnigma]

if I could only master how to talk like HK-47 on the fly, the world (or at least my corner of it) would be a happier place. Ok, well, maybe the corner of the world wouldn't be happier, but *I* would be. And isn't that what matters, really?

[Hototo]

So, I made an awesome translator letter for letter based off of this comic strip and decided to go and attempt to use it to figure out other jarbled sayings from Haley. Unfortunately I found that Mr. Burlew is one tricky man. Grrr... Every comic Haley's speech is jarbled with different coded letters. Sad times... if anyone has managed to decipher other Haleyisms, please respond. Gracias.

[infiniteviking]

*stolidly ignores teh furor*

Fun comic; great dialogue; Elan especially got some great lines. "Can I have your croutons?" Gvgvgvgv! And Haley cheats at solitaire! Marvelous!

It is so cute that Vaarsuvius knows most of Haley's secrets. Even a rogue needs someone to confide in occasionally. But does V know because Haley told him, or because he's just that smart? ;)

And the last word Haley didn't get to say? *cackle*That would be 'literate'. Why else hasn't she tried to communicate through writing? And maybe Vaarsuvius knew the secret about her father because he read the ransome letter to her! All is explained!


Something tells me that Haley can't be as incompetent as The Giant is making him out to be. I've got this uneasy feeling that Haley is just playing along in some game that we don't know about yet.It looks like you mean Elan, not Haley. And I agree -- he's shown flashes of potential now and again.

[somatic]

Just hearing Haley's voice again (in English) has been quite awesome =) ;D

[The Doctor]

...wow. Okay, this filter is way, way, WAY excessive. "Klond.i.ke" gets filtered? "D.i.ke" isn't even an orientation slur; it'd have to be spelled with a y.

I think slurs, by their very nature, do not particularly follow correct spelling.
That said, it is interesting to note that while this may be a slur, it is only so if it said by a non-lesbian.
Something Eddy Murphy (I think, could be Richard Pryor... ah.. who cares?) once stated: because he is black, he can use black slurs as much as he pleases. Same thing goes for other groups (gays, geeks, etc).
As he said in Raw, because he could : "Black men have fat lips, white men can't dance."
I'm not sure everyone actually agreed with him taking liberty, but, well, he did have a point that because HE said it, it became funny.

But back to Haley kissing girls... bring on the flashbacks!

[somatic]

P.S- I'm off to write some fanfiction involving Haley and that blue-sprite girl.

Just kidding. I want to, but I start to type and then I... don't get to finish. Usually.

What I mean is, Rich's works are copyrighted and I would never infringe on that.

*coughs*

I have to go now.

[mec]

Anyone want to talk about the comic?

When I first glimpsed panel 9 where Haley spills a lot of secrets, with many different speech balloons, I thought at first ... that everybody in the picture was talking: Elan, the watiress, and Haley: and they had all come down with Haleyphasia!

[phlip]

So, I made an awesome translator letter for letter based off of this comic strip and decided to go and attempt to use it to figure out other jarbled sayings from Haley. Unfortunately I found that Mr. Burlew is one tricky man. Grrr... Every comic Haley's speech is jarbled with different coded letters. Sad times... if anyone has managed to decipher other Haleyisms, please respond. Gracias.
OK (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=comics;action=display;num=1132355002 ).

[Loki_d20]

My reasons for thinking that may fall into the category of Inappropriate Topics for this website. I am new here and don't have a firm grasp on the rules here. So, I will avoid giving a complete answer to that question in order to follow my perception of the rules.

When I made my first comment, I was trying to let the author know that I would much prefer it if he left out girls kissing girls, as he has proven that there is a vast amount of material that he has (nearly always) adeptly used to make a wonderful, entertaining comic strip.

By the way, my wife also felt that it was quite discusting. She has been following the Elan/Haley storyline with interest and has translated Haley's speech a lot. I found a lot of the things that she said quite humorous, until it got to the topic of her kissing a girl.And yet someone dancing around nude is not, how do you say, discusting? It's just one other type of sexual reference joke and is commonplace in today's world. The concept and joke use of women who have 'been intimate' with other women during their youth/college years has been a common joke in TV shows and movies for many many years now.

[hr]I also still say that Elan is playing dumb/ignorant to the situation. He's gotta have a card up his sleeve or a different form of comprehension of what is going on.

[Frozen_Northman]

As always, a great strip by the Giant. I will confess that I am getting impatient waiting for resolution to Haley's aphasia and her crush on Elan. But the Giant has neatly wrapped up assorted past storylines, so I trust him implicitly to keep telling the story he wants to tell, and to tell it well.

That said, I really would like to see resolution to one or both of these plot threads. The latest comic kinda pulled a bait-and-switch on my expectations.

I imagine it's a delicate and tricky issue for an author - deciding how long to preserve suspense and mystery over an issue. Some issues (like V's gender) seem like they should continue working indefinitely without ever answering the question - it makes for a good running gag. But others, like Haley's aphasia, call for resolution at some point. And there seems to be a sliding scale among people as to when that gag has been overdone.

As before, I look forward to seeing the Giant further work his craft.

[McHarty]

I don't know if this a been mentioned before... ( I've read most of the pages but not ALL of them )

But for the Halleyspeech matter, I think that while she REALLY want to tell Elan, it is not enough. It's not just the secret.

She need not to tell just him about her secrets, she have to ACCEPT those not to be secrets anymore. So she has to tell EVERYONE, not just Elan...

[battleburn]

Sorry if this has already been posted.

My theory is that Haley is not... an actual red head!

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=160
Samantha calls her a blonde.

And I remember reading somewhere, that Haley said she didn't dye her hair.

[OldFart]

Something Eddy Murphy (I think, could be Richard Pryor... ah.. who cares?) once stated: because he is black, he can use black slurs as much as he pleases. Same thing goes for other groups (gays, geeks, etc).
As he said in Raw, because he could : "Black men have fat lips, white men can't dance."


South Park did a hilarious version of this with Mr. Garrison in "It hits the fan".

All this discussion of auto-filtering has peaked my curiousity:

"Doo-wop" musical style
Chink in the Armor
Spic and Span cleaner
Not for all the dikes in Holland
I'm not even gonna try the word meaining "Grudging and petty in giving or spending," as it was recently proven that more people are offeded by it than actually know what it means.

OK, so apparently we're more worried about offending Chinese or lesbians than Italians or Latinos.
Programmatic ethnic bias?

[Albion]

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=160
Samantha calls her a blonde.


If you're serious, she's clearly referring to Elan. Who is the only one who Samantha would need to mention separately anyway(because he's until now her... private pleasure machine)

[battleburn]

whoops, my mistake.

BTW, I knew V knew more about Haley then the others, but she/he knows all Haleys secrets apparantly, except for the one we don't know yet.


Ha! found it
http://giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=53
red is Haley's natural hair color

[Oppolo]

I think http://giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=93 is more conclusive proof that she's a natural redhead, she has red roots showing under her black dye job.

[battleburn]

Hm, she never spoke of her dark teenage time. Another secret?

[Baxder]

...these two seem to get some of the more interesting reactions out of each other. ("I'm on an adventure!" being my personal favorite)


I think http://giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=93 is more conclusive proof that she's a natural redhead, she has red roots showing under her black dye job.

Ha! the "Life is pain" frame remains one of my favorites of all OOTS moments, along with "I'm on an adventure!" (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=206)

I'm just geeked that they were both mentioned in the same thread...

BTW, another is hinted by my avatar, for those who wonder. Props to those who get it!

EDIT: First post on....page...17!! Woot!

[Wntrrvn]

Actually I believe that it was George Carlin that mentioned it was only a word.


Oh wait... flashbacks of Hailey kising girls?

Ok I'm ready.. go ahead.




I think slurs, by their very nature, do not particularly follow correct spelling.
That said, it is interesting to note that while this may be a slur, it is only so if it said by a non-lesbian.
Something Eddy Murphy (I think, could be Richard Pryor... ah.. who cares?) once stated: because he is black, he can use black slurs as much as he pleases. Same thing goes for other groups (gays, geeks, etc).
As he said in Raw, because he could : "Black men have fat lips, white men can't dance."
I'm not sure everyone actually agreed with him taking liberty, but, well, he did have a point that because HE said it, it became funny.

But back to Haley kissing girls... bring on the flashbacks!

[Doug_Lampert]

Scrubbing bubbles

[terrainmonkey]

Scrubbing bubbles

[armatil]

Scrubbing bubbles

[Chaosmage]

You know, pepper is deeply ironic.

I mean, think about it. All those ridiculously hot peppers are that way for a reason: they evolved that way. Why? Well, so things wouldn't eat them.

And now, here we are... eating them... for that very reason.

It is ironic but its actually exactly what the pepper wants.

Peppers evolved the heat to prevent consumption by mammals as they would not properly prepare the seeds during digestion.

Birds on the other hand are both immune to heat and prepare the seeds properly in their digestive system as well as spreading the seed farther to help increase its likelyhood of growth

Now we humans plant the seeds and see to that many of the plants grow, exactly as the plant intended just not with the same mechanism.


On another note pepper in the face is bad but so is salt in a wound. So they may be evenly matched

[Blaznak]

On another note pepper in the face is bad but so is salt in a wound. So they may be evenly matched

Hmmm... but what if Salt and Pepper are merely pawns, yes, I said it, pawns, of a shadowy manipulator? What if their battle only foreshadows of the one known as Cthugar-u?

Later!

[Finwe]

Hmmm... but what if Salt and Pepper are merely pawns, yes, I said it, pawns, of a shadowy manipulator? What if their battle only foreshadows of the one known as Cthugar-u?

Later!


Oh no! From the shadows, dried cyans manipulates Salt and Pepper to fight each other into oblivion, so that he may become the undisputed ruler of all condimentia! But wait! Here comes ketchup bottle to save the day, only to be tharted by his ancient rival, Mustard. But wait! Parmesan Cheese comes to oppose Cyan for ultimate power! Who will rule the condiments of the pizza parlor? What happens when the denizens of the music theatre invade? Tune in next time on Giant in the Playground intermissions!

[Suki_the_Pure]

I am so relieved that people always put up Haley's translations. I don't have any levels in Code Cracking. :P

I love how even though each of the pages is part of the larger storyline, each page can stand on it's own. The punch line is always there. There's no waiting for 2 to 3 days for the rest of a conversation, no need to go back over the last few pages because you have forgotten what's going on.

...or maybe the story is just too memorable to forget. ;D

[Nightmarenny]

Scrubbing bubbles