I’d have to read it again to be sure, but I seem to recall that the Victorian story from Narbonic was around the turn of the century, whereas Moustachio was built in the 1850s.
Addendum: I did go back and reread it, to satisfy my own curiosity. My initial feeling for the timeframe of the story comes from their attire, which is from the 1880s to 1900s, and from Dave’s computer, which was invented in the 1890s. Both of those are confirmed in Shaenon’s commentary on the website (which, unfortunately, is not included in the printed book), although she never said exactly when the story took place.
The only way Wham could have been playing is if it was the washing machines playing it. Because it is definitely “come over and beat the crap out of me” music.
Hah! Thought it would be him. (Hitty is still hooked up to the Annex’s power system, and in any event the point of this is not to defeat the other AI’s so hard that they can be used for roofing material afterwards).
Good on you for that reference! Nice to know I’m not the only one who remembers some of King’s awesome short fiction, rather than just knowing the novels and movies. And the “awakened” Mangler would be one hell of a competitor here…
King is an excellent short story author. Not much money to be made with short stories, though, so he began expanding his short stories into novels. This is why his novels tend to be padded with lots of extraneous verbiage. Kind of a shame to take a perfectly good short story and turn it into a bloated novel, but I can’t blame the guy for trying to make a buck.
Washing machines used to come with a pivoting head with rollers inside… the mangle. You could roll clothes through and squeeze most of the water out. I’ve done many a load of laundry in our old Speed Queen. Then hung ’em out to dry. I laugh at commercials that use line drying as a synonym for “soft”. Line-dried blue jeans are about as soft as cardboard.
Huh… The only term I’ve ever heard for that part of the washing machine is “wringer”. Hence the phrase “getting your tits in the wringer.” Even Speed Queen’s own website calls it a wringer.
But I certainly agree that there’s nothing soft about line-dried clothes. You don’t even need starch to get them to stand up on their own.
Yeah, I was thinking it must be regional. It may also depend on whether someone had one before washing machines were born, so they would have passed the term “mangle” on down through the family. No one in my family had any kind of washing apparatus more complex than a washboard until the mid 1920s.
Washing machines: mangling your clothing since 1851. (The mangle, or wringer, was the part that squeezed excess water from the clothing after it was cleaned. My grandpa had an impressive scar down the middle of his thumb, the result of it being mangled in a mangle when he was young.)
The mangle actually predates the washing machine. They were first used for putting a finish on some types of cloth, then for squeezing the water out of laundry. The first washing machines didn’t have one, then a hand-cranked mangle was added to some, later these were powered. I think the washing machine makers adopted the name “wringer” for better marketing, I always knew them as wringer washers.
They could have told Nick ahead of time that it was tag team. It might have saved him some undue wear and tear.
Y’know, I forgot all about Moustachio’s prowess in the arena.
He was _designed_ for rampaging, don’t forget. By a Madblood of more than usual Madness.
I have to wonder whether the Madblood who created M is the same one who appears in the Victorian chapters of Narbonic.
Nope, different name.
I’d have to read it again to be sure, but I seem to recall that the Victorian story from Narbonic was around the turn of the century, whereas Moustachio was built in the 1850s.
Addendum: I did go back and reread it, to satisfy my own curiosity. My initial feeling for the timeframe of the story comes from their attire, which is from the 1880s to 1900s, and from Dave’s computer, which was invented in the 1890s. Both of those are confirmed in Shaenon’s commentary on the website (which, unfortunately, is not included in the printed book), although she never said exactly when the story took place.
I hope nobody told him what they did to his popcorn tin collection.
If all he’s concerned about is the tins, then the absence of the popcorn might be a non-concern.
Alternately, they can purchase more popcorn.
He is unconcerned about the popcorn. He states that in earlier strips.
Well, he is here to kick butt and collect popcorn tins, and he IS all out of popcorn.
I’m using the Popeye fanfare for mind-music…
“Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire…”
(Blake’s “Jerusalem”was Ramshambler’s battle hymn….)
“Bring me my chariots of fire….”
“Bring me my spear! O! Clouds unfold!,
Bring me my chariot of fire!”
“I shall not cease my mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
‘Til we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green and pleasant land.”
It was our school song, so we had to sing it at speech days and end-of-term assemblies; and then it inevitably made it into the predrinks playlist.
That… doesn’t quite fit the tempo of Popeye’s theme
Moustachio and Hitty,
Build a holy city,
In England green, pleasant land!
(Toot! Toot!)
Heads: “Iron Man”, Tails: “Mr. Roboto”.
He did have James Brown on his eight-track.
Wrong. It’s clearly labeled as Wham. George Michaels was probably singing “Wake me up before you go-go” in panel two.
The only way Wham could have been playing is if it was the washing machines playing it. Because it is definitely “come over and beat the crap out of me” music.
Ramshambler pwns y’ALL.
“Let ‘comeback’ stay captive within your lips
That vulgar term implies that I had left…”
Hah! Thought it would be him. (Hitty is still hooked up to the Annex’s power system, and in any event the point of this is not to defeat the other AI’s so hard that they can be used for roofing material afterwards).
Plus we wouldn’t want to accidentally squish our teammates.
True. Hitty is sort of an area-effect weapon.
I wonder what strategy she’d use…
Hint: it wouldn’t have anything to do with Excel. And Hitty only knows how to do two things.
“Only in death does duty end”
-Imperial Guard Proverb
01010100011011110110000101110011
01110100011001010111001000100000
01010011011001010111100000100000
01010010011101010110110001111010
-Mechanicus Proverb
You sly BigDog!
Hey now, you leave toasters out of this.
It’s a reference to “If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device”
If you’re in any way interest in 40K, I recommend you watch it on YouTube.
It’s been recommended to me before, but I got kinda bored a few episodes in.
Word travels fast in the skin horse universe
note the sound effect words.. and the hit effect blasts… that’s more of a Double Whammy
So long as that “Wham” doesn’t mean he’s playing Wham.
It would have had the same effect… except it would have affected everyone.
“Team Mangler.” Is that a Stephen King reference?
Good on you for that reference! Nice to know I’m not the only one who remembers some of King’s awesome short fiction, rather than just knowing the novels and movies. And the “awakened” Mangler would be one hell of a competitor here…
King is an excellent short story author. Not much money to be made with short stories, though, so he began expanding his short stories into novels. This is why his novels tend to be padded with lots of extraneous verbiage. Kind of a shame to take a perfectly good short story and turn it into a bloated novel, but I can’t blame the guy for trying to make a buck.
i’d say it’s more directly a reference to the fact that washing machines used to be called “mangles”.
It was ironing machines that were called “mangles”. We have one. I’ve never heard the term used for washing machines.
Washing machines used to come with a pivoting head with rollers inside… the mangle. You could roll clothes through and squeeze most of the water out. I’ve done many a load of laundry in our old Speed Queen. Then hung ’em out to dry. I laugh at commercials that use line drying as a synonym for “soft”. Line-dried blue jeans are about as soft as cardboard.
Huh… The only term I’ve ever heard for that part of the washing machine is “wringer”. Hence the phrase “getting your tits in the wringer.” Even Speed Queen’s own website calls it a wringer.
But I certainly agree that there’s nothing soft about line-dried clothes. You don’t even need starch to get them to stand up on their own.
https://paulwalternewbury.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/did-anyones-grandmas-tits-ever-get-caught-in-the-mangle/
FWIW I think “wringer” is more used in the USA.
Yeah, I was thinking it must be regional. It may also depend on whether someone had one before washing machines were born, so they would have passed the term “mangle” on down through the family. No one in my family had any kind of washing apparatus more complex than a washboard until the mid 1920s.
Washing machines: mangling your clothing since 1851. (The mangle, or wringer, was the part that squeezed excess water from the clothing after it was cleaned. My grandpa had an impressive scar down the middle of his thumb, the result of it being mangled in a mangle when he was young.)
The mangle actually predates the washing machine. They were first used for putting a finish on some types of cloth, then for squeezing the water out of laundry. The first washing machines didn’t have one, then a hand-cranked mangle was added to some, later these were powered. I think the washing machine makers adopted the name “wringer” for better marketing, I always knew them as wringer washers.
I still say Nick could have won this by just throwing a rock at it.
Well, I was saying Hitty, but Ramshambler will do the job with style (and headbutting).
It took me a shameful amount of time to realize that second panel was Mustachio tagging himself in.
The theme of course is “come in like a wrecking ball”.