FoxTrot by Bill Amend for February 14, 2010

Jason comes up with some really good ideas.

Actually, that symbol wasn’t originally supposed to represent a heart. In ancient times, it was used as the symbol for a brothel. To phrase it as politely as I can, it represented a female feature that does not grow in until puberty.

And, just to answer your question, Jason (since I know readers are bound to ask it until it gets an answer), the heart was originally thought to govern thought and feeling, and this belief persisted up until about the 17th century (and interestingly enough, the heart was only believed to govern thought and feeling in general; it was the liver that was thought to govern actual emotions.) The truth wasn’t discovered until much later.

And feeling was supposed to differ from emotion…how? Those are synonyms, surely, unless we’re talking about Jungian psych (which hadn’t been developed just yet). I have never seen both heart and liver taken as the seat of human emotions/feelings in the same culture - only one or the other.

While I’d naturally be interested in a counterexample, it still depends on what culture you’re talking about, and when. In Hebrew Scripture you’ll find plenty of figurative (sic) references to the heart and its connection to (much more than) thoughts, feelings/emotions (including the moral center and will), but never the liver. (Interestingly enough, the kidneys are sometimes cited - in one verse in Jeremiah, parallel to the heart as representing something similar!) Yet at the same time, the Hebrews were perfectly aware that such things really resided in the head, not the heart or elsewhere (Daniel brings this out especially).

People in post-biblical times seem to have forgotten (I suspect, as with so many things, under the influence of paganism) that the Bible often uses figures of speech such as metonymy: one noun being substituted for another that it represents. The “heart” became an easy example of metonymy because what the heart does physically mirrors so closely what our thoughts, feelings/emotions and even will with its moral center are engaged in. That doesn’t mean the heart was then, or should be now, taken as the actual seat of such things.

It was the Ancient Egyptians who were one of the cultures who thouht that the heart was the seat of emotion\thought. There were 5 jars set aside for organ storage when making a mummy. The heart was considered the chief organ. If you get excited, scared, or fall in love the heart beat faster, thus why it was thought to be the seat of thought and emotion. The brain was pulled out through the nose and disgaurded as it was though to have no value in the after life.

Wait, so Jason was born in mid November?

I took her comment to mean that she would never have married his father.

Dammit, the comics keep stealing my life-partner’s thoughts!

Jason is a smart kid, but he doesn’t know much about wooing.

uniqueistaken said, about 2 hours ago

Wait, so Jason was born in mid November?

Nope. In another Valentine’s Day strip, Roger gives Andy some ridiculously unromantic present, and she sarcastically asks him if he’s ever wondered why none of their kids have birthdays in November. So I interpret her comment to Jason the same way that Reddheadd does, i.e., that Andy never would have married Roger if he had ever tried any of Jason’s Valentine ideas while they were dating.

Trapper and Edcole: sheesh, go get a room, you two!

I love how Jason is holding the heart and keeps examining it curiously, like it is something he doesn’t understand. So perfect! Well done!

Hey, you know what? This would make an excellent daily comic. I bet the audience is strong enough to support it. And the artist definitely has the talent. We should encourage him to give it a try.

Edcole’s statement is true. However, that is just one theory. No one know for sure why it is precisely that shape. Another theory that has been advanced is that it is modeled after a cow’s heart. Which makes just as much sense if you think about it. Everyone would have known what a cow’s heart looked like back then, a human heart not so much.

No need to go to church or temple just read the comments here and your covered. :p

Dypak said “Hey, you know what? This would make an excellent daily comic. I bet the audience is strong enough to support it. And the artist definitely has the talent. We should encourage him to give it a try.”

It was a daily comic until 2007. Universal Press Syndicate issued a press release stating that Amend’s strip, FoxTrot, would turn into a Sunday-only strip. Amend stated that he wants to continue doing the strip, but at a less hurried pace.

They are rerunning the daily FoxTrot comics under “FoxTrot Classics.”

Partly it derives from the notion of the “sacred heart.” Which may well derive from mythology. But have a brain here and forgive each other. :) Ed can toddle off to the red light district and research to his ….’s content.

notinksanymore said,

“Edcole’s statement is true. However, that is just one theory. No one know for sure why it is precisely that shape. Another theory that has been advanced is that it is modeled after a cow’s heart. Which makes just as much sense if you think about it. Everyone would have known what a cow’s heart looked like back then, a human heart not so much.”

It is a theory because no one really knows for sure… and at this distance in time, there is no way that anyone can really know.

…but of course if someone puts it up on the internet, it must be true, right Edcole1961?

Edcole1961: The heart is supposed to represent ARMPIT HAIR?

As I already mentioned, it was on a documentary about Pompeii. And as I’m sure Ushindi really knows, it was a bit lower than the armpits.

It’s a heart, its shape is determined. Who really cares?

Come on people, you might as well argue over whether or not Greek mythos has any merit as why a heart is shaped the way it is. The answers are NOT AVAILABLE!

I read somewhere that our idea of a heart shape came from the heart of a frog. If you Google “frog heart” (like this link http://www.digitalfrog.com/store/product.php?productid=16147&cat=0&page=1) you’ll notice that the top of a frog heart has two chambers and the bottom is pointed. I’m surprised that Jason doesn’t pay attention in Biology class…

Wow. I always thought that willpower, soul and spirit were the center of emotions. (hey dont blame me. im still a kid

I like Jason’s idea!

I thought they were originally bollocks…