Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 06, 2010

Hmm. Wonder what’s up? Bolt for bathroom to barf from nervous tension flashback, or retrieving sidearm from under front seat of car? Other?

The appearance of an Iraqi may have led to a painful flashback. THe effect of TBI can be unpredicatble.

Alex, don’t screw this one up.

GEE1A,

I would guess that Toggle would be ok with a mosque near ground zero because (a) thinking about it is an intellectual exercise, and (b) Toggle is GT’s creation. Being suddenly aware of an Iraqi sitting in front of him I think would be a shock on a more visceral level.

As a story line, I think this could really get interesting!

GT - Great!

90% of the whackos who look for deep meaningful political overtones will completely miss the LOL of equating Metallica with music, never mind any BACH influences that might be found . There’s a Masters Thesis hidden in there!

Yes I could clearly hear the Bach influence on the early tunes like “Unforgiven” and “Enter Sandman”…..

A university course in pop-music? I must start my Bachelor’s in Basket-Weaving at once!

Moldie oldies, huh?

Uh-oh …

I was forced to take a popular music course as an undergrad. The professor was fixated on African Blues influence on early60s British rock. Wow, no notes, text or final. I hope the other students gave the same eval as me.

Re: Toggle. It’s like a WWII vet encountering a German émigré, or a Vietnam vet encountering a Vietnamese émigré. There’s going to be shock even if this guy was one who helped the Americans.

Re: the music. If you’re going to study old music, which I agree with, then there’s logic to studying what people listen to today. But then, for those who feel music and art are useless, it will never make sense. As to Lewreader’s experience with no notes, text or final, that’s not a problem with the subject matter - that’s a problem with the instructor.

Here is one of the world’s greatest lead guitarists, Yngwie Malmsteen, playing Bach’s “Air on G String”: http://youtu.be/AjCavHWBRHg

Or maybe Toggle is worried the Iraqi guy may not be comfortable with a US vet?

GEE1A, perhaps Toggle is smart enough to know that Iraqis had NOTHING to do with Ground Zero.

Toggle is just trying to get out of the blast radius of the suicide vest that he suspects Hakim is wearing.

..I barf at the mention of the band that sued it’s own fans,too…

Why is “Ground Zero”, a term reserved, prior to September 11, 2001, for descriptions of nuclear blasts, applied to the WTC aircraft strike sites? Who first applied the term in this manner and why?

Toggle - moving away from “people, places & things” that may trigger his grief, rage, flashbacks

Lew, did you write a paper for the course? Do any homework? Contribute intelligently in class? There is more to a course than a textbook & a final exam. In addition, what school would FORCE you to take a course in popular music?

If Dr. Shipley is bringing up Metallica, then why wasn’t it on the syllabus or recommended listening list? if it was , then why doesn’t Hakim know it? Unless this is merely a brief tangent to the day’s discussion, Hakim’s excuse is a bit hollow.

Looking forward to this week’s story.

heeyuk said: Why is “Ground Zero”, a term reserved, prior to September 11, 2001, for descriptions of nuclear blasts, applied to the WTC aircraft strike sites? Who first applied the term in this manner and why?

Interesting question. I can’t recall specifics, but I do have the impression that “Ground Zero” was used before 9/11 to refer to the point of origin of any notable, usually catastrophic, event. (Epidemiologists have long used “patient zero” in the same way.) But who did make the first use of Ground Zero in the context of the WTC towers on 9/11? Anybody?

@BrianCook: I’ve lived here since 1957 and I have no Metallica in my collection of music though I have heard of them I don’t listen to them enough to make a comparison. It may have been on the syllabus but who goes by that thing word for word?

^^ “Ground Zero” as applied to the trade centers, I believe was first used in a speech by President Bush. Why? I don’t know. Good question!

Like BrianCook, I look forward to this new arc. What’s GT’s target? Comments so far have picked out three possibilities: (1) the “moldy-oldy” pop culture (as SuperGriz labels it) that gets embalmed in academic classrooms, (2) Leo’s PTS/TBI that causes him to bolt at the mention of Iraq, and (3) the pathetic situation of American Moslems who are reminded daily that most of their fellow-Americans judge them to be out of touch with “hip” culture.

Does an Iraqi-American—-who, having acquired a second culture, probably enjoys Bach—-have to play toneless “music” to prove he doesn’t sympathize with terrorists? Was Timothy McVeigh a fan of Metallica? By ducking out, Leo is missing a chance to show his classmates that he’s a full-blooded, tone-deaf American—-like his ditsy professor.

Academics who think Metallica compares with Bach probably also take jihad seriously as a world religion.

Prof. Shipley sees only forms, not values; Leo understands values, but only so long as they’re “cool.” Leo needs to broaden his experience. The professor is a clown, but he can make Leo aware of different, formal points of view. Hakim has already mastered alternative viewpoints.

Ps. Hoping to keep an open mind worthy of Dr. Shipley’s students, I listened to the Air on the G String played on electric guitar. After two minutes, I had to bolt like Leo. If anyone else wants to try, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_pkJc7dKvA&NR=1

Sheik, Sorry, I told everyone in Non Sequitor you had the day off and were in the ‘toon fishing.

Happy Labor Day! to you and everyone else.

I think this has the potential to be a great story line.

Palin drome, that’s quite a bit to read into the first day. Prof Shipley has been in this strip before, and been level headed and compassionate to Toggle’s situation. I think it would dawn on him what just happened.

Shipleys’ subject matter matches Toggle’s interests, and provides a little comic relief.

More interesting to me would be the potential dialogue between Hakim and Toggle. I don’t think Hakim has been in the strip (although I don’t think GT would make him a bad guy) so he could be confrontational, sympathetic, apathetic - who knows?

oops, wrong class

Elv… er, Toggle has left the building!

We have a runner! Sound the alarm!

Back in the late 80s - early 90s I worked at an electronics company. We made microwave power tubes. In our work space was a testing area where I worked as an engineering tech and next to that area was a clean room. There was a large window/wall separating the two so that the residents of one could look into the work space of the other.

Of the twenty or so assemblers in the clean room I guess 17 of them were Vietnamese. All immigrants - refugees of the Vietnam war.

Since I had spent considerable time in their wonderful land, I became friendly with several of them. I had an opportunity to return to my Vietnamese language use from those days, one of them had been a KC scout and one had actually been in the Vietnamese Army after 1975 and had fought in and was wounded in the Cambodian war.

My job in the test area was to do power tests and adjustments of microwave tubes under production and aging. Because of the nature of the job it took a lot of concentration and at times you would just “get lost” in the process. One particularly truculent tube had my complete attention for a long time (the better part of the afternoon) before it bent to my will and performed its electronic task to my satisfaction.

As I was removing the tube from the test rack, I happened to glance up and I found myself locked in eye contact with a young Vietnamese man dressed in a light green t-shirt with jungle utility trousers and a light green hair cover. Not a net exactly, more like a cloth shower cap. But the most memorable feature was those eyes… Ah, yes, those eyes…

As the moment passed the old tunnel-vision started encroaching and the next thing I knew it was late in the evening and I was sitting under the beam of several flashlights several hundred yards out into a wooded area behind our building. According to other techs working with me at the point where I had finished my testing on that tube I had just walked out of the building and disappeared. After quitting time that day when I had not come back in to work and my car was still in the parking lot so the level of concern was raised a little.

One of the flashlights was being held by the young Vietnamese fellow I had seen through the window.

Sometimes you have a trigger point. Over the years they have mostly gone away.

Mostly.

Well explained. Thank you for sharing, legacyshooter.

Is Dr. Shipley a play on Peter Schickele, aka PDQ Bach? He even looks like him.

http://www.schickele.com/

A mosque at Ground Zero would be a wonderful place for my friend Talat Hamdani to pray for the peaceful rest of her son Salman Hamdani, an NYPD cadet who gave his life trying to save others regardless of faith or political leanings on 9/11/01.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v374/75/27/1592884651/n1592884651412227930.jpg

Thank you for that, randgrithr!

Palindrome,

Bach was satirically included in the “moldie oldie” category.

LS,

Your posts are always appreciated. Thank you.

jimdotz the Malmsteen was interesting, but i prefer the orchestra. the idea of electric guitars playing classical pieces reminds me of several scenes in “Crossroads” (the Ralph Macchio film not the other one) where Macchio’s character was incorporating classical music into blues riffs (all of which was played by Ry Cooder if memory serves). it can be good, but it can also be very bad!

Who is Metallica, does he get his tongue stuck a lot in winter?

metallica had something to do with “music”????

“Ahhh, Bach.”

I believe (not know…) that the term “Ground Zero” was used at the Trinity site for the first nuclear weapon blast. Whether it was the FIRST use or not is up for research. Any scholar-types out there?

The professor’s name seems to be misspelled; it was “Shiply” in his previous story.

http://www.gocomics.com/features/search?search_string=toggle+dr+shiply