UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

5 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Dangerous slang…

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Clint

Back in my Theatre Major days in college (and yes, we did spell it poncy like that despite being in ‘Merica), they taught us an important shout. That shout was “heads!”

What did that mean? Basically to get the hell out of the way because someone up in the rigging just dropped something heavy. It was most likely short for “heads up!” but shortened to one syllable since every second counts in a situation like that. Also you probably shouldn’t actually be looking up in response since the only good that would do would be letting you see the wrench about to land on your face.

There was the possibility of course that you might dodge *into* the danger by accident, but at least you were aware of it. Plenty of warning words and phrases like this are sprinkled throughout the English language, e.g. “look out!” or “duck!” or even that mainstay of golf, “fore!”

Then I thought of the Flores family, who are obviously bilingual but one of the phenomena that can happen there is that in times of stress you might revert back to your native language. How would you shout “look out!” in Spanish, particularly Mexican Spanish (since when you get into slang it can diverge as much as Australia and America).

A little research and consultation and I had an intriguing answer, which was ¡Aguas!

But wait, you may ask, doesn’t that just mean “water?”

Yes, but it’s all about the context isn’t it? Just like “duck” is a species of waterfowl unless you happen to be shouting it at someone with concern in your tone. Duck is apparently from an Old English word meaning to submerge or dive and was applied to the way that certain common waterfowl will often upend itself seeking something to eat. It also explains the name of the unpleasant practice known as ducking a witch.

In the case of aguas, the derivation of the warning usage turns out to be more in line with “heads!” as it is generally surmised to be a term coming from before indoor plumbing when the common practice was to toss your dirty bathwater (and worse) out into the street, sometimes from an upper window. Not a practice unique to Spain or Mexico, just crowded cities in general, but here it was basically saying there was some nasty liquid about to rain down and you might be well advised to run for cover. And rather than wasting time specifying the particular kind of nasty liquid it was shortened down but everyone knew (or would quickly learn) that it was not going to be the kind of water you’d get fresh from mountain springs.

Fast forward to where indoor plumbing has become commonplace in most cities around the globe including the Spanish-speaking ones, but much like “half cocked” the slang has survived and in modern usage has little to do with literal water or liquid but just a way to quickly and loudly let someone know to be wary. Pay attention. “Duck” and cover.

I’m sure at least as many puns have been made based on that as we’ve done with “duck” but where actual danger is involved it’s probably best to dodge first and think about the particulars later.