2013-10-04 Do both

[Cortez]

Now he has to date both of them for a month before the sex contest, right?

Unlikely, seeing as he's still freaked out over Senna's extra bits and shows no sign of sexual interest in Sandra.

.

Wrong on both counts, it wasn't made very clear Gary has no problem with Senna's bits and he is sexually attracted to her and her perfect butt. And the last few strips made it clear Gary thought Sandra is "super cool".

[Thor]

Belgium?

Belgium???

What is he talking about? There's no culture in Belgium. Belgium is this unremarkable land between the pastoral expanse of Calais and the provincial southern counties of The Netherlands. It's a country where the "government"--when they can actually agree to have one--is contested between a lot of people who speak French wrong and a lot of people who speak Dutch wrong. (And since Dutch is actually German spoken wrong, they are double-wrong in Belgium.) It is said when the Old Gods were creating Europe, they took an area of land and concentrated all that was good and noble and wise in one small area, and then broke that area off from the rest. The small area became Luxembourg and the left-over wastelands became known as "Belgium", which in the language of the Old Gods means "Keep driving".

No seriously, what is up with the name "Belgium"? That's not the name of a nation. That's the name of a chemical element, and not one of the popular ones. "I dug here hoping to extract palladium and titanium, but all I found was bedrock and a lot of belgium ores, damn it."

It's this country that nobody knows anything about. It's a gap between much more important states. Or in terms that even an American can understand, it's Iowa with a coastline. It's #1 on the list of places in Europe that never even occur to you to visit. One can only assume that Gary is not actually suggesting that they leave Paris and go to Belgium, but rather he is manifesting a case of Tourette's syndrome, and has no control of what is coming out of his mouth.

[Schmorgluck]

In Belgium there is bande dessinée... Could it be ?... It's called "9e art" after all.

That must be it. Although Belgium is a dangerous country for Sandra, with all those delicious beers...

[Spidrift]

Oh well, points to Gary for actually spontaneously saying something. Just not very many, because he appears to be burbling at random.

It's possible that there's some kind of manga/geek reference here that I'm missing, but in that case, so are a lot of other people, it seems. The only one I can think of off-hand is HHGttG, which seems to be a bit too classic-geek for Gary, and anyway I doubt that he'd resort to the worst obscenity in the universe, even in these circumstances.

No, I think that "Belgium" is just a random word here. (Strictly speaking, a random place name, given that it's "To Belgium!") Though I could just about construct an argument for Gary's IQ having jumped forty points here, given that Belgian culture is curiously geeky. They seem to have an even greater fondness for bande dessinée than the French, they gave the world Tintin, Plastic Bertrand, and René Magritte (two out of three ain't bad), they have a whole national cuisine that appears to be built on chips*, waffles, and chocolate**, and one of the main landmarks in their capital city is this:


So maybe Gary is being uncannily correct here. But I suspect that he's actually being Gary.

*"French fries", if you're a barbarian. Or is that still "freedom fries"?
**Oh God, yes, the chocolate...

[Storm-forge mystique]

Belgium?

Belgium???

What is he talking about? There's no culture in Belgium. Belgium is this unremarkable land between the pastoral expanse of Calais and the provincial southern counties of The Netherlands. It's a country where the "government"--when they can actually agree to have one--is contested between a lot of people who speak French wrong and a lot of people who speak Dutch wrong. (And since Dutch is actually German spoken wrong, they are double-wrong in Belgium.) It is said when the Old Gods were creating Europe, they took an area of land and concentrated all that was good and noble and wise in one small area, and then broke that area off from the rest. The small area became Luxembourg and the left-over wastelands became known as "Belgium", which in the language of the Old Gods means "Keep driving".

No seriously, what is up with the name "Belgium"? That's not the name of a nation. That's the name of a chemical element, and not one of the popular ones. "I dug here hoping to extract palladium and titanium, but all I found was bedrock and a lot of belgium ores, damn it."

It's this country that nobody knows anything about. It's a gap between much more important states. Or in terms that even an American can understand, it's Iowa with a coastline. It's #1 on the list of places in Europe that never even occur to you to visit. One can only assume that Gary is not actually suggesting that they leave Paris and go to Belgium, but rather he is manifesting a case of Tourette's syndrome, and has no control of what is coming out of his mouth.

And yet, you put it in charge.

(...of course, I associate random trips to Belgium with... *cough, cough*.)

[Raamyah]

Is there gonna be a GGaR crossover?

That's what I'm hoping!

[Azrael]

(Belgium? What's in Belgium?)

Waffles?

Chocolate. To appease and soothe.

[Spidrift]

Moules marinières with frites, waffles, that chocolate, and the beer. Not to mention some amazing town halls, the Magritte Museum, and for that matter old Bruges and the battlefield of Waterloo. The cookery may not be quite as sophisticated as in Paris, but there are some reasons to visit the place.

[rpr]

The only thing I can think of is that FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Developer European Meeting) is held every year in Brussels. During FOSDEM the concentration of geeks per square meter is beyond even the most permissible safety levels... But I do not think that this is the right reference.

[Pier777]

Belgium?

Belgium???

What is he talking about? There's no culture in Belgium. Belgium is this unremarkable land between the pastoral expanse of Calais and the provincial southern counties of The Netherlands. It's a country where the "government"--when they can actually agree to have one--is contested between a lot of people who speak French wrong and a lot of people who speak Dutch wrong. (And since Dutch is actually German spoken wrong, they are double-wrong in Belgium.) It is said when the Old Gods were creating Europe, they took an area of land and concentrated all that was good and noble and wise in one small area, and then broke that area off from the rest. The small area became Luxembourg and the left-over wastelands became known as "Belgium", which in the language of the Old Gods means "Keep driving".

No seriously, what is up with the name "Belgium"? That's not the name of a nation. That's the name of a chemical element, and not one of the popular ones. "I dug here hoping to extract palladium and titanium, but all I found was bedrock and a lot of belgium ores, damn it."

It's this country that nobody knows anything about. It's a gap between much more important states. Or in terms that even an American can understand, it's Iowa with a coastline. It's #1 on the list of places in Europe that never even occur to you to visit. One can only assume that Gary is not actually suggesting that they leave Paris and go to Belgium, but rather he is manifesting a case of Tourette's syndrome, and has no control of what is coming out of his mouth.

*LOL* Thank god you live in Belgium or I would find it very disconcerting that someone would have such strong feelings against Belgium of all countries! Totally off-track from the comic, but I remember when I visited Belgium many moons ago. I was a kid, and my father had business there, so we rented a car and decided to go to other countries when the work part is done. I remember being told that Belgium is like "Poland" was in the US when making all those Polish jokes. I thought this was hogwash! But then I remembered going to France, my dad did a wrong turn or something and a gendarme (French Police) stopped us, about to give us a ticket, then seeing the license plate from Belgium, just rolled his eyes and waved us through. So I guess sometimes being the butt of everyone's joke is beneficial... maybe?

[texasfanboy]

The significance of Belgium, among many geeks, is that it is, simply put, the most offensive word in the known universe.

It represents something so abhorrent, so vile, that it's use is reserved exclusively for the gravest of insults, or very serious screenplays vying for one award or another, simply because use of the word is perceived as "edgy" among the youth of the galaxy.

Except on one planet, where they went so far as to give the word to a nation as a name. And that's why the galaxy never visits us.

In other words: In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, "Belgium" is a four-letter word.

Thus, it's possible that Gary, being a geek who has probably read the novels many times over, upon finding himself in a situation in which he needs to startle the people around him enough to gather his senses, threw that out there. After all, nobody excepts Belgium.

[magco2000]

I thought they would decide by gary...again

[Vaken]

I don't know what are the things that everybody's calling "belgian waffles". We have the "gaufres de Bruxelles" and the "gaufres de Liège". Very different things. And if you happen to be in Liège in october, it's worth going to the fair, where you can get "Lacquemants". Definitely worth the risk of getting your fingers sticked together for a few days ;)

Ok. What do we have in Belgium which might interest Gary ? Both geek and culture ? Yes, "la bande dessinée". It must be it. There must be an exhibition about Spirou at the moment (75 years old this year, but he doesn't look that old really). Although I don't remember where.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see where this is going

[brasca]

It could be a ploy to buy time. Sandra's interest in geek culture is motivated by her job, but I didn't think Senna cared so much about real culture. I think she's more interested in impressing Gary in a completely foreign land and she could do that just as easily in Belgium. She might even stand out more in a place that isn't one of the fashion capitals of the world which might be enough to convince her to go.

[Nihzlet]

Huh. Knowing essentially nothing about Belgium, my first thought was that Gary was going to use Google street view on the WiiU to look around at some cultural site in Belgium, thus combining the geekiness of the WiiU with the culture of another country.

Though that might be because my first thought in any situation would pretty much NEVER be, "let's leave the country!".