It’s never too early to start preparing the roast beast.
The Nest’s SYW intro featured Shelf critter for this week is that longtime regular in the obituary column, Buster Possum! Buster was already in the Evil Squirrel gang when I started this blog 10 years ago, and transitioned over to Shelf Critter Theatre thanks to the wonderful “topsy turvy” doll YoungAtFifty made for the first annual Contest of Whatever that folds out into both ES and Buster. And because Buster’s face looks so bright and cheerful on his amigurumi effigy, I made that his personality in the Theatre… a drastic change from the nasty, creepy, asking for bad karma critter he was in my comic strip.
Such a happy looking possum! Let’s behead him!
Buster dies… and dies…. and dies. It’s been his calling card since the early days of my comic strip in 2012, and it definitely followed him into SCT where he almost always meets his demise in every episode he appears in. So naturally, his recurring death gag would inspire the SCT question I’d ask on his behalf…
Come on, dude! We need a question here!
And while I had a few potential questions prepared… last week’s SCT SYW segment was a bit of a learning experience for me in getting a sample of what kind of taste many of the other participants have, as opposed to my tastelessness. Mitzi’s unicorn horn question seemed to really get some heads scratching out there.
So I’ll avoid the obvious death theme, and ask this SYW question based on Buster that should still challenge the imagination, which you all know I’m pretty big on…
If you were to be reincarnated on Earth as any non-living/inanimate object of your choosing, what would you come back as and why?
I’d definitely come back as my Buster doll!
Alright, let’s spray everything down with embalming fluid and get on with the main event, answering this week’s Share Your World questions! Provided, as always, by Melanie…
For Buster’s special day… and also bookmarked for Zeeba’s.
Can you parallel park (if you drive)? If you don’t drive, can you still skip?
No. Parallel parking isn’t much use in a suburban setting, and thankfully, they didn’t make me do that for my driving test. And yes, I can skip just fine… though I wouldn’t want to do it the entire four mile trek from home to Mecca…
Kudos to this guy, though, who apparently likes to commute to work by skipping.
Do you prefer early morning or late evening? Or something in between?
Early morning, because it means I’m getting off work, as opposed to late evening when I’m going to work…
This is my sun…
Do you like avocados?
I wouldn’t even know an avocado if it snuck up onto my plate and infested my fried chicken with its vegetable cooties. Seriously, keep that yucky stuff away from me…
Is someone a fussy eater?
Is mind or matter more real?
I think this calls for a practical experiment…
On the left we have Shadow, who would be the first to tell you he has an impressive mind.
SHADOW: I see you chose me for this demonstration because of my impressive mind!
Yeah. And on the right is Mitzi, who is certainly all…… well…… matter.
MITZI: And Mitzi, like, totally paid lots of moneys for all this matter too!!! (Mitzi cups her… um… matter melons and begins jiggling them)
SHADOW: I think we’ve seen enough already to know that mind is much more real than matter!
MITZI: Oh noes! Like, Mitzi totally thinks we need to, like, feel the goods to see what’s real and what’s, like, totally Memorex!
SHADOW: What are you doing!?!?!? Unhand me at once!!! You’re not even touching my mind!
MITZI: Mitzi, like, totally knows what you sex-ay guys always think with… so Mitzi’s, like, totally touching all the right parts of your beautiful mind!
SHADOW: This is giving me a very uncomfortable feeling inside my Pokeballs….
MITZI: You mean, like, your right and left mind lobes! Jiggle! Jiggle!
SHADOW: …………….
MITZI: Ooh, your mind’s totally getting bigger! You were right, the mind is so totally real… and now Mitzi’s matter is totally moisturized! A mind is, like, a terrible thing to waste….
SHADOW: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are people in this current generation less or more sensitive than people from past generations?
Well, when I was a kid, I could call another kid on the playground a fag, and he’d just respond by calling me a queer. Whereas if I called a kid from this generation a fag, I’d probably get thrown in prison…
Serves you right, you homo!
GRATITUDE SECTION
As usual, a random classic strip for you to enjoy… and one showing off Buster’s creepy comic persona!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
First I’ll answer your question……I would come back as a six-pack of bottled beer…..providing happiness to one or more people, living life in the FAST lane, then winding up being recycled and turned into a glass sculpture. So there. I happen to be a big fan of avocados. Not on a burger like some people do (ick) but in a salad. They’re pretty danged tasty. No parallel parking on my driving test (hard to park a dinosaur) but I think I COULD if I had to….it wouldn’t be pretty though.
Pam
My idea of parallel parking is what I think they call double parking. Hey, the cars are parallel AND parked! What more do they want?
we love that kind of science eggs-periments… and we are with you, da early morning is better than the evening…..because there is no sin in the morning…. but in the evening…
Mitzi does the best experiments… and doesn’t mind doing the trials over and over again..
Thanks E.S. for Sharing Your Wonderful World (seen through a glass weirdly). I love it that Buster will be featured, I have some ideas already for his cameo photo.. heheh. I agree that there are places in the world (I live in one of them) where learning to parallel park is a useless ‘skill’ kinda like algebra or trigonometry or *shudder gag* calculus (if you ask me). Seeing the sun come up each day must be very soothing, and the additional knowledge that you get to sleep while the rest of the world is toiling away (skating away on the thin ice *koff koff* Sorry Jethro Tull popped in my mind jukebox for a moment) is wondrous indeed! I worked for two years on graveyard shift (11 pm to 7 a.m.) and I never could get adjusted to that, it started to make me psychotic after a while which helps explains why I’m boring you with long ass unnecessary explanations. Good for you for enjoying the alternate (and I must admit much more peaceful) time line. A moon tan is always great! No avocados for you then! 😛 Have a great and fulfilling weekend! 😎 🐱👤🦄🦊🐿🐿🐿
Now that I’m working 9P-8A, I don’t get to see either the sunrise or sunset in the early part of the summer. And even with late DST, the sun will already be up when I get off in early November. Eh, I’ve never been a fan of the sun anyway. I burn too easily. Walking out into the morning sun (which shines right in Mecca’s front door) after being under fluorescent lighting for 11 hours is quite a trip, though…
In the world I used to live in, my “other living creature” I would have been “an oak tree.” These days, any animaI might want to be is in danger of going extinct or vanishing due to habitat loss — or is a tree about to be cut down so someone can build a McMansion where there used to be a woods with creatures living in it. In a better world, a really big tree or maybe a Raven. Now? Maybe a sparrow or one of those tough little red squirrels. Something that isn’t about to become extinct!
Parallel parking is the parking of the devil. I don’t think I had to do it on my driving test. I think they probably avoid it if possible because of the chance of clipping someone else’s car.
I think it used to be a part of driving tests back in the day (I sure got warned about it plenty from the old folks), but downtown was dead when I was a kid, and even now, most place have real parking lots. No need to squeeze into some tight spot along the street…
And that, dear Shelf friends is probably what’s wrong with the world. As for parallel parking…Uber doesn’t even begin to try-can you say double park? 🤪
Uber’s business model has always mystified me. Taxi drivers give me the creeps let alone random total strangers…