Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 29, 2009

I believe it.

i’m hanging on every word.

Is this a subliminal suggestion to his listeners to withhold their doubts while he indulges himself as a raconteur?

I think I need a universal translator to understand Captain Eddy sometimes.

Naah, recon the captain has a babble fish stowed away somewhere…hey is that a Pan-Galactic-Gargle-Blaster on the counter?

I have great fun reading these out loud - trying to get the accent right… being from TX—well,, it provides comic relief

Pearland Peach

This strip keeps me healthy, for as it is said laughter is the best medicine. today’s strip gave me the biggest “belly” laugh that I have had in a long time. “Suspension of disbelief” indeed. Thanks Wiley, and a very happy and prosperous New Year to you and all your readers.

A TX. accent is comic relief.

Babble fish are not needed. I have a willing suspension of disbelief every time I watch the news.

Don’t mess with Texas.

Pearl; we have a couple of Newfs working here, and when THEY read it out loud you would swear you were on Capt Eddie’s boat. Uhm, Newf; Newfoundlander. Can’t understand a thing when they’re excited though.

…and I’m so excited for the new tale of adventures with Capt. Eddie. ‘bout time!

Wiley did it again. yesterday you were mistaken pearlandpeach. check out the third panel. joe is on the corner (end) of the counter. in the last panel, capt.eddie is. check out inside of counter. perspective has got nothing to do with it unless the counter is square which it’s not. the shot glass has also been set upright. thanks for keeping me looking for the little things in life, Wiley. hey, joe-allen, it’s a narrative. you’re not hearing the native’s accent, duh.

To understand Cap’n Eddy you have to spent a few months in the New England states.

or have lived in florida for here we speak all sorts of ways and hardly none the right way.

Been to Tobongobongo, the natives do speak, Capn Eddieish. This strip makes my day. Thanks Wiley.

Just add an R to the end of words that don’t have R’s at all and replace R’s with an H when the words do have an R and you have a pretty good head start with Eddieish.

its u-shaped and what shot class?

The Maine accent is ALMOST perfect, but for “Northeaster.” I know that every weatherman on the East coast says “nor’easter” but it should be “noth’easter.” The “r” is dropped–ask anybody at Moody’s Diner

They spoke in tongues.

vex, there’s a local RI cartoonist who does “How To Talk Good, Like A Rhode Islander Should.” I saw this on a T-shirt, actually:

Picture of a lady: “Brender” Picture of an appliance: “Blendah”

jsprat - Could be any “Coastah” (Coaster) including Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, Mass., etc. Wiley, another great job, thank you.

People in Maine speak English? Capt. Eddie must go through a lot of boats….Oh, man I love hangin’ out at Flo’s Offshore Dinner. How ‘bout a round for everyone? I’m buyin’. You can get a beer there, right?

With all due respect, the new Star Treks came up with the universal translator concept to explain away the need for suspension, but they still take it for granted. But I prefer the realistic approach like Enemy Mine or Dances with Wolves where they take the time to learn the other language. A “linguist” helps too, like in Star Gate, or a translator to get the story rolling like the hot blue chick in Avatar. I have trouble suspending my disbelief when communication between two cultures who have never encountered each other is effortless.

I think that was the point of the strip - how we take language for granted

My first trip to Boston (in 1962), I asked directions for my MTA (Boston subway) ride and was told to “change at Pack Street”. At least that’s what I heard. I was two stops past Park Street before I figured out the accent, and realized that should have been my transfer point. True story!

hey, pearlandpeach, u shaped? how can it be u-shaped iffin it’s got corners? look at yesterdays toon and see shot glass tipped over to left of capt. eddie’s coffe cup. today it’s upright. love it dtut. visting Boston with our son, years ago…..after listening to a couple next to say, he asked, “dad, what’s a cah?” after the laughter died down, we told him it was a mode of inner city transportation.

Wifey Bits and I spent three winters in the Brunswick, Maine vicinity at the behest of the United States Navy. She had a great deal of trouble understanding the heavier of the locals’ accents, and she has a quite lovely Texas drawl herself.

On one occasion she tried to purchase a money order from a local mom-and-pop market. The clerk, an older woman, could not understand Wifey Bits’ accent, nor could Wifey Bits understand the clerk. Much hilarity ensued until a French Canadian gentleman with a broad smile on his face intervened and acted as an interpreter.

On another occasion, we stopped at a road-side market to buy some locally grown potatoes. WB went to the counter, a wooden, open-air stand at the back of an 18-wheeler, while I waited in the car. I could seen the clerk and his helper begin laughing as they produced a bag for WB. She came back to the car red-faced. I asked what happened and she shook her head.

” I forgot where we are…I just asked them for a ‘tee-yun pay-ownd bag o’ taters’…”

@hymenoxis, you reminded me of another Boston experience. My aforementioned trip was a scouting trip for grad school, where I eventually attended. While there, my best friend was a Texan with a real slow drawl, and my roommate an Oxford man who spoke a fast, clipped King’s English. Whenever they were in the same room, my job was interpreter.

I had a friend from Sacco, Maine. He’d call it a Noth-easta, & he’d use vowels found nowhere else on Earth.

@Wilphart, how about when Lewis and Clark met the Shoshone tribe? In Shoshone Chief Cameahwait spoke to Sacagawea, who translated into Hidatsa for her husband, Charbonneau. Charbonneau passed the message along in French to corpsman Francois Labiche, who repeated it in English for Lewis. This process repeated in reverse for any responses.

This is good ejicashun. I larnt to spell readin Pogo.

Cap’n Eddie’s at it again. Where’s my shovel?

DON’T worry aboot it Joe!

Just read it, ya heah?

Coming from four years in the Ozarks to South Boston, I felt the culture shock of ‘pahk yer cah’ with my hillbilly speech patterns (coming into fifth grade, no less). After about a year, it was less, but it certainly leaves an impression.