Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 26, 2023

And another strip based on a bad assumption.

Sledding with a fire extinguisher rocket just might be one of those BIG mistakes.

There’s a not-very-fine line between big enough to be interesting and small enough to survive.

With that sled, he’s more likely to spin than to do a straight line. But, then, Caulfield probably won’t care. Fun is fun. And Frazz will get to wear the foam.

Whatever size it is, it looks like Caulfield is prepared.

How big? Cause I don’t want to go to jail or anything.

The size of the mistake all depends on how Caulfield spins it.

But don’t let your mistakes hold you back, or take the fun out of life. If it was worth trying once, you’ll be a little smarter, and maybe luckier next time.

If your hammer misses the nail, is a dent in the wood beside the nail worse than a sore thumb?

Cute, but I doubt there is enough recoil action to move the saucer very far, if at all. Bloody mess though…

He’s taking lessons from Ed Crankshaft!

Since when do people learn from their mistakes? I suppose it happens sometimes but not very often.

It seems like an easy, fun ride. But the nozzle’s connection to the sled is Caufield. If there were enough thrust to overcome the sled’s inertia & stiction, he would have a tough time holding it and keeping his feet anchored to the sled. The work involved is equivalent to pulling the sled with someone his weight riding it. Weee!?? not so much.

The real problem with learning from our mistakes is over correction. Then making another mistake in the opposite direction, sometimes a worse mistake.

I’ve never shot off one of those things—fortunately!—so I don’t know how powerful they really are. From videos I’ve seen, though, it doesn’t look like it would have a lot of power: the person doesn’t seem to get blasted backwards noticeably. Anyone have some experience with this? Would Caulfield (parenthetical issue: is his name from the J.D. Salinger book, by any chance?) actually get much acceleration this way? Curious people want to know!

As the saying goes, “sin boldly!” :)

What doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.

Often the big mistakes take you to no man’s land where there is no turning back. Don’t accept drugs from a stranger Caulfield. You should see the people whose lives it’s destroyed.

Not everyone learns from their mistakes.

That’s not a mistake, that’s “research”. Caulfield will learn a lot of about vector physics from it with very little risk or expense (as long as he doesn’t have to pay for the refills). One of the first lessons will be that he won’t be able to see where he’s going. Frankly, I’d have given him a battery-powered leaf-blower so his experiments could last more than a few seconds, and he could experiment with different nozzle configurations. Just like in “Rocket Boys”, by Homer Hickam, he needs to do that sort of thing while he’s young and still bounces well.

On the dubious virtues of uninformed experimentation: All mushrooms are edible, some only once.

Would one of you please read to me what the last block says ? The ad gremlins have again taken over my screen and pusshed thr comic over. Thanks.

Caulfield is a bit too young to fit Ambrose Bierce’s definition of Experience. “The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.”

The smart learns from other mistakes. The high more complex the mistake the higher is your learning curve.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.