# 9 Chickweed Lane **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910 "2012-04-05T13:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/41 "2012-04-13T05:41:19Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > > [@salinqmind](#): > > > > The comments section on I think its [comics.com](http://comics.com) under 9 Chickweed Lane has long been disabled. Doesn’t the artist want comments, or were there just too many coming in? > > Too many that were too critical. IIRC, it was on [comics.com](http://comics.com) that there was one poster who would routinely take the day’s strip, turn it into something obscene, and repost it. They tried several times to get rid of him, but he’d register with another name and keep at it. Disabling comments seemed to be a last-ditch tactic. (That’s not to say there wasn’t criticism, some of it [MHO] unnecessarily caustic. I guess I never will understand the mental state that impels people to continue reading something they know they won’t like.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/42 "2012-04-13T14:42:51Z")
Hey, **'plant**! Have you gotten a reply from Brooke yet? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/43 "2012-04-13T15:27:11Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > (That’s not to say there wasn’t criticism, some of it [MHO] unnecessarily caustic. I guess I never will understand the mental state that impels people to continue reading something they know they won’t like.) [Per this thread about TV shows that you hate but watch](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=647985), it seems to be a mix of wanting it to get back to being better, force of habit, slowing down to watch an accident scene, and other people you know watching it. Plus comic strips take maybe 5 seconds to process, versus 20 minutes+ for a TV show, so really it’s pretty easy to get sucked back in. Me, I stopped reading some time after Seth fucked … whatsherface. The dark-haired Latina ballerina, can’t remember her name right now. But then I found out that Edda was probably preggers but not doing a damned rational thing about it. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/44 "2012-04-13T15:46:18Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Hey, **'plant**! Have you gotten a reply from Brooke yet? Nope. I asked him form Drusilla’s email address. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/45 "2012-04-13T16:08:06Z")
Just to stretch it out even longer, now we are taking a trip down memory lane with WWII gram and husband :rolleyes:. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/46 "2012-04-13T16:27:33Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Just to stretch it out even longer, now we are taking a trip down memory lane with WWII gram and husband :rolleyes:. [Today’s strip](http://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2012/04/13) is back on topic, and insightful as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/47 "2012-04-13T18:28:43Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Just to stretch it out even longer, now we are taking a trip down memory lane with WWII gram and husband :rolleyes:. From the 12th - did he mean that he prefers to imagine/pretend (“remember”) they were together in 1954 rather than what really did happen? Because they definitely weren’t together then if I remember that storyline correctly. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/48 "2012-04-13T19:12:47Z")
I’ll have to check the book, but I believe it was right around then that Edie and Peter renewed their affair in New York. That would have been when she got pregnant with Juliette and Bill got discharged from the hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/49 "2012-04-13T19:15:25Z")
Hmm, now that you mention the hospital discharge, you may well be right about the timing. I was starting to feel like the recounting of the “luuuuuuuv child” story was happening in real time… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/50 "2012-04-13T20:19:22Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Hmm, now that you mention the hospital discharge, you may well be right about the timing. I was starting to feel like the recounting of the “luuuuuuuv child” story was happening in real time… Except that this means that Bill spent a decade malingering? Wow, I’d forgotten it was **that** long; I was remembering it as a couple years. And means Edie was in her late 20s or early 30s when they married, which was probably “old maid” status at the time. And that pegs Juliette as fast approaching 60 years old. Botox, or do her Übermensch genetics help? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/51 "2012-04-13T20:48:46Z")
Don’t try to match the time-frames. Edda was 12 in 1992 when the strip debuted. That would make her 32 now if we keep to a real-world timeline. Besides, a whole year worth of strips took about a week or less of strip time (the war years). So the frames are pretty well screwed up. It would take an Act of Monty to make sense of them now. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/52 "2012-05-05T12:33:39Z")
Today’s strip hints that Edda’s going the abortion route. But not once in all the preceding panels has anyone actually said the word “pregnant”, so I don’t know what McEldowney has up his sleeve. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/53 "2012-05-05T13:41:57Z")
I’ve only read a bit of this comic, coming to it via the Comics Curmudgeon. At first glance it seems to be 80% curvy women and 20% storyline. Is this comic the mirror universe’s [Oglaf.com](http://Oglaf.com)? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/54 "2012-05-05T16:51:58Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I’ve only read a bit of this comic, coming to it via the Comics Curmudgeon. At first glance it seems to be 80% curvy women and 20% storyline. > > Is this comic the mirror universe’s [Oglaf.com](http://Oglaf.com)? I think that would be [Pigborn](http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn), by the same guy who does 9 Chickweed Lane. [Pibgorn features plenty of curvy women, sometimes cameos from 9CL, demons, fairies, and Thorax](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pibgorn_(webcomic)). It is currently in a repeat arc while the artist works on the new arc. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/55 "2012-05-08T02:33:51Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > Today’s strip hints that Edda’s going the abortion route. But not once in all the preceding panels has anyone actually said the word “pregnant”, so I don’t know what McEldowney has up his sleeve. Is the dark-haired woman supposed to be what a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice person sounds like, or what a pro-choice person thinks a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice woman sounds like? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/56 "2012-05-08T02:41:09Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > Is the dark-haired woman supposed to be what a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice person sounds like, or what a pro-choice person thinks a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice woman sounds like? That’s about as confusing as the comic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/57 "2012-05-08T04:39:20Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > [@Tamex](#): > > > > > [@teela\_brown](#): > > > > > > Today’s strip hints that Edda’s going the abortion route. But not once in all the preceding panels has anyone actually said the word “pregnant”, so I don’t know what McEldowney has up his sleeve. > > > > Is the dark-haired woman supposed to be what a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice person sounds like, or what a pro-choice person thinks a pro-life person thinks a pro-choice woman sounds like? > > That’s about as confusing as the comic. 🙂 Which, in turn, is about as hard to parse as the [panel](http://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2012/05/05) that started this subthread. Incidentally, my take on that panel is exactly the opposite of **teela brown** ’s, but it does seem to be deliberately ambiguous. Though McEldowney is hard to predict — being noted (or perhaps “notorious” is perhaps a better word) for plot contrivances — I wouldn’t be surprised if this winds down somewhat like the aftermath of Diane and Francis’s honeymoon. That [panel](http://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2008/01/03), MHO, is one of his most poignant. BTW, does the dark-haired woman remind anyone else of Death in the last _Pibgorn_ story arc? I’m too lazy to look it up, but there seems to be a definite family resemblance. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/58 "2012-05-08T04:41:22Z")
I like this comic, but I just hope this current storyline won’t become a political platform for pro-choice vs. pro-life. …simply based upon today’s comic. Although, I still would probably read the comic through the whole argument. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/59 "2012-05-08T13:06:35Z")
The Author/Artist mentions that [here.](http://www.chickweedcafe.blogspot.com/p/frequently-addressed-questions.html) Sorry if someone else posted first. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910/60 "2012-05-08T13:51:54Z")
My charitable WAG is that the abortion-advocating letter writers were doing so because it’s hard to think of a single semi-well-known fictional woman who’s actually decided on that of her own will and then gone through with it. Often a convenient miscarriage intervenes, etc. Not so much the “woohoo, abortions for everyone!” outcry that he’s suggesting. But for every opinion there are a few crackpots, so who knows. Then again, Edda’s managed to travel on a whim to Austria without bothering to inform her roommate/coworker, her job, or her boyfriend/father-to-be **and** without even stopping by a drugstore to pick up a urine pregnancy test. Considering she might (in the real world, at least) be unemployed soon due to this stunt or her potentially-growing belly, someone needs to give her a serious talk about how adults prioritize and make good decisions. (Not to mention that she’s even listening to screamed orders/advice from Seth about keeping the baby; he’s gay with a long-term boyfriend but wanted to marry what’s-her-face when he thought she might be pregnant from their trysts, right? Or was it just that she’d been a virgin and he wanted to “make an honest woman of her?” I forget.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-chickweed-lane/617910.md?page=4)