Bad Machinery by John Allison for August 17, 2022

As I said yesterday, this was originally posted as the bottom two-thirds of a three-row strip that began with the bottom row of yesterday’s strip. That’s why Shauna’s line and Mildred’s laughter in the first panel seem a bit apropos of nothing… they originally followed immediately after Lottie’s line (“Plenny more fish in the sea, Mildew.”) in the last panel of yesterday’s, without the strip break between.

This was originally the end of “The Case of the Fire Inside”, but this version has one more page still to go.

And, unfairly, Lottie has been banned from every pool in Britane even though she didn’t have a chance to do smoking.

Lottie’s face in the second panel! Is she having regrets??

So Lottie achieved her lofty goal, even without doing smoking.

Since we’ve seen four selkies in this arc, it makes me wonder if selkies or verruca are more common at communal swimming pools, at least in Tackleford.

The no float list.

verruca… a contagious and usually painful wart on the sole of the foot; a plantar wart.

(in medical use) a wart of any kind.

In Gaelic stories, specific terms for selkies are rarely used. They are seldom differentiated from mermaids. They are most commonly referred to as maighdeann-mhara in Scottish Gaelic, maighdean mhara in Irish, and moidyn varrey in Manx 11 (‘maiden of the sea’ i.e., mermaids) and clearly have the seal-like attributes of selkies.12 The only term that specifically refers to a selkie, but which is only rarely encountered is maighdeann-ròin, or ‘seal maiden’.13

moidyn varrey in Manx 11 (‘maiden of the sea’ i.e., mermaids)

Varrey not verruca.