Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 20, 2024

The definition of folks you’d like to meet: They’re smart enough not to force themselves on your attention.

Which is why, if you’re outgoing, you should tend to hang around places that you like doing things you like to do so the folks you meet are already a good match. (Introverts should probably hang out in chat rooms whose focus is something they enjoy.)

Being a wasp would be better, you can sting more than once.

Most bees are smart. I used to pet honeybees.

I hope he’s not going to leave it at that. Who’s bothering her?

You lose that stinger and you’re history!!

Like the twits who thought it was a good idea to grab a bear cub out of a tree, to take selfies.

Understand the child’s feelings. Taught for 12 years at middle school and then moved to 10th grade for anther 13. Observing how the children interacted at the former than seeing them again in the latter taught me a great deal about human nature. The pickees were still targets, but some of the pickers had mellowed, while other had become more hurtful. Was very disappointing to see.

Frazz limits the choices to ‘smart’ but one doesn’t have to be smart, just considerate of others. It’s what I like about the comments on gocomics. A great many are both smart and considerate. The few who are not either usually graze a day or two, then find another pasture for their output. And that’s a good thing.

Or, as Jerry Butler once crooned(?): “Only the strong survive.” But, eventually, we all will bite the bullet as well, eh?

Bee keepers are forever manipulating their bees.

Once you sting somebody, you die. The law of unintended consequences.

For a truly fascinating look at the world of bees (and many other creatures), I cannot recommend highly enuf the recent book An Immense World by Ed Yong. It describes how animal senses are different from the ones we humans take for granted, how bees see in a different part of the spectrum than we do, and what the world must look like to them. The first chapter alone — on the sense of smell, with particular attention to dogs — is worth the price of the book all by itself. You come away almost overawed by the astonishing variety of life of Earth.

I will never understand when people swat at a bee or a wasp if they’re allergic, or not. A 4 year old would. I know now not to brush at something that tickles if I can’t see it, when my arms are full.

The problem with that is that you can use your sting only once and it will kill you. So you need to choose carefully. Now, wasps…