my sister's last junior high report card came in the mail today with one of those ominous "to the parent/guardian of" labels we feared so when we were smaller and more easily frightened. she passed and all, but as a family we became so confused by their method of informing her (you know, other than that elaborate graduation ceremony they had).

doesn't that look to you like it should say "rejected" or something to that effect?


while we were puzzling over this, i suddenly shot a few years into the past and remembered something i used to quote frequently in my web cartoon fandom days (the era before my targeted webcomic obsession), a particular series of cartoons: we are robots. specifically one line from "angrybot." i went back and watched some of them, including the first angrybot episode. it isn't as funny as i remember it being sophomore year, but the line the odd report card (which is not a card but a piece of paper. in elementary school, they were actually cards. get with it, dracut school system: we liked the cards.) had reminded me of was just as funny as it had been before-- you get angrybot's description of his anger, illustrated with examples of actual angry incidents, and suddenly, towards the end, it brings us to a "buying things at a store" scene already in progress:

"no, my credit card's not rejected. you're rejected! i didn't want this sweater anyway!"

that's one of the classics, the repeat-it-over-and-over references of high school days. i don't know if anyone else ever thought it as funny as i did, but there it is.