Editing 1610: Fire Ants

[[Cueball]], a university student, is meeting with [[Hair Bun Girl]] asking her advice concerning his second thoughts about {{w|Graduate school|grad school}}. Her response begins with a popular reference [https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611_Proverbs-Chapter-6/#6 from the Bible] concerning {{w|ants}}; however, she specifically narrows in on the sub-family of {{w|fire ants}}.  

The {{w|book of Proverbs}} is a  [https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611_Proverbs-Chapter-1/#3 self-proclaimed book] on receiving wisdom and instruction to be made wise. Thus, her response appears to begin as an instruction to him in response to his question. The proverb in particular she appears to begin quoting instructs the lazy person to consider the ant who prepares for the desolation of winter by providing during the bounty of summer despite not having to be told so. The assumption by the reader would be that she is going to compare Cueball to a lazy person and instruct him to prepare for the later years (winter of life) by studying now while he is young (summer of life).  

However, after the initial phrase she instead discusses a cool fact about '''fire ants'''. (Specifically the ability of fire ants to join together to form [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ZysgGAABw floating rafts] in case of flooding). Continuing in the vein of the joke, that Hair Bun Girl was going to use a {{w|metaphor}} as part of her instruction, Cueball asks her what lesson he is supposed to take away from that fact. To which she replies with her fascination for ants (''Ants are so cool'' ). Correctly Cueball states that she is ''not big on metaphors'', as there was none hidden in her first statement. She continues to tell him what she is big on: '''Ants'''.

This last exchange may imply that the expected metaphor would have had as little effect on Cueballs choice to continue grad school as an excited rant about fire ants (since he was just waiting for a metaphor anyway). Or perhaps it expresses that Hair Bun Girl finds more instruction in the study of the natural world than in ancient writings. In either case, it is left unanswered as to whether her argument was enough to answer Cueball's dilemma.

 

Before reading the title text the reader may have assumed that Cueball went to meet with a University adviser. But the title text makes it clear that he was actually in the {{w|entomology}} department (making her an entomologist - i.e. someone who studies insects). It is reasonable to assume that his grad studies are thus in entomology and he is meeting a professor that might act as a career mentor. Thus, her discourse on fire ants may have been to persuade Cueball that his grad studies in entomology where well worth continuing because of the exciting nature of the field of study. This would be achieving the intent of the Proverb she appeared to quote (convincing Cueball to continue life preparations by finishing grad school) although she discarded its wording.  

An '''alternative explanation''' is that [[Randall]] has notices that ''fire ants'' is an anagram of ''{{w|fine arts}}''. If you instead of ants put in art, and then put in an interesting fact about art, and finish with art is cool and I'm big on art, then he would not have been in the entomology department, but the department of art. Randall is know to make fun of people who takes arts too seriously. Just think about the description of his comic at the bottom of {{xkcd}}; the last part says: ''This comic occasionally contains ... advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).'' The title text can likewise be changed so ant = art.

In a similar vein the title text could be referencing {{w|Etymology}} instead of entomology (the two words are close enough that they are listed as ''Not to be confused with'' at the top of each article). Etymology is the study of the history of words, and again you could exchange ants with words, that are so cool or state an interesting fact about words. Randall is '''''Big''' on [[:Category:Language|Language]].'' See also [[1010: Etymology-Man]].

 

*It is, however, very likely that [[Randall]] is fascinated by ants (he is fascinated by a lot of cool stuff…)

*In his celebration game for his new book [[1608: Hoverboard]], there is a scene in the Star Destroyer were Cueball is talking to a giant ant queen:  

:[Cueball is talking to Hair Bun Girl, an advisor, who is sitting behind a desk.]

:[Cueball is just standing there in the next beat-panel]

[[Category:Comics featuring Hair Bun Girl]]

[[Category:Animals]]