352: Far Away
| Far Away |
 Title text: Sometimes an impulsive 2:00 AM cross-country trip is the only solution. |
Explanation
Cueball and Megan are in a long-distance relationship; to overcome the distance that separates them, they're keeping in touch with an instant messenger. Because their contact is limited to text, they have to write out the actions they wish to enact. Cueball is frustrated with the limitations of these place-holding phrases and longs for physical contact, going so far as to imagine himself hugging Megan in the messenger window.
In the title text, Cueball suggests that, sometimes, the only way to end his frustration is to travel across the country and see her face-to-face.
Transcript
- [Cueball hugging Megan in the messenger window of an early Microsoft Windows version.]
- Cueball: Meh.
- Cueball: Some nights, typing "*hug*" just doesn't cut it.
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The current explanation seems to suggest that Cueball sent "*hug*" and is replacing the word with him hugging Megan in his mind. However it is more probable to me that the messenger program interprets words enclosed in asterisks to be a kind of markup that inserts a picture or emoticon, and "*hug*" corresponds to a image of two people hugging. --Troy0 (talk) 04:39, 25 July 2014 (UTC)
Around 2007 or so when this comic was posted, MSN Messenger (WLM) had a feature where you can draw messages rather than just type them. I think this simply refers to making a drawing rather than simply typing *hug*. See also: google image search for "msn messenger drawing". (J.V. 20160510) 141.101.104.78 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
