As a person who wears glasses, if someone were to hand me my glasses that way… Ah, I would be very polite, and find a tissue that’s not soaked in lotion to be “soft” and clean my glasses. In front of them. In a very passive/aggressive manner, while not mentioning why I’m doing the cleaning.
kedamono, I think you’re right, but I still have to ask: is that all there is to this joke?
I was wondering what happened to the glasses in the last frame that they didn’t end up in his hand. Now I see that it’s a beat frame (which I would never have expected as a last frame) and we’re to imagine what his reaction will be.
MiB, that’s kinda why, after looking a a whole bunch of Hallbeck’s comics, I decided not to add him to my daily feed.
Yeah, I like Maximumble, and read it regularly, but he often has jokes that are nothing more than “Isn’t this situation annoying?” or “It’s sort of weird when this happens” where I find myself asking “Is this all there is?”
I would not expect a non glasses-wearing person to know glasses handling etiquette; I think also of coins, stamps, etc. I would never ask them to get their hands on my precious.
Now spoons, soup, pizza – that’s another story. Keep the fingers from the foodal area.
As with much art/music, this either evokes a reaction in you or doesn’t. It did not with me. I find others in their archives “cute”.
All I got from this is how do these glasses work? The have long arms to attach to the ears these people don’t have.
Are the different finger colors in front of and behind the glasses in Panel 2 meaningful?
If it’s just that the guy put his finger on the lens, why does it start with “spreadsheets”? It’s kind of specific and makes you think it has something to do with the joke. Why not something like “This text is so small I can hardly see it”?
This is probably among the worst ways of handling glasses, and that ought to be obvious even to someone who does not wear glasses.
But the difference between somewhat-better ways and fully-okay ways is even less obvious, even to people who wear or are familiar with glasses. And to complicate matters, it may depend on the construction of the particular specs at hand.
Two fingers grasping at the middle of the bridge? Yeah, pretty good, but: big fingers can still smear lens; this may force interpersonal hand contact; if wire-mounted nose pads, this may apply force to them and bend.
Holding end of one temple arm? No, will stress that hinge.
Crossing ends, and holding both together stably in one hand? Pretty good again, but be careful about the crossing-over, which could warp the hinges. Also, forces hand contact again.
Folding arms so ends meet but do not cross: Yes, probably best.
Anyway, maybe sometime I’ll give this a little thought ..
I don’t see that there is/are glasses in his hand . . .
“And he fumbled the handoff. And there’s a flag on the play.”
“I don’t see that there is/are glasses in his hand . . .”
That’s because he hasn’t taken them from the person handing them to him yet.
The joke, such as it is, is the guy asks for his glasses, the other guy hands it to them but touches the lens, the first guy starts to make small talk and and say thanks, but then stops dead when he sees the guy is touching the lens.
This seems to be on par with those famous jokes about walking down the street and stepping in dog waste, or going to someone’s house for tea and they have a laundry basket on their couch. Hilarious.
One of the first things I noticed, being in the minority as a left hander, is that guy 2 grabs the glasses with his right hand even though the glasses are clearly on his left side. Assuming he’s right handed, are people really that inept with their off hand that they awkwardly cross their body to avoid using it?
Geez, buddy, if you’re going to flip your lid like that, just keep them on your face. Or get one of them dangly chain things.
@James: These drawings are representations of what the characters look like. In the real world of the comic they have ears and noses and five fingers, etc. The idea behind strips that use stick figures and variants thereof is to allow creators who cannot draw but who can come up with good jokes, to produce a strip. Of course, this example does not support that argument.
I think using the right hand was just an expedient for the cartoonist. It’s easier to draw the pincher grasp that the palmer grasp that use of the left hand would have required.
MarkM: I think in a situation like that it’s probably 50/50 which hand I would use. I’m not so inept with my left hand that I couldn’t use my left hand. But it’s not a lot of work to reach over with the right hand either, so it pretty much balances out for me.
WW – I agree as a general rule. But the way it’s drawn it looks like the guy will practically fall off his chair stretching with his right hand. But yeah, I know I’m overthinking the artwork of someone who can’t be bothered to draw ears, necks, etc.
Now I wonder what first guy is thinking about doing. “After this we should run naked through Walmart” might be a possibility.
If I have my left hand positioned with my fingers in the ASDF position over the keys I may be unconsciously reluctant to move them and will without thinking twist my right hand over a bit further than is needed.
“Geez, buddy, if you’re going to flip your lid like that, just keep them on your face. Or get one of them dangly chain things.”
One should *never* touch lenses with fingers. Fingers leave oily prints. It should be obvious to non-glasses wearers that that is so and it surprises me it is not. Still I’d be forgiving to someone for ignorance. But irked none-the less.
I have worn glasses for the last 60 years and I don’t think I ever asked anybody to hand them to me.
MiB, there’s a big difference between needing glasses and needing reading glasses. If you put your glasses on in the morning and take them off at night, no, you won’t have anyone hand them to you. But if you use them only to read small print, you’ll have them off most of the time, so it might make sense for someone else at the desk to hand them to you.
My wife hadn’t needed glasses her whole life, until she started needed reading glasses. I’ve handed them to her often, but never picked them up by the lenses.
You are so right, Arthur. I wore glasses for the past 50 years, although I could read without them if I held the book about a foot from my nose. (Toward the end, that was the only way I could read, as even bifocals weren’t working that well.) Anyway, I recently had cataract surgery, and now it is the exact opposite, I see distances fine, (hell, better than fine, I can see better than I can ever remember), but I need reading glasses to see up close. I have readers stashed around the house and in the car, because I’m constantly forgetting where I left them, except that once I have them on I forget to take them off, and wonder why the world got blurry again. It’s taking some adjustment, but I couldn’t be happier with the results.
The same thing happened to Hubby after his cataract surgery, which makes his dive watch/computer, etc. difficult to read when he’s underwater.
Well, now I have four pairs of glasses, one for general use, one for reading, one for using the computer and one for playing the piano. But I somehow or other find myself able to manage them all without help.
If I take off my myopic-correcting glasses, I can see to read or use the computer reasonably well, even though my close-in vision isn’t what it used to be. With my iBooks on the iPad, I have the font increased significantly so I can hold it farther away at a more comfortable distance. With the desktop, I also increased the browser font size. Oddly, you can’t do that with mobile browsers. However, pages that support Reader Mode do let you change the size.
Have worn glasses since 2nd grade – distance originally, in recent decades also for reading. Since my eyes have been fairly stable I have a collection of glasses -progressive lenses for general use, progressive lenses which are also photochromatic for going outside, sunglasses (kept in car), distance only – pair in house (to watch TV while lying in bed) plus pair kept in car (my glasses broke one night while at B&N and I realized that if Robert was not there, I could not drive home), reading glasses -older ones in office to use at computer and newer ones in kitchen, ditto plus for sewing machine (wearing now). I have distance only glasses in clear and also in sunglass lenses in reproduction 18th century frames. Distance only lclear and also sunglass in modern small lens oval wire framed glasses that I used before i got the repro lenses and use for occasional 19th century events and sunglasses are kept in our van. I also have a pair of progressive which I bought with photochromatic lenses which did not change color and by the time I got back with them it was a year and nothing could be done for me – so they are a spare pair.
I take my glasses off when I read – as others have said – when I actually am reading as it is just easier to read without the glasses – something I was not able to do until about 10 years ago.
Comics I Don't Understand 
As a person who wears glasses, if someone were to hand me my glasses that way… Ah, I would be very polite, and find a tissue that’s not soaked in lotion to be “soft” and clean my glasses. In front of them. In a very passive/aggressive manner, while not mentioning why I’m doing the cleaning.
kedamono, I think you’re right, but I still have to ask: is that all there is to this joke?
I was wondering what happened to the glasses in the last frame that they didn’t end up in his hand. Now I see that it’s a beat frame (which I would never have expected as a last frame) and we’re to imagine what his reaction will be.
MiB, that’s kinda why, after looking a a whole bunch of Hallbeck’s comics, I decided not to add him to my daily feed.
Yeah, I like Maximumble, and read it regularly, but he often has jokes that are nothing more than “Isn’t this situation annoying?” or “It’s sort of weird when this happens” where I find myself asking “Is this all there is?”
I would not expect a non glasses-wearing person to know glasses handling etiquette; I think also of coins, stamps, etc. I would never ask them to get their hands on my precious.
Now spoons, soup, pizza – that’s another story. Keep the fingers from the foodal area.
As with much art/music, this either evokes a reaction in you or doesn’t. It did not with me. I find others in their archives “cute”.
All I got from this is how do these glasses work? The have long arms to attach to the ears these people don’t have.
Are the different finger colors in front of and behind the glasses in Panel 2 meaningful?
If it’s just that the guy put his finger on the lens, why does it start with “spreadsheets”? It’s kind of specific and makes you think it has something to do with the joke. Why not something like “This text is so small I can hardly see it”?
This is probably among the worst ways of handling glasses, and that ought to be obvious even to someone who does not wear glasses.
But the difference between somewhat-better ways and fully-okay ways is even less obvious, even to people who wear or are familiar with glasses. And to complicate matters, it may depend on the construction of the particular specs at hand.
Two fingers grasping at the middle of the bridge? Yeah, pretty good, but: big fingers can still smear lens; this may force interpersonal hand contact; if wire-mounted nose pads, this may apply force to them and bend.
Holding end of one temple arm? No, will stress that hinge.
Crossing ends, and holding both together stably in one hand? Pretty good again, but be careful about the crossing-over, which could warp the hinges. Also, forces hand contact again.
Folding arms so ends meet but do not cross: Yes, probably best.
Anyway, maybe sometime I’ll give this a little thought ..
I don’t see that there is/are glasses in his hand . . .
“And he fumbled the handoff. And there’s a flag on the play.”
“I don’t see that there is/are glasses in his hand . . .”
That’s because he hasn’t taken them from the person handing them to him yet.
The joke, such as it is, is the guy asks for his glasses, the other guy hands it to them but touches the lens, the first guy starts to make small talk and and say thanks, but then stops dead when he sees the guy is touching the lens.
This seems to be on par with those famous jokes about walking down the street and stepping in dog waste, or going to someone’s house for tea and they have a laundry basket on their couch. Hilarious.
One of the first things I noticed, being in the minority as a left hander, is that guy 2 grabs the glasses with his right hand even though the glasses are clearly on his left side. Assuming he’s right handed, are people really that inept with their off hand that they awkwardly cross their body to avoid using it?
Geez, buddy, if you’re going to flip your lid like that, just keep them on your face. Or get one of them dangly chain things.
@James: These drawings are representations of what the characters look like. In the real world of the comic they have ears and noses and five fingers, etc. The idea behind strips that use stick figures and variants thereof is to allow creators who cannot draw but who can come up with good jokes, to produce a strip. Of course, this example does not support that argument.
I think using the right hand was just an expedient for the cartoonist. It’s easier to draw the pincher grasp that the palmer grasp that use of the left hand would have required.
MarkM: I think in a situation like that it’s probably 50/50 which hand I would use. I’m not so inept with my left hand that I couldn’t use my left hand. But it’s not a lot of work to reach over with the right hand either, so it pretty much balances out for me.
WW – I agree as a general rule. But the way it’s drawn it looks like the guy will practically fall off his chair stretching with his right hand. But yeah, I know I’m overthinking the artwork of someone who can’t be bothered to draw ears, necks, etc.
Now I wonder what first guy is thinking about doing. “After this we should run naked through Walmart” might be a possibility.
If I have my left hand positioned with my fingers in the ASDF position over the keys I may be unconsciously reluctant to move them and will without thinking twist my right hand over a bit further than is needed.
“Geez, buddy, if you’re going to flip your lid like that, just keep them on your face. Or get one of them dangly chain things.”
One should *never* touch lenses with fingers. Fingers leave oily prints. It should be obvious to non-glasses wearers that that is so and it surprises me it is not. Still I’d be forgiving to someone for ignorance. But irked none-the less.
I have worn glasses for the last 60 years and I don’t think I ever asked anybody to hand them to me.
MiB, there’s a big difference between needing glasses and needing reading glasses. If you put your glasses on in the morning and take them off at night, no, you won’t have anyone hand them to you. But if you use them only to read small print, you’ll have them off most of the time, so it might make sense for someone else at the desk to hand them to you.
My wife hadn’t needed glasses her whole life, until she started needed reading glasses. I’ve handed them to her often, but never picked them up by the lenses.
You are so right, Arthur. I wore glasses for the past 50 years, although I could read without them if I held the book about a foot from my nose. (Toward the end, that was the only way I could read, as even bifocals weren’t working that well.) Anyway, I recently had cataract surgery, and now it is the exact opposite, I see distances fine, (hell, better than fine, I can see better than I can ever remember), but I need reading glasses to see up close. I have readers stashed around the house and in the car, because I’m constantly forgetting where I left them, except that once I have them on I forget to take them off, and wonder why the world got blurry again. It’s taking some adjustment, but I couldn’t be happier with the results.
The same thing happened to Hubby after his cataract surgery, which makes his dive watch/computer, etc. difficult to read when he’s underwater.
Well, now I have four pairs of glasses, one for general use, one for reading, one for using the computer and one for playing the piano. But I somehow or other find myself able to manage them all without help.
If I take off my myopic-correcting glasses, I can see to read or use the computer reasonably well, even though my close-in vision isn’t what it used to be. With my iBooks on the iPad, I have the font increased significantly so I can hold it farther away at a more comfortable distance. With the desktop, I also increased the browser font size. Oddly, you can’t do that with mobile browsers. However, pages that support Reader Mode do let you change the size.
Have worn glasses since 2nd grade – distance originally, in recent decades also for reading. Since my eyes have been fairly stable I have a collection of glasses -progressive lenses for general use, progressive lenses which are also photochromatic for going outside, sunglasses (kept in car), distance only – pair in house (to watch TV while lying in bed) plus pair kept in car (my glasses broke one night while at B&N and I realized that if Robert was not there, I could not drive home), reading glasses -older ones in office to use at computer and newer ones in kitchen, ditto plus for sewing machine (wearing now). I have distance only glasses in clear and also in sunglass lenses in reproduction 18th century frames. Distance only lclear and also sunglass in modern small lens oval wire framed glasses that I used before i got the repro lenses and use for occasional 19th century events and sunglasses are kept in our van. I also have a pair of progressive which I bought with photochromatic lenses which did not change color and by the time I got back with them it was a year and nothing could be done for me – so they are a spare pair.
I take my glasses off when I read – as others have said – when I actually am reading as it is just easier to read without the glasses – something I was not able to do until about 10 years ago.