A junior engineer working for a small engineering firm in Cocoa Beach. The firm focuses mostly on NASA projects.
Neil is Jean’s best friend. When Jean was turned into a genie, Neil became Jeanie’s master.
Well, congratulations Brandon, your right. But, if Neil is in Araceli body, then that would mean that Araceli is in Neil body back at the office. So now comes the 64 dollar question, who is the Genie now? Is Araceli still the Genie, even tho she in Neil body which is a mortal body or is it Neil a mortal that the Genie because he in a Genie Body. Third possibility, both Araceli and Neil have to get together and combine forces to activate Araceli Genie powers between the two of them or do they have to call another Genie to undo this mess.
I am sure that somewhere along in this mess, our favorite Genie going to show up, Jeanie and maybe she will be the one that save day or not. I can see this going in several different direction.
Actually, that wasn’t a body swap, it was body transformation from male to female, but, it the same body, but, just in a transformed state. But, this is an actual body swap where you take one person spirit out of one body and swap it with another body and visa versa with another person spirit. Actually Jeanie and the Blue Djinn did a body swap twice. It was also a take possession too by the Blue Djinn in Jeanie body and a dispossession also.
But, I can not remember any other body swap in the Jeanie Bottle series.
I think you’re mixing up Neil with Brad from Sailorsun.org, who switched bodies with Berry while she was pregnant and didn’t switch back until after giving birth. But Neil won’t have a problem like that… will he?
It would also be kind of nice to have both Neil and Araceli to have to masquerade as each other for awhile too. Kind of like a Jeanie Bottle take on Freaky Friday kind of number. In which case, contrary to Araceli like or dislike for Rodge, she would have use him to try and pass herself off as Neil at his job. Rodge would have to know about the Freaky Friday switch to make it barely feasible as a story line.
Hard to say really. While Neil has technically turned into a girl before, it was still his own mortal body. However, this time now he’s in a completely new genie body. Jean had trouble in the beginning when it came to using his new powers, and since natural born genies are stronger, I believe that Araceli(Neil) may have an even tougher time.
I am figuring that this problem will probably on about half way through this Arc, before they finally work this problem out. But, good old Rodge to the rescue. That right Araceli doesn’t like Rodge.
The only problem here is with Neil not being able to figure out the fuel consumption anytime soon. The specifics of the wish was for the duration of the trip. I figure that once the trip is finished the swap will automatically revert.
Seems like it would’ve been easier to just add Neil’s name to the list of approved guardians. But Araceli looked a bit bored in the previous comic, so maybe she took advantage of the wish to get herself out of the tour.
Honestly, even though in paper putting Neil in the list sounds easier, in theory this was the “better” option, and I don’t mean it for the incoming hilarity. Magic wise, the only thing Araceli did was swap with Neil, so no need of changing the documents and then poofing him to the scene, so more magic cost efficient. And then they don’t have to explain to anybody who he, what’s his relation with Caley is, where is Araceli, from where he came from and in the worst case scenario HOW did his name replaced Araceli’s in the list. And if the alternative to that solution would be to “change everyones memories so they know who is Neil”, I insist, this is still the quickest and easier way to turn Neil into Caley’s “registered guardian” with the less use of magic. Whatever Araceli thought of it or not.
Actually it may not be a swap but possession situation. The wish for Neal to be the guardian, and now he is. More accurately it is neal’s consciousness. Whether or not that means full genie privileges is questionable. Luckily the condition for the wish is “guardian for the trip” mean that once the trip is over or Neal is no longer the active guardian then the spell should end.
So the question now is. Was it a partial transfer to be Catey guardian only or did Araceli make a mistake and did a complete and total body swap with Neil making him the Genie. As in oops, I mistake and I goofed up! If it a partial transfer only, then the original wish is still in effect and it come to completion at the end of the trip. But, if it was the oops, then Neil/Araceli would have to find Araceli/Neil and find out what happened to be able to change everything back to normal. If Neil is effective the Genie now, then Caley could complicate matters by making another wish, that will also have to be undone too.
I don’t see a simple in and out in, on this situation in the Jeanie Bottle world. I see surprises coming up ahead.
It has to use at least a little bit to maintain its orbit, I assume. to avoid falling to the planet. Also, it has mission objectives, which may require it to maneuver often.
Orbits do not decay unless you’re close enough to experience atmospheric drag. Mars has an extremely thin atmosphere, and they deliberately avoid orbiting that close because you can’t refuel a Mars orbiter. A higher orbit also allows relay communications with landers and rovers for a longer time. Satellites use reaction wheels to change orientation (google it). So they don’t need to use fuel to change where they’re pointed (to make observations). They only use fuel if they need to change to a different orbit. The reaction wheels can be sped up / slowed down with electricity from solar panels or a RTG.
In short, the orbiter should NOT be using the fuel, but for some reason it is. Ordinarily this would mean either a hardware fault where it is releasing some variety of gas (e.g. a propellant leak), or else a software fault where the orbiter’s computer is mistaken about its current or desired location and orientation (and thus is making maneuvers that it should not).
Going back to the previous comic I thought Araceli looked like she didn’t want to grant Caley’s wish. Now I see that she thought he wanted her to swap minds with Neil and she wasn’t happy about it but did it anyway as she had to grant that wish. Maybe that is why so many wishes seem to go wrong, the genie, or other wish grantor, doesn’t really understand what you are asking for and thus the need to be very precise in your wording.
I think it’s more likely that Araceli just *accidentally* and *unintentionally* granted a wish *while distracted*. She almost certainly didn’t intend to do what she just did.
Guess we wont see Jeanie for a while. The 2nd law of comic dynamics says two guys turned into female genies cannot exist on the same panel at the same time.
lol. Good thing the Jeanie pages are going to all be at Haji’s Palace, while the Neil/Araceli + Kaley pages are going to be at the Space Center. That way the law won’t be violated.
I doubt it’ll last longer than the duration of the trip. Unless the magic is taking a different understanding of ‘guardian’ and if it applies to the trip or Araceli’s role for Caley as a whole. Either way, this should be fun.
We are reasonably Certain that Araceli in Neil body and we will probably see that side of this deal in the next episode. At this point, there would be no reason not to think that it was a ful body swap and it would make an interesting story arc too. Inexperienced Neil having to act like a Genie and an equally inexperienced Genie Female having to act like a mortal man and just about everything that goes with it too.
Genies are allowed to leave their masters after three wishes, but don’t have to. According to the rules put down way back, they can stay one with their masters “with reduced powers” which I guess means the first three can be really outrageous. Hmm. Since Hitler had a genie in this story but still didn’t win the war, he must have used up his first three early.
I think the key point there is “with reduced powers”
Lets us assume that this was wish 3; and reduced power now mean Neil can’t perform the switch back.
Hijinks ensue while trying to solve this.
I was happy to see that Neil still has the diagram of the Flux Capicatator on the peg board, but what is the picture near his right elbow. It looks like an apple with feet and a flag sticking out of the top.
Well, I think it would be better for Araceli to stay the Male Guy of Neil for most of the time. You know the Gender swapping thing and not just body swapping thing only. Now after Araceli Been Neil for awhile, if she can figure out how to also swap Neil body into Natalie body, then more power to her. But, remember turning Neil into Natalie was Jeanie Idea and as far as we know, only Jeanie, Neil and Rodge know that Natalie is also Neil. Besides, Araceli may not have the Genie magic anymore, because, she in a mortals body and not her Genie body.
I like Natalie too, but, I don’t see any legalistically way to make it happen logically.
I didn’t realize that a body swap even occurred until reading the comments below, and then reading the lines on the panel more closely. I feel like a dope now.
I’m wondering if the Mars Orbiter problem is as simple as checking usage per sol (one Mars rotation relative to the sun) when you want (or think you’re asking for) usage per 24 hours (one Earth rotation relative to the sun) …
Looking back at last week’s comic, I wondered if there was really a Nolan’s Pub in Cocoa Beach (Rodge asked Neil if he wanted to go there after work). There is: Nolan’s Irish Pub at 204 West Cocoa Beach Causeway. Maybe we’ll see it in the strip later as a background.
CD’s usually pretty good about that. Another thing that’s really there is the Surf Shop that CD depicted back in the B-Witch arc. He called it something else, but he depicted the facade and the interior quite accurately. We visited the real place during our trip in January.
I have a new fish theory: When the other kid said “I like fish!” just as Caley was telling Araceli how much she’d like Neil to be there, a distracted Araceli heard “wish” instead of “fish”. It still doesn’t explain why that kid said “I like fish!” at that time, but it might explain why CD made the kid say it.
I can see two plot lines developing from the body switch:
1. Neil dealing with the guy hitting on Araceli.
2. Araceli getting Neil in trouble with Neil’s and Rodge’s boss. We haven’t seen the boss for a long time, and as far as we know, Araceli has never seen the boss. Just not knowing jack about rocket science would be enough, but even better would be if Araceli sees the boss as just another irritating man before she knows he’s Neil’s boss.
There’s also the possibility that Agent Anderson could show up, most likely at Jupiter 2 Engineering to have another word with Rodge, and perhaps with Rodge’s boss. This would provide an excellent opportunity for Araceli (as Neil) to make things even worse. Again, as far as we know, Araceli knows nothing about Agent Anderson and what happened in Las Vegas.
Less likely but maybe more fun would be for Agent Anderson to be either nosing around the visitor center or just there for some educational recreation, and the guy who was hitting on Araceli starts putting moves on Anderson. Neil as Araceli steps in to chase him off, and Anderson is grateful. But Anderson may also notice her new friend seems to know an awful lot about rocket science for a children’s nanny…
Wow. I didn’t realize what the last panel meant until reading the comics. First Jean and Blue Djinn, now Araceli and Neil. It’s Genie Freaky Friday, or rather Freaky Tuesday and Thursday.
I do have one question. Back when Neil and Araceli went out on that date, Araceli developed a dislike for hot dogs. Now that Neil is in her body, would the body still retain its dislike. Like Araceli(Neil) taking a bite out of one, unaware the real Araceli hates them, and then vomits it out?
I think Araceli’s aversion to hot dogs is more cultural or emotional than biological. She does not eat animal products. Neil should not have a problem with hot dogs unless Caley reminds him that Araceli does not eat meat.
The reason I asked is because I read this manga called Swap Swap where these 2 girls would swap by kissing. Using each other’s bodies, they were able to eat food that they didn’t like before as themselves.
I’m watching another episode of I Dream of Jeannie tonight. I have all 139. Anyway, Roger has a lot of screen time in this one, and once again I noticed that Roger Healey was supposed to be in the US Army. I wonder why? There have been at least nineteen Army astronauts, but none of the ones I looked up served in the Sixties.
BTW, if you look at Roger’s uniform in the series, even in black-and-white, you should notice that he wears castles on his lapels. This means he would be in the Corps of Engineers, not Army Aviation, although he also wears aviator’s wings over his left breast pocket. I wonder why Sidney Sheldon decided to create an astronaut from the Corps of Engineers.
Roger would have come into the IDoJ’s version of NASA via the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which developed some of the early Jupiter C rockets. He’d originally have been from the propulsion development team. Early NASA was weird, even before it struck off into Star Trek territory in IDoJ, in where it drew its officers from, and there was a big public fight between the US Army and US Airforce over missile and rocket development too.
Either that or he’d have been part of the construction support and maintenance team from when the Corps of Engineers built the space center. There are a few different routes he could have taken from that, especially for dramatic license purpose. The Engineer Corps was heavily involved in the early NASA days in quite a few ways, so his branch is reasonable.
Maybe Sidney Sheldon became close with someone in the Corps of Engineers, and that someone could have pointed out all that the Corps had done for the Space Program while the Astronauts (and the early ones were all test pilots) got all the glory.
The Army got it’s foot in the door in the biggest way because of Werner von Braun. The former Nazi was basically an Army asset working out of the Redstone Arsenal when Sputnik went up in October 1957. The Army was in sad shape at that time. It had lost out to the Air Force and the Navy in the funding wars mainly because the Air Force had the bombers that carried the nukes, and the Navy had Rickover and his sexy nuclear subs. The Army hoped to come back with ICBMs, but then the Navy and Air force got a range restriction slapped on by some friends in Congress. So poor Werner couldn’t build anything bigger than the Redstone missile. Now he had worked out a way to launch a small satellite into orbit with the Redstone by 1955, but that was slapped down by Eisenhower, who gave the honor of launching the world’s first artificial satellite to the Navy’s Vanguard program.
Meanwhile Russia’s smart guy Korolev built the R-7, their first ICBM. It took days to fuel up, and sometimes blew up, but thanks to the wonderful way the Communist Party massaged away bad news, very few people knew that on either side of the Iron Curtain.
Four vivid memories of my childhood: Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 with Laika the dog aboard (that’s where the stop-action studio gets its name), the first picture of the far side of the moon taken by a Russian probe–and, on live TV, Vanguard 1 blowing up on its launch pad. Von Braun finally got to launch his satellite and eventually build the Saturn 5 that took us to the moon.
BTW, Walt Disney really liked von Braun, and made a movie about his life called “I Aim at the Stars”. Some people thought the title wasn’t long enough and added “But Sometimes I Hit London.”
And how do American astronauts get into space today? Why, on Russian R-7 rockets.
Does Caley know about Jeanie and the Neil>Natalie body transformations? If not (and I can’t find any evidence that Caley does know), then Neil>Araceli would have a very hard time explaining what just happened. Rodge knows so Araceli>Neil will have less of a problem once “he” explains what happened, assuming “Cheese Pasta Man” returns to Neil’s cubicle before Araceli>Neil gets into trouble. The worst thing that can happen (among many worst things) is that Rodge mentions something about the Neil>Natalie body transformations to Araceli giving her something to use as leverage to gain Neil as her Master.
No, neither Caley nor does Araceli know that Natalie is also Neil. At least they didn’t know the last time they had contact with each other. Does Caley know that Jeanie a Genie too, we don’t know for sure or if she thinks that Jeanie is just Neil girlfriend. But at the present, it appears that Caley thinks of Jeanie is just Neil girlfriend which Caley is jealous of and want gone from Neil life. Unless Araceli has told Caley that Jeanie is a Genie too, then Caley doesn’t know that Jeanie a Genie also.
The real question is what is Araceli going to do when she realizes shes in Neil’s body?
Also judging by Caley’s wording of the wish they should switch back after the trip is over, which should be just enough time for Neil/Araceli to be summoned to the temple to decide on Jean’s fate.
I know this comment is rather late, but it occurred to me while reading today’s page.
I just want to comment on how nice it is that you try to incorporate real tasks into what Neil has to do for his work, instead of just having him blankly file away at paperwork or a computer screen, doing some ambiguous “job” without any real explanation.
This feels so much more grounded and real, and it is rare to see shows/comics put in that much effort.
Once again right he bacame araceli Im on fire with correct guesses also his second body swap.
Does this mean Neil is now a genie?
Well, congratulations Brandon, your right. But, if Neil is in Araceli body, then that would mean that Araceli is in Neil body back at the office. So now comes the 64 dollar question, who is the Genie now? Is Araceli still the Genie, even tho she in Neil body which is a mortal body or is it Neil a mortal that the Genie because he in a Genie Body. Third possibility, both Araceli and Neil have to get together and combine forces to activate Araceli Genie powers between the two of them or do they have to call another Genie to undo this mess.
I am sure that somewhere along in this mess, our favorite Genie going to show up, Jeanie and maybe she will be the one that save day or not. I can see this going in several different direction.
Wait, when did Neil bodyswap previously?
When Neil was Nataliefied bound in chain to Jean lamp and Jean made a Neil body to put him into when Neil had to make 3 wishes in one week.
Actually, that wasn’t a body swap, it was body transformation from male to female, but, it the same body, but, just in a transformed state. But, this is an actual body swap where you take one person spirit out of one body and swap it with another body and visa versa with another person spirit. Actually Jeanie and the Blue Djinn did a body swap twice. It was also a take possession too by the Blue Djinn in Jeanie body and a dispossession also.
But, I can not remember any other body swap in the Jeanie Bottle series.
I think you’re mixing up Neil with Brad from Sailorsun.org, who switched bodies with Berry while she was pregnant and didn’t switch back until after giving birth. But Neil won’t have a problem like that… will he?
It would also be kind of nice to have both Neil and Araceli to have to masquerade as each other for awhile too. Kind of like a Jeanie Bottle take on Freaky Friday kind of number. In which case, contrary to Araceli like or dislike for Rodge, she would have use him to try and pass herself off as Neil at his job. Rodge would have to know about the Freaky Friday switch to make it barely feasible as a story line.
Hard to say really. While Neil has technically turned into a girl before, it was still his own mortal body. However, this time now he’s in a completely new genie body. Jean had trouble in the beginning when it came to using his new powers, and since natural born genies are stronger, I believe that Araceli(Neil) may have an even tougher time.
something tells me this could take a whie
I am figuring that this problem will probably on about half way through this Arc, before they finally work this problem out. But, good old Rodge to the rescue. That right Araceli doesn’t like Rodge.
The only problem here is with Neil not being able to figure out the fuel consumption anytime soon. The specifics of the wish was for the duration of the trip. I figure that once the trip is finished the swap will automatically revert.
Hope you’re right. I mean genie wishes and their duration are not always what they seem…
I’m clueless as to what just happened but my hunch is that it is wish-related.
Caley “wished” that Neil was her guardian for the trip. Problem is that Neil is not registered as her Guardian, but Araceli is…
Seems like it would’ve been easier to just add Neil’s name to the list of approved guardians. But Araceli looked a bit bored in the previous comic, so maybe she took advantage of the wish to get herself out of the tour.
Honestly, even though in paper putting Neil in the list sounds easier, in theory this was the “better” option, and I don’t mean it for the incoming hilarity. Magic wise, the only thing Araceli did was swap with Neil, so no need of changing the documents and then poofing him to the scene, so more magic cost efficient. And then they don’t have to explain to anybody who he, what’s his relation with Caley is, where is Araceli, from where he came from and in the worst case scenario HOW did his name replaced Araceli’s in the list. And if the alternative to that solution would be to “change everyones memories so they know who is Neil”, I insist, this is still the quickest and easier way to turn Neil into Caley’s “registered guardian” with the less use of magic. Whatever Araceli thought of it or not.
Actually it may not be a swap but possession situation. The wish for Neal to be the guardian, and now he is. More accurately it is neal’s consciousness. Whether or not that means full genie privileges is questionable. Luckily the condition for the wish is “guardian for the trip” mean that once the trip is over or Neal is no longer the active guardian then the spell should end.
So the question now is. Was it a partial transfer to be Catey guardian only or did Araceli make a mistake and did a complete and total body swap with Neil making him the Genie. As in oops, I mistake and I goofed up! If it a partial transfer only, then the original wish is still in effect and it come to completion at the end of the trip. But, if it was the oops, then Neil/Araceli would have to find Araceli/Neil and find out what happened to be able to change everything back to normal. If Neil is effective the Genie now, then Caley could complicate matters by making another wish, that will also have to be undone too.
I don’t see a simple in and out in, on this situation in the Jeanie Bottle world. I see surprises coming up ahead.
Does an orbiter consume the fuel unless it has to maneuver?
It has to use at least a little bit to maintain its orbit, I assume. to avoid falling to the planet. Also, it has mission objectives, which may require it to maneuver often.
Orbits do not decay unless you’re close enough to experience atmospheric drag. Mars has an extremely thin atmosphere, and they deliberately avoid orbiting that close because you can’t refuel a Mars orbiter. A higher orbit also allows relay communications with landers and rovers for a longer time. Satellites use reaction wheels to change orientation (google it). So they don’t need to use fuel to change where they’re pointed (to make observations). They only use fuel if they need to change to a different orbit. The reaction wheels can be sped up / slowed down with electricity from solar panels or a RTG.
So according to Makaira, it’s extra puzzling why it’s consuming all that fuel.
Actually, normal consumption in this case might be zero.
In short, the orbiter should NOT be using the fuel, but for some reason it is. Ordinarily this would mean either a hardware fault where it is releasing some variety of gas (e.g. a propellant leak), or else a software fault where the orbiter’s computer is mistaken about its current or desired location and orientation (and thus is making maneuvers that it should not).
the orbiter consumes no fuel once it is in a stable orbit unless it needs to adjust which it usually does not
love the comic, problem is we now have to wait quite a while before the next issue
“problem is we now have to wait quite a while before the next issue”
Huh? Is there going to be a hiatus I don’t know about?
572 came out on 3/30
573 came out on 4/7
574 came out on 4/14
575 came out on 4/21
576 came out on 4/30
577 came out on 5/5
so it should be about a week plus for the next one
the great haji has to do something. you can’t just have any old rando turn into a genie.
Going back to the previous comic I thought Araceli looked like she didn’t want to grant Caley’s wish. Now I see that she thought he wanted her to swap minds with Neil and she wasn’t happy about it but did it anyway as she had to grant that wish. Maybe that is why so many wishes seem to go wrong, the genie, or other wish grantor, doesn’t really understand what you are asking for and thus the need to be very precise in your wording.
I think it’s more likely that Araceli just *accidentally* and *unintentionally* granted a wish *while distracted*. She almost certainly didn’t intend to do what she just did.
Can we all say OOOPS together.
Well let’s just hope that this body swap ends better than the whole Jean/Blue Djinn Swap did.
Guess we wont see Jeanie for a while. The 2nd law of comic dynamics says two guys turned into female genies cannot exist on the same panel at the same time.
lol. Good thing the Jeanie pages are going to all be at Haji’s Palace, while the Neil/Araceli + Kaley pages are going to be at the Space Center. That way the law won’t be violated.
Ahh, but you’re forgetting the exclusion to the 2nd law of comic dynamics — “…unless hilarity would ensue.”
I believe that would be a corollary to the First Law, rather than a separate law in and of itself.
I doubt it’ll last longer than the duration of the trip. Unless the magic is taking a different understanding of ‘guardian’ and if it applies to the trip or Araceli’s role for Caley as a whole. Either way, this should be fun.
I didnt expect this body swap.
Me neither!
Are we even sure its a full body swap? We don’t see Araceli in Neils body. It could be a meeting of two minds.
We are reasonably Certain that Araceli in Neil body and we will probably see that side of this deal in the next episode. At this point, there would be no reason not to think that it was a ful body swap and it would make an interesting story arc too. Inexperienced Neil having to act like a Genie and an equally inexperienced Genie Female having to act like a mortal man and just about everything that goes with it too.
I have a bad feeling that Araceli may take advantage of this swap…
I wonder how Araceli will fix the Mars Orbiter problem
How many wishes does the girl have left? Neil might be stuck otherwise.
Genies are allowed to leave their masters after three wishes, but don’t have to. According to the rules put down way back, they can stay one with their masters “with reduced powers” which I guess means the first three can be really outrageous. Hmm. Since Hitler had a genie in this story but still didn’t win the war, he must have used up his first three early.
Those wishes also cost that Genie her life too, because, Haji didn’t like it. She violated the Genie Rules.
I think the key point there is “with reduced powers”
Lets us assume that this was wish 3; and reduced power now mean Neil can’t perform the switch back.
Hijinks ensue while trying to solve this.
On the bright side, he gets out of a long tedious day of endless reports.
I think Neil will make a good genie, better than at least Jeanie.
How will Neil/Arceli handle getting hit on by Liam with the coffee?
He’s been hit on as Natalie a ton of times. I’m sure he’s used to it.
Unless Neil/Araceli accidentally uses her powers on him due to being in a genie body…
I was happy to see that Neil still has the diagram of the Flux Capicatator on the peg board, but what is the picture near his right elbow. It looks like an apple with feet and a flag sticking out of the top.
A sketch of a possible Moon lander?
It’s going to be fun to see how Neil plays along with this situation.
So the mars orbiter has picked up some alien hitchhikers at some point? Well, as long as they have a towel with them I guess.
“Mars orbiter” used too many R’s. Not enough left for “th(r)ough” in the first panel. *l*
Robert?
That was a really roundabout way to report a typo. It took me more than a minute to figure out which word you were saying was wrong.
I feel a migraine coming on – same bat time same bat-channel
So i’m guessing that Neil is stuck as Araceli for a while?
I wonder what will happen if Araceli gets transformed into Natalie during the period of the body/mind swap?
This is going to be an interesting situation to try and resolve….
Hah, I love that idea!
Well, I think it would be better for Araceli to stay the Male Guy of Neil for most of the time. You know the Gender swapping thing and not just body swapping thing only. Now after Araceli Been Neil for awhile, if she can figure out how to also swap Neil body into Natalie body, then more power to her. But, remember turning Neil into Natalie was Jeanie Idea and as far as we know, only Jeanie, Neil and Rodge know that Natalie is also Neil. Besides, Araceli may not have the Genie magic anymore, because, she in a mortals body and not her Genie body.
I like Natalie too, but, I don’t see any legalistically way to make it happen logically.
Another one changes sides?
I must commend CD for portraying that mind-body swap without the need for any explanation. Very well done!
Yeah, CD really knows what he’s doing.
I didn’t realize that a body swap even occurred until reading the comments below, and then reading the lines on the panel more closely. I feel like a dope now.
I’m wondering if the Mars Orbiter problem is as simple as checking usage per sol (one Mars rotation relative to the sun) when you want (or think you’re asking for) usage per 24 hours (one Earth rotation relative to the sun) …
Hm. Mars Orbiter’s having issues?
Must be aliens.
Or Jeanie. Remember the Mars Rover in the 2018 Christmas Special?
Looking back at last week’s comic, I wondered if there was really a Nolan’s Pub in Cocoa Beach (Rodge asked Neil if he wanted to go there after work). There is: Nolan’s Irish Pub at 204 West Cocoa Beach Causeway. Maybe we’ll see it in the strip later as a background.
CD’s usually pretty good about that. Another thing that’s really there is the Surf Shop that CD depicted back in the B-Witch arc. He called it something else, but he depicted the facade and the interior quite accurately. We visited the real place during our trip in January.
Actually, Rodge brought up Nolan’s Pub in the first panel of this comic.
I have a new fish theory: When the other kid said “I like fish!” just as Caley was telling Araceli how much she’d like Neil to be there, a distracted Araceli heard “wish” instead of “fish”. It still doesn’t explain why that kid said “I like fish!” at that time, but it might explain why CD made the kid say it.
Idk, bad timing?
I can see two plot lines developing from the body switch:
1. Neil dealing with the guy hitting on Araceli.
2. Araceli getting Neil in trouble with Neil’s and Rodge’s boss. We haven’t seen the boss for a long time, and as far as we know, Araceli has never seen the boss. Just not knowing jack about rocket science would be enough, but even better would be if Araceli sees the boss as just another irritating man before she knows he’s Neil’s boss.
There’s also the possibility that Agent Anderson could show up, most likely at Jupiter 2 Engineering to have another word with Rodge, and perhaps with Rodge’s boss. This would provide an excellent opportunity for Araceli (as Neil) to make things even worse. Again, as far as we know, Araceli knows nothing about Agent Anderson and what happened in Las Vegas.
Less likely but maybe more fun would be for Agent Anderson to be either nosing around the visitor center or just there for some educational recreation, and the guy who was hitting on Araceli starts putting moves on Anderson. Neil as Araceli steps in to chase him off, and Anderson is grateful. But Anderson may also notice her new friend seems to know an awful lot about rocket science for a children’s nanny…
Maybe CD will make one of these things happen?
Wow. I didn’t realize what the last panel meant until reading the comics. First Jean and Blue Djinn, now Araceli and Neil. It’s Genie Freaky Friday, or rather Freaky Tuesday and Thursday.
I do have one question. Back when Neil and Araceli went out on that date, Araceli developed a dislike for hot dogs. Now that Neil is in her body, would the body still retain its dislike. Like Araceli(Neil) taking a bite out of one, unaware the real Araceli hates them, and then vomits it out?
I think Araceli’s aversion to hot dogs is more cultural or emotional than biological. She does not eat animal products. Neil should not have a problem with hot dogs unless Caley reminds him that Araceli does not eat meat.
The reason I asked is because I read this manga called Swap Swap where these 2 girls would swap by kissing. Using each other’s bodies, they were able to eat food that they didn’t like before as themselves.
I’m watching another episode of I Dream of Jeannie tonight. I have all 139. Anyway, Roger has a lot of screen time in this one, and once again I noticed that Roger Healey was supposed to be in the US Army. I wonder why? There have been at least nineteen Army astronauts, but none of the ones I looked up served in the Sixties.
BTW, if you look at Roger’s uniform in the series, even in black-and-white, you should notice that he wears castles on his lapels. This means he would be in the Corps of Engineers, not Army Aviation, although he also wears aviator’s wings over his left breast pocket. I wonder why Sidney Sheldon decided to create an astronaut from the Corps of Engineers.
Roger would have come into the IDoJ’s version of NASA via the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which developed some of the early Jupiter C rockets. He’d originally have been from the propulsion development team. Early NASA was weird, even before it struck off into Star Trek territory in IDoJ, in where it drew its officers from, and there was a big public fight between the US Army and US Airforce over missile and rocket development too.
Either that or he’d have been part of the construction support and maintenance team from when the Corps of Engineers built the space center. There are a few different routes he could have taken from that, especially for dramatic license purpose. The Engineer Corps was heavily involved in the early NASA days in quite a few ways, so his branch is reasonable.
Maybe Sidney Sheldon became close with someone in the Corps of Engineers, and that someone could have pointed out all that the Corps had done for the Space Program while the Astronauts (and the early ones were all test pilots) got all the glory.
The Army got it’s foot in the door in the biggest way because of Werner von Braun. The former Nazi was basically an Army asset working out of the Redstone Arsenal when Sputnik went up in October 1957. The Army was in sad shape at that time. It had lost out to the Air Force and the Navy in the funding wars mainly because the Air Force had the bombers that carried the nukes, and the Navy had Rickover and his sexy nuclear subs. The Army hoped to come back with ICBMs, but then the Navy and Air force got a range restriction slapped on by some friends in Congress. So poor Werner couldn’t build anything bigger than the Redstone missile. Now he had worked out a way to launch a small satellite into orbit with the Redstone by 1955, but that was slapped down by Eisenhower, who gave the honor of launching the world’s first artificial satellite to the Navy’s Vanguard program.
Meanwhile Russia’s smart guy Korolev built the R-7, their first ICBM. It took days to fuel up, and sometimes blew up, but thanks to the wonderful way the Communist Party massaged away bad news, very few people knew that on either side of the Iron Curtain.
Four vivid memories of my childhood: Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2 with Laika the dog aboard (that’s where the stop-action studio gets its name), the first picture of the far side of the moon taken by a Russian probe–and, on live TV, Vanguard 1 blowing up on its launch pad. Von Braun finally got to launch his satellite and eventually build the Saturn 5 that took us to the moon.
BTW, Walt Disney really liked von Braun, and made a movie about his life called “I Aim at the Stars”. Some people thought the title wasn’t long enough and added “But Sometimes I Hit London.”
And how do American astronauts get into space today? Why, on Russian R-7 rockets.
Does Caley know about Jeanie and the Neil>Natalie body transformations? If not (and I can’t find any evidence that Caley does know), then Neil>Araceli would have a very hard time explaining what just happened. Rodge knows so Araceli>Neil will have less of a problem once “he” explains what happened, assuming “Cheese Pasta Man” returns to Neil’s cubicle before Araceli>Neil gets into trouble. The worst thing that can happen (among many worst things) is that Rodge mentions something about the Neil>Natalie body transformations to Araceli giving her something to use as leverage to gain Neil as her Master.
No, neither Caley nor does Araceli know that Natalie is also Neil. At least they didn’t know the last time they had contact with each other. Does Caley know that Jeanie a Genie too, we don’t know for sure or if she thinks that Jeanie is just Neil girlfriend. But at the present, it appears that Caley thinks of Jeanie is just Neil girlfriend which Caley is jealous of and want gone from Neil life. Unless Araceli has told Caley that Jeanie is a Genie too, then Caley doesn’t know that Jeanie a Genie also.
The real question is what is Araceli going to do when she realizes shes in Neil’s body?
Also judging by Caley’s wording of the wish they should switch back after the trip is over, which should be just enough time for Neil/Araceli to be summoned to the temple to decide on Jean’s fate.
I know this comment is rather late, but it occurred to me while reading today’s page.
I just want to comment on how nice it is that you try to incorporate real tasks into what Neil has to do for his work, instead of just having him blankly file away at paperwork or a computer screen, doing some ambiguous “job” without any real explanation.
This feels so much more grounded and real, and it is rare to see shows/comics put in that much effort.