Welcome to the second installment of “Ask Rossmom”, where people write in and my mother (yes, my actual mother) answers your queries about life, the universe, and everything! If you like it after reading this one, and want your own questions answered by my mom, write them to systemcomic@gmail.com, subject line “Ask Rossmom”. The second one comes from @Alli893:

Dear Rossmom,

When Rosscott first told you about Super Art Fight, what did you imagine it to be? Were you at all concerned about him turning to violence?

Also, baby pictures of Rosscott would be superb! (He’s gonna kill me for even asking!)

-Allison

Allison, that’s a good question.

When Ross told me he was involved, actually immersed, in SuperArtFight, my first thought was–well, he does know tae-kwando so I guess that might help.  But, if it’s just go and beat somebody up, no holds barred, that gave me pause.  After all, he’s my son!!!!!

He wasn’t brought up to be violent.  Even w/the use of words, he knows better than to sink to the level of four-letter words.  (Yes, I know he uses them in The System, but I realize that it’s sometimes necessary to get his point across, although I’m still not sure why it’s necessary.  And, he certainly knows much, much, much, much, much…..better than to use them around me.)

Then when he explained the concept to me, I was lost.  I understood what he was saying but when he mentioned, “The Wheel of Death”, I was really worried.  Really seemed rather violent.

But, once we went to one and experienced it, I felt relieved.  My son was explaining the fighting  (and he is excellent at doing that), not actually fighting and no blood was involved.  (Of course, being a super comic artist in his own right, he could easily attack and win, I’ve no doubt.  And, I would be ok w/that.)

If you haven’t seen one, it’s something that is total entertainment and shouldn’t be missed.  And, this coming from an ‘old’ person, says something.  (Not that we ‘old’ people don’t understand fun stuff.  We are w/it too!–sometimes more than you ‘young whippersnappers’.)

Baby pictures of Ross–there are a ton (and, I mean a ton!).  He was a very photographic baby/kid (and still is)–long eyelashes, always smiling, total ham (well, the Kosher version) for the camera.

Ross said he would rather include some pictures rather than my totally embarrassing him (and I certainly have a few that would definitely make him go hide in a corner and cut off all human contact:)

Hope that answers your questions.

ROSS’ NOTE: I can’t find any quick pictures of me as a baby, but here’s two that are embarassing, and I think that’s the point. Left, me doing some dance pretending a cane is a trombone or something? The batman pajamas are key, and I think that’s a Ren and Stimpy t-shirt. Right, me and Rossmom at the Grand Canyon. Notice her shirt:

Welcome to the first installment of “Ask Rossmom”, where people write in and my mother (yes, my actual mother) answers your queries about life, the universe, and everything! If you like it after reading this one, and want your own questions answered by my mom, write them to systemcomic@gmail.com, subject line “Ask Rossmom”. The first one comes from Jess:

Dear Rossmom,

I’ve heard you have an affinity for dogs. Could you please share your thoughts on Jimmy the murderdog? Does he represent a fear of dogs or a mistrust of animals? Why do you think there are muderdogs but no mudercats, muderrabbits, etc?

—Jess

Dogs are descendents of of grey wolves and wolves have a reputation as being carnivorous (think of Little Red Robin Hood); so, it seems like a natural progression.  I don’t think he represents a mistrust of animals.

A fear of dogs, well, no I don’t think that either; however, I can see how that could be an interpretation.  After all, dogs tend to go crazy at the sight of a mailman.  And, if you have a good watchdog, you’ll hear barking at the scent of a nearby stranger.  Even friendly dogs can jump on you to show their happiness at seeing you and I suppose that could scare someone, especially if you aren’t a dog person.  Hey, to carry it to an extreme, some people could be scared of dogs because of walking out of a room or house coated with fur–you never know. (I considered merely being frustrating.  However, I would never have considered giving up my dog because of its shedding.  Now, when it peed on any male who walked into the house, well, that I considered embarrassing, but still wouldn’t have considered parting with my dog.)

I think (although only Rosscott knows for sure) Jimmy represents an animal whose body can best fit pictures of guns and the name sounds a lot better than Jimmy the Murdercat or Jimmy the Murderrabbit.  Aside from that, cats would generally rather ignore you than attack you and a rabbit is thought of as a furry little adorable creature.

However, as I feel it is my responsibility, apparently there exists “leporiphobia”–a fear of rabbits.  It is rare, but it exists.  Not that this relates to that fear but rabbits “were considered rodents until 1912, when taxonomists put them into a separate family due to their unique teeth and diet.”members of the animal kingdom.

And, those are my thoughts about Jimmy.

Hi Systemics!

Time to try out something new on the site. Some of you have noticed (and commented) about “Rossmom” posts in the comments. Yes, those are in fact my mother. Well, after much debate and little planning, here we go. The chance for you to write in and ask my mother questions, and she’ll answer them here on the site. Here’s how this works:

Send an email to systemcomic at gmail dot com with the subject line “Ask Rossmom” and then, well, ask your question! We’ll post the answers here on the site as we can. Some suggested topics after knowing my mom for 28 or so years:

• Chocolate
• Organization
• “Mom advice”
• Life questions
• Silly questions

Really, anything except about the time my brother pooped in the corner at the age of 3 is up for grabs. She graduated magna cum laude from a very prestigious university and holds degrees in things, so anything is fair game. If it’s successful enough, maybe it’ll become a podcast? So START WRITING!