Let's salute the Bucket Guy

In today's news there was an update on the sea migration into Italy from troubled points east and south.

There was a few seconds of footage of the topside of one of the rescue vessels, and the hazmat suit-wearing figure of what I will call the Bucket Guy.

Like the Bag Man of the famous Tian An Men Square photograph, which seems to stop tanks with the sheer force of his shopping bag's will, the Bucket Guy must make his rounds.

Be it in the full, judging glare of the noonday sun, or as a clumsy altercations by flashlight at midnight,

He must find his way through the huddled crowd amassed atop his vessel, and, upon demand, turn himself into a human toilet.

This is a small but important task since (a) they can't allow the shipboard facilities to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, and (b) they can't have people defecating over the ship's edge as a matter of safety, and (c) they probably want to gather specimens from sick people.

Today we salute thee.

Faces On, or Off?

A one-panel by Randall Munroe.

I think the Argentinian cartoonist Quino might have been able to pull this off without the need for the explanatory caption. He would have done it simply through the horrified expression in the dining companion's face. Such was his genius.

Interestingly, it is Munroe's genius that enables him to convey equally pithy sentiments without the use of faces AT ALL (although not so much in this particular example). A stick figure shrugging its shoulders pathetically is truly a sight to behold.

I wrote to him (Munroe) some years ago to ask him about his preference for omitting faces. I asked him in the context of prosophagnosia (the inability to recognize or process faces and facial expressions) and how that is one of the symptoms of Asperger's.Syndrome, among other traits he manifests. He told me he didn't have Asperger's, but that his brother does. I suppose I was partly right in my guess.

A good example of Quino at work, for comparison: