Julie Hamilton is a college friend. She’s kind of a mad genius herself. She wrote both the song and the commentary here. I later used this song as the inspiration for giving all the ur-gerbils palindromic names.

Helen’s shirt at top bears the name of the King Dapper Combo, a junkabilly band from Akron, Ohio. King Dapper Combo shows formed the basis for much of my social life when I was in high school. The band also gets namechecked in my comic Smithson.