"They aren't thinking about you because they're too busy thinking about themselves."

Got me through high school.

even though they are at times so very astute. (This isn't one of those times, at least not for me.)

I hope that when Mr. Bolling retires he gives Louis a vaguely uplifting sendoff.

The hyperbolic teenage angst really shines this week. I especially love the thought bubble within a thought bubble art. I'm not sure I've ever seen it done so well before.

It feels great to laugh at how silly we used to be as kids.

I want to see Louis grow up and become Obama's press secretary.

I'm generally not a fan of the iPod, but I'm thinking our boy Louis could do with a little musical distraction. If he gets the right song stuck in his head, he might be able to stop obsessing about what other people think for minutes, even hours, at a time.

Another burst of here-hold-this-mirror-please brilliance from Mr. Bolling. Bravo!

Although in fairness, my high school was full of bullies who were happy to share that they WERE in fact staring at your tiniest flaws. Oh, to be able to go back in time and say to the guy who said, "Didn't you wear that shirt already this week?" "Gosh, I'm flattered, I didn't know you were keeping track of my wardrobe."

...Louis's thought bubble is darker and envelopes the thoughts of others.

I have a pimple on my cheek this morning (well beyond my teens, sigh) and I just KNOW everyone's going to be looking at nothing else today. Just know it.

I don't ever find the Maltby strips to be depressing. I actually find them up-lifting, because it reminds me that I wasn't alone when I was having my own "Eduction of..." The "uplifting ending" is that I was a Maltby, and I turned out pretty cool, and Bolling was obviously a Maltby and he turned out even cooler!

LBR: "How silly we used to be as kids"?

Pretty much everyone cares much more about what we think people think about us than is necessary.

If you measure it in terms of direct effects on your life, the cloud passing over the sun is more important than whether some guy on the street laughed at you for having funny hair. But people are way more focused on the latter. It's instinct, and very hard to overcome.

Go back to when everyone lived in a village of 150 people, and what others thought about you was vitally important. Now, in your average modern city, it usually means nothing, in practical terms of direct impact on your physical circumstances. But people are still worried constantly about others' judgments of them.

Comparing yourself to others in terms of status, income, etc., is one of the major determinants of happiness. Feeling that you are judged to be successful is way more important than the absolute amount of money you're making.

This isn't just about when you were at high school and were too paranoid to ask that girl out. It goes right through to your state of mind when you walk into a Starbucks full of strangers at age 35. Sad but true.

Sartre had all this stuff down, except for the solution.