News You Can Bruise for 2001 December 18

Last night I asked Kris what species the Checkerboard Nightmare is. Is he human? Some extropian almost-human species? His reply:

The distinction is very slight. Chex is a cartoon character, and somehow, even though he looks much the same, Lyle is a normal person. The major defining factor is Chex's absence of a (visible) nose. The distinction is better drawn through their behavior/knowledge, where Chex has a much more intuitive grasp that this is a comic strip, whereas Lyle generally doesn't concern himself with it and rather operates within its confines.