I still miss Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday
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Mr. Spaetzle thinks Caulfield is stirring up trouble by claiming no one admits to voting for he who must not be named. Caulfield innocently protests that he was talking about people admitting they were old enough to vote for anyone before Coolidge.
The holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February is Washington’s Birthday, but it is popularly known as Presidents’ Day. In the first two panels, Caulfield suggests that it is wrong to celebrate a holiday for presidents whom nobody alive voted for. However, he phrases this in such a way that his principal thinks it is a dig at the current president (which is probably his intention).
“The first three panels, Caufield’s just being Caulfield; the final one has me stumped.”
There’s only three panels. Maybe that’s the problem?
I concur in the previously outlined explanation. Caulfield is saying that either nobody (still alive) voted for Washington or Lincoln, or that anyone who did will admit (to being old enough to have voted for Lincoln). His convoluted phrasing suggests to the principal that he’s suggesting that either nobody voted for (the current guy) or will admit to having voted for (the current guy). Frazz, given a more complete explanation of what Caulfield is complaining about, concurs with Caulfield that there’s nothing objectionable about it.
About your subtitle: Bill, aren’t you self-employed? Go ahead and celebrate Lincoln’s birthday if you want!
I once took a psych test that included a question amounting to “Which was the greater President, Washington or Lincoln?” It looks less obviously diagnostic than, say, “Do you often wake up with anxiety?”
But on reflection, there might be personality types more admiring of one or the other.
My reply to a psych test that included a question amounting to “Which was the greater President, Washington or Lincoln?” would be that neither was a “which” and that the question should have been “who was the grater President…?” or “Which was the greater Presidency, that of. . . .?” Which probably means I’d the psych tester guy would have to look up in the DSM-5 HANDBOOK to see what the code was for “wise ass English major.”
O.K., that “grater President” above should of course have been “greater President,” though I’d argue that several other Prexies (not Washington or Lincoln) *could* be pretty cheesy.
And that stray “I’d” got overlooked when I revised my wording on the last sentence.
New self-imposed rule: be sure you’re fully awake before you try to be clever on a Monday morning. (Also a good suggestion for other times and days.) Considering going back to bed now.
So do you think “I’m not a which” would be a good campaign slogan?
Well, the specific phrasing was my fault, not theirs. (That’s what “amounting to” was supposed to signal.) It might even have been the classic MMPI. Whatever it was, I think the questions were set up for T/F responses, so the wording might have been more like “George Washington was a greater President than Abraham Lincoln.”
The memory is hazy since it comes from the days of the Nixon administration. Than which almost any other is better.
Incidentally, have you noticed a usage among “the kids these days” in social media styles to use the greater-than math symbol , > , in statements where the sense is a generalized “better than”. Thus the above would come out “Washington > Lincoln.”
(I didn’t try whether just typing that symbol would have worked, I resorted to the html-entity markup. But of course “just typing” > “verbose markup” if the filters have been liberalized. )
GW was a military commander, rather uptight about application of behavioral standards (the cherry tree story), and associated verbally with paternalism as “The Father of his country”. AL was associated with liberation rather than control, was called “Honest Abe”, and was bearded (which could have mattered more in those days). so it might have been a question that counted in the scoring on some intuitive basis.
He’s a witch, Bern him!
“’George Washington was a greater President than Abraham Lincoln.’”
This is objectively true.
Under Washington, the number of times the United States came together is higher than the number of times the United States came apart. Not so for Lincoln.
45 > 1
45 > 16
QED
Make America greater-than?
Another objective fact:
Anyone wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat believes that America is not great.
If it’s a true-false question with a format like that, it removes my answer of pointing out that it’s a poorly defined question. (It also actually has a clear answer, meaning that it would totally miss my overly pedantic tendencies, which are at a diagnosable level, so really should be caught.)
@Shrug — you fell victim to what is known as “Muphry’s Law” — “any post containing a criticism of somebody’s spelling or grammar will contain one or more errors in grammar or spelling.”
Speaking of Muphry’s Law, I just now noticed that I fell into a corollary, in that by NOT making the “mistake” I totally ruined my own joke.
He’s a which, Bern him!
re “you fell victim to what is known as “Muphry’s Law” — “any post containing a criticism of somebody’s spelling or grammar will contain one or more errors in grammar or spelling.”
It’s a fair cop, but I made TWO such errors in the post, so it should be an example of “Muphry’s Lwa.”
Never heard it called Muphry’s Law. It was always just one of the rules of Usenet.
“Every spelling flame must contain at least one misspelled worm.”
I usually followed up with a further comment of “nematoad”.
Yes, I think the name “Muphry’s Law” came about years after the phenomenon was observed.
According to the magazine article linked below, Murphy’s Law had a specific use when it was coined in the ’50s:
“If an aircraft part can be installed incorrectly, someone will install it that way.”
The article continues:
“Unfortunately, these clever words lend themselves to many variations and interpretations; consequently some people use the label Murphy’s Law for things far beyond the original intent. The concept behind Murpthy’s Law is directly related to the original design of a piece of hardware. The idea is that if the drawing board types design a piece of equipment in such a manner that it may be installed in a way other than intended, some dear soul will surely put it on the wrong way….”
And now relating to the discussion of greater presidents, if we open up the question to all the presidents, I’d say Taft hands down was the greatest. all 330 + pounds of him.
Oh, we’re not going by weight?
:-)
“if we open up the question to all the presidents, I’d say Taft hands down was the greatest. all 330 + pounds of him.
Oh, we’re not going by weight?”
Surely the two Clinton co-Presidents went over 330?
Um… but nobody thinks Presidents’ day is about or honors the current president.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Mr. Spaetzle thinks Caulfield is stirring up trouble by claiming no one admits to voting for he who must not be named. Caulfield innocently protests that he was talking about people admitting they were old enough to vote for anyone before Coolidge.
The holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February is Washington’s Birthday, but it is popularly known as Presidents’ Day. In the first two panels, Caulfield suggests that it is wrong to celebrate a holiday for presidents whom nobody alive voted for. However, he phrases this in such a way that his principal thinks it is a dig at the current president (which is probably his intention).
“The first three panels, Caufield’s just being Caulfield; the final one has me stumped.”
There’s only three panels. Maybe that’s the problem?
I concur in the previously outlined explanation. Caulfield is saying that either nobody (still alive) voted for Washington or Lincoln, or that anyone who did will admit (to being old enough to have voted for Lincoln). His convoluted phrasing suggests to the principal that he’s suggesting that either nobody voted for (the current guy) or will admit to having voted for (the current guy). Frazz, given a more complete explanation of what Caulfield is complaining about, concurs with Caulfield that there’s nothing objectionable about it.
About your subtitle: Bill, aren’t you self-employed? Go ahead and celebrate Lincoln’s birthday if you want!
I once took a psych test that included a question amounting to “Which was the greater President, Washington or Lincoln?” It looks less obviously diagnostic than, say, “Do you often wake up with anxiety?”
But on reflection, there might be personality types more admiring of one or the other.
My reply to a psych test that included a question amounting to “Which was the greater President, Washington or Lincoln?” would be that neither was a “which” and that the question should have been “who was the grater President…?” or “Which was the greater Presidency, that of. . . .?” Which probably means I’d the psych tester guy would have to look up in the DSM-5 HANDBOOK to see what the code was for “wise ass English major.”
O.K., that “grater President” above should of course have been “greater President,” though I’d argue that several other Prexies (not Washington or Lincoln) *could* be pretty cheesy.
And that stray “I’d” got overlooked when I revised my wording on the last sentence.
New self-imposed rule: be sure you’re fully awake before you try to be clever on a Monday morning. (Also a good suggestion for other times and days.) Considering going back to bed now.
So do you think “I’m not a which” would be a good campaign slogan?
Well, the specific phrasing was my fault, not theirs. (That’s what “amounting to” was supposed to signal.) It might even have been the classic MMPI. Whatever it was, I think the questions were set up for T/F responses, so the wording might have been more like “George Washington was a greater President than Abraham Lincoln.”
The memory is hazy since it comes from the days of the Nixon administration. Than which almost any other is better.
Incidentally, have you noticed a usage among “the kids these days” in social media styles to use the greater-than math symbol , > , in statements where the sense is a generalized “better than”. Thus the above would come out “Washington > Lincoln.”
(I didn’t try whether just typing that symbol would have worked, I resorted to the html-entity markup. But of course “just typing” > “verbose markup” if the filters have been liberalized. )
GW was a military commander, rather uptight about application of behavioral standards (the cherry tree story), and associated verbally with paternalism as “The Father of his country”. AL was associated with liberation rather than control, was called “Honest Abe”, and was bearded (which could have mattered more in those days). so it might have been a question that counted in the scoring on some intuitive basis.
He’s a witch, Bern him!
“’George Washington was a greater President than Abraham Lincoln.’”
This is objectively true.
Under Washington, the number of times the United States came together is higher than the number of times the United States came apart. Not so for Lincoln.
45 > 1
45 > 16
QED
Make America greater-than?
Another objective fact:
Anyone wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat believes that America is not great.
If it’s a true-false question with a format like that, it removes my answer of pointing out that it’s a poorly defined question. (It also actually has a clear answer, meaning that it would totally miss my overly pedantic tendencies, which are at a diagnosable level, so really should be caught.)
@Shrug — you fell victim to what is known as “Muphry’s Law” — “any post containing a criticism of somebody’s spelling or grammar will contain one or more errors in grammar or spelling.”
Speaking of Muphry’s Law, I just now noticed that I fell into a corollary, in that by NOT making the “mistake” I totally ruined my own joke.
He’s a which, Bern him!
re “you fell victim to what is known as “Muphry’s Law” — “any post containing a criticism of somebody’s spelling or grammar will contain one or more errors in grammar or spelling.”
It’s a fair cop, but I made TWO such errors in the post, so it should be an example of “Muphry’s Lwa.”
Never heard it called Muphry’s Law. It was always just one of the rules of Usenet.
“Every spelling flame must contain at least one misspelled worm.”
I usually followed up with a further comment of “nematoad”.
Yes, I think the name “Muphry’s Law” came about years after the phenomenon was observed.
According to the magazine article linked below, Murphy’s Law had a specific use when it was coined in the ’50s:
“If an aircraft part can be installed incorrectly, someone will install it that way.”
The article continues:
“Unfortunately, these clever words lend themselves to many variations and interpretations; consequently some people use the label Murphy’s Law for things far beyond the original intent. The concept behind Murpthy’s Law is directly related to the original design of a piece of hardware. The idea is that if the drawing board types design a piece of equipment in such a manner that it may be installed in a way other than intended, some dear soul will surely put it on the wrong way….”
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112106662379;view=1up;seq=47
…………
And now relating to the discussion of greater presidents, if we open up the question to all the presidents, I’d say Taft hands down was the greatest. all 330 + pounds of him.
Oh, we’re not going by weight?
:-)
“if we open up the question to all the presidents, I’d say Taft hands down was the greatest. all 330 + pounds of him.
Oh, we’re not going by weight?”
Surely the two Clinton co-Presidents went over 330?
Um… but nobody thinks Presidents’ day is about or honors the current president.