I also kind of see the ‘Evolution of Man’ in that soup . . .
I don’t see where you marked it as either CIDU or not a CIDU.
I can’t figure out what that white & black triangle is. Oh wait, that’s supposed to be an eye !? And I don’t see any soup.
The soup has been there so long the mold on it has begun to evolve and… has reached a very advanced stage of evolution (at least from the perspective of the character in the cartoon).
No, it isn’t related to potato salad going bad.
It was a CIDU, Arthur: I forgot to click the box.
glasses.
Okay, I see the evolution, now. But I’ve never seen soup extending up over the soup bowl before.
And they’re glasses only if those newly evolved have somehow evolved glasses, too.
I saw the evolution also – and that it had been in the fridge long enough to evolve.
Question – instant decafe coffee “best by” date in 2017 – toss out” regular ditto “best by” date in 2014?
Oh, and I just found out that Downy fabric softener liquid is suppose to be used up by a year from the raised manufacture date on the lid (which is unreadable). They really should sell in smaller bottles then.
I remember references to moldy items “evolving” back when I was in college, so the joke is old, but I’m not sure whether we were influenced by “The Far Side” panel. Still, I would say that these comics are (distantly) related.
P.S. @ Meryl A – There’s a big difference between an “expiration” date and a “best before” date. With medicines, meat, or fish, the date is very important. For many other products, the date is not when the item is expected to go bad, it’s merely the minimum date for which the manufacturer will guarantee the quality. Here in Germany, I have discovered that whipping cream and many jogurts will easily keep four weeks beyond their date, and I have even used a sour cream that was two months overdue, with no ill effects.
Yeah, things like yogurt and pickled things only get better the longer you keep them, the whole point of these fermentation processes is as a way to keep food before refrigeration. When you now have refrigeration slowing down the fermentation process, things will happily last… (Of course they are living, dynamic systems; sometimes they may be overpowered by a particular bad bacteria or yeast or mold, or they might even evolve in a direction that is less pleasant than you like — just look at certain cheeses…)
My favorite of course is the expiration date on salt, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before: not only is salt itself used as a preservative, it is also a mineral that in many cases is mined from the earth where it has been sitting for millions of years…
It’s PRIMORDIAL soup. Stuff is evolving out of it, and it takes after him, down to the funky glasses.
“My favorite of course is the expiration date on salt”
Over time, the tendency is for salt to return to mineral form, abandoning the granular form preferred by humans. Once the grans start clumping, the salt no longer works in salt shakers.
I get the evolution thing, but why do they look like him? Is the soup made from his body parts? Also, I don’t get the guy with a “Beer” skirt and an olive. This one seems designed to confound only.
I like how the second most evolved one is wielding a chicken leg as a club. Nice touch.
I can’t imagine putting a bowl of soup back in the fridge in a bowl (or in this case, a deep plate?) like that. I personally would have poured it into some sort of plastic container. At the very lease put some cling wrap over it.
And yeesh, that’s some thick soup, practically chili. Do some people call chili soup? I wonder if the soup was that chunky before it went bad.
I like how the most evolved one apparently cut up a beer can to make a loincloth/skirt. Did they at least share the beer?
What is that strange creature that opened the fridge?
So the Beer guy is one of the products of the soup? Okay, I was taking him as a separate anthropomorphising instance.
‘ . . . or they might even evolve in a direction that is less pleasant than you like — just look at certain cheeses…)’
The organism on the soup is evolving. That alone should be enough. But they are showing all stages at the same time. They are evolving to look exactly like the guy whose fridge it is with his telltale glasses. They are utilizing material within the fridge as props. And for those who don’t read the strip regularly the guys glasses are strange and perplexing looking and from the hind angle are truly impossible to interpret (but I imagine for those who read it regularly it’s okay).
To many conflicting things none of which actually make sense makes and which distract and make the whole thing less than clear.
My first impression was Herman by Jim Unger. His characters often have over-wide glasses, several of which are triangular.
Andréa, thanks for the cheese comic.
Purely coincidental . . .
So, when this cartoonist noticed that everyone in “Cornered” wears glasses, he decided to do the gimmick one better and give everyone ridiculously sharp knife-like glasses?
“he decided to do the gimmick one better and give everyone ridiculously sharp knife-like glasses?”
Well, the comic *IS* called “Spectickles” so … yeah..
That *is* the comics schtick so far as I can tell. *Everyone either has these knife-like glasses or square etchasketch glasses.
Woozy, he’s showing different ‘stages’ of evolution because it’s a standard trope for showing evolution and doesn’t have to make sense synchronically, and because there are greatly different environmental pressures at different levels of the soup.
Oh.. I never thought to check out other Spectickles strips before my Herman comment. Thanks, Woozy.
One of my favorite stages examples:
Mrs. Singapore Bill believes the refrigerator is where you keep food until you throw it out. Despite some items having a lengthy residency, I’ve not see such a result.
For there to be evolution happening, there would need to be differential survival and reproduction rates according to Darwin. So what that fella should be concerned about is what is preying on the things in his fridge…unless it was him all along! Shyamalaned!
‘Mrs. Singapore Bill believes the refrigerator is where you keep food until you throw it out. Despite some items having a lengthy residency, I’ve not see such a result.’
. . . or they become what we call ‘science projects’.
And then there’s this Garfield strip (1987-07-19)
“For there to be evolution happening, there would need to be differential survival and reproduction rates according to Darwin.”
No, that’s evolution by natural selection. There’s other forms of evolution. Or maybe Lysenko owns that particular fridge.
Bottles of calcium carbonate have expiration dates. That tells you how realistic many of them are: what are the pills gonna do, turn back into oysters??? Hard to imagine something more inert…
@James: I said “…according to Darwin”, who is our granddaddy of natural selection, therefore my statement was wholly correct in and of itself, even if not describing all possibilities. Boom! Pollacked!
” Hard to imagine something more inert”
Inert? Calcium carbonate plus water with even a little dissolved CO2 = what?
Right, but I meant “while sitting in a closed bottle”. It ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is!
Mitch4: You’re thinking of sodium bicarbonate.
Geologic calcium carbonate is a course of caverns, and sinkholes.
“course”? “cause”?
Um, yeah. It makes MUCH more sense with the correct word choice. D’oh!
I worked with a Russian guy who both said and wrote “of cause” for “of course”. I pointed it out to him several times but he couldn’t seem to integrate it into his brain. (Admittedly with his accent they were pretty well identical when spoken.) So it was an easy translation for me!
I am not Russian, FYI.
I do the least housework possible. So when I do laundry there is laundry detergent (TIde – high priced, but works – it removed SIL’s lipstick stains and nephew’s chocolate stains from the prior year’s Thanksgiving dinner napkins, which had been washed a year before at Thanksgiving plus the current year’s stains when I first tried it).
So I don’t use Downy Fabric softener. Husband needs it for his weaving projects as it helps set them. The smallest bottle we found was 60 oz. He uses it in maybe 1/4 cup amounts when he washes a new piece to help finish it and we have not done this on anything in awhile.
He was complaining his new jeans were too uncomfortable. So I pulled out the Downy to let the jeans soak in them. It was semi-solid. I put some in the washer and it mixed into the water, so I used it. I the contacted Downy to ask about it. According to them it is best used within one year of purchase.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I also kind of see the ‘Evolution of Man’ in that soup . . .
I don’t see where you marked it as either CIDU or not a CIDU.
I can’t figure out what that white & black triangle is. Oh wait, that’s supposed to be an eye !? And I don’t see any soup.
The soup has been there so long the mold on it has begun to evolve and… has reached a very advanced stage of evolution (at least from the perspective of the character in the cartoon).
No, it isn’t related to potato salad going bad.
It was a CIDU, Arthur: I forgot to click the box.
glasses.
Okay, I see the evolution, now. But I’ve never seen soup extending up over the soup bowl before.
And they’re glasses only if those newly evolved have somehow evolved glasses, too.
I saw the evolution also – and that it had been in the fridge long enough to evolve.
Question – instant decafe coffee “best by” date in 2017 – toss out” regular ditto “best by” date in 2014?
Oh, and I just found out that Downy fabric softener liquid is suppose to be used up by a year from the raised manufacture date on the lid (which is unreadable). They really should sell in smaller bottles then.
I remember references to moldy items “evolving” back when I was in college, so the joke is old, but I’m not sure whether we were influenced by “The Far Side” panel. Still, I would say that these comics are (distantly) related.
P.S. @ Meryl A – There’s a big difference between an “expiration” date and a “best before” date. With medicines, meat, or fish, the date is very important. For many other products, the date is not when the item is expected to go bad, it’s merely the minimum date for which the manufacturer will guarantee the quality. Here in Germany, I have discovered that whipping cream and many jogurts will easily keep four weeks beyond their date, and I have even used a sour cream that was two months overdue, with no ill effects.
Yeah, things like yogurt and pickled things only get better the longer you keep them, the whole point of these fermentation processes is as a way to keep food before refrigeration. When you now have refrigeration slowing down the fermentation process, things will happily last… (Of course they are living, dynamic systems; sometimes they may be overpowered by a particular bad bacteria or yeast or mold, or they might even evolve in a direction that is less pleasant than you like — just look at certain cheeses…)
My favorite of course is the expiration date on salt, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before: not only is salt itself used as a preservative, it is also a mineral that in many cases is mined from the earth where it has been sitting for millions of years…
It’s PRIMORDIAL soup. Stuff is evolving out of it, and it takes after him, down to the funky glasses.
“My favorite of course is the expiration date on salt”
Over time, the tendency is for salt to return to mineral form, abandoning the granular form preferred by humans. Once the grans start clumping, the salt no longer works in salt shakers.
I get the evolution thing, but why do they look like him? Is the soup made from his body parts? Also, I don’t get the guy with a “Beer” skirt and an olive. This one seems designed to confound only.
I like how the second most evolved one is wielding a chicken leg as a club. Nice touch.
I can’t imagine putting a bowl of soup back in the fridge in a bowl (or in this case, a deep plate?) like that. I personally would have poured it into some sort of plastic container. At the very lease put some cling wrap over it.
And yeesh, that’s some thick soup, practically chili. Do some people call chili soup? I wonder if the soup was that chunky before it went bad.
I like how the most evolved one apparently cut up a beer can to make a loincloth/skirt. Did they at least share the beer?
What is that strange creature that opened the fridge?
So the Beer guy is one of the products of the soup? Okay, I was taking him as a separate anthropomorphising instance.
‘ . . . or they might even evolve in a direction that is less pleasant than you like — just look at certain cheeses…)’
Okay, I’m lookin’ at a certain cheese . . .
https://www.gocomics.com/raising-duncan/2019/01/29
‘And yeesh, that’s some thick soup, practically chili. Do some people call chili soup?’
https://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife/2019/01/29
There’s too much going on.
The organism on the soup is evolving. That alone should be enough. But they are showing all stages at the same time. They are evolving to look exactly like the guy whose fridge it is with his telltale glasses. They are utilizing material within the fridge as props. And for those who don’t read the strip regularly the guys glasses are strange and perplexing looking and from the hind angle are truly impossible to interpret (but I imagine for those who read it regularly it’s okay).
To many conflicting things none of which actually make sense makes and which distract and make the whole thing less than clear.
My first impression was Herman by Jim Unger. His characters often have over-wide glasses, several of which are triangular.
Andréa, thanks for the cheese comic.
Purely coincidental . . .
So, when this cartoonist noticed that everyone in “Cornered” wears glasses, he decided to do the gimmick one better and give everyone ridiculously sharp knife-like glasses?
“he decided to do the gimmick one better and give everyone ridiculously sharp knife-like glasses?”
Well, the comic *IS* called “Spectickles” so … yeah..
That *is* the comics schtick so far as I can tell. *Everyone either has these knife-like glasses or square etchasketch glasses.
Woozy, he’s showing different ‘stages’ of evolution because it’s a standard trope for showing evolution and doesn’t have to make sense synchronically, and because there are greatly different environmental pressures at different levels of the soup.
Oh.. I never thought to check out other Spectickles strips before my Herman comment. Thanks, Woozy.
One of my favorite stages examples:
Mrs. Singapore Bill believes the refrigerator is where you keep food until you throw it out. Despite some items having a lengthy residency, I’ve not see such a result.
For there to be evolution happening, there would need to be differential survival and reproduction rates according to Darwin. So what that fella should be concerned about is what is preying on the things in his fridge…unless it was him all along! Shyamalaned!
‘Mrs. Singapore Bill believes the refrigerator is where you keep food until you throw it out. Despite some items having a lengthy residency, I’ve not see such a result.’
. . . or they become what we call ‘science projects’.
And then there’s this Garfield strip (1987-07-19)
“For there to be evolution happening, there would need to be differential survival and reproduction rates according to Darwin.”
No, that’s evolution by natural selection. There’s other forms of evolution. Or maybe Lysenko owns that particular fridge.
Bottles of calcium carbonate have expiration dates. That tells you how realistic many of them are: what are the pills gonna do, turn back into oysters??? Hard to imagine something more inert…
@James: I said “…according to Darwin”, who is our granddaddy of natural selection, therefore my statement was wholly correct in and of itself, even if not describing all possibilities. Boom! Pollacked!
” Hard to imagine something more inert”
Inert? Calcium carbonate plus water with even a little dissolved CO2 = what?
Right, but I meant “while sitting in a closed bottle”. It ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is!
Mitch4: You’re thinking of sodium bicarbonate.
Geologic calcium carbonate is a course of caverns, and sinkholes.
“course”? “cause”?
Um, yeah. It makes MUCH more sense with the correct word choice. D’oh!
I worked with a Russian guy who both said and wrote “of cause” for “of course”. I pointed it out to him several times but he couldn’t seem to integrate it into his brain. (Admittedly with his accent they were pretty well identical when spoken.) So it was an easy translation for me!
I am not Russian, FYI.
I do the least housework possible. So when I do laundry there is laundry detergent (TIde – high priced, but works – it removed SIL’s lipstick stains and nephew’s chocolate stains from the prior year’s Thanksgiving dinner napkins, which had been washed a year before at Thanksgiving plus the current year’s stains when I first tried it).
So I don’t use Downy Fabric softener. Husband needs it for his weaving projects as it helps set them. The smallest bottle we found was 60 oz. He uses it in maybe 1/4 cup amounts when he washes a new piece to help finish it and we have not done this on anything in awhile.
He was complaining his new jeans were too uncomfortable. So I pulled out the Downy to let the jeans soak in them. It was semi-solid. I put some in the washer and it mixed into the water, so I used it. I the contacted Downy to ask about it. According to them it is best used within one year of purchase.
Huh? How about selling it in small bottles then?