I don’t think this is what Piraro intended, but he could prove that he understands the command by declining to read off the “2”, and possibly exaggerating the point in skipping the “zero” immediately before it as well.
When I get my eyes checked, and take off my glasses to read the chart, they’d be blurred. However, I don’t see a pair of glasses lying on the counter, so it’s obviously his first visit.
Nope, didn’t get it when I first saw it, and still don’t.
Piraro’s explanation from his blog: “I just spent a couple of hours on today’s blog post then had a computer problem and lost the entire thing. I’m too pissed off to do it again so here are this week’s cartoons. If you enjoy them half as much as I hated losing a couple of hours of work today, you’ll be in damn good shape.” So, he’s no help.
Andréa, have you not ever had to do one of those Captcha tests when signing in to some website etc? Where they ask you to type the letters you see, and the display is oddly shaped letters with background distractors?
That’s not a zero before the two. It’s a vowel. “O2” is one of Bizarro’s secret symbols. Shorthand for Olive Oyl.
And yep, Dr. Captcha is the full extent of the joke. Nothing to see here.
“Shouldn’t the joke be that the letters are distorted or otherwise undecipherable?”
Absolutely. Or they should be point out the pictures with street signs.
“Please check all boxes in which somebody is wearing clothing made of synthetic fibers.”
There’s an XKCD for that:
@ Bob Peters – Yes, I knew it was a vowel, that’s why I said “exaggerating”, and put the “zero” in quotes. However, for my idea to have worked, there would have had to be at least one other “real” digit somewhere on the chart, and there isn’t. Forcing the reader to reflect upon the name results in more effort than the joke is worth.
P.S. I would have expected “D.O.” for “Doctor of Ophthalmology”, but the sign appears to read “O.D.”
Yes, “O. D.” would be “Doctor of Optometry”. (Also, in some contexts, “right eye”!).
In the U. S, the categories Ophthalmologist, Optometrist, and Optician are three different kinds of practice, with different kinds of training and certification.
(And a D. O. would be an Osteopath)
And a D. D. would be a Doctor of Divinity, and as I forget which early-twentieth-century famous cartoonist said, it takes a very brave person to stand in front of a crowd and formally introduce Dr. Twiddle, D. D.
@Mitch4: “Oeil Droit” ;) .
Thanks, Olivier! Of course, it’s not by chance that French and Latin will have resemblances.
The path from prescribing physician to pharmacy to patient label is now so computerized, that it should no longer by a matter of hesitation for a prescriber whether to write O.D. or R.Eye to get the pharmacy to print “Put one drop in right eye twice daily” for the patient.
But back in the less automated day, as Olivier illustrates, in a Francophone region O. D. would work nicely as indeterminate between Latin and modern local language. In Anglophone regions we don’t collect that benefit until the patient is deceased, and we can say RIP without committing to whether that’s an English or Latin initialism.
Just in the last couple days I saw a comic with a captcha puzzle for dogs, requiring the user to pick the photos that show a hydrant.
So others don’t have to go offsite for Andréa’s comic:
Thanks, Arthur – and what combination of keystrokes did you use to download this? Since the RSS isn’t working, I can’t download from the GoComics page, either. Inquiring minds (well, one anyway) want to know.
Andréa, I run with active scripting disabled. There are many sites I can’t use because of that. But those I can use are generally better off without the scripting. If you have “noscript” installed for Firefox, you might try turning scripts off for this page and see what happens.
You can also (with desktop FF) select View->Page Style->No Style. The page looks weird, but the image will be available. Add .jpp to the URL.
I have a post in moderation or limbo about getting the image, but I just remembered advice I read recently (maybe here). On GoComics, there’s a link labeled “Buy a Print of This Comic” that has an unobscured image. Example:
(And yes, the doctor’s name is Captcha)
Comics I Don't Understand 
I don’t think this is what Piraro intended, but he could prove that he understands the command by declining to read off the “2”, and possibly exaggerating the point in skipping the “zero” immediately before it as well.
When I get my eyes checked, and take off my glasses to read the chart, they’d be blurred. However, I don’t see a pair of glasses lying on the counter, so it’s obviously his first visit.
Nope, didn’t get it when I first saw it, and still don’t.
Piraro’s explanation from his blog: “I just spent a couple of hours on today’s blog post then had a computer problem and lost the entire thing. I’m too pissed off to do it again so here are this week’s cartoons. If you enjoy them half as much as I hated losing a couple of hours of work today, you’ll be in damn good shape.” So, he’s no help.
Andréa, have you not ever had to do one of those Captcha tests when signing in to some website etc? Where they ask you to type the letters you see, and the display is oddly shaped letters with background distractors?
That’s not a zero before the two. It’s a vowel. “O2” is one of Bizarro’s secret symbols. Shorthand for Olive Oyl.
And yep, Dr. Captcha is the full extent of the joke. Nothing to see here.
“Shouldn’t the joke be that the letters are distorted or otherwise undecipherable?”
Absolutely. Or they should be point out the pictures with street signs.
“Please check all boxes in which somebody is wearing clothing made of synthetic fibers.”
There’s an XKCD for that:
@ Bob Peters – Yes, I knew it was a vowel, that’s why I said “exaggerating”, and put the “zero” in quotes. However, for my idea to have worked, there would have had to be at least one other “real” digit somewhere on the chart, and there isn’t. Forcing the reader to reflect upon the name results in more effort than the joke is worth.
P.S. I would have expected “D.O.” for “Doctor of Ophthalmology”, but the sign appears to read “O.D.”
An O.D. is a “Doctor of Optometry”. See https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/o.d.
WordPress seems to have left the final period off of the url. If this one doesn’t work, just put a period at the end of my previous url.
https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/o.d..
Yes, “O. D.” would be “Doctor of Optometry”. (Also, in some contexts, “right eye”!).
In the U. S, the categories Ophthalmologist, Optometrist, and Optician are three different kinds of practice, with different kinds of training and certification.
(And a D. O. would be an Osteopath)
And a D. D. would be a Doctor of Divinity, and as I forget which early-twentieth-century famous cartoonist said, it takes a very brave person to stand in front of a crowd and formally introduce Dr. Twiddle, D. D.
@Mitch4: “Oeil Droit” ;) .
Thanks, Olivier! Of course, it’s not by chance that French and Latin will have resemblances.
The path from prescribing physician to pharmacy to patient label is now so computerized, that it should no longer by a matter of hesitation for a prescriber whether to write O.D. or R.Eye to get the pharmacy to print “Put one drop in right eye twice daily” for the patient.
But back in the less automated day, as Olivier illustrates, in a Francophone region O. D. would work nicely as indeterminate between Latin and modern local language. In Anglophone regions we don’t collect that benefit until the patient is deceased, and we can say RIP without committing to whether that’s an English or Latin initialism.
The name Norton also carries some freight.
https://www.gocomics.com/offthemark/2020/09/14
Just in the last couple days I saw a comic with a captcha puzzle for dogs, requiring the user to pick the photos that show a hydrant.
So others don’t have to go offsite for Andréa’s comic:
Thanks, Arthur – and what combination of keystrokes did you use to download this? Since the RSS isn’t working, I can’t download from the GoComics page, either. Inquiring minds (well, one anyway) want to know.
Andréa, I run with active scripting disabled. There are many sites I can’t use because of that. But those I can use are generally better off without the scripting. If you have “noscript” installed for Firefox, you might try turning scripts off for this page and see what happens.
You can also (with desktop FF) select View->Page Style->No Style. The page looks weird, but the image will be available. Add .jpp to the URL.
I have a post in moderation or limbo about getting the image, but I just remembered advice I read recently (maybe here). On GoComics, there’s a link labeled “Buy a Print of This Comic” that has an unobscured image. Example:
https://store.gocomics.com/product/custom-print-order/?publish_date=20200904&feature_code=ba&featureName=Baldo&hash=2e185660c85a01381d59005056a9545d
Thanks – that’ll help me for my FUNNIES & POLITICS list.