Same as the previous series of Random Comments threads (which have each been closed to further commenting because they’ve gotten too long), this will be accessible from a link in the left sidebar (under “triple-line” icon 1st tab).
Please remember that this is intended for public comics-related (or comics semi-related) comments only: if you want to send the editors a CIDU, or a comic for some specific folder (Ewww, Oy, etc), or you want to inform us of a typo, please e-mail us at 
. “Comics-semi-related” may in practice include your observations on life and language… But not politics, puh-leese!
However, as an experiment starting in October 2020, we will be trying out a second, parallel open comments thread, for a specific area of topics: ideas for how to maintain or develop this site. Look for the link in the left sidebar (under “triple-line” icon 1st tab). The headnote for the first Site Comments is HERE.
Also: A list of the site’s most recent comments can be found in the left sidebar (under “folder” icon 2nd tab). A database of all the comments, compiled by larK, is here.
And the site’s FAQ is here.
Comics I Don't Understand 
IDU, was Scarlett Johansson known for a particular role as detective, or burglar, or spy?
Given that she’s done 56 movies in 28 years, it’s quite likely that there will be an appropriate reference somewhere in the list, but I have no interest in hunting for it.
but I have no interest in hunting for it.Who did you think was asking you to?
We don’t have the date of this Lila reprint, but I take it that at the time, the cartoonists were expecting movie or tv fans among their readership to make a quick and easy association that would explain (and extract a chuckle from) Lila’s pal’s remark.
So in turn I figure the poster here was expecting not research either, but just that the movie and tv fans here could cast their minds back and say what they remember that prominently fits the association?
Hey, could it be Match Point?
How confusing … I joined a Facebook group called “The Art of McEldowney” (at https://www.facebook.com/groups/568106617786980/about ) and then found out the admin is called “Mark Mitchell”, just about my names reversed.
Here’s an old page of puns and other jokes I just came upon. http://internet.ocii.com/~cmeek/puns_v1d.htm
In case anyone else got confused, Baby Blues has moved from King Features to GoComics.
Unrelated to Phantom, but I wish I knew a way to search for vintage comic strips by text. I’ve tried Google, without success. I found http://www.comicstriparchive.com/Tumbleweeds/, but it’s only organized by date. I’m looking for a Tumbleweeds in which Bucolic Buffalo picks up Limpid Lizard (I think), says “Not like-um little man. Fow-um away,” then tosses him over his shoulder.
@ Boise Ed – You can’t find comics with a text search unless someone has already entered the dialog into the archive’s database. Two strips at GoComics that have an excellent text database are “Calvin & Hobbes” and “Peanuts“. In each case, somebody has taken the trouble to type in all of the words in every strip, which makes searching the archive incredibly easy. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for every strip at GoComics: searching for a particular “Bloom County” strip is an exercise in futility, because the text information just isn’t available.
Sometimes you can dig up the date of a strip by performing an open search in the Internet, to find a pirated copy of the strip somewhere else. Once you have the date, you can go back to GoComics to get a pristine copy of the original.
Of course, with “Tumbleweeds” (or any other King Features strip), the task is incredibly more difficult. The King Features archive is stashed behind a paywall, which means that there are far fewer illicit copies of strips available (making it harder to get date information), and of course you can’t get a copy of the original unless you are willing to subscribe to King Features.
The external archive you quoted is mostly reruns (Tumbleweeds ceased publication in 2007), so it’s quite likely that the strip you are looking for may not exist there at all. I can’t check this myself, since that website (or the Houston Chronicle source page) does not allow access to readers here in Germany.
It is conceivable to use character recognition, and I’ve read that Google somehow does picture searching (though I’ve never tried to use it). The site I mentioned does list Tumbleweeds specifically, but clicking on any date just gives me a “not found” message.
HAH! I found you – you can’t escape me!
I’ve been trying the two old URLs daily, but tonight it occurred to me to just google ‘comics i don’t understand’. Voila!
Chak! 👏👏
I would make a note of LarK’s scrape page at http://scrape.nowis.com/CIDU/. It was reflecting workable links about as soon as they fixed the forwarding issue.
@ Brian in StL – That might explain why larK’s “Comment Harvester” has been making multiple copies of some comment links. Good for usability, even if it does end up inflating the statistics.
Very good point, Brian.
And a good moment to reiterate a thanks to larK.
Links that appear in the left-side menu are lagging two pages back when they arrive here. Perhaps it’s time to consider recycling this page to the archive and creating a new “Random Comments for 2022”?
P.S. The problem only affects comment links that appear under “Recent Comments”, the primary links to the “Random” and “Site” comment pages do go to the most recent page of comments. This has been a continuing issue ever since Bill set up the new (post “meltdown”) site architecture, so I doubt if there is an (easy) way to correct it (beyond setting up new pages every so often).
Good idea. But not something I expect to be able to get to today.
There’s absolutely no reason to do it right away. Traffic in this thread is low, which is why it’s been around so long.
Closing comments on this thread, 2022 Feb 21, since it has gotten rather long, and links to recent comments often do not get to the right grouping. A new Random Comments thread will soon be started at https://cidu.info/2022/02/21/random-comments-february-2022-edition/