BTW, we always have plenty of LOLs and Oys, but are running low on genuine CIDUs. I guess everyone understands all their comics? If you get any CIDUs, please send them in.
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My guess: “Christmas Swatter Party”
Spachelor party? (as opposed to Batula).
More likely to be a fly SWAT than a slotted spatula though. Also, the guests there are wearing Xmas jumpers/pullovers/sweaters/jerseys.
Aha! I have it. Visible cogitation, brain turning in real time. They were supposed to bring “festive Xmas sweaters” not “festive Xmas swatters”.
Which is almost certainly what Targuman means, come to think of it.
What the invitation said: (wear your) holiday-theme sweaters
What he misread it as saying: (bring some) holiday-theme swatters
I can’t get something that means both “wear” and “bring”. But maybe it’s not necessary. Maybe there was no verb, just
“Party Theme: holiday-decorated sweaters!”
And he read as
“Party Theme: holiday-decorated swatters!”
I’ll agree with the near-unanimous idea that “sweaters” was misread as “swatters”. Implausible though it may be, but that’s what you get in a cartoon world. Leaving aside the “spatula” distraction, all comments have been going for “swatters” — probably Dana has the cleanest statement of it. But I have star-Liked all!
You guys know that “Ugly Christmas Sweater” parties are a thing, right? I can’t tell from the preceding comments if you know that’s a thing.
Thanks for that significant input, Powers. I have heard that term and custom, but have forgotten about it; yes, even from just a couple weeks ago! 🤓
That improves the likelihood of getting a wording that makes really good sense. And within that full wording, we still have swatters for sweaters as the guy’s mistake.
Definitely an ugly or holiday sweater/swatter joke. It would help if the cartoonist would study up on drawing fly swatters that don’t look more like spatulas…
Possibly the guy sending the invitation was trying to (mis)appropriate a bit of outdated urban slang, where “fly” as an adjective meant really cool, “neat,” exciting. And therefore wrote “We expect to see some really fly sweaters!” Which of course is begging to be read as fly swatters.
Sounds like the kind of dumb joke I would make. Once when I was a teenager, my stepmom asked me to get her a glass of ice water. I came back with a glass with a flyswatter in it. “Oh, I misheard you!” I said, then handed her the actual glass of ice water I’d been holding behind my back.
Well, she laughed, anyway.
Yes, an ugly sweater party. This is one of those rare times I got a CIDU right away.
“Ugly Sweaters” are one of my least favorite modern takes on Christmas “traditions”.
But, yes, an “Ugly Sweater” party.
Of course, if he had really misread the invitation he wouldn’t have thought putting lights on a fly swatter would make it “ugly”. But poetic license and recognizable symmetry trump logic…. Unless somewhere there is an in-between “festive sweater”.
Regarding the shortage of CIDUs, it’s probably a sign of the impending singularity. I thought they were spatulas so it was harder to understand the joke.
“me to get her a glass of ice water. I came back with a glass with a flyswatter in it. ”
You didn’t get here the want ads? (As per “Orange it the New Black”) (“glass of ice”=”classifieds”)
Anyone want to guess why my comment between Mark M’s and MJSR got moderated. “Ugly” isn’t a naughty word is it?
Oh! It contains the word involving taking a card trick by playing a card of suit that will beat all other suits regardless of the rank of the cards in the other suit, didn’t it.
Sheesh…. we can say “ass” but not “tr0mp”. Can we say “trumpet”.
guess we can’t say “trumpet”
Seriously we !CAN’T! say “tr0000mpet”?????
Yeah, sorry, I think Bill put that in to discourage partisan political debate. We’ve done a little housecleaning on that list (e.g. cleared “orange” so people could mention the “Rhymes with Orange” cartoon) but haven’t done a well-considered shakeout.
Well, the ban on He Who Must Not Be Named seems sensible to me. IIRC, it correctly blocked a comment just a few weeks ago. The annoying thing is that the moderation filters just looks for substring matches, without checking to see if they’re genuine tokens; but I don’t think we can take care of that with a shakeout.
Well, if this pandemic ever ends, I am going to have an Ugly Christmas Swatter party. Far more practical, and equally (un)fun.
Sure, a reasonable taboo topic but when it’s also a legitimate word and an even more legitimate substring…. sheesh….
If Desdemona can’t play the tr000mpet, can she play the strumpet? Probably not. we’ll see.
Nope. Desdemona can’t play the tr000mpet nor the str000mpet.
You know. We are adults and a simple…. “you can’t discuss politics” would suffice. Banning the word Orange and making impossible to talk of the Chronicles of Narnia and King Caspian chief advisor is a little weird.
Having done it myself for a hobby forum in the past, substring is just really easy to implement compared to whole word matching. It also helps when people add a suffix like “ster” or “ish” to the offending word.And if the moderator is on reasonable duty, it’s not that big of a deal for the most part.
Why is there a ban on “He Who Must Not Be Named”? Isn’t this site getting political by using that phrase??
I thought Doctor Cornelius was Caspian’s chief advisor. You wouldn’t send your chief advisor to look for possibly mythical English schoolchildren like he sent … wait a minute, you’re trying to trick me into being moderated! 😦
Last year I re-read The Silver Chair, which was one of the first of the Narnia books that I read as a child, and for a long time held a place in my mental file cabinet for presenting a wonderful, clear but deep, thought experiment in moral theory, about the duties to keep promises but also to aid good over evil when those are clear to you.
On rereading, that episode was of course still there (it’s the dadgum title of the book), but so much shorter and more understated than my memory had made it.
“I thought Doctor Cornelius was Caspian’s chief advisor.”
That was Prince Caspian. Doctor Cornelius was killed at the end of that book (wasn’t he?) As King his regent on his two trips to the end of the world was the Dwarf Tr000mpkin.
=====
“it’s not that big of a deal for the most part.”
It’s not that big of a deal to implement but as a user when you can’t write your name if you are a Richard and you can’t assume anything or talk of a kindDOM, or in this case not mention oranges or use the phrase “humor tr000mps logic” and you are left scratching your head wondering why on earth you got moderated…. it is really weird.
d00d, probably this will be more open to review and change in three or four weeks, doon’t you think?
I thought they were scepters, not a swatter
When did Christmas sweaters start to be called “Ugly Christmas sweaters”?
When we used to go to Colonial Williamsburg for Grand Illumination weekend (first full weekend in December) there were a LOT of other people who used to go annually also and some of them for various reasons would stand out in one’s memories – such as the family who all wore Christmas moose ear hats.
One group was a bunch of older women who all wore what are now called ugly Christmas sweaters – and they wore them no matter for that weekend. The weather for Grand Illumination varied from the 20Fs (announcements made not to sit on the ground as they were concerned that people would freeze) to so warm that one did not even a sweater – but those ladies wore the sweaters and froze or sweated many years for doing so.
Our first year at the event we bought that year’s Grand Illumination sweatshirts from CW, but only wore them when the weather was right for same. Since the sweatshirts they sell change each year and we just have the one each, we might have been recognized by that by the rest of the regulars or else for Robert’s CW hat and my blue “fishing hat”.
Good point! The “ugly” designation seems like a jocular but half defensive move to provide cover for those who might like the custom but feel put off if people might find them funny without the protection of an announced custom or theme.
Comics I Don't Understand 
My guess: “Christmas Swatter Party”
Spachelor party? (as opposed to Batula).
More likely to be a fly SWAT than a slotted spatula though. Also, the guests there are wearing Xmas jumpers/pullovers/sweaters/jerseys.
Aha! I have it. Visible cogitation, brain turning in real time. They were supposed to bring “festive Xmas sweaters” not “festive Xmas swatters”.
Which is almost certainly what Targuman means, come to think of it.
What the invitation said: (wear your) holiday-theme sweaters
What he misread it as saying: (bring some) holiday-theme swatters
I can’t get something that means both “wear” and “bring”. But maybe it’s not necessary. Maybe there was no verb, just
“Party Theme: holiday-decorated sweaters!”
And he read as
“Party Theme: holiday-decorated swatters!”
I’ll agree with the near-unanimous idea that “sweaters” was misread as “swatters”. Implausible though it may be, but that’s what you get in a cartoon world. Leaving aside the “spatula” distraction, all comments have been going for “swatters” — probably Dana has the cleanest statement of it. But I have star-Liked all!
You guys know that “Ugly Christmas Sweater” parties are a thing, right? I can’t tell from the preceding comments if you know that’s a thing.
Thanks for that significant input, Powers. I have heard that term and custom, but have forgotten about it; yes, even from just a couple weeks ago! 🤓
That improves the likelihood of getting a wording that makes really good sense. And within that full wording, we still have swatters for sweaters as the guy’s mistake.
Definitely an ugly or holiday sweater/swatter joke. It would help if the cartoonist would study up on drawing fly swatters that don’t look more like spatulas…
Possibly the guy sending the invitation was trying to (mis)appropriate a bit of outdated urban slang, where “fly” as an adjective meant really cool, “neat,” exciting. And therefore wrote “We expect to see some really fly sweaters!” Which of course is begging to be read as fly swatters.
Sounds like the kind of dumb joke I would make. Once when I was a teenager, my stepmom asked me to get her a glass of ice water. I came back with a glass with a flyswatter in it. “Oh, I misheard you!” I said, then handed her the actual glass of ice water I’d been holding behind my back.
Well, she laughed, anyway.
Yes, an ugly sweater party. This is one of those rare times I got a CIDU right away.
“Ugly Sweaters” are one of my least favorite modern takes on Christmas “traditions”.
But, yes, an “Ugly Sweater” party.
Of course, if he had really misread the invitation he wouldn’t have thought putting lights on a fly swatter would make it “ugly”. But poetic license and recognizable symmetry trump logic…. Unless somewhere there is an in-between “festive sweater”.
Regarding the shortage of CIDUs, it’s probably a sign of the impending singularity. I thought they were spatulas so it was harder to understand the joke.
“me to get her a glass of ice water. I came back with a glass with a flyswatter in it. ”
You didn’t get here the want ads? (As per “Orange it the New Black”) (“glass of ice”=”classifieds”)
Anyone want to guess why my comment between Mark M’s and MJSR got moderated. “Ugly” isn’t a naughty word is it?
Oh! It contains the word involving taking a card trick by playing a card of suit that will beat all other suits regardless of the rank of the cards in the other suit, didn’t it.
Sheesh…. we can say “ass” but not “tr0mp”. Can we say “trumpet”.
guess we can’t say “trumpet”
Seriously we !CAN’T! say “tr0000mpet”?????
Yeah, sorry, I think Bill put that in to discourage partisan political debate. We’ve done a little housecleaning on that list (e.g. cleared “orange” so people could mention the “Rhymes with Orange” cartoon) but haven’t done a well-considered shakeout.
Well, the ban on He Who Must Not Be Named seems sensible to me. IIRC, it correctly blocked a comment just a few weeks ago. The annoying thing is that the moderation filters just looks for substring matches, without checking to see if they’re genuine tokens; but I don’t think we can take care of that with a shakeout.
Well, if this pandemic ever ends, I am going to have an Ugly Christmas Swatter party. Far more practical, and equally (un)fun.
Sure, a reasonable taboo topic but when it’s also a legitimate word and an even more legitimate substring…. sheesh….
If Desdemona can’t play the tr000mpet, can she play the strumpet? Probably not. we’ll see.
Nope. Desdemona can’t play the tr000mpet nor the str000mpet.
You know. We are adults and a simple…. “you can’t discuss politics” would suffice. Banning the word Orange and making impossible to talk of the Chronicles of Narnia and King Caspian chief advisor is a little weird.
Having done it myself for a hobby forum in the past, substring is just really easy to implement compared to whole word matching. It also helps when people add a suffix like “ster” or “ish” to the offending word.And if the moderator is on reasonable duty, it’s not that big of a deal for the most part.
Why is there a ban on “He Who Must Not Be Named”? Isn’t this site getting political by using that phrase??
I thought Doctor Cornelius was Caspian’s chief advisor. You wouldn’t send your chief advisor to look for possibly mythical English schoolchildren like he sent … wait a minute, you’re trying to trick me into being moderated! 😦
Last year I re-read The Silver Chair, which was one of the first of the Narnia books that I read as a child, and for a long time held a place in my mental file cabinet for presenting a wonderful, clear but deep, thought experiment in moral theory, about the duties to keep promises but also to aid good over evil when those are clear to you.
On rereading, that episode was of course still there (it’s the dadgum title of the book), but so much shorter and more understated than my memory had made it.
“I thought Doctor Cornelius was Caspian’s chief advisor.”
That was Prince Caspian. Doctor Cornelius was killed at the end of that book (wasn’t he?) As King his regent on his two trips to the end of the world was the Dwarf Tr000mpkin.
=====
“it’s not that big of a deal for the most part.”
It’s not that big of a deal to implement but as a user when you can’t write your name if you are a Richard and you can’t assume anything or talk of a kindDOM, or in this case not mention oranges or use the phrase “humor tr000mps logic” and you are left scratching your head wondering why on earth you got moderated…. it is really weird.
d00d, probably this will be more open to review and change in three or four weeks, doon’t you think?
I thought they were scepters, not a swatter
When did Christmas sweaters start to be called “Ugly Christmas sweaters”?
When we used to go to Colonial Williamsburg for Grand Illumination weekend (first full weekend in December) there were a LOT of other people who used to go annually also and some of them for various reasons would stand out in one’s memories – such as the family who all wore Christmas moose ear hats.
One group was a bunch of older women who all wore what are now called ugly Christmas sweaters – and they wore them no matter for that weekend. The weather for Grand Illumination varied from the 20Fs (announcements made not to sit on the ground as they were concerned that people would freeze) to so warm that one did not even a sweater – but those ladies wore the sweaters and froze or sweated many years for doing so.
Our first year at the event we bought that year’s Grand Illumination sweatshirts from CW, but only wore them when the weather was right for same. Since the sweatshirts they sell change each year and we just have the one each, we might have been recognized by that by the rest of the regulars or else for Robert’s CW hat and my blue “fishing hat”.
Good point! The “ugly” designation seems like a jocular but half defensive move to provide cover for those who might like the custom but feel put off if people might find them funny without the protection of an announced custom or theme.