Hens’ teeth may have been rare, as the probably geezer idiom says, but apparently they could be fitted by a properly prepared dentist.
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How is this a CIDU? The fact that it’s surreal is the joke. You might not find it funny, but this is Krazy Kat. You don’t come to Krazy Kat for wordplay like Dorothy Parker’s.
Maybe it’s just me or my monitor, but I find this impossible to read.
@bechoningchasm: I had to right-click the image and choose “Open in new tab” (may vary depending on your browser). The image is too wide to display at full size in this WordPress theme.
why are “Krazy” and “Ignatz” in scare quotes?
Those aren’t scare quotes, notice that “Miss Henn” is in quotes as well. I dunno if it was common usage a century ago, or just a Herriman thing. Checking a 1916-1918 collection I have, looks like he was consistent about putting names in quotes in the Krazy Kat strips (and also words like “ice cream” and “echo”).
What’s the point of pointing out a geezer phrase when referring to a geezer comic.
And the joke is explained. She has no teeth so she goes to the dentists to have some teeth put in. The result is unusual.
“notice that “Miss Henn” is in quotes as well”
— but not in the first panel.
Considering quote marks for no apparent reason is one of my peeves, I guess I should be annoyed at Herriman for this but truth is I never noticed.
Did you notice the dentist’s name, on his sign? Dr. Yankem!
“Did you notice the dentist’s name, on his sign? Dr. Yankem!”
In small resolution I read that as Winkem.
“I had to right-click the image and choose “Open in new tab” (may vary depending on your browser). The image is too wide to display at full size in this WordPress theme.”
I find it’s not that it’s too wide but that the resolution is small. But if your browser has a View> Zoom > In menu option then zooming in four or five times works.
Hmm, I can’t tell if that’s “koans on kobs” or “korns on kobs”.
I simply dragged-and-dropped the comic image into my browser.
<< why are “Krazy” and “Ignatz” in scare quotes? >>
Okay, I don’t claim to be a grammarian, but in reference to the first panel of the third link above, I vaguely remember a rule about the period always going inside the quote. Not that I’d point that out to a guy waving a gun.
My recollection about periods and quotes is that, if the period is part of what’s being quoted, it belongs inside, but if not, it belongs outside.
She said, “I think it’s going to rain.”
I’m not sure I’d call it “rain”.
Pete’s links need to have warnings on them. The language is extreme, and the verbal abuse could be triggering. I don’t have PTSD and I found the abuse to be viscerally affecting. It’s very unpleasant.
Mark H, that’s “logical quotation”, the British practice (which I’ve adopted myself, as you can see). American students are almost universally taught that punctuation always goes inside quotation marks, regardless of provenance.
Thanks for pointing out “logical punctuation”, Powers. I too have almost completely adopted it for myself. I would add that along with the national styles splits, even in American journals and conferences there has in certain fields been a tradition to stick with logical punctuation of quotations, especially Linguistics and some of Philosophy (of course starting with Logic!). You want to know always just exactly what was originally written.
I also was very perplexed, not to say offended, by people explaining the American style rule as “Oh well, it’s a matter of logic versus beauty/appearance. It just looks so much better to have the stop inside the end-quotes!” Looks better to whom?? On what basis??
Looks better to whom?? On what basis??
It looks better to typesetters. Back when typesetting as done by hand, they had to look at this a lot. The quote mark high in the air with blank space beneath it, followed by a period or comma low to the ground with blank space above it, looks weird. Better to tuck the period (etc.) up against the letters.
Shad Daly, yes, I know that’s the tale as told, but I still deny the “looks weird” part!
I was taught the english way and use it as it seems to make more sense (to me at least) logically.
I wondered if the hen went to Dr. Yankem to have an unwanted tooth removed, because it would be embarrassing as a hen to have one.
“I wondered if the hen went to Dr. Yankem to have an unwanted tooth removed, because it would be embarrassing as a hen to have one.”
In the final panel she has a new full set of upper and lowers. I’m pretty sure she had teeth inserted, either as dentures or a bridge. She looks quite proud.
I do the “logical” quotes, but I also try not to have the quoted bit end the sentence.
Interestingly, yesterday someone posted on Facebook an autographed picture of Louis Armstrong with a dedication to someone. A word was in double-quotes for no apparent reason, and someone commented that Louis often used quote marks for emphasis.
So that makes two people I’ve heard of who did this.
Mark: How can you have only heard of two people who have used quotation marks for emphasis? Its incredibly common – perhaps as common as confusing “its” and “it’s”.
Yes, incredibly common, to the point that there is a branch of the Internet mockery industry that posts screenshots using this form, and pretends to understand the ad or message with the emphasis-quotes read as scare-quotes. “Fresh” produce? “Honest” estimates?
Thanks, woozy. Zooming it big enough to read, I managed to not realize there was that final panel. :(
“How can you have only heard of two people who have used quotation marks for emphasis?”
I took it to mean two admirable and supposedly intelligent people who do it. It’s a huge peeve of mine but I’ve always assumed it was only done by brain dead sponge heads. To find two geniuses I greatly admire did it 50 years earlier is … well, new information.
Well, “I” don’t use quotes for “emphasis.” I’ve never “heard” of such “nonsense.” And I’ve been around for a “long”, “long” time.
These can be funny. In a restaurant rest you there was a sign: Employees must “wash” their “hands”.
Disturbing on many levels.
Perhaps better than: Employees must wash “their” hands.
By the way, if you haven’t already, get a copy of Stephen Jay Gould’s Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes. It’s wonderful.
I have Bully for Brontosaurus. I should try some of his others.
As long as we are talking about books, did anyone every actually read “Krazy Kat” by Jay Cantor?
Comics I Don't Understand 
How is this a CIDU? The fact that it’s surreal is the joke. You might not find it funny, but this is Krazy Kat. You don’t come to Krazy Kat for wordplay like Dorothy Parker’s.
Maybe it’s just me or my monitor, but I find this impossible to read.
@bechoningchasm: I had to right-click the image and choose “Open in new tab” (may vary depending on your browser). The image is too wide to display at full size in this WordPress theme.
why are “Krazy” and “Ignatz” in scare quotes?
Those aren’t scare quotes, notice that “Miss Henn” is in quotes as well. I dunno if it was common usage a century ago, or just a Herriman thing. Checking a 1916-1918 collection I have, looks like he was consistent about putting names in quotes in the Krazy Kat strips (and also words like “ice cream” and “echo”).
What’s the point of pointing out a geezer phrase when referring to a geezer comic.
And the joke is explained. She has no teeth so she goes to the dentists to have some teeth put in. The result is unusual.
“notice that “Miss Henn” is in quotes as well”
— but not in the first panel.
Considering quote marks for no apparent reason is one of my peeves, I guess I should be annoyed at Herriman for this but truth is I never noticed.
Did you notice the dentist’s name, on his sign? Dr. Yankem!
“Did you notice the dentist’s name, on his sign? Dr. Yankem!”
In small resolution I read that as Winkem.
“I had to right-click the image and choose “Open in new tab” (may vary depending on your browser). The image is too wide to display at full size in this WordPress theme.”
I find it’s not that it’s too wide but that the resolution is small. But if your browser has a View> Zoom > In menu option then zooming in four or five times works.
Hmm, I can’t tell if that’s “koans on kobs” or “korns on kobs”.
I simply dragged-and-dropped the comic image into my browser.
<< why are “Krazy” and “Ignatz” in scare quotes? >>
For Emphasis.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/EddWhqCb9wxBIRughRmmjcHnmifwOIrY5feAT2VK5EFJWgMj4_tP4TFO-WAffxZhfwLn2roWX_cy=s0
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/aO7R67jehUfXEivHrNRCpPIQhgW4IouhnfbOp5av61_q_Y9janj3QBGtYvayNb-gi3pUoWvIe5_Z=s0
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/8tTvs43ZaQHP4EsJfWvHZrW15_cF7GNU6y58U2_3YXQARN_Te1h5i3yTE-Moz9rD3AqdPZ_-sM-m=s0
Okay, I don’t claim to be a grammarian, but in reference to the first panel of the third link above, I vaguely remember a rule about the period always going inside the quote. Not that I’d point that out to a guy waving a gun.
My recollection about periods and quotes is that, if the period is part of what’s being quoted, it belongs inside, but if not, it belongs outside.
She said, “I think it’s going to rain.”
I’m not sure I’d call it “rain”.
Pete’s links need to have warnings on them. The language is extreme, and the verbal abuse could be triggering. I don’t have PTSD and I found the abuse to be viscerally affecting. It’s very unpleasant.
Mark H, that’s “logical quotation”, the British practice (which I’ve adopted myself, as you can see). American students are almost universally taught that punctuation always goes inside quotation marks, regardless of provenance.
See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks_in_English#Order_of_punctuation
Thanks for pointing out “logical punctuation”, Powers. I too have almost completely adopted it for myself. I would add that along with the national styles splits, even in American journals and conferences there has in certain fields been a tradition to stick with logical punctuation of quotations, especially Linguistics and some of Philosophy (of course starting with Logic!). You want to know always just exactly what was originally written.
I also was very perplexed, not to say offended, by people explaining the American style rule as “Oh well, it’s a matter of logic versus beauty/appearance. It just looks so much better to have the stop inside the end-quotes!” Looks better to whom?? On what basis??
It looks better to typesetters. Back when typesetting as done by hand, they had to look at this a lot. The quote mark high in the air with blank space beneath it, followed by a period or comma low to the ground with blank space above it, looks weird. Better to tuck the period (etc.) up against the letters.
Shad Daly, yes, I know that’s the tale as told, but I still deny the “looks weird” part!
I was taught the english way and use it as it seems to make more sense (to me at least) logically.
I wondered if the hen went to Dr. Yankem to have an unwanted tooth removed, because it would be embarrassing as a hen to have one.
“I wondered if the hen went to Dr. Yankem to have an unwanted tooth removed, because it would be embarrassing as a hen to have one.”
In the final panel she has a new full set of upper and lowers. I’m pretty sure she had teeth inserted, either as dentures or a bridge. She looks quite proud.
I do the “logical” quotes, but I also try not to have the quoted bit end the sentence.
Interestingly, yesterday someone posted on Facebook an autographed picture of Louis Armstrong with a dedication to someone. A word was in double-quotes for no apparent reason, and someone commented that Louis often used quote marks for emphasis.
So that makes two people I’ve heard of who did this.
Mark: How can you have only heard of two people who have used quotation marks for emphasis? Its incredibly common – perhaps as common as confusing “its” and “it’s”.
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Yes, incredibly common, to the point that there is a branch of the Internet mockery industry that posts screenshots using this form, and pretends to understand the ad or message with the emphasis-quotes read as scare-quotes. “Fresh” produce? “Honest” estimates?
Thanks, woozy. Zooming it big enough to read, I managed to not realize there was that final panel. :(
“How can you have only heard of two people who have used quotation marks for emphasis?”
I took it to mean two admirable and supposedly intelligent people who do it. It’s a huge peeve of mine but I’ve always assumed it was only done by brain dead sponge heads. To find two geniuses I greatly admire did it 50 years earlier is … well, new information.
Well, “I” don’t use quotes for “emphasis.” I’ve never “heard” of such “nonsense.” And I’ve been around for a “long”, “long” time.
These can be funny. In a restaurant rest you there was a sign: Employees must “wash” their “hands”.
Disturbing on many levels.
Perhaps better than: Employees must wash “their” hands.
By the way, if you haven’t already, get a copy of Stephen Jay Gould’s Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes. It’s wonderful.
I have Bully for Brontosaurus. I should try some of his others.
As long as we are talking about books, did anyone every actually read “Krazy Kat” by Jay Cantor?