Month / January 2022

by EditorM

A squirrel in the hands is worth one on the dog

To finish up a (sort-of) week of synchros, we have this interesting pair from Mark in Boston, who says “I canโ€™t say as I have seen much squirrel-carrying at all, ever, in the comics, until this past Sunday.”

Mark also sent a scan or picture of his physical paper, showing these actually adjacent. The Rose is Rose is good material for the discussion earlier this week about differences in layout and “extra” panels. And the Bliss is also an interesting case of oddities of publication schedule: this one was on GoComics and Bliss’s own site as 1/8, a date which can also be (more or less) made out in the drawing itself. But the newspaper for some reason printed it on 1/16 — and we have confirming evidence of that! —

by EditorM

Where did they put that “Add New Post” button?

OK, pay attention because there might be a quiz on this!

First off, Phil Smith III sent in this Brewster Rockit as a CIDU. “I was OK until the last panel,” he writes, “and have NO idea what itโ€™s supposed to mean?!”

And I couldn’t make sense of the last panel as a punch line, either.

Meanwhile, DanV sent in both the above Brewster Rockit and the Betty below as a synchronicity pair.

“Twoย differentย waysย ofย experiencingย theย sameย situation,” writes DanV, “Iย confessย I’veย hadย bothย ofย theseย thingsย happenย toย me.ย :)ย Notย aย laughย outย loud,ย moreย ofย aย ruefulย chuckle.”

What could he mean, I wondered; how are these the same joke? Oh wait, aha! The Brewster joke is not in the final panel, but the penultimate. Oldbot and, uh, Bub have done the parallel sort of oblivious overlooking.

That leaves the final panel of Brewster unexplained. Well, which Monday does he mean? Is he making it sooner or later? I don’t know, and I’m even more tired of writing this than you are of reading it…

by EditorM

Out, damned spot!

No, not a curse on the cartoon family dog — that would have taken a capital letter. Just an expression of upset over laundry problems.

At any rate, that seems to be the thematic connection for this synchronicity from Todd Tyler.

Todd also provides this paper scan and says “This synchronicity is made much worse by the location of Doonesbury and FBOFW as they were printed in the Delaware News Journal today.”

(Notice the layout differs between GoComics as above and this paper edition. Must play havoc for those comics that try to use fourth-wall tricks, like people climbing down from one panel to another!)

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies โ€“ LOLs, January 16th, 2022

Moon hits a double today:

Sent by Ken Berkun. Neither of us tried to look up the Carolyn Hax column this may have been used to illustrate.
Does anyone want to treat it as CIDU? If you think it might be more than the officiant turning the traditional “… or forever hold your peace” into a very modern and casual alternative expression. BTW, didn’t we previously have a discussion on whether that “speak now or …” clause is still announced these days?
by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys โ€“ January 15th, 2022

We can discuss how dictionaries work, but I think I’m seeing (at https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/fugue and https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fugue ) that the musical and the psychiatric meanings of fugue are senses listed in one word entry, with just one etymology section for the joint entry — thus, that they are the same word historically. Etymonline is not helpful this time.
Not only is this playing between the musical and psychiatric senses of ๐˜ง๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ, the caption depends on ๐ด as both a musical key and the indefinite article, and ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ as both musical mode and an age classification.

P.S. This cartoon along with an earlier Bizarro and other aspects of fugue, minor, a-minor, and somehow emo, are all fodder for Arnold Zwicky’s blog.

Guess the punchline (an oy)

When I saw the first panel I knew what the second one would be! ร“kay, it’s corny and obvious — but that’s what’s fun about it.

Here’s your chance to duplicate that experience.

First:

And here the answer (slide up to uncover):

by EditorM

Pardon my Protest

Or “demo” for the Brits among us. Or maybe “manifestation” for the Continentals?

But whatever you call what they are doing … what are they doing there? Protesting laundromats in general for the bad practices of customers? Giving our blond regular character (“Norris”?) some advice, in a forceful way? And is the guy in the green turtleneck objecting to himself? What’s up?