Month / January 2023

by zbicyclist

Checkmate!

Kilby sent in this double puzzler:

“When I wrote Leigh Rubin to point out that one of the three checkers should already have been doubled to form a ‘king’, he mentioned that he had submitted the comic to the syndicate with a caption, but that this caption never made it to the published version.”

Puzzle #1:

Submit a caption that might fit this cartoon.

Puzzle #2:

Assuming the pieces can move (and capture) only according to their own “rules”, which side would win the endgame shown in the comic?

The knight, as white, should have the first move. In checkers, red goes second. Now, if we assume the knight is at a1, then the checker at c1 should have been made a king. So, we need to assume that the knight is at h8, and the red checkers have to start by moving away down the board.

OR, you can assume the red checker has just gotten to c1, and is being crowned as we speak; this puts the knight at a1.

The history of these games can also be discussed in the comments.

By the way, I’m on chess.com as zbicyclist; anyone like a game?

by EditorM

Gourmet comics

Thanks for this to Andréa:

She points out it could be both of the animals, or simply the cartoonist, who aren’t aware the dog *is* a “gourmand”, by the standard way that is distinguished from “gourmet”.

P.S. After we already had this post scheduled, the Comic Strip of the Day site included this cartoon, and had an extended discussion of “gourmet”, “gourmand”, and some related words.

by EditorM

Ooooh, some dark Bliss!

But published on Friday the Thirteenth, which may explain it.

Yes, it’s something of a CIDU, raising unanswered questions, even if they aren’t deep questions. Is the boy from his public family, or his secret family? And either way, what is the point of this conversation? (Besides getting to enact a takeoff on this erstwhile very standard capitalist melodrama scene.)

If you were thinking that the color version might brighten our outlook, let’s give it a try:

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, January 15th, 2023

Thanks to Boise Ed! Are salads and tights the current faves on the insta?

Not the most sophisticated of jokes, but near irresistible when accompanied by the drawing.

Definitely a geezer if this was your textbook!

Meta text is “Researchers claim to have identified 6 additional elements in the second row, tentatively named pentium through unnilium.”

We most often see PBS in the OYs, but this seems a straight-ahead LOL: