A custom tailored suit is a sign of someone with a lot of money to spend. A custom origami suit is a sign of a guy without much money at all.
But the lady is as awed by the latter as she is by the former.
I like the Z-Ray one. Not especially for the invention of Z-Rays as much as the idea that all the health care professionals know about these but carefully keep them secret from patients.
Maggie, I also am unsure with that first one whether the two onlooker women are somehow genuinely admiring of the paper suit guy, or just prepared to put him down. Paper clothes would probably be seen as cheap gimmick, but adding “custom” and “Origami” might change that.
@ Maggie & Dana – If you went to an elegant cocktail party, and saw a guy who was wearing folded paper clothes (presumably ripping at every seam and joint), wouldn’t you think that it was a little weird? Well, that’s exactly what that guy and this comic have in common: they are weird.
I don’t know if it is supposed to be part of the joke or not, but “custom” struck me as part of it. It isn’t as if you can go buy off the rack origami suits.
Back when I worked in a cubicle, (does that make me a cubist?) I had the problem of people stopping by to ‘chat’. After a while I learned that if I wanted to get any work done, I could just turn to my computer and work while saying the occasional, ‘uh-huh’ or ‘yeah’. They’d wanted off after a while, then wonder how I managed to do twice as much work.
Paper dresses were a thing for a very brief time in the late 1960’s. As if a paper dress weren’t enough of a gimmick in itself, I seem to remember that at least one brand of dress came in a can that you opened with a regular can opener. Women who wore them to parties discovered that they ripped easily.
Here’s today’s, which I confess I don’t entirely get.
Note the red splashes on his shirt; he’s been sneaking hits from the sugar-water feeder.
@ Mitch – I didn’t recognize any of the other strips in the collection above, but that “feeder” strip (26-Feb-2018) looked familiar: it was featured a “Hummingbirds” post.
As MiB notes, there was a paper dress fad in the late 60s, but there’s also a long history in China and Japan. A lot of science fiction stories from the 60s mention paper clothing. Technically the stuff in the 60s (and today) isn’t really paper, but non-woven material with a high cellulose content that’s made like paper. A lot of disposable garments, especially in medicine, are paper (or “paper” if you will).
Thanks; those red splashes were what was throwing me off. I didn’t realize the sugar-water would be colored that way, and read the red as indicating some kind of bloody encounter.
@ Mitch4 – I didn’t see it until I read through the previous discussion, but there’s a comment in which you mentioned that you were one of the people who submitted the comic to Bill.
… Ha! and apparently I made the same mistake of thinking red stains must mean blood.
Well, the red stains could be blood. Some comic, I forget who, said “I found an injured baby bird and nursed it back to health. Now my nipples are sore. I think it was a woodpecker.”
You’re not supposed to put red coloring into the hummingbird water. They will find it.
As of yesterday Robert’s attempt to attract a hummingbird (or more than one) to our house so he could see one ended. So, I have become a bit of an expert about them – enough to explain the red coloring etc. Remember – all information is second hand from him.
They apparently have the largest brain of any bird. They actually recognize the people who feed them and understand that the feeders are refilled by the people. They will come over and “tap” the people who fill the feeder if it is empty to let them know.
Liquid for the feeders is sold commercially premixed (in Walmart, pet shops and elsewhere) where the feeders are sold. It comes in clear and in red, BUT per those online one should mix sugar and water and not use the commercially mixed liquids. They are attracted to the color red and one needs to have certain types of flowers near the feeder to attract them – the flowers should preferably be – red – but we could not find the right type in same around here. The sugar/water mixture has to be changed – every day or every 3 days or every week or when empty – depending on who one talks to. The often change idea is that so it not become “bad”. They also need a source for plain water (Robert bought a glass pie pan to use for same.)
After a month of filling, cleaning out, refilling the feeder and replacing the water every 3 days (and $60 in flowers plus two feeders – to alternate while refilling) and changing the water and not seeing anything nor seeing the amount of liquid in the feeder go down and no reports from other people of seeing any in our county – he gave up.
We still have the nice baskets of flowers though. I also figure if/when we travel again in our little RV – I will suggest that when we will be in the same place for awhile that he brings the setup along and tries again.
(If anyone decides to try this – per the Internet conversations – the cheap plastic feeder at Walmart works better than the more expensive glass one at Petco (and we returned the latter and bought the former before we put out any liquid for them.)
Thought of this afterwards when showing the strip to Robert – maybe the man’s shirt has red drippings on it because HE is drinking the sugar water?
Maybe joke to the first one is the angles and bits of different color in his suit so one is seeing where the origami folds are?
@ Meryl A – Your analysis is correct (see the comment from elGeo). As for hummingbirds: If they aren’t already somewhere in the area, they will never be able (nor willing) to find your feeder. In springtime there are plenty of other nectar sources, so they will never bother to make a long journey to get to your feeder, since they already have plenty of flowers right where they are. If you try again, I would suggest late summer, or early fall, when many other sources will have dried up, or perhaps in a different location (if you are somewhere else for an extended stay).
My sister in Vermont now has Baltimore orioles in addition to the hummingbirds. You attract orioles by cutting oranges in half and sticking them onto something secure.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I got all of them but the paper suit one.
A custom tailored suit is a sign of someone with a lot of money to spend. A custom origami suit is a sign of a guy without much money at all.
But the lady is as awed by the latter as she is by the former.
I like the Z-Ray one. Not especially for the invention of Z-Rays as much as the idea that all the health care professionals know about these but carefully keep them secret from patients.
Maggie, I also am unsure with that first one whether the two onlooker women are somehow genuinely admiring of the paper suit guy, or just prepared to put him down. Paper clothes would probably be seen as cheap gimmick, but adding “custom” and “Origami” might change that.
@ Maggie & Dana – If you went to an elegant cocktail party, and saw a guy who was wearing folded paper clothes (presumably ripping at every seam and joint), wouldn’t you think that it was a little weird? Well, that’s exactly what that guy and this comic have in common: they are weird.
I don’t know if it is supposed to be part of the joke or not, but “custom” struck me as part of it. It isn’t as if you can go buy off the rack origami suits.
Back when I worked in a cubicle, (does that make me a cubist?) I had the problem of people stopping by to ‘chat’. After a while I learned that if I wanted to get any work done, I could just turn to my computer and work while saying the occasional, ‘uh-huh’ or ‘yeah’. They’d wanted off after a while, then wonder how I managed to do twice as much work.
Paper dresses were a thing for a very brief time in the late 1960’s. As if a paper dress weren’t enough of a gimmick in itself, I seem to remember that at least one brand of dress came in a can that you opened with a regular can opener. Women who wore them to parties discovered that they ripped easily.
Here’s today’s, which I confess I don’t entirely get.
Note the red splashes on his shirt; he’s been sneaking hits from the sugar-water feeder.
@ Mitch – I didn’t recognize any of the other strips in the collection above, but that “feeder” strip (26-Feb-2018) looked familiar: it was featured a “Hummingbirds” post.
As MiB notes, there was a paper dress fad in the late 60s, but there’s also a long history in China and Japan. A lot of science fiction stories from the 60s mention paper clothing. Technically the stuff in the 60s (and today) isn’t really paper, but non-woven material with a high cellulose content that’s made like paper. A lot of disposable garments, especially in medicine, are paper (or “paper” if you will).
There’s a Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clothing
Thanks; those red splashes were what was throwing me off. I didn’t realize the sugar-water would be colored that way, and read the red as indicating some kind of bloody encounter.
@ Mitch4 – I didn’t see it until I read through the previous discussion, but there’s a comment in which you mentioned that you were one of the people who submitted the comic to Bill.
… Ha! and apparently I made the same mistake of thinking red stains must mean blood.
Well, the red stains could be blood. Some comic, I forget who, said “I found an injured baby bird and nursed it back to health. Now my nipples are sore. I think it was a woodpecker.”
You’re not supposed to put red coloring into the hummingbird water. They will find it.
As of yesterday Robert’s attempt to attract a hummingbird (or more than one) to our house so he could see one ended. So, I have become a bit of an expert about them – enough to explain the red coloring etc. Remember – all information is second hand from him.
They apparently have the largest brain of any bird. They actually recognize the people who feed them and understand that the feeders are refilled by the people. They will come over and “tap” the people who fill the feeder if it is empty to let them know.
Liquid for the feeders is sold commercially premixed (in Walmart, pet shops and elsewhere) where the feeders are sold. It comes in clear and in red, BUT per those online one should mix sugar and water and not use the commercially mixed liquids. They are attracted to the color red and one needs to have certain types of flowers near the feeder to attract them – the flowers should preferably be – red – but we could not find the right type in same around here. The sugar/water mixture has to be changed – every day or every 3 days or every week or when empty – depending on who one talks to. The often change idea is that so it not become “bad”. They also need a source for plain water (Robert bought a glass pie pan to use for same.)
After a month of filling, cleaning out, refilling the feeder and replacing the water every 3 days (and $60 in flowers plus two feeders – to alternate while refilling) and changing the water and not seeing anything nor seeing the amount of liquid in the feeder go down and no reports from other people of seeing any in our county – he gave up.
We still have the nice baskets of flowers though. I also figure if/when we travel again in our little RV – I will suggest that when we will be in the same place for awhile that he brings the setup along and tries again.
(If anyone decides to try this – per the Internet conversations – the cheap plastic feeder at Walmart works better than the more expensive glass one at Petco (and we returned the latter and bought the former before we put out any liquid for them.)
Thought of this afterwards when showing the strip to Robert – maybe the man’s shirt has red drippings on it because HE is drinking the sugar water?
Maybe joke to the first one is the angles and bits of different color in his suit so one is seeing where the origami folds are?
@ Meryl A – Your analysis is correct (see the comment from elGeo). As for hummingbirds: If they aren’t already somewhere in the area, they will never be able (nor willing) to find your feeder. In springtime there are plenty of other nectar sources, so they will never bother to make a long journey to get to your feeder, since they already have plenty of flowers right where they are. If you try again, I would suggest late summer, or early fall, when many other sources will have dried up, or perhaps in a different location (if you are somewhere else for an extended stay).
My sister in Vermont now has Baltimore orioles in addition to the hummingbirds. You attract orioles by cutting oranges in half and sticking them onto something secure.