Month / October 2023

by zbicyclist

Deadly thoughts

It’s Halloween! It’s one of the set of similar days with very different tones: There’s the Day of the Dead, with reverence for the departed. There’s Halloween, where in theory the evil spirits have power, but has evolved into a chance to meet the neighbor kids, if only briefly. There’s All Saints Day on November 1, a day of celebration. Following that, on November 2, is All Souls Day, which I remember in particular for that scary sequence in the old Latin liturgy:

O wrath, O day of mourning,

O hear the fateful prophet’s warning,

Heaven and earth in ashes burning. …

When the Judge his seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing? …

The general tone is aptly captured in Verdi’s or Mozart’s Dies Irae, from their Requiem Masses.

Of course, you might also mistranslate “Dies Irae” as “Day of the Iras”, and listen to Ira Glass’s This American Life, or some of those great songs from George and Ira Gershwin. Or not.

by EditorM

We weren’t going to discuss it (Random retro LOLs, 2019 or before, Part 1)

This is maybe a bit of a CIDU now?

Also a bit unclear?

Editor’s recent photo

Gorilla with kitten

by Kilby

Meta Mutts

McDonnell usually has a theme for each entire week of daily Mutts strips; last week he produced a very nice collection of “meta” and “fourth wall” gags:

As an unusual bonus, the Sunday strip also fits in with the overall topic of the daily strips:

P.S. I decided to fetch the monochrome originals from Mutts.com, in particular because I felt that the Thursday and Friday strips do not work as well in color.

P.P.S. I was very disappointed when Arcamax switched Mutts to the colorized daily strips, and neither Arcamax nor Comics Kingdom bothers to include the title panel for the Sunday strips, which is often a real loss.

by phsiii

Probably just cartoon physics

It doesn’t seem like that axe would fit in that crate, does it? The stump and basket, maybe–though after UPS rolls it around the back of the truck several times, I doubt the basket would be in that good condition.

ObAnecdote: I have nothing against UPS, but I worked with a woman who hated them with a passion, and with justification: they lost her bridesmaids’ dresses. All of them. Forever. Never reappeared. I’d hear her in the next cubicle calling a company and trying to find some OTHER way of shipping their item, and cancelling the order if they had no choices except UPS. Still makes me laugh.

P.S. Yes, this post is late. Y’all are all entitled to a full refund of your CIDU membership fees.

by EditorM

“Is that you, Hun?”

When that’s the punch line, the setup of course has to be “What does Mrs. Attila call out from the back when she hears noise at the tent entrance?”

But in this Hagar the Horrible, sent in by Boise Ed, Helga and Hagar are at home, not in a Hunnish encampment. The Huns are outside — for now.

In case you think the outdoor shouting might prove legible, here is a blowup; but we think at least parts of it must just be Chinese Grawlix!

Setting and shouting aside, what’s the joke here? Some of the point must be Hagar’s equanimity in the face of attack, to the point that he is much more attentive to the culinary choice before him. But that’s pretty much his established character just being reinforced, so is that meant to be a joke?