Usual John submitted this Working Cats strip as a CIDU, commenting: “This is a strip about Brooklyn bodega cats, and these are the two central characters. Sula, the older and wiser cat, acts as a mentor to Taki, the kitten. But I don’t get what Sula is doing in the last panel.”
Even though I can explain exactly what is happening in this strip, I wanted to post this as a Comic I Haven’t Seen. Maritsa Patrinos has appeared at CIDU before, but only for her work on “Six Chix” (Fridays, since 2019).
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I think my very first impression may have been the same thing that John thought: that Sula has assumed the same position that she was in when Taki mistakenly attacked Sula as “vermin”. However, what is actually happening is that Sula is calling attention to the real vermin: Taki’s tail. The weakness is that all the symbols surrounding Taki’s head distract from the marks meant to highlight her tail.
P.S. This strip is the first time that I have ever seen the term “vermin” used as a singular noun; I’ve always thought of it as inherently plural.
Comics I Don't Understand 
From Wiktionary: “The singular form “a vermin” is now rarely encountered, and the word is generally used as a plural.”
In most uses, this is because vermin are typically plural when noticed: We have ants. We have termites. We have roaches. We have pack rats. There are exceptions: We have a mouse. There’s a squirrel in the attic. Even here, though, the fact that there’s only one is, unfortunately, usually only a temporary condition.
The cartoonist may be pushed into this usage because the specific vermin type can’t be specified.
“And thereby hangs a tail” (As You Like It, 1600, my pun intended)
Taki is chasing its own tail, which explains the “sharp pain” upon catching it!
zbicyclist:
I know that different translators have used different terms, but when I first read Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” that version referred to Samsa as having turned into “a vermin.” That sounded strange to me then and still does.
I recall a Garfield strip where he is “chasing” a single mouse (they are both acting for Jon’s benefit… but neither are enthusiastic about it) and refers to the mouse as “vermin”. That’s a singular use of the word that sounds a bit less odd as it does not lead with “a”.
I was unfamiliar with the word vermin at the time I first read that strip as a kid, and thought that the mouse’s name was Vermin, some sort of combination of Vernon and Herman I guessed.
@ SteveHL (3) – The original German term is “der Ungeziefer“, for which “vermin” happens to be an extremely accurate translation. Despite the efforts of numerous scholars to pin down exactly which creature was intended, the fact remains that Kafka was intentionally vague, and didn’t leave conclusive information in the text. The most popular (English) word is probably “cockroach”, but it’s not explicitly supported by the original text.
If you don’t like “vermin” (especially in view of its plural connotation), the next best option might be “bug“, which is similarly indefinite in casual use, despite its precise definition among entomologists.
P.S. I don’t know whether any translators have actually used “bug“, and I’m not about to look to find out. The book was creepy enough when I read it in high school, and I have no desire to repeat the experience.
P.P.S. @ billytheskink (4) – Jim Davis appears to like the word “vermin“, which makes it difficult to choose, but this strip might be the one you were thinking of:
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A name very similar to your portmanteau appeared in a later story arc:
One exception to the rarity of singular “vermin”: Accusation, as in “You vermin!”
“Vermin” is like “deer.” “I saw one deer in the yard this morning but later on there were three deer.” The “in” makes it sound a little like “children” or “oxen” but even though we say “one ox, two oxen” we don’t say “one verm, two vermin.”
If there is only one vermin we usually say “one mouse” or “one rat” or whatever. But a rat and a mouse are two vermin.
I’ve always wondered…can one have a single mump or measle?
“Measles” comes from a Dutch word meaning “blemish,” so one could indeed, in theory, have a single such blemish. Similarly a “mump” was once a grimace.
Apologies – I am posting only because I don’t want anyone to think I disappeared. Having the kind of week that apparently nothing seems funny so no comments made by me (other than this) and I have not posted on any the pages/strips and did not want anyone to worry about me disappearing.
(Nothing dramatic or bad going on – just a week of one thing after another using up my time – work, husband, but at least we had a chance to do a reenactment event again this past Sunday – some relaxation and a chance to sit on my rear and embroider, though I nicely offered to stir the stew pot for our commander who was doing the cooking demo/making “mid-day dinner” for the unit while he also had to lead the musket and cannon drills also. – Yes, I said cannon -18th c repro which belongs to the unit – and I have fired it a number of times when cannon crew was short.)
Then back to real life and things piled up to be done.
Thanks, Meryl – we have indeed occasionally seen a concerned inquiry on those rare occasions when you are away for a couple weeks. However, please don’t feel obligated, everyone is entitled to a break.
@Kilby
Yes, that’s the exact Garfield strip I was thinking of!
After previously commenting, I remembered that the singular of “vermin” is “varmint.”
As in [Yosemite Sam voice] “Ya better say your prayers, ya flat-footed long-eared flea-bitten varmint!”
I agree with Mark in Boston. However many dictionaries may recognize vermin as a singular noun, I believe that “one varmint, many vermin” is a long established usage among actual speakers of English.
Kilby – To give an idea of how things go around here –
We have to replace the downstairs bathroom light switch/outlet (one unit). The replacement outlet/switch piece has been sitting in the house for months – if not years, but yet we keep playing with the switch trying to get it to a point where the light stays on and are now just leaving it turned on (unless we forget and shut it off as is normal to save on electricity – and then I have to juggle it into place – again.
So just for fun, the upstairs bathroom’ toilet has decided that it will not work correctly – the weight does not on its own rise to shut off the clean water coming in – so it keeps running unless I stand with my hand on the bottom flapper and hold it in place.
“We” will “try” to fix the electric switch/outlet (since we have done so before – put in the one which is a problem some decades ago), but he hates doing plumbing so we will have to call a plumber for that.
Just another birthday of fun.
Also spent most of the day trying to finish up the paperwork for a senior real estate partial exemption for the year. The needed attachments, photocopies and such are worse than an IRS audit (and I have done several of same for clients). I finished photocopying everything to do – some years is close to 100 pages extra over the form – (third partial day working on it) and was about to fill in the form – but it has changed since before. 4 income items they want the amount of and proof of (if one has them) are no longer listed on the form. Does this mean they no longer have to be included as income, they are to be included in “other” or they “messed” up the form. And I have been working in accounting since I was maybe 12 or even younger.
So rather than mailing it tomorrow I will be trying to call the tax assessors office and find someone who knows about this….. Somehow I know this will end up with a trip to them to just to find out this info!
This is what I like best for my birthday – just an ordinary day.
Working Cats continues to feature vermin, or possible vermin. (And to use the form “a vermin”.)