Mitch4 send this in: “Momentary CIDU / then OY after you get it.”
I’ll order the Bombe from Acme bakeries.
In other news, Olivia Jaimes has announced her retirement from the Nancy strip after 7 years. (This doesn’t surprise me; in the past months she seemed to have hit a stretch where she was running out of ideas.)
The strip will be taken over on January 1, 2026 by Caroline Cash, who did a few Nancy strips during Jaimes’s 2024 sabbatical (July 22 through August 11, 2024).
This one’s a clear nod to classic Bushmiller gags, one of which I posted a few days ago.
Dan Piraro had this curious take on Nancy a couple of days ago, although it’s not clear this was at all related to the authorship transition.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The opposite of a momentary CIDU, I’m afraid. It’s one of the more common bits of wordplay that exists and was used prominently in one of the more popular video games released this year (Blue Prince). But upon a moment’s reflection, it doesn’t make sense: You don’t order “dessert” and hope for the best, you order something by name. If for some reason you did, it’s not pronounced the same way as “desert.”
You might be able to get past it with a long-form gag involving mobile ordering, but it would still be pretty hoary.
Mixed feelings about Jaimes’s retirement. She’s been amazing and Nancy is my favorite syndicated strip currently. But there’s a lot to be said for quitting before burnout or creative bankruptcy sets in. A lot of cartoonists value the career more than the art and drag things out far too long.
Restaurants used to have a “dessert trolley” rather than a menu. That’s what’s being referenced here.
Note for posterity: Bill Bickel died five years ago today.
I remember noticing that I didn’t have a CIDU in my email, saying “Huh”. The next day, also no CIDU, now I’m slightly irritated (yeah, yeah, I’m getting what I paid for!). Same for a day or three more, then the news, and of course instant reversal of all irritation!
We miss ya, Bill. I hope we’re doing your vision justice.
Up next on Dessert Island. Homeland of the Scones and butter pies.
Ian, that makes perfect sense – but it’s still an extremely hoary bit of wordplay.
“…somehow amusing entirely by virtue of their lack of humor.”
Somehow, Piraro always hits the nail squarely on the head.
Hoary? I don’t think dessert carts are in the dustbin yet.
Chak (6): He does, but this is by Wayno, who has been doing all the daily </>Bizzarro strips for several years now. Sundays are still Piraro’s work.
Andrew is quite right that desert/dessert has been worked quite hard in the pun universe. Still, I hope I can be forgiven for having stared at this Bizarro blankly for a good moment or two.
Ed, I think Chak is referring not to the Wayno Bizarro at the top but to the Piraro Sunday Bizarro at the end, the one with the weird Nancy head found in the jungle, and identified by our editor as Piraro.
Yeah, I got the “dessert cart” joke right away.
While the desert/dessert thing is somewhat well-used, coupling it with the cart was a twist.
I wonder if “Olivia Jaimes” will reveal her true identity or fade mysteriously into the ether.
Mitch4 (9): I’m sure you’re right. I’m NOT sure where my mistyping came from.
I’ll also note that Piraro discussed the Nancy strip in bizarro.com/blog/2025/9/14/a-head-of-its-time , but didn’t mention Jaimes or Cash therein.
One time when my mother went out to dinner with a friend, and the friend went to the restroom just after finishing the meal but before the check came, the server came by and asked “Have you been deserted?” My mother replied, “No thanks, we don’t want any.” (Then she realized what the server actually meant and they both laughed.)
“Have you been deserted” SOUNDS like it could be waiter jargon. They talk about how well a meal is plated for instance.
This is the first I’m hearing that Olivia Jaimes is a pseudonym.
Andrew Miller (5) I’m afraid I am a little hoary (in the “grey and aged” sense, not, I hope, in the “unoriginal” sense).
Powers, somehow it feels like just last month or so, but apparently it has been like 5 years or so since Olivia Jaimes stepped in. As far as I saw, it was at least taken for granted, if not officially stated, that this is a pseudonym. There has been a lot of speculation addressed to uncovering her real identity [hey does anybody here have a Real ID card?]. But it was only with her recent absence that I saw posts speculating on a particular other person being the actual artist — it was another Olivia with some cartooning credits but a different main profession.
And supplementally, not that I have closely followed the identity speculation, but as far as I have observed it there have been few suggestions about why the unusual spelling of ‘Jaimes’ would have been chosen ; including in the recent guesses about that Olivia Walch. To me, it suggests that there might be some anagram play involved, and that ‘i’ was left over and needed to be stuck somewhere.
Oh, one more! Tom Falco takes up this matter with some smart commentary at https://tomversation.com/2025/09/17/why-im-ambivalent-about-nancy-and-sluggo/
(And corrects the figure of five years, which was my guess, to a factual seven.)
phsiii/Mitch4 –
Oyyyy!
That means it has been longer than that since I last visited my dad’s grave!
How is this related? When Bill died and we had information about where he was being buried – it was the same cemetery as my dad is in. I was going to trying to find Bill when next I went to see my dad – and I have not been there.
My sisters have been there so I know that all is okay with dad, but it is not easy to for me to do anything which I prefer to do alone with Robert with me all the time – and he does not do well in cemeteries – modern or historical – and is almost always with me (generally if I am out alone it is to my embroidery club meeting – which he has been known to come to with me or he is not feeling well and I am out shopping for food on my own, while on cell phone with him so he does not worry).
BTW – When Bill had died and I heard that he was buried there, I commented that Mel Brooks has someone in that cemetery also. My parents (dad alive then) had been there visiting dad’s other family members who were residents and they saw Mel Brooks and son walking – so they must have been visiting someone there also.
I miss Bill. We would have communicated a LOT the last couple years on his Crimeweek page more than CIDU
As far as I’m concerned, Olivia Jaimes is her real identity.
Like Jack Benny. Yes, I’ve heard that there was a guy named Benjamin Kubelsky, but I’m sure that if I had ever met Benjamin Kubelsky I would have had no idea who he was, or possibly could have come to the conclusion that he invented that identity to avoid being mobbed by fans.
Which reminds me of an anecdote from one of H. Allen Smith’s books. Roy Rogers’ real name was Leonard Slye. When he had the TV show, his contract required him to always travel in his cowboy costume, no matter where he went. The sponsors wanted Roy Rogers to be seen and noticed everywhere in real life.
Which of course was very tiring, because there was no place he could ever go where he was not recognized by everybody.
So he broke the contract one time to go on vacation. He dressed in ordinary clothes and nobody recognized him at all. Except when he got on the airplane, one man stared at him as if trying to place who he was, when he walked past.
Suddenly, apparently the penny dropped. The man got up, went down the aisle toward him and said “Leonard Slye! WHAR YOU BEEN ALL THIS TIME?”