I feel like I’ve seen a modern version of the coin-op scale but I can’t find any pictures of one online. I’m certain they wouldn’t take pennies though.
What I didn’t really get about the Nancy cartoon was what her reasoning process was about. It seems like she is happy about “getting more for her money” by weighing a very heavy guy for the same price as weighing anybody else would be. Is this meant to look like a bargain?
The ice cream parlor I went to as a child had one. At the time, I didn’t understand what the penny was for because it seemed to work just fine without one.
I later realized that the penny unlocked a stop so you could see the mechanism was working before you paid. I was still under the limit (probably 50 pounds), so it didn’t affect me.
And the bigger kids would try to crowd onto it to see high high it would go. It would read up to something like 600 pounds.
I am pretty sure the GNC at the mall I used to walk at had a scale that maybe took a quarter. I never used it. It had a sensor in it and if it detected someone walk by it would say something. It was really annoying.
There were many jokes about those coin-op scales, especially those that printed out your weight on a card along with a fortune or saying. The fat lady put in her penny; the card read “One at a time, please.”
The joke in Nancy is just that she is using odd thinking to believe that she gets more for the same amount of money by weighing a fat man on the scale than by weighing herself or a thin person. We’re not meant to think that Nancy is in fact getting a bargain by doing so.
The petrol station cartoon got me wondering how common it was in the USA still for the staff to fill your tank rather than doing it self-service – in the UK it is vanishingly rare (probably only at a few remaining small village stations) and I doubt I’ve had someone else fuel my car in over 45 years. So I checked Mr Google and I see it is also very unusual in the US these days – but was surprised that the AI answer reported that New Jersey “is the only state in the country with a blanket, statewide ban on self-service gas. By law, a gas station attendant must fill your tank.”
Oregon used to have the same laws as NJ. That change a while back, perhaps during the pandemic. The internet sez that it varies by county now. It should be noted that For Better or For Worse is set in Canada,
The sign at Gordon’s says “Full Service – Self Service,” so presumably both methods were available in Ontario, Canada, when this strip was originally drawn in 1997.
When we were first dating husband was surprised & impressed that I knew how to put gas in a car (and how to put air in the tires, check the oil & tranny fluid, etc.) as he did not know any other girls who knew same.
Being the eldest of 3 daughters – no brothers – Dad had me help him with car things in addition to everything else so I know how to do all these things.
A couple of weeks ago we needed to put gas in the car (he tends to do this often so when he sees the cost it is not as big as it might otherwise be at the cost nowadays) – he did not feel well. I pointed out to him that even though all these decades have passed, I still know how to put gas in the car and he agreed that I should do so. Normally I would get out of the car when he puts gas in, checks, the oil, etc. to help him anyway – if nothing else I have a credit card out to hand to him for him to use.
Comics I Don't Understand 
That Nancy comic is from 1950, so … yeah, of course it’s geezer.
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I feel like I’ve seen a modern version of the coin-op scale but I can’t find any pictures of one online. I’m certain they wouldn’t take pennies though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What I didn’t really get about the Nancy cartoon was what her reasoning process was about. It seems like she is happy about “getting more for her money” by weighing a very heavy guy for the same price as weighing anybody else would be. Is this meant to look like a bargain?
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Yeah, the Nancy is a CIDU for me, not an OY.
Re the Dan’s Gym one, I’m obligated to remind people that vegetarian zombies crave…GRAINS!
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I’ve seen a zombie gym comic with the zombie saying GAAAAINS….
The only places I’ve seen coin-op scales were tourist trap Old Timey Stores, where they were sometimes still using pennies.
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The ice cream parlor I went to as a child had one. At the time, I didn’t understand what the penny was for because it seemed to work just fine without one.
I later realized that the penny unlocked a stop so you could see the mechanism was working before you paid. I was still under the limit (probably 50 pounds), so it didn’t affect me.
And the bigger kids would try to crowd onto it to see high high it would go. It would read up to something like 600 pounds.
Haven’t seen one since it closed around ’77
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am pretty sure the GNC at the mall I used to walk at had a scale that maybe took a quarter. I never used it. It had a sensor in it and if it detected someone walk by it would say something. It was really annoying.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There were many jokes about those coin-op scales, especially those that printed out your weight on a card along with a fortune or saying. The fat lady put in her penny; the card read “One at a time, please.”
LikeLike
The joke in Nancy is just that she is using odd thinking to believe that she gets more for the same amount of money by weighing a fat man on the scale than by weighing herself or a thin person. We’re not meant to think that Nancy is in fact getting a bargain by doing so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The petrol station cartoon got me wondering how common it was in the USA still for the staff to fill your tank rather than doing it self-service – in the UK it is vanishingly rare (probably only at a few remaining small village stations) and I doubt I’ve had someone else fuel my car in over 45 years. So I checked Mr Google and I see it is also very unusual in the US these days – but was surprised that the AI answer reported that New Jersey “is the only state in the country with a blanket, statewide ban on self-service gas. By law, a gas station attendant must fill your tank.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oregon used to have the same laws as NJ. That change a while back, perhaps during the pandemic. The internet sez that it varies by county now. It should be noted that For Better or For Worse is set in Canada,
LikeLike
The sign at Gordon’s says “Full Service – Self Service,” so presumably both methods were available in Ontario, Canada, when this strip was originally drawn in 1997.
LikeLike
When we were first dating husband was surprised & impressed that I knew how to put gas in a car (and how to put air in the tires, check the oil & tranny fluid, etc.) as he did not know any other girls who knew same.
Being the eldest of 3 daughters – no brothers – Dad had me help him with car things in addition to everything else so I know how to do all these things.
A couple of weeks ago we needed to put gas in the car (he tends to do this often so when he sees the cost it is not as big as it might otherwise be at the cost nowadays) – he did not feel well. I pointed out to him that even though all these decades have passed, I still know how to put gas in the car and he agreed that I should do so. Normally I would get out of the car when he puts gas in, checks, the oil, etc. to help him anyway – if nothing else I have a credit card out to hand to him for him to use.
LikeLike