Month / July 2026

by zbicyclist

Two-door Cat

I get “Tudor Cat” out of this, but are Tudor Cats a thing?

A quick search pulls up this gruesome information:

“Cats were not a popular Tudor pet due to their association with the Devil and witchcraft. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII decreed in his bull against witches that cats were unholy creatures and were to be burned along with the witches that owned them, although I haven’t been able to find that instruction in the bull myself. When witches were burned at the stake it was often said that a black cat leapt out of the flames.

“At the coronation of Elizabeth I in January 1559, a dozen or so cats were stuffed into a wickerwork effigy of the Pope and paraded through the streets of London before being burned on a bonfire. Their dying shrieks were said to be the devils inhabiting the Pope’s body. Horrible!”

On a more positive note, that same web page notes this history of having a cat at 10 Downing Street.

“The resident cat, used as a “mouser” today, in 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence in London, is thought to date back to the time when Cardinal Thomas Wolsey placed his pet cat by his side, on a cushioned chair, while undertaking his duties as Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor. A bronze statue of Wolsey in his hometown of Ipswich in Suffolk features a cat peering out from behind his chair and clinging to his robes. It’s a beautiful feature of his statue.”

Larry, the current cat at 10 Downing Street, has served since 2011, through several prime ministers: Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer, and likely Burnham soon.

Still, it seems quite a stretch for Nate Fakes to be referring to these cats of Elizabethan times. Is there something closer to the 21st century I’m missing?

by zbicyclist

Donuts

Hinches sends this in: “I think it has to do with the doughnuts being the crime scene, The white circles were drawn by the cop with the white marker in his hand around the alleged dropped donuts. The look on his face seems to suggest after drawing the circles, either he or both of the cops explaining what happened ate the evidence. However, why is the ground under the white circles so dark? Does that have some meaning?”

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs – July 19, 2026

Mitch4 sends in the LOL (and Geezer Alert):

From 1954.

Usual John sends this in:

This appeared yesterday, so that makes today Ice Cream Day. I plan to celebrate!

by zbicyclist

Saturday Morning OYs July 18, 2026

Mitch4 sends this in: “Somewhat disappointing that at the end he seems to give up at disguising the names when he just outright names the presidential libraries.”

I’m missing whatever’s hidden in “I’m just saying I’m going to forbid encampment anyways ’til this is done.” The phrasing seems Taylor-made for having some president hiding.

Mitch4 sends this in: “A spelling-based pun, with the extra step that a ringing telephone doesn’t actually emit the word “RING”.”

by zbicyclist

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Yes, it’s still hot here in Editorland. But the big problem is smoke, and the Air Quality Index (AQI) not the heat index (although it’s still hot). I cancelled a bike ride I was supposed to lead yesterday when the AQI got over 200 — very unhealthy — and the visibility was limited by smoke. But I had no idea how much worse it was going to get.

At 2:39 p.m. it looked as though the scale was near a maximum. It looks like it maxes out at 600 from the scale shown. I’d never seen it anywhere near this high.

But as it turns out, it could get even higher:

Luckily, I could shut all the windows, turn on the air purifier and AC, and chill out. Otherwise, I’d need to hunt up my leftover N95 masks.

The cartoonists at the New Yorker were quick to post on this issue:

by zbicyclist

2×2?

Straightforward, if not funny:

But what about those papers that might print 4-panel Nancy as a 2×2?

or some other orientation?

In earlier days, Bushmiller would sometimes do a 3 panel, but in the examples I looked at the third panel was double-width, so it would still fit within a 2×2 orientation. But perhaps the number of papers who might be affected is approaching 0.