Sad news — Denny Lien, known on CIDU as Shrug, has passed away.
The news, and a site for memorial comments, are at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/terrygarey/journal/view/id/643b1b995f8fc53e6530d17b
I saw some memorial comments first at Comics Curmudgeon, where Shrug also was a frequent commenter.
Once again we were very happy to receive a note from Robin Bickel the other day, with some family news and a renewed Hanukkah card invitation, which we would like to share with you.
—
Quoting:
Hi! Hope all is well over at CIDU land! Hard to believe a year has sped by.
We are all doing well here. Aaron is now officially a married person. For readers of the NY Times, Zak is now in charge of all long range visual planning for both the online and print business sections while his boss is on maternity leave. That means that all feature pieces are designed by him including hiring and art directing the illustrators.
Please let people know that Hanukah cards, designed by Zak, are once more getting ready to be addressed! So if you’ve moved or would like to be added, just let me know.
Happy Holidays!
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If you are already on the list, there is nothing you need to do, if your address has not changed. You should email to Robin if your address has changed, or if you would like to newly join. The instructions to get in on this tradition appear below, but by now it would be a big scroll, so here they are:
Email me at robinbickel at gmail. Put CIDU in the subject line so it will be easy for me to quickly find you. And if you’d like you can send me a card at 43 Peace Rd, Randolph NJ 07869 but you are under no obligation to do so. I like sending cards and it would make me happy to be able to send a very small thank you to all of you who have been such good friends over the years. (Please don’t delay only because I have to give Zachary a count of how many cards to print)
We were very happy to receive a note from Robin Bickel the other day, with some family news and a renewed Hanukkah card invitation, which we would like to share with you.
Cheers,
Mitch and Winter Wallaby
Quoting:
On a personal note, Aaron, our oldest, is finally engaged after being with his girlfriend for 11 years. I am assuming the wedding will take place before another 11 years pass.
Please let everyone at CIDU know that I am so glad that the site is thriving. Bill would be so proud!
And finally, Hanukkah card time again. Let people know if the got a card last year, they are good. If they got one last year and moved since then, let me know the new address. And if you didn’t get a card and now deeply regret it (which obviously you would!), send me your address and join in the fun. As always, cards are designed by the mega talented Zak. (as an aside, if you get the print edition of the NY Times, turn to the front page of the business section on Saturday or Monday. That’s his work. He does other days also and other pages too, but those are more random.)
If you are a new CIDU reader who is missing some context here, you are invited to look at our “Bill Bickel and the history of CIDU” page, also linked in the left menu.
As Robin says above, if you received a card last year, and your address has not changed, there is nothing you need to do to remain on the list and to receive a card this year.. If you would like to join their list, the instructions are for convenience reprinted below, though you can find them, along with additional background and the original invitation message, at the end of last year’s “Hanukah Cards (from Robin Bickel)” post.
Email me at robinbickel at gmail. Put CIDU in the subject line so it will be easy for me to quickly find you. And if you’d like you can send me a card at 43 Peace Rd, Randolph NJ 07869 but you are under no obligation to do so. I like sending cards and it would make me happy to be able to send a very small thank you to all of you who have been such good friends over the years. (Please don’t delay only because I have to give Zachary a count of how many cards to print)
Thanks to Boise Ed for this Shrimp and Grits:
FYI, Andy Marlette who does this strip is apparently the nephew of the late Doug Marlette, known as creator of Kudzu and for his editorial cartooning.
But wait … there’s more!
In my neighborhood there are unofficial fireworks for all sorts of holidays and unexplained occasions, chiefly firecrackers. But indeed the loudest and longest-running are the official displays for The Fourth and other sanctioned events …. but always supplemented by local enthusiasts.
And so most major holidays are accompanied by topical responses in pet advice blogs, veterinary newsletters, and pet supply store tracker ads, on how to soothe and de-stress the furry friends in the face of the startling noises.
If you noticed an OY category marker for this post, and wondered which item(s) may have triggered that, here is one answer.
Back in OY territory!
And finally, time for “Ballad for Americans”
CALL FOR HOLIDAY COMICS
We’re going to succumb to Independence Day fervor and have a potpourri posting on the Fourth, with any and every kind of comic, whether funny, punny, or puzzling, as long as it relates to that holiday.
But it’s scheduled to go live on the day! So we need items that are already out there! Thanks!
So far all we have is a nice stock photo of people watching fireworks, which serves as featured image. It would be sad to have this presiding over an empty page.
Shhh, FarSide.
I can’t parse the picture well enough to get what is the issue.
• Join in maintaining email correspondence with readers
• and content submitters
• and grey-eminence type advisory panel members
• and our sponsors/publishers (the Bickel family)
• Read and monitor the flow of comment posting, manage the Pending (“moderation”) and Spam buckets, and make your own comments or edit reader comments as necessary to avoid out-of-line ill-tempered disputes. (And of course to enjoy expressing your own views!)
• Initially in consultation with the rest of the editorial team, and later independently, decide how and when to use material submitted by readers.
• Share the mouse-and-keyboard tasks of getting that reader-submitted material uploaded, posted, and editorially framed.
• Find material for posting from the course of your own comics reading, and post it
• This is a volunteer activity, not a job. Unpaid. No set office hours.
• You should be in general familiar with the CIDU site and our usual contents and style, and in general enjoy comicstrip humor. But you don’t have to be a prolific commenter.
• You should be able to maintain a sense of humor and relaxed cooperation for negotiating collaborative plans, decisions, and solutions
• You do not need to be familiar with WordPress admin pages or app! But you should be someone who considers yourself adept at picking up and using web-browser-based forms and tools, with only casual instruction (email texts and maybe some Zoom screenshare sessions)
• You should be able to work from a full screen desktop or laptop computer with reasonably uptodate OS and web browser and related tools.
• You should not insist on tech eccentricities that would prevent effectively using the WordPress editing web app.
When people talk about Faulkner these days, they tend to concentrate on societal portrayals, and sometimes forget that he was right up there with the (other) Modernists when it comes to novel and effective experimental narration. (Or else, as some of the GoComics commenters would have it, reduce his style to complaining of unparseably long Proustian sentences.)
AILD, while still very consciously / critically “Southern”, is really fun and funny, and a great demo of taking a then-new technical experimental narrative device, and running with it!
Andréa suggests this synchronicity on the definition of stalking.
It’s not a deep puzzlement!
Thanks to Kilby, who saw the rerun Cul de Sac, was reminded of the recent Jesus and Mo, and was led to ask Jesus reads “Cul de Sac”?
If you enjoy Jesus and Mo?, then for some science?, and a lot of opinion?, you might enjoy the Why Evolution is True blog from retired University of Chicago Professor Jerry Coyne?, who often prints in the blog fresh Jesus and Mo strips he receives from them?
P.S. This ginger guy is Mo? He’s a big help with email?
Comics I Don't Understand 