From chemgal, who indicates that she *did* get it (tho it took a moment). But she calls it CBWU and explains “It took me a moment to get [Friday’s] Arlo and Janis. Given it’s a cat comic, I’m pretty sure that Bill would not have understood it.”
However, the premise is not quite up-to-date. Nowadays, it would be more likely an email.
Is it just that the guy is so shook up he books three appointments a day? Is that all there is? Is it weird that the receptionist builds on the standard “Your three o’clock is here” instead of, maybe, using his name (which she must be familiar with by now)?
This was going to be a standalone CIDU, with the question-blurb of The slug has eaten some salted snack and is having a toxic reaction?? There was another fly, and the frog scooped him up with his tongue?? Do you have another?
But then I realized the item hanging out of the frog’s mouth is not his tongue (which would be thin and ready to flick) but a wing tip, matching the wings we see on the speaking fly at the left. Well, that answers which of the explanations it was.
But I didn’t know whether to feel cheated of a mystery, or ready to applaud the skilfully delayed punch. Anyway, that landed it here!
“Love” – “Confess” – “Surf”
Those are the titles I can make out among the items displayed at this newsstand.
Okay, the joke is that this soldier (is he “Killer”?) is really just interested in eyeing the pin-ups and girlie publications, while prolonging his visit by asking for various small-town papers the newsstand does not carry.
But why do I feel like that raises gaps in the story that ought to have been dealt with? Like: is he making the towns and papers up, or are they supposed to be real within the fictive world? Is the “Nope” answer the basis for him to keep going, with possible second or third choices? Or might he have gotten them all, if commissioned by several guys back at the platoon to bring them back their respective home-town papers? And does this newsstand in fact carry regular newspapers and general-interest magazines, and the pin-up material is just what gets most prominently displayed? Or is that all they sell?
Hmm, something missing? Oh yes – the generator that would be hooked up so that the exercise bike powers the fan! Or go old style, and show some belts and pulleys making a mechanical connection. Otherwise, what’s the joke?
Here we have just one of those unanswered little mysteries, not any critique. Just what did he mean to say instead, eh?
P.S. It doesn’t answer that question, but the next day’s strip is from the same therapy session, and picks up the theme of slips.
Thanks to harvling for sending this Bug Martini our way, and asking “Is there some meaning of ‘tenet’ that fits here? I don’t understand this use.”
The LOL factor here is in the particular expression she uses, combining passive “been informed” with “I want”.
“Spare armadillo” from The Far Side. Note, the link may not work for long!
I only recently started sometimes reading One Big Happy, and evidently don’t yet have a good handle on the age and attitude of the intended audience. But these are all clear OYs on familiar sayings.
Is this Horace himself, doing some kind of costumed performance? Or an ancestor or other predecessor, who looked like that in his heyday?
And a definite meta-OY:
Sad, sad end!
P.S. Who would be customers here, you ask?
Okay, he’s shown reading Joan Didion as a commemoration. But is that a separate matter from the rest of the drawing and dialogue? Or some reflection of something she wrote?
And on an almost-literal level, what is the cat reporting actually? Do mice get more dangerous as their teeth grow longer, or go soft as they age into long-in-the-tooth status? Is this about a scary encounter, or just old companions sharing whatever passes by in their minds?
It’s been a long time since I saw The Bride Wore Black (La mariée était en noir).
Is there any truth to the “Hint”? And if it were so, would that give the first sentence a logical reading, in some meaning other than the straightforward one (as used in the film), of the bridegroom dying (being killed) following the marriage ceremony?
A CIDU from Snickers, who says the storyline here doesn’t line up at all well with the original tale. Also sent by zbicyclist, who expands on the issue of fit with the story thus: “Why is there another laptop appearing in panel 6? Dorian Gray doesn’t age; only his portrait does. So if the laptop named Dorian Gray disintegrates, isn’t that the opposite?”
Shared by Boise Ed, enjoyed by this Florida native.
And check out this previous CIDU LOLs post for Ed’s intro to Shrimp and Grits
But TBH the premise is faulty — is she really going to go pick up a book instead, in the moment?
But is that true?? Questions can be raised about the background view.
Or was this an Oy?
This is here as a LOL but almost went into the Oopsies. The “related products” message from Amazon doesn’t ever appear full-screen as drawn here. It was enough to throw Pam off, who sent it in as not-fully-understood.
Here is a picture of the real Erwin S, and I think the cartoon has a pretty good likeness. We should also note a thank-you to contemporary physicist, Twitter celebrity, and YouTube presence Sean M Carroll, who when explaining the famous thought-experiment says there is a vial of fast-acting sleeping-gas, and when we look for the cat’s condition the choices are Asleep and Awake.
Comics I Don't Understand 