Deadly thoughts

It’s Halloween! It’s one of the set of similar days with very different tones: There’s the Day of the Dead, with reverence for the departed. There’s Halloween, where in theory the evil spirits have power, but has evolved into a chance to meet the neighbor kids, if only briefly. There’s All Saints Day on November 1, a day of celebration. Following that, on November 2, is All Souls Day, which I remember in particular for that scary sequence in the old Latin liturgy:

O wrath, O day of mourning,

O hear the fateful prophet’s warning,

Heaven and earth in ashes burning. …

When the Judge his seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing? …

The general tone is aptly captured in Verdi’s or Mozart’s Dies Irae, from their Requiem Masses.

Of course, you might also mistranslate “Dies Irae” as “Day of the Iras”, and listen to Ira Glass’s This American Life, or some of those great songs from George and Ira Gershwin. Or not.







Point Me In the Right Direction

Guero sends this one in. “Brad Guigar publishes the (possibly NSFW) web comic Evil-Inc and occasionally pauses the story, posting one panel comics as filler.  This is the current comic, and although I am pretty sure it has to do with some icon on some social media, I have no idea what any of it means.  I’m sure one of the CIDUers can help. “

For someone, this will be an easy one to explain. Enlighten us!

Comics That Haven’t Aged Well

Syndicate sites like GoComics and ComicsKingdom have a variety of reruns (or, if you prefer, vintage comics). But some of them don’t age well.

These are all old comics which are being repeated. There are certainly a number of old comics that we wouldn’t expect to see now (e.g. the drunken domestic violence played for laughs in old Andy Capp), but I’m limiting this to ones that I’ve currently found being repeated.

Here’s a few examples:


A fire at an asbestos factory (and there are still some) would likely be a major disaster, putting all those asbestos fibers into the air.


Mitch sent in this one, dated 1991.  George Burns was indeed long-lived, and continued performing into his very senior years — which is sort of the joke here, saying he might go on into the distant future.  But then he did die, in 1996 (at age 100).  


Concussions aren’t funny any more.


Hair tonics have historically been marketed as a way to make hair grow faster, but without much evidence. In recent years, there has been a shift towards more evidence-based approaches to hair care, with a focus on products that are supported by scientific research, such as medications like minoxidil and finasteride, which are approved by the FDA for the treatment of hair loss.


90 Years Ago in The New Yorker

August, 1933: More cultural references to decipher.

Did I miss some modern artifact (radio in 1933, or a refrigerator)?


There was a rather turbulent mayoral election in New York in 1933: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_New_York_City_mayoral_election

It took a while to find a candidate who would fly with the voters.



Euphemism?


Is Mooney someone we would have known?