Captcha

Dan Thompson‘s Brevity usually involves a pun. In this one, we have someone sweating because of the Captcha. But the man isn’t a Frankenstein’s monster. Tyrell Property is a British real estate company, but Dan Thompson is an American cartoonist living in North Carolina. The two words seem to be Epslo and vector. EPSLO stands for “End of Program Student Learning Outcomes.” It refers to the specific competencies and skills that students are expected to achieve upon completing an educational program, particularly in fields like nursing. These outcomes guide the curriculum and assessment of students to ensure they are prepared for entry-level practice.

That’s a hint at the joke: Epslo would ordinarily be assessed at the end of a program, but here they are being asked for it in order to enter the program.

Can the joke really be this convoluted and obscure?


Update, courtesy of commenter Tstyle7B on GoComics: “The Tyrell Corporation is a famous fictional high-tech firm from the Blade Runner universe, founded by Eldon Tyrell and based in Los Angeles. It is known for designing and manufacturing humanoid, genetically engineered androids called “replicants” for use as slaves and soldiers in Off-world colonies.”

So, after all this, it’s not a CIDU for me anymore. But maybe it will be for others, or maybe having spent this much time on this post, I’m going to post it, regardless. [not “irregardless”]

That still leaves us with the unanswered question: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Going to the Doge

Doge? My first thought was DOGE, Elon Musk’s Department Of Government Efficiency, and this seemed like a CIDU.

But, in that second panel, the picture is similar to the logo for Dogecoin, a memecoin (think Bitcoin, but more obscure). The short phrases in the third panel are a variation of the phrases around that Dogecoin logo. Hence, I’m labelling this a momentary CIDU.

Still, pretty obscure. CoinCodex notes: “As of 2025, Dogecoin has over 5.6 million unique wallet addresses holding DOGE, according to blockchain data. This number represents the total count of wallets, not necessarily individual people—since one person can own multiple wallets, and some wallets belong to exchanges or institutions.

Top holders dominate: The top 10 wallets alone control over 44% of the total Dogecoin supply, with Robinhood’s largest wallet holding nearly 19.45%

It’s the 9th largest cryptocurrency, behind some others I haven’t heard of.


No one is coming to CIDU for investment advice. Personally, when I hear “crypto” I hear “tulips“, although friends remind me I’ve been wrong about that for many years now. If I’ve been wrong, I plan to continue being wrong.

Typo

Mitch4 send this in: “Momentary CIDU / then OY after you get it.”


I’ll order the Bombe from Acme bakeries.


In other news, Olivia Jaimes has announced her retirement from the Nancy strip after 7 years. (This doesn’t surprise me; in the past months she seemed to have hit a stretch where she was running out of ideas.)

The strip will be taken over on January 1, 2026 by Caroline Cash, who did a few Nancy strips during Jaimes’s 2024 sabbatical (July 22 through August 11, 2024).

This one’s a clear nod to classic Bushmiller gags, one of which I posted a few days ago.

More here and here.

Dan Piraro had this curious take on Nancy a couple of days ago, although it’s not clear this was at all related to the authorship transition.


Tap Dancing

Actually true, making allowances for that graph in panel 3 being simplified to fit.

But not that hard to figure out, so it’s not really a CIDU for an audience as clever as ours. Eventually it will be one of those phrases where the original meaning of the term becomes ever more obscure, e.g. “not worth a plug nickel”.

Here’s how it was done in 1943: