Category / CIDU

by EditorM

Tunnel of synchronicity?

Carl Fink sent in the Loose Parts, which we supplemented with the Lockhorns on a similar motif.

Is it kind of charming that Loretta still has romantic expectations?

Carl says “So, let me ask this question: has anyone seen an actual ‘Tunnel of Love’ at a fair in the past, say, 40 years? Would anyone under that age have any idea what’s going on here? Is that old carnival attraction even remembered now only because of cartoons like this one?”

Also, what is going on? People keep climbing into those boats even though they can see the solid wall and the mounting crashes? Is it almost as much their incompetence as that of the designers of the attraction?

by EditorM

Cupcake

From Le Vieux Lapin, who says: I’m not a sports guy, so I looked “Cupcake Week” up on the web, and I still don’t get it.

I didn’t know what “cupcake week” means either, but did have a plausible guess.  The comments (yeah, I had to look) gave a more complete explanation, however, that I would not have arrived at by guesswork and reasoning from the guesses… So I’d call that a legit CIDU!

by EditorM

A Booth Scene

My first time reading the word “defenestration” was in the title of a story by Arthur C. Clarke, “The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch”, appearing in the collection Tales from the White Hart. Subsequently, I learned the general uses of this funny word, and in particular in the nickname for some historical events, “The defenestration of Prague”.

My first encounter with the word “quantum” in other than a physics sense was in the title of a story by Ian Fleming, “Quantum of Solace”, appearing in the collection For Your Eyes Only. Subsequently, I rarely encounter any use other than something scientific.

My first exposure to the word “squalor” was in the title of a story by J D Salinger, “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor”, appearing in the collection Nine Stories. Subsequently, my foremost exemplar for the concept of “living in squalor” are the cartoons of George Booth.

This one was sent in by Stan, who says “Here’s one I didn’t get…or maybe it’s an, ‘Is that all there is? But what’s the joke?’ kind of thing. Anyway, I’m guessing she made scrambled eggs for dinner. What’s the joke exactly? Also, what is the cat doing? Is that part of it?”

by EditorM

I can fix this

Okay, “And now you know why” — why *what*? Why you haven’t stopped by in a while? No, it doesn’t explain Baldo’s own actions to himself.
It could make sense as why he’s been banned from the shop; or more gently, why Sergio has discouraged him from visiting. But neither degree of that has been conveyed in the earlier part of the encounter.

So, *can* we fix this?

by EditorM

Makes no diff?

By the bye, we didn’t recall Blondie’s catering service having a walk-ins-welcome retail deli outlet.

But anyhow, this little story has the structure of a Turnabout or maybe Topper trope. (Thorne Smith allusions entirely accidental!) Blondie looks shocked in the last panel, as though the mom’s substitution of the iPad as the plaything is even more of a shocking violation than the phone was. But is that so? Or is the mom’s “reasoning” sort of correct, and there is a greater likelihood of the child being able to make some use of a tablet than of a smartphone?