Category / CIDU

by phsiii

Crossover Synchronicity

Thanks to Powers, who wrote:

Extra synchronic because they appear kitty-corner from each other in my Sunday paper.

And then there was Rubes from the very next day (Monday 20 June), which seemed to combine the two and made me wonder what was going on.

And just for a kicker, Monday’s Ziggy continued the theme: 

Editorial comment on “kitty-corner”: this Anglicism, also spelled “catercorner” and various other variations, apparently comes from the dots on a four in dice or cards being, well, kitty-corner from each other, plus the French word “quatre” for four, at one point also spelled “catre”. Given that the Brits have “centre” and the like, the mystery to me is why it’s not “catre-corner”.

by EditorM

No stopping these collections of Oopsies, Quickies, We-can-improve-its, Semi-CIDUs, Mysteries, and flops? (lucky 13th Series)

But it seems to be offering a moment of inspiration, when he discovers … his own name? (Or his pretend / pun name, no difference.)

It finally turns into a sort of techno-era observational-humor consumer complaint about passwords and online support and automated voice response systems. Stuff we all like to complain about, fine.

But to get there we have to follow a confusing sequence of redefinitions of “cordless” and “wireless” – do these parachutes lack the strings/lines joining the canopy to the harness? Is that what makes them cordless? Oh, you mean automatic deployment of some sort so you don’t use a traditional manual “ripcord”. But the online bit (which is what “wireless” seems to mean here) is an utterly implausible development in the sport.

Y’know, it’s almost there! But there’s nothing at all in the scene to relate to the baseball meaning of bunt, let alone the more specialized sacrifice bunt.

by EditorM

Three-hour tour

Thanks to Dan Sachs for this CIDU-Geezer.

Because the CIDU will be quickly solved by anyone who can fill in the geezer reference, we thought to provide a little more entertainment …. The editors weren’t really familiar with Diamond Lil, so we looked around in some recent strips, and found an interesting mix of OYs, Ewwws, “dad jokes” (a.k.a. bad jokes), and of course a baseline of geezer alerts!

(I like that the Siri or Alexa is named “Surli”.)

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – June 18th, 2022

Thanks to Bill R, who says “It’s like they’re daring us to figure it out”. Which is why there is a CIDU category (“tag”) on this, along with the “(Not a CIDU)” for the OYs list in general. Look, don’t question it too hard. Oh, and it’s not a pun really, but gets an OY as a language-related item. Also this list was sitting bare too long …

The usage they’re disputing over was taught in my schooldays as one of “those common mistakes to be avoided”. 

OK, I think (but am not positive) that I get the alternate meaning the joke depends on — from too many crime shows, the best deals a defendant’s lawyer might hope to extract from a prosecutor would involve setting no additional jail time, so the defendant gets to “walk away” or “take a walk”.

First I thought the outside guy was wearing an odd bathrobe; but throw in his laurel wreath and I guess he is at a toga party. But not the inside guy. Oh well, it doesn’t seem to affect the joke.

Possible cross-comic banter, based on spelling of the name?