Jack Applin sends in this New Year’s CIDU. “A tepid comic, not much more than “Huh”/“You know it”. Two things: Is 2024’s beard talking? Point that speech bubble toward his mouth! Also, was I the only person to stumble over “ ’nough said”? I blame Stan Lee for making me so used to “ ’nuff said” so that I didn’t recognize the standard spelling. See https://cbr.com/marvel-comics-stan-lee-fantastic-four-nuff-said/ for a history of that.”
And a big Happy New Year wish for all of us. Here’s a classic Nancy.
About 40% of Americans make resolutions, but this varies by age. Younger adults (59% of those ages 18 to 34 versus 19% of those older than 55), which I would ascribe to the optimism of youth versus the resignation of those whose past resolutions haven’t really improved their fitness or finances.
Jack Applin submitted this “Edison Lee” last year as a CIDU, but Comics Kingdom refused to produce it, until I remembered to change the URL from the old “.net” to the new “.com” address. Ooops.
… Jack commented: “Sure, the Rankin/Bass special. But what’s this about a finger in a nose? It wouldn’t BE in the special, if he were edited out.”
The humor is mostly just slapstick, but “nose” is probably a reference to the line in “The Night Before Christmas” (and the elf just messed up while “…laying his finger aside of his nose“).
Speechless Santa. Fill in your own dialogue. (GoComics posting error on 12/15. It’s clearly a GoComics error, becauseArcamax shows the dialogue. GoComics corrected the error a day later.) It’s oddly meta, because panel 3 in the actual dialogue accuses Santa of not keeping up with the latest technology.
Steve B. sends this in. “Thought this was clever. Not sure everyone will get this if they don’t pay attention to the news.”
Mark H. send this in, noting “It took me a while”.
… Most countries in the temperate zones have one 23-hour day every year’s calendar, but it falls in Spring, not in Winter.
… As opposed to both of the “Born Loser” strips, Frazz is referring here to net sunlight, rather than total duration.
P.S. Jef Mallett lives in Michigan, and must be very familiar with how short the days get in northern latitudes. On the other hand, Berlin is located ten degrees farther north than Detroit, so Mallett doesn’t have that much to complain about.
Of course, the shortest day of the year is followed immediately by the longest night:
It’s difficult to say which caffeinated drink is more popular; it depends on who and where you are (in America the answer would probably be “cola”).
… I was once offered (hot) tea at a friend’s house (in high school); he dropped a tea bag into a mug of cold water, and put it all into the microwave for a minute or two. Just like Calvin’s attempt, it was a complete failure.
… For several years a German brand of hair care products called “Alpecin” advertised its overloaded caffeine content as “doping for the hair“. This caused a fair amount of controversy, especially when the company later started sponsoring a bicycle racing team.
Brian in StL suggested this Baby Blues strip two years ago as a partial CIDU, commenting: “The joke is obvious, but what I and everyone in comments noticed is that the front passenger seat is open, so why does he need to ride on the roof? I guess it might be a better question of how the cartoonist could have done the strip to make more sense. Possibly a pile of packages on the seat, bumped out of the back by the tree?“
… P.S. I agree with Brian, the artwork makes absolutely no sense at all. An alternative option (besides “packages”) would be to put one of the kids in the front seat, so that half of the back seat could be folded down to provide room for the tree (that is exactly what I do every year when my son and I go out to the local “cut your own tree” lot). However, Brian’s solution would probably have been easier to draw convincingly.
This cartoon by John Jonik was first published in the New Yorker exactly 41 years ago today, but I discovered it too late to add it to the Thanksgiving collection for 2023.
… The headline above is modeled after a quote by Sepp Herberger, coach of the German national football soccer team: “After the game is always before the [next] game.” Of course, discussing football (of either variety) can sometimes be even more explosive than discussing politics.
Mark H. submitted this XKCD (#2858) last year; although it did get embedded in comments (such as in the No-Politics Zone), it’s still worth a repeat in a post:
… P.S. The “mouseover” or “title” text reads: “An occasional source of mild Thanksgiving tension in my family is that my mother is a die-hard fan of The Core (2003), and various family members sometimes have differing levels of enthusiasm for her annual tradition of watching it.“
P.P.S. The link to the HuffPost article in the second panel still works (I already typed it in, so that you don’t have to).
… In Germany, it’s called “Erntedankfest” (literally: “harvest thanks festival”), and is celebrated on the first Sunday in October, but it is primarily an event for the liturgical calendar (both Catholic and Protestant), and is not (generally) celebrated by families at home.
… Several decades ago, my grandmother just happened to include a leftover bowl of (homemade) mac&cheese on the Thanksgiving dinner table, which resulted in some amused needling from my dad and uncle. However, both my sister and my aunt vigorously defended it, so that for many years thereafter, (fresh) mac&cheese became a standard component of my grandmother’s Thanksgiving menu.
… The final panel reminded me of the last scene in the song “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses.
No cranberries? Frank and Ernest have suggestions:
Having survived many months of an extremely arduous campaign, many CIDU readers may feel the same way as Drabble’s dad did (above). Nevertheless, there is a lot at stake today, so I would prefer to quote Walt Kelly’s famous exhortation, as expressed by Pogo:
Heinlein expressed a similar sentiment in “Double Star“: “Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the [person] who refuses to take sides must always be wrong! Heaven save us from poltroons who fear to make a choice. Let us stand up and be counted.“
The prize offered for Week 92 of the Invitational was a tote bag, featuring an election year haiku, written by Paul Lander in the journal “Light“:
P.S. Since CIDU has always avoided overtly political discussions, comments are disabled. Please use whatever time you would have spent on composing an elaborate opinion to go to the polls and cast your ballot.
P.P.S. The following option is neither rational, nor legitimate, even if some people may think it is funny:
Comics I Don't Understand 