Books vs. Technology: A Challenge

Judging from the CIDU archive, Stone Soup was one of Bill’s favorite comics, and he originally scheduled this strip to appear shortly after it was published in 2019:

ipad.JPG

The problem is that he never finished writing the text to go along with it:

“There seems to be a common theme, especially in comic strips, that physical books are more …”

Would anyone like to take a shot at completing Bill’s sentence, or offer some other perspectives about reading (for enjoyment, not as work) in paper vs. electronic form?

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP-BEEPBEEPBEEP

Thanks to Brian in STL for sending in this FoxTrot Classics:

Brian sez, “Foxtrot dailies are in reruns on GoComics. Today’s is an okay joke on its own. … However, it’s not fully appreciated without —-” But we’re going to “leave you in suspenders” for a moment or two and invite readers to treat this as a CIDU-puzzle requiring the reference to something it was based on. (Which you can read by expanding the block below.))

SPOILER — The backstory of the reference!

“However, it’s not fully appreciated without this Apple commercial that ran around the same time as the original run of the strip:”

Brian continues “The person that provided the link in comments added this: ‘Her side of the story goes that it was late at night when they filmed the ad. It had to be done after school hours for the day. Add to that, she was on allergy medication, which made her a bit “under the influence”.‘ “

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, November 26th, 2023

Ewww-LOL here. Or Aaaggghhh-ewwww-lol?

“It’s not a snowman. It’s my grandpa, who froze last night.”


Kilby writes: This was a CIDU until I zoomed in to read the title panel and get a better view of the dummy:


Pick your religion:


But no, kids are NOT that stupid!



One for the cat people here.


Yikes!


But maybe the hippo would enjoy Dance of the Hours more!

No-Politics Zone Thanksgivings

Both from 11/26/2020, and submitted by Andréa. Post originally assembled by Winter Wallaby.


Kilby adds: The climate has been changing in recent years, as this Crabgrass strip shows:


And a 2023 addition that seems to hew to the original alignment. (Added by ==mitch)

Frank & Ernest

From Jeff Stahler on Monday:


Bacne

bacne

Kilby writes: When Bill Bickel suddenly passed away three years ago, he left a very large collection of incomplete “draft” posts in progress. Some of these were duplicate copies of comics that did get posted, and others were just empty placeholders, but a number of these drafts still contain comics that are worth posting, if for no other reason than simply for the nostalgia of remembering Bill’s dedication to the CIDU website. I don’t want to release all of these old drafts in a flood, so expect to see them only on an intermittent basis (in addition to Bill’s traditional “evergreens” that get reposted every year).

Bikini Appliances


Although they were invented in the 1940s, household microwave ovens did not become widespread until the mid 1970s, but I know for certain that I’ve been using the verb “nuke” (as a synonym for “cook in a microwave“) for at least four decades, because I vividly remember the puzzlement it caused for a friend’s son in the early 1980s. I find it somewhat surprising that the term could become so commonly accepted in less than a decade, but thinking back, this may be the very first time that I have ever seen the word “nuke” used in this sense in printed (albeit comic) form.

Sitting around the laughing stick (Random retro LOLs, 2019 or before, Part 2)

Cleaning out old file storage services




An old favorite!

\


\

\

\


Another old favorite


As so often with “Viivi and Wagner”, the thesis seems to be that men are pigs…


\

Saturday Puns & Sunday Funnies – OYs & LOLs, November 12th, 2023

This gets extra tags — some kinda Meta for not using the standard joke set up in panel 1, and some kinda Geezer warning for those youngsters who don’t see something familiar behind “Killjoy was here”.





Maybe. My local newspaper (Chicago Tribune) has become an indistinct shadow of its former self, and the comics are shrunken and in black and white.


Despite the “(Not a CIDU)” category applied to this post as a whole, this item may take a bit of concentration and research before you can join in saying “Oh, I’ve got it completely decoded now!”.


There will be no arguing over whether this is truly a “meta” comic!



We think this is a rerun; but if so, then it falls into “an oldie but goodie”.



Here’s the funny-sad one promised in the category tags.

BTW, do they have a walkie-talkie set, or is that a quite old-school cell phone?


Rebranding a Lead Balloon


This Rhymes with Orange strip might have worked perfectly back in early summer, but now it just seems awkward. The new corporate name just isn’t easy to adapt into usable slang, and even if it were, the political deadweight surrounding the takeover and renaming ruins any possible remaining humor.


In a curious instance of personal asynchronicity, it wasn’t until a couple of hours after I had written the text above (including the headline) that I saw Sunday’s Doonesbury, which needs no further commentary: