jmcandrew sends these in: “I didn’t realize that Eli Whitney was someone 6 year olds were familiar with. Also there’s a pretty funny Bizarro comic.”
But why GIN? Per Wikipedia, “gin” was simply short for engine in the 1700s, “cotton gin” literally meant “cotton engine,” and that name stuck far better than a functional description like “cotton seed remover.”
Don’t worry. They’ll get a light sentence.
On the other hand …
Actually, Ned looks pretty good for 96.
Octarine would be the color of magic — but from a different fantasy author.
Prem Pahlajrai sends this in.
I was often half asleep in English class, so semi-comatose.
Usual John sends this in: “It looks like Goomer has been used only once on CIDU, so it may be unfamiliar to some readers. Goomer is an earthling astronaut who got stranded on an alien planet. The planet seems to resemble mid-century New York City, except that exotic alien life forms fill many roles that on earth are filled by machines or inanimate objects. Goomer recently got married, but does not seem too devoted to his bride. I have not yet seen any indication that he has been unfaithful, though.”
Some earlier Goomer comics, to explain more about his domestic life:
Boise Ed sends this in. [Бојси Ед го испраќа ова]
“The modern Macedonian alphabet consists of 31 letters, including 5 vowels (А, Е, И, О, У) and 26 consonants, with six letters unique to Macedonian: Ѓ (gj), Ѕ (dz), Ј (j), Љ (lj), Њ (nj), and Ќ (kj). It was officially codified in 1945 by a commission in Yugoslav Macedonia….Spoken as a first language by around 1.7 million people, it serves as the official language of North Macedonia.[” (Wikipedia)
Six unique letters in a written language that’s the primary language of only 1.7 million people. In the age of computers, that’s a fairly easily solvable problem by designing a font. One wonders, though, how this worked back in the typewriter era. I get the implication that perhaps they used a Cyrillic typewriter with combinations of letters, such as the Cyrillic version of kj for Ќ.
A bit of information omitted.
Speaking of Great Blue Herons, there’s a rookery near me. You can see the nests high up in the trees — about as high up as they could put them, considering the males are about 5 lb and the females about 3 lb, plus the weight of the nest and the eggs / hatchlings. The rookery is persistent — it’s been in the same location at least 5 years now. The arrival of the young roughly coincides with the trees getting covered with leaves, so the nests can’t easily be seen.
Thanks for Mitch4 for sending this in.
Memories: I was just a junior analyst, but had done a rather complicated analysis on an important topic and was to present it to the VP of Marketing and his reports: the brand managers and marketing directors. In part, this was because I’d done the analysis and so I knew it best and was expected to be able to present this coherently. In part, it was because if the presentation went south, I was an expendable part of the company and could be counseled to find another job before my annual review, or maybe by the end of the week.
In the middle of my presentation, I made a joke. Worse, the joke was on my slides, and up on the screen. There was silence in the room. My boss – and her boss – blanched. Then, blessedly, the VP of Marketing laughed. The rest of the marketing staff therefore also laughed. My career was saved.
I did get some “advice” from my superiors afterwards, though.
Did the VP really think the joke was funny, or did he just feel like giving me a break? I don’t know. I did stay at the company long enough to know that my analysis was correct, and the company had correctly acted on it.
Mitch4 sends this in for the “It’s just odd graphics, there is nothing to explain” Department. “IDU [I initially didn’t understand] why the woman has that very bold and oddly-placed moustache. Is it contributing to the marital-discontent joke?
Nevermind, it’s just part of her hairstyle, seen past where her mouth is drawn.”
Yes, at first glance it looks like a Hitler moustache, something few women wore even in 1930s Germany. Certainly if my wife started sporting one, I’d start considering my options.
The setup:
The LOL:
Chemgal sends this in:
Kedamono sends in this questionable sculptural decision — which, luckily, the Egyptians did not make.
Mark Parisi posted: “It had to be done. (On my Patreon page I drew the view from the other side. I then sent that to my editor asking if it was too much to be published in daily newspapers. He suggested it could be newspaper-friendly if it was shown from the other side. Smart.)”
Actual back of the Sphinx:
Kedamono sends in this one: “I can’t decide if this one is a LOL or an OY. Still, there is something graceful in synchronized garbage tossing.”
Not really that much of an Ewww, but seemed close enough to one to put it here.
And another from Mark Parisi:
