by EditorM

Stick the what?

From Le Vieux Lapin, who says:

Is the phrase “stick the dismount” from gymnastics?  I found several instances of it on the web, ranging from a couple of gymnastics references to one in a report on the current US president.  However, nothing I found explains what it means or provides enough context to do better than a slightly-educated guess.  Maybe “land on your feet”?

Often with long-running and high-continuity strips, I want to write off some puzzlement at a particular episode as a matter of “Well, wait to see how it fits with the whole story”. But in this one, I think we were handed a recap right there in the dialogue.

by EditorM

Poly

Le Vieux Lapin introduces us to “Cat and Girl” and says:

In ancient times, the word “polymath” described someone with great experties
in multiple fields.  Like so many other words, though, “polymath” has been
devalued in the age of social media.  What does it take to be a polymath
today?  Dorothy Gambrell’s Cat of Cat and Girl seems to have figured it out

While I am familiar with the word “polymath” I don’t normally run across it every day. But — as these things work — it happens that the next day I ran across this tweet:

P.S. Le Vieux Lapin adds “Cat needs to eat his ice cream cones faster.”

by EditorM

¿Qué quiere decir esta palabra “significa”?

I.e. , What does this word “means” mean? Or maybe What does this Spanish word “significa” mean?

In the Spanish version, Baldo’s question in panel 3 ¿Qué significa eso? he speculatively answers for himself with sort of paraphrases of Sergio’s [Papi’s] saying from panel 2, but tending more toward argumentative applications to his current situation. When Sergio answers in panel 4 by just repeating the saying verbatim and asserting that is the meaning, he is bringing down Baldo’s flights of fancy and special pleading by just repeating the idea, for an “it is what it is” effect. All of this makes easy sense.

In the English version, Sergio’s saying in panel 2 is originally presented in Spanish, then repeated in panel 4 in English translation. So It means … in panel 4 amounts to It would be translated as … . Then when we look at Baldo’s What does that mean … in panel 3, is he still only asking for significance and situational applications (which he then supplies, sometimes ironically)? Or is he in any part asking for help in translation? (Since a translation is what he gets.)

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, September 26th, 2021 

This Bliss is something of an LOL-Eww.

Sent in as a LOL or semi CIDU-LOL by Chak, who asks “And do we think the bowling bag is important here?”

How annoying, to be mis-speciesed!

by EditorM

Dressed to Protect

From Chak, who asks “Is this missing a caption?  Is he her father or her witsec protector?”

For anyone who hasn’t seen this info before, the “Nick and Zuzu” comics by Nick Galifianakis are published first as illustrations for a Washington Post advice column by Carolyn Hax. And they don’t have captions there, nor when appearing in GoComics or other comics outlets; though the Hax column headline is sometimes close enough to work as a title for the comic. However, his drawings don’t always adhere closely to the content of the column.

So viewing the column with this illustration in place will spoil enough to answer one of Chak’s questions, but will not explain everything about the scene and the characters’ appearance. CIDUers who don’t mind a half-spoiler could check out the original column with illustration, or if that presents paywall problems then try this alternate link.

by EditorM

Illustrated songs Dept.

Hopefully a step above demonstrative-gestural lip syncing, the illustrated song comic can combine the best features of geezer nostalgia, punning, and comic drawing. A nice touch here is that Rubin combines the song’s key line that everyone remembers with its somewhat less-familiar title.

Bonus! On Twitter they provide a bit of animation with another line from the song. Actually, one in the tweet text, and another as an animated header – it may be lost to the crop here. But try clicking *once* on the “play” icon and it may show properly.

by EditorM

No shift, Sherlock

Sent by Michelle, as a LOL/OY maybe (she says “Love this one!”). But it is sort of unclear to me! Yes, of course I recognize the underlying pun on the modern expression for dismissing something as obvious. But I don’t quite get the “No shift” as applied in context to this scene.

Sadly, I’m missing something. I don’t see what the mystery or investigation is here – when Holmes says “We must get to the bottom of this”, what is the *this*? And if “no shift” is meant to be part of the answer, is it that the car was built leaving out the transmission; or that the transmission has been stolen; or just that the driver failed to shift when they should have? Also, why are the wheels splayed? Is that just his stylization of “very old model car”? Or is it meant to show there was an accident?

Maybe I’m just expanding on “Comic I don’t understand” to carp on aspects of the cartoon. Sorry, but that happens sometimes, I guess.

BTW, there are no spoilers for my questions at the Tomversations blog entry, but there is an amusing background note about his previous attempt to use this idea, and reliance on a different meaning of “shift”.