Tag / Bizarro

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – June 29th, 2024

And I still maintain that the ugly Internet phenomenon of “trolling” started being called that from a metaphor on the fishing practice (dragging a baited hook behind a quiet small boat), and not the Scandinavian bridge-dwelling threateners.

Are we done with Bizarro for this post? Never say so!

I was preparing to protest that the expression is traditionally “strait and narrow” — which would be preferable despite its redundancy. The pattern of redundancy in rhetorical pairs remains hale and hearty, though some may wish it null and void.

But no! The useful sources recognize only “straight and narrow”, with just a nod to the echoes of “strait”. Here’s Etymonline f’ristance [in entry for straight (adj.2) = “conventional,” especially “heterosexual,” 1941]:

probably suggested by the stock phrase straight and narrow path or way, “course of conventional morality and law-abiding behavior” (by 1842), which is based on a misreading of Matthew vii.14 (where the gate is actually strait); another influence seems to be strait-laced.

No, let’s not get started on straight-jacket!

Et tu, Jeremy?

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – June 15th, 2024

Rather dumb word-argument. But it prompts memory of an assortment of senior-targeted advertising campaigns which for a while used the phrasing “age 50 or better” or “age seventy-and-a-half or better” etcetera. It was supposed to be obvious, yet a sort of joke, that better would mean older. At least one that I heard regularly for a while did change to older; but then later reverted to better ; so I guess there was some complaint but it got resolved, or just overruled.

Come to think of it, probably the word-level associations of squashing things must have played a role in my lifelong aversion to the vegetable of that name.

Chak notes “I’ve read En attendant Godot several times, and I still don’t have a clue.”

Could one expect Godot to comment? Waiting for your comments below.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, June 02nd, 2024

chemgal sends in this prime LOL:

Alt text: Sorry to make you memorize this random set of digits. If it helps, it can also double as a mnemonic for remembering your young relatives’ birthdays, if they happen to have been born on February 5, 2018.

In case anyone was in doubt, there really is a very popular periodical called Wine Spectator.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – May 11th, 2024

I guess I missed out Part I. This is trying hard, maybe too hard, but deserves to be seen for cheerful persistence even if not really for brilliant OY-ness.

Since this strip seems to offer a pun every day, it is hard not to over-indulge. But this one was immediately right in the OY spirit!

Ohhhh nooo! There is no way to stop at just one!

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 05th, 2024

Scammers certainly are getting more creative. I got a “reimbursement” from my Jane Doe, the condo property manager, with the email Jane.Doe@propfirm.com, which was suspiciously close to her actual email of Jane.Doe@propfirm.net, and this is a person I occasionally get reimbursements from (luckily as old-school physical checks)

From Dan Piraro’s subscription newsletter, “The Naked Cartoonist“. I’ll conclude with an early collaboration with Wayno; a Bizarro cartoon about red flags in relationships. If only they were this obvious in real life!