“The government taking us for a ride – the Rides of April”


The short form deserves a geezer alert, as it was discontinued years ago. There’s a 1040-SR now for seniors — the only difference is that it’s printed in larger type.






https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return , the instructions to file an extension, might come in handy if you’re like this woman.


It’s not going to work, Larry.



Actual error message from IRS.gov on the day tax forms (and estimated payments) were due, April 17, 2018. Not funny. Note the difference in the set of dates cited for the outage.




Actual IRS tax tips, if you need last minute help: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-tax-tips including, for example, ways to pay over time.


Gifts from the Four Wise(?) Men

Your editors are greeting today’s holiday with some favorite comics, some Christmassy, some not. Enjoy!


Here’s one for the great CIDU cat-admiration tradition!








Seems like the reindeer might take a lichen to an in-flight snack, also.





Deadly thoughts

It’s Halloween! It’s one of the set of similar days with very different tones: There’s the Day of the Dead, with reverence for the departed. There’s Halloween, where in theory the evil spirits have power, but has evolved into a chance to meet the neighbor kids, if only briefly. There’s All Saints Day on November 1, a day of celebration. Following that, on November 2, is All Souls Day, which I remember in particular for that scary sequence in the old Latin liturgy:

O wrath, O day of mourning,

O hear the fateful prophet’s warning,

Heaven and earth in ashes burning. …

When the Judge his seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing? …

The general tone is aptly captured in Verdi’s or Mozart’s Dies Irae, from their Requiem Masses.

Of course, you might also mistranslate “Dies Irae” as “Day of the Iras”, and listen to Ira Glass’s This American Life, or some of those great songs from George and Ira Gershwin. Or not.







Sunday Funnies – LOLs, September 24th, 2023

A sad-LOL.



This might be a Semi-CIDU, as there is the question of whether this is how the cowboy bathes (and gets the horse to manage the timing and coins), or it’s at the horse’s volition as it wants its gear and rider to be clean.


The “when I look” and “someone will sneak” look like ordinary indicatives, with something like habitual aspect. But surely this doesn’t happen a lot! If we take into account the strip title, that makes this binocular-knocking one of those fears — we just have to understand a “One of my fears is that when ..” at the start and it all comes together.


And here’s our Macabre-LOL for the week:




Background: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-question-mark-galaxy-photo


Sunday Funnies – LOLs, June 11th, 2023

Brilliant!




The lion is the king of beasts,
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness. 

–Ogden Nash Poems to Carnival of the Animals



Y’know how sometimes when Cornered has a Sunday duplex strip (or higher multiple!), and just one of them hits the funny bone just right? And then CIDU is stuck trying to clip or trim to get that one panel? But this time it’s a case of “Why not both?” Two LOLs for the price of one!



And if we’re still in the Weekend of Remembering nineties/oughties Songs, here is one suggested by that comic:




Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 7th, 2023


And a counterpoise of business meeting strategy, and who gets to speak up, from 9-to-5:



Do any disguised superheroes actually do this?





Thanks to Usual John for this one!