Even More Minor Mysteries, Ooopses, and Not-Quite-Rights

Did they slip up here on legal knowledge? Is this a criminal or a civil proceeding?

Why do I want to call this an Oy that almost works? The fact that there really is something called a hiatus hernia (or apparently more officially a hiatal hernia) does not, for me, make this a success — it’s too much “on the nose” and not a typical Crankshaft malapropism. And I don’t know if it helps or hurts that, as a little medical googling seems to reveal, bad lifting is more likely to result in an  inguinal hernia  than a hiatus hernia.

But the main issue is casual acceptance of hiatus as a general synonym for time during the covid lockdown. I don’t doubt some people use it that way, but mostly it seems restricted to an organization or project where some ongoing process had to be suspended.

This Bizarro from Boise Ed is a semi-CIDU. We agree the nickname mentioned must be “BigFoot”. But then how have normal size eight footprints been called Big for these many years? Or is he just among the first of his species to accept socialization with humans, and is younger or simply smaller than most of them? Does he always go on TV in the nude, or is that just to display his b̸i̸g̸ ̸f̸e̸e̸t̸ normal sized feet for discussion?

P.S. Later (how time flies), Wayno’s blog for that week has appeared, and this is what he had to say: “If Sasquatch were being completely honest, he’d admit that he’s an eight extra wide.”

And more: Dan Piraro, on his blog, comments “This one left some readers scratching their heads and asking what it meant, which made it all the more satisfying for those who got it by themselves. If you’re having trouble with it, it’s probably because you think it’s a monkey. It’s actually Bigfoot, who is not as tall as we’d assumed.” Hmmm, not entirely explained; or is it?

For me it was a mystery who/what that Thing is, but getting an answer turned out too easy to let this be a standalone CIDU. But after answering that, there wasn’t much of a joke, and asking for explanations didn’t promise a long or interesting discussion thread. (But I did toss it into an old Sisyphus thread.)

So the cave painters recorded the story of a hunt; and also one of the cave dwellers being felled by a falling stalactite. Oh look, there it is, the base still hanging from the ceiling and the fallen point still lying on the ground. And undisturbed after all this time – while the probable skeletal remains have been scattered or swept up. So the joke is what?

And here’s one from Le Vieux Lapin, who asks “Adam?  What am I missing here?”. Did the writer just get Noah’s name wrong? Nobody could do that. And Todd is no better a name for a scene like this. Just sayin’, It’s not canon!

And finally, let’s circle back to Pros & Cons:

(All right, I didn’t know their names but looked them up.) In the 2nd panel, when Samuel the lawyer calls himself a canary in the coal mine, is he using the image / metaphor correctly? I think basically yes, even if not entirely. (Does he expect to succumb to the dangerous outgassing sooner than others, and thereby provide a warning to all? Not exactly.)

And in the final panel, when detective Stan tries a twist comeback, does it work? Well, we get what is probably his point — *everybody* exposed to social media is already suffering from the dangerous atmosphere. But does that mean they/we are all canaries? Or that it’s too late for a canary-warning and it’s already hurting the miners, which is all participants. In the story of the traditional practice, even if you are a bird lover, the canaries are the sacrificial population and the miners are the protected population; if the gas is getting to the miners, the warning system has already failed, which I take it is most of Stan’s point.

Saturday Morning Oys – October 16th, 2021

I really like treating “erudite” as the name of a mineral. But don’t care for the supposed punch line here that was used to get that across and try to pun on the standard meaning.

Now everybody sympathize your watches!

Because when the clock strikes three, we will have the Big Synchronicity Roundup!

First up, Andréa was struck by the treatment of the old Goofy/Pluto problem, in Pearls Before Swine and Strange Brew:

Next up, Jerry found the focus on Feng Shui in Bizarro and Pickles:

Finally, BillR was seeing jigsaw puzzles all over the place, or at least in F-Minus and Rhymes With Orange:

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, August 22nd, 2021

(This was actually part of a linked series, but seeing the preceding strips wouldn’t make much difference, apart from explaining what might otherwise be a mysterious detail — she was hit in the head by a flying baseball, and is holding an ice bag to it for pain relief.)

And a second shot for Pardon My Planet. This one is a LOL-CIDU. It did take a couple minutes before we got it – but not hard enough to justify making it a separate CIDU post. Also (I confess) it shows the perils of holding on to a negative attitude about some comic strip — one reason I didn’t get it at first was dismissing some meaningful details as merely haphazard artwork.

LOL-synchro from an unlikely pair!

And a last minute Sunday Bizarro LOL.

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, August 15th, 2021

Yikes! Or is that LOL-Yikes?

See also discussion by Arnold Zwicky on thesaurusization

Saturday Morning Oys – August 7th, 2021

This is from a book, Otto: A Palindrama by Jon Agee. It was brought to our attention by (and we picked up the image from) an online book review by Gene Ambaum, attached to his Library Comic newsletter.

Pastis is trying so hard in this one, how can we pass up enjoying another look?

Unless it’s disqualified because one of the characters is consciously making the pun joke?

Falco titled this “The Red Hoodie” in his enewsletter. But do we accept that these characters would use the plain form “hood” for either of the meanings required here? Mebbe.

From Andréa, a sort of OY-Awww!