Tag / Grand Avenue

by Kilby

Stupor Bowl LoL

This cartoon by Travor Spaulding was originally published in The New Yorker four years ago, but it is still appropriate for today:

Jeff Millar wrote, and Bill Hinds drew this Tank McNamara strip as part of a widespread tribute to Charles Schulz on 27-May-2000:


Coincidentally, this year’s event (LVIII) will be the first ever held in (or at least near) Las Vegas, Nevada. 

by zbicyclist

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.

by zbicyclist

Beware the Ides of March!

Beware the Ides of March! We all know that phrase, but it seems odd that it has crept into the language, since we know few other facts about Roman history. The meaning of “Ides” is a bit confusing to us in the modern world, as these comics show.

Interestingly, the Ides of March were notable in Rome as a deadline for settling debts.

by EditorM

The final collection of Oopsies, Quickies, We-can-improve-its, Semi-CIDUs, Mysteries, and flops? (14th Series)

Not quite complaining about the friend’s unprompted question — it could happen, though normally you’d expect a context something like “Why won’t you X? What are you afraid of?” The problem, the detail-complaint, is with the form of Pete’s reply-question, which carefully spells out a pronunciation which marks it out as belonging to no actual regional or demographic dialect or slang.

Oops! Got the underlying myth premise precisely backwards!

And here they got the underlying business terms precisely backward. As an excuse for something like a missed payment, someone may plead that their assets are not liquid.

Okay, one joke is that there would be a rap version of a mantra. Or that she has been rapping it, or improvising it, or humming it or something, enough to disturb her friend.

But the bothersome aspect of this is how it seems to buy into some magical thinking. The dark-haired friend is linking her (later) ability to get the good parking space to performing a successful meditation now, undisturbed by intrusive mantra rapping. (Or could it be Nichiren Shōshū chanting?)

This is a perfectly fine little pun! Oh, except that there is no basis shown or hinted for why the new top provides more relief from the heat.

by Mitch4

Hey, isn’t there some holiday around now?

Fourth of July comics galore … if you’ve skipped the hot dogs, how about some Shrimp and Grits?

Thanks to Boise Ed for this Shrimp and Grits:

FYI, Andy Marlette who does this strip is apparently the nephew of the late Doug Marlette, known as creator of Kudzu and for his editorial cartooning.

But wait … there’s more!

Like most male wearers of Speedos, he really shouldn’t. With that body type, there’s nothing solemn or sacred. Scared, maybe.

In my neighborhood there are unofficial fireworks for all sorts of holidays and unexplained occasions, chiefly firecrackers. But indeed the loudest and longest-running are the official displays for The Fourth and other sanctioned events …. but always supplemented by local enthusiasts.
And so most major holidays are accompanied by topical responses in pet advice blogs, veterinary newsletters, and pet supply store tracker ads, on how to soothe and de-stress the furry friends in the face of the startling noises.

If you noticed an OY category marker for this post, and wondered which item(s) may have triggered that, here is one answer.

Back in OY territory!

And finally, time for “Ballad for Americans”


In seventy-six the sky was red
thunder rumbling overhead
Bad King George couldn’t sleep in his bed
And on that stormy morn, Ol’ Uncle Sam was born.
by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – May 7th, 2022 

Another Argyle Sweater, this time from Andréa.

All right, so it’s just not possible that he is learning this for the first time now. But it’s still a nice pun.

Let’s just allude to the story-pun that ends with “He’s a dead ringer for his brother”!

This Bizarro is from Andréa.

This DSOH from Andréa and others:

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – January 29th, 2022

I only recently started sometimes reading One Big Happy, and evidently don’t yet have a good handle on the age and attitude of the intended audience. But these are all clear OYs on familiar sayings.

Is this Horace himself, doing some kind of costumed performance? Or an ancestor or other predecessor, who looked like that in his heyday?

And a definite meta-OY: