Markus sends this in this puzzler from SMBC:
“The hovertext is:
“Friend of Wigner is actually private slang in physics, which means ‘willing to talk about Quantum Foundations'””
“The extra panel does not really help, either:”
“So, I summon the mighty Oracle (i.e. the CIDU readership) to instill some sense in this comic.”
“They say it’s probably safe to keep orbiting for a while, but if it stays on or starts flashing we might have to call someone.”
Boise Ed sends this in: “I can’t recall ever seeing so clever a use of the fourth wall.”
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I’m assuming Curtis is watching the 1977 schlock horror film “The Incredible Melting Man” which might be the most obscure geezer movie I’ve ever seen referenced in a newspaper comic strip.”
Perhaps some relative of cartoonist Ray Billingsley was in this movie. Billingsley was born in 1957, so he would have been 20 when this was made.
Targuman sends this in, along with a bit of Johnny Cash trivia:
Johnny Cash once started a forest fire that killed 49 of 53 remaining California condors in a preserve.
” in 1965 that Johnny Cash ignited a wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest that drove off 49 of the area’s 53 endangered California condors. In those days, the gravelly-voiced singer had fallen so deep into amphetamine use that the people around him feared for his life.”
I’ve been to cheesy funerals, but …
JMcAndrew writes,
I had to Google it and apparently Tenafly is a small borough in New Jersey. Is this a cartoon specifically for the 15,000 or so people who live there?
Well, yeah–or that’s all they can get for their “International” film festival!
Boise Ed sends this in: “I wouldn’t have expected this in Blondie, but this is so true!”
billr sends this in, with some CIDU aspects: “Looks like maybe a can of insecticide in Death’s hand? Or maybe the guy in the background is an impending client? Dunno.”
Phil writes: “Make sure to work “scythe sale” into the post, preferably several times!” Yes, that’s a tongue twister!
Bliss is heavy on the Grim Reaper theme lately. An improvement on the talking pet cartoons, IMO. And that sale scythe he got at the scythe sale is pretty good looking for a sale scythe purchased at a scythe sale. I wonder if I can still get a sale scythe at the scythe sale? Let me know in the comments if there’s still a scythe sale. [Happy, Phil?]
Some philosophy showing up in my comic feeds this week.
The term Axial Age is new to me. It comes from a German philosopher, Karl Jaspers, and refers to the 8th to 3rd centuries B.C. For more, see Wikipedia. I note that some major religious thinkers (Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Joel Osteen) are outside this period. I wonder if Zach’s comic was inspired by some trivial argument with his HOA board.
In that column on the left, there is a Suggest-a-CIDU form. If you see something that particularly puzzles you, let us help by sending it in.
Back in mid-June, Chak submitted one of Zach Weinersmith’s SMBC comics as a partial CIDU, commenting: “I could only find eight broken Commandments, can anybody get all ten? And if so, which of the three lists of Commandments in the Bible did they use?“
(Ordinarily the comic would appear right here, but not this time.)
Here’s why: Besides the theological irreverence present in Zach’s caption, the main problem (and part of the reason for the delay in posting Chak’s submission) is that while there is nothing visually offensive (nor “Arlo”) in the artwork, the dialog is simply much too crude to post openly at CIDU (some might even call it blasphemous). I’m not willing to risk one of those fancy “swipe” frames to hide it, because that mechanism is browser-dependent.
Since we do not have access to Bill’s “Arlo Page” to use as an asylum for this kind of material, the experiment I propose is to provide non-embedded (text) links, which may be used to open the corresponding images in a separate browser tab or window. Everyone should remember that the images behind these links should not, repeat not be opened by anyone who is easily offended (in this case, by F-bombs and other gratuitous crudeness).
Here is the link to the SMBC comic (NSFW).
Reminder: you have been warned!
This second link is for the bonus “votey” panel (also NSFW).
Again: you have been warned!
Anyone who wishes to answer Chak’s questions or participate in the discussion may do so in the comments below, but please remember, even though Zach used crude language in his comic, there are still standards of decorum here at CIDU, so please keep everything civil. I wouldn’t expect that this conversation will qualify for a G-Rating, but it would be nice if we could keep it below PG-13.
P.S. If this discussion method works, we might consider using it with other (especially “Arlo”) comics that would otherwise not qualify to be posted at CIDU.
P.P.S. Those of you who may feel that this experiment was a bad idea, please say so. CIDU is a community; it cannot function properly without honest, open communication. (I’m referring here to the method of discussing NSFW material, and not the SMBC comic itself, which is sure to offend a certain percentage of readers.)
Thanks to Chemgal for sending and discussing this SMBC:
Chemgal and your Editors in consultation fairly quickly pinned down what is going on here. But we didn’t want to put it all out there and deprive you readers from tossing it around yourselves.
Suggestion to early commenters, you might avoid spoiling it for others, and just state that you have it. But those working to piece it together, please go at it.
…
For those who think the extra bits of cartoonist text are an integral part of an SMBC — well no, they aren’t really, but you can have them anyway:
Votey: Now do your mother-handling homework!!
Rollover: OK, if patreon is any indication, many of you are confused but four and a half of you are HOWLING.
Two related task-management life-hacks from Tuesday.
Wait, I have a solution for her! She can just leave some OTHER task undone and its checkbox unchecked! That should w…. Oh.
Two comics from Ian with the common element of unpaid internships, which he notes “seem to be everywhere at the moment!”
And finally, an Ewww-LOL from BillR. It’s the “number 2” that clinches it!
Is there a *particular* “traditional Christmas sweet, cherished for generations” that he fears will be mishandled by American adaptation? And he doesn’t name it? Are we supposed to be able to figure it out; or is it just generalized and hypothetical?
Originally picked up from GoComics, but phsiiicidu was able to locate it at SMBC’s own site. So we can report on the rollover text, as there are those who think an SMBC is incomplete without it. But here it seems to offer nothing to solve those doubts. “One day, molecular printers will allow starbucks to serve every conceivable food as a whipped topping.”
OK, there’s a bunch of punctuation, and a knife, and…huh? Hovertext says “We can still fight; it’s not too late.” but that doesn’t help me at all.
Comics I Don't Understand 
