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.
This Ink Pen rerun from February 2010 just happened to appear on New Year’s Day 2024. I can recognize the cartoon sources for all of the names mentioned by Hamhock, but I can identify only one of Ralston’s examples (the last one: “Goolagong“). I assume that most of the rest would yield relatively quickly to a concerted Internet search, but that’s not what I want to know. Is this a “geezer” and/or “millennial” issue? How many of those twelve names in the first three panels are obvious to the rest of you?
Greedy for layers of pun, I almost wanted to see a ‘c’ in place of the ‘k’ — to reflect that they are drawn to look quite cute! And we would of course still recognize them as sharcs.
A CIDU that then becomes an OY.
A reminder that it’s prime grilling season!
It’s also an excuse to listen to some B B King:
From Andréa, who says “I see it as more of an OY . . . flippin’ in all its meanings”
Extra synchronic because they appear kitty-corner from each other in my Sunday paper.
And then there was Rubes from the very next day (Monday 20 June), which seemed to combine the two and made me wonder what was going on.
And just for a kicker, Monday’s Ziggy continued the theme:
Editorial comment on “kitty-corner”: this Anglicism, also spelled “catercorner” and various other variations, apparently comes from the dots on a four in dice or cards being, well, kitty-corner from each other, plus the French word “quatre” for four, at one point also spelled “catre”. Given that the Brits have “centre” and the like, the mystery to me is why it’s not “catre-corner”.
Sender Dana Kand I were in minor disagreement over whether the word-play element here is pun-like enough to count as an OY. “Neg/Q Scope Ambiguity” is certainly there potentially in the 3rd panel; but it’s not clearly intentional, and even less the point of the gag.
Here’s a nice LOL-Eww from Boise Ed:
This Moderately Confused sent in by Rob is in what we might dub the “foibles funnies” genre:
Out of season
Two funny bits that seem like they might belong more to winter publication. The Kliban of course is a reprint from ages ago, so that makes sense. And the Liz Climo is funny any time. Also noticed by Andréa and used in a comment!