From Chuck Shepherd’s News of the Weird for 8/23, reprinted in the October Funny Times, a story that manages to combine speaking with the animals and speaking with the dead. (Related posting on “The power of naming”, earlier today.)
Archive for September, 2015
Speaking with the (dead) animals
September 27, 2015California squirrels
September 27, 2015In the October Funny Times, a cartoon by Cara and Andy Singer, parodying the Beach Boys song “California Girls”. I haven’t been able to find an image anywhere, so I’ll talk you through the thing.
One space or two?
September 27, 2015A recent Bloom County 2015, featuring, from left to right: Milo (a 10-year-old reporter, the politically engaged Milo Bloom), Opus the penguin, and Binkley (Michael Binkley, Milo’s best friend, also 10):
One space or two (after a sentence-final period), a perenially contentious issue.
The power of naming
September 27, 2015Caught in the Funny Times for October, the Tom the Dancing Bug from 7/5/15:
Cute names save lives!
Two notes on Wondermark
September 26, 2015The Wondermark of the 24th (Permalink here), with David Malki providing more sharp social / political commentary on attitudes about poverty, gender, and race:
Two linguistic points: the portmanteau fauxtopia, the plural poors.
Context context context; and variation
September 26, 2015Back in March, Luc Vartan Baronian posted on Facebook this semantics argument between his two children:
Daughter (4): I love my piggy bank.
Son (7): You mean your froggy bank?
Daughter: No! My piggy bank.
Son: But it’s a froggy, so it should be a froggy bank.
Daughter: No. It’s STILL a piggy bank.
Yesterday, Luc (recalling my immersion in penguiniana) sent this on to me, asking me if I had a penguin bank. My answer was fairly complex, though basically I spoke in favor of Luc’s daughter’s position.
Morning: bruxism, brucellosis
September 26, 2015This morning’s names: two that are somewhat similar in sound (though they have nothing to do with one another), both referring to conditions affecting the body (but of very different sorts).
Boy in the sand
September 25, 2015A Daily Jocks ad, paired with gay-erotic poetry (definitely not for the sexually modest), then with a series of notes.
(#1)
Boy in the Sand
He erupts from the surf, his skin
Tangy with salt, his cock rising, his balls
Heavy with his seed. We kiss, I am a
Sea anemone, roiled by desire for him.I stroke his wet hair, follow the
Arrow of his widow’s peak down his long torso,
Down to his sweet belly, girded by
Hard muscle, take him in my mouth.We trade, he takes me, opens me with his
Wet fingers, I need him in me. Fuck me,
Cal, oh fuck me, fuuuck me! HeMounts me, panting heavily, fills me in
Long slow muscular strokes.
Breeds me. Gets me off ferociously.I become a sea creature like him,
Dive into the surf,
Return to our ocean.
(Notes after the fold.)
Monkey puzzle tree
September 25, 2015In my posting on the N + N compound monkey bread, referring to a sweet breadstuff whose relationship to monkeys is not at all obvious, I noted that some have suggested a connection to the monkey puzzle tree, since the bread is sometimes called monkey puzzle bread: perhaps the connection involves a perceived similarity between the bread and the fruit of the tree. That sent me looking for information about the tree, which I became acquainted with in England many years ago. Though I don’t see much resemblance between the bread and the fruit of the tree, the tree is fascinating in its own right, and its name presents another origins problem — what does the tree have to do with monkeys and puzzles? — but one whose (again, not at all obvious) answer seems to be known. In any case, worth posting about.
Ruthie vs. N + N compounds
September 24, 2015A recent One Big Happy, with Ruthie and monkey bread:
(#1)
At issue is the N + N compound monkey bread.