In my comics feed for One Big Happy: The Huskies play Oregon (11/23), Money is the root of boll weevil (11/28), ABC order (11/30):
Archive for the ‘Linguistics in the comics’ Category
Ruthie x 3
December 29, 2018Nighthawks in search of an artist
December 29, 2018Passed on on Facebook, this Bill Whitehead cartoon, with some broad art humor:
Before Edward Hopper discovered the sad diner and immortalized it in Nighthawks.
bait and tackle
December 27, 2018A coordination of two nouns, conventionally paired in bait & tackle shop, referring to a store that provides supplies for sport fishermen. Like this place in Benicia CA:
(#1)
And elaborately played on in the Bizarro from December 23rd:
The family of Word Inclusion snowclones
December 27, 2018Keep X In AXB, Put X (Back) In(to) AXB, Take X Out of AXB
(where X is a word included in a larger word AXB — included in pronunciation (exactly or approximately) or spelling or both)
I’ll start with one of the most complicated examples, the seasonally apropos slogan with KEEP:
(#1) An outdoor vinyl banner from ChurchSupplier.com
then go on to a seasonal example with TAKE, and end with the great mass of examples, with PUT.
Penguin Claus
December 27, 2018A bold proposal in Slate magazine on 12/10/13 by Aisha Harris, “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore: It’s time to give St. Nick his long overdue makeover”. No, she’s not proposing that Santa should be a black man; she’s saying Santa should be a black and white … penguin.
(#1) Mark Alan Stamaty’s vision of Penguin Claus
Diminished with age
December 27, 2018A Mike Shiells cartoon, passed on on Facebook by Karen Chung, for its entertainment value as a burst of puns:
But what caught my eye in this cartoon of a pencil funeral was the fact that the deceased had been so diminished with age, worn down to a nub by use. I’m being worn down myself. For decades, I was 5′10″, but in recent years I’ve lost over 3 inches in height, a tangible decline: I can no longer reach things on top shelves, in stores and in my own home. I was prepared for some of the physical ravages of age, but nobody told me about this one.
Four presents
December 26, 2018Small but entertaining little gifts for my Christmas, from Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky, Opal Armstrong Zwicky, Kim Darnell, and Maggie Ainsworth-Darnell — plus an excellent dim sum lunch at Tai Pan in Palo Alto for all of us, from Paul Armstrong.
Then: an out@in rainbow t-shirt from LinkedIn (where Kim works); a little plush wooly (spelling by the Douglas Cuddle Toy Co.) mammoth; a tote bag with an otter drawing by the artist rubyetc; and a bit of nearly indescribable Japanese kawaii that involves a little self-watering ceramic penguin that grows wild strawberry plants (Fragaria vesca) on its back, as here:
(#1) Chuppon self-watering animals and their plants: the Sea Friends dolphin/clover, penguin/wild strawberry, seal/basil, polar bear/mint
Beat Noel
December 25, 2018Today’s Zippy, “Merry Whatever”, set in the Beatnik District of Dingburg, supplies (in the second panel) a burlesque of a beloved Christmas carol:
(#1)
So you can line up the burlesque with the model:
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Worst year ever
December 25, 2018(Warning: tons of dirty words for the holidays.)
The title of the Scenes From a Mutiverse cartoon on the 23rd (here), in which two (gender-marked) alien creatures reflect on the horrid year that is coming to an end and announce extraordinary resolutions for the new year: he resolves to stop storing personal possessions inside his body, she resolves to eat bees, that sort of thing. But my focus here is on his first two words: a foul oath, a compound expletive, interjection, or exclamation. Which will lead us to the excesses of punk rock in Scotland.
Peppernut Day
December 24, 2018Having tackled the Christmas season as a whole, Sandra Boynton examines one specific day: on FB yesterday, with “A helpful tip on National Pfeffernüsse Day” (December 23rd):
(#1)
On peppernuts. And on the recipe register (here: Recipe Object Omission in roll thoroughly in confectioners’ sugar).