Two cartoons in my comics feed on 2/25 (otherwise known as Yay! Pfizer1 Day! at my house) on language play: a Wayno/Piraro Bizarro playing on formulaic language (the metaphorical idiom / cliché stop and smell the roses), and a Piccolo/Price Rhymes With Orange with a play on the ambiguity of field.
Morning names: cavitation, Gwen Stefani
February 24, 2021Morning names for yesterday (2/23). In both cases I found the names (one common, one proper) vaguely familiar but couldn’t recall actually having experienced the name in use (though obviously I must have, to have them pop up in my mind on awaking). I then made guesses about the referents of the names — and was well off the mark in both cases.
The bristly brute
February 24, 2021On Reddit on 2/22, posted by u/Tom7454:
“On the anniversary of Arthur Schopenhauer’s birth, David Bather Woods, a Schopenhauer expert at the University of Warwick, recommends five books on Schopenhauser.”
The typo was quoted on Facebook on 2/22 by Wendy Thrash, who explained the intervention of Schopenhauser:
“Because nobody wants to read about Schopenhauer.”
The pointer is to Five Books, a site with book recommendations from authorities; each recommendation is for five books on a specific subject, in this case David Bather Woods on Arthur Schopenhauer:
(#1)
Which inspired me to light verse:
Schopenhauser
Was a schnauzer
A bristly brute that
Played the flute
Notes of cade oil, spikenard, and labdanum
February 23, 2021Among the scent notes in the “unisex perfume” A City on Fire — burnt match is another, but that doesn’t require looking things up — from the Imaginary Authors company, whose remarkable fragrances come with synopses of fictitious works of extravagant fiction and with striking graphic-designer labels on their bottles.
The perfumes aren’t cheap — $95 for a 50 ml bottle ($38 for a 14 ml Traveler size, $6 for a 2 ml Sample size) — but then we don’t know how many bottles get sold, and how much the perfumes are actually worn, as opposed to being treasured and displayed as art objects with an olfactory as well as visual and textual dimensions.
The gigantic toad
February 22, 2021The Zippy for today (2/22), in which Mr. Toad, reflecting on the Gigantic Toad of Yasothon, Thailand, observes that “not all amphibians are good amphibians” — which will take us to Rhinella marina, the giant cane toad:
(#1)
Seeing the Invisible Man
February 21, 2021Popped up on Pinterest, this Bizarro from 12/13/04:
(#1)
A pun that takes advantage of an ambiguity in see: ‘perceive with the eyes’ (something one does not do with the Invisible Man) vs.sense 4c from the NOAD see entry:
verb see: … 4 [a] meet (someone one knows) socially or by chance: I saw Colin last night. … [c] meet regularly as a boyfriend or girlfriend: some guy she was seeing was messing her around.
Ruthie misunderstands
February 21, 2021Two One Big Happy cartoons recently in my comics feed. Originally from 1/29, a strip in which Ruthie misunderstands “Randi with an “I””, taking it to be “Randi with an eye”. And originally from 1/25, a Sunday strip in which Ruthie misunderstands “pole dance”, taking it to be “Pole dance”.
Three remarkably named men’s fragrances
February 20, 2021First, to announce a new Page on this blog listing my postings about men’s fragrance. Then, to continue some recent postings on notable names for men’s fragrances, a look at Fucking Fabulous and two nomenclatural celebrations of testosterone, Testosterone Original Fragrance Paris and Testostérone (from Zurich).
Two pornstar smiles
February 19, 2021(About affectional and sexual relations between men, with some discussion of sex in street language, so this posting is not suitable for kids or gay men.)
A sale ad from Lucas Entertainment (the gay porn studio) yesterday (2/18) shows an affectionate couple, both smiling, but in different ways:
(#1) (The photo has been cropped, for WordPress modesty; but not only is the man on the left significantly taller than this partner, his dick is significantly longer and (especially) fatter than his partner’s)
On the left, an assured half-smile, directed at the viewers; on the right, an adoring (and adorable) half-smile. The men are presented as a b/t couple (in the terms I use for roles in gay male relationships): the t man is in charge, indicated by (among other things, his firm proprietary hand on the b man’s neck, while the b man is nestled against his partner, resting on his chest.
The b man often takes the bottom (receptive) role in anal sex, the t man the top (insertive) role — hence, the labels b and t — and that’s very much the case in the porn episode this still is taken from, but things are much more complicated than that.
Today in couples therapy
February 19, 2021Today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, with yet another instance of the Ahab and the Whale cartoon meme:
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 2 in this strip — see this Page.)
Moby and Ahab certainly are a troubled couple. Wayno’s title for the strip: “Captain Clingy”.