by CIDU Bill

The Page Formerly Known as Random Comments

This is an archived page, and cannot accept any new comments. The latest Random Comments page (2020) is here:

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Please note that this was intended for public comic comments only: if you want to send me a CIDU, or a comic for some specific folder (Ewww, Oy, etc), or you want to inform me of a typo, please e-mail me at cidu email.

Also: A list of the site’s most recent comments can be found in the left sidebar. A database of all the comments, compiled by larK, is here; and the site’s FAQ is here:

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473 Comments

  1. (Failure to see a geezer phrase.)

    I just got a promotional email from a journalism newsletter thing.

    The writer’s opening phrase — and what shows of the Subject in the email summary listing — is “Allow me to introduce myself”.

    I half-expected the author to continue by saying he’s a man of wealth and taste.

  3. I apparently hadn’t checked anything at larK’s great CIDU comments index site for a while, as I just noticed today a note posted Feb 21 on a new feature.

    If you visit the site as the URL http://scrape.nowis.com/CIDU/index.cfm?prolificity the Everyone choice in the “from” dropdown will show how many comments were found from each of several prolific posters. How interesting!

    At the moment Andréa is in the lead. CIDU Bill shows up at 4.

  5. Somebody pointed out thst if you walk into a crowded elevator and say “A horse is a horse,” at least one person will respond “Of course, of course.”

  6. I’ve used the same elevator to start off any of several of the “Schoolhouse Rock” songs. Most people remember “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?” but then draw a blank on any of the other lyrics. Meanwhile, if you try to start singing “I’m just a bill”, and nobody else picks up the song, you just sound really sad.

  9. Yes, but is Frazz implying he is fortunate because he missed the “I hate Mondays” gag…?

  10. Completely off-any-topic, but there are so many here who might be able to help,

    I’m looking for the name of an (I think) National Geographic series about what Earth would look like 25, 50, 100 years after people disappear. I found it fascinating, and would like to watch it again. Anyone remember this?

  16. I just discovered one of my favorite books is online. It’s a collection of Paul Kirchner’s comic strip “The Bus” from Heavy Metal magazine.

    I’ve had the print edition for decades, but it’s been out of print for just about just as long.

    (Oddly enough, the cover I think is different from mine.)

    https://imgur.com/a/S3k3C#0

  19. I’ve ridden on a bus exactly once in my 70 years . . . and after reading this comic, I’d NEVER ride on another!! However, I did like very much the comic itself – rather macabre, just the way I like my reading!

  20. @ Kirchner fans – Amazon has both “The Bus” and “The Bus 2“. They even have it on their German site, and I just added them both to my cart.
    P.S. @ Grawlix – Neither entry shows the number of pages in the print editions. Do you know whether that online version is just the first book, or both of them?

  21. P.P.S. @ Grawlix – I wasn’t able to “look inside” the book before, but now that the Amazon link works, I can see that the website URL above shows only the first book.

  23. Well, heh…I wasn’t aware there was a second book all these years.
    I’d even poked around the web from time to time looking for scans here and there of the book I knew to show my friends. I was just happy to find the link I posted.

    Here’s an interview I wasn’t aware of either that I just found:

    http://news.tanibis.net/index.php/post/An-interview-with-Paul-Kirchner

    He comments on how his new strips might be different from the old ones:

    “The main character, the Commuter, looks the same, but his look is one you still see and I have updated the way the other passengers dress and wear their hair. I remember the newspaper comic strips of my youth, where the characters all looked and dressed the same way they had when the strip originated, even if it was 30 or 40 years earlier. If you look up Bringing Up Father, Mutt and Jeff, or They’ll Do It Every Time you’ll see what I mean. The styles were stuck in a bygone age. I didn’t want to do that. ”

    As to the individual pages, my print copy is hiding at the moment so I can’t compare with the scans posted above on the imgur page, but oddly enough I’m not recognizing a small number of the strips included.

    Sadly the bookstore where I had purchased my copy of THE BUS so many years ago is no longer around for me to attempt purchasing the second volume.

    All in all, I’m doubly glad I posted the book link. Now I know something I didn’t know I was missing.

  25. I mentioned Heavy Metal magazine earlier. Dozens of issues are available for viewing at archive.org. I randomly saw one strip of Kirchner’s “the bus” and found it split between two pages (three panels apiece).

    I think the magazine’s artwork in general is somewhat NSFW, so I shall not post a direct link.

    In other news, I meant to point out the bus featured in “the bus” is a nice representation of a General Motors “New Look” city bus, somewhat better known as a “Fish Bowl” due to the panoramic windshield.

  28. ” Is ‘reverse sexism’ OK these days?”

    Don’t confuse actual (x) with joking about (x).
    Patriarchy has had a pretty good, long run, but we’re starting to see some flaws with it. So sexism that suggests that women are lesser is rightly condemned, and humor that suggests that women are lesser faces great scrutiny. In general, humor that attacks, demeans, or diminishes individuals or a group of people is acceptable when the target accepts that it is a joke, and is less likely to be perceived as funny if the targeted group objects. The more actual power a group has, the more pressure they face to stand up to it. So you have the common trope of the “dumb blonde” who is attractive but dim. Attractive people receive a wide variety of social advantages so they mostly let this type of humor pass, even though there have been comedians (male and female) who’ve played dumb for laughs who were quite intelligent.

    The arrangement of society we have currently is biased towards white male people, though not as much as previous generations. If you doubt this, ask President Rodham. Because of this, there’s more pressure for menfolk to shrug off humor that targets them. (A while back, the tendency was to have TV sitcom dads be incompetent at any task around the house, because obviously men don’t know how to raise children or keep house, ha ha!) But, on the other hand, we’ve gotten past the notion that a show can be carried by the absolutely hilarious premise that a woman is in a position of power and authority, as encapsulated in the title of “Who’s the Boss?”

    A man who is secure in his masculinity does not feel threatened by the existence of smart, capable women. But there are men who are.

  29. Andréa, yeah, I think it’s sexist, no ‘reverse’ about it. But what saves this for me is that men are inherently stronger than women, on average, so if they’re being dragged, it is at least partially with their own consent. shrug Maybe that doesn’t matter, I don’t know.

  30. There’s a difference between “sexist” and “harmfully sexist”. (I agree that “reverse” is extraneous, either way).

  36. I was a little surprised to see some movement on the page at goComics. But then recalled I think I’ve seen Dark Side of the Horse use some minor animations before.

    Let’s see if the effect survives the linking.

  37. There’ve been more complex animations on DSotH on GoComics previously.

    We received a freebie Tampa Bay Times today’ the Mutts was fine; no pixellation or ragged lines at all.

  42. I was blocked yesterday, my first time to each comic I read there, then later I could get thru, but have to now scroll down to get to each comic.

  44. I never knew he was the ‘late’ B. Kliban. He died awf’ly young – 55 years old. Thanks for the links; I like his comics, even if they are mostly about c*ts.

  47. Just thanks in general. If I had to complain at all, it’s that the colors for followed and unfollowed links are a bit closer than I like. I often just switch Firefox to “No Style” to get the default link colors.

  48. Brian, is that comment for me? I always use incognito mode, so I don’t get followed links, and I just imported the old CIDU style-sheet. If that’s really a problem, I’ll look into it and write an overruling rule — got a color preference?

  49. I’ll join in thanking larK, and mention:
    — You can find a count of posted comments from each contributor — interesting silly feature!
    — As long as you might be fiddling with the operation, could I suggest giving the generated links all a “target” attribute, so they can open in a new tab from a simple click, and not lose the search results list

  50. OK, so it turns out I was controlling the visited color, I just don’t see it since I have the silly tick to always use incognito mode… Anyway, I changed it from grey to lightgrey, so it should make a bigger difference (maybe too much?)

    Mitch: I personally don’t like simple clicks to open a new window/tab, so I’m not going to be adding a target=”_blank” if that’s what you wanted 😦 but maybe you mean that by just adding a target attribute, it somehow helps you to middle click or something? I’ll happily add something to help you as long as it doesn’t interfere with my preferred behavior 🙂

    FYI: all search attributes get written to a short term cookie (it lasts 10 minutes or so?) so you can just go to the page as a GET rather than a POST and all the search results will be there… Yes, slight pain if you submit, click a link, and come back and it wants to resubmit the page, but if you remember to just go to the page after submitting a search (go to the url line and hit enter), then you can click forward and back without it asking to reconfirm the submit, thanks to the cookies…

  51. larK, we just have different preferences, but thank you for considering my suggestion and explaining why you won’t be going that way. I do know about selecting new tab or new window from a right-click context menu (on Windows), or for that matter holding a modifier key while left-clicking (I think it is Shift) — I just forget to do that sometimes.

  54. Yeah, but I like a challenge… So just for you Mitch, if you put “Mitch4” in a query string in the URL (either ?Mitch4 or &Mitch4 if there are other query strings you’re using (no =[something] needed)) it will behave like you want…

  55. (darn it!)

    Yes, I did in practice mean

    target=”_blank”

    but there are other values besides the reserved ones that will work too, and will give some odd benefits (or I should just say “odd behavior” and leave it open what is good or bad!). If you just use any name you like, say

    target=”second”

    the first time the user clicks on the link, the browser should create a new window or tab and open the referenced URL in it. But it will know this tab under that name. And when the user, returning to the original tab without closing “second” now clicks on another link which also uses target=”second”, the browser should not create an additional tab or window but instead just open the new URL in existing window “second”, replacing the content from the earlier click.
    This can spare the user from a confusing (and computer-slowing) proliferation of numerous new tabs.

  57. Would you like me to change the behavior to a named “Mitch4” window? Easily done… In fact — there, I did it. (Let me test it…)

  58. Wow, you are really so quick and nimble!

    And yes, it does seem to do that “single additional tab” behavior. I don’t recall actually seeing that demonstrated before.

  59. So it works for you? It doesn’t work for me… 😦 I’m wondering if it’s just because I’m using a weird edge case browser and no one else will see it not work? (I don’t like leaving it now that I’ve announced it if it might not work right…

  60. Anyway, I changed it from grey to lightgrey, so it should make a bigger difference (maybe too much?)

    It certainly distinguishes visited links now. From a UI perspective, it’s a bit close to the background color, but that’s not super important to me. Thanks for taking a look.

  61. Brian: hours and hours can be lost tweaking a color, so I purposely didn’t go there — you notice I use html color names and not rgb values as a way to keep from going down that rabbit hole; gray to lightgray was real easy and I can walk away… If you want to name me a color (or even an rgb value), I’ll gladly plug it in.

  64. Yes, the target tweak does work for me. Chrome on Windows 10 desktop.

    Andrea, some of the tweaks you will see automatically when you use larK’s scrape index site under a basic URL. There will be some additional features (or modifications, in any case) if you get there as … let’s see if this will just work as pasted … wait, I’ll use quotation marks …

    ” http://scrape.nowis.com/CIDU/index.cfm?prolificity&mitch4 “

  66. I tend to like plain defaults, which would be blue for an unvisited link, and purple for a visited one. Even if that may not conform to the rest of the colors on the page, it’s very recognizable, since there are tons of websites that do not change the default colors.

  67. I tend to like plain defaults

    And in most browsers allows the user to change the defaults. BUT, the new colors are a distinct improvement and for a volunteer, free, service I won’t complain.

  68. The stylesheet I rescued from the old CIDU site had both link and visited set to be the same color (shakes head about these so-called “designers”); this bugged me enough that I added an override outside the stylesheet to make visited links be “grey”. But I never see that because, as I’ve mentioned, I always use incognito mode, so it doesn’t remember where I’ve been so nothing is ever visited. I now made it “lightgrey”; it’s easy enough to change if anyone cares enough to name me a better html color, or even give me rgb values…

  69. Okay, NOW I see one can search replies one had posted.
    Useful if I can remember to find the link here.

  70. Following onto a comment that CIDU Bill made in late 2017, praising Pixar’s film “Coco“: I recently picked up a copy of “The Book of Life” on DVD. The two movies have some obvious similarities (being based on the same bit of cultural tradition), but the stories are clearly distinct, and each film has its own strengths. Even if you decide you like “Coco” better, “The Book of Life” is eminently worth watching.

  71. “What’s in it for you?” seems like an odd question, considering she’s his granddaughter and, according to him, his best friend.

    Also, is she wearing a bib, or is she cosplaying a Pilgrim woman?

  72. B.A., in the previous strip she said they’d have to make a deal. It’s proper to ask what she’s going to get out of it. Plus, of course, he’s used to dealing with his son.

    And it’s a two-tone shirt (or dress) – white with black sleeves. It would be more obvious except for the table in the way.

  73. Having learned that the seventh in line for the British throne has been named “Archie Harrison“, it seems logical to assume that the next royal baby will be called “Jughead Lennon“.

  74. My two British friends (cyber and IRL) are laffin’ up their sleeves . . . one had suggested the name would be “Tyrone”; this is pretty close . . .

  77. When i read about this new drain on the taxpayers of Britain, I wasted time and brainpower figuring out how many people would have to die (or abdicate, but I doubt that’ll ever happen again) before he’d become king. I love it – HAIL KING ARCHIE!!

  79. Arthur, I must disagree: if I do something for either my best friend or my grandparent, what I’m going to get out of it isn’t a factor. In fact, I’d be hurt if I were asked.

    Now, if Barney were doing something for somebody, that question would be valid.

  80. Given that the kid will likely one day be a duke, he needs to be kept far away from ostriches. As Baldrick noted, WWI started when “Some bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich ‘cos he was hungry.”

  82. Clearly should the kid ever be granted the crown, his reagent name will be “Cary”; meanwhile, he’ll just be a leach…

  83. PS: the reason they went with “Archy” and not “Archibald” is because they don’t want to temp fate, what with his follicly challenged uncle…

  84. Hey, larK, I’ve never been clear on that – is the entire royal family supported by taxpayers? Isn’t the queen one of the richest women in the world?

  87. Chak: this is all just a Charade; not to be Indiscreet, but The Awful Truth is I’m No Angel, I’m just making obscure puns and allusions — Only Angels Have Wings…

  88. Chak: The queen is pretty rich, but she doesn’t pay for the upkeep on Buckingham palace, royal security, royal travel, and so on, out of her own pocket. I think she also gets a sizable stipend.

  89. Wasn’t this same gag on the LOL page a few weeks ago?

    @Chak, I’m pretty sure I read that J.K. Rowling’s personal fortune is now greater than Queen Elizabeth’s. Then again, she earned hers..

  92. This template does NOT make it simple to add things to the sidebar (which is why the March of Dimes graphic never made it there). I suspect they want to discourage any content there that isn’t strictly part of the template’s offerings.

    It will get done, though. As well as moving the first 14,280 Random Comments into an archive.

  93. If adding a direct link to an external site is difficult, you might try the same method as with “Your Random Comments”: just create a post with the description and link in the header, and put a link to that post in the sidebar. Ditto for the CIDU FAQ.

  94. This afternoon, 5/16, all my RSS for GoComics are coming in as 404 Not Found. Anyone have any idea what that’s all about?

  95. @ Andréa – This might be a local effect caused by a defective DNS system in your area. The “Comics RSS” server is working fine from here. If your RSS system is a native part of GoComics, then I can’t help: I gave up on their perpetually clogged systems many months ago.

  96. Kilby: “Nobody ever reads the last comment on one of these pages.”

    I read it!

  100. I use the traditional website, not RSS feed. But in line with your observation, for much of the day yesterday (Monday 27 May — Memorial Day holiday) the comics were coming up as Sunday 26 May, and not advancing to the Monday when I tried setting it, different ways.

  102. @ Andréa – There’s also the method I use: wait until tomorrow, and then read two make that three strips per comic in a single day.

  103. No can do . . . I have a list of editorial and other comics that I maintain; folks are waitin’ for my postings, just as we wait for CIDU Bill’s . . . with bated/baited breath.

  104. I didn’t notice anything yesterday. I read mine from the email page they send to premium members.

  105. @ Andréa – I sent an e-mail to the operator of the website, and he replied that he was looking into the problem. Everything repopulated normally this morning, so it seems to have been fixed quickly, but I have no idea what the problem was.

  107. suggestion – since “old random comments” is still the easiest of the Randoms to get to, maybe the head post text there is a good place for a link to New Random (or Meta New Random).

  108. There’s nothing inherently odd about this picture, which is not a comic. But it seems creepy to me because I know about the Arlo award / Arlo page.

  109. Mitch, the problem is that the links in the sidebar seem to be locked in. I’m hoping to find some backdoor way around that.

  110. As I mentioned in the comments on the new top post, my semi-satisfying compromise solution is too hard to post from my phone 😎

  111. (DUPLICATE COMMENT FROM FRONT THREAD)

    The compromise solution:

    1.
    Stop being concerned with that link in the sidebar, stop fighting WordPress over editing it. Don’t worry about what it is, what it says, or where it leads when one clicks it.
    2.
    But we do want to focus on what we find when we get to where the link leads. It will still be stuck as “https://godaddyandthesquirrelmustbothdie.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/your-random-comments/” , which is the top note anchoring the OLD Random Comments thread. That’s all right, we’re not going to try to change that URL.
    3.
    But the title or “headline” can certainly be edited — it used to be different but now is “Old Random Comments (through May 15, 2019)”. It can therefore be edited further, to say in some succinct form “OLD Thread, Closed, Do not use.” [Software people — what’s the term for a feature which is kept in a new version for back-compatibility, but users are urged not to use going forward nor to rely on? “Disparaged”? “Denigrated”? I think it’s slightly more polite. Anyway, that’s the idea that needs to be conveyed.
    4.
    The contents of the post are currently
    Please note that this is intended for public comic comments only: if you want to send me a CIDU, or a comic for some specific folder (Ewww, Oy, etc), or you want to inform me of a typo, please e-mail me at CiduBill@gmx.com
    I don’t know if this is still editable at this point.
    If it is, great! Make it say something like “Instead, please use the 2019 New Random Comments thread, at
    https://godaddyandthesquirrelmustbothdie.wordpress.com/random-comments-2019/”
    If that contents paragraph is not editable, well, put that link into the title/headline.

    5. How is this a compromise? Well, it does not struggle to provide a one-click path to the 2019 New Random Comments. BUT it does provide a simple two-click path to that desired page.

Comments are closed.