Fence and water and phones

Today’s Nancy, by Olivia Jaimes, is a nifty variation on the fence-and-water premise of the 1959 Ernie Bushmiller strip analyzed in Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden’s How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels. In today’s Nancy, it’s fence and water and phones.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, June 1, 2019. Click for a larger view.]

Credit where it’s due: Hi and his suburban signifier trade places nicely in the second panel. That’s a significant improvement over Monday’s strip. And let’s grant that as Hi tends to his lawn, he has moved past an inert Thirsty. Still, there’s a problem with today’s strip: the overgrown lawn that prompts Hi’s question is missing from the first panel. Look at the second panel: the grass is nearing the top of the fence. Does grass grow in an interstice? If not, the problem might be solved by beginning with a closeup. And not until — wait for it — the second panel do we get to see the disaster that is the Thurston backyard. The delay might make for a better joke:


[Hi and Lois revised. Click for a larger view.]

Or maybe they should have just drawn the grass to begin with. I dunno. But given reality, I’ll take the problems in Hi and Lois any day.

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As Elaine points out in a comment, the fencepost switches sides. It’s always something.

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Lester Ruff, was, at least for me, exceptionally challenging. I started with 58-D, four letters, “‘____’ at 95 (1988 art book).” I figured that the answer had to be the name of That Guy, the one with the vowel- and consonant-friendly name who appears in crosswords again and again. That answer let me take a correct guess at 67-A, nine letters, “Don’t worry.” And then answer after answer.

But the northwest corner: that took about as long as the rest of the puzzle. Among the sticking points, 2-D, five letters, “Source of ‘galore.’” And 3-D, “Austin Powers’ pop.” (Really?) But I finally caught on to 15-A, ten letters, “Navigational hobbyist,” and everything else fell into place.

Clues that I thought were just aces: 7-D, five letters, “Architectural inclination.” 35-D, nine letters, “Retro restaurants.” 57-A, six letters, “Out of the blue.” 64-A, five letters, “They’re underfoot at home.” And from the northwest corner, the fiendish 23-A, five letters, “Capital, since 1974.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

The Tallest Clarence Infiniti

How strange to hear a commercial for the Infiniti QX50 with music that evokes Clarence “Tom” Ashley’s “Coo Coo Bird,” recorded in 1929. The music in the commercial? “It Will Follow the Rain,” by The Tallest Man on Earth.

Peewee in the house

 
[Nancy, August 25, 1949. Nancy, May 31, 2019. Click either image for a larger view.]

Peewee in the house today, in both Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy and Olivia Jaimes’s Nancy. The telltale beanie at least strongly suggests that Peewee has found work in the new Nancy.

In the Bushmiller strip, Peewee ends up dancing with an organ grinder’s monkey. In the Jaimes strip, Melissa Bangles, basketball coach manqué, was hoping that the next person to join the team might be somebody tall.

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June 3: Yes, that’s Peewee, or Pee Wee. Jaimes has given him a two-part name.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Recently updated

From “Stalin as Linguist — II” The Barrett Watten story has made it to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

“Normal” in Gmail

A new development in e-mail: Gmail lets you know when you don’t sound “normal” in an e-mail:

As soon as you make a misstep like starting an email to your coworker with “Dear” like you’re a lunatic who’s writing them a love letter instead of just writing “Hello” like a normal person, a popup will appear, stating, “Are you sure about that? That sounds pretty weird.”

I like the premise that “Dear” is not an appropriate way to begin. In my post How to e-mail a professor, I caution against it:

“Hi/Hello Professor [Blank]” is always appropriate. Substitute “Dear” and you've ended up writing a letter; leave out “Hi” and your tone is too brusque.

Says the ClickHole report on this (okay, imaginary) new Gmail feature: “Awesome! This is definitely going to come in handy.”

America, if you’re listening

“I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.” Russia helped him. He just said so.

And now I think of what Robert Durst said: “There it is. You’re caught.” But Durst had no handlers to step in: “The president’s meaning could not be clearer. He had nothing to do with any effort by anyone,” &c. I’m not quoting handlers, just imagining what they’ll say.

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8:39 a.m.: CNN reports that Trump reversed himself while speaking to reporters: “You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all. Russia, if anything, I think, helped the other side.”

Streetside supplies

In The Guardian: “Public furniture inspired by office equipment.” Found via Lexikaliker. Thanks, Gunther.

VLC track synchronization

Say that you’ve downloaded an old television clip from YouTube and found that the audio and video are out of sync. In VLC, go to Window and click on Track Synchronization. You can advance or delay the audio track so that things line up — not permanently, but while the clip plays. A difference of two-tenths of a second might be all that you need.

I found this nifty option by searching the VLC Help file for sync.

[To download from YouTube: >4K Video Downloader.]