[Beetle Bailey , November 1, 2026. Click for a larger can.]
Do people really hide in garbage cans to shirk work? It happens.
[I have to read Beetle Bailey : Beetle is Lois Flagston’s brother.]
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Beetle Bailey imitates life
Halloween 2026
Halloween 2026: not one trick-or-treater. We had twenty in 2024, ten last year. (I counted.) So we’re left with Milky Ways, Jolly Ranchers, and close to 200 miniature Tootsie Rolls. It’s the last year for trick-or-treating at our house. You hear that, kids?
Perhaps it’s just as well that we didn’t have any visitors last night: Tootsie Rolls, as I discovered (too late), are an utterly vile candy. Either they’ve changed since I was a kid, or I have. We are tossing them, along with the Jolly Ranchers, and keeping the other candy whose first name ends in ē.
[The miniature Milky Ways are labeled “fun size.” But wouldn’t a regulation-size Milky Way be the real fun?]
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Story.
[Click for a larger view.]
As found at the Library of Congress. The library reminds us, “This is a digitized catalog card, not an audio recording.”
I hope it’s a good night for trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween to all.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by “Lester Ruff” — the puzzle’s editor, Stan Newman, offering an easier Saturday puzzle. I often find Les’s puzzles pretty Ruff, but this one is indeed easy. It’d be a good puzzle for anyone who wants to test the Stumper waters, say at the four-foot end of the pool.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
1-A, eight letters, “Dessert with coffee.” A nice start, or finish.
1-D, seven letters, “’59 Eldorado claim to fame.” Must be seen to be believed.
8-D, fifteen letters, “New England attraction named by Washington.” Attraction might be slightly misdirective.
13-D, seven letters, “Kind of case.” Where’s mine? Oh, I know.
17-A, eight letters, “Takes for a trial.” My first thought was BETATEST — not something third-person singular.
23-A, five letters, “Canterbury pilgrim.” I haven’t thought of him in years.
30-D, four letters, “It might have to wait for a second.” Yikes, I’m back on a university committee.
36-D, seven letters, “Square structures.” Mildly Stumper-y.
42-D, three letters, “Signal officially replaced in 1992.” I learned something.
44-A, four letters, “Ken Burns topic.” Not one of his best efforts.
My favorite in this puzzle: 49-D, four letters, “Skip.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
*
Crossword Fiend has a discussion of 30-D, which crosses 41-A, five letters, “Distinctive aspect.” If you follow through to the comments, you’ll see that Evan Birnholz thinks that there was some sort of mix-up and that the puzzle’s answers for 30-D and 41-A are mistakes. I think he’s right (and that my answers are the intended ones).
Friday, October 30, 2026
Mystery actor
[Click for a larger view.]
Leave your guess(es) in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one is needed.
*
No hint needed; the answer is now in the comments.
Related reading
All OCA mystery actor posts (Pinboard)
[Garner’s Modern English Usage notes that “support for actress seems to be eroding.” I use actor.]
Hi and Lois watch
[Hi and Lois , October 30, 2026. Click for a larger view.]
“Remember when the night before Halloween was ‘Mischief Night’?” Hi asks.
Credit where it’s due: the panel that follows Hi’s question is nicely done. The Waning Gibbous moon even fits today’s date.
Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)
Dan and Dan and Cornel and Elon
I think a ballot-stacking effort is a nasty thing, in Alaska or anywhere else. But for something far nastier, consider the Elon Musk effort to prop up Cornel West’s presidential ambitions. From Sludge (archived) , “Musk-Linked Dark Money Network Funded the Group Behind Cornel West’s Ballot Push”:
People Over Party raised $7.7 million in 2024, all of it from the nonprofit behind the Fair Election Fund, which in turn got every dollar from a Musk-funded dark money group.Another reminder that a vote for Jill Stein or Cornel West or some other “progressive” third-party candidate is a wasted vote, sometimes for reasons one hasn’t imagined.
Two related posts
Allegory and Allegory redux (My theory of voting)
Thursday, October 29, 2026
A pocket notebook sighting
[From Still of the Night (dir. Robert Benton, 1982). Click for a larger view.]
Okay, it’s a datebook. But there is a prescription pad, and the datebook’s owner is using one of its pages to write a note. Yet another movie moment in which a surface for writing fills the screen.
Related reading
All OCA notebook sightings (Pinboard)
Scheduled
The schedule for next year’s classes was out. What’d I get?
Fall: freshman comp, freshman comp, freshman comp.
Spring: freshman comp, freshman comp, freshman comp.
There was, really, nothing more left to teach. All the literature classes were gone. Maybe, I thought, it was time to retire.
This is the thirty-third teaching dream I’ve had since retiring in 2015. In only two of them has nothing gone wrong.
Related reading
All OCA teaching dream posts (Pinboard)
[“Only fools and children talk about their dreams”: Dr. Edward Jeffreys (Robert Douglas), in Thunder on the Hill (dir. Douglas Sirk, 1951).]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
