Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for October 15, 2021

Fun fact: comets don’t flash by. If they did they would be meteors. Comets slooowly move across the sky. You should know that, Oliver.

I seem to remember Halley’s Comet’s return in 1986 was something of a disappointment. Hale-Bopp put on a much better show in 1997.

I love Oliver.

Frank needs to be careful. Oliver could go on the computer and ruin the dude’s credit. He could even make him literally “disappear”.

Actually, Comet Kohoutek turned out that very way.

Now the media is hyping the Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB) comet as a giant that’s headed right at us. Actually, it’s orbit’s closest approach to the sun is somewhat outside the orbit of Saturn. So not only is it not any danger to us at all, but it may not even get hot enough for a large, dense tail. It might develop into a spectacular show, but more likely it’ll just be a faint gray smudge that can’t be seen if you’re anywhere near a city’s lights.

And just think, he said that WITHOUT sounding like Boromir, which wouldn’t come for another 16 years.

That’s right folks, it has been longer since the LOTR movies to now, than it was from when this strip was new to when LOTR first hit theaters.

I know it wasn’t a comet, but I thought that “Jupiter’s Black Eye” was absolutely spectacular!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Jupiter_showing_SL9_impact_sites.jpg

Dads love to prank their sons; deal with it, Oliver.

Also reminds of the Monk TV show; a recently re-broadcast episode showed Monk missing seeing a favorite legendary marathon runner because his OCD compelled him to go and straighten out some guy’s mis-buttoned sweater instead….