Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 22, 2015

No one has any idea how heavy Gold actually is?

Avenger09 stated,

“Good night, sleep tight, VistaBill don’t let Rikki bite!”

Like tonight’s poem. That was a pleasant surprise to an otherwise not very exciting strip. Well, it might lead us to a lot of unforseen events to come on Sunday.

I Think Tellum is going to pull a “Gould”, reverse his name to Mullet, and take hostages,,,,,,,

I like the poem. go to bed now!

Heeeeeeere’s Jimmy! digging for buried treasure. I hope his pickup truck can handle the weight of what he’s got buried.

Avenger only foes you have are the uncouth and literary haters

I like the name of the boat, “Big Ted.” Mr. Tellum is kind of conceited, isn’t he?

Good morning guys!

They aren’t planning to put the gold in that pickup truck… are they?

Ok, what does this have to do with anything? I stayed up parent or this?!

Good morning Tracy fans and Gweedo the Detective. Be well my friends.

Morrow (from yesterday):No need to worry about Abner. He has his own coffin in our crypt. We make sure the lid is closed nice and tight when we get ready… for bed. Usual drill is “tuck in the spiders, check Abner’s coffin…”.

Not one of my favorite av poems, and I like the story, art and the pace. Now maybe from this group all may not be pleased as I but I’d bet that most of the thousands (daily newspaper) that read DT are happy with it as well.

Gweedo said,If OSHA comes in you’ll be unlining it, Bill !-—————————————————————————————

OSHA’s busy with enfocing the “Low Clearance” sign on the escape hatch at the bookie joint.

A standard bar of gold bullion weighs over 27 pounds (12.4 kg, or about 27.28 lb.), so Jimmy needs to haul a lot of weight. Is that in fact Jimmy, with a burly pickup truck, digging up the east shore of Lake Pratchett near what looks like a cave entrance? If so, the pace of the story over the last two days has speeded up enormously….

I wonder if Mr. Tellum is going to go over and be a cranky neighbor at Jimmy.

That is definitely Choo Shooz’ distinctive silhouette.

This is my favorite from you Stilldamatt.. youre a genius

judging by the last few days worth of strips I am convinced now more than ever that mike has GOT to have a.d.d.

The standard gold bar held and traded internationally by central banks and bullion dealers is the Good Delivery bar with a 400 oz (troy-ounce) (12.4 kg or 438.9 ounces) nominal weight. = 27.43 lbs per bar.

No question – now that Jimmy knows everyone is onto him, it looks like he’s going to grab what he can, and make a run for it.It’s likely that Tracy already checked out the tunnel Mole pointed out to him, and knows just where it leads. He shouldn’t be far away.

—

I expect Tellum to go over and start complaining to Jimmy. If he does, Jimmy may make him do the digging at gunpoint, and take him as a hostage.

Avenger09 and JPuzzleWhiz: great poems. Thanks for posting.________@Gwedo: yes, you do. ________Have a starry eyed day everyone.

By the same road the pickup truck got there.

To the first five (5) well-wishers to Margueritem’s birthday tomorrow, they get to pick a private weekend with Venus! To the next five (5), they get to spend a weekend at Gweedo’s!

Good Morning All…Its All unfolding as it will..

Some calculations:

How much gold? First, I don’t know where I got the impression that there was $2 billion worth of gold. We were only told that the train is called the “Billion Dollar Limited” and Sam asked Tracy (4/07), “So, who does this billion dollars belong to?” So let’s assume there is a billion dollars worth of gold (more or less).

How many bars? According to GoldSilver.com a 400 oz. gold bar currently sells for $499,603.56 (or they buy them for $436,546.80USD). For convenience, let’s say a gold bar is worth approximately $500,000 (half a million) so we’re going to need about 2,000 bars for a billion dollar shipment.

How much space? Dimensions of gold bars vary, depending on the purity and the specific shape. There is a range of dimensions possible for a Good Delivery bar. We’re going to take it as 10" length x 2.75" width x 1.5" height. If we make each layer about 5 feet by 5 feet, that makes about 132 bars per layer (22 × 6 bars). It’s going to be about 15 or so layers deep (so, about 23 inches—nearly 2 feet). Yes, it would be a lot of work to dig a hole that big with shovels, but a number of people were involved in preparing for the robbery. They could have done it with shovels.

How much weight? 2,000 bars at 27 pounds each comes to around 55,000 pounds or a bit more than 25 tons. A regular 50-foot box car load limit is 133,400 to 200,000 lbs., so that can accommodate our gold easily. A top-of-the-line Ford F-150 pickup maximum payload is 3,300 pounds, so it’s going to take around 17 truckloads to take away all that gold, but Jimmy is probably planning to grab what he can and run.

Predictable is heWho must respond with gleeWhen my posts his eyes doth see I laugh so hard I pee!

Although Tellum has been in the Tracyverse for a long time, he has never been a particularly sympathetic character. Collins killed him off in one of his Dick Tracy novels but that has never been a part of the official canon. Could Tellum be en route to buy the farm?

Heh, “Big Ted” huh?

I suppose whatever, ahem, “floats his boat.”

Collision course coming tomorrow or Sunday. Will Ted buy the farm, or make a deal with the devil?

With Jimmy’s track record, most likely the former.

Not that I recommend anyone doing this …

How To Smuggle Vast Quantities of Gold, Part I

How To Smuggle Vast Quantities of Gold, Part II

Thanks everyone for your kind words. I knew it would be risky composing a poem based on how I was feeling at 12:30ish this morning . John, please accept my profound apologies that you didn’t care for it.

Gweedo stated,“You and Rikki go on flaunting safety and hazardous materials regs, Bill.”-————————————————————————-

The asbestos appears to be good for Abner. He’s lit up like a bright star!

Perhaps “Billion Dollar Limited” is simply the name of the train that carried the the gold and wasn’t meant to imply the gold’s value?

While it’s true that it’s simply the name of the train, Sam did refer to “this billion dollars” so that might be the value of the gold. A billion dollars doesn’t really seem like much, even for a small South American country. A medium large city like, say, Atlanta has an annual budget of almost half a billion dollars.

Greedy Choke Puppy ! ?

Well if that IS Jimmy. Digging beside Lake Pratchett, and Neil suggests it’s him, he does have - a Wide Belt “needed” look, that ‘characterizes’ our Man

But as you see him there, ‘alone’ now, digging, a realization of ‘Crashing Disappointment’ Hits you, at how INEPT this secondary plan - one to keep it ALL - has been going ! ?Think of him, trying to load that 2 seat pickup truck with heavy Gold Bars ?

Think back ! Reflect on those April panels (below) … that ‘illustrated’ the book “Robbing the Rails”. (Which also provided KEY ‘guidance’ in Jimmy’s planing!) They show the “body bending” weight of a Gold Bar. A near impossible task for one man, who has thoughtlessly killed off (trusted) manpower tat could efficiently move the God Bars again - In what seems like a ‘Stage Two’ !

Already, prying neighbour-hood residents are on the way and additionally, the Drilling Operation, likely has many curious eyes in this low functional area, where even a Woodpecker can ‘attract’ attention.

I have this ‘Gut feel’, that this will be Jimmy’s’ *_last_ DigLikely spent his life kicking at the Establishment, and in the end, ‘ungratefully’ - - his Close Buddies, those that helped him most.

“My Way ? I nave visions of a Hand, reaching Up from Below, that this may be Jim’s final physical resting place, and as the last shovel of dirt it thrown, there’ll be a Rig Worker near the shoreline, with hand held audio, and the Tune playing . . .Sinatra’s - “My Way” !

Tracy too has been doing things ‘HIS WAY’, that seem not only ‘Confusing’, but Irrational . . .He heads a Police Department called the Major Crime Unit . . .And you wonder which of his current Crimes he considers “Major ?” (or more ‘demanding’ of his immediate attention ?)A) Recovering the Stolen Gold (Fresh Clues by the Lake, on where the gold went - in hand) orB) “Guessing’” who might have done the job ? Not a clue ! It’s just a Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah - Day . . .No matter, the freshly handed clues pointing to the Lake (from Mole), he wont ‘pursue those, instead - he drives around the City with Sam (no clear destination) until a convenient radio flash reports a shooting at a Gambling Parlour, and a ’whisper’ that; they have some connections back to the Blackhearts. Add a ‘speculation’, that the latter - ‘MAY’ have arranged the Heist. Like George Stephanopoulos (feeling?), ‘repeating’, in that recent ABC TV Interview * “Not a Shred of Evidence !”* – - – *"Not a Shed of Evidence !*Yet for Tracy, ‘twas - like *’Eureka’ !!* A reminder too, of the counting of ‘fake’ Antennae on Mindy Ermine, with references to her as Moon Maid ! (aka Franken Mindy)

Perhaps I do, rub it in too much . . .But a pains rising from his confused sense of priorities, which surprisingly remain there . . .-————————————————————-

April 24th 2015

April 25th 2015

Yes, indeed, my friends. Be well.

@JPuzzleWhiz: it still looked good, my friend. A Doubleup portion, no less. Be well.

He does seem to be going awfully fast to be so close to the shore, but he’s angry and in a hurry. Besides, there is only so much space in a comic strip frame.

Ya know, if Ted owned the mineral rights to that pond, and he might, considering his house is pretty prominent, he wouldn’t hate that drilling rig so much. If it isn’t a dry hole, he might be in a position to get a nicer boat! And, he might be able to afford a fence around his lake. As far as the gold goes, “possession is 9/10 of the law”, they say. There might be a (sunken) boatload of loot on the bottom, too! He won’t have any problem getting a hot wife like Venus, Rikki, or Liz(z).!

Oil, gold, salt, sweat, and blood.

Teddyboy could brag all dayHe loved to hear the words he’d sayWhat’s this? Perhaps a tubby fanWho’d love to shake his idols handA gun? Oh No! This cannot beHe had to find a way to fleeThis blimp claimed not to know his nameThe loss was his Ted had no blameHe needs a bath this this dastardly thugAnd Teddy nose could use a plugTo stop the stink that came on fastHow could somebody smell like a gas?