Dark Side of the Horse by Samson for August 23, 2016

There was an old joke similar to this….the person on the ground worked for Microsoft.

Considering that you can’t actually STEER a hot air balloon, what good does it do to know where you are until you actually land?

alrighty then., so helpful for the dummy.

“Bert and I” did it well decades ago.

You can’t get there from here.

Here’s another version, courtesy of Google:

A Man in a Balloon

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a man below. He descended a bit more and shouted,

“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man below replied, “You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the man, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”

The man below responded, “You must be a manager.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know.”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

And here’s the Microsoft version:

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment.

Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position and course to fly to the airport. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, drew a handwritten sign, and held it in the helicopter’s window. The pilot’s sign said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.

People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign and held it in a building window. Their sign read: “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER.”

The pilot smiled, waved, looked at her map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER” sign helped determine their position.

The pilot responded “I knew that had to be the Microsoft building because, like their technical support, online help and product documentation, the response they gave me was technically correct, but completely useless.”

LOL! Just by reading all these comments at least SAMSON knows now where he is, after borrowing a plot from old gags.

I remember Ray Manzarek from The Doors once admitted in an interview, that they used to borrow or steal anything fitting they could catch to their music. And it always still sounded like The Doors in the end. I see that same way with Horace.

In panel 5, the wise guy is dodging falling horse poop.

BTW, when I started to enlarge yesterday’s strip, Horace’s eye in the middle panel was perfectly encircled by the little magnifying glass; it’s like he was wearing a monocle with a handle. Was that intentional, Samson?

It’s what happens when you ask Captain Obvious…

As Bill Engvall would say, “Here’s your sign!”