Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 12, 2017

What a bum-{hic}-mer, Luann.

So odd to see the Sunday strips with the two of them together. It’s like a little pocket alternate universe. As an aside, I know how to cure hiccups.

When Luann accidentally shoots someone dead with an arrow, they will definitely never hiccup ever again.

Good one Greg. I hate hiccups too

So little has changed since the start of luann

I don’t think of hiccups as “behavior.” I thought “behavior” refers to voluntary actions.

Luann and Puddles have the weirdest faces in panel 3.

The best theory is that it’s a holdover from our amphibian past, closing the glottis and pushing water out through the gills to keep it from getting into the lungs when switching from underwater to air breathing.

The only thing useful about hiccups for me is that when my son starts getting them repeatedly I know he is going through a growth spurt.

when animals hear the hiccups, they get scared and run away, so is actually possible defense against predators

Close your ears (by putting your fingers over them), take a drink and swallow hard. Works for me every time.

Stay tuned for next Sunday, when we do a the same thing for farts.

Back in the 70’s I learned that drinking pop worked.

It’s great to see a tablet being used instead of an encyclopedia. The strip is definitely in the 21st century.

Say Bern? Has Luann told You, Yet that She’s got a New “Best Friend?”

One that’s Actually Useful?

Archaeologist Clive Gamble points out, “… everything, if we try hard enough, becomes adaptive. The huge beetling brow ridges so characteristic of the Neanderthal skulls are a good case in point. Every few years a new adaptive function is put forward. This bar of bone becomes a sunshade, a way of reducing snow glare, a threat display, or a means of absorbing stresses and strains from the grinding action of their large teeth. Whatever the answer, the ingenious suggestions that continue to appear point to our… dislike of the feature without an accepted function.”

I’ve always wondered what the purpose was of humans (and some animals) responding to death with intense grief. If death is inevitable and a part of life, what would be the evolutionary purpose of such a strong emotional response?

Like I said in a response, throw any question here, and there will be all kinds of high, and love level solutions. Holding breath for 30 seconds works for me, or maybe two after I eat Al’s Beef and Sausage combo sandwich with sweet and hot peppers, or even better, a nice, greasy, cooked onion topped Maxwell street polish. Ah Chicago, and ah I am too old to do that—much—anymore. My check-in for Foible Sunday. What do you have us tomorrow Greg my man and his distaff progeny? Hmmmm.

In doing a rereading of every strip starting from 2012, I found myself reading a supposedly stand alone Sunday strip where Dez is reading the box to one of Tiffany’s new cosmetics.

Dez mentioned “Endoctrine system” effects.

If we do not now get back to Gunther and Tiffany, she may spend the entire term in her room, with visits from Gunther, and we may see a thinner, cosmetic free, Tiffany come Christmas. And like Gunther leaving Peru, we get the easier than expected story of a slimming down Tiffany as a flashback.

Just DO NOT return her to her old personality.

Attention, class!

Today’s assignment: what is the purpose of hiccups?

Answer in an essay of 500 words. Do not plagiarize medical texts or any other source! Show your own independent thought on this vexed issue!

Then, email Luann….

(Slowly Raising Hand)

“Hiccups are Nature’s way of Proving She has a Sense of Humor?”

Hiccups are God’s way of showing he can interrupt us any time He wants.

There is no use for hiccups. It is an error sent to diaphram that causes it to flex on its own regardless of what you swallow or breathe.

Yes, there is a use for hiccups. They exercise the baby’s diaphragm before birth.

Mama feels them right along with baby, along with all the kicking, punching, and stretching.

When I had the hiccups one time, a woman told me to “Hiccup in my hand!” and put her hand under my mouth. I couldn’t do it. Putting me on the spot like that in front of other people changed my breathing or something.