Recent Comments

1. 3 months ago on Fred Basset

   Wearing my actor hat, the first fight I ever had was as an unarmed drunken constable taking on a maniac armed with a scythe. Outdoors. At night.

2. 4 months ago on Ripley's Believe It or Not

   Before the introduction of electrical scoring, it was quite ordinary for middle-aged fencers to beat the young ones, even in the Olympics. Electrical scoring caused a new style of kiss-me-quick moves that was greatly to the advantage of the young, but sophistication is still useful.

3. 4 months ago on Cul de Sac

   Rather reminds me of the illustration of Prince Jollikin, son of the Magical Monarch of Mo, after his first duel with the Gigaboo. *

   “For fear you may not know what a Gigaboo is I shall describe this one. Its body was round, like that of a turtle, and on its back was a thick shell. From the center of the body rose a long neck, much like that of a goose, with a most horrible looking head perched on the top of it. This head was round as a ball, and had four mouths on the sides of it and seven eyes set in a circle and projecting several inches from the head. The Gigaboo walked on ten short but thick legs, and in front of its body were two long arms, tipped with claws like those of a lobster. So sharp and strong were these claws that the creature could pinch a tree in two easily. Its eyes were remarkably bright and glittering, one being red in color, another green, and the others yellow, blue, black, purple and crimson.” So you can see that it has nothing to do with any other word that happens to sound like it.
4. 4 months ago on Back to B.C.

   “While Darwinian Man, though well behaved, / At best is only a monkey shaved.”

   W. S. Gilbert: “Princess Ida”

5. 4 months ago on Andy Capp

   That’s “Heracles” (Ἡρακλῆς).

6. 5 months ago on Mr. Lowe

   I have no idea who MINTED them. Most official government mints used to do private jobs by contract. But they were ISSUED by private concerns in the US. Just google “1928 Indian-head cent” and you’ll see ’em.

7. 6 months ago on Over the Hedge

   An autoharp has a set of buttons that apply felt pads that mute all the strings that aren’t in such-and-such a chord. So that if, for example, you press the button marked B-flat, all the strings that don’t play B-flat, D, or F are muted, and if you strum the whole instrument, you get a B-flat chord. A zither is much like an autoharp, but lacks the buttons and muting mechanism.

8. 6 months ago on Mr. Lowe

   There are at least two sorts of non-coinage souvenir “pennies” from 1924 bearing the Indian-head design, but with modified texts.

9. 6 months ago on Gray Matters

   On the other hand, in the first version I know of of “I dreamed I was there in Overdose Heaven", the first one named was Brian Jones. But on the third hand, recalling a graffito I saw on the London Underground over fifty years ago, what about Judy Garland?

10. 6 months ago on Ginger Meggs

    Pretty much quoting Emperor Cartagia of the Centauri Republic (“Babylon 5”).