Recent Comments

1. about 17 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   Walker Tompkins also lived in Santa Barbara, CA, and set his ham radio stories there, but called it Santa Bonita, CA. McDonald & Grafton could’ve used that name, I would guess.

2. about 18 hours ago on Wizard of Id

   Looks like he needs a bath, so sure, let him stay outside.

3. about 18 hours ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Dihydrogen sulfate. Just add water (VERY gently) and you have sulfuric acid. Normally, the S04 makes it sulfate; SO3 would be sulfite; S – as in H2S – would make it sulfide. Technically H2SO4 is what I first called it, and H2SO4 . xH2O would be sulfuric acid. But if you ask a hundred chemists to write the formula for sulfuric acid, probably 95-100 will write H2SO4, even when we know the technical difference.

   In the same way, the only time I will call H2O dihydrogen monoxide, or Sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) sodium hydrogen carbonate is in a joke, or in a classroom while teaching a beginning chemistry class, maybe once or twice a day for two or three days.

4. 1 day ago on Ziggy

   But I won’t know how much I owe until the form is complete. And if the form is complete by Apr 15 I could turn it in then.

   And many is the time doing my taxes when it says to put in the amount from line x on form y. But on form y is starts with putting the amount from line z of form 1040. So I can’t get to line z of the 1040 because I don’t know what line x of form y – and I can’t fill form y because I don’t know yet what line z of the form 1040 is.

   And to think that when I was in college I did people’s taxes for them!

5. 6 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   @howtheduck We don’t know when John realized what had likely happened to Farley, but fortunately he wasn’t stupid enough to say it in front of the others: that would be cruel.

   He handed off April – still awake – to Elly and tried to shoo them home to ensure April was fine.

   Elizabeth was old enough, and smart enough, to realize the significance of what she was seeing. So I would hope that in tomorrow’s strip he takes Farley to the vet without lying to Elizabeth, but leaving the possibility of a better outcome than he expects.

6. 11 days ago on Tarzan

   Correct, Jane & Tarzan were leaving in their canoe from the Neanderthals. Janes hair was a lot longer. So they at least stopped somewhere for her to get a haircut :)

7. 11 days ago on Tarzan

   The last two were #3519 & #3520. This is #3521, so whoever gave them those numbers thought they belonged together. Since STORY-wise this doesn’t follow #3520 directly, I would have to agree with @LawrenceS – this one is starting in media res (Latin In the middle of things).

8. 14 days ago on Tarzan

   Let’s see if I word what I wanted to say differently.

   if the average Neanderthal was clean, shaved, in modern clothing you wouldn’t realize it from looks. Or if a modern spent several months spelunking, with no baths, and was in a Neanderthal setting – you wouldn’t realize it from looks, thinking that person to be a Neanderthal.

9. 14 days ago on Tarzan

   Tried to add to your valid comment and it wouldn’t let me. I had no slashes, removed the hyphens, used no questionable words.

10. 16 days ago on Ripley's Believe It or Not

    We say that leap year is every four years – except it’s not quite. Now if they had said in 2100 they had a problem, I’d be more accepting of it. Because 2024 is accurately (& obviously) a leap year. But 2100, 2200, 2300 are NOT leap years. So unless this was an update to the software by somebody that wasn’t thinking, installed in 2023 (or very early 2024), I would agree – it doesn’t seem likely by normal standards. But I do grant that slight possibility that the programmer programmed in Feb as having 28 days, intending to check the details, but never got back (maybe he was “let go”) to putting in the extra programming to see if the year was divisible by 4 and (if a century year by 400), and if so to use 29 days for Feb.