Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for July 19, 2015

Even in summer vacation, you learn something. (“Was Isaac Newton also famous for those fig-flavored cookies,” Alice and Dil ask.)

And so it begins…

Yes, Newton loved his mathematical universe.And I, too, will try to remember drivelalia factosis, Dill and Alice, ’cause I also have got a lot of useless information in my brain….

Atta boy, Dill. The drivelalia factosis is strong in this one.

Actually, a prism spreads out all of the colors in the light that enters it, bending each one differently according to its frequency. Pure white light contains a complete (and continuous) range of the visible colors, so the resulting array will also be continuous. Our brain, however, tends to see the array as consisting of certain distinct colors (each actually consisting of a range of colors).

I want to remember that, but I probably won’t.

Damn…I’ve got that! I think I inherited it from my father.

It’s gotta be genetic, right?

Ugh, I have this problem. But surely people want to know these fascinating things that I have stored in my brain? Right?? Hmm. Perhaps not…

Drivelalia Factosis – an idea made up by people living with Idioticus Absolutum. In acute cases, Idioticus Absolutum can cause Cranio-Rectal Inversion.

Thats me!A vast storehouse of useless information.

I can remember “drivelalia factosis” (from which I suffer), but couldn’t place it in this particular strip, which first appeared July 18, 2010. Have I really been reading Cul de Sac on a regular basis that long?

So, that’s what’s wrong with me!

In later years, when the buildup of useless information gets too great, drivelalia factosis may also be accompanied by brain farts.

My ex-girlfriend called it “Male Answer Syndrome,” although that was actually the tendency of men to make up some semi-plausible sounding answer when they don’t know the real one. It certainly prepares one for a life in politics, however.