Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for January 27, 2020

Yeah, what is a blizzard?

I’ll go with high-level spellcaster, with an insanely warped sense of humor.

Look out Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes. You’ve got competition!

Around here, Blizzards come in a cup from Dairy Queen. I’m not sure you’d prepare frantically for one.

I like the goofy reptile, guys, but really can’t you google “blizzard”?

Hmm. As a Las Vegas resident I do not know what this “blizzard” would be either. Thank you, Professor Puck, for your knowledge and insight!

Like GreasyOld Tam, the only blizzards here are from DQ. Haven’t these guys seen snow before? I was sure they had.

Elvis, a blizzard caused all that snow on the ground than Christmas season when Tommy rescued you. Remember?

I see the station research department has come up with two file images. But neither are correct. A blizzard is the existential nullification of the external world.

Puck! Stop this fake news broadcasting! Blizzard is a severe snowstorm with high winds.

Love the head turn and staring into the camera, Elvis.

Oh, the boys are in for a shock.

And Lupin’s in for a playground of invisibility…

Never mind stockpiling milk and bread, because if the People forget the true essentials — ham, tuna, kibble, kitty litter — it’s going to be a VERY long week indeed!

It’s a Beatrice bringer.

Elvis looks quite dramatic in panel 3!

Who remembers Les Nessman’s report when the B wasn’t working on the teletype machine at WKRP in Cincinnati?

Oh no! Panic in the streets! Will the Blizzard cast evil weather spells or just dance around, wearing goofy hats?! Surely we are likely to have an unfortunate and inescapable outcome!

Hmmm…when you think about it, a high-level spellcaster is not too far off the mark!

Is Burt just messing with the Boys with his chyron? I would think Baba Mouse would set Burt straight about what to expect.

Got to have the ingredients for milk sandwiches!

How different snowfall amounts affect different parts of the country

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/5mrey1/how_different_snowfall_amounts_affect_different/

Time to stock up on all the essentials.

Be safe, everyone!

This is where I have a unique frame of reference, being – as Georgia is – from Rhode Island. In February 1978, a storm was forecast to drop 2-4 inches of snow over southern New England. Only problem was, the weather system stalled over the state and ended up dropping closer to 2-3 feet of snow, along with associated blizzard conditions. The state was almost literally completely shut down for the better part of a week. Ever since then, a forecast of “a few inches of snow” in Rhode Island is deemed a “history-making, once-in-a-lifetime event” t hat triggers a mad rush to the grocery store for bread and milk.

Footnote: there was a bit of a spike in births in Rhode Island in November 1978. My brother being one of the statistics.

Fun bit of reading: https://turnto10.com/weather/weather-blog/the-blizzard-of-78-40-years-later

The Boys are about to discover that a blizzard brings the Void – in this case, likely a mega-Void.

think face intensifies

Love Elvis’ ear in panel 3! The skeptical ear is one of my favorite cat expressions. It would be so useful to have!

A blizzard? go to Dairy Queen and get one.

I bet Goldie will be heaving a sigh of relief to be watching this particular weather event from the good side of the window!

Remember Puck saving us from the leaves in the Fall? My cat, Jilly, does that when it snows – I never knew she was trying to save us from Winter!

DQ

Oh, but Puck!! There’s the remote chance a ‘Blizzard’ is that little organ inside of chickens – which some folk fry up and eat! …

But, like very bad weather – I’ve never been fond of Gizzards!! :)

The humans will take good care of you, kitties. Just think good thoughts toward the outside critters and get the humans to buy lots of extra bird seed. I saw a robin yesterday. That’s almost six weeks earlier than usual, but this has been a weird too warm and too wet winter.

It precedes the void.

Happy Chocolate Cake Day! So go get some chocolate cake to celebrate.

I vote for the high-level spellcaster!

I think it has something to do with a chicken’s stomach.

Weeee’re off to see the blizzard

This wonderful blizzard of ours

We hear it is a blizz of a blizz

That ever a blizz there was

If ever oh ever a blizz there was

This blizzard of ours is one because

Because, because, because, because, becaaaaause

Because of the really deep snow it does

We’re off to see the blizzard

This wonderful blizzard of ours…

Once again, cat science tackles the tough questions.

There is a very colorful band called King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and we’re already 2/3’s of the way there!

https://youtu.be/xfftg-IFI4Q

Goldie better head for an under the _________ when the blizzard starts and make sure Lupin can’t pull her out of there.

Georgia and fam live here in the Seattle area now, and every snow prediction is treated like Ragnarok is on the way. There is some justification, the unusual topography here makes accurate forecasting nearly impossible.

Fun Fact: In the Nineteenth Century a “blizzard” was a light snowfall, and a “flurry” was a heavy one. That’s why a boxer may be said to land “a flurry of blows” or reporters ask a “flurry of questions.”h/t Bill Bryson

P.S.: I like the DQ Blizzards, too.

Over in Sally Forth they’re doing “six stages of blizzard madness”:

https://www.comicskingdom.com/sally-forth/2020-01-27

This just in: A new source claims that a blizzard is some kind of reptilian spell-caster who focuses primarily on cold spells.

Perhaps it is a desert from Dairy Queen.

All this talk of lizards in hats and wizards has made me think… how many of you are naughty enough to remember Cheech Wizard?

My childhood cat, Domino, would be able to tell them the worst part…we had to use the fireplace non-stop for the 11 days we were snowed in, and, not to put too fine a point on it, the fireplace was Domino’s indoor lavatory (for when we weren’t home or when the weather was foul…this worked surprisingly well, and he came up with it himself. Charcoal left by the logs deodorized, and the “leavings” went down through the ash trap and were cleaned out in the basement). He couldn’t go outside for the 3 days the wind blew, but after a while, the low roof and steep pitch of our Cape Cod-style roofline gave us a completely snowed in front porch, with a 4 foot area from the windows to the snowdrift. Domino popped out the window when we opened it, had his private time, buried it in loose snow, and popped back in. We did this a few times a day until we could get to the store and kitty litter for the duration (BTW, Domino was an indoor/outdoor cat (this was 42 years ago), and he didn’t have to wait the 3 days…we made a makeshift litter box out of a cardboard box and shredded paper, but he hated it and only used it when he had to). (This is what we lived through in 1977 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_of_1977)

OT: Whoever mentioned Agatha Raisin on yesterday’s strip- thanks for the tip, I’m reading the first book now.

Although I was only about a chapter in when I got the sinking feeling that I’m about 20 years from becoming Agatha myself- driven career type, not really making friends, and no real idea what to do with myself when it comes time to retire and I’ve bought a nice townhouse or something somewhere….

They’re forgetting the most important possible definition: A frozen ice-cream dessert shake from Dairy Queen (if my memory still serves me!) ;)