Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for October 22, 2020

what a fun lunch conversation: food about which Petey can be picky and wants each ingredient to go into each of his four individual stomachs

Petey and I don’t agree on very much, but we agree about raisins. Raisins are what people who hate children hand out on Halloween.

Loris’s dad is right. Neutrinos are almost as fast as light.

NOW where did she go?

I suppose a female neutrino is a Nutella. BTW, Andy Capp recently put a pound on the ponies—I think Nutella would be a fine name for a racehorse.

Cosmic Gall by John Updike

(on Neutrinos)

Neutrinos, they are very small.

They have no charge and have no mass

And do not interact at all.

The earth is just a silly ball

To them, through which they simply pass,

Like dustmaids down a drafty hall

Or photons through a sheet of glass.

They snub the most exquisite gas,

Ignore the most substantial wall,

Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,

Insult the stallion in his stall,

And, scorning barriers of class,

Infiltrate you and me! Like tall

And painless guillotines, they fall

Down through our heads into the grass.

At night, they enter at Nepal

And pierce the lover and his lass

From underneath the bed – you call

It wonderful; I call it crass.

[Well, the scientific understanding of neutrinos has changed since Updike wrote this. But it’s still great.]

Good to see the 3 Amigos again. Loris’ Dad is right, she can go fast enough to encounter time dilation.

Loris would make a great Cyclopsette!

I’m having Honey Bunches of Neutrinos right now!

Petey is a molecular gastronomist.

Her dad believes children should be like neutrinos: not seen and not heard.

Loris should go as that cyclops from one of the Sinbad the Sailor movies.

Loris might make a good raisin.

There are such things as good raisins, you know. I like raisins! Here I stand!

The Merchant of Menace … sounds like a movie collab between Will Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino

“The Merchant of Menace”? Come on! It was right THERE!

Neutrinos are unseen, unheard and do not, as a rule, have any effect on anything. I’m with Dad. Good choice.

One would think that both of Petey’s comic-drawing friends would make him extremely nervous. Andre, with his BOOMing personality, and Loris with her sudden ZIPs and PINGs… ☺

I’m dressed as a fairy princess. But, not for Halloween. It’s just Thursday.

My wife hates raisins. She suspects that they originally had legs.

One of the few things you can be sure of in life – You DO get your daily requirement of neutrinos every day…

I think Andre should draw a comic in the style of a Shakespearian play and call it “The Merchant of Menace”.