Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for April 10, 2024

Yaay, I’m back! 21 hour drive to southeast Missouri done in a day and a half. 23 hour drive back to the Phoenix area in another day and a half because the eclipse traffic was terrible. 4 hours of sleep in my truck each time. Coffee is my friend…

The day of the eclipse dawned almost clear with only a few thin high clouds. As totality approached, the clouds got a bit thicker but didn’t block the sun much at all. Much better than the 2017 eclipse in North Carolina where there were patchy clouds trying to block the sun during totality.

Just before and after totality were the shadow bands caused by atmospheric distortion. I took a video of them. I don’t know how well it turned out since I haven’t seen any of the pictures and videos yet. Too tired after the trip. There’s always tomorrow. I’ll be posting them on my website after they get cleaned up and I’ll post a link to it then.

The total eclipse was amazing! The corona made a beautiful ring and a large prominence was visible on the bottom of the ring so it looked like the letter Q. I wanted to get some pictures through my telescope but my camera broke just before the eclipse started so I had to take the pictures with my cell phone and they didn’t come out very well. Maybe Photoshop can clean them up.

My daughter absolutely loved the eclipse! And we had a great time on the trip!

Sounds like Hans Christian Andersen had a Dickens of a time…

Oh My! Burt has summoned up a horror movie in the making. The fan that wouldn’t leave. LOL Just imagine if Dickens, or Andersen were just a bit homicidal? Left any longer and they might have had a Van Gogh and Gauguin situation.

“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” – Benjamin Franklin

Well, there were cultural differences between the two. Such as it being common in Denmark for the son of the homeowner to shave the guest once a day… And Dickens was working on a play and divorcing his wife at the time.

Burt is so erudite!

I did a quick search on Andersen overstaying his welcome with Dickens, and I gotta say that both men seemed dreadful. I mean, sure, if I were Dickens, I’d be weirded out if Andersen insisted one of my children personally shave him every day. But Dickens was also leaving his wife of 20+ years for a teenage actress, so, yeah, both men were monumentally self-absorbed bleeps. I kinda sorta hope Dickens and Andersen wound up stuck in a room forever together in the afterlife, a la No Exit scenario …

Actually I did not need to look this up as I was already familiar with the incident. (For the record, I majored in English for my MA and minored in Brit Lit for my BA . Plus I’m into the Victorians)

Poor Hans Christian Andersen! How do you tell your biggest but saddest fan that he’s the worstest houseguest ever…

Imagining if Dickens had ferrets:

A Tale of 4 Ferrets

A Christmas Ferret

The Ferrets on the Hearth and Up the Chimney

Ferrets in A Bleak House

The Ferret Papers

I love that reference

In panel three, Tommy’s magnificent floof must be covering his toe beans.

Eh but what use is em ferrets? Mongooseys is keeps snakes away. Me rather has mongooseys.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

At the oPyramid Literary Festival

Puckmosis: And now, Thomios will share a reading from Peg Bracat’s I Really Don’t Like to Cook.

Thomios: Thank you, Puck. And now some classic and humorous recipes that you can make at home.

Sometime Later

Elvis-Anum: I’ve been getting requests from a lot of people asking for copies of I Really Don’t Like to Cook. And I think they would like to have them available for borrowing at the Very Good Pyramid Library.

Puck: It sounds like your apprentice scribes are going to be very busy.

Elvis: If this takes off, the movable press will come in very handy.

Enter Scribe Apprentice Tira

Tira: We’ve been looking through some of the scrolls, and found one no one’s seen before.

Elvis: I’ll have to ask Violet-Ifa to take a look, but it appears to be about a visit between Hans Christian Anderpaws and Charles Whiskers.

Sometime Later

Violet-Ifa: It looks like your apprentices have found a rare scroll believed to have been long lost.

Scribe Apprentice Ebonee: Akil and I were looking through some of the older scrolls when we found it.

Akil: Hapi and I tried to translate it, but it appears to be in an ancient script.

Vi: You’ve all done well, apprentices.

Hapi: That makes me really happy!

Vi: As well you should be. Yes, this is a long-lost scroll of Charles Whisker’s So Go Home, Already!

They should have collaborated. The ugly orphan turns into a beautiful swan. Scrooge doesn’t realize he’s naked.

Interesting, Tommy can read the chyrons. I will definitely be looking that up!

Does speaking to the chyron count as breaking the fourth wall?

…. I just… that’s a thing that happened? That’s marvelous. Why don’t more comic strips bring this up?

Now I and Tommy have to look it up!

I read up on the Dickens-Anderson visit. Wow! Thanks for the awesome suggestion. I am a longtime reader and somewhat a fan of Dickens. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is my jam tho.

Such an educational comic.

I want to congratulate Georgia on her absolute mastery of facial expressions during this arc. She gets SO MUCH out of a few little lines, and there’s never a line out of place to convey the exact nuance that panel needs. I can feel my emotions shifting as I look at Tommy. So relatable, and so well depicted! Many kudos.

Learn something new every day, right, Tommy?

Way to go GEORGIA!!! We all hope you are proud of yourself. You managed to break the internet with everyone now trying to look up the bi-line about Hans Christian Anderson and Charles Dickens from today’s offering.

I supposed next you’re going to hint at James Joyce writing while lying on his stomach in bed, or that Jack London wrote 1,000 words a day every single day of his career. Or perhaps you want your readers to ponder why Agatha Christie munched on apples in the bathtub while pondering murder plots, or that Friedrich Schiller was inspired to write by the stench of rotting apples.

Where Georgia, where will it ever end??

OH, now this is a mental twist I can relate. Well done…

This lady is pure genius!!! ❤️

I’m envisioning a very weird episode of Big Brother (which I’ve never actually seen so that’s just a big guess).

Sometimes I wish there was some background provided for the arcs. I cannot help but to wonder if the ‘gotchya’ in today’s strip was the inspiration for this entire arc, or just something thrown in to keep me hooked…

I’m imagining an Airbnb review from Hans Christen Andersen. Worst stay ever! Wall to wall with children, host was rude and self-obsessed. Never seemed to have time for MY writing. And his Son wouldn’t even give me a daily shave! Three stars because i’m such a worthless loser. LOL

OT: Eclipse trip

Thanks, saw that bump promenance and wondered what it was

OT: Eclipse glasses. I saw online that if you have eclipse glasses, there are organizations that collect them if they’re in good condition. Apparently, many of the free glasses were collected from the 2017 eclipse. You can google for the organizations.

So tell us Tommy, would you want to do it again?

Is Tommy reading or hearing the narrator? Looks like reading.

For some reason I’m thinking of Veterinarian Hospital…

I hadn’t heard the Dickens-Andersen story. Just Googled it. Thanks for the literary education, Georgia!

I wonder if Camera One, Camera Two, etc. have a little in-screen display of what they’re filming, like Zoom calls do so you can see yourself? Maybe Tommy can see Burt’s chyron on that. It would explain a lot – especially why Burt keeps poking at Elvis. It’s no fun if Elvis can’t see it happening!

Couldn’t agree more, Tommy. I’ve had that experience a few times.

And we’re still in suspense about Sophie and Gutter. Sigh.

I will be posting my eclipse story after the new comics post tonight. Don’t have time right now.

The Ferrets Who Came to Dinner

Poor Elvis he has been MIA for a while hope he is ok

I’m going to look that one up. It seems like they wouldn’t get along well.

OT Unfortunate news …

OT: BTW

My relatives who went to Dallas for the eclipse are now heading to south Texas to visit the kids & me for a couple of days. So in case it takes me a while to catch up here, that’s why.

I missed it entirely.

Lol I love it was a whole thing with Tommy interacting with Burts subtitles :)

Hey Bert! Drop the deets! Spill the tea!

i did look it up and yeah that’s a weird tale of hero worship …

Now I’m sorry I looked it up. It kind of ruined Danny Kaye’s movie for me. :-(