Recent Comments

1. about 5 hours ago on Big Nate

   The deepest, darkest fear you could ever nightmare of.

2. about 5 hours ago on Big Nate

   A Marxist-Leninist state succeeding.

3. about 5 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Hey – it’s only fair! Mexico sends people our way, we send people their way!

4. about 5 hours ago on Ripley's Believe It or Not

   Who is the mysterious “Yur”?

5. about 5 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Calvin’s got a lot of -icides.

6. about 5 hours ago on Heart of the City

   So school rules don’t have anything against selling on school property?

7. about 5 hours ago on Ripley's Believe It or Not

   I sure will!

8. about 20 hours ago on Nancy

   “The Floor is Lava” is a children’s game centered around avoiding the ground, as you pretend it is lava. You take extreme measures to avoid it, such as jumping on couches or chairs.

   It is derived from a game played by the bored children of 14th-century Djiboutian desert nomads. The game, Ash-Somlia (roughly translated as The Ground is Made of Death), was usually played by jumping on rocks and bushes. In the game, the ground was not made of lava, but rather it was possessed by the spirit of death.

   Around the year 1460, it really kicked off, spreading across the whole region. By 1475, the entire Arabian Peninsula was caught in the craze. Spreading to the African Mediterranean and Turkey, it soon became known by Europeans, who (especially the Holy Roman Empire), used the game to train their soldiers on how to avoid traps laid on the ground by their opponent.

   In an unknown year of the 17th-century, the game’s focus shifted from avoiding the Spirit of Death to avoiding lava (some researchers believe this was done by the non-spiritual population), but other than that the game hasn’t changed much.

   A few hundred years later, when European went to inland Djibouti, they met the original nomads, who showed them the best way to play the game. When the French colonized Djibouti, they made great research on the original game. Also, when the Italians colonized modern-day Somalia, they named it Somlia-Land, after the game. It would later be changed to Somaliland, then just Somalia.

   After that, it just went sort of under the radar. However, it has come back in recent years, in the form of a children’s game, its original purpose.

9. 2 days ago on Nancy Classics

   Let’s see… an open tub of ice cream, two unwrapped lollipops, and a plate of…mashed potatoes?

10. 2 days ago on Mutt & Jeff

    Now wait a minute! That piano-playing bozo is trying to steal my identity!