Friday, 21 November 2008

Friday Night Fights: Hulk vs. The Thing



From Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 (1974). Art by Rich Buckler & Joe Sinnott. Letters by Artie Simek. Colors by P. Goldberg. Story by Gerry Conway. (click pic for larger)

Ka-Pow? WHAPO!

God's Little Miracles

Today's Bizarro cartoon has been made possible by Sultry Carnivores Part Two.

Ours isn't the only society having trouble economically, Legoland is in the dumper, too. With those stiff little U-shaped hands, many activities that you and I take for granted are nearly impossible. That's one reason Lego cars, trucks, boats, planes, etc., are so simple and blocky. They just don't have the dexterity for fine details. Ever seen a Lego person with a heart or brain surgery scar? Of course not, surgery of any kind doesn't even exist for these unfortunate souls. Some of them dress like doctors, but they don't actually do anything.

And I know it is politically incorrect to say this, but I have a devil of a time telling them apart. Without their individual outfits or makeup or whatever, they all look alike to me. I'm told they can tell each other apart, but I've not seen evidence of it. And where do they come from? They have no reproductive organs that I can discern. The perrenial smile on their faces always makes them look as though they've just had sex, but how?

With all their hardships, it is no wonder they are so religious.

(Author's note: Here is a site that has pretty much the entire Bible – Old and New Testaments – acted out with Lego people. Not to be missed.)

Pinching Loaves

Thanks to my friend, Jezzka, and regular reader of this blog for the following video with some excellent cooking tips.

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Naked Feet and Uncaged Liquids

Bizarro is brought to you today by Sultry Carnivores.

I'm really sick of that ad campaign about "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," but it gave me an idea for a cartoon so I can't complain. To me, the funny thing about this cartoon is not the punch line, but the scalpel in the TSA agent's hand.

I travel a lot by aeroplane and, like many people with a reasonable I.Q. and a modicum of logic, I find the TSA folks to be exasperating. I've had harmless things taken away from me at security, the most notable of which was a plastic, space-age-looking child's raygun I had bought as a gift for a kid. The reason given was that the flight crew wouldn't have time to ascertain it was a toy if I tried to use it as a weapon. I'm not kidding.

The requirement of taking one's shoes off, even if they are flip-flops that could not conceal anything larger than a sewing needle, is another point of contention with me, along with the rule about liquids being in a plastic bag.

The concept of the bag rule is obviously to restrict the amount of liquids any one person can bring onto a plane; if you have more than can fit into a plastic bag of a certain size, you might have enough explosives to cause trouble. The logic of this is obviously flawed, five passengers could bring the legal limit and combine them on board, but more annoying than this blatent loophole is when you have only one tiny container and they insist you put it into a plastic bag. I've seen this on more than one occasion.

A friend of mine is married to an airline pilot and she says they say TSA stands for "Thousands Standing Around."

If they were actually making the industry safer, I'd be more tolerant of this kind of time-wasting nonsense, but studies continue to show it is just as easy to slip weapons past security as it was before 9/11.

I don't have an answer for this dilemma, of course, I just wanted to complain.

Brilliant New Blog

I've discovered a new daily blog that has really caught my attention. There are only four things I read daily, this has joined the list. If you like this one, go here for a daily dose: http://deadpaninc.blogspot.com/


V for Vengeance, B for Beauty

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

Sick as a Dog

Bizarro is brought to you today by The Association for People With Ugly Children.

I've often thought it overkill the way we ban non-human animals from places that serve food, when we are much more likely to get sick from contact with other humans than any other species. I would still eat in a restaurant if dogs were allowed, especially knowing that there are any number of insects and rodents living in the nooks and crannies. Regarding my health, I'm much more concerned about the cook in the kitchen than the Beagle in the booth.

In New York there are lots of sidewalk cafes that allow dogs and it's always fun to see them hanging out with their parents. CHNW cannot pass a dog without chatting, and NYC has lots of dogs so it takes us quite a while to get through the city on foot. For occasions when we are in a hurry, I distract her by pointing out fine architectural details at the tops of buildings when a dog is passing so we don't lose too much time.

Most people are amazed at the intelligence of dogs on certain occasions, but I have come to believe that all species of animals have impressive intelligence, each in their own way. Not surprisingly, we tend to judge intelligence by how much like our own it is, but evolutionarily this is a poor standard. I think if you consider that other species have different types of intelligence that we do not necessarily relate to, and in some cases cannot even perceive, it changes your understanding of them. It also makes you feel less of a sense of entitlement over them.