CSotD: Friday Funnies
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Start off the non-political parade with a Bliss cartoon which is less humorous on its own than in tandem with the strangest conversation of the week.
Charley horses and other cramps are a common side effect of taking statins, so it's not hard to get a conversation on the topic going if you hang out with old enough people. Someone was complaining about them the other day — at the dog park, if that adds a bit of appropriateness to this cartoon — and someone else asked if he'd tried putting a bar of soap in his bed.
Which provoked a great deal of scoffing and laughter, but the answer was "Seriously. Look it up."
And it's a thing. It really is.
Here's an extensive explanation, though it is from a place that sells a special soap they have formulated for leg cramps which contains extra scent ingredients, which they contend are the actual factor that prevents charley horses.
They have some other articles about home remedies. I don't know if that adds to their credibility or subtracts from it, and I don't get leg cramps consistently enough to be able to test the theory.
Nor does my dog.
And, if he did, I'd be reluctant to put a bar of soap in his bed, though he's not in the same dog-demographic as Sophie from Dog Eats Doug.
Ridgebacks, as a rule, are unimpressed with toys, except as the object of a game of keep-away, in which you can guarantee that Mr. Wiffles would be the clear loser.
But we were given a similar dog toy at some event and so brought it down to the dog park where I gave it to Vaska's friend Sasha, who proceeded to accept it, squeak it a few times, then pin it down with a forepaw and tear it, rooting inside and tossing out the stuffing until she came to the squeaker, which she squeaked once or twice and then crushed and dropped on the ground.
Total elapsed time about a minute and a half.
Mostly funny when the toy is free, or in a cartoon. Or when it's someone else who spent money on the thing.
As for the bar of soap thing, I wouldn't expect him to treat it as a toy, which is to say, to totally ignore it. But given that scent is part of it's magical effect on leg cramps, he might be attracted to that, at which point one of the few rules we have would need to kick in:
If it goes in, it has to stay in.
Dogs decide all sorts of things are edible, which is okay as long as they don't discover, in the back of the car on the way home from the park, that they were mistaken.
I can't imagine a bar of soap that wouldn't create an issue at some point following ingestion.
Juxtaposition of Last Sunday
When I was a youngster, I enjoyed the "Kids Say The Darndest Things" segment of Art Linkletter's House Party. I even had a copy of his 1957 book, with illustrations by some guy named Charles Schulz.
As I got older, however, I discovered a couple of things, one of which was that, while kids who say the darndest things got laughs on television, the reinforcement their cleverness got on the playground was decidedly less positive.
And then in 1969 Diane Linkletter jumped out of a window to her death, which her father blamed on LSD (she wasn't high) and turned into a campaign against drugs and, while I have learned not to blame families for such things, it did occur to me that he might have spent more time talking to her rather than coaxing smartass remarks out of other people's children.
By the time Bill Cosby resurrected the franchise in 1995, I was already stepping off his bandwagon anyway, plus I had children of my own who often said interesting and funny things that didn't make me turn and mug to the camera.
And then sell them Pudding Pops.
Juxtaposition of Wednesday
Sometimes, I have no commentary to add.
This would be one of those times.
Juxaposition of the Week
Kirby is seeking a villain who stole an emerald upon which is inscribed a diagram of how to unleash the secrets of the pyramids, and Rudy has been nattering on about them throughout the week.
The theory that people order more beverages if the waiter talks about deserts is the only possible reason to want your staff telling customers their theories about pyramids.
I used to buy fish from a New Agey couple who had some odd but interesting theories, but they were also excellent cooks and confined most of the conversation to suggestions on how to prepare fish. Then again, they were the only fish shop in town, so however you felt about handwriting analysis and reincarnation, that was the place with the sand dabs and orange roughy.
On the other hand, when the local coffee guy asked me to join him for lunch, I assumed he wanted to pick a reporter's brain over some new plans he had for the shop or maybe some civic venture he was considering.
Turned out he was planning to sell the coffee place and had started recruiting Amway sales people.
Which meant I had to find another coffee source until the new owners were in place.
Which wasn't that difficult, so baristas should be cautious about saying the darndest things.
The Prime Directive prevents me from being specific, but we've got our first "Camping Sucks" arc going elsewhere and I'm sure there will be more.
They don't make me laugh, but today's Loose Parts did, by turning the concept on its head.
I was appalled enough when stores began selling city folks the bare sticks (which actually do grow on trees, you know).
This wouldn't surprise me in the least.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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