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Language at the art galleries
From the New York Times on the 11th, “Last Chance: Warhol, Basquiat and Other History Lessons” by Roberta Smith. I’ll be getting to Ruscha and Basquiat eventually, but first Smith’s background...
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Frenemones
In the July 2016 Funny Times, this punning cartoon by Australian cartoonist Judy Horacek: Layered portmanteaus: frenemy (friend + enemy) + anemone. Frenemy from NOAD2: ‘a person with whom one is...
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Annals of lexical inventiveness: sternum bush
From the tv series Psych (S1 E11), psychic investigator Shawn Spencer (played by James Roday) to Head Det. Carlton Lassiter of the Santa Barbara Police Dept. (played by Timothy Osmundson), on...
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Leaving, in tears and a portmanteau
Passed on by Facebook friends (especially Arthur Prokosch), this Dan Wasserman editorial cartoon in the Boston Globe on the 16th: Here we are in Portmantexia, a land of words in –exit, –leave, and...
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Gang of five
Comics and cartoons pile up. Here are four recent ones from my regular feeds, plus a Perry Bible Fellowship (“The Offenders”) sent to me by Jason Parker-Burlingham. Before that, a Bizarro with the...
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Rugrat regrets
The morning name from two days ago, a bit of language play, with the repeated pattern r … gr … t r … gr … t apparently invented in my sleeping head rather than remembered from previous experience. The...
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The fallen V
In today’s Zippy, Bill Griffith continues his long exploration of American pop culture, especially roadside culture — diners, motels, and (very often) big fiberglass advertising figures: (#1) (Note...
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Two cat cartoons
Not quite what you think. Two cartoons: a Mother Goose and Grimm from yesterday, today’s Bizarro: (#1) (#2) To appreciate #1, you need to know about the custom of putting out a cat for the night (V +...
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goober
Today’s Bizarro, with a terrible pun (and a large number of Dan Piraro’s symbols): (#1) Start with the pun: goober driver ‘driver who’s a peanut’ (or, in a metaphorical extension, ‘driver who looks...
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Word play for 7-11
Three cartoons today (July 7th, or 7/11 in American usage; this will be important): a perfect pun (from Rhymes With Orange), using an ambiguity in local; a more distant pun (from Mother Goose and...
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Morning name: Colquhoun
Today’s morning name was not one that came to me apparently from outer space, but had a clear basis in my recent experience — namely, watching the British detective drama Midsomer Murders episode...
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Let’s just call it “grammar”
Yesterday’s Rhymes With Orange: A visit to a theme park with a linguistic theme: it deals, at least, in onomatopoeia (rattle for the sound a rattlesnake’s tail makes), palindromes (expressions that...
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Zippy and the Edsels
Today’s Zippy, a little poem in three panels: Or: Zipama Drama King Kong. The model is the song “Rama Lama Ding Dong”, as sung originally by the Edsels (and then covered by many others). From...
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Politically prescient G&S
Two days ago, a political portmanteau (about Herr Drumpf) committed by Susan Fischer on Facebook: So when Donald goes off on a rant, is it a tantrump? To which I replied, bowing to Sir Arthur Sullivan:...
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Ziplinguists
Prompted by a Zippy posting of mine, Dan Everett posted on Facebook that he had a signed copy from Bill Griffith of a Zippy that was, in some sense, about him (though he’s not actually mentioned in the...
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PE6-5000
Chatting last week with a friend about changes in New York city, centered around the demolishing of Pennsylvania Station, the inadequacies of the current building known as Penn Station, and the...
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Morning name: The Right Honourable The Lord Rees-Mogg
… as Baron Rees-Mogg of Hinton Blewitt was to be properly addressed (from 1988 until his death in 2012). Before that, he was just William Rees-Mogg, of The Times: (#1) From Wikipedia, some snapshots...
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Balls!
Today’s Zippy takes us to Nowata OK, a tiny, flat, and dusty place at the northeastern edge of the state (not far from Kansas and Missouri, not far from Tulsa): (#1) This is Zippy, so of course...
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Briefly: vice-presidential anagrams
In the August 2016 issue of Funny Times, a reprinting of a Dave Barry column (from the 7/26 Miami Herald), “Is this what really goes on inside the Democratic dance and beer hall?” (about the Democratic...
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Associating with Zippy
In today’s Zippy, our Pinhead falls into reveries of word association, prompted by the flatiron in his hand: Not ironic words, but ferrous words, which takes us into the world of Ferris wheels, Ferris...
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