→2012→06→10→Comic Strip of the Day→CSotD: Don’t look here — the joke is in your hand
Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Don’t look here — the joke is in your hand

Published: June 10, 2012 1 minute 8 comments

Bizarro
I'm not sure this is the term that will stick, but Bizarro is certainly on the right track.

I flew this week for the first time in a year, and it gave me a chance to see the extent to which the smartphone has gone from early-adaptor gadget to business-person necessity to mainstream narcotic.

Based on what I saw in the airports, they're going to have to widen the moving walkways and change the signs to read "Stand Right, Walk Center, Shuffle Along Staring At Your Hands Left."

I don't mind getting stuck behind an older person, because I'm not that far away from slowing down myself. And I don't mind getting stuck behind the caravan of family-with-kids-and-gear, because I remember traveling with kids.

But I resent being stuck behind Millie Montag, who can't tear herself away from her interactive soap operas long enough to get from one spot to another, and who has so little self-awareness that she doesn't at least step to the side and let the world pass her by.

Even when it's germane, much of the information people gather on the fly is of dubious advantage. The fellow I sat next to on the plane was trying to make a connection that would not have been tight if we hadn't first been held up on a weather alert and then held up again for a malfunctioning warning light in the cockpit.

Before we landed, he knew by checking on his phone that he'd missed his next plane — only by a few minutes — and had already been rescheduled for the next morning. Which spared him a dash through the airport.

So that was good information and worth seeking.

On the other hand, as soon as he stepped off the plane, he'd have discovered the same thing and would still have been spared the dash.

Which was a good thing, because he wouldn't have made it anyway: He would have gotten stuck over and over again behind Millie Montag as she meandered vacantly down the concourse staring at her hands.

Note that the message of "Fahrenheit 451" is not that Millie was annoying but that she represented a wasted life and was a poor helpmeet for the novel's protagonist and that there were millions of her in society.

And that life is supposed to offer you more and that too many people assume that this is what there is and assume that this is what they deserve and so are happy with a virtual but completely empty and meaningless life.

Sorry. "Happy" is the wrong word. "Contented."

Guy Montag would have lived a contented life if he hadn't look up and seen what else was out there.

"Contented" as in "moo." 

  

Previous Post
CSotD: Fighting fire with fire power
Next Post
CSotD: You can’t look at this. It’s mine.

Comments 8

  1. A good choice, sir, and I have to admit I’m occasionally guilty of the same thing. However, I do try to get out of the way of other people when I’m reading/sending texts.
    Now if you’ll forgive my directing your readers’ attention to a different comic, today’s Non Sequitur (http://www.uclick.com/client/wpc/nq/) that made me jab my fist in the air in glee. The editor/proofreader in me has been bothered by Danae’s question for years. Also: ink pen, port wine. Any others?
    Now I have to go out to buy some chicken bird for the jambalaya I’m making.

  2. Non Sequitur made the short list (as it often does), but here’s my purely speculative take: “Tuna” was first canned commercially at the start of the 20th century and it is said that the casual term for the fish up to that time was “horse mackerel” (apparently used generically for a range of similar fish) but the Italian name was applied because horse mackerel sounded low class.
    So my guess is that “fish” was appended because Americans — particularly inland — weren’t familiar with what “tuna” was. A century-and-ten-years later, it persists as a regionalism much as “soda pop” does.
    My related problem is with people who say “Lima BEANS” instead of “LIMA beans.” Putting stress on the first word says “there are many types of beans, these are the Lima type” while putting it on the second word suggests “there are many types of Lima vegetables, these are the bean type.” Which is silly.
    We now return you to our regularly scheduled topic.

  3. Thank you. That does make sense–terms to tend to hang around for a while. And for the record, I always say LIMA beans, though I hardly ever eat the things.
    And to carry us further off topic, someone once pointed out that you can get five different meanings from the sentence “Jane is a good girl,” depending on which word is emphasized.

  4. Six meanings, depending on whether or not you wink while saying the word “good”….

  5. If you leave out the “fish” you could be talking about a piano tuna.
    Actually I just checked in to note that the term “Couch Potato” was invented by a comic artist, but you all knew that anyway.

  6. Naan bread (bread bread), haricot beans (bean beans), salsa sauce – one more I can’t think of at the moment :þ

  7. “Ink pen” is quite useful for those whose language community tends to merge the vowels of “pin” and “pen”. Makes it clear you don’t mean a pin of any kind.

  8. It also matches up with “ink brush,” a separate implement used for many of the same tasks. It’s like paintbrush and paint roller.

Comments are closed.

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.
^ Top