Oh I remember that ad too.

I was trying to say that Larson’s verbal reference is tortured inelegant. IMO of course.

I had to look this one up…

This is an obtuse reference to the sanctimonious public service announcement (PSA) TV ad from the 80s “This Is Your Brain On Drugs”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnENVylxPI

No, the comic doesn’t work for me either.

If you think of it as a project to destroy teachers’ unions who always favor one political party, then it makes more sense.

See also New Math from about the same era.

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling by Mark Twain probably not

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and Iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” – bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez – tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

It’s not even made from pocaris.

Also: Why maple syrup comes in a flat bottle with a vestigial handle loop

tl;dr It was marketing to resemble a jug, but most people don’t know that these days, and the tradition has continued.

At least the bottles aren’t plastic.

from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/windfucker

…the synonym windsucker is almost as old, and was rendered in older texts as windſucker using a long s, so some scholars think windfucker is a misreading of windſucker…

All he really wanted was the Happy Meal toy.

Oh that’s where my 2x3’s went!

Flossing was quite an ordeal with those tiny arms.

Oh debianastro made an alt account, or an alt instance. That explains how this got past my block filter.

Subtle propaganda for diverting public school funds to segregated private schools through vouchers.

Thereby further weakening unionized teachers, and the middle class as a whole.

Fuck Linda McMahon and Betsy DeVos

Did Larson get paid royalties, I wonder?

Keeping clowns and street performers in captivity allows the population to recover.

I’ll just point to a reddit post about this one, from which I am mostly stealing the below: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSide/comments/x39n7i/jw_miller/

“Staff and rod” are a Biblical reference to shepherding equipment and symbols of leadership, rest, protection, and love. As good an explanation as any.

“J W Miller” might be a reference to a 19th Century preacher, William Miller, who popularized the whole “calculating the Second Coming of Jesus Christ” doomsday thing, in later religious movements and doomsday prophecies. But I can’t find anything about having a “J” as part of his name.

Someone thought that Miller was also a reference to a boat building company, but this is the only one that came up on a google. I have no idea how popular the Miller boats are or were. But again, no “J” in the name here.

The boat might only be there to work in the “Rod == fishing rod” angle.

“J W Miller” might just be some random guy stuck in a biblical reference.

LASD was furious when LAPD copied their “rubber bullet no-look trickshots into protesters faces” TikToks.

“Are we there yet?”
“No”
“Are we there yet?”
“No”
“Are we there yet?”
“No”

But seriously, hummingbird migration distances are amazing in relation to their size.

https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/hummingbird-migration-spring-2024-map-animation-video.htm

Larson riffing on the “St Bernard dog with a barrel on its collar” myth that found its way into cartoons of its day: https://beerconnoisseur.com/articles/truth-about-saint-bernard-dogs-and-barrels

Reminds me of the limited operation time of an Evangelion robot.