Recent Comments

1. 3 days ago on Adam@Home

   For us, the readers, of course.

2. 3 days ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Sorry, but that’s BS. The first name that Davy suggested (in 1808) was actually alumium, derived from alum (an aluminium salt that was, of course, already known) plus the suffix -ium, which is used in many element names, in particular those derived from Latin.

   But the name didn’t catch because other scientists considered that the prefix should be closer to alumen, as that is the Latin name for alum. So many other European scientists proposed the term aluminium, including Jöns Berzelius in a document from 1811. Also in that year, a summary of one of Davy’s lectures proposes the name aluminium. With the second i.

   It is only the next year (1812) when Davy published a document using the name aluminum. So, the usage with the suffix -ium predates the one without the i, even by Davy himself.

3. 3 days ago on FoxTrot Classics

   They pronounce it aluminium because they write it as aluminium, with an i, like in the rest of the English speaking world outside North America, and all European languages that don’t use a completely different word.

4. 8 days ago on Big Nate

   There’s a poster by that name? Sorry, I don’t normally follow the comments in this particular page so I’m not familiar with the regulars.

   What I meant is that in the strip Randy is very frequently referred to as “Randy Betancourt” while Marcus and Chester are usually referred to by just their first names.

5. 8 days ago on FoxTrot Classics

   Yeah, but I remember that it was a bookstore in the first years… So not a place where Paige would like to hang out. Then they started selling stuff like CDs…

6. 8 days ago on Cow and Boy Classics

   Thanks for pointing that out… I had not realized.

   It is very strange indeed. It’s like if the colorist was working with a palette with very few colors, and had to substitute additional colors (in this case several grays) with textures… But then, the sky itself is a very smooth gradient from cyanish-blue to almost-white.

   Looking closely I see that in the first panel there is a checkerboard on the wooden barn wall. And the fence behind them has no black outline.

   Maybe Mark Leiknes did his own weekday coloring and his technique needed just a touch of refinement?

7. 8 days ago on Big Nate

   “Come to think of it, about the only non-adult we know the full name of in this strip seems to be Nate…”

   Whaaaaat? No…. as BigNateFanForever1 said, Francis is called Francis Butthurst Pope. (So he was already Francis Pope way before Pope Francis was a thing!).

   Teddy is Teddy √ Ortiz. Yes, his middle name is a square root sign.

   Jenny Jenkins has no middle name that we know of, and neither do Artur Pashkov and Chad Applewhite. Gina is Gina Hemphill-Toms, but I believe that is just a compound surname.

   It is reasonable that we never learned the middle names of the villains (if they have one): Chester Budrick, Marcus Goode, and, of course, Randy Betancourt. ( I say “of course” because for some reason his last name usually comes up whenever he appears.)

8. 11 days ago on FoxTrot Classics

   “Can Paige throw a football better than Jason can?”

   Maybe… After all, Paige is… well… something.

9. 12 days ago on Stone Soup Classics

   Covid03. Sorry barely, the strip is dated 2003.

   Well, the original SARS outbreak occurred that year (more precisely in November 2002 to April 2004). SARS was the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-1, a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID.

   Soooo… you were really close…

10. 12 days ago on Big Nate: First Class

    He’s the author of the Linus & Lucy theme featured in Peanuts movies, right?

    No wonder!