Andy Capp by Reg Smythe for April 28, 2006

Hello all, again…. I haven’t meant to be ignoring you…. OR No. 6’s question about my avatar….or asking MY questions about the other day, even though I know the subject is getting old…

But I’ve had a strange day…. feeling a bit under the weather, too. Can’t seem to catch up with anything!

And now the time change has made it already very late…

So for now, to quote a friend — “Be seeing you!”

(Except I always thought that greeting was kinda chilling, in the Prisoner.)

BTW about that “controversy” — I don’t know exactly what was said, and there’s a reason I’d still like to know.

You see, I think my perspective is different from most…. which I will explain later…. and I’m still on the fence about helping Raspberry come back.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to ask without making anyone say the same things again that caused trouble!

I wish I could do it by e-mail, but I’m perhaps more wary than necessary about posting my address.

Both Dogsniff and VLDazzle have done it numerous times, so maybe I shouldn’t be paranoid.

Anyone here have any experiences to report?

I’m supposed to be elsewhere, but since I see you about, No. 6 — let me try to get this stupid topic over with, OK?

I’m going out but will see your answer a bit later, if you’re so kind as to give one.

First, let me say, my question is NOT so I can judge you…. I KNOW you are innocent of any bad intent! I think I already proved that.

And I’m sure I would have found your comment funny…. but as you’ve seen, some people, even though they read comics, are not good at grasping humor.

I’m just trying to understand the mind of someone rather….OK… let’s say “slow” (not you!)

Normally I would NOT beat around the bush, and would just use the real words, as I have discussed both topics on the forums and never had a problem.

But right now seems to be a sensitive time, so I’ll be horribly coy.

Let’s just say men customarily wear a little hat in a location women can’t wear one.

But in one particular group of people, the baby boys, at birth, have their little “hats” removed.

On the day in question, Lio receives a pet monster as a gift from Grandma.

As I understand it, its tentacles, to you, looked as though they had doffed their little hats, prompting you to say the monster looked to be a member of that hat-removing group.

What I have been trying to find out is whether you explained it, as in “Oh, he has no little hats, so he might be a member of that group!”

Or did you just say “He looks like a member of that group”, and assume everyone would KNOW why you said it?

The answer to that little question determines, to a degree, whether I have ANY sympathy for …. you know who.

And… after all that — cute possum!We have lots of them around here and everybody but me thinks they’re ugly.

And yes — where IS Lady Shades?

Good night!

Six — Yeah, I thought that might be so. When I’m in joke mode I tend to plunge ahead.

As to that post, as soon as Beviek sees it I’ll delete it, and leave the subject behind. Just needed to work through it.

Eldo — I’m just doing a quick round on my phone. Later when in on my computer I’ll help if someone hasn’t already. Too hard this way.

And BTW, Leo McKern may well be the best TWO, but in my heart he will always be the ONLY Rumpole… and one of my heroes.

Thanks Beviek…. now my comment has served its purpose and it’s gone.

You never know who’s reading everybody’s profile comments, and I don’t need it hanging there all day - but I did save the text in case anyone else really needs to know —

LOL…. everybody who’s just hanging on my every word, of course!

And yes, one reason I tried to have some sympathy is because of my own experiences.

Unfortunately, you don’t need to have been fed actual lies,

if you’ve experienced ill-treatment, as I have, by people proclaiming to be Christian (a contradiction if ever there were one!)

Some slightly older kids ganged up on me when I was very young. Beat me up and told me I was going straight to Hell (with graphic descriptions of being burned alive) because God only loved Christians (sounds silly but I was petrified.)

When I was 7 and 8, the boys from the neighboring Catholic school threw rocks and called us “dirty Jews”…after terrorizing our kindergarteners, who got out earlier, grabbing their belongings, etc.My little sister ran to my classroom every afternoon and cried till they let her wait by my feet to walk home with me.

Funny thing is we were not observant. I know more about it now…. but I didn’t even understand the religious difference at that time.

I only knew I “was Jewish.”

I’ve also been shut out of joining high school clubs and college sororities because I was Jewish.My parents and my Christian friends all helped to show me that such misguided people were not the norm,Perhaps Raspberry lacked that.

As an adult, I’ve run into less prejudice —but it survives, sometimes when people don’t realise it.

I usually don’t bring up my ethnicity (can’t call it faith because it doesn’t define my personal beliefs,)but you can bet I’ve corrected people who asked me, during my life in retail and antique-dealing “Can I Jew you down?”

I also get quite huffy when someone tight-fisted is described as “a Jew.”

It still happens!!

So yeah — I tried – but the upshot is that no matter how much prejudice is out there, calling someone “Hitler” for saying somebody (or thing!) looks Jewish is wrong.

Anyhow — now I have to go look for Three’s video!

And hello Number Three — don’t think we’ve spoken.

Oh — and Beviek — I’m even older — within months of leading the baby boom.

Which means I’m coming up very soon on a double-digit birthday!

Shhhh…. don’t tell! I have to preserve my girlish identity. LOL

Wow — came back because I didn’t answer Eldo…. and now there are comments from Beviek interspersed with mine.

They were NOT showing even when I read, deleted, edited and re-posted my comments before I left.

Thanks for the Purim greetings, which I do appreciate cos you never see the Jewish holidays mentioned — but honestly, I don’t observe any, or usually know when they are, except for attending the very very occasional (like every 5 or 10 years) Passover seder or Hanukkah celebration.

I also got that message…. today in re Six, and previously, for Mabrndt.

It just means that “support” people deal with website issues and are not the forum moderators.

They’ve done all they can, so they’ve marked it “solved” — but their “solution” was to let the forum mods decide.

And because it happened right before a weekend, they don’t know the mods have already resolved it.

Clear as mud??

Anyway….. sorry to take up so much of this forum today — I’m about finished!

OK….. lastly….@Eldo…. I’m not a great expert but the way I know is this:

<img src="URL" width="a" height="b" />

substitute one or both variables or a blank space for a and b, in pixels.

Filling in both will change the proportions if you don’t maintain the ratio; I believe leaving one blank will maintain them.

Those are double quote marks — for some reason they’re pasting as single, and I don’t know whether that works.

Whoa —even though the code attribute is supposed to let you paste the whole thing, it’s not letting me paste the closing tag.

(Substuting HTML entities for the “code” attribute….)

try again:

< img src=“URL” width=“x” height=“y” >

< /img >

Do NOT leave x or y in it — if not specified, leave it blank.I used them as placeholders so it didn’t look like "".

Hope that helps!

Oh — Eldo — hope you see my revision!

No, I won’t go away totally — I meant I’ll quit hogging the forum — there’s just been a lot to deal with.

Also, I admit, I haven’t watched the Prisoner since perhaps the 70’s re-runs, so I have to start over….

though I did love it, and Danger Man (which was called Secret Agent here) when it was new.

Yikes!!!

x_tech why isn’t the code attribute working for me? You’re so much better at this than I am!

Hey Guys!! Anybody miss me?

Have had to deal with some personal/family problems since before the weekend… and my daughter’s internet connection got ‘dug up’ when her landlord was making a new parking lot, and the phone company can’t send anyone to fix it before Thursday afternoon!! And she doesn’t even have a TV! It’s like being cut off from the rest of the world (wait… it actually IS being cut off from the rest of the world!)

Anyway… I’m exhausted and in desperate need of a shower, so I’ll have to come back later and try to do some catchin’ up! Gee, I’m guessing that’s gonna take a while!! TTFN!!

Wow — when I left this afternoon, nothing had been said here for hours….

Didn’t occur to me it would have gotten so busy right afterward… should have checked sooner.

Nice to meet you, too, Number Three!I look forward to talking to you more…. especially when I’m actually awake.

And Lady Shades…. yes, everybody was looking for you, even me…but I think I deleted the comment where I mentioned it, due to other content that I didn’t want to leave hanging around.

Speaking of which…. the person of whom I was speaking hasn’t posted any new (invisible) comments in 4 days…doesn’t mean she gave up_reading_ them, though.

And rats! Now I’ll never know what moron or what was said!

Sigh… I hink I’m going to have to add Andy Capp to my line-up.Frankly I hadn’t bothered with it in years, cos to me, it lost its edge when it lost Reg Smythe.

Andy has become so nice he’s not as funny.

But that forum seems to be where some of the action is…. so I’ll check it out!

Oh – my avatar…. it’s ME… supposedly.

I’m a big fan and promoter of “Brevity”, as some of you know.

I try to post there every day, if I can. Have done ever since we first got forums on Comics.com, in 2008.

In fact I was sometimes the only poster, or it was me and one other person, who became a close friend.

When we heard rumors that we were “moving” to GoComics, I e-mailed Guy and rOdd to ask if it were true, and to say I hoped they would come along.

Rodd, who is (or was) the artist of Brevity, while Guy writes the jokes, wrote back, and we exchanged a couple of e-mails.

A few days after Brevity showed up on this site, someone on the forum …. and you know, I’m going to have to look cos I think it was Number Six! ..said he was waiting to see my avatar…

(We didn’t have them on the old site.)

And rOdd commented (amazingly) that he would draw me one, if I liked!

I couldn’t say no to that!

We e-mailed, and I sent him a photo.. …. and my avatar is the result!

I don’t think it actually looks like me, but he did capture something of me.

In any case, not many people are lucky enough to have a custom avatar from a cartoonist on the site…so I love it.

Though, sadly, to me, most of the drawing of Brevity now is by Dan, as Rodd is tired of doing it.

He and Guy produce Hollywood trailers and a comic strip was just a sideline for them.

Anyway…one of these days, if I’m properly beseeched, I’ll actually use my Photobucket account and upload the photo so I can post it here.

hello villagers!!! I’m back… but I gotta lotsa catchin’ up to do, so it’ll be a while before I can respond to any comments that are addressed to me…

… but before I go… I just have to give this avatar to Number Three… I think (hope) she’s gonna love, love, love it!!

Do you see the little ‘3’ on the right-hand side that’s been made by the topside of one of the hearts Three?

Number Six – I keep meaning to get in here and thank you for your kind responses to several of my comments in different places.

I’ve had a busy few days and I’ve tried to fit in writing a lot about other things, even here…. but I’ve been remiss, and I’m sorry.

And it WAS you who asked about my avatar, which prompted rOdd to offer his drawing!So thank you!

And thank you, again, Beviek, and Lady Shades, too….

and if there’s anybody I missed…. sorry….

Must sleep!

Good grief!! There is soooo much to catch up on! I’ve had to copy and paste the comments I need to reply too – 4 pages!! – and that’s only from here in the Village!! It is definitely not going to be possible tonight! Looks like everyone else is aslumber anyways… sooo… here I go toooooo…

Hello you guys! This is just a fly-by to say hello, coz I got an unexpected visitor today who is still here, so I haven’t been able to get back as I thought I would… it’s a bloomin’ nuisance fallin’ behind! I’m not even caught up with myself at home yet either! I’m purposely not going to ‘scroll up’ and read any more at the moment, coz I already feel bad enough not having yet managed to respond to everyone’s kind messages from when I was away, so I’ll read them tomorrow (hopefully – if my guest departs!)

For now, I’ll say BCNGU as soon as I am able to!

I am really sorry to hear that. My thoughts are also with you and your family… and also your little Tabby!

You take care of yourself.

I hope you’re feeling a lot better today. I really hope you are ok. Been a bit worried.

Hello Villagers —

With a special note to Eldo — Take care of yourself, please!

I was shocked to come back after a few days absence and read your recent posts. I really hope everything is getting better.

Meanwhile…. I know I’m not exactly a regular here but still, I didn’t mean to disappear!

I’ve been out of town since Friday afternoon… it’s now Sunday night.

I stay now and then with my ex-mother-in-law, and whatever members of the family are there…

She just turned 94 on Friday.

We celebrated her birthday Friday night and, per her request, for her birthday present, I made a big corned beef and cabbage dinner (5lbs of corned beef, cooked with loads of potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbage… plus soda bread) for everyone yesterday (Saturday)….

You know… corned beef and cabbage… that quintessentially “Irish” St. Patrick’s Day dinner that they’ve never heard of in Ireland, for a holiday they don’t celebrate that way in Ireland…

Though my friend near Dublin tells me it’s getting more popular…. as an American custom. :cD

I had only a little bit of computer time, with others using it and me so busy…and being awakened at ungodly hours of the morning, so I couldn’t keep to my night-owl ways.

I only made a few comments on a couple of strips and had to call it a night.

But I’m back.So hello to all…and thanks for the links, Number Six….

I do want to allow myself time to watch all that stuff…

x_Tech —

Thank you! Um… still not sure I understand, though…OK, you said “According strict HTML a closing tag for the img tag is forbidden, so browsers will just ignore it.”

And you also told Eldo that the “alt attribute” is not optional — though that may have been in reference to something other than images.The image tag I usually use has only img src= “url”, inside a pair of angle brackets, and then an immediate /img closing tag, which I guess you’re saying is unnecessary.I guess that might be cos nothing is really between the tags.

All the info is inside the first set of brackets, and there’s no text to actually mark up.(I only use measurement attributes if I didn’t find the picture already the size I wanted.

I did say I thought you could put in width OR height and it would be made proportionate.

I’ve found you can _change the proportions by using both.)But my question had to do with why the code tag didn’t display all the code I typed.

Does it somehow find and leave out forbidden or unnecessary tags?Weird! I thought it would just “echo” my string.

I am really glad you’re feeling a lot better. .

Do the Anti-Depressants make you sleepy?

You mentioned your Blood Pressure above.. Was it normal/high/low? I can’t tell the difference. It confuses me.

I’ve had my Blood Pressure done loads of times. It’s always been normal but if I’m nervous or can’t stay still then it shoots up.

Anyway… I REALLY hope you feel 100% better soon. I’m sure you will.

All I can say is you have my Sympathy and that my thoughts are with you.

Beviek — Traditionally, where my friend lived, people went to church, often wearing shamrocks or green ribbon rosettes pinned to their clothes.St. Patrick’s Day was a quiet, religious holiday.Some time in the 70’s they repealed the law that kept pubs and bars closed on that day, and about 20 years ago, a few years after she moved to a city near Dublin, they started having parades, and other activities officially celebrating Irish culture, But green beer, rowdiness in the name of St. Pat’s, and corned beef — no.

And to Beviek and Eldo…. good wishes for both the dogs.

I really know how it is with pets.

My dog was family … and if someone scoffed at that…. well, that meant that he or she never would be.

Eldo! Are you all right???I hope you’re getting some help.I just found these comments, and I see they’re a day old… but for three days, the village has been on the next page, and everybody’s been worrying about you!We understand.Come and see!