Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for March 11, 2022

[SIGH] Someone please explain…

Timmy? Why, Lassie. You looks too different.

They are all characters who can only say one word.

All that is missing is Lassie sitting there trying to spell “well”.

Cartoons and the readership are getting more out of touch. South Park a cartoon with horrid art.

Who is Hodor?

Groot does not say Groot. He is of a species whose vocal chords are grown in manner that he can only utter the sound “Iamgroot” (Which makes the phrase “We are Groot” a violation of cannon). It is like many animals that can only make a limited number of sounds (at least to the human ear). Groot can vary it enough that a person with a good ear can learn to understand his meaning.

According to the comic books, this is true only for adult members of the species as the speech mechanism solidifies at maturity. Younger ones can speak understandable English. This is to explain why in the original depiction of members of the species when they were invading earth, they were able to communicate clearly.

…and all the Lassies were male.

and so it begins…

I assumed the joke had something to do with the characters portrayed, but as I didn’t recognize any of them, I didn’t really get it.

I recently heard that the NY Times acquired the rights to Wordle, and will be adding it to their puzzle page. Since I subscribe to that page, I googled it, to find out how the game works. But the explanations I found of how to play were gibberish, and I didn’t even find a clear link to a page where you can play it. Maybe it’ll make sense when I can actually try it on the Times puzzle page.

For me it’s a cultural literacy fail.