Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for September 29, 2023

My literacy falls short of Hemingway and small shoes. Anyone care to shine?

In the strip “Footprints in the Sand”, the prints are small because they’re cat footprints. You can tell because Hemingway was especially fond of Manx cats, which also explains why the prints have extra toes.

The (not true) story goes: Hemingway said he could write a great short story using only six words. They were:

For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

This story in a slightly different version (baby crib) predates Hemingway’s birth by a good number of years.

I do believe that Trump has a tiny little parasite, but he (in keeping with the “Great Moments” strip) calls it Dick Z. Normous. Irony meter just exploded.

Ha ha. I guess there’s consolation Shulz had a self-made hell.

i don’t get the “running to the bathroom” comic

Betty Wont get a refund.

The sidebar is brilliant!

“The Yellow River” by I.P. Daily. The disgusting photo is a lotus going to seed. Don’t get why that is disgusting.

Could a 9 year old figure that? Took me a while.

The signature on “Classic Comix” is clearly “Roth” (i.e. Philip), but can anyone make out the signature on “Lil Tykes”? When Ruben includes one, it’s usually significant.

Is the picture in that “top ten sitcoms” ad from the “Too Many Cooks” sketch?

Well, that’s a lot to process!

Charles Schulz’ original name for his most famous comic strip was “Li’l Folks.” The newspaper syndicate didn’t like that, and changed it to “Peanuts,” a name Schulz hated.

It’s kind of archaic now, but back in the 40s and 50s, “Peanut” was a somewhat unflattering, but sometimes affectionate, name for a small person (sort of like “Shrimp” or “Pipsqueak”).

Am I supposed to be skeptical of the “Weird Tricks” ads? I’m skeptical. They’re so convincing.

The links to the articles don’t work!

William “Willie” Makeit looks like Mitt Romney.