FoxTrot by Bill Amend for September 29, 2024

The Microscopes in my school never needed to be plugged in! Uh, Progress?

That might be a variable there.

Did Thomas Edison “invent” and licensee those and sue all the people not using an electric microscope?

Another retread. This is not the first time that Paige has discovered her microscope has a light.

I used to work in the city’s IT department. It happened a number of times that somebody complained that their computer didn’t work, and I had to plug it in for them.

Mr. Amend…you used this bit years ago on a Sunday. It ended with Dr. Ting commenting, “You know, this might explain your last six lab reports.”

Since the sample slide isn’t enclosed, it wouldn’t look “black” unless something black was placed on top of it.

The plug came out and she was de-lighted. The teacher plugged it in and she was en-lightened.

Most microscopes in our class had both a light and a mirror. With the mirror, you couldn’t control the amount of reflected light and it was usually too bright

Classic fans: gocomics.Com/foxtrot/2003/10/05

Again, what?

Oopsie!

Unrealistic. That much sharpie would bleed through and be vizible on the back of the page.

Re-title it Blackhole Observations and it would be fairly accurate.

Ah, the vicissitudes of being a science teacher, eh?

My school used non-electrical microscopes. The mirror underneath the specimen was aimed toward natural sunlight to light up the slide.

Sorry for the delay, hurricane and power issues. Today’s missing classic is gocomics.Com/foxtrot/2003/10/05

My Freshman Chem lab had microscopes…until a couple Darwin Award winners decided it would be cool to play catch with one. No, I’m not kidding here. Yes, one of them missed catching it. Yes, the teacher (rightfully so) had a meltdown in class. No, we never used microscopes again.

Microscopes use electricity?

Back in my day we had to put things very near of the eye if we wanted to see them bigger; I didn’t use microscopes until I went to college, except the one my brother got for Christmas.

This is similar (but not identical, mind you) to an old strip where he pointed out to Paige that she had failed to snap on the light in her microscope.BTW, my favorite strip with Dr. Ting was one where Paige had been trying to butter him up, but he informed her that she still had to get the work done. And, “Many thanks, by the way, for the chocolates.”

My school didn’t have microscopes for all of the students. The teacher had the only one and was able to project the slide onto a screen pulled down from the top of the chalkboard. When the object of the lesson was teaching us how to use the microscope, we would line up at the desk at the front of the room and take turns.

Amend used this same joke years ago. Paige asks if the objects she’s looking at (microbes, bacteria, etc) are black. The teacher says no. She asks, “Then what am I looking at?” Teacher replies: “With the microscope unplugged, nothing.” Or something like that. Still my favorite strip.

I need hslloween comics by this time of year pls