Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for January 13, 2025

Well, a new printer isn’t as bad as a new computer. It takes forever to get a new computer set up so that it feels like your own!

Another Taylor Swift reference? Egads!

It WAS a fine year indeed Elvis! But Burt hit the nail on the head with the thoughts and prayers remark. I don’t know how many times a new printer has put me in the fetal position. LOL

My wife would be very happy to live the rest of her life in 1989. She hates everyting about the 21st century.

Oh goodness. My arch nemesis: the printer. Never met one I had an easy time operating without a cheat sheet!

We should have known Elvis is a Luddite.

I just put in new ink cartages, and it took almost a half hour to get my printer to work again.

I have an issue with 1989. That was the year my mom died.

I stopped trying to have a printer. I was just bringing a flash drive and going by Fedex when I was out and printing there, but now the Fancy New Apartment building has a business center.

1989, wouldn’t that be the era of Baba Mouse’s grandmother, assuming longevity runs in her family. Wouldn’t Georgia have been in elementry school or would she have been born yet?

No-one knows the struggles of technology like an AV cat.

Oh, I’m sure this story will not resemble or have been drawn from real events in any way…

Mine really wasn’t a problem just plugged it in and hooked it up to the WiFi. Oh, entering the password using the four arrow keys took some time. This is my first laser printer. The inkjet printers I had would always clog due to lack of use. This one has done the job for several years now.

OMC Woman! You’re my age (well, at least Georgia is). No way do you remember printers in 1989! We didn’t even have a printer in my house in 1989! All we had was a typewriter!

A filked hit from Taylor’s tour in 2015 (which was named 1989 for the year she was born)

“She’ll stay up too late, lamenting ’bout her fate,

That’s what kitties say, mm-mm, that’s what kitties say, mm-mm.

There’s just too many parts, she’s sinking in her heart,

That’s what kitties say, mm-mm, that’s what kitties say, mm-mm.

But she’ll keep cruisin’, can’t stop, won’t stop movin’,

It’s like she has this vision in her mind sayin’ it’s gonna be alright …"

All these things are easy to fix, now. I just ask my son to do it.

What is going on with her arm?

Because I print 90% of my work in black and white, over the years I’ve acquired a black-and-white cartridge printer kept beside my computer chair, and a color inkjet a little farther away. If the first one gets cranky, I can switch to the second one quickly. Admittedly, I depend on my tech guy, who makes house calls.

Party like it’s 1989…

Printers are really cranky when you introduce them to a new router and modem. I could use Bert’s help now.

I think Speak Now was better, though.

Ah, printers. I remember when we got a color printer in the 90s and I thought it was really cool. Just like when I started using the Internet, LOL.

My cat loves to sit on our printer. The catsitter says that she is trying to take pictures of her butt.

Since I am a cartoonist, I have to use a large format/all in one, printer. Replaced an AIO, last year, that lasted 8 years! The new one took a bit of tech help to get it to link with my PC…a LOT of bad words were invented, during that process! (I already say, Fish Heads, in place of another bad word!)

Startling to realize it hasn’t been 1980-Anything in 36 years, now…

I can relate. My cable provider just sent the “upgrade” equipment that only takes 15 minutes to install. Right.

New preenter eh. Who knows if steenky weendows will actually connecting to it eh.

Years ago I was in a computer store when a woman was telling the clerk that her husband talked her into a computer and printer. Back then you had to get specific chips for each brand of printer. She was going thru printer heck and threatening to whack her husband over the head with it, LOL! Printers are still a pain, you’d think after 30 years they could make one that works easily.

My son was born in 1989. There’s no way Elvis would remember 1989.

What were you doing in 1989, Georgia?

I definitely agree! The things that are supposed to make things "easier"’ are just too complicated for me.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

Elvis-Anum: My scribe apprentices are working on upgrading the movable printing press.

Puckmosis: What improvements do you plan to make?

Elvis: We want to streamline it so we can move it more easily. Then we can take it to where the news is.

Puck: I’m sure Wally, Iggy, and Iron Glove can help with that as well.

Elvis: If they get a chance. Right now they’re working with Burt-Ra on upgrading the windows in the oPyramid.

Puck: Right. It is a bit lopsided. Maybe some improved ventilation will help, though.

Enter Thomios

Thomios: Come into the break room. I have all sorts of apple treats for you!

Elvis: What are waiting for?

Puck: Let’s go!

Burt is on point as usual. I am amused by Elvis’ particular brand of support.

Just went through this myself. The cats left the house.

I have the feeling we are in for a week of Taylor Swift references….

My very basic printer was gifted to me 8 years ago when a friend moved out of town. It does simple tasks quite well, but when I need to print on cardstock I have to trick it by telling it I’m using photo card stock. But mostly I do my printing at the library: $5 free printing per week with your library card.

My dad is a computer tech for a college’s printer system. Thus growing up around him has maybe given me an unfair advantage here, because working with printers have never really intimidated me all that much.

Elvis, you are so right!

I feel her pain. However, printer setup now is SO much easier than it was in the past.

I hate it that almost everything is wireless now. My current printer which is so old I don’t even remember how old it is connects through a wide USB connector. Not sure if it’s type A or B.

I hope the Woman didn’t buy an HP printer…or that she enjoys the subscription model.

Historical: Like Georgia, both my father and I went to URI. The alumni magazine did an article on her back in 2015, which is where I learned about BCN. Uri.Edu/quadangles/breaking-cat-news/

1989? That would make Elvis a very old cat indeed. Is he living Garfield-style (47 years now)?

I dunno. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had any problem with or about printers. Well, I take that back—Sweetie’s printer hasn’t accepted paper for some years. We do have an unopened inkjet that perhaps I should open and set up instead of what she now has. She should, however, be able to print to my laser now it’s hooked up again.

I’m not so sure about that, Elvis. That was an era before unified drivers, and I have a distinct and painful memory of installing the wrong driver for my Voodoo 3 video card and having to spend three hours fixing it.

.

Still, yeah, printers are still a bugbear, and I suspect it’s because their manufacturers want you to use their bespoke “solution” programs that collect your data for them to sell to advertisers.

Cyber hugs and prayers for the sanity of the Woman in this harrowing event.

OT National Archives Needs Help

It’s funny, I was JUST looking at the Wikipedia page for “lp0 on fire”.

OT: SoCal, Snowmageddon, & other disasters check-in

Huzzah!!! New ‘Snow Sez’ today!!

Gasp! A new printer?! It’s gonna be a challenging week for the Woman.

Amen sister! And I need both! My husband is a computer guru, and most days I’d like to pitch it out of the window!

Georgia posted on facebook: As I prepare my submission to the The National Cartoonists Society ‘s Reuben Awards this year, I’m looking over “The Six Strips,” as they came to be called in my files and interviews. At the beginning of 2024, the Gannett newspapers restructured and dropped every woman cartoonist in America. They left in only Canada’s Lynn Johnston, and thank goodness, at least one woman survived the cut! I love ‘For Better or Worse.’ (That strip is one of the reasons why I’m a cartoonist today, it’s forever one of my favorites!)I tried to raise some alarm bells when I noticed a third of my monthly salary drop out and traced back what had happened. My readers made up the difference on Patreon, and I still rely on that to pay the bills today. I’m incredibly lucky to have you all, the BCN readers are amazing. I cannot thank you enough or stress what a difference that makes in me being able to do this! The Daily Cartoonist chimed in early, reporting on what I saw and investigating it further, providing the statistics. Michael Cavna of The Washington Post reported on the story and really tried to drum up support for the cartoonists dropped (I’ll include the link in the comments below.) Musician Janis Ian personally hosted cartoonists on her FB page for followers, trying like heck to shine a light on it all.In the early days before Michael’s article, it felt like no news outlets were covering what was happening. I had reached out to the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, others, and heard nothing back. The daughter of a photojournalist, I felt an overwhelming “someone needs to report on this! People should know what is happening to the funny pages!” feeling… And early one morning it dawned on me:I technically run the tiniest, cutest news station in the country. What better place to report on the funny pages, than directly from inside the funny pages? Straight to people who read them and still love them? I could sneak the news out myself! I sat down to my

I feel The Woman’s pain … and may have to experience it someday soon, as my PC is starting to get a bit long in the tooth.

I’m a retired programmer. I generally don’t have any problem with setting up a new computer or printer. Linux can be harder but that’s because it’s tilted toward people who like the command line. My friend Bob, who got me started coding, said, “It’s a racket,” meaning that a lot of intelligent people don’t seem to be able to deal with computers and others seem to be born with the knack.

No one has mentioned the KSR series of teletypewriters.

HP wifi printers suck. Ask me how I know this.

Was Elvis alive in 1989???