Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for June 10, 2012

Cause it might be a tuna cactus sandwich. Duh

After being oiled up and cooked in a can, they needed to clarify what it was you were smearing on your bread.

I’m with Bob on this one.

I wondered that myself. I also wonder why people say eyesight, but they don’t say ear hearing.

Because if we couldn’t rhyme tuna fish with favorite dish, where would that leave beginning piano students? With only crunchy flakes and ice cream? I don’t think so.

“Daddy, what colour is the air?”

Toona is the only thing better than cheezburgers.

Actually, I think I might know this one. Before about WW2, tuna was considered a “trash fish,” unsuitable for human consumption. (It was only when it was marketed in canned form — using the euphemism “chicken of the sea” — that it became socially acceptable to eat.) A lot of people, not used at the time to eating tuna, didn’t immediately know what it was, so it would often be marketed as “tuna fish.” And the usage stuck.

We’ll be back with more “Taking the Comics Too Literally,” right after this …

Daddy, what’s in Hot Dogs?

wasn’t it turn on, tuna in, and drop out?

what’s wrong with the true answer Joe. Repeat after me: I Don’t Know. ;)

I’ve always wondered why Americans call them “tuna fish” sandwiches. Here in Oz it’s just a “tuna sandwich”.

@revisagesTimothy Leary really had something there. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Lots of good input this A.M.,but the question still remains one of life’s great mysteries.

I’ve seen references in Brit novels to “fish paste” sandwiches, and I’ve always wondered if that referred to tuna fish.

I would love to have a kid like that doing play on words … and the color of air is as fathomable as the sound of a tree falling in a forest when no one is around

“Because you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.”

I suppose JFK was grateful that he wasn’t visiting Frankfurt.

THAT’S why you didn’t have kids? So the umbrella in your pink drink had nothing to do with it, huh?

All these comments and nobody so far has brought up the question of why we call it an “ATM machine,” when “ATM” stands for “Automatic Teller MACHINE”?

And why does Bob look so much like Richard?

Nixon, that is.

Danae is a significant percentage of bright young girls. I taught in the 5th and 6th grade and had several Danae’s. Her name is that of a minor goddess – appropriate.

Daddy, why do we eat chickens but not puppies?

“Thank goodness Danae is a comic strip character and not indicative of a normal child. Nobody would want kids.” Danae is arguably a genius, that’s all…she’s no more of a psychopath than most children, only more creative at it. :) She’d be a parenting chore at tiems, but never boring..And “normal”? To paraphrase Deepak Chopra, what we call normal may only be the mediocrity of the average. Pfui on that.

that is just what kids are created for: to ask the hard questions; and when they do not receive an answer we are really in trouble………so what is it like in your family?

Wikipedia mentions the cactus, too.Funny what you can learn here at Gocomics.

Add this question to the long list that includes:

“Why are the Braille instructions on the drive up ATM machines?”

Children! The reason God invented the cocktail lounge and neighborhood tavern.

The Wikipedia Tuna (disambiguation) page provides some hints – there actually is a kind of cactus called a tuna (genus opuntia) as well as the name in Māori of the New Zealand Longfin eel and shortfin eel. So qualifying the name of the fish of the family Scombridae with Fish has a rationale for it’s use.

I’ve always said that you can tune-a-piano but you can’t tuna fish.

Could be Danae came across this: s3.amazonaws.com/giles/tuna_mammal_sandwich.pdf

If it were a dolphin sandwich, you would have to specify which kind you were talking about.

Actually, “tuna sandwich” (without the ‘fish’) makes someone (ike me who has a really dirty mind think of something that maybe Danae isn’t ready for an explanation of.

Five grandkids later and the questions haven’t changed. The only difference is now the Q’s are tweets, emails or texts.

We just call it “tuna”, ‘cause “tuna dioxin”, or “Petro-tuna” is pretty friggin’ depressing.

E_tech, “What’s in hot dogs?” Isn’t it snakes and snails and puppy dog tails?

Dogsniff, it IS Smokey Bear…….the the isn’t supposed to be their……It was a real bear, that was found in a fire. It was nicknamed “Smokey”

My take: It should be “canned tuna.” and it should be “The Keeping Hot Water Hot Thingy…”

Avocado oil is from avocados. Olive oil from olives. Walnut oil from walnuts. Aaaannnd…… Baby oil is from……….?

I’m thinking we say tuna fish, so we don’t get tuna guitar?

That is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. I have when people say, “tuna fish”. I’ve always just referred to it as “tuna”. We don’t say “salmon fish” or “talapia fish”.

But it isn’t always “tuna fish” – there’s the Fisherman’s Quartet, comprising 1st tuna, 2nd tuna, barracuda and bass, who used to get together on Friday nights and sing scales (just for the halibut).

sorry that you have girl problems son…i got 99 problems, but the b**** ain’t one.

It’s like Mitch Hedberg said: You know how they call corn on the cob “corn on the cob”, right? But that’s how it comes out of the ground, man. They should call that “corn”. They should call every other version “corn off the cob”. It’s not like if you cut off my arm, you would call my arm “Mitch”; but then reattach it and call it “Mitch all together”.

And then there’s balsa wood.

Good point, though.

… to distinguish from tuna piano.

FINAL ANSWER; "Tuna’ COMES FROM THE ‘tunnel shaped net used to catch them. So Tuna and Tunnel are related——isn’t that fascinating!!

…looking at a can of “Chicken of the Sea” tuna, and actually asking; “Is this Chicken, or Fish?” Seriously, it’s on you-tube somewhere-——————————————————————————-As I recall, that was Jessica Simpson. :-)

We call ATMs “Jones Tellers”, because you can withdraw money late at night, when you’re “jonesing”.

I love this comic strip comic.

John Herbison: Or Vienna.

ffaphilli: Puppies? Now you just hush.

For some reason I’ve been known to say Ready Teller….No, nobody knows what I mean, and I have no idea where I got it from……

You can tune a piano, but you can’t tune a fish… or is that tuna fish.

Say good night Gracie…

Thou hast eyes to see but seeist not.And I am an atheisthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpG_mk_9uuI

Why does a speaker ask “Can everyone hear me?” Those who can’t aren’t going to know he asked.

Prob’ly goes back to when the “fish” in a tuna fish sandwich wasn’t all tuna… Dig? “What’s in the net?” “Who gives a f@#k?”

neatslob: Yet that question often gets a comment from the back of, “I can’t hear you”, indicating the question works. There is a difference in volume (among other things) between hearing a voice, and in comprehending what is said.

You can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish

Kids totally ask questions like this in real life. My son asked if three kids in one birth are triplets, 4 are quadruplets, etc., then why aren’t two kids in one birth doublets? After I got done laughing, I totally agreed. I keep pointing out to him that the English language has a lot of goofy things in it. I expect I’ll have to keep repeating tha.

great reference Simpsonfan2, you sound like Skinner

I have a friend that uses the term “hamburger meat”. Different? Probably not.