Recent Comments

1. about 9 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   Of course, an Automat was pre-paid so they could manage high traffic without worrying about getting paid (other than fake coins of course). The modern Fast Food places are the descendants of the concept.

2. about 9 hours ago on Dick Tracy

   Between the 1930s and 1970s. But this strip also includes deliberate anachronisms from time to time.

3. 3 days ago on Dick Tracy

   I think Lee is deliberately “rattling the cage” to see what shakes out.

4. 5 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Archie Goodwin (Nero Wolfe’s assistant) as met here a few months back, was a regular user of the local Automat restaurants.

5. 5 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Historical note: The Automat was invented because “Americans disliked tipping” restaurant staff, which they felt was a European custom that should not have been imported into the US.

   My, how the world has changed since then!!!

6. 7 days ago on Wizard of Id

   The pet door/cat flap (rather than a mere hole) was allegedly invented by Sir Isaac Newton for his cats. Supposedly he installed a large one for the big cat and a small one for some smaller kittens, not realising that a single big one would suffice. While this may be a myth, some people believe you can still see marks on the old door where the cat flaps used to be.

7. 25 days ago on Herman

   Birds evolved to make use of streams and ponds. They can be truly disgusting in their use of bird-baths, drinking and bathing, then pooing in the same water, or dropping bird seed in it to rot. It’s like they just don’t care.

8. 27 days ago on Working Daze

   You know, I can’t help thinking that MMM is situated in a modern-day Ankh-Morpork, not too far from Unseen University. That would explain a lot.

9. 27 days ago on Dick Tracy

   Is Lizz left-handed?

10. 27 days ago on Dick Tracy

    Having a “paper round” was often the first paid job for children in the UK, from perhaps 12 years old. They would sign up with a local newsagent (shop selling papers, stationary, tobacco, and sweets) and take a sack of papers around a specific list of customers who were paying for daily delivery. They had to deliver them through the mailslot in the door of each house, so there was none of the “throw from a bike into the yard” that we see in American TV shows. Most kids walked, or used a bike for longer stretches. The newsagent would also include any magazines, comic books, or other periodicals that had been ordered, so every delivery had to be done correctly. I think it was a good discipline to learn early. Ancient history now, not only due to the Internet replacing the papers but to tightening up of rules on “child labour”.