A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

“Ah’ll be bahk.”

By Jimmy Johnson

This is my first ever post from a phone! A borrowed phone at that. I am unexpectedly incommunicado. I will be back early next week when we will discuss progress of the book. Which there is. Progress, I mean. Meanwhile, this post will keep the lights on.

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154 responses to ““Ah’ll be bahk.””

  1. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Guess not!

  2. TruckerRon Avatar

    Both of those maps illustrates a point that I made about eclipses and weather forecasts: The movement of the sun, earth, and moon are well-known and predictable because we know enough about them to calculate their interactions for decades to come (even though the motion of 3 objects cannot be perfectly known). Weather forecasts require a higher level of understanding of many, many variables, most of which cannot be known and accounted for in time to make reasonably accurate projections.

    The movement of a storm like Irma with a core the size of the Detroit Metropolitan area of hurricane-level winds about its eye is far more difficult to make for more than a day or two in advance. Remember, if the eye misses you by 50 miles or more, you’re only going to experience a really severe thunderstorm with ridiculous amounts of rain while it passes. The satellite images are deceiving in making hurricanes look far bigger than they are if you accept the official, technical definition of the thing: a tropical cyclone with winds of 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour or greater that occurs especially in the western Atlantic, that is usually accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning, and that sometimes moves into temperate latitudes (from Merriam-Webster)

    So, why do reporters focus on the projections that are most likely to scare people into rash actions and to fear things they merely should respect and be aware of? Why do they fly off the handle every time a near-Earth object comes within a few million miles of the Earth?

    I think it’s obvious.

  3. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    emb
    To incur wrath being pedantic –
    It was the USS Monitor & the CSS Virginia (built on the hull of
    the USS Merrimac- burnt to the waterline by retreating Union Forces).

    A battle that changed Naval Architecture forever. Every Navy in the world had to
    switch to iron ships.

  4. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    I am privileged to have a friend who is a direct descendant of John L. Worden, the Union commander of the Monitor. It would not be good to say more, lest I identify the friend by accident.

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    Thanks.

    Don’t dangle your feet in the water, especially if you are wearing a shiny bracelet:

    http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/4323420-it-lurched-out-water-second-bite-attack-summer-reported-mn-lake

    Peace,

  6. emb Avatar
    emb

    Anklet. And yesterday, here or somewhere else, I wrote Katrina when I meant Harvey. Sorry.

  7. emb Avatar
    emb

    Peregrine on cliff, or go back a bit / red line at bottom.

    https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/falcon-nest-cam

  8. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    Don’t worry, folks! Irma is nothing but fake news. Rush Limbaugh says so, so just calm down and go about your business.

    (Please don’t slip on the sarcasm on your way out. I really don’t want anyone to get hurt.)

  9. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Dang it! Guess I need to brave the store again – I forgot the lentils!
    http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article171702477.html

  10. TruckerRon Avatar

    Trapper Jean: Limbaugh never said that Irma was fake news. I heard the original broadcast. So, the fake news is that he said that Irma was fake news. IOW, the mainstream lied about what he actually said.

  11. Sideburns Avatar

    I don’t want to take away from all of the concern and prayers for those affected by Harvey, or threatened by Irma, but I’d like to ask all of you to spare a few good thoughts for the thousands of firefighters currently trying to contain the La Tuna Fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tuna_Fire) the biggest wildfire in Los Angeles history. It started on September 1, and by yesterday it was still only 80% contained.

  12. TruckerRon Avatar

    I’ve no idea how many times I drove right through that stretch of I-210. Firefighters everywhere need all the prayers and support they can get. And I hope that no idiots are flying their drones around those fires, getting in the way of the air support!

  13. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Good reminder, Sideburns and Trucker Ron. Thank you, I will take a better look.

  14. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Last night someone said that they were handing out self-filling sandbags. I sure would like to see one of those in operation. Dittohead did say that Michael J. Fox was pretending. I would like to have the opportunity to discuss that with him.

  15. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Hurricane-related behavior I just don’t understand:
    • Buying bagged ice cubes when you can bag up the ones that come out of the icemaker in your frig (if you have one)
    • Relying on ice cubes – they don’t last as long as blocks of ice, which you can make using tap water in storage containers, bottles, zip top bags, mixing bowls, whatever
    • Thinking that everything in the freezer, or even the refrigerator, is ruined just because power goes out. (My cousin was without power for under 48 hours after H. Charley and threw out everything. Same storm, we had no power for a week, ate things as they thawed.)

  16. The formerly dry person known as sandcastler Avatar
    The formerly dry person known as sandcastler

    Rather Anne, I will ship you the contents of our refrigerator than has been underwater since August 27, just as soon as the authorities let us back in. Do you prefer air or ground shipment? 😉

  17. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    fdp…etc: Underwater is a whole different thing. I certainly don’t mean to make light of your situation nor of what’s ahead for folks in south Florida.

  18. emb Avatar
    emb

    More perspective on Harvey’s rainfall:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/09/hurricane-harvey-deformed-the-earths-crust-around-houston/538866/

    Several interesting aspects in the article besides the deformation itself; worth reading all the way through. Science is interesting.

    A different perspective: It is all the result of Adam and Eve’s sin.

    Peace,

  19. emb Avatar
    emb

    “Limbaugh never said that Irma was fake news.” This is apparently true. Here is a more detailed item re what he did say. ‘Nuff said?

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/limbaughs-dismissal-of-irma-panic-riles-forecasters/ar-AAroMCR?li=BBnbcA1

    Peace,

  20. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Have you ever heard Limbaugh describe his “hurricane proof” mansion or read descriptions of it? It may survive along with its’ pompous owner who I admit I detest but was forced to listen to for years.

    He spent millions creating his own plush storm shelter and if everyone else had access to equal protection I would be less sarcastic. I doubt we’ll see him offering shelter to anyone else.

    And you can consider this a political comment. I have others.

  21. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Poor Montana is burning down, along with Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Utah I believe. I have lost track.

    Texas is still wet, soggy and shattered. Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina are all about to be smashed. I have friends in the Caribbean islands losing boats, homes, businesses and probably lives.

    The web has brought us closer and allowed us to make friends who bring us closer to these tragedies because we do care. No one had better tell me God is punishing these cities, states, countries, people.

    I am NOT in the mood for that!

  22. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    On a happier note Ghost and I met my pladtic surgeon who will help remove my left breast and reconstruct a replacement. And he will have to modify the right one to make it match the new faked one. He is amazing man wbo we both liked very much. He made me laugh.

    In an ironic twist of fate, my 42DDD or 44DDD (and sometimes 44FFF if available rarely) will be scaled down to a single D because that is as big as they make ’em legally.

    It seems all those gigantic boobs sported by the oversized enhanced are European or Central American black market models!

  23. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    What’s all this I hear about “fake nudes?”

  24. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Well, I soaked a man in Reno, just to watch him dry.