A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute. Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly), but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to primatology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose. The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic, was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic magazine.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe.
Everything's cool.
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable—even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgement of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid."
—Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
They've since rebranded to just Scout Life, but at the time there were magazines like Boys' Life. I would guess most magazines weren't specifically gendered, but shorthand might've been referred to that way. It's also probably just to set the joke up a little more clearly.
I think it's a joke about government workers not wanting to put in extra effort. This employee cares about his job unlike every other one. Kind of a weird joke for The Far Side, though
I wondered if that was somehow an older version of the word, but looks like it's just a joke and "philharmonic" comes from the prefix "phil-" meaning fondness for. Also, Wiktionary notes:
The prefix philharmonic does not indicate any difference from a normal orchestra, but can be useful to distinguish different ensembles based in the same city (for instance, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra).
Thanks, fixed the transcript. Makes sense to me that the name is a mashup of the two. Lorenzo Bandini seems famous enough that he'd still be referenced 13 years after his death.
If you've wondered about how LLMs can get into weird states, this is an accessible look at a weird edge case involving a seahorse emoji.
Confirmed myself that GPT-5 responded with "🪸 (that’s the seahorse emoji)", though it didn't doom loop. I responded "No it's not that's coral" and it corrected itself and said there is no seahorse emoji. It actually went off and found this page which talks about it: https://emojipedia.org/seahorse-emoji-mandela-effect
Th-th-that's all, folks! This is the last strip from the beforetimes. Hope you've enjoyed me posting these, and here's another few odds & ends:
The first appearances of Garfield since United Feature Syndicate accepted Garfield, and the first where he has stripes. These were shown with a "goodbye" message from The Pendleton Times, and were also the first to use a United Feature Syndicate copyright line. The second strip was adapted for the August 26, 1978 strip in the syndicated version.
Yeah, Comet Zone seems roughly analogous to black lotus in mtg, way too rampy. I also like this game, I've been playing some other chunky board games where you're building an engine to go do other stuff like Apiary or Dune Imperium Uprising. I like the balance and complexity in those games, but there's something nice about a game that strips all that out and just says "build the best engine the fastest you can".
I've been playing Moon Colony Bloodbath recently too, which is pretty similar but has a little bit more complexity. It ends when your engine is destroyed due to game events vs a race to the finish line with Jump Drive.
What do you like most about the differences? Did you learn Portuguese / is it pretty common for locals to speak English? What is your favorite food there that's not as much a thing in the US?
I don't think so. This seems more in the vein of "Who's got two thumbs and X?
<points thumbs at self>
This guy!"TIL the term for referring to yourself like that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism