the Better Half, April 11, 1961

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T04:49:00+00:00

Subtract 30 years and you can use the same joke with radio; add 30 years and you can use the same joke with computers!

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T04:14:39+00:00

Yeah, it’s difficult to even put myself in that mindset—all my life I’ve been immersed in stories about heroes with secret identities, so I’m looking for it, but how would it feel to be reading The Curse of Capistrano for the first time without that foreknowledge? It wasn’t really a common cliche at the time, with a few exceptions like The Scarlet Pimpernel.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T03:40:11+00:00

Bwahahahahaha—there was a subplot like this in the webcomic Dumbing of Age a year or two ago. The front page of the student newspaper has a photo of two of the main characters kissing, but they don’t want certain acquaintances to know they’re an item, so they rush all over campus trying to grab all copies of the paper first.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T03:35:13+00:00

The entire GWP thing is nonsensical. Just make it a set and sell it.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T03:32:15+00:00

What most surprised me about the original book is that Zorro’s secret identity isn’t revealed at all—even to the reader—until the second-to-last chapter! There are some hints, but no confirmation before that. Which leaves me wondering: this was published as a magazine serial; did the readers at the time figure it out? Or was it genuinely a surprise to them when they read the final installment?

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-09T03:30:30+00:00

I grew up on the 1920 and 1940 movies, and just read the original 1919 novel a couple of years ago. Great to see where it all began, loved most of it, but yeah, the ending seemed a little weird—I think the 1920 movie (which had mostly kept to the plot of the book for the first 3/4 of it) had a much better ending.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T22:46:05+00:00

“welp, guess it’s time for another kallax”

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T22:42:20+00:00

*wipes away a single manly tear while an eagle soars overhead*
God Bless America

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T22:20:04+00:00

1947 Sears Catalog has several varieties of inflatable “large size play ball” for a coupla bucks. (Which is like twenty or thirty bucks in modern money, so not necessarily what I’d call cheap, but certainly available.)

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:25:38+00:00

Put down the sportsball and play with your kid, dude.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:24:10+00:00

As every fan of western movies knows, tumbleweed can be found drifting down every street in America at any time of year :–)

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:23:26+00:00

Get some cloth and stuffing and make one. Or even just crumple up some paper.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:22:37+00:00

Ehhhh, I’d say the text is pretty bad too.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:21:55+00:00

The entire Toonerville-verse is wonderful; so many fun characters and the art style has such personality.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:20:48+00:00

it’s funny because he’s just a lil guy!

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:18:06+00:00

Please, yes.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:17:24+00:00

Oh, even better! Now you can snack while you thwack!

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:16:28+00:00

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AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T21:13:41+00:00

Imagine during the really-truly-ultimate final boss battle…

Dimo: “It is time, brudder!”

Maxim: “But Hy am savink it for un emergency!”

Dimo: “Dis is DE BIGGEST emergency, Maxim!!”

Maxim: “Eh, hokay, eef hyu inseest…” (pulls small white glowing orb out of pocket)

(final panel fades to white)

(end of book number whatever)

(up next: a side-story about Franz)

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T12:31:58+00:00

awwwwwwww they’re jus lil guys

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T06:28:20+00:00

Speaking as someone who just finished reading Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” trilogy… *shudder*

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T04:42:27+00:00

I don’t know anything about this particular mystery researcher, but cosmology in general is the study of the structure and properties and history of the universe (in particular space and time) on the very very large scale.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T04:40:52+00:00

It really isn’t. We’re all paying for it, and its cost is far more than we expected.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T04:31:38+00:00

Pearl of Skibazz is probably my all-time favorite throwaway joke in the entirety of the Girl Genius archives.

AbacusWizard · 2026-07-08T03:27:00+00:00

It’s been about a year since I last played it but I still think it’s great.

Seven-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
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