Cartoon Saturday

And away we go, into the new year ...

House GOP members shot themselves in both PR feet when they voted - late at night and behind closed doors - to gut the House's independent ethics watchdog office, then had to back down after a huge public outcry; Faux News star Megyn Kelly shocked audiences when she announced that she was leaving Faux News for a new position at rival network NBC; after years of thundering about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare"), the GOP - now in power - has suddenly realized that while they are chomping at the bit to repeal the ACA, they have lots of ideas and talking points, but nothing to replace it with; president-elect Trump, being dragged kicking and screaming toward reality, now says he will ask Congress to pay for his beloved border wall, then send Mexico the bill later; and the Intelligence Community has published its long-anticipated report documenting Russian efforts to manipulate the 2016 presidential election*.

Today, in honor of our linguistically-challenged president-elect, is a collection of cartoons about language ...

Nowadays, you never end a sentence with the Batman symbol ...

How do you spell "Wheel of Fortune" in hieroglyphics? ...

I wonder how many points the Eye of Horus was worth ...

I suppose they had font choices like "cuneiform" and "hieroglyphics" ...

If you can't speak English properly yourself, but hate everyone who doesn't speak it, press 4 ...

My fellow German linguists will appreciate this one ...

When you hire the wrong sign painter ...

When grammarians try out pickup lines ...

Read it carefully ...

I'm reminded of a shocking incident from my college days, when people used to sit shamelessly around the student union building and matriculate right in the open ...

One Cartoon Saturday down, fifty-one more to go in this year. Let's try to make it together.

We've had our first snow of the season, more or less ... outside my study window there's a bit less than an inch of white stuff, with a "winter weather advisory" in effect until about 1:00 this afternoon and a chance of a little more. It's a soup day - we'll be putting a big pot of Agnes's wonderful vegetable soup over to cook long and slow. And it's also a glühwein day ... I think I'll be putting a pot of spiced wine over to steep as well. Vegetable soup and glühwein are about the only really good things about winter, if you ask me.

Have a good day and a great weekend. Stay warm, and come back tomorrow for a desperate warning from Tom Paxton on Musical Sunday.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* Of course, Mr Trump doesn't believe it because it challenges his personal myth of invincibility and omniscience.