by zbicyclist

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Yes, it’s still hot here in Editorland. But the big problem is smoke, and the Air Quality Index (AQI) not the heat index (although it’s still hot). I cancelled a bike ride I was supposed to lead yesterday when the AQI got over 200 — very unhealthy — and the visibility was limited by smoke. But I had no idea how much worse it was going to get.

At 2:39 p.m. it looked as though the scale was near a maximum. It looks like it maxes out at 600 from the scale shown. I’d never seen it anywhere near this high.

But as it turns out, it could get even higher:

Luckily, I could shut all the windows, turn on the air purifier and AC, and chill out. Otherwise, I’d need to hunt up my leftover N95 masks.

The cartoonists at the New Yorker were quick to post on this issue:

by zbicyclist

2×2?

Straightforward, if not funny:

But what about those papers that might print 4-panel Nancy as a 2×2?

or some other orientation?

In earlier days, Bushmiller would sometimes do a 3 panel, but in the examples I looked at the third panel was double-width, so it would still fit within a 2×2 orientation. But perhaps the number of papers who might be affected is approaching 0.

by phsiii

Where we’re going…

…they don’t have roads?

Jack Applin writes:

I was puzzled by the “off-road trim”, because cavemen don’t have roads. Then I recalled “Dip in Road”. OK, fine. Why would the triangular wheel cause political arguments? It’s not pink. Is it simply “That other political party is so stupid that they promote triangular wheels! Haw haw!”?

by zbicyclist

CIDU Bill LXXI

In honor of CIDU Bill (Bill Bickel — and definitely not Idiot Bill Bickel) here’s a bit of a tribute:

Usual John sends this in: “I can’t help thinking of Idiot Bill Bickel, and the name Bilden Bickworm makes me think that may not be just coincidence. FYI for those who have not been following CIDU for years: Idiot Bill Bickel was (and presumably still is) a real estate agent who had the same name as CIDU Bill (the original moderator of this website) and inexplicably sometimes gave people CIDU Bill’s email address instead of his own.”

(This was posted as a LOL some months ago; it seems appropriate to repeat it here)