Sorry, I did consider doing argots in general, but I decided to focus on Boontling in particular, as it's so odd and has a big vocabulary (ie. lots on the Wiki page for me to write about)

Based on what I read here, it sounds like Hearst was behind Herriman until the end. It was Hearst who insisted no one take over the strip when he died, which was unprecedented at the time.

I did want to address Krazy's gender fluidity, but ran out of space. Just one of any number of fascinating inconsistencies built into the strip.

I came up with this format in fifteen minutes three years ago, and dammit, I'm going to stick with it no matter what!

I saw a study a few years ago that said kids who got DARE in school (the anti-drug program we called Drugs Are Really Excellent) were more likely to use drugs in school. Which I had no difficulty believing. You know what'll really win over middle schoolers? Corny singalongs!

That's an excellent point.

Okay, I got something backwards there.

I did find myself a lot more invested in the Jane flashbacks in the middle third of the book, even with the lack of suspense that comes from knowing where she ends up.

A friend of mine who lives in the Northwest and has read up on this stuff pointed out that in 2004, something changed in the design of athletic footwear that made sneakers more likely to float (and more likely to not disintegrate in water — you'll notice nobody's feet resurfaced wearing Chucks).

That one freaked me out as an adult!

Having read quite a bit on space colonization, it's likely virtually every colony will be a dome full of oxygen for the forseeable future. Between lack of oxygen, extreme temperature, and radiation, it's going to be very tough to find a bona-fide Class M planet.

We can do, uh, two things.

In fairness, I did really fight to call this column, "I Wrote The Entirety Of Wikipedia Myself. Here Is A Sample." but Modell vetoed that.

I didn't realize that, but it's an important distinction.

Elon Musk wants to do it by the mid-2020s. That's a pretty optimistic timeframe, but I fully expect to live long enough to see it happen.

Yeah, it's easy to forget that, outside of a recording studio, those guys had some profoundly stupid ideas (see also: Magical Mystery Tour, basically anything John did in public without a guitar in his hand).

Same here! So far all of my book ideas are just things I would have thought were cool at various ages.

The train tastes like real coal dust! The clouds on the cover taste like clouds! The snozberries taste like snozberries!

I warned you about insulting our readers. Do you think insulting the staff is somehow more acceptable?

Insulting our readers is a bannable offense. This is your one warning.