Mar 31st – Family Circus: The Noun Verb

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Family Circus.

Comic Breakdown

“That’s weird.  ‘VERB” is a noun.” – Billy looking up what “verb” means.

What is a verb?

Verbs are words that describe an action.  The action can be mental or physical.

Ex) running, dancing, thinking, walking, sleeping, eating

What is a noun?

A noun is a person, place, or a thing.  The thing can be something real or an idea. 

Ex) girl, boy, house, city, the big bang theory

What is going on?

Billy thinks that it is odd that a verb (which describes an action) is a noun (which is a thing).  The word verb is a noun because the idea of a verb is a thing.  Verbs themselves are actions but a verb the idea is a thing.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, and here.

Mar 27th – Family Circus: The Oldest

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Family Circus.

Comic Breakdown

“No, I’m not the oldest in the family – Daddy is.” – Billy to the lady

What is going on?

The lady in the comic must have asked Billy (outside of this comic) if he was the oldest child in the family.  However, Billy has taken her question too literally to mean everyone in the family.  Everyone in the family includes his mother and father.   His father is the oldest in the entire family therefore it is right for him to say that his daddy is the oldest in the family if he is answering literally.

It is a common conversation starter for adults to ask brothers and sisters who the oldest is even if it is obvious.

  

The Full Conversation

“Are you the oldest (child)?” – The Lady asking Billy

“No, I’m not the oldest in the family – Daddy is.” – Billy to the lady

Why is this funny?

This is a cute example of children taking questions too literally.

Today’s images are from here, here, and here.  

Mar 24th – Eunice & Mimi: Patience

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Eunice & Mimi featuring Eunice.

Comic Breakdown

“God, grant me patience.” – Eunice

Eunice waits for patience to come.

“Hurry up!” – Eunice

What is going on?

Eunice is asking God to give her the ability to be patient.   But she is annoyed at how long it is taking.

Patience

Patience is being able to wait.  To be patient, means to be able to control ones’ impulses and emotions even if you really want to do the opposite.  The longer one can wait for something, and the more positive their attitude is, the more patient they are considered. 

Why is this funny?

Developing and learning to be patient takes time.  Patience takes practice.  It does not come right away and for Eunice to only wait a few seconds for it shows how impatient she really is.

It is funny for one to be impatient for patience.  This is an ironic situation.  To read about irony, click here and here.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, and here.

Mar 20th – Dilbert: Like a Ton of Bricks

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Dilbert.

Comic Breakdown

“Dilbert, this is Ellen, your new project manager.”

 – Pointy Haired Boss introducing Dilbert to his new supervisor

“If you do a bad job, Ellen will be on you like a ton of Bricks.”

– Pointy Haired Boss warning Dilbert that he had better do a good job

Like a Ton of Bricks

What does Pointy Haired Boss mean when he says that Ellen will be on Dilbert “like a ton of bricks?”

The expression, “A ton of bricks”, means a lot of pressure.  The idiom comes from the idea that a ton of bricks is literally very heavy.  This means that Ellen will give Dilbert a very difficult time at work by putting a lot of pressure on him if he does not do well.

Today’s images are from here, here, and here.

Mar 17th – Saint Patrick’s Day

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone!

Comic Breakdown

“You’re not wearing any green for St.Patty’s Day. – Girl in Green Shirt

“Yo – listen up!  This shirt is called “style.”  Not something that some old leprechaun wears. – Guy in Yellow Shirt

“You forgot didn’t you.” – Girl in Green Shirt

“Of course I did.” – Guy in Yellow Shirt

What is going on?

An important Saint Patrick’s Day holiday tradition is that everyone should wear something green.  The more green clothing you wear, the better.

Many people even dress up like a leprechaun.

Saint Patrick’s Day: The Holiday

Saint Patrick’s Day is a Catholic and cultural holiday to honour the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick.  Saint Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century.  

The first recorded Saint Patrick’s Day observation outside of Ireland took place in the United States in the 1730s.  The biggest wave of Irish immigration occurred in the mid – 1800s after the Irish Famine when over 1.5 million Irish left Ireland.   Most immigrated to the United States and the United Kingdom and other areas of the British Empire.  Today, over 80 million people around the world claim Irish ancestry.

The holiday is now popularly celebrated by Irish and non – Irish around the world.  Popular activities include parades and going out for drinks.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Mar 13th – Family Circus: Collecting Material

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Family Circus featuring the word “material.”

Comic Breakdown

“I’m going out for a while, Mommy.  I have to collect material for my neighbourhood blog.” 

– Billy to his mother

What is going on?

Billy is going out to get information for his personal website/online journal.

The Meaning of Material

The word “material” has two meanings.

The first meaning of material is physical and literal.  Material means what something is made out of.  Cotton fabric, wood, paper, plastic, and metals are examples of material.  For example, the materials used to build a house include wood, brick, and concrete.

The second meaning of material is mental and figurative.  Material refers to information.  When someone says that they are gathering material, they are not getting something physical, they are looking for information.  You can go out to find information, such as interviewing people, or gather your informational material through other sources such as books and the internet.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, and here.

Mar 10th – Dilbert: Food Idioms

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Dilbert.  It has a lot of figurative language related to food.

Comic Breakdown

“Our meat and potatoes is knowing how to sandwich our product without causing the other vendors to beef.  We’ll get our just desserts when they drink the Kool – Aid.  Then we can have our cake and eat it too.” – Pointy Haired Boss to his employee

“Are you on a diet?” – employee

“Shut your pie hole.” – Pointy Haired Boss to his employee

What is going on?

Pointy Haired Boss is using a lot of idioms featuring food.  This causes his employee, who is confused, to question if he is hungry because of the number of food references he uses. 

Couch Potatoes (idiom for lazy people)

Here is the conversation in regular English.

“Our main business is to know how to market our product so that they have to be paired with a bigger product without causing our business partners to know.  We’ll get our reward (make more money) when they do not notice.  Then we can make money and enjoy our business success.

– Pointy Haired Boss to his employee

“Are you on a diet?” – Employee

“Shut your mouth.” – Pointy Haired Boss to his employee

Using Figurative Language

Using figurative language is a good way to make conversations more interesting and can help stress an idea.  However, using too many idioms can make a conversation confusing.  Not everyone understands all figures of speech, even very popular ones, because they are not literal in meaning. 

Why is this conversation funny?

The high use of food related idioms to refer to everything probably means that Pointy Haired Boss is very hungry. 

Here is a list of the idioms used in this comic and what they mean.

Meat and potatoes = the basics/main business or area of expertise

Sandwich = between something/to place something in between something (to hide it)

Beef = negative feelings/having the feeling of grudge, annoyance,  or anger towards something or someone

Just desserts = your deserved reward

Kool – Aid = believing something without thinking about it properly (this is how others can easily influence or trick you)

Have our cake and eat it too = having it all (getting what you want and enjoying it)

Pie hole = mouth

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Mar 6th – Hi & Lois: Lost Lunch

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Hi & Lois.

Comic Breakdown

“Hroop!” – the sound of something dropping on the ground

“What happened?” – Lois wondering what the noise was

“Trixie lost her lunch!” – Dot explaining what happened

“No, I didn’t.  It’s right there!” – Trixie’s thoughts

What is going on?

Trixie has dropped her food on the ground and now she cannot eat it.

Why is this funny?

Trixie has taken the meaning of “lost” too literally.  The term “lost” has two meanings.

Literally, lost means something is gone and you do not know where it is.  Or that someone is lost and that they do not know where they are or where they need to go.  This can be mental or physical.

Or

Figuratively, lost can also be used as a synonym of the word drop.  It means you no longer have something; it does not have to mean you do not know where it is.  Usually you say lost instead of drop when someone drops something by accident.

Trixie has lost her lunch by dropping it.   However Trixie does not understand that “lost” means “drop” so she is confused since she can still see her food.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, and here.

Mar 3rd – Family Circus: Pick Up Your Toys

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is Family Circus.

Comic Breakdown

“Ok, I picked up my toys.  Now what?” – Jeffy asking what to do next

What is going on?

Someone (probably his mom or dad) has told Jeffy to pick up his toys. 

But he does not know what to do next.  The phrase “pick up your toys” is a figure of speech that means “clean up” or “tidy up”. 

This comic is funny because the child, Jeffy, has taken the instructions too literally to understand what to do after he picks up the toys.  He should put them away neatly.

In conclusion, when someone tells a child to “pick up their toys” it means they need to clean up.

Today’s images are from here, here, here, and here.