The Old Hack

[Content note: Pet illness.] My wife's cat Saki is struggling with a very serious infection. Saki was born with a noticeable overbite and it has made her very prone to infections in her mouth and throat. She has been on Prednisol treatments for a rather long time now, something which concerned her vet because of long term issues but alternate treatment methods did not yield good results and without it the poor thing was just so miserable. We have been aware that this might shorten Saki's life but accepted the tradeoff so she would at least have a good life until her time came. We just hadn't expected that it might come this fast. She might still survive for now, but right now it isn't looking good. Both I and my wife are stressing over this and I've had some trouble sleeping.

There is nothing wrong with either e-mailing Dan or tweeting him about it. Feel free to do either

http://www.egscomics.com/egsnp.php?id=659 Poor Hanma.

Okay. It is no secret that I am a huge WWII buff, or at least it probably won't shock anyone here to learn it. I love a great many topics related to the war but one of my absolute favourites since childhood is fighter planes. I had a huge collection of model airplanes I'd assembled myself which took up almost half the space of one room. I just got hold of a DVD with a TV program about WWII German fighter jets, something which normally fascinates me endlessly. I sat down ready for an hour of happy geeking out. Then the narrator began. And droned on and on and on. I have never before heard anyone on TV with such a terribly boring voice. After a while I actually fell ASLEEP. The last I remembered was something about having trouble getting the High Command to allocate resources enough to developing their jets and then I woke up to something about how fuel shortages made it nearly impossible for the German jets to take to the air in the spring of '45. That narrator was so boring that he made me sleep through almost a whole program about one of the topics most fascinating to me throughout my life. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE.

Well, it is Texas. The whole place is one big flat desert with the odd cactus growing every one or two miles or so, right?

I am not sure if my own reflexive reaction is any better. It leans towards gallows humour. At one time I fainted while having an injection of a drug needed so I could donate stem cells to my brother. I woke up on the floor with a very worried nurse trying to take my pulse while looking at her watch. I did the to my mind only logical thing, which was to quote Groucho Marx. "Either my watch has stopped or the patient is dead."

Culture isn't something automatic. It is something that comes into existence when large numbers of individuals start to live together and establish norms of behavior, speech and so forth. Immortals are almost the exact opposite of this. Their number compared to that of humans is very small and they often live in isolation to the point where they even hide from one another. In this kind of existence it makes sense that individual Immortals would want to borrow culture in order not to be alone.

The Moderator: Errr, while I appreciate computer geekiness, by now this is so far off topic that maybe you could continue this in a new thread in the Off Topic forum? ~tOH.

http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=2387 eep?

I am disappointed. I had expected something with more gunslinger duels and cattle rustling.

Fair warning to everyone: the opening shots in World War Tea have been fired.

That one we actually got during a trip to Boston. They have a lot of seafood plushies there. Scarlett O'Lobster went back with us home.

Then please tell her to go ahead. My wife will be pleased as well. She might return pictures of her Saki, mind you. Here is one of Saki on her new futon, which she graciously also allows her humans to use.

Belt and suspenders. I approve.

Just as I and my wife are endlessly amused by Copenhagen, New Jersey.

Patience, old friend. You may yet find a solution. If nothing else, I and my wife think well of you both for doing what you can for Loudmouth. And incidentally, my wife loves the pictures of Loudmouth and Baker.

Nothing. Once he got near the endangered puppies, mind, all his alarm bells would go off.

Sounds good to me. Good luck!

Oh dear. This reminds me of an old story. I was in the kitchen getting a bottle of Coke from the fridge. My old Burmese Catso (on sight nicknamed 'Fatso' by my wife, and instantly changed into 'Catso' by me, and stuck with that for the rest of his life) was doing the 'rub against Daddy's legs for attention' thing. But somehow when I opened the bottle it let out a loud hiss and poor Catso instantly fled, looking horrified. "Oh no! Daddy is mad at me! What did I do?" I had to find the poor thing and coax him out from under my bed to reassure him. He was a very sweet-tempered and gentle cat. Just not terribly bright.

But is the place still the pits?

It is very good to have you back. Keep us posted and I hope you feel better soon!

This is why I would never use a battery-powered cordless mouse.

I love Susan so much. And if there is one thing Susan does NOT do, it is half-assing anything at all.

Today's strip reminds me of a Darwin Awards tale... Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a holdup, and fired a few wild shots. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, covered by several customers who also drew their guns, thereby removing the confused criminal from the gene pool. No one else was hurt. From this it may be inferred that if you have to rob a gun store, you had better be the Terminator.

My two old Burmese cats did this endlessly. They would lie down together curled up, then at some point they would start grooming one another. This would often turn into a wrestling match which invariably ended with them chasing one another all over my apartment in a mad gallop, then they would jump back up on my bed, wrestle for a few moments more and then go back to mutual grooming. I never could work out which of them won, or if there was even supposed to be a winner.