Happy Birthday, chef_troy!

For your present, here's today's Forgotten English (© Jeffrey Kacirk)!

walter
The rolling of the sea in a storm [1400s]. Of a ship, to be tossed on the waves [1300s-1500s]. Of the stomach, to be upset or disturbed. [Hence] wally, of the sea, tempestuous [1500s-1700s], and walterer, one who overthrows [late 1300s-late 1500s].

--Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1928

Feast Eve of St. Elmo,
a patron of sailors. An eerie visual phenomenon, St. Elmo's fire -- also called a furole, dead fire, or friar's-lantern -- is occasionally seen as a glowing bluish electrical discharge atop a ship's mast or at the end of a yardarm before a storm. Sometimes known as a corposant or holy body, and mentioned by Shakespeare in The Tempest, it was believed to warn of a storm or even a shipwreck. But it was also seen as a sign by some that the ship enjoyed the divine protection of St. Elmo, who was invoked for deliverance from "the walters," or seasickness. Joseph Worcester's Dictionary of the English Language (1881) mentioned the related ignis-fatuus, which "flits about in the air a little above the surface of the earth, chiefly in marshy places or stagnant waters. From Latin ignis, fire, and fatuus, foolish."

And no, St. Elmo did not talk about himself in third person with an incredibly annoying squeaky baby voice. And he sure as heck didn't vibrate when you tickled him.

-The Gneech

Aww, Crap -- Or Not

From trejaan:

Doctor Who to End in 2008.

Le sigh. Let's hope somebody else picks up the ball and keeps running.

Apparently it's a big, fat lie. Hurrah! So nevermind.

-The Gneech

Senior Syndrome

I finally inked the next Suburban Jungle strip last night and posted it for katayamma to color; it should run on Monday. Now that the 16-ton weights have calmed down a little I'm hoping this is the beginning of a good run up to AnthroCon, so the story can finally get somewhere since February.

As I get within view of the finale of the strip-format run, it's getting harder and harder to stick with it. I started my really heavy-duty work on NeverNever in 1997-1998, so it's getting close on to a decade now that comic strips in one form or another have dominated my artistic life ... and as much as I love it, I'm really looking forward to spending some time doing something else for a change.

Thus, every time I put down the blue pencil, it becomes just a little bit harder to pick it up again. I've got Brigid and Greg tickling the back of my brain, I've got an outline for a Michael Macbeth novel that needs writing, I want to expand my comics/illustration repertoire ... and lately I've been itching to study another language (or even just brush up on my Latin) and take up jazz guitar. I can't do all these things all at once, obviously, but I can't seriously work on any of them if I'm spending three or five nights a week exclusively drawing SJ.

On the other hand, I am committed to bringing SJ in for a graceful landing instead of an abrupt stop, which means that I have to keep picking up the pencil for a bit longer, no matter how much I want to goof off instead. So, discipline, Gneech, discipline! If you don't do it right now, it will keep bugging you forever afterwards.

-The Gneech

*snerk*

Make Gimli do it!

-The Gneech

Dancin' With Myself

A bunch of random dumb things I remember from a bazillion years ago:

Uh oh, Sergio!

Mighty Man and Yukk!

Where's the Beef?

For that matter, how about a nice Hawaiian Punch?

Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse! Man, I loved that show! What a cool theme song.

The flavor says "butter". But you know, it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Tobey who?

Which was worse, Shields and Yarnell or Captain and Tennille? And can you tell me which one had "The Bionic Watermelon"? And did you ever notice Steve Martin on The Sonny and Cher Show?

-The Gneech

PS: And because it never gets old, Gene, Gene, the Dancin' Machine!