Link Banana

I can’t ignore the sweetness of the latest XKCD.

@#$%^&*!, there’s a word for that?

The term is grawlix, and it looks to have been coined by Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker around 1964. Though it’s yet to gain admission to the Oxford English Dictionary, OED Editor-at-Large Jesse Sheidlower describes it as “undeniably useful, certainly a word, and one that I’d love to see used more.”

… Until its OED entry is solemnized, we’ll have to settle for this definition on Wiktionary: “grawlix, n. A string of typographical symbols used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swear word.” I don’t think I’ll ever look at a character set quite the same way again.

(via kottke)

I may have come to expect a broad spectrum of odd behavior from local politicians, but some things still surprise me:

Oklahoma County, Oklahoma Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing a tough reelection campaign.  He’s been accused of abusing his office for personal gain, and will go on trial in the fall on felony campaign finance charges.  But apparently, this is all a conspiracy of homosexuals, liberal do gooders, and good ol’ boys to force Rinehart out of office.  Rinehart lays out his case in a comic book he’s sending out to voters, which—you may be surprised to learn—he wrote and illustrated himself.

The title link features a few pages, but you can also view the thing in it’s entirety as a PDF.

(via Boing Boing)

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog is odd. It’s also pretty awesome. Act I went online Tuesday, Act II just went online, and Act III should be up on Saturday. Oh, and if you’re looking for a longer explanation of the project, I suggest this write up from the LA Times’s Web Scout blog.

Your daily dose of silliness is provided by this rejoinder to “Garfield Minus Garfield.”

I’m rather certain Garfield Minus Garfield existed somewhere else before it’s current location. In any case, The Washington Post reported yesterday the Garfield creator Jim Davis says he likes the strip:

One of Walsh’s occasional readers is Davis, who heard about the site a few months ago. The cartoonist calls the work “an inspired thing to do” and wishes to thank Walsh for enabling him to see another side of “Garfield.”

“Some of the strips were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier,” Davis says.

(via Marco)