Wapsi Square Forum

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 3:01 pm**

Yeah, something's up with that "member"...

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 7:25 pm**

I already sent, this morning, a message to the admins, requesting they keep an eye on this user, whose only two posts link to outside websites, and whose content for said posts has little if any to do with the conversation at hand.

I did not mention the atrocious grammar of said posts in my PM, though. While that might be circumstantial evidence (i.e. many spammers are from countries that do not have English as a first language), it is not proof, either, as some people here are from such countries and do the best they can (and you can tell the effort is there, and even the occasional apologies about said grammar...)

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:24 pm**

There's a difference between bad grammar and machine-generated word salad.

And, note the Anglo name, contrasting with the lack of command over the English language.

My guess is a robot managed to get past the Captcha... There are ways of testing, of course.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:34 pm**

GlytchMeister Custom Turing Test sent.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:35 pm**

I've had better luck using a Q&A challenge rather than Captcha....

Code: Select all

Whose catchphrase is "I am what I yam"?
Where can you find Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy?
Name the orange, lasagna-loving cat.
Who said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
"Itchy & Scratchy" is a cartoon inside what primetime TV cartoon?
Where can you find Killer, Miss Buxley, Otto, Sgt. Snorkel and Zero?
The two-way wrist radio and the magnetic Space Coupe were tools used by this flatfoot.
Who is Calvin's stuffed-tiger companion?

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:54 pm**

AmriloJim wrote:I've had better luck using a Q&A challenge rather than Captcha....

Code: Select all

Whose catchphrase is "I am what I yam"?
Where can you find Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy?
Name the orange, lasagna-loving cat.
Who said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
"Itchy & Scratchy" is a cartoon inside what primetime TV cartoon?
Where can you find Killer, Miss Buxley, Otto, Sgt. Snorkel and Zero?
The two-way wrist radio and the magnetic Space Coupe were tools used by this flatfoot.
Who is Calvin's stuffed-tiger companion?

Popeye. Peanuts. Garfield. ??? ??? Beetle Baily(?) ??? Hobbes.

5/8=62.5%

According to the basic grading scale, I got a D- without the use of Google.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 9:33 pm**

If you fail one, Q&A serves up another at random; five strikes and you're out.
Enemy = Pogo, Itchy = Simpsons, Wrist radio = Dick Tracy.
Given that Walt Kelly and Chester Gould's work are the oldest of the lot and haven't been drawn for more than a decade, 5/8 ain't bad.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:07 pm**

Here's how I scored:

Popeye
Peanuts
Garfield
No idea. (Even with the answer given, I have heard of the name "Pogo", but I can't place it.)
The Simpsons
I don't know Killer, Miss Buxley sounds familiar, so does Otto. Sgt. Snorkel - wait, would that be from Beetle Baily?, don't know Zero...
Two-way wrist radio (gotta be Dick Tracey), what's a magnetic Space Coupe?, flatfoot - old jargon, reinforces the chances of being Dick Tracey
Hobbes.

So, at least 5/8, though I was pretty sure of Beetle Baily (goes up to 6/8) and mostly sure of Dick Tracey (now at 7/8) - or is it mostly sure and pretty sure, respectively...

And I didn't even grow up in the American culture. Sure, we had a few of those translated to French (Popeye, Peanuts, Garfield, maybe even the Simpson, but by then I was already living in English...), but the rest I had to catch up on, or at least somewhat familiarize myself with...

I'm not disappointed with my score.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:43 pm**

AmriloJim wrote:I've had better luck using a Q&A challenge rather than Captcha....
Whose catchphrase is "I am what I yam"? - Popeye
Where can you find Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy? - the comic strip "Peanuts"
Name the orange, lasagna-loving cat. - Garfield
Who said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Technically, Porky Pine said it first in the comic strip "Pogo", but I'd put down "Pogo" here.
"Itchy & Scratchy" is a cartoon inside what primetime TV cartoon? - The Simpsons
Where can you find Killer, Miss Buxley, Otto, Sgt. Snorkel and Zero? - Camp Swampy, in the comic strip "Beetle Bailey"
The two-way wrist radio and the magnetic Space Coupe were tools used by this flatfoot. - Dick Tracy
Who is Calvin's stuffed-tiger companion? - Hobbes

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:46 pm**

Pogo is the title and central character of a long-running daily American comic strip, created by cartoonist Walt Kelly (1913–1973) and distributed by the Post-Hall Syndicate. Set in the Okefenokee Swamp of the southeastern United States, the strip often engaged in social and political satire through the adventures of its anthropomorphic funny animal characters.

Pogo combined both sophisticated wit and slapstick physical comedy in a heady mix of allegory, Irish poetry, literary whimsy, puns and wordplay, lushly detailed artwork and broad burlesque humor. The same series of strips can be enjoyed on different levels by both young children and savvy adults. The strip earned Kelly a Reuben Award in 1951.

: Pogo Earth Day strip[6].png (122.74 KiB) Viewed 12114 times

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:51 pm**

LW, more on the Space Coupe: http://dicktracy.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Coupe

: SpaceCoupe.jpg (22.58 KiB) Viewed 12113 times

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:05 pm**

Did Dick Tracey happen to water ski over a shark, at some point in the series? Or was that more of a Cerberus syndrome thing? How do we get from 1930s (I'm guessing, here) gangland crooks chasing to flying into space, all as an integral part of police work???

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:08 pm**

AmriloJim wrote:If you fail one, Q&A serves up another at random; five strikes and you're out.
Enemy = Pogo, Itchy = Simpsons, Wrist radio = Dick Tracy.
Given that Walt Kelly and Chester Gould's work are the oldest of the lot and haven't been drawn for more than a decade, 5/8 ain't bad.

Considering I'm only in my early 20's, not bad, not bad at all, I guess. Though youngsters about 10 or so might not pass.

lake_wrangler wrote:Did Dick Tracey happen to water ski over a shark, at some point in the series? Or was that more of a Cerberus syndrome thing? How do we get from 1930s (I'm guessing, here) gangland crooks chasing to flying into space, all as an integral part of police work???

Jumping the shark is, as I understand it, when a show becomes just too wacky and unbelievable and otherwise stupid, and is no longer good.

Cerebus Syndrome is when a story goes all grim and dark. Sometimes for the better, often for the worse.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:23 pm**

"Jumping the Shark" is a reference to the Happy Days storyline where the entire gang goes out to California, and for some unknown reason Fonzie is made to waterski over a pool of sharks.

The show was never the same after that point.

Amarillo Jim: I am well aware of who Pogo is; I was just under the presumption that Porky Pine (the other character in that linked strip) had been the first to utter the famous line.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:29 pm**

LW, Chester Gould penned Tracy from '31 through '77. The "space period" coincided with the US space program in the early '60s. For a daily print comic, it presented a healthy dose of escapist science fiction during that decade. While the US was pursuing JFK's promise to put a man on the moon, Tracy found a lunar civilization in "Moon Valley".

I also find that I was mistaken in thinking Tracy had ended... it is still in production.

JW: The image I shared was apparently the second time it appeared in the strip... Porky Pine may have indeed have coined the phrase, and Pogo simply echoed in the Earth Day context.

Posted: **Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:40 pm**

AmriloJim wrote: JW: The image I shared was apparently the second time it appeared in the strip... Porky Pine may have indeed have coined the phrase, and Pogo simply echoed in the Earth Day context.

I knew I wasn't crazy!

Posted: **Fri Nov 18, 2016 12:02 am**

AmriloJim wrote:I also find that I was mistaken in thinking Tracy had ended... it is still in production.

Current artist Joe Staton is a friend of friends - both he and William Gibson were at one time members of the APA (Amateur Press Alliance) SFPA, of which i have been a member for the last forty years...

Posted: **Fri Nov 18, 2016 12:42 am**

lake_wrangler wrote:Did Dick Tracey happen to water ski over a shark, at some point in the series? Or was that more of a Cerberus syndrome thing? How do we get from 1930s (I'm guessing, here) gangland crooks chasing to flying into space, all as an integral part of police work???

jwhouk wrote:"Jumping the Shark" is a reference to the Happy Days storyline where the entire gang goes out to California, and for some unknown reason Fonzie is made to waterski over a pool of sharks.

The show was never the same after that point.

I knew the origin of the term, which is why i specifically referred to the action of water skiing, rather than merely using the trope name "jumping the shark".

GlytchMeister wrote: Jumping the shark is, as I understand it, when a show becomes just too wacky and unbelievable and otherwise stupid, and is no longer good.

I would not know about the comic going bad, but I was definitely thinking about it going in a weird direction.

GlytchMeister wrote:Cerebus Syndrome is when a story goes all grim and dark. Sometimes for the better, often for the worse.

I hadn't gone over to check, so I was thinking Cerberus was more about getting over-complicated. Although I do remember it also had to do with gag-a-day comics getting into serious (and, I thought, over-complicated) over-arching story arc style after a while.

But mostly I was thinking about over-complicated. And did not want to spend hours on that site, just to confirm or refute...

Posted: **Fri Nov 18, 2016 12:50 am**

Some have suggested that this very comic has gotten Cerberus Syndrome, since the addition of the Golem Girls. However, I understand Pablo had things in mind for Monica way back when Tepoz was "brought back" from his visit to Utah.

EDIT: Yeah, even TV Tropes thinks the Golem Girls was when WS got Cerberus Syndrome.

Posted: **Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:17 pm**

AmriloJim wrote:I've had better luck using a Q&A challenge rather than Captcha....

Code: Select all

Whose catchphrase is "I am what I yam"?
Where can you find Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy?
Name the orange, lasagna-loving cat.
Who said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
"Itchy & Scratchy" is a cartoon inside what primetime TV cartoon?
Where can you find Killer, Miss Buxley, Otto, Sgt. Snorkel and Zero?
The two-way wrist radio and the magnetic Space Coupe were tools used by this flatfoot.
Who is Calvin's stuffed-tiger companion?

Popeye
Peanuts
Garfield
? Perhaps an Admiral, no wait, a General/ Politician during Viet Nam.
the Simpsons
Beetle Bailey
Dick Tracy
Hobbs

EDIT- Ah, I think this is where I went wrong w/ #4: https://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/20 ... us-phrase/

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