I love it when doctoral candidates write in… They always have the juiciest bits of info. Here’s one from Sheldonista Julia P. at Ohio State about Zeus/Jupiter:

“Hi! I’m working on a doctorate in historical linguistics, and I just thought you might be interested to know that Arthur is technically wrong about Zeus and Jupiter being completely different names. In fact, they’re etymologically related. So, Greek and Latin (and English, and Irish, and Russian, and Hindi) are all part of the same language family- Indo-European. “Zeus” is the Greek outcome of the Proto-Indo-European word *Dyeus (which means “sky god” as best we can figure). “Jupiter” is the outcome of *Dyeus-piter, or “sky god-father”. Language is weird sometimes, huh?”

It really is! That’s fascinating! I’ve never seen the linguistic roots of both laid out like that. Thanks, Julia!

Lots of colleges are heading back school in the next few weeks, so it’s a good time to remind students ‘n editors of our free offer! Get Sheldon in your college paper…for free!

We had lots of papers signing up in Fall, and we’ve already had one new school signing up for Spring. Want Sheldon in your college paper? Just read over the info page, then e-mail me to get started! You can be running Sheldon toons in tomorrow’s edition!

Not sure why I felt the impulse, but I colored this older black-and-white strip on Jabba the Hutt.

There was an incredibly nice book review in New York’s Post-Standard on the most recent Sheldon book, “A Blizzard of Lizards”. Huge thanks to journalist Jeff Kapalka for the kind, kind words.

If you’re on the fence about picking up a copy of the book, have a read through a (larger-sized) copy of the review, here!

We put a lot of work into making sure the Sheldon books come out as best as we can make ’em… and it’s always gratifying to hear it’s working. If you’re new to the Sheldon books, pick up your first one over at The Sheldon Store! Thems good readin’!

It’s interesting how “squee”-filled the comic can become anytime there’s an adventure involving Flaco, where 90% of the strip’s dialogue becomes “squees” of various sorts.

The current crop of squees stirred an interesting thought from Sheldon reader Noah A. about the relationship between Flaco and Arthur. It’s a character-construction idea I had never before formalized in thought, and I found it interesting. Here’s his idea:

This just came to me, I noticed a parallel between Flaco & Arthur and R2-D2 & C3PO.

Here’s my angle: In a recent interview with Anthony Daniels [the actor who played C3PO in “Star Wars”], the interviewer gave Daniels props for helping to create R2-D2’s character; seeing as he was with R2 the majority of the time, he understood him and translated that vocally to the audience, thus R2’s character being born right there on the screen. Well, I feel the same goes for good ol’ Arthur & Flaco. Arthur obviously being the “C3PO” figure in this case, helping the audience understand Flaco and his personality. Granted, Flaco has much more to work with as far as true expression than our famous, dome-shaped droid, with his bulbous eyes, flexible body (and tongue, mind you). However, I really do feel that Arthur is just as much part of Flaco’s character as Flaco himself is. Does that make any sense?

It does, actually. And I had never really thought of it that way before. In fact, I’m now sifting my brain, trying to think of mute or near-mute fictional characters who have been “translated” for by another character… and so become part-and-parcel of the audience’s relationship with them…?

Penn & Teller? Laurel & Hardy? Groucho and Harpo? …I guess there’s some truth to the idea, Noah! Neat thought!

Looks like the daily “Sheldon-by-Email” deliveries haven’t been going out since the 7th. My apologies for that! This adds more weight to that old, 18th-Century saying, “Don’t mess with your Website coding when you’re running a high fever”.

Solid advice that I clearly didn’t follow!

With luck, tonight’s strip will be e-mailed out, as usual.

My apologies if I’ve been slow to respond to your e-mails this past week. I’ve started off the New Year in fine form…falling sick the first chance I got.

Boo!

Slowly but surely, though, the fever is becoming less feverish, and the dizziness is undizzying itself, and standing up is seeming like a more and more viable option for me.

It’s funny: This cartoon only makes me laugh when I’ve been sick. But then, alas, it rings all too true.

Sheldonista Wilbert R. pointed out something I completely missed about the printing plates, below. They weren’t drawn by just any Kane, they were drawn by BOB Kane. As in, “I-created-Batman” Bob Kane.

Here’s the link Wilbert found listing all Kane’s work.

Wow!

Not an hour after I made my previous post, Sheldonista Jesse S. pulled out a big win. Not only did he find the correct name (“Tunge!” I never would’ve guessed that spelling!) he found the full rules on a UK site. Check it out!

Jesse, I can’t thank you enough. We’ve literally been looking for this game for years. Years!

I can’t wait to bust out a deck and give it a whirl again. And if any other Sheldonistas enjoy a card game from time to time, try it out and let me know how it goes. And don’t let the rules deter you (…looking them over, they kinda read like a NASA training manual). Trust me: This is a genuinely awesome game. Give it a try!

Based on all the generous responses from my post about coffee mugs, it occurred to me that I should ask for help on a genuine question that’s been bugging my wife and I for years. Namely: What are the rules to the Jordanian card game, Tonj?

(Sad to say, this is actually a genuine question on my part!)

Here’s the back story: When my wife and I were going to grad school in England, one of her roommates was a really funny, wonderful girl from Jordan — who taught us this awesome card game called “Tonj” (or “Tanj” or “Tahnj”).

Not unlike the card game “War,” Tonj was a two-person game that could be played with one or two decks, and was (I think) played solely between two people. And my wife and I loved it — we played it all the time. But then, for reasons neither of us can remember, we stopped playing it altogether. Even worse: We completely forgot the rules after only a few months!

And now, despite my best efforts with phonetic boolean searches, I can’t find the dang game described anywhere on the web! Darn it all, only 16%* of the world’s knowledge has been codified on the Net, so Google is giving me bupkus.

So! If you’re from Jordan, and you know what game I’m talking about — drop me a line! You’d make two nerds very happy!

And, should anyone be kind enough to link to or describe the game, I’ll be sure to share it with everyone else via the blog. It’s a fun game to try: It’s one of those card games that goes fast, then slow, then fast again — but allows for rapid-fire conversation the whole time.

*I made that number up. But I’m guessing it’s a surprisingly low number in actuality.