Safety Third
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, then a short essay, then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner, Wayno whose weekly blog post I recommend highly.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to the Secret Symbols.
Hola, Jazz Pickles. My philosophical side is acting up again this week so I feel like sharing a couple of things that I find meaningful. First is a bi-newsletter called The Marginalian, the brainchild of Maria Popova, a genius who comments eloquently on literature, art, philosophy, science, and the nature of being. She recommends books, then recommends other books that will complement the first recommendation. My description doesn’t do it justice; just give it a try and see what you think.
That brings me to my second share: A week or so ago, The Marginalian featured a short article about a book called Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory on Connection, Consciousness, and Being. The author, Neil Theise is an American research scientist and a Buddhist.
I just finished the book and found it fascinating on every level! I cannot recommend it highly enough. It deals with biology, physics, math, philosophy, history, consciousness, and spiritualism in equally illuminating ways—all in less than 200 pages.
Though it gets deep into math and science in a couple of places, the book is definitely written for the layman. I’m not well educated in either of those disciplines but I found the main thrust of the book completely accessible and frequently astounding.
Of the many fascinating topics it covers, one of my favorites regards the history of how Western society came to consider empirical science the only way to understand the universe and existence. The answer is simpler and more recent than I would’ve thought. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Wayno is back from the National Cartoonist Society’s annual convention. He was nominated for an award for his work on Bizarro but, alas, it did not land on his table. He and I both congratulate Dave Blazek for his well-deserved win for his comic Loose Parts.
Now let’s check out Wayno’s Reuben-nominated work from the week’s Bizarro…
Sometimes you just gotta give it the finger.
It was the prominent profile that attracted him.
I like any sport that you can play in rented shoes.
Oysters are known to be the most monastic of the mollusks.
I have a personal rule never to play jai alai with someone who has their own thingamajig and a carrying case for it.
They’re not hitting every house on the street, of course, they just picked this guy’s house at random.
And that’s the final buzzer of our cartoon gameshow. Thanks for sticking around for the final spin of the wheel. If you like what we do and that we do it for free, please consider helping us keep it that way via any of the links below. We’ll name goldfish after you out of gratitude.
Until next week, pay attention to the safety instructions and keep your electronics powered down until the flight attendants have buckled up and stopped checking.
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