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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Herriman Saturday

Saturday, March 28 1908 -- Baseball season starts in less than a week, and Herriman has suggestions for a deluxe parade to kick off the season. For those of you who were quick to pick up the gauntlet recently when I was left dumbfounded by a Herriman cartoon, howzabout tackling the many references in this one -- we have a mix of classical and contemporary, learned and silly, sacred and profane bits of business going on -- how many can you decode for us modern bumpkins?

In Hen Berry news, the thirteenth guest has again come just short of arriving, and the other guests are now slowly filtering away. Will Herriman drag this on forever? Starting to look that way.
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4 comments:

  1. Eric O. Costello12/22/2012 6:31 PM

    Point #1: Cap Dillon is quoting the poem "The Yarn of the Nancy Bell" by W.S. Gilbert, he of Gilbert & Sullivan. The original reads, in part:

    "Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
    And the mate of the Nancy brig,
    And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
    And the crew of the captain's gig."

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  2. Eric O. Costello12/22/2012 6:34 PM

    Point #2: At least two advertising references here. The "Coal Dust Twins" is likely a play on the "Gold Dust Twins," two African-American children who were the logo for Fairbank's Gold Dust Washing Powder. You can also see in the lower right the dog, alluding to the famous Victor records "His Master's Voice" logo (by following a gramaphone-type record player)

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  3. Eric O. Costello12/22/2012 6:38 PM

    Point #3: Saint Cecila is the patron saint of musicians (she sang to God as she was being martyred).

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  4. Eric O. Costello12/23/2012 7:38 AM

    Point #4: I assume the Katzenjammer Kids reference needs no explication to this audience.

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