February 28th, 2010
Untold Riches
This comic ran in last year’s Comic Festival comic book that was given away on Free Comic Book Day in conjunction with TCAF. It’s been long enough that I can run it on the site without spoiling it for the book.
I still really like the gag. When I was a kid one of my favourite birthday cards I ever received read “For your birthday I got you something that money can’t buy” and on the inside “But I sold it!” The concept blew my mind. One of my brother’s favourite lines from a TV show was “My word is as good as gold… I never used it once!” I do remember having problems as a kid understanding that priceless didn’t mean worthless, but worthmost. Weird. Any other words people have trouble wrapping their heads around?
February 28th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
I can think of a few.
Inflammable actually meaning something that burns easily and readily.
Usage and time has essentially changed this to “can’t/won’t burn now”. With the prefix “in-” usually meaning something that can’t be done, it’s an understandable confusion.
Speaking of negative prefixes like “in-” and “dis-“, you rarely hear about how vincible someone is, though the word does exist. Though if you played D&D you might run across the occasional “Armour of Vincibility” (I admit that’s the only context in which I’ve *ever* heard that word used.)
And according to my dictionary, you can’t be gruntled.
One last one: to this day, my first impression is of someone’s luck running out, whenever I hear “so and so lucked out”. It just doesn’t seem positive to me.
February 28th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
“apologist” always confused me, cuz they’re actually defending their thing..
or how “not bad” can be a little good or a lot good..
or if one person goes away, they left, but all the others are the ones that are left…
Also ‘sanction’ .. sometimes that’s good for you.. but sometimes not..
February 28th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
“Ruthless” didn’t make much sense, but only because we didn’t go around saying certain people were “ruth.” I actually just found out this past week that they used ruth in Chaucer’s time, though, and it made so much sense to me.
March 1st, 2010 at 3:53 am
I like how if something has just some amount of awe, it’s awesome.
…but if it’s full of awe, it’s awful.
March 1st, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Yeah I agree about ‘sanction’. Very confusing. Maybe if you sanction something, it’s positive, but if you sanction someone, it’s negative?
‘Awful’ / ‘awesome’ is a baffling one. Kind of like ‘terrible’ / ‘terrific’!
Or ‘terrific’ / ‘horrific’!
‘Cleave’ is another one of those words… it can mean ‘stick together’ or ‘cut apart’.
BTW what are the furry creatures with antlers/antennae? They remind me of Dr Seuss pictures a bit.
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:04 am
Come to think of it.. “suspicious” always bothered me. I’m suspicious because you’re suspicious..
… I always suspect the suspect. :0
March 4th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
MDF – When I was a kid there was a daily strip I really liked called Captain Vincible. Rereading it I don’t see the big deal anymore. I can totally see where you’re coming from with “lucked out”.
Cold Fusion-I agree. Apologist never sat right with me. It’s a pejorative used in arguments by jerks.
Yolen-I’m going to start saying people are totally ruth now!
Lars-I never considered the root of terrific before. I guess it’s aged like Wicked for cool. I have no idea what those creatures are. I just made them up. As my “artists who inspire me” thread on the TX forums show, I am a fan of Seuss. I was probably channeling him when I came up with them.
January 26th, 2013 at 8:00 pm
That’s why you can never insure priceless treasure, because the insurance people will price it.
May 2nd, 2013 at 8:19 pm
What the cheese-dip are those things? Bearlocks?
May 13th, 2014 at 11:35 pm
Does Christi have super-strength? moving that much of anything by one’s self too quickly for its owner to respond would be difficult enough, and gold very dense (almost as much so as its owners).
Also, I wonder is some manner of disguise or false identity is referred to as a “cognito”.