Johnny Walker posted:

This is like an all-time top 5 storyline I'm so glad I went back for this.

Slammy posted:

And He Did! (December 22, 1917)

riderchop posted:

Rae the Doe, which you can support by pledging to the author's Patreon

Johnny Walker posted:

Rex Morgan MD

Elise the Great posted:

It’s pathophysiology time, motherfuckers. (That will be the title of my children’s network show someday.)

We kinda tend to think of insulin and sugar as polar opposites. Too much insulin and your sugar goes away and your brain tissues starve; too little insulin and your blood sugar goes up and, uh, this is bad. Somehow.

That’s really just part of the picture. Yes, the syrupy-thick blood is super bad. Sugar is corrosive to the blood vessels (just ask any nurse who’s pushed dextrose 50% into an IV and watched the vein blow) and over time even moderately high blood sugars rip and scar your arteries and veins. This is incredibly bad for things like your legs, which are the farthest from your heart and have a hard time getting blood back and forth to begin with. A few years of sticky scratchy sugar blood, and the nerves die from poor circulation, wounds stop healing because no blood is getting to them, and eventually your legs just rot off. The syrupy-sweet blood is just fudge sauce on the leg-flesh sundae that bacteria love to eat. This is why diabetics lose their legs. (The nerve damage is why diabetics go blind.)

Your kidneys, likewise, are almost entirely made of blood vessels. Too much sugar gouging out your kidneys = scarred up kidney circuits that are too damaged to let the water through. Bonus: when your blood sugar is insanely high, your kidneys can try to compensate by squeezing sugar directly out through your blood filters, which lets you piss away the dangerously gooey stuff… but rips holes in your filters, essentially. This is why diabetics have kidney failure and end up on dialysis.

On top of all that, your heart and brain blood vessels get shredded to boot, which is why diabetics have so many strokes and heart attacks. Diabetes is bad poo poo.

But there’s something even more dangerous than just having your blood turn into razor soup. Thick, dense blood is like a sponge, sucking water out of your tissues (read: organs and muscles). When your body enters a diabetic crisis, you become so thirsty you can’t loving stand it. Undiagnosed diabetics are often spotted because they pack a couple gallon jugs of water to bed with them when they sleep at night. And as soon as their blood thins out a little, their kidneys dump all that new water in an attempt to flush out the sugar, further ripping themselves to shreds… which is why undiagnosed diabetics are also often spotted because they pee themselves in public or spend 2/3 of their day pissing away the gallons of water they’re chugging.

Soda-fountain guy was thirsty as gently caress, and all his body’s instincts were telling him to slam a bunch of liquid. But why the gently caress choose soda syrup? What the hell?

To answer that one, let’s get back to what insulin does. It doesn’t magically make sugar go away; your cells have their mouths locked shut to keep them from eating every drat thing that goes by, and insulin is the key that unlocks them. If your body doesn’t make insulin (because it destroyed all its own insulin cells), fuckin blows to be you, because your cells will starve surrounded by delicious food. If your body is fat as hell and all that fat is secreting endocrine poo poo to inform your body that you have enough loving food to last you a month, your cells become insulin-resistant and it takes a lot more insulin to open those locks. (This part is the least-understood part of the whole fat ---> diabetes cascade, but while we don’t know exactly how it happens, we do know that excess fat leads almost inevitably to insulin resistance, and the ‘almost’ is generous.)

So now your cells can’t eat. Your blood is getting thicker because the onslaught of sugar isn’t slowing, but your cells are starving to death, being ripped apart by sludgy sugar sauce, and having all the water sucked out of them by your spongey thick blood. Insulin also allows your cells to eat the potassium they need to keep their internal pumps running, so now your potassium is backing up, causing your blood to become acidic, and making all your cell’s pumps run backward. In desperation, your cells start burning protein, which is a really poor energy source because it’s actually the cell’s furniture and tools. At this point, poo poo inside your cells is so bad that instead of putting food on the table, they’re chewing on the table legs in case the varnish is edible.

This is why that poor motherfucker was drinking sugar syrup. He was literally starving to death.

Many diabetics think they have low blood sugar right up until they realize their blood sugar is actually high—their cells just can’t eat any of it.

Broken-down proteins and fats produce ketones. Starving cells produce lactic acid. Between those two and all the extra potassium, your blood turns to acid in your veins. Over time, your kidneys might have been able to slowly compensate for that by secreting bicarbonate, but right now they’re busy squeezing sugar and potassium out through their battered assholes. The only other way your body can try to fix the whole ‘acid blood’ problem is by blowing off as much carbon dioxide as possible, since carbon dioxide is acidic when dissolved in blood. Soon you’re sobbing for air like you’ve been running a marathon (another situation in which stressed-out and starving cells dump tons of lactic acid), your body is so dehydrated you’re losing your mind and your organs are failing, your cells are so hungry they’re literally eating themselves, and so much potassium is backed up in your blood that your heart’s muscle-pumps get overwhelmed by the back-pressure and your heart just… stops.

Diabetic ketoacidosis, DKA, is a horrible way to die.

PainterofCrap posted:

I started scanning Homebodies, which came along in 1954, but now that I have the earliest one in the set - Addams and Evil from 1947, I'm tempted to go with that. Any thoughts?

kidcoelacanth posted:

Mr. Mr. Boop

Johnny Walker posted:

The Phantom

Ghostlight posted:

Bogor

Johnny Walker posted:

Rex Morgan MD



Is that really all there is to diagnosing type-2? I guess it makes sense I just never thought about it.

Saoshyant posted:

Here's the follow up Sunday strip for that 70's story, because it's worth knowing what this story is going to be about.

Are you ready? It's Disco. The whole episode is going to be about Disco, with John Romita drawing period clothing and Stan Lee trying to do hip dialogue.



And it rules!

EasyEW posted:

(Ellison Hoover)

Evil Mastermind posted:

The Dinette Set knows recycling is where you find it.

karmicknight posted:

the Unknown Commander is basically a cult figure for the Jungle Patrol. Which is super hosed up actually.

EasyEW posted:

Vargo posted:

Wallace

Evil Mastermind posted:

Jesus Christ how does this get past a loving editor?

Julet Esqu posted:

Maybe it's just because I live in an area that is subject to rolling blackouts (and the occasional storm knocking down power lines), but I have flashlights around? And a couple of portable lanterns? Then again, they allegedly live in California, so they should be prepared for blackouts, too.

ikanreed posted:

Worse, I'm pretty sure that's loving salt. It's white and chunky.

Judging by bottles, the others are like... old bay and oregano. Garbage tasteless spices for middle aged ladies.

Kennel posted:

Dustin

Pastry of the Year posted:

Arlo and Janis Classic (May 18, 1999)

Selachian posted:

Richard's Poor Almanac



Yes, Richard Thompson dissed the Spider-Man robot gorilla story!

Ghostlight posted:

Bogor

Pancho Jueves posted:

It bugs me that the artist almost always draws the characters crammed in the bottom half of the panel. I can't unsee it now that I've noticed it.

FrumpleOrz posted:

Sherman's Lagoon

Ghostlight posted:

Nekonaughey

Technowolf posted:

Mark is white.

Saoshyant posted:

davidspackage posted:

I'm starting to wonder what time it's supposed to be, where it's pitch black but everyone appears to be doing their daily stuff.

Julet Esqu posted:

As far as I know, the family has two vehicles. One is Ellie's crappy unreliable family car and the other is Jon's fancy expensive flashy impractical sports car. What's she expecting the kid to learn on? (I feel like if professional driving lessons were an option, he'd have mentioned it. Also, as much as I generally find Ellie to be unpleasant and overly naggy, I feel like she could justifiably be bitching a lot more about the car disparity.)

davidspackage posted:

"There's constant pressure to create cute expressions at bridge clubs" is bizarrely specific.

Slammy posted:

Outbursts of Everett True (February 12, 1918)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meatless_Monday posted:

During World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for every Tuesday to be meatless and for one meatless meal to be observed every day, for a total of nine meatless meals each week.[5] The United States Food Administration (USFA) urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to help the war effort and avoid rationing. Conserving food would support U.S. troops as well as feed populations in Europe where food production and distribution had been disrupted by the war. To encourage voluntary rationing, the USFA created the slogan “Food Will Win the War” and coined the terms "Meatless Tuesday" and "Wheatless Wednesday” to remind Americans to reduce intake of those products.[6]

Herbert Hoover was the head of the Food Administration as well as the American Relief Association during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and played a key role implementing the campaign, which was one of Hoover's many attempts to encourage volunteerism and sacrifice among Americans during the war. The USFA provided a wide variety of materials in addition to advertising, including recipe books and menus found in magazines, newspapers and government-sponsored pamphlets.[7]

Vargo posted:

PARACHUTE DAY

CommonShore posted:

So no farther mention of the ridiculous number of crimes that Mark did?

Slammy posted:

Outbursts of Everett True (March 1918)

JethroMcB posted:

The other day I drafted a post criticizing Heathcliff, saying that it is a strip you can safely scroll past because, for as "crazy" as it is is, most of the time it's just something like Heathcliff and the kid watching a pug driving a Go-kart with a pug's face on the front, and the kid says "Pug-Kart." And that's it. Then, two weeks later, you'd see the exact same visual gag but now there would be two pugs driving and the caption would be "Go-Pugs." The strip isn't just lazy, it's repetitive.

I wound up not posting it because I thought "What do I care, that's a hyperbolic take; it lands a joke every now and then and it's not that derivative." Then, this week:



To quote Nick Wiger in that article about modern Heathcliff, “I think I am actually mad.”

How Wonderful! posted:

It also includes these following transphobic gems, which, no lie, shoved me all the way into the back of the closet in despair and disgust in college when I first read the drat book, so this page has turned into a true loving bummer to annotate!




She was also the dissertation advisor to Janice Raymond, who would go on to publish her thesis as the foundational TERF text The Transsexual Empire.

Young Bechdel, get your poo poo together!

Selachian posted:

Richard's Poor Almanac

Vargo posted:

Curtis


Well don't be a dick about it if you want it to happen again, Greg!

Tendales posted:

jesus dog just be happy for your friend for once

Vargo posted:

BCN

Johnny Walker posted:

Mary Worth



Uh, what?

Julet Esqu posted:

Some Guy TT posted:

Huh. I just read it as she wanted to do something nice for him because he was clearly working hard on something difficult that was important to him and she wanted to be supportive, not that she was literally expecting him to explain it to her. Basically the opposite of those gags we see where a parent gives their kid a hard time for doing something productive on account of it being out of character.