Sunday! Fun Day!

Hello. Last week’s unscheduled Monday post proved so successful that I am doing another surprise one, but this time on a Sunday. Yes, I’m a wild man. Same goal: To generate questions for Tuesday’s Gene Pool. Same promise: You will be otherwise entertained herein; I’ll never ask for something without trying to give something back.

Your Biggest Humiliating Moments are still rolling in, and more are always welcome. As are questions on any other topic. But this week I am also looking for something new — questions about things in life that bedevil or confound you. I will answer them to the worst of my ability. They could be as broad and sweeping as What is The Meaning of Existence, or as small and feeble as my favorite: Why do so many talking heads pronounce “negotiation” as “nego-see-ay-shun” when there is no c or s in the word or ANY reason to pronounce it that way. Or why do we hiccup? Or why can you sometimes stop a sneeze by jamming an index finger under your nose? Or why do cats jump into boxes? Or anything in between. No question is too stupid or trivial or immense for me to take an ignorant, silly whack at it.

Meanwhile, here is today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll, involving something that has bedeviled and confounded me; it always happens, in city after city, and I cannot figure out why radio stations do it. Maybe you can. Maybe there is a good reason! The question is, do you find it all all helpful when the weather report gives the temperature in four different places — say, at the airport, in downtown, in close-in suburbia, at the big mall, etc., areas within a few short miles of each other, and the temperatures inevitably are, like: 62 degrees, 63 degrees, 62 degrees, 64 degrees, etc.

In the last few weeks in The Gene Pool, readers have mentioned “Barney and Clyde,” while other readers, less familiar with me, wondered what the heck that is. It’s the name of a syndicated daily newspaper comic strip begun in 2010 by me and my son, Dan, and cartoonist David Clark. It’s about a friendship between a billionaire and a homeless man. Still going strong, in a bunch of newspapers. Here are the first 10 days of the strip, dating back to June 2010.

If you’d like free Barney & Clyde updates every week, there’s a way: Counterpoint, the syndicator of the strip, has a new Substack that does just that. You can join here . Note: They ask for a pledge of future money, but you can just decline it; if you do, they will withdraw their request for your credit card and start the free deliveries.

Okay, time to go. Reminder: Focusing on humiliations, or big and little questions about life. Send ‘em here today or tomorrow, for Tuesday’s Gene Pool: