Missing man formation

The military is making WMDs but can't get the slides presented properly.

Because "Indians" used to bury people this way as a form of torture, or test of bravery--only they probably didn't really, at least not as much as movies might have suggested. Here's a clip from the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), which was very well known at the time and probably inspired this strip: https://youtu.be/pYhlVR9GzjA?si=klSXoYG0m3ynJzE4

I believe it's referring to a barn dance They were popular at the time of the strip, except in this case, the band booked a barn dance with actual barn animals. I think the drawing style looks different because this is an early one, 1981.

In 1982, it would have been unheard of for a pet store to be selling snakes in a window like this. Puppies, bunnies, guinea pigs, sure, but not snakes. Maybe they would have one or two in the back of the store, but it wasn't common. That makes this scenario unlikely and somewhat absurd. Plus, Larson loves snakes and probably this would have been a wish fulfillment for him.

It's a very old nursery rhyme dating from 1744. There are variations, but it's basically this:

Ladybug! Ladybug! Fly away home. Your house is on fire. And your children all gone.

All except one, And that's little Ann, For she crept under The frying pan.

I saw a bluejay attack and kill a smaller bird (titmouse, I think), last summer. Kindred spirits, maybe.

Tom Bombadil

I homeschooled my kid k-12. When I started, I had no idea how many religious hs-ers there were. I used a secular curriculum, and never even thought about teaching anything regarding religion one way or another. Once I started looking around at all the creationist curricula out there--yikes.

Anyhoo, long story short, my son went on to a college degree (he actually started college classes online at 15--one of the perks of hs-ing for us), and he's an atheist. Secular homeschoolers do exist!

ETA some links--these are a few secular homeschool curricula. There's a lot more out there, but this is the majority of what I used through the years:

https://www.calverthomeschool.com/

https://www.oakmeadow.com/

https://www.keystoneschoolonline.com/

https://www.thinkwell.com/ (Primarily math--the professor that does most of the math instruction is wonderful.)

When I sit in a chair and cross my legs, I tuck the foot of the top leg behind the ankle of my bottom leg, so the legs are kind of wrapped around each other.

My high school English teachers are screaming in my head that it's "My twin and me."

The Sword in the Stone, perhaps.