That does it for regular comics for 2019! I'll be running some bonus strips funded by my Patreon supporters through New Year's day, then regular comics will resume. Happy holidays!

turn it off!!

I want that

Yaaay

I learned via some of my excellent Patreon supporters that some trans folks can experience period symptoms too! Hormones are WILD

Roko tries

ayyy

Our friends at Weta Workshop have a couple new additions for your growing Hobbiton Collection. A piece of Hobbiton that fans have been asking to be made for quite some time is now available to buy: the beautiful Hobbiton Mill and Bridge has arrived! Due out in November, fans can get this beautiful looking piece […]

Pukeko Pictures, founded by Weta Workshop’s Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger with their friend and children’s author Martin Baynton, has released a free children’s ebook. The book is based on characters from the New Zealand kids’ show Kiddets and demonstrates to children the importance of remaining clean, clear, and kind. You can download a copy […]

When TheOneRing.net marked its 10th anniversary in 2009, we celebrated in style. We had such a good time, we decided to celebrate every year on April 26, the date when TORn was established.  Today is our 11th Founders Day Anniversary and our 21st Anniversary (TORniversary). To us, however, this is more than an Anniversary.  Inspired […]

If you loved The Unexpected Party sequence from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey then our friends from Weta Workshop have something for you. You can now buy a board game version of this sequence in the film. The purpose of this game is to be the first person to complete all 15 lines of the […]

Guinness World Records has named a South African restaurant as the official titleholder for 'Most Varieties of Milkshakes Commercially Available'.

Air travelers cannot receive cash compensation if their flight is delayed by a passenger biting others and assaulting crew members, an adviser at the Court of Justice of the European Union said on Thursday.

(This March 17 story corrects stock symbol of Zoom to ZM.O, not ZOOM.PK in the last paragraph)

Under partial lockdown due to the spiraling coronavirus pandemic, Spaniards are allowed to leave home only for essential outings, walking a dog being one of them.

You've got to eat it, to beat it: That's the philosophy of one Hanoi chef who is attempting to boost morale in the Vietnamese capital by selling green, coronavirus-themed burgers.

Gerson Monje holds up his cellphone to proudly show off his online sex shop. A red banner reading "sold out!" is plastered across half of the products.

Volunteers clad as Superman and Spider-Man sprayed disinfectant against the coronavirus on Indonesia's island of Java, flanking a colleague wearing the winged helmet of local superhero Gatotkaca who shouted, "Wear masks, wash hands and stay alert."

Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.

Chewy and Miley, both two-year-old Schnauzer dogs, are getting their hair cut at a groomer in Bangkok for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak began in Thailand in January.

Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out! Hey y’all: it’s your comment … of … the WEEK! “If we do have to accept a more […]

El columnista de TWH en México, Jaime Gironés, reflexiona sobre lo que significa estar aislado en Beltane.

Continue reading Columna: Una celebración solitaria at The Wild Hunt.

TWH's Mexico columnist, Jaime Gironés, reflects on what it means to be isolated on Beltane.

Continue reading Column: A Solitary Celebration at The Wild Hunt.

Clio Ajana writes about the scars the pandemic is leaving with us - and how they may presage growth in the time to come.

Continue reading Column: Scars at Beltane at The Wild Hunt.

TWH speaks with Jon Sewell, who has just finished his two-decade project to create new productions of Aleister Crowley's Rites of Eleusis.

Continue reading Eleusyve Productions completes cycle of Crowley’s Rites of Eleusis at The Wild Hunt.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Pagan Spirit Gathering has been canceled, indigenous shaman and actor Antonio Bolivar joins the Ancestors, Sacred Well announces changes in leadership, and more!

Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: PSG 2020 canceled, leadership change within Sacred Well, indigenous shaman and actor Antonio Bolivar crosses Veil, and more! at The Wild Hunt.

NASA added the name of the goddess Artemis to new missions. TWH examines some possible implications of the secretive "Artemis Accords" and how they relate to previous treaties and agreements that pertain to space and celestial bodies.

Continue reading The mysterious Artemis Accords describe US interests in space resources at The Wild Hunt.

In the first world of first world-liest problems, a problem I would love to be having this very week when I’m shivering again (despite many suggestions of spring on the near horizon) is that when in my life I’ve been lucky enough to decamp to a tropical location for a vacation, and wish to do what one does on tropical vacations — I mean, aside from wearing such buckets of SPF that when I return people comment, “I thought you went to the beach?” — and that is ordering a piña colada. Possibly at a swim-up bar. In a hurricane glass with a tacky paper umbrella in it, a fluorescent maraschino cherry, and a creamy-tart balance that is unfettered vacation bliss with each sip. The problem is that they’re very often…. terrible, tinny and artificially-flavored. I mean, I drink it; I’m not a barbarian. But every time I do (daily, at 4:30pm, please), I vow that when I get home, I’m going to make a real and proper and perfect one to set things right again.

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My friend David Lebovitz, OG food blogger and nine-time author, wrote a book on the iconic cocktails, aperitifs, and cafe traditions of France, including 160 recipes, that came out in March. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel like you’ve hopped on a plane to fly to Paris to spend long, leisurely afternoons-into-evenings wandering, sipping and tasting this and that, something I had the delight to do almost a year ago in person. The circumstances might be terrible, but it feels like a bit of luck that he’s created a book that allows us to recreate these tastes and the feeling, as best as possible, at home.

David wastes no time dropping us into Paris at dawn, right around the time we’d be stumbling off a too-brief-to-be-restful redeye, where the lights in cafes are flickering on, followed by the coffee machines. Baguettes are picked up in paper sacks that will be served with butter and jam. He explains that cafes are the living rooms of Paris, places where artists and writers have long worked, attracted by the heat that their homes lacked, and the wine, and remain places to meet friends outside your too-small apartment, freeing you from having to clean up before people come over. From café au lait to chocolate chaud (hot chocolate), citronnade (lemonade), into l’heure de l’apero (a time to unwind with a drink before dinner) to the craft cocktail movement of the last decade, the book is a bit of a dreamland, so perfect for those of us who desperately miss wandering right now.

Read more »

Cherished figures from pillar of country’s culture among the dead, as virus hits working-class areas

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Like so many of his neighbours in Madureira – a working-class neighbourhood considered Rio’s “cradle of samba” – Álvaro Silva was a diehard supporter of the local samba school, Portela.

Just a few weeks ago the 76-year-old percussionist watched in delight as the group to which he had dedicated more than half of his life took to the streets for its annual carnival procession.

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We would like you to share your tributes for friends and family who have died

Covid-19 has now claimed the lives of thousands of people in the UK.

Older people and those with underlying health conditions are much more vulnerable to the coronavirus, but it can affect people who are otherwise fit and healthy.

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We’d like to hear from those who attended events between the end of February and early March such as Wolves v Espanyol and Cheltenham Festival

We’d like you to help us document the spread of coronavirus due to some of the mega-events that went ahead between the end of February and the first couple of weeks in March.

Those events include: Wolves v Espanyol Europa League game, Liverpool v Atletico Madrid Champions League tie, Six Nations cup games and the Cheltenham Festival.

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We want to see your photos, videos and audio of what it is like doing your job on the frontline

Staff working for the NHS have expressed concern about the lack of protective personal equipment, with photographs circulating on social media of staff creating their own makeshift items, including with clinical waste bags.

We want to see healthcare workers’ photos, videos and audio of what it is like doing their job.

Continue reading...

About 2m Britons have paused payments in the coronavirus crisis. Readers share their concerns

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Almost one in five UK mortgage holders have now been granted a payment holiday, it was estimated this week – but people’s experiences of the process have been very different. Some struggled to get a holiday while others say it was almost too easy. And while for some it will add just a few pounds to their monthly mortgage bill, others say their outlay will rise by a lot more.

The Guardian asked readers who had applied for a mortgage payment holiday, or help with other debts, how they got on. Almost 200 people contacted us to tell us their stories.

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Gatecrashing bar mitzvahs, quarantine quizzes and climbing Everest indoors – here’s a slew of things to do to stay connected without stepping outside

Lockdown could have seen us wallowing in some pretty unusual hermetic behaviour. Obsessively rearranging your groceries by best-before date. Binge-watching old episodes of Terry and June. Blankly staring at the forks in your cutlery drawer wondering why they have four prongs and not three.

Instead, the past few weeks have shown that being shut away could be making us more connected with each other. Thanks to strong internet networks and an array of digital apps and video communication software, we’re spending more quality time with loved ones, rehabilitating old relationships and forging new ones. Indeed, a recent study by Channel Mum found a quarter of British people now talk with neighbours they previously ignored. In short? Being confined to quarters is helping us rediscover a new sense of community.

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With disinformation connecting coronavirus to 5G masts, fortune cookies and eating bat soup, here are some of the worst examples of misinformation surrounding the pandemic

If there’s one thing we know about Covid-19, it is that the pandemic is incredibly infectious. At the same time, the volume of disinformation from doctored photos to false rumours and hoax videos spreading online has grown at a worrying pace.

In etymological terms, the word “viral” comes from the stem word “virus”. And the viral misinformation can be a danger in itself. Just think of the recent petrol bomb attacks on 5G phone masts because of a widely believed – but unfounded – link to coronavirus.

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Harrell launched the careers of 90s R&B megastars Mary J Blige and Jodeci on his Bad Boy label with the Notorious BIG

Andre Harrell, founder of the influential R&B and hip-hop label Uptown Records, has died. He was 59. The cause of Harrell’s death, which was announced early on Saturday by DJ D-Nice and confirmed by media outlets, was not immediately known.

Harrell started out as half of the early-80s hip-hop duo Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but was best known for schooling an intern, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, in the music business.

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Senior health official says virus exposed ‘weak links’ in way country manages epidemics

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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China will reform its disease prevention and control system to address weaknesses exposed by the coronavirus outbreak, a senior health official has said.

China has been criticised domestically and abroad for being initially slow to react to the outbreak, which started in Wuhan. The virus has now infected almost 4 million people around the world, and almost 250,0000 people have died from the Covid-19 disease it causes.

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British medical journal’s editorial says the Brazilian president’s disregard for lockdown measures is damaging

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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The biggest threat to Brazil’s ability to successfully combat the spread of the coronavirus and tackle the unfolding public health crisis is the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to the British medical journal The Lancet.

In an editorial, The Lancet said his disregard for and flouting of lockdown measures was sowing confusion across Brazil, which reported a record number of Covid-19 deaths on Friday, and is fast emerging as one of the world’s coronavirus hot spots.

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After the justice department dropped charges against Trump’s ex-national security adviser, Obama expressed fear the US is headed in a dangerous direction

Barack Obama has reportedly said the “rule of law is at risk” in the US, after the justice department said it would drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Related: For Trump, l'etat, c'est moi. Attorney General Barr does whatever he wants | Lloyd Green

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Bernicoff had appeared on the Channel 4 series alongside her husband, Leon, who died in 2017

June Bernicoff, best known as a cast member on the Channel 4 series Gogglebox, has died at the age of 82.

Bernicoff appeared on the hit series – in which members of the public commentate on television programmes from their living rooms – alongside her husband Leon, who died in 2017.

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Complaints soar over useless face masks, handmade sanitisers and school meal scams

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

More than 500,000 unusable face masks, and a garage selling fake Covid-19 testing kits, are among the hundreds of frauds investigated by trading standards officers since the start of the lockdown.

According to the Local Government Association, fraudsters have gone into overdrive during the past six weeks to exploit the public’s fears and the fact that they are stuck at home.

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Care minister’s request is admission that centralised programmes have fallen short

Coronavirus – latest updates

See all our coronavirus coverage

Ministers have asked local directors of public health to take charge of Covid-19 testing in English care homes in what will be seen as a tacit admission that centralised attempts to run the programme have fallen short.

In a letter to sector leaders, seen by the Guardian, the care minister, Helen Whately, acknowledged that testing of care home residents and staff needs to be “more joined up”. She describes the new arrangements as “a significant change”.

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NHS staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds may be given roles away from the frontline under plans to reduce their disproportionately high death rate from Covid-19.

The Guardian revealed last week that minority groups were over-represented by as much as 27% in the overall Covid-19 death toll. Additionally, 63% of the first 106 health and social care staff known to have died from the virus were black or Asian, according to the Health Service Journal.

Senior reporter Haroon Siddique looks at the figures and explains why BAME people may be more at risk.

• British BAME Covid-19 death rate 'more than twice that of whites'
  
• ‘So much living to do’: stories of UK's coronavirus victims

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