2011-07-25

Main comic: A single panel. A balding man, seen from behind in profile, holds up a sheet of paper toward a woman with long dark hair and round glasses who smiles slightly. The paper reads 'CAT-GAG'. The man says, 'OF COURSE.' A caption below reads: 'The gene sequence for hairballing was beautiful in its simplicity.' The joke is that a cat's hairball-gagging behavior is encoded by the literal DNA letters C-A-T-G-A-G (using the four genetic bases A, C, G, T). Votey (black-and-white aftercomic): The same idea taken to an emotional extreme. A man stares off with a rapt, tearful expression and says, 'SO... BEAUTIFUL...' while next to him a cat heaves with its mouth gaping wide, retching up a hairball.