Drunken Letters To Popular Cartoonists
#1 In A Series



To: Scott Adams
Re: "Dilbert" Floating Hand?
Date: 5/27/99

Mr. Adams,

While viewing today's "Dilbert" comic strip online--chuckling appreciatively, as I do every morning, at the sharply observed workplace antics of D. and his cronies--I noted an odd visual detail: in the third and climactic panel, the hand of one of the characters appeared to be floating several inches (well, what would be several inches within the fictive "Dilbert" world; in my world, it was several pixels) above his forearm! I immediately took a screen shot (attached).

Several plausible explanations suggest themselves:

So, which of these explains the floating hand? Please advise. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best Regards,
--Kevin Shay



To: Scott Adams
Re: Oops!
Date: 5/27/99

Mr. Adams,

Please disregard my earlier message with the subject line "'Dilbert' Floating Hand?" Further investigation has revealed that the disembodied hand in question did not, in fact, belong to one of the characters, but was one of the cursors used by my Web browser. It seems that Netscape Navigator's little "pointing finger" cursor (indicating that the mouse is positioned over a hyperlink) is roughly the same size as, and rendered in a similar style to, a typical "Dilbert" character's hand. The confusion arose when my cursor happened to be in just the right place over the third panel of the strip in question.

My apologies for any inconvenience my erroneous inquiry might have caused. Keep the laughs coming!

Best Regards,
--Kevin Shay

(attachment converted: floatinghand.gif)