Answer to the nerdy grammar quiz: I’m not a professional grammarian, writer, editor, or poet. You probably figured that out some time ago. But something struck me about Rivera’s little rhyme in yesterday’s strip, beyond its simplicity. It was those word endings! So I poked around to look up different types of rhymes. There are several. This particular type is where the word endings are the same for each word, like: bass, lass, morass. This type of rhyme consists of “parallel or adjacent words with the same endings”, or homoioteleuton (ὁμοιοτέλευτον), to use the official (academic) name. This type of rhyme was first codified by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. Hence, the use of the Greek term. Now, did Rivera know this? I see no reason she would, any more than I did. Two-thirds of Rivera’s work was already accomplished with Tess’s name, anyway. Rivera was just lucky enough to hit on a word that rhymed with Tess’s name and still accurately express Mark’s thinking. “Thus endeth the lesson,” as Sean Connery said to Kevin Costner in The Untouchables. I bet you can’t wait to share this really useful information with your family and friends! But for now, on with the show…!

That’s some pretty quick butchering, I think, but needs must. I wonder if Mark is going to quiz Jess on investment options, where he gets his trophies mounted, or if he insists on standing behind Tess when they go hunting together.

All snark aside, it looks like Mark is preparing to take Tess’s husband into his confidence and ask something potentially negative about her: Is she homicidal? Does she really not remember Mark? Did she talk about her Tiger Petting Zoo? It’s quite possible that Tess has kept Jess ignorant about her past by faking her amnesia.