Jul 2nd 2012 07:48 am A Time to Bill
I thought I’d celebrate the beginning of the week of the Fourth of July with some beach reading. As you probably know, best-selling author John Grisham has a new book out, “The Confession.” It’s a return to his roots, a legal pot-boiler set in the south. I had some fun with such Grisham fare in this 1997 spoof, but I’ve always enjoyed reading his books. Besides, he got the last laugh. I happened to be in Tupelo, Mississippi, at Reed’s Gumtree Bookstore last April. I was there at lunchtime to sign copies of “Beaucoup Arlo & Janis.” It wasn’t one of my best appearances. Not many people wanted to give up lunch and come downtown just for me. However, “The Confession” was due to be released the next day, and a truck was dropping off the store’s supply—2,000 copies! All during the time I was there, people would walk in, look at me, go directly to the sales desk and ask, “Can I get the new John Grisham novel?” The answer was “No, you’ll have to come back tomorrow.” Frustrated and annoyed, they’d glare at me as they breezed out the door.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
61 Responses to “A Time to Bill”
hc on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:35 am #
How dare they?
Cousin Keith Johnson on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:39 am #
Tupelo has a downtown?
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:41 am #
Their loss.
Crickett on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:48 am #
That’s the worst story I ever heard! Such an opportunity lost, and they have no idea! So sad.
Steve from Royal Oak, Mi on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:55 am #
They should have offered your book as “if you like John Grisholm, you’ll love Arlo & Janis”.
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:58 am #
Didn’t Brother marry Becky Thompson and buy a store there?
Rickmeister on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:00 am #
Just trying to imagine Arlo and Janis as a movie (like they do with Grisham’s books). Who would play Arlo? (I’d be partial to Jeff Daniels, as a local Michigan boy.)
David in Austin on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:39 am #
I was going to attribute the Tupelo population’s surliness to the heat and stickiness of the the climate…. but the release date for “The Confession” was in October. Could the title have been “Calico Joe”? That was released in April. In the south, summer stickiness is sometimes evident in April. My limited experience with Tupelo is that the citizenry there may be a little disagreeable regardless of the time of year.
Or, it is possibly that Jimmy’s strong affiliation with Auburn was known, and that the affinity for Ole Miss in Tupelo doesn’t allow crossing of “denominational” lines. : )
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:45 am #
I thought that was where the Talahatchee [or something like that] Bridge is. Remember the song? Can’t remember the day and season that was mentioned up front but I do recall that it was too early to be “choppin’ cotton.” Or something like that. I would have rushed right out and bought a copy of “In the Heat of the Night” if there had been VCR’s and DVD’s back then.
I know. Sit, Mindy, sit!
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:55 am #
Tupeloians (Tupelites? Tupewares?) are just cranky because Elvis hightailed it out of town as soon as he could. Just picture how much tourist money they’d be pulling in if Graceland was located in downtown Tupelo.
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:06 am #
C’mon Mindy! “It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty, delta day…” The song is “Ode to Billy Joe” by Bobbie Gentry and it vied with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” as the most-played song of the summer of 1967. For what it’s worth (which isn’t much), Ms. Gentry says the time period referred to in the song is 1953. In the final stanza, Ms. Gentry says that “Brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo…”.
I thought someone would get it….
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:08 am #
Oh, and “choppin’ cotton” isn’t the same as picking cotton. “Choppin’” is hoeing the weeds around the plant, which would have been a reasonable thing to be doing on June 3.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:09 am #
I did enjoy the strip today (July 2). Jimmy had kind of set this up by stating that in a daily strip, a cartoonist can milk a week or two out of something that might take a day, an hour or a few seconds. Someone even suggested that maybe they were only there for a weekend.
But yes Ludwig, it DID seem like is was more than a day!
Debbie in Alabama on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:17 am #
It was Billy Joe McAllister who jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:55 am #
Color me blonde.
nick chik on 02 Jul 2012 at 11:10 am #
Neal…I got it! And yes neither the rebels or the bulldogs are Awbee fans.
Just want to comment what a great day this is for Mobile! It only took 43 years, but airplanes are going to be built again at Brookley! Thanks to the French and our new BFF, EADS Airbus!
No, we haven’t forgiven LBJ and we never will!
Robin in Fl on 02 Jul 2012 at 11:12 am #
Steve from Royal Oak
I too enjoyed the play off the conversation of cartoon timing. I got as much of a chuckle out of the undertones as the overtones. Or, whatever it’s all called.
Alan in Nashville on 02 Jul 2012 at 11:54 am #
I’ve met a few music executives living in Nashville all my life. One guy told me that he is known as the guy who turned down “Ode to Billy Joe.” Told Gentry that it had no chance for radio airplay. He laughs about it now, but not then.
Bob, near Mark on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:13 pm #
Jerry Reed did a song about a music exec who turned down a surprisingly up-and-coming performer. The song was even about “The Tupelo Mississippi Flash!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHpXYpRiwNA
sandcastler on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:13 pm #
Mindy,
Good to see you have lost none of your pithiness diring the time I was away.
GR6,
Sorry to say, the Fishbeds are still sitting there rotting.
I too love the time expansion – compression of cartooning and an glad to know A&J own a boat. Now, what to name her.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:19 pm #
Dear Mindy: Really? Aww, that’s sweet. Besides, yellow seems to have a bit of history in A&J Land. (Think Janis’s bikini of lore.)
I’d like it noted for the record that, gentleman that I am, I did not take your statements about “even out the tan lines” and “burned bare skin” and attempt to infer anything about your sunning habits. As always, however, I can’t speak for those out here with fevered imaginations.
I’ll tell you something about the Tallahatchie Bridge when I have time. I may be able to lay claim to being the only one here to have actually crossed that bridge.
nick chik: Heard that when I was down that way over the weekend. That’s wonderful. Brookley was a great base and I’m glad it has a future.
phil in Missoula, MT on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:22 pm #
Hey Neal, I didn’t know they grew cotton around Bahstawn! Maybe there is something to this global warming business…
I never chopped cotton when I was a kid growing up in the central valley in California, but I did pick it after school for 2.5 cents a pound, when they still used manual labor to pick cotton. There is an awful lot of cotton in a pound and those dried bolls nip at your hands.
The real pay off though was the chance to get up on the edge of the cotton trailer and do belly flops and front rolls into the cloud of cotton. This was fun for us and it packed the cotton down in the trailer so they could get more to the gin in one load. Win-win. OSHA would have a conniption now though.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:35 pm #
sandcastler: Quelle dommage. I hate to see any aircraft go to wrack and ruin, even the ones that were “on the other side.” And I’ve seen some pretty sad pictures of both aviation bone yards over there and aircraft that seemed to have been basically parked and abandoned.
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:37 pm #
Phil, they do, in fact, grow cotton in Boston. See http://www.masshort.org/Leaflet-April-2012/ and scroll down to ‘Cotton Comes to Boston’. I wrote the article and interviewed the gentleman profiled. I am, however, a Southerner by heritage (a Yankee by choice to the horror and consternation of the rest of my family) and so know these things because they have been handed down through family lore. Under both Georgia and Florida law, my marriage to a born-and-bred New Yorker qualifies legally as a ‘mixed marriage’.
nick chik on 02 Jul 2012 at 12:49 pm #
Bite your tongue, Neal, have you been brain washed?
["I am, however, a Southerner by heritage (a Yankee by choice to the horror and consternation of the rest of my family)"]
Brings the old saying to mind…”Do you know the difference between a Yankee and a Da** Yankee?
A Yankee comes down south to visit and goes back home…A Da** Yankee Stays!
But it is just a saying…we actually love transplants (as long as they conform and learn the language!)
Mary in Ohio on 02 Jul 2012 at 1:38 pm #
Re: book signings – Bad publicity is still better than NO publicity, as they may have mentioned to us in Journalism School (back when, yes, it was still called that.)
And today’s new strip fended off any protests from PETA or the SPCA, as well as some of us! Nice touch, JJ!
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 02 Jul 2012 at 1:53 pm #
They grow cigar-quality tobacco in CT [under those white sunshade strips you can see from airliners], so why not cotton in Boston?
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 2:33 pm #
eMb, it must have something to do with the cost of real estate. I just checked and both the shade-grown tobacco region south of Hartford and the Boston metro area are Zone 6B.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 2:42 pm #
Sandcastler, Ghost, didn’t someone have a MiG-27 or -28 for sale out in Arizona or New Mexico a few years back? I do remember what sticks in my mind, such as it is, as a Yankee class Soviet diesel submarine up for auction in Florida in the late 90′s. That was before DEA came out and said that the Colombian cartels were trying to smuggle coke into the country via homemade subs. [Not to imply that the diesel boat up for auction was so used; I think it was turned into a restaurant or something. There used to be a C-121 Constellation used as a restaurant in Metairie, Louisiana near Causeway & Veterans Boulevard.]
Now I’ve forgotten how I got off on airplanes and submarines. Oh, yeah, I remember: Tan Lines!
Pat Ott on 02 Jul 2012 at 3:24 pm #
Just found out our local paper has discontinued daily Arlo & Janis. They had stopped the Sunday strip some time ago. Thank heaven for on-line!
David in Austin on 02 Jul 2012 at 3:44 pm #
GR6,
I can’t claim to have crossed “The” Tallahatchie River bridge, but I have crossed “a” Tallahatchie River bridge. For a while I traveled back and forth from southeast Arkansas to northwest Alabama. We explored different routes, but generally crossed the Mississippi River at Greenville, MS. The Tallahatchie bridge we crossed was in Greenwood, but I think “The” bridge was north of town a couple of miles.
It’s interesting to look at the river on satellite photos. It’s part of the Mississippi River Valley/Delta. If you zoom out far enough, you can see that the entire area is one big river valley, with river courses visible in the dirt/sand of the fields. It surely is flat!
Tom from the Front Range on 02 Jul 2012 at 4:07 pm #
@Pat O,
Stop the paper and tell them why!
Ah, Tupelo. I was on my way there on an August afternoon many years ago to service the newspaper’s phototypesetting machine (I almost said the typesetter but that might have been taken the wrong way.) While waiting to change planes in Memphis, the news came out that Elvis had died. I usually waited until the work day was done to check into a hotel but I figured and was correct that the press would swarm the town. I got the last decent room in town about 2 p.m. after checking for availability at about every chain hotel in Tupelo.
BookWorm604 on 02 Jul 2012 at 4:21 pm #
Hi, I know I’m several weeks late but I RSS (in Google Reader) both this blog and Arlo and Janis (from Darkgate Comic Slurper) so I’m usually behind reading them. I like the RSS of comics from Darkgate Comic Slurper and ArcoMax because I can try and catch up on them when I have time. I did GoComics RSS after comics.com but it turned out it was only a trial and I had to scramble to find those comics from the other suppliers.
Ludwig reminds me of my late cat Feral who was also a big grey cat. Keep up the cat strips.
Charlotte in NH on 02 Jul 2012 at 4:26 pm #
Only yesterday that French phrase came into my mind, apropos of now I forget what. It’s been, probably, years since I thought of it. Isn’t that really wierd?
What Ghost Rider 6 said, I mean.
Charlotte in NH on 02 Jul 2012 at 4:43 pm #
BookWorm604, this is the first time I ever heard of this Comic Slurper. Sounds good, and I’d like to try it; I read and enjoy a lot of strips. GoComics doesn’t like me any more; my username and password got fouled up somehow, and now it won’t recognize me no matter what I do. I never tried an RSS feed, either (you can see I’m an amateur).
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 4:46 pm #
Dear Mindy: I don’t know about the MiG in Arizona, but I could believe it. I actually heard of an American business man shopping for a MiG-21 to use as a biz jet for making sales calls in Ukraine. (I still have trouble not saying “The Ukraine.”) And I’m like, “Huh? What’s he gonna do, shoot down his competitors’ biz jets to get a jump on making a sale?”
I remember that Connie in Metairie. Also remember the last one I rode on (civilian version, anyway) for a night hop from BNA to ATL. Eastern, I think. Don’t have any submarine stories, though. What was the specialty of the house at the submarine restaurant…sardines?
Let’s see…tan lines, airplanes, submarines. Sure, I can follow that chain of logic…no problem. Well, at least I can tell you’re reading my silly posts. (I do have some tan line stories.)
Charlotte in NH: I said something really weird? I’m sorry, dear, but you have to be more specific than that.
Anonymous on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:03 pm #
I was never so glad as today to see Ludwig again. Welcome BACK !!
Leo in LA on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:04 pm #
I was never so glad as today to see Ludwig again. Welcome BACK !! Whew!
Mary in Ohio on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:16 pm #
Bookworm – Just the name “Comic Slurper” makes me want to investigate! Welcome!
But WHY did Billie Joe jump? I’d be interested to hear the theories from other areas of the country!
Out around Tucson there is an incredible aircraft “graveyard” that may very well have had a MIG, or several. It is near a golf course where one of the course rules is that if your ball lands within a club length of a rattlesnake, you can play from a club length away with a new ball and not take a penalty stroke.
Neal in Bahstawn on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:30 pm #
Mary, you may recall that the ‘nice young preacher, Brother Taylor’, said he saw a girl who looked a lot like Bobbie up on the bridge with Billy Joe Mcallister, and that they ‘was throwin’ somethin’ off the bridge,’ at least as related second-hand by Bobbie’s mother.
I believe it was Mr. McAllister’s draft notice.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:47 pm #
John says the question was always more of “what was thrown” rather than why Billy Joe jump. Later it became, “Did he jump or was he pushed?” More conspiracy theory. I wonder if it was even him since no mention is made of recovery of the body.
And what about that black helicopter?
Debbie in Alabama on 02 Jul 2012 at 5:57 pm #
Pat, several years ago A & J was discontinued in our local paper (and Jimmy is from here) we launched a letter writing campaign and got it back in. Maybe you can try that.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 6:45 pm #
The location of “the” Tallahatchie Bridge is subject to some debate, both because it is not the only bridge over the Tallahatchie River and because it was the setting for events that didn’t actually happen. But Bobbie Gentry went to school in Greenwood MS as a child (or had relatives there, I don’t remember which), and it’s likely the bridge she had in mind when she later wrote the song was the one that crosses the river at Money MS, about ten miles north of Greenwood. While visiting friends in Greenwood years ago, I was invited on a dove hunt, on the way to which we crossed “the” bridge. Not long after that, the bridge collapsed and was replaced, the collapse being due to either a flood or to being set on fire by vandals, depending on which story you believe. If the later story is true, it tells you a lot about the old bridge. As far as what was thrown or how Billy Joe ended up in the river, only Bobbie Gentry would know for sure, and she’s probably about as likely to say as Jimmy is to explain one of his cartoons.
David, you’re absolutely correct about the terrain of the Mississippi Delta. It quite a sight when you wind through the hills of Carroll County MS (yes, there really was a “Carroll County picture show”), westbound on US 82, and round the last curve into LeFlore County and the edge of the Delta, and the land suddenly becomes as flat as a billiard table for as far as you can see.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 6:56 pm #
Charlotte in NH: I forgot to add that you shouldn’t be concerned about French phrases and words popping into your head. From what I’ve read here lately, that happens to Mindy all the time. But hey! It does to me, too.
sandcastler on 02 Jul 2012 at 7:01 pm #
Caution!
Clothing causes tanlines.
Earn your beads and show the crew you know how to party.
Sign I saw on a Carribean cruise.
Mindy, how is your supply of beads?
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:19 pm #
Sandcastler, being a natural hater of Mardi Gras Parades, being somewhat agoraphobic in large, unruly crowds, I have no beads. Got a good deal on doubloons, however, and some classic posters for which I’ve been offered a fortune. And, wrong! SUN causes tan lines!
Clothing has never been the problem.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:20 pm #
Oh, rats! That definitely did NOT come out as I intended! Disregard everything after
.
Mark in TTown on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:31 pm #
Mindy, if you look at Google Earth you can see that Aircraft Graveyard on the satellite photos. It is on Davis-Monthan AFB. I don’t know the coordinates, but the name of the base should get you close enough to find it.
If clothing has never been a problem, what about lack of same? That can cause burn lines.
I’m not a tanner, I’m a burner so I stay covered as much as possible.
sandcastler on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:36 pm #
Mindy, disregarding but, think there is a story for another day buried somewhere in your comment. As to Mardi Gras, you brought that up; I only mentioned a cruise. My wife will tell it is much nicer to remove tanlines on a cruise than it is at Mardi Gras.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 8:41 pm #
Just think about it, sandcastler: no tan lines and black helicopters. Let your imagination do the walking.
Mark in TTown, I’ve always wanted to go to Davis-Monthan to see the old birds stored there. I had a cousin who was stationed there many long years ago and he told me about dozens of WW2 airplanes, the Mustangs, Lightnings and the A-1 Skyraider [I think that's right; I know it's the A-1 and was called a "Spad" in Vietnam]. From what I heard they re-commissioned the A-1 for use in Vietnam since even 25+ years after WW2 it was still the perfect support aircraft. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m still a bit of a Tomboy and as a kid I used to build model airplanes.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:19 pm #
OK, Dear Mindy. Now I’m impressed, that you knew the A-1 Skyraider was nicknamed The Spad. One of its best known missions was flying as the “Sandy” escorts for Jolly Green Giant helo rescues of downed pilots in Nam. Have a friend whose dad is a retired USAF colonel who won a bunch of medals flying Jolly Greens. Also, a cousin of mine got in some stick time on a Navy A-1 stateside before he retired. He was a jet jock but said the A-1 was awesome to fly.
I flew into Houma once a number of years ago and got to the see an immaculately restored P-38 Lightning Corkey Fornof had in the hanger. Beautiful warbird.
Mindy on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:26 pm #
And you thought I was all tan lines, Ghost! LOL! I’ve learned a lot from John as well as growing up as a Tomboy. I can even change light bulbs and burned fuses without help. And John can cook.
Mindy from Indy on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:50 pm #
I’ve always been told “Ode to Billie Joe” was a more morbid story – namely, what was thrown over the bridge was a baby and the suicide was shame/regret over the act (be it unwed parents or murder). Horrible, I know.
As for jets, someday soon I plan on going to Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH and checking out all of the jets and aviation history. There is a smaller reserve base north of here that has a small collection of retired jets, prop planes, and stray helicopter or two. They almost always have a WWII vet volunteering to regal visitors with stories and local history. (And a tank and a jet made entirely out of toothpicks! Random, but true!)
Charlotte in NH on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:53 pm #
Believe me, I can actually remember when that song was brand-new. And I was grown up with children. I’ve always had a theory about the mystery, but it is scandalous and I would be embarassed to write it down.
The song was VERY popular and was played many times that summer. (Maybe once every hour? Can’t remember THAT far back.)
Mark in TTown on 02 Jul 2012 at 9:58 pm #
Mindy from Indy, if you go to Pensacola, go to NAS Mainside and see the Naval Aviation History Museum. They have one of the Apollo capsules there that made the return trip, along with lots of other interesting exhibits.
I looked at Google Maps and you can see the planes there on the satellite view also. You can get good enough close resolution to ID types if you know what you are looking for. I saw B-52′s, F-4′s, A-10′s and more that I didn’t know on sight. Oh yeah, saw some stripped B-1 bombers also.
Robin in Fl on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:22 pm #
Mark in TTown
Yes, the museum in Pensacola is extremely well done and worth a visit. Not your standard boring museum. Another air museum that is quite good is in Warner Robins GA at Robins AFB. But the one in Pensacola is really incredible.
Ghost Rider 6 on 02 Jul 2012 at 10:36 pm #
Dear Mindy: No, hon, it wasn’t about tan lines. Not that there’s anything wrong with tan lines.
I was impressed because most people I know, guys or gals, wouldn’t have a clue that the A-1 was called a Spad, or even know the A-1 was something other than steak sauce, for that matter. So you tan anyway you want to, with or without lines, and we’ll talk airplanes or whatever “manly” stuff you like anytime. And I cook, too, and darn well, I might add.
Lady Mindy, you sound like a woman after my own heart, also, with your obvious interest in aircraft. Not that that’s suprising, since some of the best pilots I’ve known were women I taught how to fly.
Mindy on 03 Jul 2012 at 12:16 am #
Lady Mindy, actually, I always heard the same thing about the baby and the suicide. Morbid, horrible, but it actually made sense. Talk to John sometime about bridge jumpers and suicides. Now, that gets morbid as well as sometimes hilarious.
Ghost, I also know that the cylinders in aviation engines are called “jugs.” Personally, I think you men just carried your fantasies too far with that! LOL!
[Can I say that without getting in trouble again?]
Ghost Rider 6 on 03 Jul 2012 at 12:36 am #
If you think that went too far, we won’t even get into how they came up with the term “cockpit.”
Say good night, Mindy.
Mindy on 03 Jul 2012 at 1:33 am #
Good night, Mindy.
[What about "joystick"?]
Bob, near Mark on 03 Jul 2012 at 2:58 am #
There’s also the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
http://www.rucker.army.mil/usaace/museum.html