Now, don’t be offended. You know I’m not talking about you, but this old cartoon from five years ago is an example of the problems I sometimes cause for myself. Arlo’s words in the last panel, “I figure grape jelly/wine…,” makes the joke very subtle. The reader must fill in a blank. I know—I certainly hope—that many readers would have no problem doing this, but looking back I know a lot of readers probably were left thinking “I don’t get it.” This could have been avoided by having Arlo say, “I figure grape jelly/wine, what’s the difference?” I have had to learn over the years that a cartoonist can’t be too obvious.
413 responses to “A Touch of Glass”
Jerry, on that particular day I was in the fourth grade and looking forward to the Thanksgiving holidays. I don’t remember it being announced at school, so I think the first I knew of what had happened was when I saw it on the evening news.
Hey Sammy, aka Ghost, been bouncing many bed springs? 😉
Good morning, Villagers. Only bouncing bed springs in my life are mine when my girl dog jumps on it at 6AM to wake me up to go run. And that’s the way I like it.
Okay, I never thought I’d see the day, but there is actually flaming (mild) going on in the GoComics comments section of…Peanuts. http://www.gocomics.com/peanuts#.U4yUKfmwJvF
11/22/63 – 5th period, Mrs. Smith’s 9th grade geometry class at Howard Jr. High in Orlando when they told us he had been shot. 6th period, Mrs. Lines’ Latin class when we heard he had died. How that poor woman kept going reviewing a recent test I’ll never know.
*looks in Diary* 11/22/63. Dear diary, today I underwent mitosis
Question? Where is JJ? Is he out sailing Arlo’s schooner? Is he on vacation? Who takes care of the cats? And waters the garden? Does he have any tomatoes yet? Will he have any by July 4? Does he cook fried green tomatoes and how?
Inquiring minds.
Love, Jackie Monies
11/23/63 was in Miss Hicks 7th grade history class. Didn’t get along too well with Miss Hicks. But then not many did.
Back to 11/22/63. In watching the historic re-runs of all the t.v. coverage, does it seem strange to anyone else all the people smoking while reading the news?
Did it seem strange at the time? Did we notice it?
Love, Jackie Monies
11/22/63 don’t know where 23 came from. I know I never make mistakes when I type;)
Jackie, I didn’t grow up in that time but in all the footage I’ve seen it does seem smoking was omnipresent and no one looked askance.
I wasn’t born yet on 11/22/63 either. I don’t even think I was a mitotic twinkle in anyone’s eye yet. 😉
GR6, pay no attention to Loon. The bird gets silly at times.
11/22/63; location classified, operation classified
Smoking was EVERYWHERE! Everywhere, I tell you. I began to smoke steadily at about 13 (OK I didn’t look 13) and no one paid any attention. My boarding school accepted it as normal, we smoked on planes, trains, restaurants, everywhere. In college my newspaper office was smoke so thick you had to fan it to see anyone. College bars were so bad you didn’t have to smoke, just inhale.
My husband made me quit or he wouldn’t marry me. Now he has lung cancer. It isn’t fair but then neither is life usually.
By the way, just got caught by headline about “period drama” and I am thinking Downton Abbey. Nope, it’s another 1950’s period drama. Period drama? Period drama? Now we are freaking period drama? Mid-century modern antiques was bad enough!
Love, Jackie Monies
11/22/63 I was a year out of active duty with the Army and had already been hauled kicking and screaming into the active reserves. All I could think of was “here we go again. More military time”. It didn’t happen.
As a side note, I was working for Illinois Bell in the downtown Central Office when it happened. All the systems in the building “locked up” because everyone wanted to call friends/family to talk about the news.
November 22, 1963: It was lunchtime in my pre-kindergarten class, and I had just been handed a juice box when we heard the news. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)
A Peanuts flame war, Lily? Really? The pro-Charlie Brown faction vs. the pro-Lucy cabal, I assume.
Jackie, I can remember being seen in a doctor’s office when I was a mere slip of a boy, where the physician smoked during the visit. And remember the Arthur C. Clarke novel set in a future in which all historical records of smoking had been expunged, including being CGI’d out of old movies and TV shows?
That’s OK, sand. My SOP is to ignore that loony Loon, anyway. 🙂
I have always thought, looking at WWII-era movies, that it is no wonder that so many of that generation went on to develop lung CA and vascular disease. Uma Thurman smokes to keep her weight down, I was told (we have a framed poster of Pulp Fiction in the media room, smoldering away).
Ghost: no it was some troll who posted a pic of a dumpy woman purporting t be Twiggy, and said troll went ballistic when it was pointed out that Twiggy doesn’t look like that.
11/22/63, Symply in Mrs. Gadbois’ 1st grade class, we were dismissed to be told at home, but we found out on the way in the Fargone patrol line, I was a block away by the time I understood and ran all the rest of the way home screaming…..
I wish all of the A&J run was available on line. The November 22, 1985 strip: a forlorn Arlo is looking out a window and says to Gene- “It was a Friday that day too.” Gene stares at him with a puzzled look and then Arlo says “Let’s go play son touch football!”
JJ was hitting home runs from the earliest days.
I guess you had to have been there. My generation remembers 9/11 but just remembers JFK as Marilyn Monroe’s boyfriend.
Really, Lily? Do you suppose it was a troll with body-image issues?
All trolls have issues, Ghost. This one wasn’t the worst I have seen, by far
So now I suppose someone will try to tell me this is NOT Uma Thurman before she took up smoking.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/19/article-2425096-1BE88DF6000005DC-59_634x791.jpg
Ghost – stick to your story about being in kindergarten if you want but better change the juice box to something that existed at the time, like those little cans of nasty tasting orange juice.
You noticed that did you, Ruth Anne? 🙂
On second thought, maybe it was a can of Donald Duck OJ, which did taste like it had been produced by a duck.
From a Huff Post article about Apple’s upcoming iOS 8 upgrade: “Now when you get a notification for a text message or a Facebook comment, you can respond from whatever app you’re in. So if you’re looking at Twitter and you get an iMessage from your mom, you can quickly respond without leaving Twitter.”
Thanks, Apple, for once again both saving Western civilization as we know it and making our lives more fulfilling. What would we do without you?