Jun 20th 2011 08:06 am Caprisce?

2006-06-19-capri-pants.gif
What’s this?todays-aj.jpg

I swore I’d never ever do this, but here I am doing it, blithely gabbing away about my work, removing all the mystery and revealing myself to be the craven deadline-driven creature that I am. Never ever say never ever. The mini-series that ran in newspapers Friday and Saturday, the bat cartoons, was supposed to be a longer series, perhaps running all week. Arlo and Janis find a bat in the house, and, well, I never got any further than the Friday strip, “Something weird is going on.” I went to the ‘net to research the topic a bit and found that there are many pedantic and dogmatic sites out there that deal with a bat in the house: Catch the bat with gloves. Shoo the bat out a window. Release the bat in the yard. Take the bat to the health department to be examined. Don’t hit the bat with a tennis racket. (There seemed to be a concensus on that one.) The bat probably is harmless. The bat quite likely is rabid. Don’t panic. Get a rabies shot if you were sleeping at any time the bat was in a room. And so forth and so on. Cartoonists quickly develop a sense for these highly wrought topics that are best avoided, also known as becoming ”gun-shy.” However, one thing I never would do is waste a perfectly good cartoon after it has been drawn. Hence, Saturday’s cartoon.

The bat cartoons, by the way, are based on real-life events. I won’t go into it, but if you ever read a news account of a mad cartoonist being gunned down in the street, you’ll know the back story.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

45 Responses to “Caprisce?”

  1. Symply Fargone on 20 Jun 2011 at 8:24 am #

    My friend from the tennis team in high school, who lives on a farm, would say that the tennis racket is the best tool for bat removal….

    Thoughts are with all the dads who have passed…you hear me Papa? I still miss you…with much love to those who are sadly, Symply Fargone.

  2. Tony in Nashville on 20 Jun 2011 at 8:48 am #

    JJ, speaking of wasted cartoons…

    Many years ago there was a happy glitch in your comics page. The maintainers posted the strip files weeks in advance (when you submitted them, I guess), then just linked to them on the appropriate day’s page. Since the files back then were sequentially numbered, a moderately intelligent reader could peruse future A&J strips rather easily. When I discovered this I immediately started reading ahead.

    This was close to the holidays (Christmas 1999, maybe?), and the future storyline involved Arlo having what he thought was a long dream sequence with a wise man. The series ended with a health issue which, as you said in your post today, was based on real-life events, and definitely NOT the usual comic-strip fare. Matter of fact, it wasn’t until Meg fell off the shrimp boat that I saw anything like it in A&J again.

    As I recall though, that story line never actually published! More lighthearted fare appeared to win out over that rather dark but poignant tale, and the strips vanished forever. Tell me, JJ, did I dream the whole thing, or like Arlo, did I just think I dreamed it?

    Thanks for clearing this up!

  3. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:03 am #

    Tony in Nashville-

    I think the sequence you are referring to wasn’t the regular A&J feature, but an annual Christmas featurette offered by Newspaper Enterprose Association each year. A different artist would present a four week Christmas story, usually featuring a character from a current strip. (There are exceptions. Brooke McEldowny introduced his Pibgorn character in his Christmas story one year.) JJ’s version was a lot darker than the usual offering.

    Here’s a list of the other Christmas strips:

    http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2007/12/santas-secrets-day-5.html

  4. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:05 am #

    Someone wondered how far north bats range. I looked it up on a website called Mammal Species of the World. Here are the results for the seven MN species and a close relative of one of them on the West Coast.

    Northern limits of MN bats and one other.
    Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus): treeline [northern boundary of taiga of Alaska and Canada]. Northern Myotis (Myotis septentrionalis): central Saskatchewan to central Labrador. Keen’s Myotis (Myotis keenii, a Pacific coast species formerly lumped with Northern Myotis): Alaskan panhandle to western Washington. Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans): Alaskan panhandle and across southern Canada, not far into the taiga Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus): Nova Scotia, southern Quebec, and southern MN Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus): southern Canada, except to northern Alberta and Saskatchewan Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis): northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus): southern B.C., southeaster Northwest Territories, southern Hudson’s Bay.

  5. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:05 am #

    Someone wondered how far north bats range. I looked it up on a website called Mammal Species of the World. Here are the results for the seven MN species and a close relative of one of them on the West Coast.

    Northern limits of MN bats and one other.
    Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus): treeline [northern boundary of taiga of Alaska and Canada]. Northern Myotis (Myotis septentrionalis): central Saskatchewan to central Labrador. Keen’s Myotis (Myotis keenii, a Pacific coast species formerly lumped with Northern Myotis): Alaskan panhandle to western Washington. Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans): Alaskan panhandle and across southern Canada, not far into the taiga Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus): Nova Scotia, southern Quebec, and southern MN Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus): southern Canada, except to northern Alberta and Saskatchewan Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis): northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus): southern B.C., southeaster Northwest Territories, southern Hudson’s Bay.

  6. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:11 am #

    It didn’t copy from WORD with appropriate spaces, and some of the lines lacked periods. Let’s see if we can reformat clearly.

    Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus): treeline [northern boundary of taiga of Alaska and Canada].
    Northern Myotis (Myotis septentrionalis): central Saskatchewan to central Labrador.
    Keen’s Myotis (Myotis keenii, a Pacific coast species formerly lumped with Northern Myotis): Alaskan panhandle to western Washington.
    Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans): Alaskan panhandle and across southern Canada, not far into the taiga.
    Eastern Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus): Nova Scotia, southern Quebec, and southern MN. Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus): southern Canada, except to northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
    Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis): northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
    Hoary Bat (Lasiurus cinereus): southern B.C., southeaster Northwest Territories, southern Hudson’s Bay. That’s better. You won’t be responsible for the Latin names on the quiz.

  7. Hurd in Bay Minette, Al on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:12 am #

    I was trained as a hard rock geologist and I now teach Geology and Meteorology. I have a (All in fun) war with my fellow Biology teachers as to which of us have the most important science. My argument has a two fold attack. 1. All Biology is good for is to cover up the Geology. and 2. The only good critter is a dead critter that has been fossilized so that it can tell us about past Geologic environments. Now having said all that I have to say that I love bats. They eat the nasty bugs here in our quiet southern town. In fact my son’s Eagle Scout project will be to build and put up bat houses all around town so that we may be able to eventually put that nasty bug spray truck out of business.

  8. JP in TN on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:27 am #

    It’s enough to drive one “batty.” Ok, there we used the pun…

  9. Les on 20 Jun 2011 at 10:16 am #

    What I heard on NPR is that if you’ve been sleeping in a room with a bat, you should try to catch it to get it tested for rabies. Otherwise, you’ll need to get shots.

  10. Dave on 20 Jun 2011 at 10:21 am #

    When I was away at basic training for the USAF in San Antonio, TX, on occasion bats would get in the barracks. At which point we were to call animal control. They showed up with a tennis raquet and “Bat” spray. Never did see what was in the can or what transpired after we left.

    Dave

  11. Boise Ed on 20 Jun 2011 at 10:35 am #

    “if you’ve been sleeping in a room with a bat” — ooh, ooh, I’m biting my tongue. Don’t say it, Ed!

  12. Dave in MA on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:00 am #

    Tony in Nashville,

    “St. Nick Of Time” ran from Dec 2 to 24, 1996.

    You can find the actual strips here on arloandjanis.com. The first one is at the link below. The old navigation format still works (click the strip to go to the next one).

    Note, there’s no 13, 14, 15 or 22, and 23 only shows up as 23a. Also note, the name of the html page changed after #12 so use the navigation to go from one to the next to make sure you don’t miss one.

    And lastly, there is commentary from JJ on each day’s strip. Very insightful!

    Start here:
    http://arloandjanis.com/stnick1.htm

  13. billinbossier on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:04 am #

    We had a whole colony of bats get into attic area where I worked about 6 months before I retired. We didn’t know about it until they started flying around the work room floor, terrorizing everyone, well, nearly everyone. We had to hand catch all of them by hand, and most were just taken off and returned to nature. They were very small, not much bigger than a mouse. Once we caught them, they were fairly gentle, and even though we used gloves to handle them, none of the them tried to attack. Once they were released, they never returned.

  14. Dave in MA on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:15 am #

    We’ve had a few bats get into our house over the years. Since there is a risk of rabies, I’m always very concerned about them and quick to get the out of the house, however, I’m not one to try to “attack” them or kill them. I try to shoo them out, lure them out, or capture them and release them outside.

    They eat the bugs that are a REAL danger around here and are welcome in our area for that very reason.

  15. debbie on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:23 am #

    Jimmy: Based on real-life events? Wow…..to have a bat turn into a vampire in your own bedroom and with a witness to boot. this has NEVER happened to me..

    I always thought they had to be invited in. what did you do? Did you grab your cross? You couldn’t take pictures (I understand they do not photograph.) Did you call the news media? come on Jimmy, spill the story. I am so interested.

    Based on real-life events in the sense movies are based on real-life events. — JJ

  16. debbie on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:29 am #

    Oh

  17. debbie on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:31 am #

    that put a damper on my day.

  18. Boise Ed on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:33 am #

    “not much bigger than a mouse” — There’s a reason why the German word for “bat” is “fledermaus” (flying mouse).

  19. Whistling Rufus on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:44 am #

    Thanks a bunch for the link Dave in MA. Altho I’m sure I was following A&J back then, I don’t recall that series. Great!

  20. AMC on 20 Jun 2011 at 11:53 am #

    My uncle had a ramshackle place by a river, and rented out an upstairs room. The tenant had an encounter with a bat there – wasn’t bitten, but was touched by it. He died of rabies shortly thereafter and his estate sued my uncle for at least a million dollars (which he didn’t have – but he did have homeowners-type insurance, which paid its limit.)

    So, I stay the hell away from bats.

    Wow. Sobering story. — JJ

  21. Cattye on 20 Jun 2011 at 12:09 pm #

    When my friend was a teenager, she was visiting relatives in Wisconsin and encountered a bat in her uncles house.

    The “Capri Pants” Arlo’s wearing are called “Board Shorts” for men, right?

  22. sideburns on 20 Jun 2011 at 12:16 pm #

    And of course, if Arlo and Janis lived in Ankh Morpork, the visitor would probably turn out to be wearing The Black Ribbon — Not One Drop.

  23. Dave in MA on 20 Jun 2011 at 12:18 pm #

    Can’t say I’ve ever heard of “Board Shorts” before.

    However, since the shorts definitely have pockets on the side about half way down, I believe they’d be called “Cargo Shorts”.

  24. Mindy on 20 Jun 2011 at 1:23 pm #

    Close the doors. Open the windows. The bat will leave. He doesn’t want to be there any more than you want him there. And keep biting your tongue, Boise Ed, no matter who tempting it might be!

  25. ducks in oregon on 20 Jun 2011 at 2:06 pm #

    Dave in MA – Cargo pants is what I’ve always known them by. I saw on a morning show recently that said cargo pants/shorts are a “new” hot trend for summer. Ah everything old is new again, eh. Of course, without the pockets, we always called ‘em Bermuda shorts. It was years later that I discovered they really DO wear Bermuda shorts in Bermuda, even as formal wear.

  26. Craig T on 20 Jun 2011 at 2:11 pm #

    I didn’t know having a bad was so complicated. I had one a few years back, although I was just seeing him bobbing around out of the corner of my eye until the very end. I just walked through my apartment (the lights were out; I generally keep it that way) and opened the back door. Before I could open the screen door he ran into it, so I got a good look at him. I opened the door and off he went.

  27. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 20 Jun 2011 at 3:55 pm #

    Most MN bats, and probably most US bats in general weigh a good deal less than most mice and voles.

  28. buzz on 20 Jun 2011 at 4:23 pm #

    *ahem* A vampire may not enter a home until he has been invited in…

  29. Jayne in Richmond, VA on 20 Jun 2011 at 5:41 pm #

    buzz on 20 Jun 2011 at 4:23 pm #

    ” *ahem* A vampire may not enter a home until he has been invited in…”

    It appears I’m not the only one reading the “Sookie Stackhouse” books or you’re watching “True Blood.”

    LOL

  30. James Pollock on 20 Jun 2011 at 5:56 pm #

    I’ve never read any of those books nor watched the resultant television show, but I know that vampires can’t enter a dwelling uninvited. Perhaps the Days have a mat near the front door that says “Welcome”, and that suffices.

  31. Jim in SE Mississippi on 20 Jun 2011 at 6:44 pm #

    OK, so maybe they DID have the shrimp scampi earlier, and he left when he caught a whiff. (Who knew vampires were so socially correct about waiting for invitations?)

    And it’s not a “purse,” it’s a “European Shoulder Bag for Men.”

  32. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 20 Jun 2011 at 7:09 pm #

    We’ve had two bats in the house – successfully shooed both outside without harming them. No harm to me, either. Wife was home at time which was probably for the best. Her screaming would have most likely destroyed the bats’ radar.

    If you’re not crazy about bats in the house, I suggest Railroad Earth’s “Bird in a House” CD.

  33. Jerry in Fl on 20 Jun 2011 at 7:21 pm #

    So many jokes, so litle time-hoary bats, my bad, us bats, tennis shorts for playing tennis with bats, take your pick.

  34. Woodrowfan on 20 Jun 2011 at 8:24 pm #

    I liked it and wish there had been more past Saturday’s strip..

  35. Lost in A**2 on 20 Jun 2011 at 8:58 pm #

    Vampires requiring an invitation goes back at least to Bram Stoker’s _Dracula_. That was the purpose of Renfrew.

  36. Doug in OK on 20 Jun 2011 at 9:06 pm #

    Capri pants, huh?

    The last (and pretty much the only, in my book) person to look good wearing those was Mary Tyler Moore, about 1965.

    Arlo sure isn’t Laura Petrie…

  37. Boise Ed on 21 Jun 2011 at 2:32 am #

    Lost: that was Renfield. Renfrew is a suburb of Glasgow, I believe.

    And while we’re going bats, I hope y’all get a chance to see the bat swarm from Austin’s Congress Street Bridge. As many as 1.5 million of ‘em head out for dinner after sunset. It’s quite a sight.

  38. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 21 Jun 2011 at 4:45 am #

    “Wife was home at time” should have been “Wife wasn’t home at time.” Learn to proofread; learn to proofread.

  39. David on 21 Jun 2011 at 8:14 am #

    You can see the “Mexican free-tailed bats” in Austin during most summer nights. As Boise Ed says, they can be quite impressive. August is the best time. They’ve had pups by then and are hungry earlier in the day, so leave the roost earlier and are easier to see. Sometimes they look like a cloud of smoke on the horizon. Most summer nights the bridge is like a festival, with hundreds to thousands of people watching for the emergence. At one point, Austin even had a minor-league hockey team honoring the bats, The Austin Ice Bats. That didn’t last, since hockey just isn’t a major sport in Texas.

  40. John in Richmond Texas on 21 Jun 2011 at 8:51 am #

    I’ve been at the Nature Conservancy’s Eckert James River Bat Cave near Mason east of Austin and when they emerge they are literally inches above your head, if you jumped up, they’d smack you in the face. In fact the Conservancy guy grabs one right out of the air to show us one up close. So now with the above comments, I’m thinking how would you know you’re not grabbing a rabid one? and they fly off in a cloud toward Austin, I guess to meet up with their buddies. (fyi, Mason is right near Koockville)

  41. Lost in A**2 on 21 Jun 2011 at 2:32 pm #

    I realised that I had misspelled his name; thank you, Boise Ed.

  42. buzz on 21 Jun 2011 at 3:37 pm #

    @Jayne in Richmond — no, but I was reading FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine back in the 60s!

  43. Tony in Nashville on 21 Jun 2011 at 9:59 pm #

    Thanks, Blinky the Wonder Wombat and Dave in MA! The “St. Nick of Time” series was exactly what I was remembering. I’ve added a Bonus Page to the unofficial A&J archive index to include the series:

    http://tonyc.com/ajarchive

    Thanks again, guys!

  44. Joanne on 22 Jun 2011 at 12:23 pm #

    Having had bats in a house where I once lived, I know that they are not cute, are not harmless, and are difficult to catch. I once lined a dutch oven pot under one which was resting on the top ledge of a wall, then hit it with a broom which knocked it into the pot and also knocked it out cold. Quickly, I put on the lid and tossed the pan out the door. In a moment, the bat climbed out and flew off. Then we called the exterminators who went around the roof, patching up cracks and putting those bat doors over the vent holes. Problem solved-until the roof was redone and bat doors disturbed and we had to start all over again.

  45. JC in San Jose on 24 Jun 2011 at 1:31 am #

    John, the bats in Austin are Mexican Free-tailed Bats, which are insectivores. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Free-tailed_Bat#Diet

    Since they are insectivores, they are not very likely to contract rabies by feeding (biting) another rabid animal.

    I believe the primary risk of contracting rabies from bats occurs mainly in places where A) there are carnivorous bat species and B) many dwellings don’t have screens and people sleep with windows open in hot weather, and thus people are sometimes unknowingly bitten by a bat during sleep.