So, do Arlo and Janis still work? Yes, they do. They’ve been luckier than many over the years; they’ve had stable employment, maybe not with the same companies the entire time but in similar fields and environments. There is no doubt they’re in that winding-down phase of employment, when the management would love to get rid of them and replace them with someone younger and cheaper or, more likely today, outsource their work entirely, but they just know too damn much about how things work. Perhaps one of them will be offered the “consultant” track soon, where they’re paid half the money to clean up after a workforce making even less. Speaking of money, they like the money, of course, but they would leave for a new challenge and less remuneration in a heart beat, say helping run a fun little local-food enterprise, but the benefits are the trap, especially the insurance. See? You don’t really want to hear all this. They have modern jobs, sure, but they still are modern cartoon jobs. It’s nice work if you can get it.
240 responses to “Harpe Diem”
Yep, knew it…otherwise they wouldn’t have had to hurry back from their recent trip to the coast.
Ref today’s new cartoon…
True Story: I was the General Manager of Company A when it was bought out by Company B upon the retirement of our owners. It was agreed I would transfer to Company B for a year at a lesser position to smooth the transition. There I discovered that, even though we had been doing 85% as much business as Company B, it had five managers to accomplish what I alone had been doing at Company A.
I suppose it was a good thing for the owners of Company A I never got knocked off my motorcycle. Well, I actually did (and totaled the bike) but I didn’t miss any work.
Good morning Ghost. That is what makes you a treasure.
And not replaceable. Stay off motorcycles.
Good morning Village. I will go catch up. Both phones are dead.
Crashed a motorcycle into a cow on a dark country road many many moons ago. Laid on the side of the road for quite awhile before someone found me. Never been on one since.
Whistling Rufus, …never been on one since. Road, cow or motorcycle?
You ain’t lived ’til you’ve ridden a cow in the moonlight!
Ach-ahem. Son, dem’s aint for ridin’. Go get yourself cleaned up, and get back to work.
Seriously though, it’s really good to have the employment question answered by the man that knows where he wants to go with the story. Thanks, Jimmy. Your vision, and the responses, show again how in touch the art is with your reader’s experiences.
From morning smiles that just don’t go away to career path twists, you cover them all. Nicely shrunk into four panels for easy digestion with the morning coffee.
Looking forward to where you take us next.
I was so excited to see the Mediterranean Sea that I hustled to the edge and nearly fell in head first as I took my shoe and then my sock off. I snapped a few pictures with my bare foot in the water and posted “Steve going topless” (Like the 12 year old boy that lurks in us guys)
I decided that trying to put the shoe and sock back on might draw a bit of attention, so I carried to a nearby walkway. THAT is when I discovered that my American Midwest Naivete was showing. My “joke” didn’t beat the real thing. I did not post any pictures of what I saw. Frankly I think some of those girls were still minors.
Steve, hope you have a chance for rest soon. Sounds like you may have a touch of tunnel vision.
But yeah, always an adjustment when our ‘normal’ is shown as not so much.
After rest and business, hope you shoehorn in some decompression, too. Enjoy, my friend.
Debbe, if you have Spotify there is some new Pink Floyd on there. It seems they released a box set of recordings done between 1967-1972. Cost of the set is high, but I just found they have the individual parts on Spotify. Just search Pink Floyd and look for the Cre/Ation, etc. titled albums.
Thanks for that Mark. I had Buffett’s ‘Changes in La(t)titudes…’ like an earworm since reading Steve’s Mediterranean report. Not a bad thing, but Floyd cleared the condition right up.
You’re welcome, Morphy. Some of my favorite Pink Floyd is what they did before Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Especially the album Meddle. This new collection even has the soundtrack from Live at Pompeii, which has never been on CD before.
Mark, it is some new sounds to me. But then I always thought of Pink Floyd as approaching each album as a unique project, each with its own sound.
Comparatively, I had a friend who would complain that every single Boston track sounded the same. While I agreed, I would add that it was a good sound, like one long track. Or reprises on a theme heard later in the opera.
Refreshing this time, I was surprised at Arlo’s outstretched hand being right in my face. Don’t know how I missed it earlier. Nice piece of 3D work from 2001.
Went back up to look again. Realized J.J. often has fingers out of sight. Maybe the forced perspective made it easier to draw all five digits? Suddenly cannot recall the normal number in the Day’s world, will have to look further.
Short perusal, the Day’s count to ten on their fingers. No octal base number systems here. But I’m guessing they are not the artist’s favorite thing to draw, more useful to include them while showcasing an object, or emphasizing emotion. Other wise hide those awkward sausages in a pocket. Kind of like stagecraft, what to do with the hands?
Science fiction style brain game, we have ten fingers and base almost all of our numbering systems on that fact. But we tell time in groups of twelve containing sixty. Did the concept of time come from some-where, -one, -thing else? Did they have twelve hands of five grasping digits each? :play Twilight Zone theme:
I do like the style Jimmy uses though. Usually connected fingers indicated by small lines, rather than each separately. Minimized for efficiency.
‘Otherwise’ of course, is usually given as one word.
Here’s one of my new favorites off the new collection. I had never heard it before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSRNoXvh2lE
And here’s a variation on Echoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiyuG20bhO4&index=24&list=PLAtFWRsKDo9CBVJNTd5fOq8DS2SsL14ZC
Wait a minute.
Arlo and Janis are cartoon characters with cartoon jobs?
They seem real to me.
I hit a kid on a bicycle while riding a motorcycle years ago. My reactions saved the kid except for a few scratches. Me? I overnighted in the stepdown unit of ICU, and received a reprieve from work for six weeks. It was not my fault, so said multiple witnesses. Worst comment at the time? A witness ran up and said, “Geez you ok? I thought you were dead.”
Was back on the bike seven weeks later. Scared my wife silly, they left a note on the door saying I had been in a wreck and was at the hospital. Not was I alive, dead or half way in between, just that I was at the hospital.
Base 60:
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-we-still-use-babylonian-mathematics-116679
Base 8 [Walt Disney] might be best if we’d realized we’d someday be using base 2 in computers.
Peace,
For emb, since he likes TIP, here’s something similar: https://scontent-dft4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p480x480/18485803_1249010078544511_8235841769169928358_n.jpg?oh=94c15d47e4eb19ca3a455370ad4fdbe4&oe=59AE26C9
Checked in at hospital. Should be called back any minute now.
Good luck, Jackie. I’ll be praying for you.
Mark:
Thanks. Lots better than today’s TIP. Is it part of a series?
Peace,
Bon mot: may be an oldie, but new to me. Peace,
http://www.gocomics.com/shoe