Jan 19th 2012 07:29 am Hug and release

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
I don’t have much time today, but I did find a tidbit this morning. All weird things must come to an end, I guess. Happy Birthday, Edgar!

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

44 Responses to “Hug and release”

  1. Den in MN on 19 Jan 2012 at 8:19 am #

    Perfect timing once again, Jimmy! The old ‘peeking in the windows’ feeling applies. I will forward this to my sweetie.

  2. Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 19 Jan 2012 at 8:20 am #

    If Edgar was buried in New Orleans, would the visitor leave three roses, a half-drunk bottle of cognac and a half eaten Po-Boy?

  3. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 19 Jan 2012 at 8:30 am #

    There is a tenuous connection to EAP in Newark, DE. Local lores holds that he was tossed out of a local watering hole in a drunken stupor while on his way to meet his fate in Baltimore. Of course, the original building is long gone but the current establishment is built on the site of the original lodge and thus embraces the apocryphal story. The bar even uses a raven as its mascot:

    http://www.deerparktavern.com

  4. MINDY on 19 Jan 2012 at 9:09 am #

    Oooh! First a snuggle, then a hug…
    Steve from Royal Oak, either a Po’boy or a muffalatta, which I undoubtedly spelled incorrectly. The old Jax beer brewery closed down so it would have to be a Dixie beer instead of cognac. For the beer alone the man would come back to haunt whomever left the stuff there!

  5. Jeff in Ann Arbor on 19 Jan 2012 at 9:18 am #

    And sadly, Dixie is brewed in Wisconsin now, since the brewery was ruined by Katrina.

    As an enthusiastic homebrewer, I got a personal tour of the old Dixie Brewery in ’99, along with my wife, personally conducted by the head brewer himself. I just went in the office and asked. It was an amazing antique that they kept in just good enough repair to brew.

    The old cypress lagering vessels were probably the only ones still in operation at the time – all other breweries having long since gone to stainless steel. I understand that they are still salvageable since they are on an upper lever that was not flooded. Much of the other equipment dated back to the founding of the brewery in the early 20th century. The whole place was an OSHA nightmare!

    That very delicate style of beer is not generally to my taste, but it tasted wonderful fresh on tap with local dishes in the restaurants.

  6. Symply Fargone on 19 Jan 2012 at 9:37 am #

    @Ruth Anne and Bob,

    You guys are the best, JJ your blog is the best, all you folks who visit, post or lurk are the best….I have just Rx’d the Zappa album(yesterday actually) that I have been missing. I am so pleased! Ruth Anne and Bob, like all the rest here, you guys are Symply Fargone. My sincere thanks and appreciation!!!!!!! BTW, JJ I like you too :) )

  7. Maggie in Michigan on 19 Jan 2012 at 10:07 am #

    Today’s A&J was laugh-out-loud funny, particularly because years ago (pre-YouTube, thank God) I tried the same thing with a piece of bread. I felt so ridiculous. I’d rather put up with the tears.

  8. Hoag in MA on 19 Jan 2012 at 10:48 am #

    Saddened by the thought that such a unique tradition in Baltimore is “officially” over. Here’s to the unexplained, unique, and outside the box events and people we have in the world. hmmm, might be why I enjoy A&J

  9. Bob S. on 19 Jan 2012 at 12:27 pm #

    The Atlas brewery in Chicago had wooden vats when I was there back in 1956 or so. Don’t know if it is still there tho.

  10. Huntch on 19 Jan 2012 at 1:17 pm #

    Reading old A&J cartoons makes me wonder when Jimmy Johnson quit thinking Janis was sexy, and quit understanding that couples could be “frisky” even tho their kids were grown – - -

  11. MINDY on 19 Jan 2012 at 1:57 pm #

    Jimmy doesn’t think Janis isn’t sexy! Good Lord! That shows almost every day! You’re just looking for the wrong tell-tales, Huntch! Jeff in Ann Arbor, you say Dixie is now brewed in Wisconsin. Does it still taste disgustingly terrible? I have to admit, Jax was worse, but Dixie was…well, I do remember the night they brought old Dixie down, and it wasn’t a Joan Baez folk song. Trouble was, we couldn’t get Coors or Olympia in the Gulf South back then.

  12. Tom in Glendora, CA on 19 Jan 2012 at 2:55 pm #

    Bob S. – I remember Atlas Prager beer. When in college during the summer (around
    65-67), I worked for Drewry’s delivering beer. I rode around in one of those blue
    trucks with a Mountie on the side. I think it’s the same location, on 18th & Damen. Didn’t
    see any wooden vats though.

  13. Mary in Ohio on 19 Jan 2012 at 4:19 pm #

    Did I miss the Poe discussion? (I’ve backtracked the last several days) If the mysterious tribute didn’t show up this year, they figured he was gone for good, but apparently the original mystery man, from the 1940′s, had passed it on to a younger man sometime in the last decades. Hope the tradition goes on.

  14. Lost in A**2 on 19 Jan 2012 at 4:43 pm #

    You didn’t miss the discussion, Mary. JJ brought it up this morning. :)

  15. Mark in TTown on 19 Jan 2012 at 4:45 pm #

    So what should we do? Toast him via this blog? Anybody got the Alan Parsons Project version of Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Mostly Poe’s verse set to music. I liked it myself, even had the LP version when it first came out, clear yellow vinyl and all.
    Belated Happy Birthday, Edgar!

  16. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 19 Jan 2012 at 6:17 pm #

    Today’s strip about match:

    Ever wonder who be this they who always keep talking?

  17. Ron in NW IL on 19 Jan 2012 at 7:43 pm #

    Rick ln Shermantown, Ohio: “who be this they who…”, got it on the third reading. I feel like the guy who hasn’t 4g’s on his smart-fone.

  18. Jack in Minnesota on 19 Jan 2012 at 9:17 pm #

    Jeff, Dixie also made a wonderful black lager called “Blackened Voodoo”. We discovered this beer at a steak place on Bourbon Street, sitting at a street side table and people watching. Even though it is being contract brewed in Wisconsin we rarely find it here.

  19. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 19 Jan 2012 at 9:54 pm #

    Jack:

    “Even though it is being contract brewed in Wisconsin …”.

    In the ’80s, wife and I were driving south on the CA coast road, Highway 1, moteled in Morro Bay, and went to a seafood place there for supper. The menu listed “Obispo Lager” or some such. I asked if it was brewed in nearby San Luis Obispo and the waitress said yes, so I decided I’d try the local brew. The label on the bottle said it was brewed in New Ulm, MN. Schell Brewery there does a lot of contract brewing and also has several decent beers labeled Schell. I alerted the waitress, who had probably never checked a label. No harm done; it was a decent beer. I don’t know if had formerly been brewed locally.

  20. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 20 Jan 2012 at 5:46 am #

    Ron in NW IL:

    Good one!

    After I submitted it, I realized that I should have written “… who be this they that…”

    Besides having a bit of alliteration and following the Rule of Three, it avoids the more standard “who.”

  21. Pam in Nashville on 20 Jan 2012 at 9:15 am #

    Jimmy – you have now been “Pinterest-ed”

  22. Lost in A**2 on 20 Jan 2012 at 10:39 am #

    Years and years ago, upon getting his fourth star and the command of our Corps, Lou Wilson said, “I am ‘they’.”

  23. Jerry in Fl on 20 Jan 2012 at 3:18 pm #

    I’ve always preferred to refer to “them” as “suits”. It packs a lot of characterization into one word. As for me, I now wear a suit with no tie to funerals. The drycleaners had shrunk my suits to the point that I just bought a new one, although the size was clearly mislabeled, but I bought no new tie. If I should become the honoree in such an event I will trust my survivor to select the proper neckwear. Does anyone know where the habit of men’s neckties began? My guess is that it wasn’t our idea.

  24. Jerry in Fl on 20 Jan 2012 at 3:23 pm #

    As for beverages, the real thing doesn’t always live up to memory, Delaware Punch and Tuborg Beer being two examples in my experience.

  25. Bob in Orland Park on 20 Jan 2012 at 3:25 pm #

    @Jerry in Fl

    Careful! When I retired I had a closet full of suits. Now that I let them hang unused for a few years they all shrunk.

  26. Mark in Boston on 20 Jan 2012 at 3:25 pm #

    The habit of men’s neckties is supposed to go back to the 17th century based on neck cloths worn by Croatian soldiers. Croat -> Cravat. It’s really weird how these things get started.

  27. John in Virginia on 20 Jan 2012 at 6:31 pm #

    Mark in Boston, did you ever notice that the stripes on a man’s tie almost always from downward from [his] left to right? And why is it a man’s shirt buttons/unbuttons with the buttons on the right-hand side while a woman’s buttons are on the left? [Or is it the other way 'round?] I’ve often wondered if that’s because the man usually gives the lady his left arm if the gentleman is escorting the lady so, if the shirt/blouse opens left to right the man will not be so tempted to peek and therefore increase the chances of running into a door sill or light pole or stationary elephant. I’ve also often wondered if I am a dirty old man for thinking about such things.

  28. John in Virginia on 20 Jan 2012 at 6:31 pm #

    Oh, never mind, I’ve been awake for over 72 hours now and I don’t expect to make any sense.

  29. Ruth Anne in Winter Park on 20 Jan 2012 at 7:01 pm #

    John in Va. – I always heard that the difference in the button setup went back to the days when only the rich had buttons. The button arrangement was devised to be convenient to those who would be doing the buttoning. Men always dressed themselves and most were right-handed so they got one arrangement. The buttons were the opposite on women’ clothes because they would be fastened by the rich ladies’ maids.

  30. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 20 Jan 2012 at 7:28 pm #

    Funerals/”proper attire”: I don’t believe I own a suit that fits, and have forgotten how to tie a tie. For funerals I wear ordinary slacks rather than my usual cargo pants, a muted rather than colorful turtleneck, and a maroon sweater rather than one of my several colorful sweatshirts–in winter. In summer, same sort of slacks and a relatively quiet polo shirt. If an invite says “business attire”, I inquire. If they really want me there, they waive it; otherwise I don’t go.

    Thoreau, H. D. “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”

  31. Lost in A**2 on 20 Jan 2012 at 7:47 pm #

    I’ve heard that the button thing started when men started wearing swords under their coats. Until then, everyone buttoned on the same side. Since right-handed men wear their swords on the left, the buttons were set to be undone with the left.

    Of course, if you are likely to be in a hurry, your sword won’t be under anything more than a cloak in the first place. :)

  32. Leo in LA on 20 Jan 2012 at 8:24 pm #

    I will be GDed. Todays A&J Beezer cartoons used to be big. Hadn’t seen one in a long time. Krazy Kat aways called noses BEEZERS. Thanks JJ and Mr. Herriman.

  33. CW in 617 on 20 Jan 2012 at 9:07 pm #

    For real; Years ago, a (female) friend explained that the button arrangement was so that right-handed guys could do the unbuttoning easily. I won’t go on with this story.

    For the EAP discussion, the picture on the (paperback) cover of my shelf copy of “The Tell-Tale HearT and Other Writings” Is “Der Rabe” by Carl Spetzweg. I’ll just say that it’s quite appropriate (and that I can’t find a really good online rendition).

  34. Lost in A**2 on 21 Jan 2012 at 11:04 am #

    Not, perhaps, a good rendition, but better than none is:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Der_Rabe_(Carl_Spitzweg,_Ausschnitt).jpg

  35. Neal in Bahstawn on 21 Jan 2012 at 11:46 am #

    See what happens when we’re left to our own devices?

  36. Charlotte in NH on 21 Jan 2012 at 11:46 am #

    Nice painting, and it sure looks good to me. However, it appears to be a detail from a larger painting, and makes me think an awful lot of H. Bosch. Any ideas?

  37. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 21 Jan 2012 at 2:47 pm #

    CW in 617: Maybe JJ has not been the only one peeping in our windows. Reminds me of a nightie from the Sears catalog some decades back that I gave my wife for birthday or Christmas. And I’d best not go on with that one, except to say that she liked it.

  38. Robin in FL on 21 Jan 2012 at 3:55 pm #

    Huntch

    Ya know, you’re right..when was the last time we saw Arlo lusting after Janis?

  39. Lost in A**2 on 21 Jan 2012 at 5:35 pm #

    http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2011/11/16

  40. Mark in Boston on 21 Jan 2012 at 6:38 pm #

    The tie stripes are because of the way ties are made. Long strips are cut diagonally from striped fabric. That’s why the tie has a triangular point on each end. The point is the square corner of the diagonal strip. Knitted ties are made differently. The stripes (if any) are horizontal and the end is square.

  41. Jerry in Fl on 22 Jan 2012 at 8:03 pm #

    What did they say in Wonderland? Oh, frapjus day or some such. I have two hearing aids. My step grandaughter, age 13, knew how to download my music to the ipod that I’ve had for 9 months andI now I can hear music like I could in my 20′s. My wife thinks that she’s going to hide the ear thingys but I already have.

  42. Jerry in Fl on 22 Jan 2012 at 8:05 pm #

    And now if I can find a gadget to fix my typos I would be a happy camper.

  43. TruckerRon on 22 Jan 2012 at 10:25 pm #

    Jerry, be glad you’re in Florida. Here’s how things looked Saturday evening about 50 miles north of my home:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded

    It starts slowly, but gets more interesting as more people ignore the warnings and try to go down the hill. My daughters were most impressed by the one that hit the snow plow.

    BTW, I stayed at home during the storm. I don’t challenge Mother Nature anymore… especially since no one pays me to do it now.

  44. TruckerRon on 22 Jan 2012 at 10:27 pm #

    Jerry, you’re not the only one wanting to go back and fix typos! Here’s the full address for that clip:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xrJuigh2aCc