June 24, 1993
July 14, 1993
We’re stilll in 1993, during our “The Summer of 35” retrospective. This year was the last full year before digital archiving, and while the characters looked different, the nature of “Arlo & Janis” had become well established in the eight years since its inception. In fact, I chose these two examples from the summer of ’93, because they’re both harbingers of the strip’s Great Themes. I told you’d I select something that had never appeared in print since its original publication, and that is true of the above. However, I can’t swear that they’ve never appeared here, on the Web site. I just don’t know. However, I’m taking advantage of a loophole. They have not appeared in print since 1993. We’ll get to some of the really old stuff before we’re done.
66 responses to “Little Acorns”
Good am JJ. Good start to the day – a 2 fer of the retro A&J
Very nice! And I’ll be ordering the crawfish in your face, someday… When we get to travel again…
If this had run yesterday, I might have changed what I ordered for lunch. The catfish and grits was really good though, with enough left over for supper.
Oh these are AWESOME!! Gene’s future materializing right there . . . and Arlo’s too. With Janice going, “Wait just a darned minute, there, fellas!” 🙂 Thank you for sharing these!!
It’s funny how Gene’s appearance changes between these two strips. He looks older and more mature in the “crawfish” strip. And the shape of his nose changes as well, although that might just be due to the angle we are seeing him from. Crawfish in your face, now that is a funny line.
I am friends with Chef Robert Irvine and I forwarded him today’s strip. This is what he has been working on since this pandemic hit and I’m sure that he enjoyed it.
Had the crawfish cartoon ever appeared on the blog, chances are I would have seen it. If I had seen it, I would have remembered it, as “crawfish in your face” is one of my favorite dishes. (I was fortunate enough to have had it at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen on more than one occasion.) Ergo, it has not appeared on the blog. Probably. 🙂
I suppose we could have a discussion about “crawfish” vs. “crayfish”, but let’s not. Anyway, in my neck of the Deep South woods, they are about as often called “mudbugs”. As in, “Let’s burn some bugs this weekend.”
The crawfish boil may well be the best thing to ever come out of Louisiana. Other than Jackie, of course.
Interesting… our Maine lobster are sometimes called “bugs” too…
In ’43 & ’45, first encountered Cajun food / family of Mom’s friends in LaPlace, LA. Spiciness was a little much, tho they’d toned it down for this Yankee teen. By ’73, had become accustomed to various curries & also Mexican food. En route from Bemidji to Houston via NOLA in Dec. [at Nixon’s 50 mph], Elaine, 2 of our 3 kids, & I stopped at a roadhouse for supper, & I had crawfish etoufee. Superb; became a fan! Recall having mentioned this trip before, either here or in a Bemidji Pioneer column. That roadhouse is where Stuart, visiting the men’s room, first [?] encountered coin machines that offered products “for prevention of disease only.”
Peace,
roadhouse was N of Baton Rouge.
At a church dinner the ladies all got on the Internet and found their first-ever Cajun recipes. Mostly it went well, but the Cajun boiled peanuts were much too fiery!
Here’s a toss up item:
In reading comics, I enjoy being able to “escape” the imperfect real world. That being so, I do not find it desirable to have a comic necessarily reflect reality. In the current case, I prefer comics wherein anti-viral masks are not seen. Let the comic scenario be of an imaginary world of greater perfection. Oh, I’ll read them anyway, to be sure….
Thoughts?
For me it depends on whether the strip is using the real-world events to advance the story or to display the writer/artist’s credentials as being properly “correct” in the attitudes and behaviors displayed. I greatly prefer the former and despise the latter. So JJ’s inclusion of things relative to the pandemic enable me to see the human reactions to the tragedy. Strips that insist on taking potshots at real-life politicians leave me cold.
Right on, Ron! In fact, I stopped following a “comic” because it projected complete negativity about everything! I suppose it was “supposed” to be satire, but to me – it was not funny at all… just mean.
That was me! My sign-on was no longer saved! Sorry about that…
Oops – that was me responding to Trucker Ron. My moniker was not saved…
Lord help us! Jimmy I LIKE that you seem to be the ONLY cartoonist reflecting real time real normalcy of the current real normal.
Right on and thank you! Reason you are my ONLY cartoonist to make the survival cut.
Since I now leave my quarantine only to go to Tulsa for cancer treatment it has been a month since I left the house. Talk about boring!
Tomorrow I am cooking my first ever brocolli rice cheese casserole (with chicken) in 71 years of cooking. I swear these recipes follow the Southern funeral casserole recipes tradition made popular by Paula Deen!
Melt a stick of butter and add two cans of cream of something Campbell’s soup, top with crushed Ritz crackers and bake until the grated cheese melts.
Wish I were making Crawfish in Your Face!
I don’t even EAT brocolli rice casserole. Let’s hope my friend does, she said cheesey casseroles?
Ghost is making key lime pie. I am considering using the dough hook to make Italian bread. My hook is virgin so time to see how easy it is to use. It’s not new.
The Sept 4 2020 newspaper strip reminds me of hearing the Beach Boys “Fun, Fun, Fun” a few years ago and realizing that I was older than her daddy was when he took the T-bird away.
Loving today’s strip, where Arlo reflects on the fact that his son now perceives young adults as “kids.” That’s sure something that stops a person in their tracks the first time it happens. Another one, though slightly different, is that yesterday I learned the “kid” who manages the place we’re living has a 20-year old daughter. Either he had her when he was 10 years old or my perception of who’s a “kid” has slid seriously up the age scale. I’m thinking I might have to decide he was a very precocious child. 🙂
Dawn, today’s strip made me think about the few women I dated before getting married, and realizing that they could have children in the upper 20’s to early 30’s now!
My “baby” turned 40 this summer! (Oops. Don’t do the math there. 🙂
My oldest daughter has a grandchild almost as old as my grandson. I am not claiming to be a great grandmother. No way.
I love my elegant and stately physicians who served in Vietnam, I have three such. All charming and still functional, top of their fields, instilling confidence.
Ghost’s orthopedic hand specialist is a child wonder, adorable cute Hawaiian surfer boy. Did his ortho residency at 12 apparently and his additional specialties by 15.
Good to see a youngster willing to eat something interesting. Our oldest was enthusiastic about snails in garlic butter when we had them one night – “More nails! More nails!” said the one in the high chair – but got pickier later. He’s now grown, a vegan, but will bend the rules occasionally. In particular a local BBQ joint has tofu étouffée on the menu, which he happily eats when in town while being careful not to ask about butter.
Shrimp étouffée is one of Ellen’s special-occasion dishes.
Momma Bear’s Grandma asked (when she had her appendix out at 95)
“Are you sure he is old enough to be a Doctor?” . 🙂
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Has anyone else having problem with Yahoo mail?
Graphics don’t show up.
For those who haven’t seen any news today, the rump says that members of the US military who have been killed or wounded in combat are “loser” and “suckers”. That from Mr. Bonespur.
Saw it. Decided comment might be thought “political” or even unpatriotic. Peace,
Same feelings here. There are many, many places devoted to attacking or supporting one party or politician or another. We don’t need to make this yet another political mud pit or shrine.
I agree!
So do I. We can hear that kind of junk any time we turn on network news so we don’t need it here. And the same goes for negative stuff about the other folks too.
“Thumper, remember what your father said?”
Ghost turned out two lovely meringue key lime pies. I cleaned the fridge and made two large chopped salads with most of the contents. One to go, one for us. The casserole won’t win any ribbons for looks but hopefully tastes better. I have made few casseroles in my life to be honest.
I never had a father, killed by the British and “Friendly Fire” while flying an unarmed spy plane in WWII. He was fourth casualty in a month in his battalion shot down by British. He was MIA for seven years. Buried in Italy. He and so many gave their lives volunteering for service.
I’m so sorry for such a devastating loss in your life, Jackie — and for the loss your father and others suffered, their lives ending so early in service to others. The way it happened, and the fact he was MIA for so long, must have been very hard for you to deal with as you grew up. But I am sure he was comforted all during those years by thinking of family back home — including you.
Because of the number of pilots killed by the British all the deaths were covered up. I found out truth at age 50 when they were unsealed. I was born after his death. My mom remarried after waiting seven years. I lived with my grandparents mostly. The life of the WWII war orphans was difficult. Thete were about 50,000 of us, most had similar experiences the studies found.
From KSL:
“This footage of the Wuppertal Suspended Railway in Germany resides in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and was published on its YouTube page in early August. YouTuber Denis Shiryaev took the video as a challenge and proceeded to stabilize the film, boost the FPS to 4k, upgrade the frame rate to 60 per second while correcting playback speed issues, and colorize the footage using ambiance and historical data. The video was reposted on Twitter, where it promptly went viral and accrued several million views.
“The resulting film is haunting, beautiful, and will make you feel like a time-traveler. It seems too good to have originated in 1902, and gives an uncanny valley effect of modern video game graphics. It’s mesmerizing, and I’ve rewatched it more times than I can count.”
https://www.ksl.com/article/50014071/have-you-seen-this-restored-footage-of-1902-german-flying-train-makes-you-a-time-traveler
Thank you for posting this, Ron! It’s absolutely wonderful!
Dawn
Wow, and it’s still operating! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn
Sorry Trucker. Didn’t mean to duplicate what you had done. I didn’t see that you had posted the same thing. I shouldn’t be posting before I finish waking up.
I thought I was the only one who did that. 🙂 But, you know, you did pretty well. If I’d posted on this subject when not yet awake, the link would have been to a Fifth Dimensions song at Youtube or something. . .
Awesome!