Jan 25th 2012 08:07 am Little Arlo in Slumberland
This year, Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay would be 107, and holding up much better than I since 2005, when this cartoon appeared. On to book signings. Eventually, I will post a calendar with all events listed, for perusal at your leisure, but, for now, I can tell you I have scheduled several appearances in late winter and early spring. So far, they are all in the southeastern U.S., but please be patient; we’ll be working outward. As evidence of this strategy, the first announced appearance will be a family affair, although everyone is invited. I will be at The Gnu’s Room in Auburn, Alabama, on Saturday, Feb. 4, beginning at 4 p.m. The Gnu’s Room is an Auburn institution, an independent bookstore with a distinctive personality. Did you know a gnu and a wildebeest are the same thing? It was gnus to me!
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
22 Responses to “Little Arlo in Slumberland”
Symply Fargone on 25 Jan 2012 at 8:34 am #
Drives her nuts…I always ask, “What’s antelope?”, Just another Fargone question.
JJ waiting for your New England appearances, going to do it during this ahem socalled “winter?”?
MINDY on 25 Jan 2012 at 8:43 am #
Timeliness! On January 19 Huntch raised the question of when Arlo quit think Janis was sexy. That was put to rest in today’s real-time strip, no? I told ya, Huntch! She never stopped being sexy!
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 25 Jan 2012 at 9:10 am #
With dwindling animal populations in Africa these days, no Gnus is bad news.
Judy Weidner on 25 Jan 2012 at 9:49 am #
The Houston area is a good place to sell books (did I say that before? oops, my enthusiasm must be showing)
jeff in minnesota on 25 Jan 2012 at 10:20 am #
“the gnicest work of gnature in the zoo” – M. Flanders/D. Swann
Michael in Pleasanton, CA on 25 Jan 2012 at 11:45 am #
Actually, I *did* know that gnus and wildebeests were the same… and that is only because, as a kid learning piano, I played a song called “blue gnu”, about a gnu that felt, well, blue. At some point, he gets himself turned around. “… Then wildebeests came by the score / To romp and play with him / All the games that gnus like best / they played and played with him…” There was an asterisk next to the word wildebeest with a footnote at the bottom of the page: * “wildebeest” is another word for gnu.
Isn’t it strange, the little memories we keep in our heads from lo so many years ago?
P.S. “Now he is a happy gnu / Now he isn’t blue / He loves friends and they love him / He is a true blue gnu!”
sideburns on 25 Jan 2012 at 12:10 pm #
Michael, that song of yours reminds me of the cow who drank a bottle of ink: she mooed indigo.
John in NY on 25 Jan 2012 at 12:54 pm #
Speaking of odd things that remain in your head way too many years later…The real question would be if any of you have ever heard of Gary Gnu. The newscaster from The Great Space Coaster.
Dan in SWMo on 25 Jan 2012 at 3:02 pm #
I knew, but I have the excuse of being born in South Africa. However, my Texan wife also knew. Then again, both of us are word afficionados.
buzz on 25 Jan 2012 at 3:05 pm #
There is nothing, son, under the gnu.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 25 Jan 2012 at 4:37 pm #
Blinky:
They may have been more widespread once, but the brindled gnu or blue wildebeest of south and east Africa is perhaps the most abundant antelope in the world. The white-tailed gnu of South Africa, however, now comprises only a few thousand individuals according to my 1972 field guide, bought in Nairobi in ’87. Dan might know more about it.
There are several critically endangered antelope, among them the scimitar-horned oryx, addax, and dama gazelle. Type “endangered antelope” into a search engine. There are lots of sites. The Wiki site on antelope in general is not bad. North American pronghorns are not true antelope, but a fossil species of saiga antelope is known from N.A., probably Pleistocene or Upper Pliocene–I didn’t pursue that.
Tom in Glendora, CA on 25 Jan 2012 at 4:37 pm #
Today’s archive strip reminds me that ‘pulling an all nighter’ has different meanings for
college students and us old folks. For the students, it’s studying all night. For the
old folks it means sleeping through the night.
My wife and I no longer seem to sleep all night, but rather take a series of naps.
And now, back to the gnus.
Jim from NC on 25 Jan 2012 at 6:48 pm #
I live in a small community with no bookstore, so I will settle for Raleigh.
John in Virginia on 25 Jan 2012 at 7:29 pm #
Good Lord! What I’d give if I got up only two times a night! It’s really not “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” But you have to reach a certain age before the true meaning seeps through, I reckon.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 25 Jan 2012 at 9:32 pm #
Some sleep researchers say that humans are not supposed to sleep for eight straight hours. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in the days before artificial light, people would go to sleep after sun set, sleep for a few hours, rise few an hour or so, and then go back to sleep until sunrise. Now I don’t think of those middle of the night bathroom visits as a sign of getting old- I’m rediscovering my roots!
James Pollock on 26 Jan 2012 at 1:18 am #
The only thing I know about gnus is that they are not Unix.
MINDY on 26 Jan 2012 at 7:27 am #
Unix? Unique? Well, unique is how you move quietly closer to a wild rabbit. Does that help? I didn’t gno if you gnu.
Dave in MA on 26 Jan 2012 at 7:43 am #
While all GNUs may not be Unix, most are. And most flavors of Unix are GNU, too.
CW in 617 on 26 Jan 2012 at 1:43 pm #
What I had heard, many years ago, was that “GNU” was a self-referential acronym for “Gnu is Not Unix.” I gave up thinking about this one.
To bring this discussion back to comics, Walt Kelly had a poem, “Dixie is the Land I Love” that began:
“Oh in a land where none are known
to neatly knot the gnu ..”
It goes on in a similar vein.
RR in AZ on 26 Jan 2012 at 5:12 pm #
Book signings in AZ? If you get to Sedona I’ll work on a book store and already have a place you can stay while here!!!
Karla on 27 Jan 2012 at 9:36 am #
@John in NY – I had to respond because at times I think I was the only one that watched the show!
No gnews is good gnews with Garry Gnu.
Lost in A**2 on 27 Jan 2012 at 4:26 pm #
buzz: that sounds like an unhappy gnu.
On antelope: I’ve heard, but not confirmed, that Mountain Goats are not goats. Or is it Big-horn Sheep that aren’t sheep?