May 31st 2008 07:55 am Macho ‘do about nothing

1999-08-10-extreme-hair-2.gif

All the cartoons the past week have been from the summer of 1999. Apparently, I was doing a lot of serial strips at that time, some with story lines and some–such as the haircut serial–simply a series of cartoons on a theme.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

23 Responses to “Macho ‘do about nothing”

  1. John in LA, late of P'cola on 31 May 2008 at 8:51 am #

    Well, I for one like Gene’s haircut. Shaved mine about 5 years ago and never stopped. Should have done it 30 years ago!.
    Just returned from Joshua Tree National Park. Picked up the Desert Sun newspaper from Palm Springs. GRRRR, another CA paper w/o A&J.

  2. Randy in Irving, Tx on 31 May 2008 at 10:24 am #

    Re: Gene’s real friend and Arlo’s Soulmate. As a young boy growing up in a fairly open-minded household, I was brought up to respect those of the fairer sex, but as I became fortunate enough to share various relationships, I now revere them. I honestly believe more “women” identify with “Ruth” and “Janis” than they ever could with “Carrie, Miranda, Samantha or Charlotte”; and I, for one, am grateful. If, however, my assessment is wholly naive, then Ladies, please do not bother to burst my bubble because if I didn’t believe (with my entire being) that this is so, then I wouldn’t be able to revere women the way that I do.

    God bless the Ladies and God bless JJ for reminding us of the truth.

  3. Jim in Se Mississppi on 31 May 2008 at 10:34 am #

    For those of you who didn’t have to go to the office this morning for “a while,” enjoy your weekends. For those of you who did, I feel your pain. (Including, I assume, JJ’s.)

    Come to think of it, JJ lives at his office. That probably has its pluses and minuses. (And I guess it’s the 21st century equivalent of “living over the store,” something that seemed to be quite common among merchants in the early to mid-20th century. Perhaps more so in the Northeast and Midwest than the South, although I do have a co-worker who as a child lived over her grandfather’s grocery store.)

    OK, enough woolgathering. Back to the month-end close-out.

  4. Matthew on 31 May 2008 at 12:40 pm #

    God, I miss Ruth!

  5. Matthew on 31 May 2008 at 12:43 pm #

    Another small note: “‘do” needs an apostrophe, not an inverted comma.

    Keep up the good work!

    P.S.–I wanted to write a profanity-laced message, Mr. Johnson, just so you’d have something to moderate, but my profane muse is, apparently, taking some days off. When she returns, I’ll give you something to censor. You can be the C.I.A., and I’ll be Valerie Plame.

  6. Mary in Ohio on 31 May 2008 at 1:45 pm #

    Ok, I admit it: I don’t get the punchline. Surely Gene is not threatening to smack her with the stick, but I can’t think of another reference.

  7. Jim in SE Mississippi on 31 May 2008 at 2:40 pm #

    As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up. I have never followed professional tennis, but when I got home from the office this afternoon, the French Open was on when I turned on my TV. The very first thing I saw was a low-angle, rear-view shot of Maria Sharapova as she leaned well forward awaiting a serve. At that moment, in one of those weird coincidences Arlo would probably love, a caption flashed on the screen informing me I was watching the “Women’s Bottom Half.”

    Then I realized it did sort of make sense…“double entendre” is French.

  8. Vic in Chicagoland on 31 May 2008 at 5:31 pm #

    You know you’re past your time when the first thought on reading Matthew’s comment: “Another small note: “‘do” needs an apostrophe, not an inverted comma.” is ‘Darn typesetter got the slug flipped’.

    And it takes a few minutes to clear the cobwebs and re-think “WHAT typesetter?”

    Then realizing exactly how few will even remember/know what the heck I’m talking about. :)

    :sigh: I miss Ruth too- she reminds me of my son’s current girlfriend.

  9. Steve From Royal Oak, Mi on 31 May 2008 at 5:46 pm #

    Jim in SE MS.

    Are you trying to get censored? Actually those annoying captions, crawls and station IDs are quite annoying, although at least you were able to get a good laugh out of it.

    My 42′ screen is in the shop, so I am using my daughter’s 20″ TV now that she is home from school. I have the picture in picture, so when I was trying to watch the Red Wings and Pistons at the same time, it was hard to see either game. What made it worse was I had to keep moving the inserted picture to dance around all of th above mentioned garbage that the networks put on the screen.

    Is Gene going to come home for the summer? Will he have re-found Ruth and she tells him that he is still clueless?

  10. Jack on 31 May 2008 at 5:49 pm #

    At least Gene has hair to cut. As for today’s cartoon, I’m not sure taking pictures of my walk would be ideal for me or anyone else. Maybe 44 years ago. What would Arlo call the view from the other side?

  11. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 31 May 2008 at 8:21 pm #

    Mary in Ohio:

    My interpretation of the last panel is that it is a reference to the saying, “I’ll have to beat them away with a stick.”

  12. Curmudgeonly professor on 31 May 2008 at 9:14 pm #

    For Mary in Ohio: The reference is that, if Gene is so attractive to the fairer sex, he might have to “beat them off with a stick”.

  13. Robin in GA on 31 May 2008 at 9:14 pm #

    Randy

    Don’t worry–we are more like Janis and Ruth (and Cathy even) than SITC. Just as the men in our lives are more like Arlo (and even Dilbert!) than Brad Pitt. And no, we don’t wish you were more like BP either. We love y’all just the way you are.

    Robin

  14. Jim in southwest Illannoy on 31 May 2008 at 9:40 pm #

    Now that I’m older I can laugh at today’s crop of boys playing this generation’s version of the same games we did trying to get girls to pay attention to them, not even thinking that they’re sometimes being total jerks and turning the girls off. At least Gene isn’t acting the total jerk, but he definitely doesn’t “get it”.

  15. CG from MN on 31 May 2008 at 10:14 pm #

    Mary in Ohio

    In certain parts of the country Gene’s reference means “over popular”,
    beating off the girls/boys/kids/public with a stick.
    Many times uttered sarcastically.

  16. CG from MN on 31 May 2008 at 10:16 pm #

    Mary in Ohio

    That is a figurative not a virtual stick.

  17. Bill from Paducah on 01 Jun 2008 at 12:25 am #

    Mary in Ohio

    I think Gene is saying if the “clueless little boy” thing attracts girls he’ll need to “beat them off with a stick” implying he couldn’t feel more clueless.

    Jim in SE Mississippi – My month end close (in fact FYE close) is tomorrow the 1st. I’m in the office the 1st day of every month come H. or H.W.*

    Bill

    *now you can all debate: “Did Jimmy moderate that, or did Lentz self censor?”

  18. Leslie from Laffy on 01 Jun 2008 at 4:48 am #

    I miss Ruth too! More Ruth!!!

  19. Jim in southwest Illannoy on 01 Jun 2008 at 7:00 am #

    OK, I think I get the stick, but JJ you’ll have to confirm your true intention. I think Gene’s saying that as a clueless boy, which Ruth says is always a winner, he’ll have to keep the girls away with a stick because of it making him so attractive to the girls. Am I on the right track JJ?

  20. Jim in SE Mississippi on 01 Jun 2008 at 9:36 am #

    Vic in Chicagoland:

    Your mention of a typesetter instantly propelled me way down Memory Lane. When I was about six years old, my mom’s sister’s husband took my dad and me on a tour of the Huntsville (AL) Times office where he worked. The one thing I clearly remember about the visit after all these years is seeing the Linotype machine in action. My uncle had the operator cast a slug with my name on it, an operation that I remember as producing an impressive amount of clacking and clanking. As I recall, the metal slug was about 2 x 1 x ¼ inches in size. My uncle passed away shortly afterwards, and that slug is one of many of my childhood possessions that has gone missing that I wish I still had.

    Amazingly, I’ve read that some Linotype machines are still in use. If that is indeed the case, JJ might have some stories to tell about them. (If not here, maybe in The Book.)

  21. Mary in Ohio on 01 Jun 2008 at 12:56 pm #

    Thanks to all who enlightened me. I have heard that expression, but it went completely over my head. A friend of my Mom’s used to note that “they were both hit with the same stick” meaning “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” That probably was what impeded my thinking.

    Randy – some of us are more like (keeping to the comics analogy) Betty, Sylvia, or even a grown-up Lucy Van Pelt. Thank you for accepting that! We like you guys as you are, too!

    Vic – once upon a time I worked for the local paper and learned how to proofread a page when you didn’t have time to pull a proof. This later drove the kids I taught crazy because I could wander around the room and read their notes upside down and backwards.

    As for today’s new cartoon: are A&J THAT age already?

  22. Kim in California on 01 Jun 2008 at 11:19 pm #

    Randy, I agree with Robin. There are plenty of us with virtues and standards that I, myself, try daily to live by. I am married to a “regular guy,” also, but he is also my best friend and the one I believe that God intended for me. If you are still searching for “Miss Right,” don’t give up, she is out there somewhere! A tiny bit of advice: where you look determines what you will find.

  23. Kevin of Elmhurst on 02 Jun 2008 at 12:20 pm #

    Man, I love the title you put over your vintage comic posts: “Macho ‘do about nothing.” “Sometimes a skint is just a skint.”

    Sometimes they’re jokes in themselves; sometimes they extend the comic or comment on it. And then there are some, like the strip, that are a bit gnomic. Whatever: I always enjoy them. Hope there will be something like them in the hinted-at upcoming A&J book.