I’m sorry I was absent yesterday; I had to be out of town overnight. Here are the remaining two episodes from the 1998 series that has come to be known as “The Torch Singer.” A majority of us still walking around came of age after 1965, an inexact date chosen for my purposes here. Nothing really changed during the 60’s except perceptions. It became all right to acknowledge that it takes two to tango. I have had a lot of fun over the years, in fantasy strips and in strips about “real” life, suggesting that Janis is as human as the next man. It would not be gentlemanly of me to go into detail, but suffice to say she’s just like you and me. Especially you. And yes, the book is coming soon!
35 responses to “My Blue Heaven”
Yes, it’s become clear over the years that Janis has a rich love life, as well as a rich fantasy life.
And that, as they should, one complements the other. Good for her.
As a follow-up to something I posted last week (Remember! You saw it first here! Er, well, heard about it; I didn’t post any pix of topless women.), Oklahoma officials are trying to decide how to deal with this.
https://www.newson6.com/clip/14917283/new-ruling-allows-oklahoma-women-to-be-topless-in-public
As far as my feelings on the matter, I suppose I’d have to default to the opinion I previously voiced here about nudist camps and clothing-optional beaches…the people you’d want to see nude, you mostly likely won’t; the people you wouldn’t want to see nude, you most likely will.
I think the world would be a prettier place if we went the other way and required both men and women to cover their tops.
Jon: Several folks around here have responded to the news article with the very same argument.
Re 9-27-19 real-time cartoon: Arlo is obviously of the “If the kitchen’s not a mess, it won’t be a good meal” school of thought.
Ghost, that has been seen before, as when Arlo makes Jambalaya. But this time, he had something he was using and still needed, and Janis had picked it up and washed it. This means an additional washing is going to be necessary, and his tool had wandered off, causing him to divert attention from what he was doing. That is bad news for those of us with one-track minds.
As for the topless ruling, I thought Oklahoma already had open carry on the books.
We have a term for that in our house, “out-neated”. My better half picked up the neatness gene from her father. I am usually the victim, but the real fun (and she thinks so too) is on the rare occasions when she out-neats herself.
The book coming soon? That is great news!
In later years L have picked up my mothers habit of washing as I go-
ya sometimes “out neating” myself.
She would snatch the plate from under our fork if we were not fast enough for her
when she wanted to get done.
When she helped on outside projects we would reach for a cut off and it would already be
removed.
Miss her – it has been near 20 years.
It is I not L
I miss my fantasy life. Life is all too real for me right now. Just as I discovered I could be anything I wanted to be I discovered how hard it was to be anything. And it all vanished like the clock struck the end of the magic.
Today’s strip is our kitchen. My wife was taught to clean while you cook, but I’ve informed her ONLY if I put it in the sink!
When her mother comes over, she asks”How can I help?” I tell her to pour two glasses of wine and go into the Living Room and talk with my wife for an hour or two.
Wow! The book is coming? Been a long time since I’ve heard any news about it. Very excited to hear more!
https://www.comicskingdom.com/bizarro
I thought this was a hoot, albeit too true.
It is the September 27th cartoon I mean; you’ll have to backtrack a few days to see it. I had no idea that the above reference would update each day.
Who would like to hear hoary details of me cleaning kitchen this morning? The stove is not finished but Skipper licked cast iron skillet and Dutch oven pretty thoroughly. Skipper is Ghost’s cat he did not request.
Everyone must have more social life than I. Sitting in kitchrn eating gluten free blueberry muffins and iced lime water. Scanning Facebook for Southern humor and cartoons.
I am embarrassed to say that I have encountered more profanity, vulgarity, obscenity and prejudice, racial slurs in an hour or two searching the “kiss My Grits” style humor than I have in two years of generic searches. Why is this?
Ghost runs a second editorial censorship after mine. Then if I offend anyone I delete the cartoon. But my question is how are these bad taste memes and cartoons making it on Facebook to begin with ?
Everyone must have more social life than I. Sitting in kitchrn eating gluten free blueberry muffins and iced lime water. Scanning Facebook for Southern humor and cartoons.
I am embarrassed to say that I have encountered more profanity, vulgarity, obscenity and prejudice, racial slurs in an hour or two searching the “kiss My Grits” style humor than I have in two years of generic searches. Why is this?
Ghost runs a second editorial censorship after mine. Then if I offend anyone I delete the cartoon. But my question is how are these bad taste memes and cartoons making it on Facebook to begin with ?
Hoping to grab a copy of the “Arlo and Janis After Dark” book!
Jackie – I feel your frustration! I visit Facebook periodically in search of pictures my kids have posted of my grandkids. While I am there I page through posts and comments from my friends and relatives and I also conclude that my social life is lacking because I have nothing to post that I think is worthwhile. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe people would be fascinated to find out that the hummingbirds are migrating and for the last couple of weeks I have watched a dozen fighting over the sugar water in the feeder outside my kitchen window. Maybe they want to hear about my search for an acquaintance about 15 years older than I, who has moved 3 times this last year and I finally found her in an assisted living facility not far from where my organization meets, so I can pick her up on the way to the meeting (I am treasurer of this group, and I started looking for her when we started up again this year and it was time to pay dues). Sounds kind of trivial to me. Then there’s the news that I am still having trouble walking and what do I say about that? It is a downer when the body you have lived in for going on 70 years no longer works the way you are used to, and there’s the worry about whether the treatments are really going to help.
I will say that I prefer to be positive in my outlook, and I am positive that while my life is much less active than it used to be, I can still look for the small joys and the admittedly minor accomplishments. Kudos to you for cleaning the kitchen! Kudos to me for cleaning the bathroom last Friday. As I told my husband – it’s not as clean as if it were perfect (I can no longer achieve perfection) but it sure is a lot cleaner than it was before I started.
Now let’s both go take a well-deserved break and appreciate the world around us.
Jackie asked: But my question is how are these bad taste memes and cartoons making it on Facebook to begin with?
I think it’s a combination of where, when, and by whom the posters were raised. My parents had the mannerisms and beliefs of those raised in the Old South during the 1930s and 40s. Unlike Steven Spielberg who grew up apparently believing suburban kids used mild (or worse) profanity and insulted adults constantly, I grew up believing those words and attitudes were a good way to find out that my mom never believed in “sparing the rod” or the belt. Adults were to be respected until they proved they weren’t worthy of it. Cussing was a shortcut to pain.
I also cringe at many things posted on FB. And I’ve learned how to block the person or company sending them.
Agreed. The best way to keep your blood pressure steady on FB is to delete and block those things and people you find truly objectionable. Politics, language, religion, whatever. People seem to forget that FB is a public forum and that posting on it is equivalent to standing on a busy street corner shouting that stuff to all who pass by. If it’s something you wouldn’t say to a newspaper or broadcast media for attribution, don’t say it online.
Judy –
Studies show a positive attitude adds years to your life – or at least
makes it pleasant to be around.
Perfection is a goal never to be achieved. “Perfection is the enemy of good enough”
Trucker
Back when I was in Basic Training at Christmas leave one of the fellows in the company went home
and at dinner (forgetting where he was) asked “pass the @%6^ing potatoes” his father
slapped him and gave him a lecture. (Times have changed)
“As a kid I used to watch The Wizard Of Oz and wonder how someone could talk if they didn’t have a brain.
Then I saw Facebook.”
Good ones, OB.
Good one, OB! [the last one] I may need to relay that to others who’d like it.
Jimmy:
In regard to Janis being like us…
Every generation thinks it was the first one to discover fooling around without benefit of clergy.
Your comment reminds me of an episode of “Are You Being Served?”. The head of the gents department is telling the two younger men how he got into trouble for getting a woman into the club in his 20’s. The modern swinger looked at him and asked “What club?”. Mr. Granger looks at him and replies”The pudding club! Do you think you invented it?”. From the context I gather that was old slang for getting her pregnant.
I agree with your interpretation.
I didn’t see many episodes of that program, but I enjoyed them.
I think my favorite British drama import is “The Prisoner,” and my favorite comedy import is “Monty Python” (not much of a surprise on the comedy, is it?).
No, it isn’t. I learned about Monty Python years before I ever saw an episode of Served. Served ran 13 seasons on the BBC and the whole series is collected in a single set of DVDs. I found one on Ebay for a good price, brand new, and bought it. Our local PBS station ran an episode every Saturday night for years and that’s where I saw it first. My mom, my sister and I used to watch it together. I also love Rumpole of the Bailey, Sergeant Cribb and The Avengers.
The Avengers! I loved that show. I was fairly young when it was on, but I still couldn’t get enough of Diana Rigg.
Regarding that infamous club… https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_the_pudding_club
I should have been clearer where I was scanning Facebook for cartoons to steal. You’d have to use FB to know there are people like me who post jokes for others to read/share/copy and run pages like this one with thousands of Followers. Counting my three active Pages I have around 14,000 followers who can read the pages. Not giant but a few.
My complaint was that while on some of the Southern Lady Humor category pages I ran into stuff that offended me (I am hard to offend) and made me realize Southern women were no longer my Granny, my Mama or even me.
I know how to control my friends, it’s obvious what is acceptable in the New South social strata of trendy women is more like what I used to hear in the smoking and drinking club room of my finishing school back in the 1960s.
So much for manners. Although my cousins said I cursed creatively as a younger woman. Now no creativity at all shown.
Re 9-30-19 real-time cartoon: If one is concerned about always knowing the whereabouts of one’s coffee mug, I suppose one could always wash one’s own coffee mug, couldn’t one?
And September is almost over? Really?
Last Thursday my wife and I went to the Great Basin NP astronomy festival. The skies were the best I’ve ever seen on Thursday and Friday. But Saturday late afternoon and evening we had a series of small but intense thunderstorms with strong winds that kept us indoors.
The “seeing” was excellent, and some of the telescopes that others brought were HUGE! The biggest had a 24” primary mirror, was mounted on its own trailer, and to use it you climbed a ladder. My little 4” scopes were good for demonstrating what you can see without taking out a second mortgage: our neighboring planets, our moon, and the larger, brighter deep sky objects like the Pleiades. Had we staked out a spot on the other side of the roadway we’d also have been able to show how to “split a binary” but there was a tree on our side between us and our favorite doubles. The big scopes allowed us to (a) see the dimmer objects far better than we ever had and (b) fantasize what we’d buy if we had a few thousand bucks to play around with.
We stayed in a motel in Baker that had to have been built in the 50s or 60s. Faux wood paneling and the general outside appearance and design told us that. Then there’s the problem that the whole town has limited wi-fi capability with the local servers being unable to access the internet when too many of the visitors log in at once.
We had to contend with some insects, especially moths. On Thursday evening I made the mistake of leaving the outside light on. And my car needed a thorough cleaning just from making the 5-mile drive back down from Baker those 2 nights. It looked like it had been in a moth storm!
Jesse Norman, soprano, is dead at 74. Actually, this is not too far from torch singing.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jesse+norman+opera+videos&view=detail&mid=653858A3475850044A2B653858A3475850044A2B&FORM=VIRE
RIP