Aug 28th 2008 07:02 am Oh, look, there they are now

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I see someone has dug into the trunk and found the old map services project, “Around the World with Arlo and Janis.”  That was fun. If you don’t know, you can visit a map of the world and leave a push pin at your location. Or the location of your favorite beach. Don’t be intimidated at first glance by what looks like a multi-colored wad of pins. Simply zoom in using the slide control on the left, and things quickly become much clearer. I think you double click to leave a new pin, along with comments, but I’m not sure. It’s been so long!

(Note: there appears to have been some problem placing pins on the google map. I think it’s repaired now. Try again!)

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

35 Responses to “Oh, look, there they are now”

  1. f on 28 Aug 2008 at 7:32 am #

    It never stops, you know. I was visiting my mother earlier this month, and I went out for a hike one day. It took longer than I thought and I got back after dark. She reacted the same way, and I’m 47.

  2. Keith on 28 Aug 2008 at 7:50 am #

    I have tried about six times to put my pin on the map and it just won’t save it! Google hates me! I do love Arlo And Janis, though.

  3. Jon from Wisconsin on 28 Aug 2008 at 7:54 am #

    The most beautiful beach is Boracay Island in the Philippines but I couldn’t get the pin to stick there. You can check it out on Google maps complete with pictures.

  4. billinbossier on 28 Aug 2008 at 8:55 am #

    I checked out the map, and found that I am still the only one in NW La. We have just GOT to get A&J in the Shreveport Times.

  5. Jean from Dahlonega GA on 28 Aug 2008 at 9:34 am #

    JJ, on today’s strip, is Janis wondering if Mary Lou meant “assumed”? I also wonder why Mary Lou thought Gene’s parents would be okay with his decision to quit college.

    Curmudgeonly Professor-hope you’re on you feet and doing well. As to your question, it’s dah-LON-e-ga. Dahlonega was the site of the first great gold rush, sometimes in the late 1700′s to early 1800′s. More gold was taken out of our mountains than in California and Alaska, they just got better pr.

    Off to Munich, but I will be reading!

  6. harleyquinn on 28 Aug 2008 at 9:59 am #

    There doesn’t seem to be a way to add new pushpins. Oh well. Least I see I’m not the only Rochestarian (I’m the 2nd!)

  7. Steve from Royal Oak on 28 Aug 2008 at 10:11 am #

    I have to admit that I have overreacted when someone does not arrive home when I expect them. When my kids started driving, I would remind them that because my mother died in an auto accident, I unfortunately assume the worse. They were pretty good about using the cell phone to let me know that they were running late.

    Whenever I do not get a phone call and am waiting, I will pray and ask God to ease my anxiety and then I remind myself that 99.999% of the time everything turns out OK. Still it’s that .0001% that gets me upset.

    I hope that everyone can put their pin on the Map. I really enjoyed looking at it last year when Jimmy asked us to do it. I have to admit that I stuck my pin in 3 places. First was in Japan as I was visiting at the time, West Lafayette as I went to Purdue and in Royal Oak. My picture in Royal Oak is me with Mt. Fugi in the background. No Mt. Fugi is not near Royal Oak!

  8. sarah in oregon on 28 Aug 2008 at 10:29 am #

    I tried double clicking (more than once), I looked at the message board for help but to no avail. I know it works for some because they just added their pin to the map today. ah well, maybe there is some kind of technical reason that someone with technical skills can share with us if they know.

    meanwhile, I am pretty sure you know what state I’m in….

    confusion. Or maybe flux. ;-)

  9. Ed in S.A. on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:02 am #

    Jean,

    I think “inferred” is correct. This shows us that Gene had something to do with Mary Lou thinking that A&J would be okay with the decision. In other words, she “inferred” this because Gene “implied” it.

    Have fun in Munich!

  10. Mark in Boston on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:09 am #

    “Inferred” is correct; you infer something from other information. Mary Lou says “From what he said, I inferred…”. Contrast with “He didn’t say anything, so I just assumed…”

  11. Bruce in the O.C. on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:16 am #

    Regarding the current series, having had three boys pass thru this phase of life and myself having experienced the attendant weakening of parental control, I am looking forward daily to the continuing developments. Sometimes the paths laid out by parents just aren’t the ones that we are destined for. Us men can consider ourselves lucky to be raised by good parents and then find the love of a good woman to guide us after we leave the nest.

  12. Greg from Robertsdale on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:25 am #

    Hmmmm. I wonder. Which inferrence does she mean? The surmising or the hinting?

    Love the first two panels in the retro!! So suave and debonaire. Or as we pronounced it in our family when it was tried unsuccessfully to be so, swave and deboner.

    I get a real kick out of kids that seem to think other kids really think they’re as independent as they wish they were. I used to tell a couple of mine that “I know we’re holding you back. You really should go forth and not worry about us.” But, self-sacrificers that they were, they hung around and carried us a little longer anyway.

  13. neko in San Jose on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:29 am #

    Has Gene or Mary Lou said anything about his quitting college? Perhaps he will work at the restaurant during the summers and they’ll both attend college the rest of the year. Poor Gene can’t get a word in edgewise. I’m impressed that Mary Lou’s grammar is so good that she uses the word, “infer” properly — many people misuse it to mean “imply.” This shows either maturity or education or both, plus she knows something about “MEN!.”

  14. Stephanie from Ogden, UT on 28 Aug 2008 at 11:42 am #

    Long time reader, first time blogger. I get my fix from comics.com as the local paper has not seen the light yet.
    To Jean in ‘dah-LON-e-ga’ I “assumed” Janis was considering the choice of the word “inferred”, maybe a little shocked (impressed) by ML’s usage. Realization that she has possibly underestimated MaryLou… the troubled girl, the unwed mother has grown up and is doing well.

  15. Chris from Boston on 28 Aug 2008 at 12:10 pm #

    Regarding, “inferred” – I think Janis might just have been caught off guard by “little” Mary Lou’s using a three-dollar word on her. Either that, or she’s trying to imagine what Gene could have told her.

  16. t in pittsburgh on 28 Aug 2008 at 2:19 pm #

    I think neko is on the right track — My two cents on today’s strip: I think Janis is surprised and/or impressed that Mary Lou is using a high-falutin word and using it correctly.

  17. Thom From Cape Coral on 28 Aug 2008 at 2:22 pm #

    I took it (the great ‘Inferred’ controversy) as Janis coming to the realization that perhaps Gene is not the innocent she assumed and Mary Lou is not completely to blame for the (assumed) change in career paths.

    If this is the intent then my hat’s off to Jimmy for the foreshadowing in today’s vintage A&J. Either way great series.
    thom

  18. Sili on 28 Aug 2008 at 2:35 pm #

    I thought she picked up on the word-use too (and perhaps Janis is a prescriptivist.

    But I like the analysis that shifts the blame to Gene. Still on the edge of my seat (not only because that’s all the room Dummkatz leaves me).

  19. Jack on 28 Aug 2008 at 3:18 pm #

    I tried multiple double-clicks and still no pin. What am I doing wrong.

    Auburn is slated to win the SEC West. Why not take the SEC?

  20. Burns on 28 Aug 2008 at 3:30 pm #

    I think inferred is correct as stated above, but what no one is commenting on is what Janis is thinking. I think she is saying to herself “Hmmm, I assumed she was a , but she knows the word inferred and is even using it correctly…”

  21. Tom on 28 Aug 2008 at 3:57 pm #

    I’ll go along with Stepanie’s interpretation. I took it to mean that Janis
    was impressed with the proper usage of an obscure term.

  22. Floyd in Nashville on 28 Aug 2008 at 4:18 pm #

    Jean:

    I think Janis is simply surprised that any of Gene’s friends would know the word “inferred”, much less use it properly. :)

  23. Mary in Ohio on 28 Aug 2008 at 4:20 pm #

    Stephanie, I have the same interpretation as you do – once in my early years of teaching we were having a vocab. lesson and one of the sixth graders said, “But doesn’t that (use of the word) only pertain to…” That correct use of “pertain” really impressed me. Kids love big words anyway, but this was used both correctly and unselfconsciously. Of course, kids who read a lot often know the meaning and use of a word but can’t pronounce it. One extremely gifted student once expounded on “The Greek “dities.” Before I could explain that what they were wearing was more like a toga, I realized she meant “deities.” Just another time when a poker face came in handy.

  24. Anonymous on 28 Aug 2008 at 5:11 pm #

    I didn’t understand today’s comic (which is fine, I enjoy leaving it open for interpretation as much as I enjoy “getting” it), but Stephanie from Ogden has the same idea I do. That Janis is taken aback and (maybe) impressed by “infer.” I think jumping to the conclusion that “the troubled girl…has grown up and is doing well” from the use of one unexpected word is a stretch though.

    If my current interpretation is right, then I didn’t understand at first because I didn’t catch “infer” as an uncommon word. But hey, how else can you convey complex social nuance and emotion while moving a story along and making people laugh in just a few panels?

  25. Jamison on 28 Aug 2008 at 5:12 pm #

    I didn’t understand today’s comic (which is fine, I enjoy leaving it open for interpretation as much as I enjoy “getting” it), but Stephanie from Ogden has the same idea I do. That Janis is taken aback and (maybe) impressed by “infer.” I think jumping to the conclusion that “the troubled girl…has grown up and is doing well” from the use of one unexpected word is a stretch though.

    If my current interpretation is right, then I didn’t understand at first because I didn’t catch “infer” as an uncommon word. But hey, how else can you convey complex social nuance and emotion while moving a story along and making people laugh in just a few panels?

  26. Phil in Sugar Land, TX on 28 Aug 2008 at 6:19 pm #

    I was thinking the same thoughts as Stephanie in Ogden but she expresses it better than I could have.

    The call to Janis was to sway her opinion (otherwise why would Jimmy go off on a side-track?) and this is the crack in firewall.

    I still can’t guess where this is going.

    Lot’s of kids do well without finishing college, the prime example being Bill Gates. Conversely, lots of kids to college, graduate with honors and work in a department store. Gene could end up running a hotel on a beach and Arlo would be sick with envy.

    On a sidenote, I thought working as carpenters in the Louisiana summers would cure my boys of the desire to avoid an education, but it didn’t work. They just moved to cooler climes.

  27. Ken from Framingham (Boston Globe reader) on 28 Aug 2008 at 7:22 pm #

    RE: “Around the World with Arlo and Janis.”

    I forgot that I was somehow able to get a photo of myself and TV Cowboy Rex Trailer on my ‘jart’– one of the few white pointers in Massachusetts. Anyone remember Rex? He was showing my how to pretend to play the guitar. A great guy.

  28. Brad from MI on 28 Aug 2008 at 7:42 pm #

    I think I remember Mary Lou or Gene referring to “JC” when describing all of the various things going on in her life, which I assume means she attended/is attending Junior College. Perhaps Gene intends to do the same.

  29. Kate on 28 Aug 2008 at 9:36 pm #

    I so understand now that my son is 14. I worry but know he’s a good kid and can take care of himself (just worry about the rest of the people).. Tried to put a pin in LONG BEACH Indiana (which is by Lake Michigan and the michigan boarder but didn’t have any luck :( There is a group of us that gather for coffee in the morning and read the comics (yes we may need a life)

  30. Manuela on 29 Aug 2008 at 4:27 am #

    I am able to place my marker on other maps, but not on yours :(

  31. Walter E. Wallis on 29 Aug 2008 at 4:46 am #

    Think how it was for the parent before cell phones. I always insisted my daughters carry a dime for the pay phone, but I worried a lot. Now, if I drive away without my stupid iPhone I will turn around to get it.

  32. catshoes from Quincy (IL not MA) on 29 Aug 2008 at 9:25 am #

    I have tried and failed to put a pin on the map also and am somewhat relieved that I am not the only one. I had hoped that someone would have been able to enlighten us as to what we may be doing wrong. I also noticed no one stated “I did it!”

  33. Jim in SE Mississippi on 29 Aug 2008 at 5:54 pm #

    Another great nostalgic one…apparently, Gene was never told, as I was as a lad, to “Be in by the time the street lights come on.”

  34. sarah from oregon on 30 Aug 2008 at 3:18 pm #

    Manuela, I am having the same bad luck. I thought the first time that maybe it’s some popup filter for the network at my job, but at home, I am still not able to leave a marker.

    it’s a cool map to look at though. and it explains how JJ knows so much about all of us. He IS looking through our windows — via Google Earth. ;-)

    =^..^=

  35. Di on 01 Sep 2008 at 1:25 am #

    Wow! It’s great to “meet” so many Arlo & Janis (and Ludwig) fans. I’m a newbie so I’ve enjoyed catching up thru the archives.

    I tried to add my pushpin to the map, no luck. When I double click to place the pin, the map just zooms in another notch. I noticed from the message board that four people were able to add theirs on August 28th. Could someone please guide me thru the process?

    Hope the Curmudgeonly professor is doing well w/his knee replacement surgery. My husband just had one knee replaced and is doing very well. Do keep doing your physical therapy faithfully and take your pain meds as prescribed. Good luck!

    Thanks JJ for the retro strips and the chance to comment. Keep up the great work!