Welcome to what I’m calling “Thursday,” for lack of anything better. I’ve told you this before, but it has been a while. I think one of the best comic strips ever was “Polly and Her Pals,” by Cliff Sterrett. It began in 1912, and ran throughout the golden age of newspaper comics. Admittedly, it wasn’t always the funniest or most subtle of strips, but it should be noted that subtly was not a hallmark of the era. It was, however, one of the most graphically arresting, inventive and funnily drawn comic strips ever. The strip began life as a “pretty-girl” strip, featuring young Polly Perkins. Pretty-girl strips were a recognized and common genre of comic strips from the birth of comics through the 1960s. If you’ve ever seen early examples of Sterrett’s strips you would agree that some of Polly’s diaphanous fashions were graphically arresting indeed. However, her father Paw and his cat Kitty eventually took over the strip, as comic sidekicks are wont to do. I mention all this, and show you the above example, because I like to think of Arlo’s relationship with Ludwig as homage to the relationship of Paw and Kitty. Long after the advent of Ludwig, my Karmic reward was my cat “Boot,” who actually follows me all around the house and yard, as silent and as faithful as Kitty.
Paw and Kitty
By Jimmy Johnson
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123 responses to “Paw and Kitty”
Looks quite a bit like Krazy Kat
Looks to me as though Ludwig might be descended from Kitty
Brother Jimmy, props for “diaphanous.” This is a word that should be used more in general parlance and in women’s fashion in particular.
I realized early on that Ludwig’s ears were a mini-homage to Krazy Kat, but did not realize that such ears were the cat’s pajamas Back In The Day, as your illustration above discloses. I think you have hit a good balance lately with more “realistic” ears appearing at certain angles with Ludwig. It is my belief that cartoonists in the future will be doing homages to Arlo and Janis, so do your own thing and set your own style and they will come.
P S –May Olden Kitty Ludwig live a thousand years. Don’t go all Farley on us!
In today’s Writer’s Almanac there were two good ones from Frank Muir:
“Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it.”
“Wit is a weapon. Jokes are a masculine way of inflicting superiority. But humor is the pursuit of a gentle grin, usually in solitude.”
http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20150205/
No OF predictions until they decide they can make one. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Wowser! From Weird Wednesday to Wayback Thursday.
OF due NOW.
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Crummiest eruption I’ve seen. Herd of a dozen or so bison moving through. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
emb – have you ever been to OF to see in real life?
Oddly, the word “diaphanous” seems to have fallen as far out of common, everyday usage as the word “diaphragm”. But I like “diaphanous” and the similarly evocative “see-through”, “sheer”, “gossamer” and “filmy”.
Jackie, your comment about visiting your Johns almost caused me to get choked on my mid-morning cup of chai. I thought, “What was the purpose of that trip again!?” Then I read the remainder of the paragraph. Have fun but not that much fun. 😉
Jean dear, glad to hear it was “just” a cold and that you are better.
sand, thanks for the FA link; good read. I always enjoy learning about our unsung military heroes. Also, I never really thought about what unified Germany did with the GDR military equipment they inherited.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgoapkOo4vg?rel=0#77 NOW.
Never saw “Polly and Her Pals” before – thanks for sharing, JJ!
Good, sustained eruption, beginning right at the end of the 1618-1638 window. Next prediction may show up within a half hour or so, unless for some reason they cannot make one. Peace, emb
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgoapkOo4vg?rel=0#77
Mary:
We, incl. 3 kids [1, 4, and 6] were there in early Aug. ’62, waited over an hour, left. Probably erupted in 10-15 min. but we were on our way east. One biol. high point of the trip: I obtained a pika [speelczech doesn’t recognize ‘pika’] for the college mammal collection that afternoon in the Beartooth [?] Mts. east of YNP. Nimrod, the mighty hunter!
Didn’t know whether we were in WI or MT at the time, but figured it out from maps later, and don’t remember now. It’s in the college collection catalog and on the specimen label. Nimrod, the mighty hunter!
So I’ve never seen it except via NPS’s excellent website, and no longer travel as easily as I once did. Most of the over 7 billion of us never get more than 100 km from home, and many that do are refugees. Cannot complain.
If there is a hereafter, maybe I’ll do Victoria Falls, the top of Kilimanjaro, and the earliest mammals, back in the Permo-Triassic. Lord knows [literally] how many places/cultures/geologic ages wife has checked out by now. There are also what I expect are millions of other habitable planets to visit. Won’t matter if their atmosphere are breathable or not.
Peace, emb
GR6:
‘Diaphragm’ isn’t used as much / birth control [that’s how we planned and conceived our 3 kids, all now over 50] but it’s widely used / mammalian anatomy, and in various sorts of machines and tech appliances, I think.
According to some theologies, but not ours, wife and I lived in sin all our lives. I’m not worried, and I expect she’s fine.
Peace, emb
The Wikipedia article on Polly and her Pals has two examples of Sunday strips. The top one is mostly at a beach. I find it interesting that the ladies are in bathing suits (one of them two piece) and the gentlemen are fully dressed. Kitty is also there and in some panels is walking on two legs, in some on all four. Well, at least he didn’t treat the beach as a giant sandbox, as Garfield once did to a sand trap.
sideburns, try this site: http://www.toonopedia.com/pollypal.htm
Yes, emb, the “birth control” meaning is the one I referenced.
Across religions and sects, “sin” can be an elusive and sometimes even a transient precept. (Something I pondered as I enjoyed my bacon with eggs from a non-kosher chicken this morning.) Following Vatican II, when US Catholic bishops came home and revoked the “no meat on Friday”, there was a cartoon in The New Yorker showing an assistant devil in Hell asking his boss: “What do we do with all the guys who ate meat on Friday?”
(Two years ago, the archbishop of New Orleans assured one of his conscientious parishioners that alligator is permissible to eat on Fridays of Lent, an opinion which has been confirmed the national bishops’ conference.)
The only time as yet that I have tried alligator was at the Pro Bass place off of I-10 in LA (lower Alabama). Unfortunately it had so much hot pepper added to it as to render it inedible.
When tire irons and hips are banned, only criminals will have tire irons and hips…
http://www.startribune.com/local/290850451.html
I suppose the mom’s hips weren’t large enough for her to be charged with “assault with a deadly weapon”.
We used to have a seafood restaurant that had a couple of creative ways of preparing alligator – gator Francese (substitute tail meat pounded thin for chicken in the standard recipe) and “barbecued” gator ribs.
Once again, I need that Edit feature. Meant to add that both dishes were quite tasty and we still miss that place 20 years later.
GR6 and eMb: diaphragm is in pretty common usage among singers and teachers thereof when talking about proper breathing. I had a lesson this afternoon and was chastised a bit for doing clavicular instead of diaphragmatic breathing.
I remember buying alligator once for wife to cook, but don’t remember the results. It was available that one time, frozen, at one of our supermkts. Be happy to try it again. Don’t send recipes now; I’ll post a request if I find it. We’ve eaten locally caught snapping turtle. Not bad.
Buying task now is 64 oz. Gatorade, clear fruit juice [probably apple], lime and lemon Jello [dumb speelczech] for a ‘confined to barracks’ day in prep for that colostomy. Already have the generic meds.
BTW, one of you was concerned / the wisdom of having one. 1. I have faith [based on track records] of both the GP and surgeon involved, and 2. there are NO early external signs of colon CA. By the time it gives trouble, it has usually metastasized. I’m 85. If I make it to 95, we’ll see if my overall health justifies another every-10-yr look.
Peace, emb