Apr 19th 2012 07:41 am Presumed guilty
I see I was right. Food really gets the discussion going around here, but that’s a good thing. I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I do want to set one thing straight: I now eat chicken pot pie, although I didn’t want it as a kid. However, it’s not my favorite thing still. As for the early days of the chain restaurant, my high school buddies and I would drive 45 miles over bad roads to Columbus, Georgia, to eat at the Taco Bell. Top that.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
100 Responses to “Presumed guilty”
David in Austin on 19 Apr 2012 at 7:57 am #
We used to eat the frozen chicken pot pies at least once a week. Of course, that was back when they were 15 cents and had both a top and bottom crust. It seems like they had more vegetables and meat filling, too. The current inexpensive pot pies are single crust and mostly filled with gravy… such a disappointment. I still like pot pies, but the good ones (like Marie Calendar’s) are expensive and PACKED with calories. One pie is a day’s calorie allotment!We also enjoyed a box of Macaroni and cheese at least once a week.I think that may have been because they, like the pot pies, were both convenient and cheap.
John in Virginia on 19 Apr 2012 at 7:57 am #
Gotcha, Jimmy! I had to drive from Knoxville, Tennessee to New Orleans, Lousy Anna before I even found a Taco Bell!
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:16 am #
We had a Taco Bell at Purdue and I remember that they had a “taco burger”. Since I had never eaten Mexican food, that was the safe choice. My roommate told me to try the bean burrito and the next thing I know I was trying tacos too.
We also had ground rounds where we could get cheap beer and peanuts. Often filled up on that before we could eat dinner. We could eat a lot more back then. Now I look at food and gain a pound.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:22 am #
Ron: That newly hatched Kea parrot at http://bit.ly/Iiyu7t is one ugly bird. I actually visited a vulture nest several times in ’56 or ’57. The two young, however, were probably about a month old, so I don’t know how they looked newly hatched. These were pretty fully feathered and about as ugly as vulture adults. I think their heads were not yet red. The nest was at the bottom of a hollow tree: A large limb had broken but was still attached. Too bad I cannot draw a diagram here. The tree was on a steep hillside in southern MI, and, when the limb cracked, it came to rest upslope, making a stable walkway enabling me to look down into the hole. The young greeted me at least a couple of times with the standard vulture response to a threat; they threw up. I took a couple of flash pictures; lord knows where they are now.
Craig T on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:45 am #
But there was a Shoney’s Big Boy Drive-In in Columbus, with speakers and window trays!
I think there was also an early McDonald’s near there.
I had a great aunt in Columbus who lived on Buena Vista near the Piggly Wiggly. She had a pecan tree in her yard. I learned at an early age that getting a pecan out of its husk and shell and away from the orange bitter parts was more effort than it was worth.
Crab from Grapeland on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:45 am #
I can’t.
phil in Missoula, MT on 19 Apr 2012 at 9:23 am #
TruckerRon:
How ’bout this ride?
http://www.gizmag.com/innotruck-diesel-reloaded-ev/22206/
Not particularly practical but aerodynamic as all get out. It says it is an electic vehicle but I can’t see that it would have much range without a turbine generator on board
Debbie in Alabama on 19 Apr 2012 at 9:40 am #
There was an early McDonalds in Columbus out close to where Columbus Square was located. Now the mall is gone and the Columbus Public Library Main Branch is there. It’s a beautiful building inside and out.
billinbossier on 19 Apr 2012 at 9:40 am #
These days I pass by three Taco Bells, just to go to that REAL Mexican Resturant over across the river. In my younger days, in Texas, we didn’t have Taco Bell, but everybody went to the Dairy Queen.
Ruth on 19 Apr 2012 at 9:45 am #
When we have left over roast beef or chicken, my husband will make semi-homemade pasties (individual hand-held meat pies) or a pot pie. He uses a refrigerated pie crust, puts in the diced meat and the veggies we want. He adds no gravy to the pasties and very little in the pie as the veggies will produce enough moisture on their own and soggy crusts are a definite no-no for the pasties. They are time consuming to make so he does this either on the weekend or the night before so we reheat it/them. It’s a nice alternative when you get sick of regular leftovers or you know the next day or two are going to be too hectic to cook full meals.
Robb on 19 Apr 2012 at 10:03 am #
I loved chicken pot pies when young and still do until I read the little box score with the sodium and fat, calories, etc. So I have added them to my list of no-no’s.
Trish in Andover MA on 19 Apr 2012 at 10:19 am #
My husband (he of the pizza box slung under the arm) and his high school buddies used to drive all over the Cleveland area, going to a McDonalds, ordering burgers, and then stealing all their straws. The highlight of their McDonalds adventures was when they hit 3 McDonalds in one night.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 19 Apr 2012 at 10:25 am #
Today’s strip is another classic A&J.
John in Virginia on 19 Apr 2012 at 11:06 am #
Pasties?
Get the behind me, O filthy mind!
Mindy on 19 Apr 2012 at 11:25 am #
McDonald’s, Wendy’s, pizza and tacos…I see nothing has changed in my absence, which is a relief. And, of course, John with his pasties. Oh, my.
Mindy on 19 Apr 2012 at 11:26 am #
But no one mentioned fried eggs, over easy but with solid whites and runny yolks!
John in Richmond Texas on 19 Apr 2012 at 11:27 am #
When Taco Bells started showing up around Houston en masse, I remember the phonetic pronunciations of the menu items spelled out on the menu board, I still wonder if that was meant as a joke? ( tah-co) (buh-ree-to) and they had cool signs shaped like a swinging bell, not the plain rectangle with a picture of a bell today. but Jack in the Box was always my favorite. I liked the way the Bonus Jacks had a ring of cardboard around them and oddly the Houton area or all of south Texas was the last part of the country to get McDonalds. There were even commercials acknowledging how we saw national ads on TV before we had any to go to, but since they were the johnny come lately, I never warmed up to them. Chik-Fil-A and sometimes Sonic are about it for fast food for us now. But we love Sweet Tomatoes, the salad, soup, etc buffet place. It’s called Souplantation in California, other than that, I don’t know how much of the country they’re in
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 19 Apr 2012 at 11:54 am #
Mindy, I hope that you look back over the past few days over the posts in your absence. We really did miss you.
Michael in Pleasanton, CA on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:19 pm #
Steve from Royal Oak…
So, the “taco burger” is the gateway food? Will dieticians start a campaign to Just Say No to taco burgers?
I can just see it now… taco burger clubs start cropping up all over California, where they’re hailed for their medicinal qualities. A disproportionate number of them will appear in Berkeley.
Of course, then we’ll have people like billinbossier crossing borders to get their food…
sandcastler on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:30 pm #
Welcome home Mindy. Knew you would be back, cookies and milk were gone each morning.
Never saw Taco Bell until latter in life, we had Taco Tico. You know you’re in a great Mexican resturant when the beer posters and jukebox are all in Spanish. Not to mention goat is a meat choice.
TruckerRon on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:38 pm #
MarkinTTown: Jerry in Fl: That must have been Shakey’s. They all followed the same format. I even found one in Yokosuka, Japan when I was there in 1976-1977. That is where i encountered the squid pizza myself. It was on the buffet and not labeled, thought it was mushrooms.
On my way to my first missionary assignment in Japan in 1976, I saw that there was a Shakey’s just a few blocks from the mission office. When I was later assigned in 1977 to work in the office, I discovered that the office staff was taking credit for driving that Shakey’s out of business. Never run an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet close to an office full of 19 to 21 year-old guys!
OTOH, I loved stopping at the “tako” stands with the deep-fried, dough covered squid balls. The other missionaries were divided over whether squid was a food.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:40 pm #
Michael: I am afraid that you are right. However revenge is sweet. Now when I eat at Taco Bell, I spend the next several hours in my private reading room. My tummy and the rest of my digestive system tell me “Just Say No!”
I forgot about the Mexican place that I went to when I was about 20 years old. We ordered a couple of beers, even though the legal age was 21. He pulled out a dollar and showed me a picture of George Washington and said “This is your ID” That was 35 years ago….Times have changed.
TruckerRon on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:52 pm #
phil in Missoula, MT:
That is a pretty truck, but like the high-concept autos you see at car shows, it’s got some features that will make it a hard sell. The most obvious one is having you floating out in front of the trailer while the drive unit pivots under you — that would take some real mental adjustments! Having the solo driver seat means when your kids or team driver are with you they won’t have an unobstructed view of where you’re heading.
And I have to wonder just how much the vehicle weighs with a battery that can power a typical load over the Rockies? The gross weight has to be under 80,000 pounds for a standard size rig (5 axles) — and the loads I carried were at 45,000, meaning the truck and empty trailer can’t weigh over 35,000 for it to compete with the current trucks.
Jerry in Fl on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:54 pm #
Don’t stop the food discussion, but exactly what is Janis wearing/not wearing in today’s strip? I realize that it is supposed to be years ago, 60′s or 70′s?
TruckerRon on 19 Apr 2012 at 12:59 pm #
emeritus Minnesota biologist: I almost ran off the road the one time I saw some sort of vulture in the Mohave desert. It was flying alongside the road and looked so much like the cartoon versions that I started laughing. Any idea which bird that was, oh expert of biology?
TruckerRon on 19 Apr 2012 at 1:02 pm #
David in Austin: Do you have the Banquet brand of frozen meals in your area? Their inexpensive little pot pies have both top & bottom crusts… they’re very much like what I remember eating as a kid in the early 60s. Like Robb pointed out, pot pies typically have way too much sodium for impaired heart people like me.
sideburns on 19 Apr 2012 at 1:10 pm #
Back in the ’40s, I’m told, my father worked swing shift at Lockheed, in Burbank and my folks lived down in the LA basin. Many nights, he’d drive home (no freeways) and pick up Mom. Then, they’d go all the way back to Burbank for a late dinner at Bob’s Big Boy. I don’t know how far it was, as I don’t know just where they lived, but it was a long trip just for a double-decker cheeseburger and fries.
phil in Missoula, MT on 19 Apr 2012 at 1:28 pm #
TruckerRon;
I’ll bet the cab would be pretty warm with all that glass going down I-15 for Las Vegas. The drive by wire has no steering wheel, which would be a huge adjustment. The other thing that struck we was that the cab is attached to the cargo, so you can’t drop the trailer and take off on the next job.
Mindy from Indy on 19 Apr 2012 at 1:51 pm #
Yay! The other Mindy is back! Now I can chime in without feeling like I’m pulling a bait and switch.
About chain places, our tiny town had none (today Subway replaces the failed Taco Bell in the gas station.) and that first gas station Taco Bell experience came as a junior in high school. Most of the rest came later. Still have never had Jack-In-The-Box, Chic-fil-a, or In -n- Out.
We did the pizza mix thing too. Hated the dough mix – always had to add flour just to get the crap off your hands and the sides of the bowl and on to the pizza pan.
The best local pizza (as a kid) came from the local liquor carry-out. As I got older, I discovered the best place to find good pizza is in a big college town. When I was at Eastern Michigan, all the pizza places would periodically have a “taste-off.” Tent after tent of free pizza and “polling stations” for voting for the best.
Mindy from Indy on 19 Apr 2012 at 1:56 pm #
P.S. Re: long drive for a meal. My grandparents, aunt, and I once drove from Fort Wayne to Toledo just to try Tony Pacos(sp?) hot dogs. They loved Jamie Farr’s Klinger and wanted to see if the hot dogs were as good as he claimed. My only real memory of the place is looking at the hundreds of autographed hot dog buns (shellacked and under glass) hanging from the walls.
CW in 617 on 19 Apr 2012 at 2:18 pm #
Jerry in Fl:
Do you mean today’s real-time strip? If so, and that’s Janis, I am crestfallen in more ways than one. With that hair for a new style for Janis, would Arlo only have noticed the dress/nondress?
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 19 Apr 2012 at 2:21 pm #
Both turkey vultures and black vultures occur in that area. Adult turkey vultures have red heads, black vultures have much shorter tails, etc., but driving along one seldom gets to check out field marks and survive.
“oh expert of biology” indeed! Biology is too diverse a field for any one of us to be an expert in very much of it.
Charlotte in NH on 19 Apr 2012 at 2:54 pm #
One of our daughters, in fact one of the twins I wrote about the other day, occasionally visits Chicago. It seems there is a large Hispanic population in the neighborhood she goes to, with many authentic taquerias, and she always visits them for a yummy, and vegetarian, meal. It sounds so good when she tells us stay-at-homes about them ! I wished I could see one. Well, on her most recent visit, she took a picture with her iPhone, a good view of her taco and stuff that goes with it, with the counter and menu board in the background — and put it on FaceBook. I was delighted to see it !
Charlotte in NH on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:04 pm #
Fellow Fans, I don’t believe that woman in today’s strip is Janis ! She is just some random woman that Arlo happens to meet walking along the sidewalk. But I don’t get the joke, something Einstein said. Can anyone clue me in?
Mary in Ohio on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:16 pm #
I think the woman Arlo sees is wearing the same fashions and hair style that Janis was wearing in the 60′s/70′s when she first caught Arlo’s eye. That was my guess early this morning and it still makes sense.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:22 pm #
Charlotte is right, it is not Janis. It is also not Einstein, but T.S. Elliot. But that’s cool, Einstein gets credit for a lot of things.
I believe that the joke was that Arlo noticed a girl that could have come directly from his youth.
Jerry in Fl on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:23 pm #
The strip was also drawn in a slightly different look and I took it from Arlo’s line that it was some sort of flashback, like a dream. Maybe I made too much out of it and it was just someone who looked like Janis when she first met Arlo. Wouldn’t that make a great series, to see what the relationship was like when they first met? Meanwhile, back to vultures and pizza. Yummy.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:36 pm #
Jerry in FL-
Unfortunately for your theory, Janis didn’t look like that we they first met- remember the original mop hairdo?
Steve, et al-
That was my take on the comic, too, although you can also have fun with it and read it to mean Arlo did indeed circle back to the beginning.
BTW, I’ve found that I’ve aged, I find the range of ages of women I find attractive still about +/- 10 years of my age. I work on a college campus, and I actually find the even idea of checking out coeds kind of creepy- probably due in large part to the fact that are literally old enough to be by daughter.
MarkinTTown on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:45 pm #
Phil in Missoula MT and TruckerRon: I notice that it is a European design and a prototype. I have no idea what the road regs for a semi are over there. But they do have plenty of mountains and tunnels. Any idea if they do the kind of trailer-swapping that is common here in the States? I’ve always wondered why no truck maker tried to come up with a diesel-electric rig with motive power similar to what the railroads use. Too big for a truck, perhaps.
Anyway, you sure couldn’t bobtail home with that rig. It looks like the illegitimate offspring of a concorde and an airport tug.
Bonnie on 19 Apr 2012 at 3:46 pm #
Since we’re talking about food, we are going to Memphis on vacation in a week. Any suggestions on where to go for great barbecue? Or is it ALL great barbecue?
MarkinTTown on 19 Apr 2012 at 4:20 pm #
Bonnie, my suggestion would be to look up the local paper online, and see if they have customer ratings. It is The Commercial Appeal, I think.
MarkinTTown on 19 Apr 2012 at 4:21 pm #
Oh yeah, one other suggestion. I ran across a blog called Marie Let’s Eat. The writer is reporting on restaraunts in the Southeast so maybe he has ideas for Memphis area.
sandcastler on 19 Apr 2012 at 4:22 pm #
Bonnie,
http://commissarybbq.com/
When we lived in Memphis the Germantown Commissary was our bbq place. Follow the above link. For great burgers try Huey’s. The Dixie Cafe has to die for southern cooking. If you visit the ducks at the Peabody try breakfast with some red-eye gravy.
John in Virginia on 19 Apr 2012 at 4:47 pm #
No food discussion would be complete without mention of chili. The best I ever had was in a real dive, like a biker’s bar, between Houston and Huntsville. I don’t know to this day if it was sawdust, dirt or oh-my-God-what’s-that-stuff on the floor, the place was vile, but the chili was world class. This was pre-Iraq/Desert Storm Act I or II or III, but they listed their hottest as “WMD.” I loved it…for several days thereafter. Can’t even remember the route number except that it went past NASA or the name of the place, but I have no doubt I can find it again the next time I hit the area. The Health Department won’t have closed it down because the inspectors wouldn’t dare go in the place!
Welcome back, Mindy.
Both Mindys.
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 19 Apr 2012 at 5:52 pm #
During college, I used to work at an Italian restaurant called Grilli’s.
One evening, a foursome drove from Cincinnati to have one of our pizzas.
I gave them a free pitcher of beer.
Hope they made it back safely.
Jerry in Fl on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:00 pm #
The early strips showed Janis with longer hair but as far as I know there were no strips of them when they first met and she could have had short hair then. JJ, you have us mystifyed.
MarkinTTown on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:19 pm #
JJ did do some strips of when they first met at a party in college. I remember them but I can’t remember if Janis looked like the woman in today’s strip. I don’t think so. And I am sure that wasn’t Janis today.
MarkinTTown on 19 Apr 2012 at 8:27 pm #
Bonnie, here is the link to the Marie Let’s Eat list of Memphis restaraunts they visited.
http://marieletseat.blogspot.com/search/label/tennessee%20-%20memphis
John in Virginia on 19 Apr 2012 at 9:28 pm #
Levon Helm passed away today. We’ve lost a great in that man for sure.
Tom in Glendora, CA on 20 Apr 2012 at 12:01 am #
Jerry in Fl – MarkinTTown is right. I’ve got a link to that party strip somewhere. I’ll take
a look and see if I can find it.
Mark in Boston on 20 Apr 2012 at 12:25 am #
I just had a GREAT chicken pot pie at Poulet in the Food Court at the Prudential Center in downtown Boston. Thick top crust, thick bottom crust, and loaded with big chunks of chicken!
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 20 Apr 2012 at 5:49 am #
I fondly remember the college party strip- it had a little riff on the beginning of Gone With The Wind. I also remember how disappointed that it was only a one-week arc that never explained how Arlo and Janis first got together.
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 20 Apr 2012 at 8:12 am #
Since no one has yet explained yesterday’s strip with the Einstein quote, I’ll point out that “palepink” explained (I think) in the comments below it:
“It’s somebody else [not Janis], and she’s wearing a onesie!”
Nancy in Bucks County on 20 Apr 2012 at 8:21 am #
Are we still talking about pot pie? I make it from scratch and it is delish. Here’s a recipe if you are interested: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/classic-chicken-pot-pie.aspx
I never did like the mess of magnets on the fridge.
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 20 Apr 2012 at 8:41 am #
Our fridge is full of magnets holding up the usual shopping lists, postcards, photos, and drawings our grandkids made and our daughter scanned and emailed us, and that we then printed. How’s that for merging the old and the new?
Mindy on 20 Apr 2012 at 9:23 am #
The only thing wrong with that recipe, Nancy, is that it wasn’t printer friendly. Or the printer wasn’t Mindy friendly.
Nancy in Bucks County on 20 Apr 2012 at 9:40 am #
Sorry Mindy. Try copy and paste? BTW, it requires quite a bit of prep, but mmmmm…
Bonnie on 20 Apr 2012 at 10:00 am #
MarkinTTown and Sandcastler – Thanks for the Memphis BBQ ideas. I’ll definitely check out your suggestions. Probably my biggest problem is going to be too many places and too little time…..
sandcastler on 20 Apr 2012 at 10:47 am #
Nancy in Bucks County, a good pot pie requires some work, but the results are far superior to the store boughts. IMHO the keys are a good gravy and a home made crust. Maybe too many years in the kitchen, I build ‘em from feel and with what is on hand, thus each time is a play on basic theme.
Michael in Pleasanton, CA on 20 Apr 2012 at 11:48 am #
Had to pop in here this morning to comment on today’s (Friday) strip. There’s a small attention to detail in panel three that I love… Jimmy accurately portrayed the paper sleeves that 78 rpm records came in. Gotta love that!
Jimmy, thank you for little things like that, that bring back cherished memories (disclosure: I’m 39, but my father loved to collect old 78 RPMs).
Mindy on 20 Apr 2012 at 11:52 am #
I finally got to read today’s newspaper, such as it is, which means I finally got to read today’s comics, which means I finally got to read today’s real-world A&J, which means that I finally understand how the topic shifted to magnets on the refrigerator with Jeff’s comment. It ain’t easy being a genius.
Nancy, what I did was simply resort to ye olde English method…I used a pencil and a piece of paper. Decided I’d figure out the computer method at yet another date. Which is not to be confused with a story for yet another day.
Dave in MA on 20 Apr 2012 at 12:15 pm #
Michael in Pleasanton, CA, Glad I’m not the only one who noticed that detail.
John in Virginia on 20 Apr 2012 at 1:05 pm #
I have quite a few old LP vinyl records. I just can’t find a decent record player for them!
Bob in Orland Park on 20 Apr 2012 at 1:28 pm #
John in Virginia……
Ditto
sandcastler on 20 Apr 2012 at 1:34 pm #
John and Bob, I have a different problem. Own a really nice B&O turntable, can’t get parts.
Mindy, great to see you and your ponytail back in the room. How goes operation bamboo begone?
Bob, near Mark on 20 Apr 2012 at 1:36 pm #
JiV, and BiOP,
You can get a turntable for your vinyl records that plugs into a USB port on your computer. It will copy the vinyl tracks to files playable on your computer. I know it’s not the best solution for an audiophile, but it’s better than not being able to listen to your LPs at all.
You can find a few USB turntables on-line at Best Buy.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 20 Apr 2012 at 2:09 pm #
About ten years ago I took on the task of digitizing all of my vinyl LPs. At that time there were no USB turntables, so I had to kluge together a system: Audio output of the turntable into the audio input of the computer, capture the audio via a software program, manually split the tracks, label, clean up the pops and cracks- I spent most of my free evenings one summer completing that task. Still, it was worth as the cost of trying to recreate by eclectic collection with CDs was very cost prohibitive.
My old turntable and receiver are packed away in a closet. Perhaps my descendents will be able to convert them to cash via some future permutation of ebay.
Dave in MA on 20 Apr 2012 at 2:24 pm #
Sandcastler:
http://www.oaktreevintage.com/B&O_Bang-Olufsen_Stereo_Parts_Units.htm
or just google “bang and olufsen parts”
Mark in Boston on 20 Apr 2012 at 3:22 pm #
Plenty of turntables available! Go to needledoctor.com and find them all.
Mark in Boston on 20 Apr 2012 at 4:04 pm #
Also, the big record companies are dumping their content on the market in huge CD collections for $2 to $3 a disc. Look for “The Decca Sound”, “The RCA Living Stereo Collection” and “The Mercury Living Presence Collection”. Because of quirks in copyright law, European and Japanese record companies are also putting together gigantic boxed sets at $1 to $2 a disc. Look for the “Brilliant Classics” label.
Mindy on 20 Apr 2012 at 4:17 pm #
My ponytail is dragging, sandcastler, and Operation Bamboo [CENSORED] is still plugging forward. I am about ready to try the napalm suggestion. Or perhaps moving to Arizona or something. I understand there’s some really great oceanfront property for sale in Area 51. Cheap.
Robin in Fl on 20 Apr 2012 at 7:10 pm #
Blinky
Hats off to you. I had a devil of a time converting my sisters’ LPs to digital a couple of years ago using one of the newfangled Ion USB turntables. (One sister had not taken care of hers and we had to carefully scrub mold off the LPs). We also used Magix to clean them up–really great program. My “reward” was to have my BIL produce about 300 45s he had found in the attic!
Then I retired and was “offered” the chance to digitize a few hundred hours of family VHS, some converted from the old 8mm. Easy to convert, but it’s a whole ‘nother story to break up long videos into clips that might run 5-10 seconds–then label them, sort them, and burn onto DVDs in some semblance of order.
Jerry in Fl on 21 Apr 2012 at 12:37 am #
I wasn’t around during WWII but have you ever seen the lp’s that they played then. I think that they were about 18 in across and I don’t remember what speed they were, probably 78. I used to have a few but being a kid I probably used them for an early frisbee, the same way that we used the top off of cigar boxes.
Jerry in Fl on 21 Apr 2012 at 12:38 am #
BTW, I think that those really big lp’s were for radio only because no one had a turntable at home that was big enough.
Mindy on 21 Apr 2012 at 7:43 am #
Smug is good. I love to see smug around here and hope for more!
Mindy on 21 Apr 2012 at 7:44 am #
I meant “at my house!” I did not mean “here,” as at A&J’s place! Drat, lost my concentration for 10 seconds and left myself vulnerable. Again.
John in Virginia on 21 Apr 2012 at 9:06 am #
Sandcastler, why do I get the impression that Mindy’s ponytail wasn’t dragging nearly as much as she indicated?
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 21 Apr 2012 at 9:56 am #
Those monstrous disks, 16″ I think, were not “microgroove” LPs, which were first marketed maybe in ’49 or ’50. Also they were not the standard commercial 78 rpm records, 10″ and 12″, that were available at the time. If I understand correctly, they were what broadcasters called “transcriptions” when they announced that an upcoming program was not live but was “coming to you by transcription”. I think they ran on what looked like a standard turntable, but larger, and I think they turned at 16 rpm, which meant they could hold a lot of minutes of sound. I don’t know how they ranked for fidelity, but we settled for some pretty so-so sound back then. I saw them in operation once at the WVBR [Voice of the Big Red] studio down in the bowels of Willard Straight Hall, Cornell University’s student union. One of my dorm mates was on the staff there.
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 21 Apr 2012 at 10:31 am #
EMB: Your description made me miss my Dad as he worked at WOWO for 27 years and brought home some of those disks. Some were just bare aluminium while others had vinyl on top of the aluminum. My Dad would melt the vinyl off and use the aluminum for his home brew ham radio rigs.
During the 1960′s and 1970′s radio stations use a SoundScriber system, which was very slow tape recording (4″ thick) that would provide a copy of what was on air for legal reasons. The quality was bad, but it gave stations a copy that they could use. They often were reused, so much of the history of the radio station was lost. My guess is that the transcriptions probably lost a lot of quality compared to commercially released LPs.
LOVED today’s strip about being smug. Apropriate that it is published on a Saturday morning…if you know what I mean.
sandcastler on 21 Apr 2012 at 3:54 pm #
Smug can be a vulnerable position.
CW in 617 on 21 Apr 2012 at 8:38 pm #
I had to read today’s real-time strip twice before I got it, and I almost laughed beer through my nose. How this got through some editors is also a hoot.
It’s possible that the smile on Arlo’s face in the third panel is one I’ve had several times, but I would have been the smiler and my nearest neighbor the smilée.
And, a pillowfight would not have wiped that smile off my face, but instead, would have led to more mutual smiling.
John in Virginia on 22 Apr 2012 at 12:44 am #
Add “Smugging” to “Plead a Mindy.” Smug, smugging, smugged, smuggier and smuggiest?
sandcastler on 22 Apr 2012 at 7:01 am #
JiV, you left out smuggler. Used in a sentence, “She was a great little smuggler, never was caught smuggling; though she did cop a few pleas.”
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 22 Apr 2012 at 7:19 am #
Earth Day:
I think that the U.S. has done a great job of observing Earth Day year round.
Haven’t we moved most of our polluting manufacturing jobs out of the country?
Mindy on 22 Apr 2012 at 7:36 am #
Sandcastler and John in Virginia are picking on me. Again. At least they wrote a song about me: Smuggler’s Blues.
And today is “Earth Day.” I think that’s a great idea.
It’s also extremely unfair and discriminatory.
I think I’ll demand equal time and treatment for my home planet!
sandcastler on 22 Apr 2012 at 8:26 am #
Every day when I walk along the bayou or sit on the deck is an earth day.
Rick, it is amazing how laws and regulations modify our behaviour: pollution offshore, earnings offshore, jobs offshore. If you could offshore government and crime this country would be a great place to live.
Mindy, John and I plead not guilty. You merely leave us too many opportune targets. Will you be suspending hostile action on bamboo in honor of Earth day?
Mindy on 22 Apr 2012 at 9:06 am #
It’s a bleak and miserable day on my adopted planet, sandcastler, and the Bamboo Wars have been suspended, but note ye well, I’ve made considerable progress and have just about denuded the clump. Now all that remains is to kill the bloody roots!
Mindy on 22 Apr 2012 at 9:11 am #
Oh, I forgot. The Chicago [color unknown] Sock’s pitcher Hummer, or something like that, “threw a perfect game.” What does that mean? A perfect game was going and he tanked it so the other team would win? Or he literally “threw” perfectly, which could mean he hit X-number of consecutive opposing [or his own team?] players with the ball? Or he hit 9 prominent politicians [take your pick of which nine] in the head? Or what? I don’t understand baseball. It’s almost as boring as cricket or spectator golf.
[I bet I catch a load of comments for that observation!]
Symply Fargone on 22 Apr 2012 at 9:12 am #
Love coming here as daily as I can, even if some days I just lurk….you guys rock, love the way the topics jump, folks participate and except for one brief moment(to my knowledge), never a discouraging word.m You guys are Symply Fargone and I appreciate it….
TruckerRon on 22 Apr 2012 at 9:55 am #
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio: Earth Day:
I think that the U.S. has done a great job of observing Earth Day year round.
Haven’t we moved most of our polluting manufacturing jobs out of the country?
Actually we’ve required the remaining manufacturers to clean up their acts. That’s why the air is much cleaner than I remember it being as a kid. OTOH, not all the jobs went overseas–our manufacturers are making more stuff than ever by using robots. Take the Bell companies (please!): they hardly use any human operators anymore (remember making collect calls?). Car makers use tons of robots now with humans just sitting at shutoff switches should anything go wrong. I doubt they’ll be using human truck drivers 50 years from now–my last truck had a radar unit that covered my right-side blind spot and could override my cruise control to keep me 6 seconds behind the vehicle in front of me.
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 22 Apr 2012 at 2:08 pm #
Mindy- A “perfect game”, in baseball, is one in which no opposing batter reaches base. The winning pitcher has given up no hits, no walks, and there were no errors by his team which allowed a baserunner. These games are exceedingly rare.
Or were you pulling our collective legs?
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 22 Apr 2012 at 2:10 pm #
TruckerRon:
I also began reading about five years ago that China (especially) and India were shedding manufacturing jobs at a rapid pace, too. Some of them were going to Vietnam, but most were being eliminated due to increased automation.
Isn’t it interesting how homo sapiens is in the process of making itself irrelevant and unnecessary?
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 22 Apr 2012 at 2:17 pm #
I am pretty sure that Mindy is pulling our collective leg. When friends go on about their fantasy football team, I always tell them “that isn’t my form of fantasy”
Mindy on 22 Apr 2012 at 4:29 pm #
Would I do that?
John in Virginia on 22 Apr 2012 at 5:22 pm #
Yes, Mindy.
Lost in A**2 on 22 Apr 2012 at 7:16 pm #
People won’t be obsolete; they’ll just find other ways to fill their time. (I’ve long known that our problem is NOT making stuff; it’s distributing the stuff after it has been made. I first noticed this in relation to food, of course.)
Mark in TTown on 22 Apr 2012 at 11:15 pm #
Humans are not making themselves obsolete or unnecessary, except in the manufacturing trades. We still have to make the machines to make everything, too. And design them. The machines themselves have not had an original thought, yet, that we know of.
I know my hometown is much less polluted than it was in 1970. Of course, all of the old factories have long been shut down too, with high unemployment for a while. There are still a number of coal mines trying to operate as best they can in the new environment, but most of the operators moved most of their mining overseas too. And every loss of a factory job is a loss for organized labor, because most of these factories were unionized. And even if they were not it reduces the available places that could still become unionized. Maybe that should be our next export to the underdeveloped countries. Send our union organizers to places like China and Vietnam. If they are successful there will be no advantage to offshore manufacturing and the jobs can be brought back here. If unsuccessful we are no worse off than now.
TruckerRon on 23 Apr 2012 at 1:03 am #
Mark in TTown — I like your idea. I’d also propose sending them some excess bureaucrats and regulators.
John in Virginia on 23 Apr 2012 at 1:39 am #
Mark in TTown, no offense meant but I can just picture union organizers in China and Vietnam. With a 9mm bullet in the brain. Perhaps in SOUTH Korea but not those two. What about India? I understand that when you call customer service for a certain communications company you end up talking to a person there. Instead of unionizing foreign countries & companies, why not work on building up honesty, trustworthiness and efficiency in government right here at home? Then, perhaps, the outsourcing trend could be contained and even reversed.
Ah, it’s much to early in the morning — or late in the day, depending on your perspective — for me to try to be serious.
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 23 Apr 2012 at 4:51 am #
Mark in TTown:
Lately, I’ve been reading about growing labor movements in those countries.
I suspect that, before the jobs come back here, the prices we pay for foreign-made goods will increase quite a bit.