Dec 27th 2011 08:13 am The ghost of Christmas

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
For many of us, the Christmas holiday officially is over today. Yesterday was that weird but not unpleasant half-holiday that we get when December 25 falls on Sunday. Of course, we all know things won’t really get back to normal until next Tuesday. Hanukkah, I should note, continues. This year, the Jewish celebration of light lasts through tomorrow. Remember, also, the 12 days of Christmas, which began Christmas Day and end with the Feast of Epiphany, Jan. 6. Also known as Twelfth Night, this date marks the beginning of carnival season in many places, such as Louisiana in the U.S. Indeed, why can’t this feeling go on endlessly?

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

21 Responses to “The ghost of Christmas”

  1. Tony on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:26 am #

    In Canada, we observe Dec 26 as Boxing Day…so today for many is the half holiday to observe a statutory holiday that fell on Sunday…

  2. Tony on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:28 am #

    …as for the feeling going on endlessly? I suppose if we all tried to maintain it, it could happen…but I’m not sure many could sustain the amount of energy needed to do so!! ;)

  3. Will Overby on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:36 am #

    I thought of it as one more day to relish the joy that is Beaucoup Arlo & Janis! Unfortunately, I did exactly as I thought and read it in one sitting. So much for savoring it. I suppose I will just have to give it a second go-round. Thanks again for such a wonderful book, Jimmy. I feel like Arlo and Janis are intimate friends of the family!

  4. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:03 am #

    So are the Twelve Days the twelve after Christmas, the last of which is Epiphany, or are they the twelve starting with Christmas and immediately followed by Epiphany? I’m sure it is important to somebody.

  5. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:09 am #

    Jimmy:

    Per my wishes, my wife hid my copy of “Beaucoup Arlo & Janis” and gave it to me on Christmas.

    Of course, even though I read it slowly so that I could savor each page, I finished it on Christmas Evening.

    I know that you are most likely sick of glowing praise, but that’s too bad. It’s great, and I wish you much success with it.

    Only one line with which I disagree, the one in which you indicated that perhaps the strip is not what it was during the transformative years. You’re the artist. I’m only a hack who comments once in a while on your blog. You know your strip better than I do.

    Still, from my perspective, “A&J” continues to improve each year.

    I hope that you had a great Christmas, one that will help keep a glimmer of the feeling alive during the rest of the year.

    Rick

  6. Steve from Royal Oak, Mi on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:12 am #

    Someone asked our Pastor: “Don’t you wish Easter was every Sunday?” His reply was then it wouldn’t be as special. With all the work involved during Advent & Lent, you can’t blame a Pastor for not wanting it every week.

    But we can keep the spirit if we make the effort. We give to the poor or less fortunate during the holidays, so why can’t we buy a canned good for a food bank every time we go shopping or take a Saturday every month or so to serve food at a rescue mission? Nothing necessarily religious about those actions, but when you help others, YOU feel better. Maybe it starts by calling or emailing family or friends more often.

    I thought of those who received JJ’s book for Christmas. With my week off, I plan to read it again.

  7. Galliglo in Ohio on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:13 am #

    I have just read today’s comic and the comments on same at gocomics.com. I was surprised by the mean spirited comments made by some on Mary Lou’s single parent status. I was also heartened by others’ responses to those negative comments.

    The lack of love, compassion and understanding that was demonstrated is hard to understand, ESPECIALLY this second day after the celebration of love and “goodwill toward men.”

    Yes JJ, “why can’t this feeling go on endlessly?”

  8. Margaret on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:18 am #

    Bah! Humbug! Anyone who goes around with Merry Christmas – Happy New Year – Happy Mardi Gras on their lips should be boiled in their own jambalaya pot!

    (Can you tell the grey weather has been affecting me?)

  9. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 27 Dec 2011 at 9:22 am #

    Everyone:

    Does Jimmy have a page on Facebook? If so, how do I find it?

    Thanks.

  10. Neal in Bahstawn on 27 Dec 2011 at 10:02 am #

    Rick, there’s a ‘Beaucoup A&J page at:
    http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Beaucoup-Arlo-and-Janis/218939074823924
    though I note it is not being updated (hint, hint).

    My copy of the book was opened Christmas morning (and wrapped with several weeks worth of weekday and Sunday A&J strips), and I’ve been savoring it at the rate of about ten pages of day. So, this ‘feeling’ is good for a couple of weeks, after which I’ll delve back into the book at random.

    I also concur that, based on the commentary between sections, that JJ feels the strip’s ‘golden years’ are in the past. I respectfully demur. Whether done as a ‘gag a day’ style or with a story arc, the strip maintains a consistently superb quality and occasionally bursts into the status of ‘cut and post on the refrigerator’, the highest accolade in our household.

  11. Bill in Paducah on 27 Dec 2011 at 10:05 am #

    There’s also a fan page that gets a little activity…

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/59539060333/

  12. Mike on 27 Dec 2011 at 10:23 am #

    My wife thoroughly enjoyed getting “Beaucoup Arlo & Janis” for Christmas, especially since I told her you shipped it personally (your name and address were on the shipping label).

  13. sandcastler on 27 Dec 2011 at 11:08 am #

    My, my, Margaret, feeling the blues? Watch two hours of tv, sure you will find a pill or two advertised that will cure them blues. We want no sad folks during carnival season. Better yet, head down to Trinidad and have some sun and fun.

  14. Boise Ed on 27 Dec 2011 at 12:37 pm #

    Rick: “Still, from my perspective, “A&J” continues to improve each year.”–I agree. I’ve been noticing that some comics seem to be getting stale. I’m thinking to “resolve” to pare down my GoComics list. But A&J just gets better. Even if I pared my list to two or three, A&J would remain.

  15. Ruth on 27 Dec 2011 at 12:57 pm #

    While Christmas is over the celebrating hasn’t ended at our house. My daughter became a teenager this morning. God give us the strength to survive the next 5-7 years.

  16. Bob in Orland Park on 27 Dec 2011 at 4:59 pm #

    @ Ruth,
    Good luck! You will survive but it will be trying. Been through that with 4 boys and 1 girl. Now watching them go through it with their children.

  17. Jerry in Fl on 27 Dec 2011 at 7:02 pm #

    Oh, why can’t every day be like Christmas? Thankya ver much. My baby boy, all 6 ft whatever of him has graduated, is home but will be going back for ever higher education if he can get out of federal jury duty again. He’s been excused three times already. In the meantime we went over to my cousin’s home today while her daughter and her kids and Swedish husband are visiting from Baton Rouge. Their beautiful children are becoming tri-lingual, swedish, english and cajun. I still have not finished the book on Solomon’s temple, but I must go look through Life’s special edition on Pearl Harbor. My brother’s father-in-law was there, but I don’t remember where he was during the attack. I’ll have to ask him. Excellent special on the History channel, the first 24 hours after the attack. We forget that there was no instant communication back then, even on the islands with telephone service out the navy guys were shooting at each other.

  18. Lost in A**2 on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:22 pm #

    eMb, I think December had but thirty days. I’ve never been very clear on calendar reform and inter-calary days, though.

    Some years, I’ve not started wishing folks a merry Christmas until Christmas eve, but then kept it up through Twelfth Night.

  19. Mark in TTown on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:51 pm #

    Jerry in FL, interesting you should mention Pearl Harbor. I was in Hawaii (on Oahu) for two years while in the Navy. During that time, from 1974 to 1976, all the network shows were a week behind the mainland, because the tapes had to be sent over. Even in the 1970′s communications weren’t that instant. There was a tornado in my hometown at that time and I didn’t learn about it until I got a letter from home. When I transferred out, I spent two weeks living on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor going thru a fire-fighting school. Gave me plenty of time to walk around and look at the Utah and the remains of older buildings on the island.

  20. minnesotadon on 27 Dec 2011 at 8:59 pm #

    I too am one of those that unwrapped my book Christmas morning…I am trying very hard to not finish it this week. I am getting to spend this week with my 3 daughters and their families (age 27, 30, 35)…for some reason they “don’t get it”. I have tried explaning a toon or two but it looses something if you have to explain it! So I try to sit quietly and savor each page, and somehow everyonce in a while one strikes me as extremely funny and I wind up laughing till I cry, taking off my glasses and gasping for breath. Thank you Jimmy for giving us the best book ever! Blessing on you my friend.

  21. CW in 617 on 27 Dec 2011 at 11:45 pm #

    The elaborate dinner party that is the setting for James Joyce’s “The Dead” was the Feast of the Epiphany. This is one of the most moving stories I’ve ever read (and I like all of “Dubliners”). When John Huston made this into a movie, I, like many others, thought he couldn’t pull it off. I, like many others, thought it turned out great.

    And no, I won’t repeat the bad joke about the theater-goers expecting Jerry Garcia.