I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I did want to post something, as service here has been spotty lately. I’m not sure my subconscious wasn’t at work when I chose today’s classic A&J. I’ve been fighting with my computer lately, plus the mockingbirds have begun their seasonal concert. Except, in reality, they sing about 3 a.m. For hours. I actually have gone downstairs in the middle of the night to flush one from the camellia bush below my bedroom window. I didn’t kill him, but I did scare the bejeebers out of him. Is that a sin?
The Mockingbird’s Shrill
By Jimmy Johnson
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413 responses to “The Mockingbird’s Shrill”
Ghost Sweetie, thank you for the song! Loved it!
We missed the eclipse last night, but did have a nice but short thunderstorm. We sat on the screened porch and watched the lightening.
Jackie (and others concerned): I’d recommend keeping a can of wasp & hornet spray out of sight but within reach of your bedside, and perhaps other places in your dwelling. It’s just as effective, if not more so, as oleoresin capsicum or Mace spray, and it has a greater (25-30 feet) range. Not necessarily the best choice for personal carry or in your vehicle, but it could be very useful at home.
The biggest disadvantage of capsicum or Mace spray is that the container has to be in your hand and ready for immediate use when needed. If you have to fumble it out of your purse, it’s ridiculously easy to have it taken away from you before you can deploy it. That’s why “situational awareness” is so vital.
You are very welcome, Jean dear. And I too love to watch God’s Own Light Show at night. Unless possibly when I’m flying through the middle of it. 🙂
Webcam is pointed at OF, suggesting it’s waiting for a blow. emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
In those days it was in a pocket, not a purse and my hand was always in that pocket which was a jacket or loose coat. So was the gun, never in a purse and never hostered or in car.
And yes, I became acutely sensitive to where I was, would almost never put myself in public places and never in crowds or open spaces. You become defensive to a point of phobia.
Love, Jackie
Love today’s realtime strip! JJ, you can break the 4th wall with the best of them. (The comments below it are good, too, especially the one that says that it was funny even having to have it explained. JJ’s readers are all very nice.)
Jackie Monies, do you live in Marshall or just visiting? I was there last Wednesday at the OS2 listening to the live boogie woogie. First time there, and we enjoyed it. Have to go back next time we’re in the area.
Good tactics, Jackie, with one exception. I’m not in love with the idea of carrying a handgun in a pocket with the trigger exposed, and I don’t think your instructor will be either, when you get one. That’s the real value of a holster of some type, to minimize the chance of a negligent discharge. (There are no “accidental” discharges, and despite what they always report in the newspaper, guns don’t just “go off” of their own volition.) Discuss it with him or her.
A little healthy paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing in modern life.
JJ:
I just wanted to say that todays strip is utterly and completely brilliant. It was so good it took two reads for me to get the joke, and I’m usually pretty quick off the mark.
Such a subtle breaking of the fourth (?) wall. I’m still grinning thinking of it.
You remain a true master of the craft. Thanks for all the great laughs over the years.
B
“A little paranoia is never enough.”
“And just because you are paranoid does not mean “they” are not out to get you.”
I do not live in Marshall, I live south of Tulsa on Lake Eufaula, lake house. I go through Marshall all the time and always have, even when I lived south in Houston, Hwy 59 has always been a corridor for me. Plus when I was in sales I had some really big customers based out of there, like Marshall Pottery, the Ellis Pottery people, a lot of big nurseries and Christmas stores that are no longer in existence.
Yes, I loved Marshall in past, still stay in motels there a lot. Another town I enjoy is Paris, TX for the exact same reasons and I still eat and stay there a lot, for same reasons. Paris has my favorite Mexican restaurant, Ta Molly’s. Have always traveled and been a road warrior. Anyone who wants to recommend places, feel free!
Debbe 😉 Because I think you have one…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO8kTRv4l3o
Get some rest, hon. I know you’ll need it next week.
Jackie, you’d mace anyone? Try one of these, Much more effective than pepper spray. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mace_(club)#/media/File:Drevnosti_RG_v3_ill082_-_Pernath_and_Shestopiors.jpg
And Ghost is right about having a choice of tools. That is why police departments are using Tasers and so forth. It gives law enforcement a chance between arrest and death to uncooperative suspects.
Jackie and Ghost. here’s Ian Anderson solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjDAXqXvduo&list=PLhgedeN-Y6XdhNISXhpog4tRt3b14if72
Song might make you hungry, if you listen to the lyrics.
And a song about one of his cats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZx0OjsYFu0&list=PLhgedeN-Y6XdhNISXhpog4tRt3b14if72
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJL2V4k51ec&list=PLnetLV0w-dq_W3cfEmLI4ZSEc9yOmqZOO&index=2
How do people in other parts of the country handle illness without access to Vernor’s Ginger Ale? It’s the standard treatment around here for upset tummies, colds, and generally feeling awful. Cold, room temp, or warmed up, we use it from childhood onward. Do any other areas have local remedies like this?
Mark, those things would punch holes in plate armor; I’ve seen it done.
Denise, here in the South we use Coca Cola for all that…as God intended. 🙂
But warmed up? Really?
Denise in Michigan, look up Buffalo Rock. Beats Vernor’s all hollow. But its hard to find outside Alabama.
I’ve had Vernor’s, thanks to Kroger when I lived in Tennessee. Compared to Buffalo Rock, it’s like the joke about making love in a canoe.
“…as God intended.” Reminds me of our second room-and-board girl, who stayed with us 3 yr., maybe including a summer. She was a “Finlander,” weaned onto coffee.
“Iced coffee? But, that would be . . . like putting ice in coffee!” Cannot remember if she became a convert.
Peace, emb
Coca Cola is also beneficial in removing corrosion from your battery terminals, should your car not start. Also can be poured onto knee scrapes from falling down in gravel roads to clean the wound.
Southern cooks depend on it for many things, including cake baking and making glazes for hams or pot roast gravy,
Goes with all meats, white, red, fish or fowl and great eye opener in morning, can float your peanuts or ice cream floats in it.
My memory fails, someone else from South contribute here!
Denise…a hot toddy 🙂
Thank you, Mark, mixes with most alcohol for mixed drinks, like rum and coke, bourbon and coke, moonshine and coke.
By the way, Mark I like Ian Anderson too.