Jun 10th 2011 07:47 am Weak response

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I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but I thought I’d bring this week’s series of strips to a conclusion. It seems eating is a big topic around here; not eating is not. I so understand. I’m going to be in my test kitchen later today, concocting this year’s edition of my squash casserole, made with squash from the garden. I can hardly wait.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

49 Responses to “Weak response”

  1. John in Richmond Texas on 10 Jun 2011 at 8:15 am #

    I remember Arlo once saying he just couldn’t resist that neon pig, I can certainly relate to that, but store brand ice cream ? nope never. and don’t you just hate it when you grab an ice cream sandwich at a convenience store and it’s been frozen and refrozen so often, that it’s all icy?

  2. Mindy on 10 Jun 2011 at 8:59 am #

    Gentlemen, please refer to the Friday A&J strip. Note that Janis did not say “no.” You can learn a lesson here. LOL!

  3. Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 10 Jun 2011 at 9:21 am #

    Late for what?

  4. Bob, near Mark on 10 Jun 2011 at 9:22 am #

    Mindy,
    They’re going to be late because they’re wasting clock time on tick talk?

  5. Whistling Rufus on 10 Jun 2011 at 10:37 am #

    We eat alot of squash casseroles at our house. A little sour cream, breadcrumbs crookneck squash and onions, easy to make. We also eat store brand ice cream-the local supermkt brand is quite good.
    Rufus

  6. Whistling Rufus on 10 Jun 2011 at 10:39 am #

    I meant to say, also, that our squash haven’t come on yet here in Va, but they’ll be here soon.

  7. Anonymous on 10 Jun 2011 at 11:36 am #

    Waiting to see if anyone’s recipes can beat Southern Living’s long time ago recipe. Just the basics.

  8. Dave in MA on 10 Jun 2011 at 12:04 pm #

    Mindy, Janis didn’t say no to Arlo making them late? Or Janis didn’t say no to the ice-cream Arlo brought? Both strips are “Friday” strips, one new, one retro…..

  9. Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 10 Jun 2011 at 12:25 pm #

    Store brand ice cream! I didn’t think Janis could be bought off so cheaply!

  10. dAVE on 10 Jun 2011 at 1:56 pm #

    But what about the tomatoes?!

  11. Jerry in Fl on 10 Jun 2011 at 5:12 pm #

    For best view yet of “the building on Mars” go to http://www.disinfo.com/2011/06/amateur-astronomer-claims-bio-station-alpha-is-Proof of Life. If that doesn’t work do a search for the above sentence. When you reach the site scroll down to the video and it shows the object fairly clearly. I suggest that you do it now, as the earlier versions were removed by someone. The video also has a voiceover by the “amateur astronomer”. Nothing about this in the newspaper yet, but I expect the internet to feature a “confession” of fakery any day.

  12. Jerry in Fl on 10 Jun 2011 at 5:18 pm #

    I tried clicking on the link shown in my above comment and it worked.

  13. A Mindful Webworker on 10 Jun 2011 at 6:03 pm #

    Looking at the object on Mars, the odd “notched” shapes along one side, I realized where I had seen it before. In the age before spy-in-the-sky satellite required it to be removed to mars, it used to be at the North Pole. (Aawww… sorry.)

  14. Mindy on 10 Jun 2011 at 8:31 pm #

    I admit, I did not expect so many varied interpretations on the lessons to be learned part! Ah, the differences of the sexes! I thought there would be more commentary on WHERE the lick was or had been affixed, though, so it balances out. Happy weekend Jimmy and all your fans!

  15. Ghost Rider 6 on 11 Jun 2011 at 12:39 am #

    Mindy, did you really mean to say “lick”? Or was that just a slip of the tongue?

  16. Hutch on 11 Jun 2011 at 7:21 am #

    >”on WHERE the lick was or had been affixed”

    LOL, now that is a true “Freudian Slip”!

  17. Steve from Royal Oak on 11 Jun 2011 at 8:28 am #

    I thought we were commenting on the “lick”? LOL Mindy, it was a nice start to my sophomoric day. Or is it sopho-moronic?

  18. Jim in SE Mississippi on 11 Jun 2011 at 8:43 am #

    Thanks, Mindy. That’s the best laugh I’ve had in a while, even if it was inadvertent on your part. Ah, it was, wasn’t it?

  19. Ghost Rider 6 on 11 Jun 2011 at 8:50 am #

    Arlo’s tick, and where it was, is a limerick that almost writes itself.

    Don’t let them give you a hard time, Mindy. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business.

  20. Jim in SE Mississippi on 11 Jun 2011 at 8:57 am #

    Mindy may be the one giving the “hard time.”

    OK, I’m finished now.

  21. David on 11 Jun 2011 at 9:15 am #

    We eat yellow squash best when lightly floured, with sliced yellow onions, fried with a little oil in the cast iron skillet. Bacon grease is best, but we have switched to vegetable oil in recent years. Also enjoy yellow squash as bread-and-butter pickles. Put up about 2 dozen jars of pickles yesterday, including a batch of squash as bread-and-butter.

    David

  22. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 11 Jun 2011 at 11:40 am #

    Like yellow squash, zuccini is a summer squash; I just happen to like it better. Courgettes [about cucumber-sized] are the approved size for picking and eating, cooked or raw. Here is a recipe for larger, but not obscene-sized zucchinis, from a copyrighted artilce I published in ’98.
    ““`
    “Find a store that has midget longhorn cheddar (not Colby). From the garden, pick some ripe tomatoes and a zucchini that is wider than the cylindrical cheese. Ideally, grow light-green zucchinis (“greyzinis”) with relatively tender skin, not the uniform, dark-green “blackinis”, and hope the seeds are not yet hard. Blend a cup of skim milk, a cup of flour, an egg, a teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/3 cup of salad oil, seasoned to taste. (Freeze the left-over batter for next time.)

    “Slice the zucchini, and the same number of slices each of longhorn cheddar and of tomato. Dip the zucchini slices in batter, and fry them on an electric griddle at 325?F. Arrange the tomato slices on a platter, put them in the microwave, and set it for 1½ to 2 minutes. Flip the zucchini slices, put a slice of cheese on each, and start the microwave. When the cheese is melted, put the zucchini slices on dinner plates and slide a tomato slice on each. Say grace, because you have something to be grateful for. Two plates are probably all you should eat. Some like a dark beer, pale ale, or stout with this (but always provide a non-alcoholic option).”

    Wife loved this, and I think at least one of our kids does it. I haven’t done this often since going on the lowfat diet.

  23. Jerry in Fl on 11 Jun 2011 at 12:22 pm #

    I thought that I would share my Thursday evening experience with you. We took our hopefully someday daughter-in-law out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant while my wife’s son is out of town for the week. As we sat there talking quietly I noticed the Sebring convertible with the navy tag sitting on the other side of the window. I didn’t want to disturb the very elderly couple sitting at the next table so I quietly made jokes about bringing home a Corvette convertible soon and, since I am definitely not a Chrysler fan, I probably made a few comments about their products. We had a long enjoyable conversation and the gentleman at the next table got up to leave. I believe that he was about 90 and his skin showed signs of years of exposure to the sun as he walked by very slowly. His wife followed him in her cute straw hat and her walking cane. She had beautiful snow white hair under her hat as she smiled and nodded as she passed our table. Soon we were all smiling as we watched them slowly go out to their convertible and slowly, but no doubt very happily, pulled out of the parking lot.

  24. Boise Ed on 11 Jun 2011 at 12:38 pm #

    Jerry, did you notice that the title of that Web page is “Disinformation”?

  25. Jerry in Fl on 11 Jun 2011 at 2:46 pm #

    Are you suggesting that someone on the internet may not be telling the truth?

  26. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 11 Jun 2011 at 7:39 pm #

    And, now, my wife and I are about to conclude an A&J kind of day;

    Lunch at Cracker Barrel;

    Flower and plant shopping at Dill’s Greenhouse;

    Afternoon movie;

    Sandwich at Frisch’s Big Boy (mentioned in at least one A&J strip as the “Big Boy”);

    Wife went for walk as I sat at computer; and

    Will go out for ice cream after she plants “her children” (the aforementioned plants and flowers).

    I’m truly a lucky man.

  27. Mindy on 11 Jun 2011 at 8:24 pm #

    Mindy is blushing very deeply.

  28. Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 11 Jun 2011 at 9:23 pm #

    No reason to blush Mindy. I have made some mistakes on this blog myself and they weren’t inadvertent like yours. BTW we don’t give a lick if you have typos, we still like you.

  29. Ghost Rider 6 on 11 Jun 2011 at 10:24 pm #

    I’m sure a blushing Mindy looks even more adorable than she usually does.

    All in good fun, my dear. And it was funny.

  30. Jerry in Fl on 11 Jun 2011 at 10:42 pm #

    Re Mr Weiner et al, everyone is asking “What are these guys thinking?” All I can say is that apparently some guys are really, REALLY fond of their cell phone-cameras.

  31. Tom in Southern Ohio on 11 Jun 2011 at 10:52 pm #

    OK, we’re all used to the idea that reading A&J makes us feel like Jimmy has been peeking into our windows, but now he’s predicting events! The tick episode just played out in slightly different form here!

    My wife got home late tonight from a business trip. While in the bathroom getting ready for bed I found a tick in a very tender location. =:-0 Fortunately, my better half and I are used to checking each other for ticks so I wasn’t as reluctant as Arlo to get her assistance in dealing with it. She didn’t bust out laughing until I showed her the tick series.

    Covering it with oil or an ointment didn’t budge it, but then we had no idea how long that process would take. We couldn’t find our tick twister thingy so she wound up pulling it with tweezers. I did NOT want anything hot in that area!

    I gotta get the tractor working so I can keep the fields mowed; the dogs pick up the ticks going through the tall grass. They’re treated so ticks don’t stay on them, but apparently they do hitch rides into the house.

    Cheers,
    Tom

  32. James Pollock on 11 Jun 2011 at 11:13 pm #

    I’m happy to say that the only tick I’ve ever experienced is big and blue and yells “spoon!”

  33. Anonymous on 12 Jun 2011 at 1:26 am #

    James: Elucidate, please – I don’t get it.

  34. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 7:06 am #

    Sunday’s strip:

    I agree with Arlo.

    I love technology and am a bit of a techie geek, but I never have felt a desire to have the latest thing. Instead, it must serve a necessary and valuable purpose for me to buy it. Because I work with a computer nearly eight hours a day at work and then about four hours a day at home due to my other job, I neither need nor want a Web-enabled cell phone.

    Neil Postman’s Technopoly states my point far better than I can, and it explores technology and the effects that humankind’s creations have upon our species with wit and insight.

  35. Mary in Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 3:49 pm #

    I’d agree with Arlo too, except that I had to replace my first phone because I stuck it in my hip pocket and, while not butt-dialing, cracked the screen beyond use.

  36. TruckerRon on 12 Jun 2011 at 4:29 pm #

    I want to talk on my cell phone. My camera takes better photos than any phone. I send emails from my laptop, and I never text from the phone or iPod. When you can talk at over 150 wpm and type at over 60 wpm, why limit yourself to your thumbs and perhaps 10 wpm?

  37. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 5:43 pm #

    *gasp* *gasp*

    Just came back from a walk *gasp* with my wife in Forest Rose Cemetery. *gasp*

    I left early. She’s still walking.

    I think I’m about to succumb.

    *wheeze*

    How do my wife and Janis do this with such ease?

    *falling over; hitting floor*

  38. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 5:45 pm #

    Mary:

    In addition to being a techie geek, I’m an utter nerd.

    I still keep my cell phone on a belt clip.

    At least I haven’t started wearing suspenders yet.

  39. Tom in Southern Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 6:23 pm #

    I’m with Arlo on the phone issue. My personal cell phone is a clamshell type that’s coming up on 6 years old. My work phone is an iPhone. I like the iPhone as a minicomputer and it’s great for my job, but don’t really like talking on it much. The clamshell shape when open is reminiscent of a regular phone’s handset and I prefer holding that to my ear than a flat rectangular thing.

    Cheers,
    Tom

  40. Tom in Southern Ohio on 12 Jun 2011 at 6:32 pm #

    Rick,

    I’ve been in IT since 1980. For the first 25 years I wore a uniform; these days I do wear suspenders, so I don’t have a belt for the belt clip. My phones go in my pockets. I have started using a pocket protector as well. You quickly realize how useful they are the first time you have a fountain pen leak while in your pocket!

    Cheers,
    Tom

    P.S. As a transplant into Ohio six years ago I was curious as to where Shermantown, OH is located. Turns out it isn’t located anywhere, but your cemetary comment gave it away. I drive to your town somewhat frequently as I’m an IT Field Tech for Daymar College and we have a campus there.

  41. Jerry in Fl on 12 Jun 2011 at 11:42 pm #

    Known as Camp Granada, I believe.

  42. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 13 Jun 2011 at 4:56 am #

    Tom in Southern Ohio:

    The close connections on this blog are becoming eerie.

    Tom (Somewhere in Georgia) used to work here and had visited the Sherman House some years ago.

    Now, I find out that you work here on occasion.

    Providing that you don’t mind answering, in which general area of Southern Ohio are you located?

    By the way, another well-known general from the War was Gen. Sheridan. He hailed from Somerset, not too far from here.

  43. Lost in A**2 on 13 Jun 2011 at 8:36 am #

    Anonymous: “The Tick” is a cartoon character. I’ve not watched his show, but I’ve come across it while channel-surfing. A search of the web should provide more enlightenment, should such be desired.

  44. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 13 Jun 2011 at 8:47 am #

    There’s a in Greenwich Village. It’s a triangle. It’s one of dozens of Civil War monuments in NYC, the largest of which is the Statue of Liberty. Not generally recognized as such, but a recent New Yorker article documents that pretty well.

    Sheridan Square is not far from another, smaller triangle with a single bldg. on it, I believe a former infirmary. I’ve got to look it up.

    Lost in A**2. Thanks.

  45. emeritus Minnesota biologist on 13 Jun 2011 at 8:48 am #

    I goofed: Try again.

    There’s a Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village. It’s a triangle. It’s one of dozens of Civil War monuments in NYC, the largest of which is the Statue of Liberty. Not generally recognized as such, but a recent New Yorker article documents that pretty well.

    Sheridan Square is not far from another, smaller triangle with a single bldg. on it, I believe a former infirmary. I’ve got to look it up.

    Lost in A**2. Thanks.

  46. Mary in Ohio on 13 Jun 2011 at 5:16 pm #

    Grant and Custer were born in Ohio, but are better known for their time in Illinois and Michigan and elsewhere.

  47. curmudgeonly ex-professor on 13 Jun 2011 at 5:53 pm #

    Lost in A**2: I didn’t plan to be anonymous, but, apparently, my identity didn’t show. Maybe it was because I used my new laptop to send it in, instead of this desk-sized job. Anyway, thank you for the information.

  48. Kevin Carson on 15 Jun 2011 at 4:23 pm #

    So what’s the recipe? Some cheddar and cornflake crumbs, what? No matter–you can’t make a bad squash casserole. I’ve got eleven hills of yellow squash and zucchini, so I’ll probably be making plenty of it.

  49. Kevin Carson on 15 Jun 2011 at 4:25 pm #

    BTW, I guess you know by now that every daily comics links is the one about a cat’s mouth. I get all my A&J fix here, because my local paper no longer covers it.