Remember when a Web page was an interesting thing unto itself? Well, that would have been about 10 years ago, when I drew this A&J strip. Actually, it would have been longer than that, because I’m usually at least three to five years behind the curve when it comes to popular culture. Incidentally, one of my regrets is not seriously studying language when I had the neurological pliability to do so effectively. I always hear that English is a Germanic language. That would be German in the third panel. Does it look like English to you? Well, aside from “falsch” for “wrong.” I earnestly have tried to learn Spanish and French in my later years and failed mostly. Nevertheless, I can say English also shares a lot with the Romance languages. As I said, I wish I’d studied linguistics. And as Arlo once told Gene about studying a foreign language, “At least you’d know you’d learned something.”
78 responses to “Web Comic”
Jimmy, when I took German at UA, they had a book with comics from “Mad” translated into German to encourage the student. I enjoyed that, especially I had read those comics in the original English and it was fun to compare the two.
I like that retro strip, though. It reminds me of the DVD special features. Wish there was some way we could listen to you talk about the strips you have drawn while looking at them.
If you want to study Spanish you should immerse yourself in the culture, as for instance Houston or anywhere in South Texas.
Mark: Thanks. But doesn’t knitting use 2 needles? Crocheting does, no? And isn’t that a mighty small knitting needle? I think she’s sewing the edge of standard made of woven cloth. No discredit to what’s-his-name, just a vocab. change. And certainly no discredit to Leighton. Splendid Pre-Raphaelite painting, but then, I love P-R. And she is a doll; chaste and modestly clothed, but a doll.
Greg Evans continues on his perilous way: “Have a seat.” “Here.” Surely there must be irate letters to some editors.
http://www.gocomics.com/luann
Peace, emb
Here’s the item from “Next” that I said I’d repost. At 0953 CST, it’s fully socked in again. Peace, emb
emb on 24 Feb 2016 at 8:34 am #
Just visited Baltimore: http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/peregrine-falcon-webcam
When I first got there, totally socked in, no peregrine at the site. Only thing you could tell through the fog was it was darker looking down than straight ahead. Now, that flatiron-like bldg. shows through. Falcons are not necessarily flying; there are 30 or so ledges below this one, and other bldgs. and water tanks around. Wonder if they can hunt in fog, or whether it may even be an advantage. Anyway, interesting site. Peace,
[Will repost if JJ changes site soon.]
as with all I did in high school, I did it lazy and sloppy, so got only a little German in my brain. 35 years later, decided to do Rosetta Stone, it’s weird because there is NO translating, only pictures. You have to pick up all the weird gender stuff and same word – several meanings on your own. Still, it does work, but I still would have to look up something in Google translate occasionally
emb, I agree she’s sewing, not knitting. Artistic license from the TIP cartoonist in the caption, I think.
John/R/Tex: “same word – several meanings”: Reminds me of a growing solution to an English gender problem, the default male singular “he”, “him”, and “his.” Increasingly, “they”, “them”, and “their” are being used and accepted by editors and dictionaries. E.g., “When a person gets to the checkout counter, they take out their credit card.”
But aren’t “they”, “them”, and “their” plural. Isn’t that ungrammatical? As Villagers may remember, I tend toward grammatical purism. But grammar evolves. “Opera” meant more than one opus, but it now refers to one drama set to music. [We’ll avoid distinguishing opera, operetta, and musical for now, as long as we don’t call G&S comic operas, or operettas, “musicals”.]
E.g., the German pronoun “sie” can mean she, you, or they, depending on context. If the Germans can do that, we should be able to accept “they”, “them”, and “their” as gender-neutral personal pronouns, no? It’s taken me less than a decade to get used to.
Peace, emb
Speaking of the internet, has the new web site gone unto the back burner? I know web-companies keep updating their designs so this style could end up being obsolete. It can be a major undertaking to change, so I understand the delay.
English is kind of the bastard of European languages, it’s a lot of things mixed together.
Grandma comes home today! She’s still not 100%, but she is a heck of a lot closer than she was last week this time. Woohoo!
Good report, Lady Mindy.
Just had a disappointing meal at what used to be a favorite restaurant. That always depresses me. That and fact I actually ate crayfish etouffe and wasted the calories on even a small portion needlesdly. Piffle.
So, LeAnn turns out to be lesbian? So what? There’s an entire strip devoted to that subject but I forget who. I suspect someone else has done that too. I have many gay and lesbian friends, they make good parents and couples.
Just had a disappointing meal at what used to be a favorite restaurant. That always depresses me. That and fact I actually ate crayfish etouffe and wasted the calories on even a small portion needlesdly. Piffle.
So, LeAnn turns out to be lesbian? So what? There’s an entire strip devoted to that subject but I forget who. I suspect someone else has done that too. I have many gay and lesbian friends, they make good parents and couples.
Just had a disappointing meal at what used to be a favorite restaurant. That always depresses me. That and fact I actually ate crayfish etouffe and wasted the calories on even a small portion needlesdly. Piffle.
So, LeAnn turns out to be lesbian? So what? There’s an entire strip devoted to that subject but I forget who. I suspect someone else has done that too. I have many gay and lesbian friends, they make good parents and couples.
Just had a disappointing meal at what used to be a favorite restaurant. That always depresses me. That and fact I actually ate crayfish etouffe and wasted the calories on even a small portion needlesdly. Piffle.
So, LeAnn turns out to be lesbian? So what? There’s an entire strip devoted to that subject but I forget who. I suspect someone else has done that too. I have many gay and lesbian friends, they make good parents and couples.
Jimmy, I like the fact that you picked Luddie for the special features. I just wish that there were more of them. And no, emb, crocheting doesn’t take two needles, it just uses one, and it’s called a “hook.” I know because one of my grandmothers was very fond of it. Not only do we still have some of her work (mostly put away for special occasions that almost never happen) she won the first prize at the LA County Fair the first time she entered. It was a show piece of a stained glass window showing two boys climbing a pear tree. Blew the socks off of the competition, I’m proud to say.
It’s not LuAnn who’s lesbian, it’s Prudence, a recently introduced character LuAnn thought was trying to steal her boyfriend.
Side: Thanks. Actually, Mom used to crochet, not knit, but that’s over 70YA now, and I’ve watched lots of women knit since then. Some coeds at Cornell knitted in lecture, if the instructor tolerated it. One of Mom’s afghans is on my bed, top layer.
Ray: One of the good things that happened as English evolved is that we got rid of gender when it was unrelated to sex. A bitch in French is still le chien. [A biche is a doe or cow.] Apparently bastard is ok with our moderator; we’ll see if bitch is.
Still foggy in Baltimore. Peace, emb
How did my stupid phone do that? I am sitting opposite The Authentic Bonnie and Clyde Museum and Festival Museum and adjoining it is the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum which I take to be unauthentic and not endorsed?
Jackie, I don’t think it’s Hal to blame this time. I have had repeated posts from my pc. And sometimes the blog tells me I have already posted something while trying to post it the first time. And when I back out, there it is. Apparently WordPress can sneak something past while the activity wheel is spinning on the web browser.
Jackie: I agree, “So what?”, and also have friends of all mutual attractions [and one gender-changed acquaintance whom I avoid / the person is a pain in the butt about it]. But I suspect some readers of some papers that carry LuAnn are at least a bit disturbed.
Anyway, Pru has made LuAnn a more interesting strip, as illustrated in today’s episode, cited above: ‘Greg Evans continues on his perilous way: “Have a seat.” “Here.” Surely there must be irate letters to some editors. http://www.gocomics.com/luann ‘
JJ’s speelczech doesn’t like one-word sentences; at least doesn’t like Here. Actually, there’s no punct in the strip itself. How about, Here! Likes that, and that’s really what Pru is saying.
Peace, emb
emb, you made me curious about this series of strips and searched online. No negative comments came up in the first series of links. But this story did, and is interesting because it shows the artist’s daughter is cowriting the strip and it shows Mr. Evans using a tablet device to create the art for the strip.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2013/sep/22/luann-comic-strip-all-in-family/
Crocheted stained glass picture? COOL! That would be something special to see! Could you frame it and show it off more often? My brother took some crochet doilies and made framed pictures and other objects….some were like dreamcatchers. Just a thought.
Mindy- great news! 🙂
Anybody looking for old comic strips (not just Jimmy’s) check this site:
http://www.comicstriparchive.com/
Language does change and sometimes this is not a good thing. Case in point the use of “they/etc” as a sort of singular unspecified gender pronoun. The bad change isn’t TO such usage but the one that happened in the intervening centuries AWAY from it….
“Some people object to the use of plural pronouns in this type of situation on the grounds that it’s ungrammatical. In fact, the use of plural pronouns to refer back to a singular subject isn’t new: it represents a revival of a practice dating from the 16th century.”
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/he-or-she-versus-they