A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Some things never change.

By Jimmy Johnson

December 8, 2008

I don’t usually take advantage of the modern conveniences of cartooning. I seldom cut and paste art. I laboriously and slavishly just draw a scene again if need be, although Arlo & Janis can be (Let’s face it!) rather static. The last two panels in this old A&J are an exception. They’re identical, because it enhances the joke. This, I think, is an acceptable use of Photoshop, or whatever.

Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

Recent Posts

Ghost of Christmas Past

This holiday Arlo & Janis comic strip from 2022 is similar in concept to the new strip that ran yesterday. I thought the latter ...

Spearhead

I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience ...

Dark Passage

Remember: it’s that weekend. The return to standard time can be a bit of a shock in the late afternoon, but I rather enjoy ...

What’s old is old, again

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a web site, but there are similarities. Everything needs to be just right, or ...

Back to the ol’ drawing board

I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph ...

Thursday’s Child

On Sunday, I teased you with the suggestion there are more changes coming here. There are. They will appear soon, and I think you’ll ...

18 responses to “Some things never change.”

  1. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    Why is the thermostat in Celsius?

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      Maybe the model Jimmy used for his work was showing it that way?

      1. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
        Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

        I think it was to emphasize “Yesterday” and “Today,” even though most of the U.S. has allowed the metric system to die inch by inch.

  2. emb Avatar
    emb

    Considering the circumstances around our failure to go metric in the ’80s, that may be an off-limits question. Peace,

  3. David Reaves Avatar
    David Reaves

    Given that 27C = about 80F, I’m with Arlo. EMB, I’m guessing you mean politics is involved? From what I recall, the issue with conversion has been mostly laziness. Of course, we have converted in most areas other than construction. Lots of 2-liter, 1-liter, and 500 ml bottles around. Many packaged foods are also labeled in metric sizes. Science and technology has been done in metric for a while. My guess is that at some point the Imperial measure will gradually fade away as more things get voluntarily shifted.

  4. David Reaves Avatar
    David Reaves

    Also, the “Honeypot” manufacturer label on the analog thermostat os a great substitution. I wonder how many actually read it as the Honeywell of many actual thermostats from the era? My avatar would certainly appreciate the difference!

    1. Ken From Okemos Avatar
      Ken From Okemos

      My thought on that score was, did Honeywell give him sponsorship money or send their lawyers around with a Cease and Desist letter. Either way that was clearly a Honeywell product. Although for most of my life Honeywell meant computers. The first machine that I had unattended access to was a Honeywell 2000 run by our local board of education. The Computer Center would go to lunch and it was mine to operate and program until they got back.

  5. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    Actually, frame *two* is yesterday – surely by now Janis would have insisted on one of those newfangled smart thermostats, so they could bring their battle of the body temperatures into the modern age!

    As my wonderful mother-in-law neared the end of her long life, she told me that as she gets older, her room-temperature comfort range gets narrower and narrower. When I asked her what her current range was, she replied, straight-faced, “seventy-two.”

  6. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    One of my favorites, Jimmy. Along with the variations on night people vs day people you have run.

  7. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I totally agree that the photo shop copy really works with this particular strip. Because it is true that there will always be a difference between two people no matter how fancy the thermostat.

    I remember selling Chrysler on using separate Automatic Temperature controls for the driver and passenger in the early 90’s. I convinced my management to make a prototype with the feature and let Chrysler executives drive it around for a new weeks. The feedback that we got back was that the wives demanded that Chrysler use this feature, so it was a very easy sell.

  8. MontanaPhil Avatar
    MontanaPhil

    One thing the digital age has done is to almost entirely do away with fractions. The only areas I can think that still use fractions are cooking, construction and sometimes distance. Why anyone ever thought of dividing things by 2,4, 8 or 16 when we use base 10 for counting is beyond me. I’ll wager a majority of people have trouble with fractions more complex than one quarter. We had an adult volunteer at Habitat ask “What’s 4/8ths ?

  9. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    First day back in the office is much like the last day I was in the office in 2018. Not getting much done. Just not ready to jump in the deep end yet. Still trying to figure out why people are so cheerful on the first day back to work. My eyes are watering. Maybe I am allergic to work?

    So I tried to use the “Search” button on the blog, but with very mixed results. I miss the calendar that was on the side of the blog. But I did find an entry for late 2014 and hit “Next” and read through a few posts. There are a few people that we active that are not here much or at all any more. Several, like Debbe and Mindy from Indy, I really miss. I hope that they are OK. There was one person that might have been a bit of a troll. They really stirred up some trouble and thankfully we have not heard from that person in a while.

    So I just sent an email and got a favorable response….maybe it is time to go to work! 😛

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      Mindy from Indy is doing well and posts frequently on Facebook. I’m with you in wishing some of those phantoms would speak up, though.

  10. John Kelly Avatar

    I’m pretty sure Ludwig is behind the sofa in the second panel.

  11. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    I immediately noticed the “Honey Pot” name on the thermostat and thought, “Well. Well. Well.”

    By the way, there is a business that calls itself The Honey Pot Company and markets “feminine products”. (I found some of their product descriptions on their web site to be somewhat amusing, if not entirely family-friendly.) So I suppose there is at least one meaning of “honey pot” that is not exactly Winnie the Pooh-ish.

  12. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    As for length – 1 foot was the Kings foot
    inches were Barley corns(?) 12 to the kings foot
    An inch (any length) is easier to divide in half and half again and so on.

    Back before the first oil brouhaha an office manager turned the thermostat down slightly-
    the women in the office kept turning it up and down thinking they were getting heat quicker-(not true)
    the manager put a functioning thermostat in his office and left the original in the outer office-
    The workers kept turning their thermostat and were happy – the manager was happy – everybody was happy.

    Have sent some stuff to Debbe – it has not come back, so hope she is OK.
    Jackie maybe you could call? Give her a hug from all of us.

    1. Jackie Avatar
      Jackie

      Debbe is not doing well health wise or family last I spoke to her. I prefer not to comment. I am uncertain she is still at number I had.

  13. TruckerRon Avatar

    Here’s a definition of ‘honeypot’ I’d forgotten:

    In computer terminology, a honeypot is a computer security mechanism set to detect, deflect, trap, or, in some manner, counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems.