This is a New Year’s Day cartoon from 2003, one of my favorites within that genre. It occurs to me that it would be an interesting exercise to update this one with a new panel or two. However, that would require extra work, and the results would be too morbid. I’ll just let Arlo ride. Although I’ll deny it to my dying day, this A&J suggests a Calvin & Hobbes influence. It was difficult for a cartoonist not to be influenced by Bill Watterson’s creation in those days. While one could argue he took the themes to new levels, Mr. Watterson did not invent the concept of the snowman diorama, nor did he invent sledding downhill. Anyway, that’s my defense, and I’m sticking to it.
A Snowball’s Chance
By Jimmy Johnson
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33 responses to “A Snowball’s Chance”
I’d suggest two panels, 2007 hitting a tree and 2020 with just a mushroom cloud.
I would not want to see the forest that Arlo would have navigated in 2020. How about a big gully or depression that he would have had to cross over from 2019 to 2021 ( or gulp, beyond!)
I’d suggest two panels, 2007 hitting a tree, and 2020 just a mushroom cloud.
Re 1-6-21 retro cartoon: Panel 5 could be Arlo being propelled from the sled and on top of Janis. I’ve always thought she’d be a soft place to land.
Re 1-6-21 real-time cartoon:
Overheard in a physician’s office, between two older gentlemen:
1st OG: Hey, Fred. Haven’t seen you in a while. How are you doing?
2nd OG: I’d be doing fine if I could get over being old.
#truestory
Jimmy, add Janis to the second and following panels. From your strips showing the backstory of the strip, they must have come together prior to 1983, so she should be part of his life from then on. Maybe have Gene and his family starting their descent of the hill following 2003.
Looking at these comments, I’m glad we have JJ, a true professional, drawing and writing the strip!
I know that time waits for no man, but why does it have a jet when all I have is a car?
I always loved it when Calvin and Hobbes went airborne or landed in big mess off a cliff
Put Ludwig on sled with Arlo.
I had friend who took his cat out on his small sailboat to see if he’d be a boat cat.
People watching from shore called marine rescue and he got funny chapter in his book
I like the idea of Ludwig jumping off of Arlo’s shoulder just as the sled goes over a cliff.
That’s right, Jimmy: Sparky Schulz was doing dioramic snowmen, critturs, what not, back in the ’50s. Remember Linus’s tyrannosaurus rex?
I was thinking about Schultz and all the snowy day comics he created when I saw this one too. As a kid I used to take my Charlie Brown books out in November, looking for snowy day comics, dreaming of snow.?
A friend rode a sled on her birthday every year – even into her late 80’s/90 after that it was a
horse drawn sleigh ride.
Today’s, 1-7-21, strip hit the nail on the head!!! Boy oh boy, that could be our house.
Sure is good to come here and kid each other and discuss common ailments and observations…if you know what I mean. I love you guys. And you tolerate me!
Now bread making has come rather simple for me. The kneading is just the therapy for working out my aggressions. Other food endeavors have caused me to get frustrated and upset but I have had only ONE failure in breadmaking and that was due to some defective yeast. If I had been paying attention I could have easily caught it and gone to the store for new yeast without ruining the batch.
If you’re full up on bread, you can always make pasta. Let it dry for a few days and it will last a long, long time.
I usually freeze the bread that I don’t eat right away. I have never perfected the art of pasta making. My FIL taught both of my kids how to do it, but my attempts have not been very good. I make bread much better!
Hi. I’m just wondering if anyone knows if Jimmy has a copy of Bop Til You Drop? Many years ago i messaged or emailed with him and he mentioned that he did not. I found a copy and was just wanting to let him know.
thanks,
Jeff
Re the 1-7-21 real-time cartoon: As far as baking bread goes, I’m a staunch proponent of Pain à la Bière. (Pretentious? Moi?)
OK, it’s “beer bread”. And not the fancy-smancy French version that has a list of 15 or so ingredients and directions that run to 35 sentences. (tl;dr. Perhaps French chefs make the beer from scratch as well.) Mine is four (4) ingredients and basically has four (4) steps to follow.
And something else occurred to me as I saw Arlo working with his bread. One does not need to knead beer bread dough. The beer does the work. (“Beer! Is there nothing it cannot do?”)
There are also some very good breadmakers out there. Out of the several that my ex and I had, the best was a Zojirushi. All you had to do was put the ingredients in according to the directions and push the buttons. It would make a loaf up to 2 pound size and do dark breads as well as regular white. And if you wanted French bread baguettes or other doughy items, you could use it to make the dough and do the rising, then remove it and form your loaf, rolls or whatever and bake them in your oven.
For 50 years I wanted the heavy duty fancy counter top Kitchen Aid mixer with the bread hook. I got one six years ago and have made no bread. Now kitchen is off limits to me until leg reaches another status.
I am trying to get Ghost to use it.
I used to make all our bread — daily, for 2 people — using all whole grains of several different kinds. Loved absolutely everything about it, especially the proofing process and the kneading. Alas, about 4 years into this I discovered I am tremendously allergic to wheat — not gluten-intolerant, but allergic. I tested this diagnosis (reluctantly) by quitting eating all wheat. My lifelong asthma dropped by about 90%. I went from using medicine 6 times a day to using it more like 4 times a *week*. And during certain times of year, I now go for literally weeks with no asthma at all. Which means of course, I willingly if sadly gave up bread and all the other wonderful things made with flour. That’s a lot of yummy stuff. The moral of the story is: treasure your bread, folks!! And savor some for me. 🙂
Love my bread maker – now on #3 (after 26 years) – a cuisinart – the instructions say it will make jam too – not going to try that! too much mess
I wish I could find barley flour – like that the best – buckwheat comes in second
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1MKDC_enUS771US771&biw=1229&bih=578&tbm=shop&ei=DMn3X_PjLdDQsAXKvpHwBg&q=Barley+flour+&oq=Barley+flour+&gs_lcp=Cgtwcm9kdWN0cy1jYxADMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoFCCEQqwJQ1jVY1jVgljloAHAAeACAAVCIAYUBkgEBMpgBAKABAaoBD3Byb2R1Y3RzLWNjLXdpesABAQ&sclient=products-cc&ved=0ahUKEwjzmZu8qovuAhVQKKwKHUpfBG4Q4dUDCAw&uact=5
I love homemade breads, but I’ve recently come to grips with the reality that I have a mild version of IBS. So, for now, I’m on the FODMAP diet, and will cautiously find out which breads work for me now. The diet suggests:
Corn bread
Rice bread
Spelt sourdough bread
Potato flour bread…
and generously allows me a single slice of wheat bread.
The good news is my postnasal drip and cough are gone! So in February I’ll start experimenting with adding back in small amounts of the things I miss most.
I too have been on FODMAP multiple times for various ailments including IBS and recently last year for some of my stomach issues. It is hard to follow in my opinion.
The Australians know more about it than us and it is used there much more.
The hardest part of the diet so far was going from the basic chart to the more complete foods list and discovering more things to drop for this initial phase includes the basics of an Italian dish: almost all pastas, garlic, and mushrooms. Even tomato sauce has a limit on it (about 13 milliliters, a bit under 3 tsp!). I do look forward to February!!! At least I can have mozzarella and hard cheeses… but on what? With what sauce? Is better health really worth it? I’m already limited by type II diabetes…
https://www.ibsdiets.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBSDiets-FODMAP-chart.pdf
There are some very good rice noodles out there. Annie Chun’s brown rice pad thai noodles could easily substitute for linguini and is probably available at your local grocery store.
The British Baking Show had an episode were the bakers had to make bread without
wheat flour.
.
No one used “non nutritive filler” (actually on some bread labels) a euphemism for Saw Dust.
Remember when there was a scandal a few years ago about grated Parmesan cheese having excess cellulose added?
It May have been Fiber no filler. 🙁
Who is K.T. When Janis peen tends to burn her bra?
…pretends to burn her bra…