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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Anti Social Media

By Jimmy Johnson

January 28, 2015


Today’s classic A&J is the first of a little three-part series that can be viewed by clicking on the date below the cartoon. When I was a boy, there actually were a lot of restaurants in the small city where my family lived. They almost all were cafes and diners or steak-and-potatoes joints. Salad invariably was iceberg lettuce. For the gourmands, there might be spaghetti with meatballs. A true gastronomic adventure was to drive south, over the county line to “the backwater” where you could dine on fried catfish at a “fish camp” and—get ready for it—have a beer! Well, the adults could. The fare in these places was simple but good, and most of it went away with the spread of suburbia. Strip malls replaced the downtowns, and fast-food chains replaced the local eateries. However, the local dining scene has made a comeback in this century, much of it cropping up in the once-forlorn downtowns. The experience is likely to be different, and more expensive, than that of my youth, but it is a good thing.


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14 responses to “Anti Social Media”

  1. emb Avatar
    emb

    Hey! JJ changed the site while I was posting these. They may still be worth a look:

    emb
    Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 8:17 am
    No R-b Woodpeckers this morning. This is, or was, a herd of Impala in E or S Africa.
    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-animal-lookout-camera
    Peace,
    Reply

    emb
    Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 8:24 am
    East. And this is a female Greater Kudu, also in Kenya. Have seen impala live in Kenya, ’87, but kudu only in the African Hall at the AMNH, NYC. Grew up there, and in the Bronx Zoo. Scroll down for sev other sites.
    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-river-wildlife-camera

    Peace,

  2. emb Avatar
    emb

    emb
    Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 8:17 am
    No R-b Woodpeckers this morning. This is, or was, a herd of Impala in E or S Africa.
    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-animal-lookout-camera
    Peace,

  3. Bonnie from Gloucester MA Avatar
    Bonnie from Gloucester MA

    All of JJ’s comments about the evolution of neighborhood restaurants are true. And I noticed the beverage in the panel is wine. Which is also my only beverage of choice these days. White wine, specifically. But the “dancing” retro strip references Singapore Slings! That’s one of only 2 mixed drinks I would drink in high school (when 18 was the legal age). I haven’t thought about Slings in years. They were very sweet. I also drank screwdrivers. Well, and cheap beer, of course. Don’t drink those anymore but I’ll still dance up a storm. Zumba a couple of times per week. A & J should try THAT.

  4. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    In the Detroit area, Coney Islandsare very prevalent. When you leave Detroit you don’t have that mom and pop type of restaurant. They’re either chains or fast food

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    Reticulated Giraffes [the best kind, IMO] have replaced the impala. Peace,

  6. TruckerRon Avatar

    Back before I swore off alcohol forever, I tried a few drinks because of their names (Harvey Wallbanger, Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s, etc.) or to see what different liquors tasted like. Wine was the hardest to give up; beer was the easiest.

  7. Cozmik Cowboy Avatar
    Cozmik Cowboy

    In my drunken youth, I would just about anything, except Scotch and (after a quart-in-an-hour-and-a-half night at 18) tequila.

    Now – except for a little Amaretto (straight or with OJ), Grand Marnier (straight) when it’s cold, or Jamaican rum (with pineapple juice) when it’s hot, distilled spirits pretty much taste like gasoline to me. Still love good wine & beer, though – but not in the quantities I used to; in my old age I’m less interested in getting knee-walkin’ than in savoring the subtleties of the brewmaster’s art.

    As Jimmy’s restaurant comments – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The three worst things that ever happened to the US are McDonald’s, WalMart, and the Interstate Highway System.

  8. Neal H Sanders Avatar

    Speaking of restaurants, when do we get back to ‘the kids’?????

  9. JerryC Avatar
    JerryC

    We still have “fish camps” in our part of Mississippi. We still visit three different ones quite often.

  10. Bonnie Avatar
    Bonnie

    Just looked at the three part series referenced above. It builds to the third strip, which I didn’t see coming, but it made me laugh!

  11. Debbie from Alabama Avatar
    Debbie from Alabama

    Hey Jimmy,
    Carey’s Colonial Inn
    Holmes Place
    The Triangle

    Later
    The White House
    Barnes

  12. Craig T Avatar
    Craig T

    My great aunt and uncle, who lived near the Buena Vista Piggly Wiggly in Columbus, had a cabin at the Backwaters. We had to follow the hand-painted signs nailed to trees to get there.

    They had no well, so they hauled drinking water there in Clorox bottles, and the toilet emptied into the lake.

    But we’d buy worms on the way down and spend hours at the end of the dock with cane poles. There was nothing else to do.

  13. Alexandr Avatar
    Alexandr

    How he makes $300 per day – https://bit.ly/3iixYy0