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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Arise and Shine

By Jimmy Johnson

September 1, 1989


I’m sorry to have been gone so long. I recently moved my studio, and absolutely nothing is back to normal yet. Every morning is the anti-Christmas; I can’t wait to get up and see what nasty little surprises my digital infrastructure has for me today. I am rarely disappointed. But enough of that. On to more pleasant surprises! Today is the first full day of fall, and the season is off to a splendid start. Where I live, the First Day of Fall has become a cruel joke. We’re used to summer heat lingering well into October. Not this year, not so far. Literally overnight, we’ve gone from the stupefying heat and humidity of summer to long sleeves and light jackets. Of course, Indian Summer (aka “reality”) awaits, and the heat will return, but for once the weather feels normal. And any form of normalcy is welcome in 2020.


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35 responses to “Arise and Shine”

  1. joe d Avatar
    joe d

    JJ- Glad to hear things are basically ok and you didn’t get flooded away.

  2. Cozmik Cowboy Avatar
    Cozmik Cowboy

    Close approximation of a conversation I had repeatedly with various fools over my working years:

    “Your wife works?”
    “Yep.”
    “That helps a little with the bills, huh?”
    “You kidding? She makes [25/45/50/100]% more than me.”
    “That doesn’t bother you?!?!?”
    “Are you kidding??? I wish she made enough I could stay home!”

  3. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    So we can say “Indian Summer”? The term seems to come from the folks that lived here (aka Indians) described the phenomenon of “any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or November.” It is usually described as occurring after a killing frost.

    I don’t know….I just try to nice to everyone and try to understand where they come from.

    1. Dawn Avatar
      Dawn

      Steve, I can’t speak for everyone. But I happen to be enrolled Choctaw and pretty familiar with Native peoples’ sensitivities to terms. And as far as I know, no one has a problem with the term Indian summer, largely for the reason you have pointed out. I won’t go into any details of why this is so different from most (though not all) team names and so on. But I think you can certainly relax about using this particular term. And I will say I, for one, very much appreciate you wanting to be nice and trying to understand where the people who have trouble with some of these terms are coming from. Kindness and compassion are among the best of humanity’s traits. 🙂

  4. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Yeah, well, get back to me in December about the pleasant and seasonal beginning of this fall, when we see whether or not the Atlantic is still cranking out tropical storms and hurricanes.
    Pessimistic? No, but it is 2020.

  5. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    “And any form of normalcy is welcome in 2020.”
    Amen to that!

  6. Tom (formerly) from the front range. Avatar
    Tom (formerly) from the front range.

    Not sure how many of the villagers have visited the CIDU website. (Comics I Don’t Understand). We who do have learned that Bill Bickel, the site’s creator and maintainer has died quite suddenly. There is a nice posting by his son, Aaron at: http://comicsidontunderstand.com

    Arlo has his own section on the site, not just because some of J. J.’s strips required some explanation (yeah, it’s true) but also because they just might have bordered on the risqué. Any strip or cartoon that crossed that line was dubbed an “Arlo”.

    I see today that a new entry to the site appeared. I know that Bill would queue some posts for future dates.

    R. I. P., Bill

    1. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Avatar
      Blinky the Wonder Wombat

      The kicker with the CIDU Arlo Page was that it featured cartoons that were risque or otherwise non-family content that got slipped past the editors.

    2. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

      Thanks for letting know on the Old Home Site about Bill. He certainly provided a service.

  7. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    The pack-type predators can often run off a much larger/stronger predator, as hyenas vs. lions or leopards in Africa. I couldn’t make out the details of your video, but I am guessing the wolves prevailed. The larger animal may take down a few of the smaller ones, but the rest of the smaller ones make life miserable for the larger, who usually gives up the prey…if such was the reason for their, er, ah, “discussion”.

    1. TruckerRon Avatar

      One of the final lines in the article stated: “Both species lived to fight another day after this intense battle.” So, I also couldn’t make out enough details in the video, and I’ll guess that statement means the bear decided it’d had enough of so many wolves and left on its own.

  8. Rick Bagby Avatar
    Rick Bagby

    2020 has been so weird for so long that anything feels normal now.

  9. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    My favorite MEME being frequently shared right now is:

    ALIENS PROBABLY FLY PAST EARTH NOW AND LOCK THEIR DOORS.

  10. Bonnie from Gloucester MA Avatar
    Bonnie from Gloucester MA

    I did not know about the CIDU website; it looks like a fun place to visit. Too bad about the creator’s untimely demise. I could’ve used CIDU today, though; I don’t get today’s live strip. Is it a cat thing, a weather thing or something else?

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      Think how they describe Hurricanes as a Cat 1, Cat 2, etc. Arlo is teasing Ludwig about why they use that description for the hurricane.

      1. Ghost Avatar
        Ghost

        As Mark would know (from his Squid days 😀 ), the catapults on aircraft carriers are also referred to as “Cats” and the F-14 was the “Tomcat”. Just for a moment, I got a mental image of a cat being launched from a carrier.

        1. Dawn Avatar
          Dawn

          I *literally* spit out some tea when I read that, Ghost, as the mental image invaded my mind as well!

      2. Bonnie from Gloucester MA Avatar
        Bonnie from Gloucester MA

        Well, duh, of course! I’m actually into big storms but up my way, they usually use the full word “category” rather than “cat”. But I’ve certainly heard the abbreviated version. Thank you for straightening me out, Mark. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to brush up on “zombie” hurricanes. Ya gotta love the weather jargon.

  11. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 9-24-20 real-time cartoon: I liked Jimmy depiction of the Weather Lady…blonde and pneumatic. Not having watched TV since I got to OK, I wonder if The Weather Channel still has B&PWL’s.

    1. Ghost Avatar
      Ghost

      Come on, Jimmy, ‘fess up. Your WL was inspired by Stephanie Abrams, amirite?

    2. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      They don’t seem necessarily B&P, and I do watch a lot (by default, sometimes).
      .

      Apropos of nothing here: locality charges over $33.50 each for removal of portable dehumidifiers. We bought the stickers Monday and put out our two old ones this evening. Someone swiped them from the curb. I guess the perp figured the machines just might still work and, if not, the disposal fees had already been paid. Feels like a rip off to me.

  12. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    I thought todays “5 Cat” hurricane rating joke was funny, an amplification of the classic “3 DOG Night”.

    Clever Jimmy.

    And yes, the band was named for the joke.

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