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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Asian or African?

By Jimmy Johnson

Remember when you’d spend simply hours “surfing the Web” on your desktop computer? It was the cool thing to do. Of course, I still do it, but it’s no longer cool. In fact, more people than ever do it, but they do it on phones, and they don’t call it “surfing the Web.” Maybe Marshall McLuhan was right: maybe the medium is the message.

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15 responses to “Asian or African?”

  1. emb Avatar
    emb

    Repeat from last night:
    I know some of you have no use for Brooke’s humor, but others might enjoy this. We are back when Edda [informed / mom Juliette, Ph.D.] & Amos [not] are in parochial h.s., & Edda has been telling Amos about the “birds & the bees [… if you please”: (Harry Belafonte)]. They are now married, & she is due Apr 2020.
    https://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2019/10/08
    Peace,

  2. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    One can really lose oneself “surfing”. One thing that I have noticed is that the search engines are not providing me answers as quickly or accurately as they used too. And we won’t even touch the sites that purposely give false information. People see 4-5 sites saying the same thing and assume that it must be true.

    I had no idea that 2+2=5

  3. ruralbob Avatar
    ruralbob

    No longer “surfing.” It’s “going down the rabbit hole.” How did. I end up here? What was I initially trying to do?

  4. Ruven Avatar
    Ruven

    Marshall McLuhan

    1. Jimmy Johnson Avatar

      I knew that looked weird. I got that spelling from the Web.

      1. Ruven Avatar
        Ruven

        Understanding Media was a required book in a media communications class I took at university. I actually read it. This weird insight stuck–for TV characters, we remember the character names such as Hot Lips, Radar, Archie Bunker, Edith, The Fonz, Lilith, Norm!, Leslie Knope. Remembering the name of the actor is not really expected. In movies we remember the name of the actor–Fay Wray, Clark Gable, Ingrid Bergman, Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Nicholas Cage, et cetera, and only as trivia the name of a character they played.

        And the timing was right because while I was taking the class and reading the book the man himself, Marshall McLuhan, made a memorable cameo appearance in Annie Hall. As himself, of course, making remembering the name of his character easy.

  5. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Avatar
    Blinky the Wonder Wombat

    I see the problem- Arlo was using the left-handed mug!

  6. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    This popped up in one of my FB groups today and reminded me of one of my favorite A&J strips. This is by Charles Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl: https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/71343776_3285633624843052_1730426973345284096_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_oc=AQlCpYS3vwHQMBQekPtt2hLvh8kxiS9vcTWA-vKqqtb-Ztzlcnt7qsV8d9ic7DheRWCD5RqG4qAo5L6KKcx-krwH&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=919bb19f9551e0de81096eff2ac51079&oe=5E2DD685 The strip it reminded me of is the one where Arlo is watering the shrubs and trees in their yard. And in the last panel he is thinking, “When they say, just dig me a hole, watch out!”.

  7. Steve in the Isle of Wight Avatar
    Steve in the Isle of Wight

    When I was an IT consultant, one of the trade mags said we should call it stochastic blue sky research, if the boss asks what we’re up to.

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

      I wish I could have seen The Doors perform there in 1970.

  8. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Jimmy:

    If memory serves, I think that Neil Postman wrote that he was one of McLuhan’s students. Although McLuhan and he agreed on many points, Postman said McLuhan’s “The medium is the message” was only partially correct.

    Postman preferred “The medium is the metaphor.” I like both thoughts, but I favor Postman’s.

    1. Jimmy Johnson Avatar

      Frankly, I never knew exactly what it meant.

  9. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Final post:

    I must be extremely old. I hate cerfing (my own word) the Net on a smartphone or even a tablet. Huge monitor and ergonomic keyboard and mouse for me.

    By the way, I prefer to think of a smartphone as an “NSA-approved personal surveillance device.”

  10. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    You’re durn tootin’ Marshall McLuhan was right!

  11. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    21 marathons and I have never had any issues with my knees. The rest of my body is another issue. However I have always undertrained more than overtrained. My hip replacement, per my surgeon, was due to genetics and that my running may have held that off for a few years.

    I tried to walk 20 miles this weekend and for the second straight time had to stop at 15. I “surfed” the web and looked at potential causes, but considering my latest blood work, I realized the biggest issue is that I weigh too much.

    So the past two days my wife and I have been counting calories.. I walked 1.5 miles Monday, then 2.2 during the day and another 1.5 miles last night. Maybe because we have been eating smarter, I really feel great. I know, 2 days in we ALL feel great, but I am hoping to update you on my progress here (without boring you all to tears)