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

Est. 1985

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Big Shot

By Jimmy Johnson


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"Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
When the umpteenth variation of “Dead of the Living Night” comes on television, it’s tempting to deride the caliber of entertainment available today. And I do, but as human beings we’ve always had something of a spotty track record when it comes to spectacle. Imagine a huge tent filled with people waiting for somebody to be shot out of a cannon. Not long ago, that was entertainment. Before that, it was bear-baiting and feeding people to wild animals. Maybe we’ve come further than we think.

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402 responses to “Big Shot”

  1. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Ah ha, Bryan….come inside , come inside…..one of my favorites…thanks.

    Jackie…..here’s a Zepplin tune for your upcoming fall sailing extravaganza: It’s called “Down By the Seaside”…my son suggested it 🙂 yes…I do talk about you all.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuU12Ye9F8

    Lilly…noticed on your FB page you’ve listed the Stones and Zepplin as your favorite artists…so, what’s your favorite tunes?

  2. Lilyblack Avatar

    Nope, Debbe, haven’t had a hangover since my teenage years. That was a great discovery when I got out of the hospital: I could drown my sorrows at night and still get up bright-eyed and bushy tailed. For small mercies by ye glad…

    Jackie, I don’t know, it was a Holiday Inn on the Interstate, nothing to write hoome about, but it made a nice break

  3. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Have spent all morning morning at the hospital with my Mom. Just tests, but still not my favorite way to spend time, especially after all the hours I logged with my sister before she passed away. Still waiting for them to finish with her, perhaps another hour.

    When I think Vicksburg, I think Goldie’s Trail Bar-B-Que. Which was of course better in their original “shack” location on the bluff overlooking the River, before the fancy eatin’ place bought the property and Goldie’s had to move across the street. Why does ‘que always taste better cooked behind and served inside of a shack?

  4. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Bryon….I’ll see your “gypsy queen in a sheath of vaseline” to

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y86kDFaJ2h4

  5. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Because bbq should be cooked and sold in a place so decrepit the sign fell off and they never replaced it because everyone knew how to find it. And in places your mama would turn around at the door, afraid to eat there.

    And better yet, with big old greasy outside smokers and grills. We had a favorite in Texas my kids called “Pick A Part” Barbeque because you went in and pointed to a slab of something? on open fire pit and they pulled it out to sell to you!

    Hope your mama is OK, Ghost.

    Love, Jackie

  6. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Because bbq should be cooked and sold in a place so decrepit the sign fell off and they never replaced it because everyone knew how to find it. And in places your mama would turn around at the door, afraid to eat there.

    And better yet, with big old greasy outside smokers and grills. We had a favorite in Texas my kids called “Pick A Part” Barbeque because you went in and pointed to a slab of something? on open fire pit and they pulled it out to sell to you!

    Hope your mama is OK, Ghost.

    Love, Jackie

  7. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    GR….a prayer for good test results……..Amen. Keep us updated, please; as Moms are special. Where would we be without us.

  8. Lilyblack Avatar

    Ghost: I’ll say a prayer for your mother . Hope she never nagged you like mine does

  9. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Debbe, I see your Eric Clapton and raise you a John Fogerty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_leXZqmKEY

  10. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    John is great. I went to see CCR w/o John and had very low expectations. They were great. Three concerts that I could have left early with no problem: Clay Akin, Elton John and, surprisingly, Eric Clapton.

  11. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Now, Mark, you can’t tell me you didn’t see this one coming…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKyFweWu0OQ

    Jerry!!!! You would left a Clapton concert early….why??? What year????

  12. Lilyblack Avatar

    I wouldn’t go to an Eric Clapton concert in the first place. The only song of his I really liked was “Promises”.

    This guy that was kinda chasing me – no thanks! – told me once that he had tickets to a Jimmy Buffet concert and he couldn’t go. Would I like to go in his place. At first I said yes, and took the tickets, but then got cold feet and gave then to a couple I know. Guess what, the guy was sitting in the next seat and asked, “Where’s Susie?”. The woman told me that she deadpanned, “She’s washing her hair, I heard.” She knows me pretty well

  13. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Moving right along……I’ll raise you with a Springsteen

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8ZQkeZvzc

  14. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Jackie – I shared your description of what a BBQ joint should be with my husband. He thinks that’s the most accurate description he’s ever heard!

  15. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-YnN6-q2s

    Playing a Queen.

    Love, Jackie

  16. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Mark…I fold…can’t beat the Fogerty….thanks, it’s been bookmarked, but here’s a treat with Townsond and Gilmour…….

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeLEo318Yec

  17. Lilyblack Avatar

    There’s a place in Dallas near the Medical School named Sonny Bryant’s that I heard has good BBQ. The windows are dirty and the clientele mixed. We stopped by there once and I waited in the car. The BBQ was okay, but not worth visiting that dinky little flyspotted place. But, then I don’t like BBQ or Mexican food all that much. Everything considered, I’d rather eat at home

  18. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Jackie…how does she do it after all these years…..perhaps, rollin’ on the river 🙂 I’ve heard or read somewhere her legs are insured for a few $$$

  19. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Lilly…I too have special memories of Clapton’s song ‘Promises’……..

  20. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good night GR….and positive thoughts are with your mother.

  21. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    Wife was the barbecue fan; I’m not. Just don’t care for any of the BBQ sauces I’ve tried lately. I say lately / an experience I had in ’65 / an excellent NSF 3-wk summer workshop in botany at UNC Chapel Hill. C. Ritchie Bell was the UNC prof in charge, and he invited 5 of us [= 5 faculty from various colleges] to go to a Dutch treat BBQ, and to have mint juleps at his house beforehand [also Dutch treat: we purchased a fifth of specified brand bourbon for him, and he prepared the mint juleps from his own fifth before hand]. I’d flown there from n. MN, rode w/ one of the others who had a car. Ritchie apologized for having to make a fifth do for 6 juleps; normally it would do for 5. As many of you know, a properly prepared MJ starts w/ a large glass/mug/whatever [w/ a little mint crushed against its wall] of crushed ice, w/ a straw inserted down the side, the bourbon poured into the crushed ice, and the 5/6 drinks all put in the fridge. Sprig of mint stuck in also. I’m no whiskey fan, but found slowly sipping the diluted slightly minty drink pleasant enough. One of the guests didn’t think carefully / the nature of the drink’s setup, and simply sucked up the liquid through the straw in short order. The rest of us sipped slowly and all went well.

    After 25-30 minutes, Ritchie drove us to the nearby, famed BBQ site in his van. It was rustic, but not run down. Barn of a place, long wooden picnic tables with attached wooden benches. One item on the menu, pulled pork BBQ, rolls?, hush puppies, probably slaw, coffee. Don’t remember a dessert, and found the BBQ ok. Good evening of southern hospitality. Ritchie was probably 10 yr. my senior, is likely gone now. Workshop really paid off in my later classes; my undergrad/grad background in plants was weak.

  22. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Barbeque in North Carolina is usually pulled pork and their sauces are totally different from Texas or Alabama or Memphis, Kansas City ones. I leave out other states as not considered serious barbeque producers, despite what Bill Clinton thinks of Arkansas Q.

    I used to follow Calvin Trillin in the New Yorker on barbeque, he was a fanatic. I’d try and go to all the places he recommended, he knew his sauce.

    Funny thing is all the years I did florist shows, I would NEVER eat the “traditional” show dinner which was always smoked brisket. I found it made me nauseous which Lily probably says is right and I had to talk often for hours with impromptu unscripted comments.

    So, I avoided the unlimited barbeque they provided attendees!

  23. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Home at last. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. (And no, Lily, nary a nag from my mom.)

    Needle biopsy of lung, outpatient, turned into pneumothorax, inpatient admission. (Jackie, I’ve been following Mike’s progress with more than casual interest, as you might guess.) The good news is that the pneumothorax appears small and did not increase in size between two chest x-rays this afternoon.

    They expect at this point it will resolve itself without intervention, but they thought it wise to keep her overnight for oxygen and observation. As did I…it didn’t seem like bringing her home and then perhaps having to drag her back to the hospital in the middle of the night and go through the ER if she developed problems was a particularly good plan. So I’ll be back there at about oh dawn thirty tomorrow to wait for the hospitalist to come by to see her and order another x-ray.

  24. emeritus minnesota biologist Avatar
    emeritus minnesota biologist

    A distinction in memory of wife, RN, BSN, BA [English, Biology]; MA [English]. At work in hospitals, she ran into it all the time, and often corrected it. I think the Village would agree that Jackie may be nauseated on occasion, but is not nauseous. To be nauseous is to nauseate others. Peace, emb