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.
Big Shot
By Jimmy Johnson
Recent Posts
Ghost of Christmas Past
This holiday Arlo & Janis comic strip from 2022 is similar in concept to the new strip that ran yesterday. I thought the latter ...
Spearhead
I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience ...
Dark Passage
Remember: it’s that weekend. The return to standard time can be a bit of a shock in the late afternoon, but I rather enjoy ...
What’s old is old, again
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a web site, but there are similarities. Everything needs to be just right, or ...
Back to the ol’ drawing board
I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph ...
Thursday’s Child
On Sunday, I teased you with the suggestion there are more changes coming here. There are. They will appear soon, and I think you’ll ...
402 responses to “Big Shot”
Jackie, I do keep a diary, but I never do things like side-dressing, though I do use compost. My diary just shows what brand and lot of seeds, or if reseeded from which tray, date of planting,date of first sprouting, first harvesting and last, and where on my gridded map they were planted. That is the reason I plant my tomatoes in half shade by the garden shed and overhead lattice-work. I get to smile when my fellow gardeners gripe aboput their tomatoes drying up! 😀
Sorry, Jackie, about all I know about spinach is that despite all the mothers who ever said, “Eat your spinach; it’s good for you”, it is high in oxalates and eating a lot of it can cause kidney stones. And, of course, that it makes a great salad with crumbled bacon, sliced boiled eggs and mushrooms, and topped with a warm bacon dressing. 🙂
Gosh, Lily, I thought one just dropped some seeds in the ground, watered and weeded occasionally, and then picked the produce. That sounds like the military way to grow stuff. 🙂
Not if you want the plants to go on living, Ghost. Not in Texas, anyway. Not if you don’t want to be reduced to buying your veggies at the supermarket. Adequate, but not the best flavor and not near the fun
The discussion about Madonna and her singing/acting brings to mind a discussion/debate I’ve been watching play out on another blog…is it OK to enjoy/appreciate/purchase the artistic work of someone that you otherwise feel is despicable in some way that matters to you?
Jackie: I think this is the link: http://www.ehow.com/how_4896111_plant-spinach-fall-garden.html
My link didn’t have any luscious babes! Sorry, Ghost!
What is correnta spinach? No, wait, you know what? I don’t really care! 🙂
http://www.ehow.com/video_12277772_grow-correnta-spinach.html
I just tried a brief msg with a
Debbe, had a busy day and didn’t read today’s comments until now, Re leaving the Clapton concert, I admit that the rowdy crowd had something to do with it, but even after I had the guys behind me thrown out I found that every song was being done exactly like the record and I didn’t expect that from Clapton. I can stay at home and play the record so I’m afraid that I was kinda bored. My favorites have been those that I was close enough to touch them if I had gone for it, Jerry Lee Louis, Neal Diamond, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdink, Ronnie McDowell, John Conley, the guy that did “Down in the Boondocks”, his name escapes me right now, and oh yeah a very scruffy looking Kenny Rogers and the First Edition in our cafeteria around 1970.
Good night, all. I am drunk, as usual. Let me just say, re: enjoying the work of people you despise, that Cellini, Caravaggio and even Leonardo would fall under that rubric in my case. I would hate to mention Andy Warhol in that group.
That is a really GOOD point, Ghost. I am most definitely not a Madonna fan, so when I found myself saying “Dang, that woman is good in this” it went against all I believed. Another person I can think of just instantly is way my husband feels about Jane Fonda. He has never forgiven her for Viet Nam. Yet, she is most definitely a talented actress. I am not sure he will admit that?
But yeah, I can think of others I am sure, I just did, not people for politics but probably for what I consider immoral or illegal actions. Isn’t it strange, people become celebrities or “famous” and they think nothing applies to them? Guess that viewpoint is shared by a lot of common people as well!
Love, Jackie
Jerry, I agree on what you said for sure. I have sat so close to stage sometimes that I have had drops of sweat flung my way by the great Jerry Lee and Ray Charles both, Lisa Minnelli, Tina Turner, others — those guys worked when they performed and gave it their all. They never phoned in their performance.
Love, Jackie
Jerry and Jackie, it’s a tough call. I rather liked Elton John’s music and figured how he lived his life was his own business. But when he started to actively try to destroy Christianity because it conflicted with his lifestyle I started ignoring his tunes. Now he is trying to impose his views on everybody instead of living his own life. Fail!
I like Pink Floyd but I have a difficult time listening to Roger Waters solo work. He has carried so much bitterness for so long it has distorted his talent. Yet he still has flashes of brilliance that come through, such as Each Small Candle.
Good morning Villagers….
GR 😉 , how’s your Mom this morn? We’re all praying she gets to go home today. Does she live alone? Will you stay with her a couple of days when she goes home? (My son says I ask too many questions….inquiring minds want to know, I say.)
Jerry, I can see your point, spend all that money and you could have stayed home and listened to the same quality, without the madness of a drunken/stoned crowd. I always liked a little ‘extra’ from the performer when I went to concerts.
To free or not to free the roosters. My husband said the coyotes would get them, and he is right. They have spent their whole life in a cage, with ample food and water supplied. They would not survive even here on my property. I wouldn’t know how to condition them to drink water as they drink from a small water ‘nipple’ that when pressed disperses water.
And it’s National Cat Day…..meow http://cheezburger.com/291077
Happy Caterday
Jackie….I think Sean Penn is a great actor…..until he started hanging out with Chevez. Now I’ve read that he and Charleze Theron are an item….she was great in the movie “Monster”.
…my husband just got up and we started laughing over an interview this news network was having with some retired officer (now, remember our Commander in Chief is leaving for a one week’s vacation at Martha’s Vineyard)…..anyway, this retired officer said it was unusual for them not to name a mission, he said maybe it should be called “Operation Martha’s Vineyard” 🙂
Aw, come guys, it was funny, and he would be having his “weakly” address from there….
🙂
Ghost, if you find/can afford a piece of art (music, sculpture whatever) and you like it- buy it. You don’t have to bring the artist home with you, too. Sometimes jerks can really do art. Appreciating the art and approving the artist don’t go hand-in-hand.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to support that jerk because he IS a creepy jerk- don’t buy it. 🙂
Down the road you’ll find an artist you like with another piece that catches your eye and you’ll have $$.
Hope Mom is much better today. Everyone-have some fun today!
World Cat Day made me smile and then laugh out loud. Thank you, Debbe. Mine got their first rations of canned food to go with the kibble, I have to do it within seconds of getting up!
I’d figure out someway to keep roosters in house, then return them to chicken house. Good thing I never got that job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Stayed on the list at the top for a year while they tried to think if they’d break down and hire a woman. They did, about a week after I’d signed on with labor department, but I’d never have made it.
Animal lover here would be dead along with animals.
Charlie is out howling at top of his lungs, he has heard the dog sitter’s car go by I bet? A coon/fox hound in full voice, backup sung by a Catahoula cattle dog will get the vacationing “weekenders” in the neighborhood up!
Llee, you are right of course. Talent as talent probably should be the determining factor, not their politics, love life, idiotic behavior, etc. Unless every time you look at the sculpture it reminds you! Better we know less about personal idiosyncrasy.
Love, Jackie
David Tennant and cats! Happy Caturday! http://tennantnews.blogspot.com/2014/08/video-its-world-cat-day-cats-david.html
Debbe 😉 You sure do ask a lot of questions for a blonde, 116-lb, egg-packing, hen-sitter. 🙂 My Mom had a restful night, which is not always easy to do in a hospital. As you’d expect, Radiology is not as busy on a weekend, so they did her chest x-ray at 0700. Now we are waiting for the hospitalist to make his patient-trek from the ground floor to the top floor. He also probably doesn’t have as many patients to see on a Saturday, so perhaps he’ll be here soon. If the x-ray showed improvement or even no worsening, she’ll go home.
She sold her house a couple of years after my Dad died and lives independently in her own apartment, which she loves. But we found her one near where I live, so I’m only minutes away. And I will of course be keeping a close check on her for the next few days. We’ll probably be seeing her pulmonary doc Monday or Tuesday.
“. . . they think nothing applies to them? Guess that viewpoint is shared by a lot of common people as well!”
I guess it does, especially in their cars. Try driving the I 494/I 694 ‘belt’ around the Twin Cities at or below the legal speed limit, or look at the parade behind you if you’ve been cruising at approx. the speed limit on good 2-lane state or co. highways. Sunday morning, these people will be asking their ‘Father’ to forgive them their trespasses, and, God willing, I will be trying to forgive them theirs. Family reunion weekend.
I thought every day was Cat Day.
Walked down the hall to a waiting room to send some family emails while my Mom was getting her bath. TV there was on a cable channel showing “Snakes on a Plane”. If Lily’s Boss of Her Life yelled at “Grey’s Anatomy” while watching it, I can only guess what a herpetologist would do were he or she to watch that piece of improbability about snakes. Shrieks of anguish, perhaps?
Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers regularly penetrating the US’s northern ADIZ to test our air defenses? Shades of the 1960’s. Our commander-in-chief, though, has assured us that the Cold War has not resumed. Good to know.