Today, a true classic from 10 years ago. I ran across some discussion on the Web the other day about A&J. No, I did not Google myself! I used Bing. A few years back I had drawn Janis getting dressed, much as in the strip above. She was slipping into a camisole in the process of donning a heavy cable-knit sweater, and the very lowest sliver of her right breast was depicted. Big deal? Well, apparently. It generated a lot of internet discussion (“Underboob” it was repeatedly called.) and even a newspaper column about whether this was “appropriate” for the comics. I don’t have time to post a link to the cartoon, but I have every faith that if you watch the comments below there will be one within the hour. So, I ask, why is it okay to show any and all of the female breast above the nipple (after 5 p.m., of course!) but not anything below? Besides, I truly was not trying to be lascivious. I grew up reading comics 50 years ago. The women in The Heart of Juliet Jones and Apt. 3-G rarely wore anything but underwear! And the paper was chock-a-block with illustrations of lingerie available in the Atlanta department stores. Trust me on that one. Besides, there is a double standard at work here. I could draw Arlo in his drawers a hundred times and not generate one comment. I’m not saying this is strange; I’m just saying it is true. It is also true, I guess, what our mothers told us when we were young: “If you get a bad reputation, well… that’s it!”
Black Is the Old Black
By Jimmy Johnson
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62 responses to “Black Is the Old Black”
@NinB.
Neal, that only was done in Boston. The rest of the world had moved on 🙂
Sorry, Neal and all. The anonymous post was from my laptop where my identity is not saved.
OF due 1752-1812 CDT. emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Jimmy:
I use Bing on occasion myself and have been using it more frequently lately, but I have found that Google still wins most search contests.
Brother Jimmy, since you suffer from the same handicaps that all men do, you are acutely aware that you are shooting proverbial fish in the barrel where any hint of boobies is involved. You have mined that vein of ore and gotten rich returns over the years. From “There’s just something about a peek” to Janis removing her bra from underneath her bulky sweater and putting it on the sofa as Arlo smiles happily (Janis’s single-word thought balloon: “Men!”), it is, to quote Darth Vader, “All too easy.”
And look at the uproar over a simple penstroke that looked like a parentheses on its back. “Men!”
Vive la difference. On doit toujours chercher la femme!
For a change of topic from bobs to food as probably the third thing on men’s minds, I got daughter to eat prime rib at Mrs Mac’s Kitchen and I got grilled crab cakes with a tiny bit of honey mustard sauce. Tomorrow I try for brunch but I don’t think she will allow lobster omelet She has my credit card
Mark I love your cats, especially Domino
Boobs that was supposed to be Boobs Dang spell check
Thanks Jackie. Bama and Lucy are no longer with us. She died suddenly about 2 years ago. She was about 16. Bama developed an oral cancer that was inoperable and had to be euthanized just a few months after we lost Lucy. He was over 17. He was my favorite. Domino was very small when we adopted her, but she has certainly grown since then. My ex says since the three older cats died she has become much more affectionate.
Glad you are able to eat solid food, (and keep it down). And how is boobs to food a change of topic?
A bit of music to go with the retro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH850qp85Zk
Listen to the lyrics and the connection will get clearer.
Jackie, you “got” your daughter to eat prime rib? What, you had to hold your gun on her? Perhaps I do need to to apply for that driver’s job. I have no objection to either prime rib or lobster omelet.
Debbe 😉
A chance to coin a word: is what we can see in today’s strip termed an “underbutt”?
Good morning Villagers…..
Old Bear, you are most welcome, wish it was that simple…but with some 15.000 cages, it would be a little hard to soak them. I’m not sure what they do with the ‘spent hens’….I’ve heard dog food. Two weeks before they take them ‘out’, they ‘sacrifice’ three or four hens, and take meat samples to send off to make sure they are ‘chemical’ free.
Thought of you yesterday GR 😉 …Andrew went to the hardware store to pick up a can of clutch cleaner…..well he returned with the can AND the swimsuit calendar….there sat Ian and Andrew checking out each month….of course I had to peek too 🙂
Anonymous….good choice of word for today’s real time strip.
Jackie, you got your daughter to eat prime rib….are you sure they didn’t switch babies at the hospital?
Gal and Indy Mindy….spring is here, a little early….we are to be in the sixties at least for a week. I wish this warm weather would hold out for the cleansing of the hen house. After the rain all day yesterday…the sun is out today…..AMEN
Miss Charlotte….did you call your doctor?
Ya’ll have a blessed day.
today’s grin: http://cheezburger.com/8395789056
Arlo says today that Janis is “as happy as a clam.”
Never have understood that saying.
I have seen many, many clams, and not one ever looked happy.
Scared to death of starfish, yes, but never happy.
Jackie:
Spellchecker can be the bane of us all.
In regard to the topic at hand (pun intended), I have this to offer:
A couple of years, the population of my office became heavily female, and boobs became a constant topic – among the women.
Boobs this, boobs that, boobs stretching sweaters, boobs not stretching anything, boobs in the way, sagging boobs, disappearing boobs, and on and on.
All of which led me to wonder how breasts came to be known as boobs.
So, of course, I used “origin of slang term boobs” in a search engine.
I was astonished to find that the first several entries were not pornographic or even salacious.
For the fellas here who are enjoying the comic-strip female form, be sure to see Pibgorn today.
emb – better 15 seconds too late than 15 seconds too early.
I suspect there’d be an uproar of another sort if Arlo was featured wearing briefs and a hint of his “junk” was visible, via curve or line. My partner’s recollection of his small-town newspaper’s editorial board came to mind when we read this strip: they used to feature the city’s men’s and boys swimming leagues in the sports section, and when the participants were lined up for a group photo, there was often a strategic dot, if you get my drift… Nothing comparable for the women’s and girls’ swimming league photos, though! Even back then, he thought it was a double-standard.
“emb – better 15 seconds too late than 15 seconds too early.” I scrolled back.
You meant curmudgeonly ex-professor, “Methinks Arlo popped in about 15 seconds too late…!” Villagers confuse us, and we each find it complimentary, except when the other is wrong, but we each forgive that, because it says to.
Peace, emb
Rick: I looked up “happy as a clam” recently. According to the reference source, the saying originally was “happy as a clam at high tide.” At high tide, clams are safely covered by the water.
Gal, isn’t it great to be able to easily look up things that aren’t in the encyclopedia? We are so lucky to live now. Happy, happy, joy, joy! 🙂
“Happy, happy, joy, joy!” meant sincerely, not in the Ren & Stimpy way. It really does make me joyful and happy!
Thanks for the “Spoiler Alert”….It is always nice to have a peek!
Oh and Jimmy, I am not looking into your window. One of the nice things about this blog is that we are all different, but yet very similar. We are like an old married couple that can anticipate the other’s actions. It always blows my wife away when I do this… It proves to her that I AM actually listening!
Daughter is fast food addicted and does not eat anything with a bone or fat on it. As in a pork chop or chicken for example . The other daughter claims to have been switched at birth because she was born during a hurricane and hospital dumped out all patients hurriedly, baby identity method poor then. This one looks like me but even bustier than I. She is one who got her MBA while working as cocktail waitress and said place was crawling in PhD staff
Ghost you can apply, position as personal trainer and diet counselor is open too.
OK the pigs are not only flying by but swimming as well because I admit that Facebook is interesting and what has replaced forum chatting But not the Village although Jimmy either has a ghost writer or talks over there And I like the hat and beard too but I almost always like hats and beards.
Love Jackie