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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Bread Lines

By Jimmy Johnson

1986-12-18-peggy-sue.gif
1986-12-22-peggy-sue.gif

(Cartoonist’s note: the following has nothing to do with the “Peggy Sue” series, but it appeared 10 years ago during the first rerun of this series from 1986. I thought I’d include it here, too. For free!)
I’ve been on a bread-baking kick lately. There are those of us who fervently believe (know, really) that a true French baguette can be had only in France. You can have “a” baguette elsewhere. You can buy “French bread” at the Piggly Wiggly. Even cookbooks and flour companies promise results “as close to the true French baguette as you can get.” However, there’s only one genuine article.

We all know the French baguette looks something like a Louisville Slugger and, given 24 hours, is almost as hard. Even fresh, it will get you a Texas League single. It has a delightful brown crust that shatters when bitten, rewarding the lips and gums with razor-like shards than can draw blood. It can be purchased everywhere in France, alongside loaves of country breads that actually taste much better and aren’t painful to eat, their only drawback being, they’re not French baguettes. Obviously, the French baguette has a mystique.

I don’t think it’s all that mysterious. When I think of experiencing le McCoy réel, I think of sitting under an umbrella on an improbably beautiful medieval square, far from my own problems, eating a lunch of perfectly prepared something, with an aproned waiter dropping by every 10 minutes to ask, “Voulez-vous quelque plus de vin, le touriste de cochon ?” No wonder everybody remembers French baguettes so fondly!
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44 responses to “Bread Lines”

  1. TruckerRon Avatar

    “Do you want some more wine, the pig tourist?” Only the French can get away with such an insult because French is such a melodic language!

  2. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Waxing gibbous. Sounds like a grease monkey! Or a greased monkey.

  3. TruckerRon Avatar

    That is where the moon is tonight.

    Speaking of monkeys, greased or otherwise… or apes…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/06/22/mystery-extinct-ape-discovered-ancient-chinese-imperial-tomb/

  4. Don from Oklahoma Avatar
    Don from Oklahoma

    Today’s cartoon and comments seems familiar:

    http://arloandjanis.com/a-good-year

    deja vu?

  5.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    A decade is more nostalgic than deja-vu. Mr. Johnson explains below the art at the top of today’s blog.
    Waxing and waning, I get. Gibbous and crescent, also. I have trouble with first quarter plus another quarter is Full. And full plus two more quarters is empty, or new.

  6.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    It has been thirty-two years since the comic that portrayed the novelty of twenty-five year time travel. Welcome, weary time travelers. You’ve come the long way ’round. Oh, what a ride.

  7. Mark from Maine Avatar
    Mark from Maine

    Are you still baking bread, Jimmy? I took it up around the time you first ran this series on the blog and I’m still going strong. I bake almost all the leavened bread we eat, and have been working with sourdough for about a year. Working at home sure has its advantages . . .

  8. MontanaPhil Avatar
    MontanaPhil

    “I have trouble with first quarter plus another quarter is Full. And full plus two more quarters is empty, or new”
    Think of the U.S. Treasury, as it used to be.
    Nowadays it’s full by the 2nd quarter, but empty by the 3rd quarter

  9. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Regarding today’s strip: yeah, that would be a mood killer all right.

  10. TruckerRon Avatar

    I was listening to an old podcast of CarTalk in which a caller from St Louis said her name was spelled Jeryldine. She said she was the youngest and that her siblings had everyday, normal, easy-to-spell names like Karen and Barb. Her mother created it.. and her mother spells her name Jacquie. This made me think of our own special lady here in the Village. Any connection?

  11. emb Avatar
    emb

    Then there’s the famous birder and artist, Francis Lee Jaques, pron. JAY.kweez. Peace,

  12. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    9CL is clever this morning; it actually makes the reader think a bit.

  13. emb Avatar
    emb

    And Frank & Ernest give us smartass scientists our comeuppance. Peace,

  14. Steve from Royal Oak Mi Avatar

    Jimmy, you made me ask my Marianne I’d she had surgery on her fall bladder that I didn’t know about. lol

  15.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    My mother was Pauline, my dad was Jack. I was to be Jack too.

    He was killed before my birth, three werks before. I became Jackquline.

    It’s valid correct English spelling.

    My daughters are Malia Ann and Michele Alys.

  16. TruckerRon Avatar

    Jackquline, I’m relieved to know you’re not that girl’s mother. She mentioned that the family’s (and close friends’) nickname for her is “Wacky Jacquie.”

  17. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Ann McCaffrey used non standard spelling on many of her character names.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Anybody here recognize the guest? https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2018/06/24

  19. Llee Avatar

    Drawing style is similar to Lynn Johnston- “For Better or Worse”. Also, there is a “Lynn” signature lower left corner of the panel done as she signs hers…. Maybe?

  20. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Yes, Mark, I do! Had to study the whole thing for a while, then saw of course, it’s … shall I tell the answer right now, or give the rest of the folks a chance? I will wait a while, I will be home all day.

  21. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Good to read a comment from Charlotte! I hope the world is treating you well, C/NH.

  22. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    You hit “submit” ahead of me, Llee! Yes, it is Michael, could be no one else. Great how a skilled artist (which you are yourself) can have such a recognizable style.