I’m going to take a break from the art-school narrative to share a memory. I’m planting my spring garden this weekend. That always makes me think of Momma and Daddy. Gardening in the warm months was what my parents did for fun, and by “gardening” I mean “vegetable gardening.” To them, there was no other kind. Usually, Daddy would till up a not insignificant patch next to their suburban ranch house and plant the staples—tomatoes, squash, peppers—as well as the odd experiment, as in the year they grew some beautiful cabbage. There was one year in particular that was different. My father worked in a cotton mill, and one hot summer he brought home a pick-up truck load of “motes,” as in the biblical speck of dust. However, at the mill it was a word for the husk and debris that was “carded,” or combed, from raw cotton. Essentially waste, it accumulated by the ton. Daddy dumped his truckload of motes right in the middle of the backyard and contained it with a short circular enclosure of concrete reinforcing wire. This unsightly pile sat sweltering and festering and rotting through the better part of a year. The next spring, my father and mother planted their tomatoes in the remaining compost. I was grown and working as a young newspaper reporter that year, and on a visit home I recorded the results with my camera. I have black and white photos of my mother, who wasn’t a short woman, in the midst of a jungle of tomato plants higher than her head, hoisting tomatoes the size of small cantaloupes. They produced cross sections larger than a slice of loaf bread. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.

Does anybody really say “toMAHto?”
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 ...
41 responses to “Does anybody really say “toMAHto?””
Dang tablet. Is not decomposed but does eventually and lightens heavy
Soils.
Machines that think they are smarter than we.
Bagasse: sugar cane waste. Byproduct of the sugar production process. Glad to see you posting here, Jackie.
Brain still not all there. I keep saying Scotty beamed me up but the molecules scrambled and part of me got left on the planet.
Friday I saw neurological diagnostics for what appeared to my oncologist as chemo induced neuropathy.
They stuck needles all over my body with electrodes while Ghost told jokes about his frog on high school
I pointed out frog was dead unlike me with needles in all . My .muscles.
Short story, I have severe neuropathy caused by six. Multiple diseases or issues. Neurologist says according to his test results I cannot walk. He had hard time agreeing zi was.
Hardly done waiting for more test results but no treatment and permanent
My brain and sense of humor
has returned. Since I’ve little feeling in fingers can’t type well. No comments on how long this took.
{{{JackieGhost}}}}
Jackie: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/voice-typing-android-tablet-39030.html
And: http://www.dummies.com/consumer-electronics/tablets/android-tablets/how-to-use-android-tablet-dictation/
Hang in there, Jackie. We are a couple of old tough birds!
Just learned that a young [30+] mother I know, wearing a headscarf, has a good prognosis. Prayers. Peace,
I’m getting my lawns mowed for free now… because my son-in-law (and daughter and grandson) live in an apartment he now has moved his hobby from his mom’s house to mine. We now have 2 beehives in the back corner of our lot. We’ll also get some free honey along the way.
Where is everybody? I don’t show a new post??
Back in the late ’58s, my Dad got several pounds of blood meal from a friend. Used sparingly, it’s a great fertilizer, and that one bag lasted over ten years.
I believe I have found a good physician. At least, he has no open appointments for more than six months!! I shall get to consult around Thanksgiving….
My ophthalmologist is good, too, but he’s only 2+ months in arrears.
I’m told that a Bemidji [or nearby] resident arr. at Mayo or a Twin Cities hospital for scheduled orthopedic surgery [probably new knee or hip] and the surgeon asked why they came there when they had Dr. Caron at Sanford Health in Bemidji.
Peace,
Nancy Kirk:
I rarely check the comments anymore, but I began noticing a while ago that quite a few of the regulars were no longer coming around.
It seems that the population is dropping, but I might be wrong.
Good one today, Jimmy.