I mentioned yesterday that many of the cat facts presented in the current A&J comic strips were “gleaned” from the Nature series that has, for years, run on PBS. I perhaps should mention that if you’re into streaming, you can make a contribution to PBS and gain access to a lot of material online that you wouldn’t otherwise have. I know that everyone online wants money from you these days, and I resist subscribing to a number of shows and periodicals that interest me, simply because I could nickel and dime myself into quite an outlay if I’m not careful. I do, however, subscribe to the PBS feed; it’s much better than a coffee cup or a tote bag! (Did I mention you can subscribe to gocomics.com for $20 a year and read your favorite comics without having to see ads?)
Family Herloom
By Jimmy Johnson
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37 responses to “Family Herloom”
I don’t remember this one, but it is certainly a good one. Unfortunately I have more than just a few crackes.
However, Janis is PRICELESS!
Arlo’s going to regret smiling!
This kind of thing has happened to me a lot. For no particular reason I was telling me wife yesterday about a girl I dated in high school. I just got an e-mail telling me that she died yesterday. You are welcome to consider me nuts. but I’ll tell you my secret. I’m psychic. I have no control over it. It just happens. I’ve tried to think of the lotto numbers with no luck.
this kind of thing has happened to me a lot.
Excuse the typos.
After my (somewhat) local newspaper stopped printing baseball box scores a few years ago, I realized that the only reason I was subscribing was for the comics. So I dropped my nearly $400 a year newspaper subscription and replaced it with a $20 GoComics subscription. I don’t miss the newspaper a bit.
It seems that’s the way things are headed. We have a good carrier where we live, and I usually get up early enough to watch him from my office window, coming up the street toward our house. He comes into our cul de sac and throws our paper, makes the circle and leaves. He passes many houses in the distance he’s visible to me, but ours is the only one that gets a paper.
I’m sure one of the endearing memories that my kids will have of me is laying on the couch with 2 daily or 2 Sunday papers, reading each section. Why? They were relatively inexpensive. In 2008 the Detroit papers went to 3 days a week and increased the daily to $1.00 per copy. And the paper had dramatically less content. I quickly realized that I could get the same content reading online. Eventually I did the same on Sunday. I dearly miss the daily baseball standings and of course the comics. I go through a daily ritual at a couple of comic strip sites of looking at 15-20 strips each day.
I have always said that once the newspapers lost me, they were in big trouble. I also used to subscribe to Sports Illustrated, TV Guide, Runner’s World and several magazines that are no longer published.
My grandson’s memory of me will be me looking at my phone or computer.
Another reason I think newspapers are fast losing ground is the lack of accuracy in what they do print. It seems the veteran reporters and editors have gone by the wayside, and everything is done by what used to be called the cub reporters. Typos galore, very poorly written sentences, headlines with glaring errors. Too much news feed stuff being used in place of local writing. Too many ads and not enough news and features. Who wants to pay $1.50 or $2 for that? And the grocery ads are now being delivered through the mail.
Very few houses on my street subscribe to the delivered paper, but many of us subscribe to the electronic version. I am sure that it is my age, but I can’t imagine not reading my local paper every day. (By the way, the paper started carrying A&J at my suggestion years ago.)
And I also have a gocomics membership. I believe strongly in paying for what I use.
Enjoy.
https://www.gocomics.com/herman/2019/10/18
Peace,
Regarding Jimmy’s cat series:
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2019/10/how-are-rich-people-able-to-buy-exotic-pets-like-tigers/
How hard can it be – Calvin has Hobbs 🙂
Good one!
Any of you think you had a bad day? I think this guy tops it: https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2019/10/man-ran-over-by-four-wheeler-driven-by-dog-in-loxley.html
At least the dog was okay.
Today’s comic stayed that the cougar was the largest cat on the “continent”. Not true. Jaguar is the largest. Just saying.
Pieter: Believe you’re new here. Good to see another Villager interested in scientific accuracy. Peace,
Somehow, I don’t see Janis ever gathering dust in the back corner of an antique store.
My wrist is obviously better (three out of the last four days, anyway.) Based on lab work and lack of x-ray findings, my orthopod is thinking it was a gout attack. (“Gout?!” That’s what said I said.) He scheduled me for some hand therapy beginning next week and has deferred to my primary care physician re further treatment. I’m waiting to hear from her.
As far as I’m aware, this is the first time I’ve ever shared a medical problem with a cartoon character. Does anyone remember who that was? (I’m sure Mark will.)
Jiggs? I remember knowing of gout from the comics when I was a kid, but cannot recall who had it. Peace,
The Captain in Katzenjammer Kids & Major Hoople in Our Boarding House?
Hoople is where I first encountered gout. Dad, what’s gout? Probably learned / the uric acid crystals in h.s. biology. Peace,
Gout? Just a form of arthritis… The native diseases of our beautiful Ohio Valley is arthritis and sinus problems.
Boswell chronicled gout attacks in his Life of Samuel Johnson which I first read at about age 12, then again in high school and college English courses. For extra points Ghost remembered Dr. Johnson’s cat Hodge whom I remembered as the recipient of hand shucked oysters.
As for accuracy and correctness in comic strips, say what? Comics by their very existence require accepting inaccuracy and suspense of the laws of science. How else can we have the Road Runner and Wylie Coyote?
I checked on the characteristics of both big cats in Wikipedia. According to them, the Jaguar is the heavier of the two species, but the cougar tends to be longer, head to tail. So for weight, the Jaguar is bigger, but for overall length, the cougar takes the prize. The cougar is placed in the small cat category, though, because it does not roar and does purr.
And I don’t know which comic character had gout, Ghost. I know Scrooge McDuck complained of lumbago quite often.
But not inaccuracy and suspension of the laws of science for their own sake. When Janis bumped into the other rapidly walking woman, they[?] fell down, not up.
Though Puma concolor is not the largest New World cat, it is historically the wild mammal with the largest geographic range in the New World: coast to coast, & southern AK to southern Patagonia. Am guessing that, historically & prehistorically, the mammal w/ the largest worldwide range was another cat, Panthera leo, western N Amer across Eurasia & down through Africa.
Two domestic + wild carnivores, Felis catus and Canis lupus [yes, Fido is the same sp. as Lobo], are now more widespread. Rattus norvegicus? Not sure. BTW, Linnaeus was Swedish.
Peace,
Today’s strip is super! Deciding to stick with AnJ for a while, I clicked the Random button and this gem popped up.
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2002/05/02
🙂
Your cat series was fantastic and now Sunday, too. Arlo and Janis is on a hot strike in October; more than I can say for a lot of sports teams. Look forward to a hot Halloween closer.
Ghost, if they decide it is gout try to stay away from colchizine– it is a gut buster! Uloric is a good preventative for me. I’ve had chronically high uric acid for about 30 years. Gout attacks in feet, ankles, and knees have been common for me. Only a couple of times in the classic big toe location. In my case, the flare ups are usually associated with joints that I’ve injured.
.
We’ve had a nice weekend camping with my daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. We picked up the 14 month old on Thursday. Her mom and dad came out Friday night. They stayed in a tent while grandpa and grandma stayed in the camper. Weather was great, though, and toddler granddaughter was a lot of fun.
VERY nice weekend, David!
S Afr, Spotted Hyaena, resting in the shade. When I first logged on, IT [& it’s hard to tell] was shoulder-deep in the Nkoro Lodge pond.
https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/nkorho-bush-lodge.
Strange beasts. Our ’87 safari to Kenya spotted only one. In female-led packs, these are more important predators than lions; prides of lions commonly drive them from kills. Lions scavenge at least as commonly as hyaenas do.
Peace,
David: You called it on the colchizine…unfortunately, that’s what they started me on. Only took two days to realize that was a mistake. I’m not actually taking anything now, pending word from my PCP. I already have lab work ordered by her for Wednesday, so perhaps after she gets those results.
Somehow gout seems worse than “arthritis”. Maybe it’s the mental image of sharp, jagged uric acid crystals lodged in the joint. 🙁
Also, there are at least three cartoon characters with gout I’ve found…Jiggs, der Captain, and Major Hoople.