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

Est. 1985

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Feverish Plans

By Jimmy Johnson


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This comic strip from ten years ago this month is an excellent example of the subtlety for which A&J is known. Subtlety usually elicits one of three responses: “That’s cute;” “I like funny comic strips,” and, most often, “I don’t get it.” I suppose this particularly strip could have been made better if I’d added a thought balloon in the first panel, reading, “Boy, I really do like to relax and do nothing in the beautiful spring weather” and another in the second panel to the effect, “I sure do like to work hard in the yard and garden when spring finally comes!” I’m sorry. I’m not talking about you. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t get it. It’s just that I woke up in a snarky mood.

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317 responses to “Feverish Plans”

  1. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    What, Jackie, you lived in Hawaii and didn’t eat Spam! I’ve read that some Hawaiians practically live on Spam. I blush and hang my head to admit that when our children were growing up we ate a lot of Spam, also hot dogs; fish sticks too and frozen pot pies. Then I Saw The Light, read books about healthy eating — really gave the children something to complain about with soybeans, yogurt, sprouts (the sprout phase didn’t last long). Whole wheat, real whole grain cornmeal. They were good sports about it and so was my husband, and now the children are grown up they cook and eat good healthy food, and so do I; so it turned out really well.

  2. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Dear Jackie, and emb, you are both right, and that’s no joke.

  3. TruckerRon Avatar

    Spam was a significant part of my onboard food supply when I was trucking. Made sandwiches from it with whole wheat bread, washed it down with 2% milk. Much healthier than most truck stop fare, also more reasonably sized meals.

  4. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Charlotte, I came back from Hawaii an environmentalist, recycler, a believer that Americans are not always right or perfect, but I knew that before I got there. I also made my own yogurts, sprouts, breads and ate foods cooked from scratch, including smoothies before anyone had heard of one.

    Grew vegetable gardens in Uptown Garden District restored shotgun and served on preservation board.

    Got sent to Houston where I cried for two years and lived about 20, only some of which I spent crying. I still cry sometimes for the loss of native customs, ways of life and the universal adoption of the fast food nation and TV induced loss of identity.

    But there’s little to be done and being serious about it drives people away, so I applaud those who dare a little difference .

  5. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    We also ate Spam, likely during ’40s, albeit not every day. Hot dogs were a treat to me, too. I recall both items as tasty and enjoy hot dogs to this day…haven’t seem Spam on the shelves since then. Mom was great on hamburgers as well: always had the butcher include about 25% ground pork. We mixed the stuff at home with an egg added, if memory serves. (Does an egg sound right?) Results were very juicy thick burgers. Yum.

  6. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    curmudgeonly ex-professor, yes the egg sounds right. Helps act as a binder to keep the patties together. Same reason you put one in a salmon patty made out of canned salmon.

  7. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    Dear Jackie, your thoughts are very fine, and I agree with you about fast food, TV, loss of traditions, as well as the loss of our beautiful forests and grasslands. We just do what we can in small ways to hold on to the good things. Your cheerfulness is a good example to the rest of us! You’ve had, and are having, some tough times, but are so courageous.

  8. David from Austin Avatar
    David from Austin

    We would eat fried Spam sandwiches, like fried bologna (pronounced “baloney”), on white bread with mayonnaise. Also, sometimes cubed and fried with scrambled eggs.

  9. galliglo in Ohio Avatar
    galliglo in Ohio

    I have, and continue, to eat a lot of “country” foods, but never could enjoy Spam. About the only way I can eat it fried and slathered with mustard. Could never acquire a taste for beer either! Now sherry? That’s another story!

  10. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers….

    I am not working today, and I am not going to do much…. except, get a few papers together and drop them off tomorrow at CPA’s.

    Jerry, my Mom still has a hard time dealing with living in a nursing home, but she is a stubborn old German who thinks she could still do it on her own.

    I am meeting Mom at the doctor’s office tomorrow…a Medivan will take her, but I have to be with her in doctor’s office, which is no problem. But instead of taking the medivan home, I will take her back to nursing home…it will be in low 70’s tomorrow and should be a pleasant drive back. I’ll take the long way home (there’s a song in there somewhere), if the river isn’t over the back road, it just started trinkling over yesterday….and yes, I obey warning signs posted do not attempt to drive through flooded water.

    You have to give Geico credit, they have one hell of a marketing campaign…love the chicken commercial….and Roy Orbison singing. And reptiles aren’t warm blooded, my mistake.

    And yes, Mark, it is a serious problem in the poultry business right now. All turkey and chicken farms are on red alert. We have had The Corp. come by twice in one week with memos, and requiring signatures that all employees must sign and abide in biosecurity outlines.
    If this gets out of hand, it could be devastating for everyone…down to the consumer.

    Heh, Jackie, the snow is melting in Indiana…..you can come and visit soon, yes?

    David, good to know no surgery is needed……Amen.

    Thanks for the extra treats to the A&J links, you guys are good πŸ™‚

    Miss Charlotte…thanks for the good luck….gonna need it, my boys worked hard yesterday, whined, but worked hard. I’ve scraped curtain backs a few times, and it’s not an easy task.

    And today’s real time strip….way over my head.

    GR πŸ˜‰

    later……………….

  11. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    In checking out some of my bookmarks, I’d forgot I’d saved the site “The Daily Cute”

    http://www.thedailycute.com/2015/02/01/a-real-cool-cat/

    …and, emb you can probably answer this, do green and blue eyed, white cats hear? My Dad, at one time had a such a cat, long hair though, and he was deaf.

  12. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Shroedinghers cat.

  13. emb Avatar
    emb

    Good morning.

    It’s the Ides of March. Be careful.

    Tomorrow, 16 March, is St. Urho’s Day [I will be wearing my purple turtleneck and unique St. Urho sweat shirt [green lettering] to church. [I designed the silk screen.]
    Do a search: Menagha MN St. Urho : There are several sites to rummage in. I think the museum is open only Mem. Day-Labor Day.

    For the next day, search: St. Patrick Irish snakes. Again, several sites.

    Peace, emb

  14. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Congrats, David.

  15. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Strip of 03.15.15:

    JJ:

    Please pardon me while I wax sycophantic, but you deserve it.

    Absolutely one of the best ever.

    In addition to the reveal in the second panel, the fourth panel caught me completely by surprise.

  16. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    CAUTION. According to the morning paper people are dying after eating Blue Bell ice cream products. There is a recall in effect. I hope that I am passing on correct information, bad as it is.

  17. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Jerry did they recall specific flavors?

    The fourth panel with Ludwig is great, I just wasn’t up to tapping out much early in morning

  18. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    David, so glad to hear that even though there is a bit of pain you will be well soon without surgery! Every silver lining has a tiny cloud, too. πŸ™‚

  19. John in Richmond Texas Avatar
    John in Richmond Texas

    nothing we buy in stores, the Blue Bell was institutional sales only

  20. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    And only certain products which we are unlikely to have in our freezers. I’m not a Blue Bell fan anyway.

  21. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Although it is made in Texas. πŸ™‚

  22. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    Jerry, the warning from Blue Bell is for novelties, not standard packs, but yes, people should be careful.

    My mom cooked a lot of SPAM when I was a child. Daddy was in the Army and stationed elsewhere, and Mom took the easy route of tv dinners and SPAM a lot of the time. Her favorite was of fixing it was to dump the block into a skillet and drown it in a mixture of mustard and ketchup, resembling barbeque sauce, and bake for 20 minutes, or enough time to make instant mashed potatoes and green peas.

    David, Mom’s favorite thing to do with balogna was to fry it with the paper edge still on so the slice made a cup, then fill the cup with mashed potatoes and peas. Do we see a trend here, folks? πŸ˜‰

  23. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Keep seeing crocodiles crossing signs and high fence so Google says they and alligators can climb fence and trees.