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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

But it’s Labor Day!

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
It might be a bit early for a cartoon about raking leaves, but not if you have pecan trees. They’re the last trees to turn green in the spring and the first to shed their leaves at summer’s end. Plus, they’re very bad about dropping huge living limbs without warning. Normally these characteristics are ameliorated by a crop of delicious and useful pecans at least every other year, but around where I live it has been several years since a good crop of pecans, and this year will be no different. Plus, in a land that at one time was awash in an overflow of tomatoes from Independence Day thorough Labor day, cultivation of the tomato has become very problematic for home gardeners. Those lucky enough to have a crop by early July can almost count on the vines withering away by the end of the month. All I know is, things aren’t what they used to be. Happy Labor Day!

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131 responses to “But it’s Labor Day!”

  1. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Ruth Anne, I believe I identified Seafood Dinner #3, Seafood Dinner #6, and Seafood Dinner #8 on that Webcam. 🙂

  2. Nancy Kirk in AZ Avatar
    Nancy Kirk in AZ

    It was a good day for “kid reports.” Gene and Mary Lou in the strip, and good news from Debbe about Ian. Way to go!

  3. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    cep

    That is gammal björn

    I too liked the “sock it to me” girl
    and

    “Is this the party to whom I am speaking”

  4. emb Avatar
    emb

    Safe at home.

    Ernestine: “I’ll have you know that I am a high school graduate!”

    Nap. Peace, emb

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    Or maybe it was, “You are speaking to a … !”

  6. Sideburns Avatar

    Mark, if memory serves, General Sherman was on his way back North at that point, aiming for Richmond.

  7. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    General Burnside was not with him as I recall, but that was before my time.

  8. Evan Avatar
    Evan

    Ghost, whoever is talking about burning a bridge when they get to it has their timing a tad off. You are supposed to CROSS the bridge first, THEN burn it. If you burn it when you get to it, you are stuck. Similar to the cartoon of the Viking writing sentences on a blackboard: “Pillage, THEN burn. Pillage, THEN burn. Pillage, THEN burn…”

  9. emb Avatar
    emb

    Evan: I think Ghost knows that. Peace, emb

  10. Sideburns Avatar

    Evan, that reminds me of one of the many verses of the Mongolian Barbarian’s Birthday Dirge: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~lwittie/sca/song/filk/barbarian_birthday_dirge.html

    There’s one lesson you must learn,
    First you pillage, then you burn!

    Happy birthday, HUH!
    Happy birthday, HUH!

    Another one I composed many years ago:

    Eat and sing and drink your fill,
    Hack and slash and maim and kill!

    Happy birthday, HUH!
    Happy birthday, HUH!

  11. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I’ve just endured a four hour InterWebNet outage. The Horror! The Horror!

    Recipe for Mixed Metaphor

    Take one “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
    Add one “I’ve burned all my bridges behind me.”
    Mix well and bake for 2 minutes at 98.6 degrees F.
    Yields one “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.” 🙂

  12. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Ruth Anne, thanks for the link to the sea off NC. It could be fascinating.

  13. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe 😉 Playlist Two, Song the Twelfth – Another mile bites the dust.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE

    As I mentioned, tomorrow is a travel day, and I’ll be hauling out at Oh Dark Thirty…not that’s any big deal to you. 🙂

  14. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Ghost: great-grandfather’s unit history, short version: http://www.archives.alabama.gov/referenc/alamilor/25thinf.html

  15. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    “We need to focus on our unique strength — and that is the weather.” – Dave Shull, president of the Weather Channel Television Group

    And they pay him how many millions of dollars a year for that wisdom? I could have told them that years ago, for free.

    Their “happy talk” morning show was only the latest of many, many bad decisions. And yes, I’m sure Sam Champion, he of the fake bonhomie and the creepy laugh (and I don’t believe he is even a meteorologist), will continue to “play a pivotal role” at TWC, considering how many bazillion dollars they probably obligated themselves to pay him when they hired him away from Good Morning America.

    I’ve all but given up on The Weather Channel, but we shall see what we see.

  16. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest reigning British Monarch, she has just edged Victoria.
    She has seen 12 Prime Ministers 12 Presidents of the US and 30 Corgis.

    Has anyone else been watching “The Civil War” on PBS?

  17. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers….

    “Long live the Queen!”….sorry Old Bear, couldn’t help myself. Did you see the movie “The Queen”? Helen Mirrin (?) played the role, and I actually though it was a good movie. But I like her movies.

    Need to check out PBS….I know “the boys” would enjoy watching it. Anything but (gasp) Naked and Afraid….yup, it’s Thursday.

    Husband going into work with me today…..and that’s good. He’s very helpful.

    Nancy, Ian called last night on his break…sounded like he has some authority there already, as we were on the phone he was telling this other employee what to do with whatever it was at hand. He actually loves it….his roommate teased him that if he keeps volunteering for these double shifts, one day he could wind up as manager…..but I don’t think management is for Ian, but who knows, maybe he’ll see the other side of the coin someday. (how’s that for a metaphor?)

    Ah, The Whether Channel…..why do you think I call it the Whether Channel???? There’s another weather channel on DISH my husband tunes into….and it’s actually all about weather.

    Down to 48 degrees Saturday night…..The Boss says it’s time for me to take a day off and rest, and Saturday sounds like a good day to do it…..high 68 degrees, with some rain.

    ya’ll have a blessed day.

  18. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    GR 😉 you might try this coming back home……..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwaRvALFRcQ

  19. Debbe Avatar
  20. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Strip of 09.10.15:

    Something that I never noticed about restaurants before I changed my diet: It’s darn hard to find more than one or two types of vegetables.

    A few years ago, Jimmy told us that he dropped about 25 pounds by changing his diet.

    This past February, my doctor claimed that Type Two Diabetes attacked me, along with blood pressure of 180/125. He did not prescribe insulin. Instead, it was the lowest dosage possible of Metformin.

    He recommended that I lose a few pounds, even though I was not truly overweight. He said that I needed to begin exercising and avoid potatoes, bread, pasta, rice, and processed cereals. He didn’t mention fried foods and sugar, but that goes without saying, doesn’t it?

    I’m now mostly jogging 3 miles a day over a hilly route. (Not bad for a 62-year old, I’ve heard.)

    I’ve lost about 35 pounds.

    Blood pressure is now 107/93.

    Pants down from 40″ waist to 36″, soon to be 34″. Shirts down from extra large to large.

  21. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I’ve safety arrived at an undisclosed location, for an undisclosed duration. (At least there are no pyramids visible in the distance.) Had to comment about Helen Mirren…as Debbe said, she’s quite a good actress (PC: actor), as well as being quite an attractive lady at age 70. As I recall, there were pictures of her on the InterWebNet a few years ago, showing her appearing in public wearing a bikini at age 64 and not embarrassing herself at all. And, not surprisingly, she was quite a dish in her younger years. If anyone is interested, they would have little trouble going online and finding a scene from one of her films from back then, the entirety of which was shot with her, as they say across the pond, starkers. Full Monte and all.

  22. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    Internet unavailable due to overuse by some blog.

  23. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Ghost, there was one bit of good news in that story about the Weather Channel. I had to read it twice before I noticed it. Once the current crop of reality shows on it have run, they won’t order any more. So someone noticed one of their main problems is the one common to many businesses today, not sticking to their core product.

  24. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    My wife and I always like to ask people “Wouldn’t it be great if there were a cable channel that showed music videos?