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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

In Days of Old

By Jimmy Johnson

This old strip indirectly echoes events in the current strip, if something from seven years ago can “echo” something today. All the recent discussion in the current story line about a drastic change in the situation of Arlo and Janis inevitably leads to the question: are they retired? Well, I could make up something, but really all that exists in the world of A&J is what appears in the strip, and that question never has been directly addressed. You know what I know. However, I am the author, and therefore I am entitled to make something up. So, watch this space in the coming days, where I will make something up!

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

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 ...

65 responses to “In Days of Old”

  1. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Today’s strip about throwing out things. Hits home again Jimmy!

    Junk is ubiquitous but personal.

  2. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Jackie:

    If my wife began tossing unnecessary things, I imagine that I would be first.

  3. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers….

    Old Bear, that was a good one 🙂 If I had a printer, it would be on Dad’s ‘fridge.

    Rick, I love your “Ode to Old Age”! May I borrow it? I’ll just need it the one time 🙂

    Today’s real time strip brought back memories of clearing out the homestead…a lot of memories in each picture hanging, lots of owl statues and pictures too. What the family didn’t want as a memory went to an auction. My younger sisters and BIL’s have already started clearing out Dad’s house….lots more to go though.

    later guys….

  4. emb Avatar

    All quiet in central Kenya, but river is highest I’ve seen it. Yesterday’s downpour may have covered a wide area upstream.

    http://explore.org/live-cams/player/african-safari-camera

    Janis, the BSU Museum of Vert. Biol. would be happy to have that set of shark jaws. Jackie: Some comics characters are realer than others. E.g., Luann and Bernice [Luann’s brainy RA.] Knew a brain like that once, not alike in all ways, but enough.

    Peace,

  5. Smigz Avatar
    Smigz

    One good thing about moving frequently is that it helps keep possessions to a reasonable level. For awhile, we moved every three or so years. We have been in our current home a loooong time…next winter, I think we’ll spend some of those long evenings going through accumulated items as if we were moving. Although the one-a-day idea is great, I’m more of a drag it all out, sort it into keep-toss-donate, then tidy like heck type.

  6. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Funny about Luann strip, I find it neither real nor funny. Each to our own reality.

    How about disposing of or fitting in three deceased people’s belongings simultaneously and acquiring a s#$t load more of your own in last couple years? And then trying to make room to squeeze in another person? But you don’t want to actually squeeze that person in that sense?

    And your house is already small scale? For short small people? I am only five foot one inch.

    So, packing up and paring down and trying to work it out. Arlo and Janis will too.

  7. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    Yes Jackie, but remember what Jessica Rabbit said-she’s not really bad, she’s just drawn that way.

    My mom and grandmother were as close to hoarders as you can get without actually scraping garbage off the floors, and it’s a fight I go through daily. “Stuff” I can get rid of okay most of the time. Clothes, not so much.

    And speaking of getting rid of stuff, I know several people who are at the forefront of the Tiny House movement, and they would be surprised and possibly amused at the thought that they are “culturally appropriating” anything. The whole idea there is to scale down, live with less fuss, and leave a smaller carbon footprint.

  8. emb Avatar

    TIP BlogSpot: No idea who the man and woman are. Artist buys into Greek short big toe fetish. Could be Jesus and some woman, who seems to be listening to him skeptically. Doesn’t look like Samaria to me, nor neighborhood of a well. Was the Magdalene ever that skeptical? Cannot find it online. Peace,

    http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/

  9. emb Avatar

    Mark: Searched ‘N und O’ to find out where N fit into the Odyssey and found yet another excuse for pulchritude for those who can afford ‘art’. Should please several Villagers. Presume N is the woman in the center of the group; that’s Odysseus coming into view. She provides him clothes. No hanky-panky, and he eventually gets home to his wife in Ithaca. Never made it to Ithaca, NY. Peace,

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausicaa#/media/File:William_McGregor_Paxton_Nausicaa.jpg

  10. TruckerRon Avatar

    emb: Why do you refer to the “Greek short big toe fetish” as such? In my family many of us including me have feet so shaped. Other than making it harder to buy shoes, what’s wrong with it?

  11. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    What difference do toes make except for shoes? I have short feet and toes, like a Hobbit?

    Maybe the Greeks loved a particular shape of foot and just put it on statues and art.

  12. Morphy Avatar
    Morphy

    A long period has passed, so I’ll contribute. Caution, discussing satire is fraught with danger of being misunderstood. Is the point using satire or sincerity? But well known satire can be illustrative.

    Jonathon Swift had his character Gulliver land amongst kingdoms that pitched war over how to begin the act of eating a soft boiled egg, as a part of your complete breakfast, each day. I can only imagine the way that was received at the time, among classes separated by so wide a margin; though I suspect the ‘betters’ may have had trouble seeing themselves in it. What I do know is my personal experience when I read it, around 2½ centuries later.

    At the time, I was aware of the First World gulf that existed, but ‘First World Problems’ had not yet become a meme. Heck, meme had not yet become a meme. But I was aware enough to know that a very large portion of humanity may struggle to get an egg for every day, let alone have the facilities or leisure to prepare one so daintily as soft-boiled and served ‘up’ in a cup designed to present one end or the other for first break.

    In short, I believe that I ‘got the point’ of Swift’s satire: some people will have opinions about things that most of us are just too busy to notice, or care enough about to form so rigid an opinion. And even if we have found such comfort in life as to have an opinion, we would never think to talk down someone ‘different’ than ourselves. Recognizing, celebrating, and best of all, experiencing diversity across the bounty of creation is so much more fulfilling than separating it out for ridicule, or even worse treatment.

    Lindsay Lohan had troubles maturing properly, but that should not discount the message behind her movie _Mean_Girls_, written by Tina Fey, based on other works, but really just a reenactment of the same morality play that has taken thousands of forms in the history of entertainment. For a long time, in English at least, it has been encapsulated in the two words paired as GOLDEN RULE. The trick is, how do you point out a person could improve in their adherence to the rule, without them crying out that you are not being fair? Or that there is some condition present that permits an exception? Tricky business that.

    TruckerRon, Jackie, I like the use of questions that allow for inclusion. IF the response is inclusive, things can move forward. If it diverts, distracts, moves the goalposts, or changes topics, bad feelings develop. Sometimes you are even told you no longer have the right of address. People who view themselves above others like that tactic. I hope your efforts fair better than mine. I also regret this message may distract from your effort, but I was moved to support.

  13. Morphy Avatar
    Morphy

    fare, of course, was not caught by HAL the spellczhecing daemon.

  14. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Thanks. You get it. Not everyone does.

    I used to write satire, a favorite form, often getting in serious trouble. One I did was on a parable I made up, “Hungry dogs will eat dirty pudding.”

    Don’t think there was an English author in 19th
    Century who said that.

  15. Morphy Avatar
    Morphy

    You’re right, I’ve never come across that form in my reading. But good ‘gackie’ Miss Jackie, it sure paints a picture in only six words. Vividly.

  16. Morphy Avatar
    Morphy

    Darn it, guess I have to apologize. I must have heard Li’l Richard in the last few days, and pushed a pun too far; gackie is just a fail in too many ways. Sorry ’bout that.

  17. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Debbe:

    That is an extremely compliment – thanks!

    And it was incredibly considerate of you to ask before copying. Such ethics are rare, especially in the Internet world.

    Yes, please feel free to use it as you like, and attribution will not be necessary.

    Please don’t feel as if you must answer this, but I am compelled to ask. You stated “…the one time.” May I ask what is the one time? Do you mean a eulogy?

  18. emb Avatar

    Nothing is ‘wrong’ with having the ‘index’ toe longer than the big toe, it’s just relatively rare. No idea, for instance, whether it’s more or less common than left handedness, but look at what cultures world-wide have done with that.

    Ages ago, I read that, in ancient Greece, a long index toe was considered more beautiful, and perhaps more noble or such, and that seems born out in their sculpture. Personally, don’t care, and am not as hooked as some on some other standards of personal physical attractiveness. But I do ogle, discreetly. It’s pretty that is skin deep, not beauty.

    At a Cornell birdcam nr Savannah, a former GH owl nest has been taken over by ospreys, who are now incubating. The M is the one w/o ‘eyebrows’ I think, the F with. Nest in top of a dead tree whose days I’m guessing are numbered. Main cam, maneuverable, is nearby, so you can tell when nest tree is swaying in the wind. A second, fixed cam, mounted to a limb of the dead tree itself, does not move with the wind. In that camera’s view, http://pg.allaboutbirds.org/savannah-owls-second-cam/ there is a distant shiny object, lower R in view field, that must be tethered, but turns about in the wind. Anybody recognize it? I don’t.

    Peace,

  19. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    emb: Not sure, but I think the shiny object may be a Mylar balloon that escaped its human but got caught in a tree – better than landing in the ocean where it could harm wildlife.

  20. Mark from TTown Avatar
    Mark from TTown

    Ruth Anne, also better than landing across power lines and causing a major outage by shorting the circuits! Big problem with metalized balloons.

  21. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    If McEldowney is still getting paid good money for “Pibgorn”, he should have to pay it back. Of course, a case could probably be made for giving back what he gets paid for 9CL, so…

  22. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Rick….MINE!!!!!

  23. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    ….and thank you, Rick…

    I had more posted, hit submit and I got this ‘stinking’ display about this “stinking” URL…any way,

    say good night debbe