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

Est. 1985

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Mars Needs Rodents

By Jimmy Johnson

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
This comic strip ran here a couple of years ago, but I thought I’d show it again, because it seems every other day now, the Mars rover Curiosity is sending back images of what seem to be crabs, women, the golden arches of McDonald’s. Well, at least that last one is feasible. I came across an effort to explain this the other day. It seems our brains are wired to perceive patterns in an effort to interpret our immediate environment. That should make sense to us. Every day I create a weird pen doodle, and you think, “It’s a homely man with a big nose!”

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111 responses to “Mars Needs Rodents”

  1. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    First comment :{)

  2. domaucan1 Avatar
    domaucan1

    GREETINGS FROM LA. REPORT: (TOUGH TO TYPE 1-HANDED) HEADING TO SEMINAR FRI EARLY T-BONED, CAR FLIPPED ON SIDE, GOD WAS HOLDING ME IN HIS HAND! ONLY PROBLEM BAD CUT ON L ELBOW, TWO SURGERIES & SKIN GRAFT & BACK HOME ON TUES PM. I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES! RESCUE HAD TO CUT WINDSHIELD TO GET ME OUT AND I DO NOT HAVE ANOTHER SCRATCH OR BRUISE OTHER THAN ELBOW GASH. PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER! BLESSINGS ON EVERYONE.

  3. sandcastler™ Avatar
    sandcastler™

    Dom, speedy recovery.

    JJ, does today’s offering mean that A&J has gone commercial? If this is not a paid product placement you might be missing an important revenue stream, product placement in cartons.

  4. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I like the line from Contact. “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” Since we are all pretty far away from each other, maybe God intended it that way so we don’t mess up each others worlds. Still, in spite of the cost, I wish that we would develop the resources to keep man (and woman) in space. So much good in technology came out the the race to the moon.

  5. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    I believe there are some in the Village who can identify with this one – http://www.gocomics.com/daddyshome/2015/10/21

  6. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Wow. And I thought I’d had a bad week. Glad to hear things turned out as well as they did, domaucan1. Very bad things things often happen in roll-over accidents.

  7. Trapper Jean Avatar
    Trapper Jean

    domaucan, I’m glad to know that you are safe! And yes, miracles do happen.

    Steve, I think most people who say we are alone in the Universe expect someone who looks just like us, while I say with such varied forms of life just on our little planet, who’s to say what the inhabitants of other planets will look like.

    And if I may harken back to the kilt conversation:

    https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=sean+connery+in+a+kilt&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004

  8. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    RA/WP: I don’t know what those (apparently) old terms mean, either! Thus, I’m uneducated not only in modern electronics, but also in older electronics! If we reverted to electrical circuitry – before transistors, say – I’d have a chance of understanding.

    Dom1: WOW! You have, indeed, been blessed! Do well with this second life you’ve been given.

  9.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    If we are going to express gratitude for more miracles I will add mine. I had a plaque particle go through my left eye while pulling my boat through Dallas traffic yesterday afternoon. Thanks to being on right side of four lanes and with access off I got into a shopping center lot before I lost vision. No, I didn’t call 911.

    This is not my first TIA just first in Dallas with a boat in tow. I am in my own bed with a dull headache and slightly blurred vision. Dickens licked and kissed me all night to ensure that I was alive.

    Smartphone suggested “sweet and sexy” instead of alive. I have NO idea why.

    Will call cardiologist, have had these now for 20 years so I don’t panic. He did carotid bypass long ago when he first met me. He may be between wives, maybe should have hair done?

  10. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Anonie

    Prayers with your vision – we can’t not have your travel reports.

    dom – you are blessed – miracles happen every day, we just have to recognize them
    and give thanks to the bestower.

  11. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    That should be Bestower

  12. TruckerRon Avatar

    British police warned in August of a brand-new sex crime based on the iPhone app AirDrop. The app sends text or photos instantly to nearby AirDrop users (who choose to receive from “contacts” or from “everyone”). Thus, perverts can “flash” strangers by posting nude pictures of themselves to reach AirDrop users set carelessly (or purposely!) to “everyone.” [Charlotte Observer, 7-21-2015] [BBC News, 8-13-2015]

    Were I a vice squad member I’d definitely monitor that app for flashers in my vicinity!

  13. TruckerRon Avatar

    Has anyone in the village had snow in their yard yet? We’ve only had it visible on the tops of the local mountains, not down here where we live.

  14. TruckerRon Avatar

    I think it’s time for a cute girl in a kilt!

    http://bit.ly/1MTw4PR

  15.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    That was cute Trucker! I always dressed my girls in kilts and they still complain bitterly.

    I thought I saw snowflakes this year on a mountain pass but it turned out to be ash from the forest fires.

    Smartphone just changed ash which I typed to “ashamed”. Who sets these things?

  16. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Steve: Whenever I read about the possibility of finding “life” elsewhere in the universe, I always mentally add “as we know it”. Seems to me there’s a certain arrogance in thinking that ours is the only possibility – maybe we’re just the rough draft.

  17. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I don’t know, but they should be ashamed.

  18.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Just read the daily A and J and I went into a McDonalds somewhere on meanderings like western or southern states, everyone was really obese in line. Ordered an egg McMuffins for dinner. They said they didn’t have them except for breakfast. I replied that I thought promotion was “breakfast at any time.”

    They replied “Only the demand items”. Well, egg McMuffins are only item I’d demand so I walked out. They also no longer had grilled chicken wraps because they didn’t sell well.

    Some of the nods to health on part of fast food is just that, a nod.

    Stupid phone here changed that to McDuffie up there after I fully typed it. Someone thinks it is Big Brother.

  19. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Ruth Anne The word is either arrogance or ignorance. We got stranded in a small town in Nebraska and about the only movie available was Men In Black II. I was surprised to enjoy the movie but in the last scene Will Smith opens up a locker and the inhabitants say “Hail, All hail J”. Sort of a benign ignorance as they seem happy.

  20. TruckerRon Avatar

    Dear Anonymous,

    Never forget that when a food chain drops something from its menu it’s almost always due to one factor: Too few people were buying that product. The company has no obligation to spend its way into bankruptcy to provide products that too few people want to buy.

    During your business career didn’t you have to make similar choices?

  21.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Shame on you JJ, calling the man who pays your bills ‘homely with a big nose”. Well, okay, he does have a fairly well endowed snoz.

  22. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    Anon above was little ole’ me – Bryan

  23. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    TruckerRon – No snow in town yet but we woke to snow only about 600-700 feet up the sides of the mountains overlooking us. Most of this will be gone by the weekend, I imagine.

  24.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Trucker I agree that restaurants need not lose money due to our poor eating choices. However I am not going to eat what they offer if it isn’t what I want. Ironically I am now running into truck stops along the way to get fruit, vegs, healthy sandwiches, soups with calories counted.

    Go figure.

    The move to offer breakfast all day was McD trying to increase the only meal showing monetary gains in their repertoire.