Today’s Sunday cartoon appearing in newspapers and on GoComics was so off the mark, I felt I should attempt a bit of damage control in a rare Sunday post. If you haven’t yet seen the comic in question, click on the GoComics logo below. All else aside, the cartoon would have been better suited to December or early January than the cusp of spring, and it’s a little out of character for Janis. The above suits her better this time of year. However, I was stuck for an idea. I could rationalize that there are many places in the country, such as the place where I live, where snow is a big deal anytime. Then, in the weeks between the time I produced the comic and the time it appeared, today, Mother Nature viciously sucker punched me. From Oregon to Maine, from Canada to Mexico, the last thing anyone wanted to see was more snow. Ah, well. Win some, lose some. And there’s a perspective problem in the first panel.
Mea Culpa!
By Jimmy Johnson
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54 responses to “Mea Culpa!”
Contrer JJ I love the Snow every time it falls, but in central Texas it isnt very often. I thouht todays comic was perfect.
Actually, here in the Boston area, we had exactly than snow-to-rain experience on Saturday morning, followed by all-day rain!
Same here in Upton…
Of course DST doesn’t add daylight hours; it only rearranges them.
Not only that, it makes matters worse in the winter by shifting the time zones so that people are getting up an extra hour before dawn, and not getting anything back in the afternoon.
The southern Rockies and New Mexico are still praying for some decent snow but we may be the only part of the country that is.
It worked well in Maine, where most of our meager snow this year has changed to freezing rain. We thought you were spying on us, JJ!
Sorry not sorry here….it was spot on as usual JJ, the morning started out with these delightful snow flurries and by the time the coffee was poured and I was seated at the console and it started to Fargone rain, all the white stuff is disappearing and leaving slush puddle behind. At least it will make the tri weekly walk to the compost heap out back easier.
Re the 2-28-21 real-time cartoon being off-the-mark: Meh. And in any case, it was more than outweighed by the many, many times you were dead-on the mark.
Re the 2-28-21 retro cartoon: Perhaps the best explanation I’ve heard of DST…
1. Cut a 12-inch strip off the head of a blanket
b. Sew the 12-inch strip onto the foot of the blanket
III. The blanket is now a foot longer
My favorite example too!
1. JJ: Don’t make Arlo look that stupid. He goofs now & then, but surely knows how DST works.
2. Re Janis’s satisfied smile etc., probably anything that is not portrayed explicitly will get by. Think the criterion generally is, will the average 10 year old “reader” get it. Brooke gets away with more all the time, but I’ve never seen a nipple on either 9CL or Pibgorn. There was a dot on Janis the mermaid once, in the distance, & some editors probably whited it out. Janis recollecting disrobing as a nude model, but as seen from the rear beginning to shed the robe was as provocative as we “prancing, leering, billy goats” can hope for.
Peace,
Sometimes I wonder why we humans insist on almost every business keeping the same hours as others? Why do we create rush hours by being on the road at the same time? I know there has to be some overlap for communication purposes and deliveries… At least the pandemic has shown just how little in-person interaction can be needed at a single site.
I haven’t researched it, but since I’ve been going to Tulsa regularly I’ve noticed there seem to be two “rush” hours (three if you count the afternoon school traffic). I suspect some businesses there operate 7-4 and others 8-5.
I live in Wyoming, and this comic was still seasonable appropriate. We don’t really get spring here, just heavy wet snow through April/Mid-May that gives way abruptly to a dry summer with almost daily thunderstorms. Then a short wonderful fall followed by a long cold but nice winter.
My first trucking blizzard happened driving through Wyoming. The sky was clear with the sun setting as I pulled out of Cheyenne. As I passed through Laramie I could see the western sky darkening. As I approached Elk Mountain the wind picked up and the snow started… before long I was down to under 10 mph. About ten minutes later I was thrilled to see the most beautiful sign in the world: “Rest Area 1/4 Mile.”
I chose to wait out the storm front by having a sandwich and listening to the local CB chatter. When things seemed settled enough, I pulled back out onto I-80 and made my way to a truck stop closer to my destination. At the truck stop I was approached by a young man who thanked me for leading him and his family from that rest area to a warm place with a restaurant. He said his dad had told him professional truckers were the safest drivers and to follow them in storms. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I’d only been driving a few months at that time!
People refer to that brutal stretch of road as the Snow Chi Minh Trail! Very dangerous road! Glad you and the family made it safe!
“…a perspective problem in the first panel”? The upper edge of the upper window, it seems. Although I think Jimmy should have labeled it an “optical illusion” and called it good. 🙂
The downside of beginning to eat out more…during February, I gained back the holiday weight I’d gained in December and lost in January…plus 2 pounds! Granted, it was a net gain of only 1.9 pounds for the three months, but still…
Ghost:
I actually lose weight by eating out. There, I can exercise portion control.
At home, if food is here, I am eating it.
Re perspective comment: I think maybe JJ’s referring to the first panel of the retro strip. Now that my attention has been called to it, it seems that although Arlo is talking directly to Janis, the perspective makes it look as if he is standing slightly behind her rather than next to her. What do y’all think?
You got it, kid. That’s exactly how I see it, too. Either Arlo needs to a bit nearer [to us] or his head needs a slight turn to his right.
BTW, Nancy, I just bought an interesting little book “Wonderful Old Lawrence” by Elfriede Fischer Rowe, published in 1971 with the help of Dolph Simons of the Lawrence [Daily] Journal World. She lived ca. 1896-1992 and writes about how things were as, mainly, she grew up. As such, she generally starts in the early 1900s, not all the old Quantrill stuff. Each chapter is only 3 or 4 pages long; easy reading. Topics vary from how tea (& other) parties were run, to the early phone systems, city hall, and so forth. If you can find a copy, you may enjoy it and recognize places from your time in Lawrence, just as I am doing. [I have NO financial interest in this!}
I just ordered a copy from bookfinder.com. Sounds like fun. Thanks!
My first thought that Jimmy’s reference to a perspective problem applied to the retro cartoon. Then Jackie convinced me it was the real-time cartoon.* And his comment did immediately follow the snow remarks ref the real-time cartoon. Now I’m not sure.
Nothing would preclude Arlo from staring off into the distance past Janis’s head as he spoke in the first panel. And his visible right eye, which seems to not actually be aligned with her head, would bear that out. I know Jimmy almost always eschews commenting on his cartoons, but he may be the only one who can settle this.
*When I originally thought it was the retro, my thought was it might have to do with Janis’s Popeye-sized right arm.
I believe JJ is referring to real-time first panel. Look closely at the soffit and facia at the roof corner on the right side of the house.
Then again it could be: “Janis’s Popeye-sized right arm.”
😀
Jimmy:
In the previous post, I mentioned that my premium membership had expired and that I had not received a reminder email.
I have yet to receive such an email, and I was not billed.
I renewed my membership a few minutes ago without incident.
Next February 28 might be another matter.
Just read the most amazing in depth article in the Washington Post about a farmer chef in Colorado. He is doing exactly what Jimmy has portrayed Gene and Mary Lou, Meg doing. Roadside produce stand, kitchen in a barn, takeout, tables in farm cabanas and on grounds. Deliveries in an old ice cream truck.
His downtown restaurants can’t open but he has saved his staff, his buildings, his farm and his customers. I laughed at the diners commenting on the chickens just as they did Megs… I felt like Jimmy had predicted the entire Black Cat Farms story.
Read it if you want inspiration along with some tears.
I guess that I can’t share my posts from my phone….I will try it on my laptop and see if it works
Sunday’s strip works in Michigan, or at least in the lower eastern part. We really didn’t get much snow until February. It was in the mid 50’s yesterday.
I was just happy that I could figure out Sunday’s strip. 😛
Sunday’s strip works in NC as well. I just figured they were getting a late winter snow that turned to rain which happens here a lot. In fact, we call this “Deception Spring” right now in NC.
Hey! My boxes were empty just now, and then I refreshed (iPad) and my name and email magically appeared!
Rick– fake-address@fake.com is a great improv email address! It showed up mysteriously for me today.
.
For the perspective issue, it may be the Sunday comic, but the forearm and hand on that potting table DEFINITELY looks like the camera is fairly close. It’s a thing that lenses do that we don’t do in real life, since the brain adjusts for perspective. I’m an average, non-professional, artist and I can’t draw realistic hands for anything.
David: Thanks for the word. It seems that I chose wisely.
Bare feet are difficult too. Think about toes.
I try to not think about toes. 🙂 If there was a contest, I’d likely win “ugliest toes.”
I stopped for lunch today at a place called Mudcat Charlie’s south of Darien, Georgia, and found an original Jack Davis illustration. A bad picture, but a picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HkcyvAyH5Ls9mKAC2WXnxrVlcnsJBAMQ/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_84Os8zrGqzMq7PtfLca-W0ALhyzb5j/view?usp=sharing
Re 3-1-21 real-time cartoon: By the time my maternal grandmother passed away, she had marked all of her valuable personal items with the name of the family member she wished to receive the item. She divided her small collection of good china among the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I received one of her china dinner plates, which is now displayed on a wall of my dining room. She also wanted me to have her father’s “mustache cup”. (She was born in 1882, and I have no idea how old the cup actually is.) He had a full beard all of his life, and my grandmother liked the fact that I had a mustache. The back of the plate and bottom of the cup still have on them the small piece of tape she placed there, with my name in her neat cursive script handwriting.
Interesting on china. Got neither grandmother not grandfathers not neurotransmitters china.
I assume my daughter may have my mother’s and mother in law’s since I don’t. I should ask.
Haven’t used my formal nor very best china in years, may have given to daughtrr. Should ask.I
Have several sets of good casual china.. Know haven’t seem some in yesrs. Need to look.
Good grief spellchecker!!
I check spelling and correct them it changes and rewrites when I hit post!