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

Est. 1985

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Music to the Ears

By Jimmy Johnson


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It seems like just yesterday I was telling you that “summer hours” were over, and I’d try to post more regularly. I did manage to do that during the cold months, but summer—and summer hours—seem to have returned already. Tell you what: starting next week we’ll do things a bit differently. You won’t notice so much (No, it’s not the much ballyhooed Web site redesign.), but I think it’ll work better for us all. I’m going to prepare five cartoons that will preload during the week, regardless of what I happen to be doing first thing in the morning. Perhaps I will make a comment, or perhaps I won’t, but I am going to try and check in more regularly during the day and comment on your comments more than I do now. To be honest, coming up with something trivial but interesting to write every morning is the hard part of this task; this way, you can help. I think it sounds like fun. We’re always working to improve your Arlo & Janis experience!

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86 responses to “Music to the Ears”

  1. Norm in Utah Avatar
    Norm in Utah

    Jackie,

    I believe the word you are looking for is “paranomasia” (or “paranomasiacs”).

  2. DellaMae Avatar
    DellaMae

    Thanks to Ghost and others with similar minds (and information on past precedent) I finally got today’s “snakes” strip. 😉

  3. ursen Avatar
    ursen

    JJ I love your comments when ever they come. I don’t post often but I do read frequently. BTW does anyone have recipes for the lifestyle change called “diet”? Lost 5lbs in about 2.5 weeks, attending a special VA program called Move. Getting serious, or is that “dead serious” considering the consequences of not doing so?

  4. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Thanks Norm, my vocabulary deteriorates by the day, And night! I find myself sitting and saying “Alright, it looks like this and you use it for this and it is kept here. So WHAT is this thing/word you are trying to remember?”

    Love, Jackie Monies

  5. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    What, in the name of the seven lost deities, was that noise, sandcastler? It’s like they were trying to make music but got struck by a static generator while in the act of tuning their instruments.

  6. sandcastlerâ„¢ Avatar
    sandcastlerâ„¢

    Bryan, there was appropriate disclosure posted with the link. Not saying it is my musical taste. But you opened the door with ‘spewing burrito’. 😉

  7. Bryan Avatar
    Bryan

    No amount of disclosure would be enough of a warning for that. 😉
    It’s not my fault that Jimmy put up such a hilarious image which I happened to view just as the first bite of lunch passed my teeth.
    I wonder if, when he posts today’s daily on this blog in a few years, will he title it “Revenge of the Peeked” or “Peeks Revenge”?? Either way I am sure I’ll laugh again and, if the timing is right, again “spew burrito”.

  8. DellaMae Avatar
    DellaMae

    But sandcastler, how do you even know it enough to link it? Not your taste, eh? Sure. 😉

  9. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jackie: “How are we going to stay on topic on this one?” you asked. Since today’s topic is obviously “boobs”, that’s easy. More cartoons about boobs!

    http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2000/08/16#.U49-1_ldWa8

    Another one of my personal favorite A&J cartoons. Is anyone sensing a trend here? 😉

  10. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Ghost, yeah, I’d say you have a few points there.

  11. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Back in the day when I sold cars (Lincolns) we kept them locked and used a keyed lock up on windows. We weren’t supposed to open them casually and every night we had to walk the lot to make sure they were all locked. They often weren’t. Anyway, one of our “had to dos” was to look in back seat to make sure no one was hiding behind seats, especially in the Mercury minivans. Since we had to test drive only certain cars on the test “line” and go through the fires of hell to extract a specific vehicle out of about a thousand available in inventory, I never knew how a thief was supposed to know which one to hide in.

    But apparently hiding in the back was a common way to steal yourself a car after you disposed of the idiot salesman who drove you off the lot. There were a lot of safety checks in place that were supposed to keep us from being dumped and the cars taken.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  12. Mary in Ohio Avatar
    Mary in Ohio

    Yes, you remembered to bring Gene and look how THAT turned out!

  13. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Oh Ghost, what a memory you have! I had a customer who had either breast cancer or breast reduction, I forget which. I met her in hallway of hospital and asked her how her surgery had turned out?. She yanked up her t-shirt a la Janis and said, “Look aren’t they beautiful? And I don’t need a bra now!”

    I think I said something noncommittal like “Well, that’s fantastic!” But I learned to never ask anyone again about their breast surgery! Especially in public hallways.

    Love, Jackie Monies

  14. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    ursen, if I could get serious for a moment (and yes, I do know how to do that), congratulations on realizing the benefits of controlled weight loss. May I recommend that you investigate Weight Watchers? It’s not gimmicky; it’s not as complicated or hard to comply with as some other plans would like you to believe; and it will work for you if you give it half a chance. You still eat pretty much whatever you like, but under what is basically a phased-in portion control plan.

    Case in point: On her birthday in 2007, my sister began the WW program, with a goal of losing 100 pounds by her next birthday. She reached that goal, precisely. She then proceeded to lose another 40 pounds to reach her WW goal weight; became a WW Lifetime Member and a WW class leader; and maintained her goal weight right up until the ill-fated surgery last year which she did not survive.

    On the wall of my office is a framed picture and article from the local newspaper from 2008 about her weight loss. She got me to enroll in Weight Watchers a few months before her surgery, and her hope was that I would reach my goal weight; become a Lifetime Member; and also be a class leader. I am nearing my goal (slowed but not stopped by the stresses caused by her death), and it serves as a reminder of my determination to honor her memory by doing that.

    Anyway, long story short, it is definitely a viable option for most people, and I hope you will look into it.

  15. sandcastlerâ„¢ Avatar
    sandcastlerâ„¢

    ^°^°^°^°^°^°^ rides herd on an odd bunch. Most days are an education in the unwanted, then once in a blue moon we hit on something good.

  16. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jackie, your story about your customer reminds me of a problem that arose for me several years back when breast augmentation began to become common in the hinterlands (outside of Hollywood and Las Vegas). When seeing a female I hadn’t seen recently who had obvious gone from like a 32AA to a 36C, what was the proper etiquette, I wondered. Should I mention the change, and risk being considered a chauvinist and a boor? Or should I not mention it, and risk insulting someone who had likely not gone to the trouble and expense of that procedure just to have the results ignored?

    What I settled on was to give the lady’s chestular region an obviously long, slow look; then look her in the face and smile; and wait for her response, if any. That would give her the option of not responding at all, if that was her preference; or to give me a little side-to-side modeling display, if that was her desire. But yeah, you guessed it, there came the day when my then-hair stylist hiked up her sweater and gave me an up-close-and-personal look at hers. As a former boss once said about another lady who’d had some enhancement work done, “She was proud of them things.”

    Hey, this “staying on topic” thing is surprisingly easy today.

  17. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    It went north and just a teeny, tiny bit to the south of us…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPan-rEQJA&feature=kp

    Frankly….I don’t count the number of posts made by posters. 🙂

  18. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    NK…thank you for your well wishes…

  19. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    sandcastler, if Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po and Tinky Winky (a/k/a The Teletubbies) were playing percussion and electronic instruments while being flayed alive with dull knives, it might…might!..approach the weirdness level of that track from the Julie Dstroy’s Lipgloss N’ Chaos Album.

    Mind you, I’m not saying that Dipsy, Laa-Laa, Po and Tinky Winky being flayed alive with dull knives would necessarily be a bad thing…

  20. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe 😉 To get you ready for your inspection (if it hasn’t already occurred)…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY

  21. sandcastlerâ„¢ Avatar
    sandcastlerâ„¢

    GR6, thanks for a good laugh! I do wonder how you know names of the Teletubbies.

  22. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    I tend not to forget things I hate.

  23. ursen Avatar
    ursen

    GR6 thanks for the tip. This program, MOVE, I am on is a freebie which includes the services of a licensed dietician, and includes a lot of peer support (military geezers). In addition it is connected with my primary care provider and all my VA care. WW sounds wonderful, and if MOVE fails me I will definitely look into it. And yes some VA care is very good, the medical center I use is a long drive, but is a LOT better than the one 15 mins from me.

  24. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Whatever you decide, ursen, good luck. If you go WW, you can pay by the meeting, but if you pay by the month, the membership includes an (to me) invaluable smart phone/tablet app for planning and tracking your use of the program.

    I have had no experience with the VA medical system (which is a good thing, of course), but I hope those of you who are using it are having good results.

  25. TruckerRon Avatar

    I remember seeing a Nancy comic strip in which the Teletubbies sucked everyone into staring brainlessly at the tube. I’d like to find it again but have had no luck.