I miss boat fever. It was a mistake to allow Arlo to acquire the sailboat. The endless sweet agony of anticipation was a state of mind with which many readers seemed to relate. For years, people would beg to be put out of their misery, beseeching me, “Please let Arlo get a boat!,” and I would laugh maniacally, “Bwahahahahahahahaha…!” Well, I remember laughing that way, but maybe I just thought it. Then, I weakened, and people began asking, “What happened to Arlo’s boat?!” And that, dear readers, is how we got where we are today, and none of us knows where we’re headed.
217 responses to “Navigational Hazard”
You pretty well called it, Gal. Happy Birthday. 😀
@Galliglo,
Have a Symply Fargone pahtee(as we say in MA)!
This retro strip “Navigational Hazard” I have been puzzling over, thinking that Arlo and Janis were driving a truck and pulling a sailboat. But that made no sense because that never happened in their story. NOW the light has dawned — they met a truck pulling a sailboat and Arlo was so concerned that he turned around and watched them, and Janis knew that was going to happen so she took the wheel and steered the car. Clever! But so hard to figure out. JJ is awfully subtle. None of you guys commented at all on the strip, how come?
Because I had been there and done it. A sailboat nut can spot one a mile ahead and watch it a mile behind.
Jimmy nailed it. It has NOTHING to do with concern. It is tongue hanging out pure envy of the boat. Arlo will be able to tell you brand, LOA, and every detail by time it passes.
The comment on danger is Janice commenting on Arlo being so obsessed he forgets to steer his own car, endangering them all.
Lovely Jimmy. I talked to Ghost and Glen about the father I never met, about the 22 year old spy plane pilot I met when I was 50 years old and his records were opened.
For the first time I felt my father was and had lived. I spoke to those he flew with and laughed with their memories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g73YPFDZuiw
Charlotte: Thank you. I had no idea what was going on, maybe because I couldn’t conceive of a driver being so rash. My own distraction is roadside or overhead birds, but I think I’ve always kept being driver first. Maybe not. Peace,
Arlo and Janis is a comic strip and all actions are exaggerated for comic effect. Most of Jimmys humor is wordless, the best kind.
Having witnessed many such boats pass I can say the boat passing Arlo was probably a commercial delivery of a larger boat over 30 feet on an 18 wheeler or flatbed.
I just hauled a 38 foot trailer and boat over 8000 miles last year behind my Ford pickup and over the Rocky mountains.
Three hours and no comments. Preaching must be good today as we say in the south.
Went to church last night to Lector and then this morning as Mass was said for my Brother-In-Law. Today is 15 years since my dad died. It is also my son’s birthday as well as my niece’s birthday.
Sitting on the couch with my feet up after a heavy day of mowing, weed wacking, and picking up and laying down mulch. God Bless Motrin and the Indy 500. One of my favorite days of the year!
Today’s strip is beautiful, just beautiful.
Here is a picture that I took in Franklin TN a few years ago.
https://twitter.com/sevans1956/status/868871888281403392
https://twitter.com/sevans1956/status/868873229544378374
This is the picture that I intended to share
We & son drove into WI yesterday too visit daughter & family. In a space of about 4 miles on the interstate around Stoughton, south of Madison, we saw 2 accidents on the way and a third on our return. One, maybe, two seemed rather more than just fender-benders. In the first, one vehicle had been rear-ended at considerable speed, from the look of the major hittee. It seems that the major hittor was in the median ditch facing away, so we did not see much of its damage aside from a somewhat crumpled hood. A third vehicle was still on the highway in back of the major hittee.
On his way here for the trip, son also saw the result of another wreck – the jackknifing of, or overturning of, a semi-trailer. When he viewed it, the truck was already upright, which is why he didn’t know the mode of its problem.
That’s a lot of mashed metal mobility for only 230 miles, total.
“to” , of course, anteceding “visit”.
Franklin, Tennessee was where I planned to move from Houston twenty odd years ago. I was not happy at idea of Oklahoma.
Ghost read comments off the dark side about today’s strip. They did not get it. My point is anyone under 50 probably has not lost anyone in war. We grew up still mourning Civil War, WWI and WWII, then Korea and Vietnam. We got it.
Did any of you set.a plate for those not present at Thanksgi ing, Easter and Christmas? Ghost and his family did. I knew others as well. No one sat there.
Another custom I have k own observed was to set a place for the wandering stranger to welcome him in, as he might be the Christ seeking food and shelter.
There were always so many crammed around our farm table someone would have sat at it. But had Christ appeared we would have squeezed him in somehow.
Ironically if Christ shows up, he serves us.
Thank you, dear emb, for appreciating my comment on the “Navigational Hazard”. Jackie has outsmarted us both, though. Here I thought Arlo was worried (I well remember your problems hauling your sailboat, Jackie) but no, it was boat envy! No wonder Jackie likes JJ’s creations so much. She is a smart cookie.
Jackie knows thousands of Arlos.
Ghost is actually a delightful change. He likes women more than boats.
Jackie: Depending on ones theology, he likely was there. Peace,
Maybe will also be at the HS grad party I’m off to soon. Peace,
I was raised in a farm house where Prayer Meetings happened on many Wednesday nights, accompanied by a wheezing pump organ.
Bible Study took place in the front hall as well or out on front porch depending on weather. Vacation Bible School did too. Baptism was down in the river on the gravel road to the ferry in front of the country store.
The Bethany Baptist Church was founded by my grandmother and friends and celebrated services in our cotton seed house until they were able to build a wooden church. In times of bad weather because roads were still dirt and when people had no cars and trucks services were still held there in our halls and porches until I was in college.
The rest of the week we were down at the church whenever the doors were open.
Yes, I suspect Jesus ate at that old dining table right along with the song leaders, visiting preachers, missionaries and revival speakers.
Charlotte, you read it as I do: Arlo is towing his new pride and joy using his under-powered Family Roadster. [hattip, Family Vacation and Clark Griswald] More concerned with the baby than the driving, Janis is forced to take control while Arlo keeps watch. Her unspoken thought bubble reflects her wish that he had contracted the job to a professional.
The surrealism is normal in comics-land, played for satire. Admittedly, I have no clue where Arlo would have been towing his new toy that he could not have sailed it better. But that may be inflicting realism on the humor.
ah, missed one in the writing.
Do you know how I recognize you are very comfortable with your personal views on theology, Jakie?
You are able to make humorous observations on the knowledge you have, spreading joy to those who will see in the process. Thanks.
And glad to read your personal observation of the occasion this weekend.
Hunh, went to GoComics, intending to put in the date [21MAY2002] of the titular strip above, and get context. The date widget will not allow text input, and the calendar widget will not go earlier than 2007. Will now find a url I can edit and see if that works as a workaround.
Got that to work: http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2002/05/21
But browsing ahead and back, it appears to be a one-off in the vein of the old gag-a-day; no story arc involved.
Appears Jackie has the solution, after all.